New Arc Podcast

In this episode of the New Arc Podcast, we look at the hardware plateau, the software race on top of it, and why the transaction model for entertainment robots may stay cleaner than the one for the home. Compute gains are slowing. Physics and manufacturing capacity are limiting the next five to ten years to marginal improvements rather than generational leaps. The bigger near-term gains look like...

In this episode of the New Arc Podcast, we examine novelty in the age of generative tools — what gets built quickly, what actually gets used, and why character robots are starting to leave the lab. Stanford entrepreneurship classes now receive fully working products instead of slide decks, yet many of those products still miss real customers. Students ask AI what the market needs rather than talki...

In this episode of the New Arc Podcast, we look at the attention and entertainment economy — live events, shared experience, and why people are leaving the house again. Live events are projected to grow from a $736 billion industry to $2.5 trillion by 2035. That number is not just concerts. It is conventions, stage work, and immersive rooms you cannot stream from the couch. We call that active-eng...

In this episode of the New Arc Podcast, we go deeper on immersive experiences, story, and what physical AI has to understand about the world. Most of today’s immersive rooms still work like modern art: you walk in, lights and projections happen around you, and nothing asks you to come back. Disney is the other model — stories first, then rides, then a universe people return to. We talk about stick...

In this episode of the New Arc Podcast, we sit down with Kimate Richards — mechatronic engineer, former AWS strategic architect in spatial computing and embodied AI, university advisor, and founder of 10 Things. Kimate shares how robotics is changing in real time: the steep technical on-ramp that still exists today, why inverse kinematics and low-level systems knowledge may soon recede for most bu...

In this episode of the New Arc Podcast, we sit down with Nate Strayer — writer, director, producer, and founder/CEO of Stray Vista Studios in Dripping Springs, Texas. Nate shares his journey from shooting home movies in Michigan to film school, a COVID-era no-budget feature that launched his career, and building a virtual production studio that’s worked on Super Bowl commercials, major streaming s...

In this episode of the New Arc Podcast, we visit HICAM (Hayes Innovation Center for Advanced Manufacturing) in East Austin and sit down with founder & executive director Marcus Metzger and strategic partnerships lead Jamie Harkrider. HICAM is a 501(c) nonprofit advanced manufacturing facility near Tesla’s Gigafactory with a clear mission: become the center of gravity for robotics and embodied...

In this episode of the New Arc Podcast, Joel and Cory dig into one of the most important shifts happening in robotics right now: giving machines real understanding of the world. They break down the recent acquisition of SceniX by World Labs and what it signals about the convergence of simulation, dexterous manipulation, and contextual world models. The conversation explores why navigation alone is...

In this episode of the New Arc Podcast, we sit down with Winsten Whaley — engineer, inventor, and self-described contrarian thinker with deep experience in manufacturing, automation, and high-stakes industrial environments. What started as a casual debate about the limitations of humanoid robots led Winsten to file (and receive approval for) a patent on a dynamic robotic tail inspired by cheetah b...

In this fourth episode of the New Arc Podcast, we welcome Dr. Luis Sentis — renowned roboticist, founder of the Human Centered Robotics Laboratory, former DARPA and NASA collaborator, and a pioneer in humanoid robots with over 200 peer-reviewed publications. Luis shares his journey from growing up in post-dictatorship Spain to building humanoids in the U.S., and why he believes robotics must be de...

In this episode of the New Arc Podcast, we sit down with Dr. Javad Gatabi — entrepreneur, electrical engineer, PhD in materials science & commercialization, and inventor with 13 patents and 50+ technical publications. Javad shares his incredible journey growing up in Iran, stories of hidden gold and cheetahs, and how his passion for measurement led him into the world of advanced sensors. We ex...

In this second full episode of the New Arc Podcast, we shift from the hardware of robotics to the heart of storytelling. We explore the current state of the entertainment industry—its cyclical ebbs and flows, the pessimism around AI disruption and offshoring, and the underlying optimism fueled by technological democratization. We discuss why emotionally resonant, long-form narratives that touch th...

In this first full episode of the New Arc Podcast, we dive into the most overlooked piece of robotics and AI — not the brain, but the body. We explore why nonverbal communication, timing, gestures, and movie magic matter more than raw LLM responses, the challenges of the uncanny valley, and how Hollywood storytelling instincts can make robots feel truly alive. We discuss character embodiment, prac...

In this prologue episode, we pull back the curtain on the vision behind New Arc — exploring the collision of robotics, artificial intelligence, and storytelling. We sit down for an honest conversation about where entertainment, technology, and humanity are heading. We discuss the shift from passive media to interactive, embodied experiences, why storytelling must lead technology rather than the ot...