Wake Up Excited!
Wake Up Excited!
Podcast Description
Inspiring conversations with exuberant humans about how to live a creative, fulfilling, and authentic life. Hosted by enthusiasm enthusiast, Brad Frost.
We experience a brief moment of truth when we first wake up in the morning. Before the cold shower of reality, our infinite to-do lists, and macro-level woes seize our consciousness. We experience a brief moment of excitement — and this pure moment tells us something important about ourselves.
There are people out there who seem to move through life with intention, authenticity, creativity, kindness, and enthusiasm. And they do this despite the deeply inperfect world we inhabit. This podcast is an attempt to learn from these people.
Through wide-ranging conversations, Wake Up Excited explores guests' passions, interests, enthusiasms, and philosophy of life.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast delves into themes such as creativity, personal growth, community engagement, and mental health. Specific episodes explore topics including the impact of social media on mental well-being, work-life balance amidst societal pressures, and the empowerment derived from creative endeavors. For example, discussions with guests like Jessica Hische and Aarron Walter highlight the significance of positivity and the relationship between personal values and financial decisions.

Inspiring conversations with exuberant humans about how to live a creative, fulfilling, and authentic life. Hosted by enthusiasm enthusiast, Brad Frost.
We experience a brief moment of truth when we first wake up in the morning. Before the cold shower of reality, our infinite to-do lists, and macro-level woes seize our consciousness. We experience a brief moment of excitement — and this pure moment tells us something important about ourselves.
There are people out there who seem to move through life with intention, authenticity, creativity, kindness, and enthusiasm. And they do this despite the deeply inperfect world we inhabit. This podcast is an attempt to learn from these people.
Through wide-ranging conversations, Wake Up Excited explores guests’ passions, interests, enthusiasms, and philosophy of life.
Brad Frost welcomes Sydney-based artist and designer Gemma O’Brien to Wake Up Excited to discuss her work in murals, lettering, and calligraphy and her recent move to London to study at the intersection of art and neuroscience. Gemma shares what she learned shifting from “thinking like an artist” to “thinking like a scientist,” including the rigor of statistics and research, and describes her flow-state study with artists, where self-reported intuition in the creative process significantly predicted flow even after controlling for expertise. They explore how to foster flow through attention, intrinsic motivation, goals, and challenge-skill balance, plus the healing power of the arts, stepping outside comfort zones, collaboration, and optimism as a learned superpower.
Chapters:
- 00:00 Introduction
- 02:20 Neuroaesthetics Leap
- 03:31 Thesis Crunch Time
- 05:47 Artist Workflow Reset
- 09:09 Science Learning Curve
- 12:37 Studying Flow And Intuition
- 20:40 Why Art Moves Us
- 25:37 Arts Therapy And Healing
- 34:38 Optimism As Superpower
- 38:32 Helping Without Burning Out
- 42:04 Strengths Gratitude Daily Practice
- 45:56 Beginner Mind And Discomfort
- 51:55 Collaboration Ego And Delegation
- 01:00:57 Flow State Conditions And Attention
- 01:07:54 Intrinsic Motivation
- 1:12:07 Music Playlists
- 01:15:07 Wrap Up Links

Disclaimer
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