Design Better · The Curiosity Department, sponsored by Wix Studio

Design Better Live AMA at The New York Times

·47 min·4 clips

Aaron reveals how humorist David Sedaris uses prototyping techniques similar to product designers.

The setting matters here. Eli Woolery and Aaron Walter were invited to the New York Times to talk with Matt Raw, the interim head of design, and the Times design team. This time, the hosts are the guests. That flip gives the conversation a backstage feel, with Design Better coming across less like a polished final product and more like a working studio with habits, constraints, and a clear point of view. The origin story comes first. The Times team asks how Design Better began, what Eli and Aaron have learned from more than 200 interviews, and how they think about building a business around the show. The pace stays reflective. Instead of pitching one big idea, they talk through the practical machinery behind their work: transcripts, subscriptions, proposals, analytics, and audience projects. AI becomes the sharpest example. They describe putting hundreds of pages of transcripts into AI to spot recurring themes, then checking the results because hallucinations still need human review. The tool saves time. It does not replace the part where they decide what is actually interesting, useful, or solid enough to turn into an insight. Their business use is wide, but not flashy. They point to proposal writing, subscriber forecasting, audio cleanup, and experiments with a job matching platform for designers and companies. The tone is candid and practical. Some of the forecasting work sits outside their natural creative training, which makes the AI help feel less like a stunt and more like a bridge. Matt Raw also asks what AI has not changed. That answer points back to the human instinct behind choosing guests and areas of interest. That distinction carries the episode. Design Better is comfortable using new tools across production and business, but the conversation keeps returning to editorial judgment as the thing that gives those tools direction. The close is simple: the team sends listeners to designbetterpodcast.com, thanks the Times team, and wraps with credits and a review request.

As heard by us

A practical look at how Design Better uses AI without handing over its editorial judgment.

Design Better Live AMA at The New York Times puts Eli Woolery and Aaron Walter on the other side of the interview table, with Matt Raw asking how Design Better started, what the team has learned from more than 200 conversations, and how the studio runs as a business.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You get a behind-the-scenes look at how Design Better tells its story, works with AI, and thinks about the business behind the studio.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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