WN12: Steve Wakabayashi

WiseNoise: The Creative Practice Podcast · Oct 16, 2026 · 1h 20m · transcript

WiseNoise, Steven Wakabayashi: Design as Data, Selling with Your Ears, and Why Health Comes First

This week I'm joined by Steven Wakabayashi: founder of Stranger Creative, the New York digital product agency, and of QTBIPOC Design, the nonprofit opening pathways into the industry for queer, trans, Black, Indigenous and people of colour.

We start with his unlikely route in: physiology, neuroscience and dance, and the auditions where he was told they "weren't looking for an Asian dancer."

Then he shares his screen and walks me through design systems for enterprise sites with tens of thousands…