Brad Porter
Top of Mind with Brad Porter
He built Amazon’s robot army. Then walked away. Why? To build something bigger. Top of Mind is a weekly 2–5 minute audio drop from Brad Porter—former Amazon VP of Robotics, Scale AI CTO, and now founder of Cobot. Each short episode delivers raw, unfiltered insights on leadership, automation, and the chaos of building at the edge of physical AI. From warehouse floors to the frontier of machine intelligence, this is what it sounds like when a Silicon Valley leader thinks out loud.
Author
Brad Porter
Category
Podcast website
Latest episode
Jun 8, 2026
Where to listen?
Podcasts in the app Replaio Radio Coming soonPodcasts are coming to the app soon. Install now and be the first to see a whole new take on podcasts
Install for free
Android 5M+ downloads · 4.8 rating
iOS soon
Episodes
Graduation Season and Summer Deployments 08.06.2026 3:19
Graduation season! Congratulations to graduates out there. Looking forward to a great summer. Newsletter
Summer Jobs and Outdoor Leadership 02.06.2026 2:00
Thoughts on summer jobs, the benefits of learning and leading in the outdoors, and physical AI progress. Newsletter
Invisible Work 25.05.2026 4:59
Newsletter
Morphology of Robots 20.05.2026 3:48
Turkey Time! Newsletter
Back at MIT 10.05.2026 5:33
Back at MIT Newsletter
Lean Into Uncertainty 05.05.2026 8:05
All-in bets… uncertainty can be fun, if you have conviction in your thesis! Newsletter
Change Is The Only Constant 28.04.2026 5:58
Will AI force CEO’s into early retirement? Newsletter
How Do We Evaluate Physical AI? 20.04.2026 5:35
Malik test? What are the evals in physical AI? Newsletter
Changing Nature of Leaderboard 14.04.2026 3:55
The leaderboard can change quickly… Newsletter
Insights On Physical AI and Performance Reveiw 06.04.2026 11:16
Deployed Podcast, insights from Generalist's research drop, and thoughts on performance review processes. Newsletter
Bottlenecks In An Age Of Unbounded Intelligence 31.03.2026 9:50
On Deployed this week, Jeff Wilke spoke about bottlenecks. In today’s Top of Mind, I extrapolate further to where the bottlenecks emerge in an age of unbounded intelligence. Newsletter
China vs U.S. Robotics 23.03.2026 11:33
What's the hardest problem in robotics? My thoughts after a busy NVIDIA GTC week! Newsletter
Most Scarce Resource in Robotics 16.03.2026 10:03
The most scarce resource in robotics right now? Real world deployment experience. This week, I announce our new podcast, “Deployed” as well as talk about lessons in scaling robotics, as well as bottlenecks in AI and the idea that token rationing may be coming. Newsletter
Designing for Trustworthiness 10.03.2026 8:34
Trustworthy, useful, adaptable have been our bedrock principles for our robots since day one. Today I go deeper on how we think about designing for trustworthiness. Newsletter
Technology and War 02.03.2026 7:54
The Anthropic/DoW negotiation was hard to miss this week. Reflecting on current events, technology, policy, and values. I also touch on the proposed National Commission on Robotics Act. Newsletter
Striving and Recognition 23.02.2026 3:41
Reflecting a bit on striving and recognition… why aligning striving with joy and identity is the path to success and recognition. Newsletter
How to Think About Investments 16.02.2026 5:22
We’re in a build phase now, AI, robotics, infrastructure… pays to pay attention to the great capital allocators. Newsletter
Design Matters 08.02.2026 2:11
Thoughts on design and shout out to the team and our supporters! Oh, and go Seahawks! Newsletter
Cobot's Strategy 02.02.2026 14:24
This week I go a bit deeper on our thesis when we founded Cobot and how we’re progressing… enjoy! Newsletter
Celebrating My Grandmother 26.01.2026 2:01
Cold here in Cedar Falls! Wishing you all the best! Newsletter
More Lessons From My Grandfather 19.01.2026 3:41
Broadcasting this week from Cedar Falls, Iowa! Newsletter
Physical AI … Are You Ready? 12.01.2026 7:13
The transformation in physical ai is coming, are you ready? Newsletter
Positioning to Ride the Wave in 2026! 06.01.2026 3:57
2026 is here! We can see the swell forming ahead of what will be the biggest change in the nature of physical work since the advent of the wheel. Get ready everyone! Newsletter
Growth and Risk Taking 28.12.2025 3:47
Sharing my thoughts on growth and risk taking! Happy New Year everyone! Newsletter
Responsible Innovation in Robotics 27.12.2025 32:41
Discussing responsible innovation in robotics with Gaurab Bansal of Responsible Innovation Labs (RIL) at the EDGES 2025 Summit in San Francisco. [Recorded in October 2025] Newsletter
Similar podcasts
Listen to the Top of Mind with Brad Porter podcast in Replaio
Radio and podcasts in one app - free, with no sign-up. Install today and do not miss the launch
Replaio is not a podcast publisher; show names, artwork and audio belong to their authors and are distributed through public RSS feeds.
