Simone Giertz’s journey from robot comedy to high-end design

Inventor Simone Giertz rose to YouTube fame with comically bad robots. Now she designs comically useful objects for our very normal problems.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  WNYC is supported by Bear. Science is about asking questions, testing, trying again. It's not easy, but it's relentless. It evolves, and that's why science delivers. Learn more at sciencedelivers.com.

• 0:17Flora Lichtman?

  Hey, it's Flora, and you're listening to Science Friday. There's no shortage of YouTube how-to videos. There's the practical DIY ones where, you know, someone walks you through how they fixed the sliding doors on their minivan. But on the other end of the spectrum, there are the makers, people who have an idea in their head, sometimes quixotic, and show their process of bringing it to reality. In the 2010s, inventor Simone Yetch began making videos kind of right on that dividing line between practical and absurd. Like, what if you had a robot that could feed you soup?

• 0:55Speaker 02

  They printed all these parts because you can't get a claw that needs to pick up soup just like that.

• 1:01Flora Lichtman?

  Or a robot that could cut your veggies for you.

• 1:04Speaker 02

  The chopping machine is a revolutionary invention that helps you chop just about anything. Chop lettuce. The neighbor's cat that pees on your lawn. Tomatoes.

• 1:17Flora Lichtman?

  Or a drone that could cut your hair.

• 1:21Speaker 02

  Duct tape a trimmer to the bottom of it, and this is a very bad idea.

• 1:28Flora Lichtman?

  The projects grew more and more ambitious, like converting a Tesla sedan into a pickup truck, like way before the Cybertruck was even a glint in Elon's eye. Fast forward to today, and remember, 10 years in YouTube years is like 200 regular world years, and Simone is still creating, now designing and building inventions that are still quirkily useful, like a fruit bowl that changes sizes depending on the fruit that's in it, but that also look like something you'd find in a high-end design store. Simone Yetch is with me now to talk about making, creating, and her path. Thanks for being here, and hello.

• 2:06Speaker 02

  Hi. Oh, my god, what a lovely intro. I can't believe I'm 200 in YouTube years.

• 2:12Flora Lichtman?

  That's a compliment, obviously.

• 2:14Speaker 02

  No, it's great. I thoroughly enjoy being ancient.

• 2:18Flora Lichtman?

  I mean, like, millions of people, I've been watching your videos with delight for more than a decade, but I wasn't sure how to introduce you, like, to people who've missed out. I mean, how do you think about yourself? Are you an influencer who makes things? Are you an inventor or a designer who happens to have a YouTube feed?

• 2:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's, I mean, I take a lot of pride in not being able to neatly fit into any category. But yeah, it is, it is a little bit messy to explain what I do. I think if, if I don't want to talk about it a lot, I just say that I'm an engineer, which, like, I didn't really study engineering in school, but usually that ends people's questions. But I think the most accurate description is YouTuber and inventor and maybe, like, product designer.

• 3:07Flora Lichtman?

  That adds up. I mean, how, how do you pick your projects?

• 3:11Speaker 02

  Most of my projects start with a problem that I have in my everyday life. So I think I just have a tremendous amount of pet peeves with my objects. And I'm always like, why can't you do this? Like, I just think that, like, I want them to do more or to pull their weight. And I'm basically like the terrible parent that's like, why can't you do all the things?

• 3:36Flora Lichtman?

  Piano lessons for you, toaster.

• 3:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, totally. It's like, why aren't you also playing me a song? So, so a lot of it is just little frictions I have in my life, or little eyesores, and just trying to think of, like, how could I do this differently? And I think what's, what's really fun about that, and what I really enjoy about it, is like, seeing the world around me as malleable, and that all the objects we have around us, like, somebody made them up. And you can be one of the people who make objects up, so. I think I just like looking at things and seeing how I could make them different and really wanting to add a unique spin to them.

• 4:19Flora Lichtman?

  And believing that you can, that you can make things better.

• 4:23Speaker 02

  Yeah, and I mean, that is where the 10 years come in. I've been at this for a long time and I think that my trust in myself has increased a lot. So that is really, really nice. And the projects that I'm taking on now, I would never have dared to take on a couple of years ago.

• 4:38Flora Lichtman?

  Let's talk about one of them. You unveiled this chair that you've been working on that's designed for me personally. It's designed to hold half dirty laundry.

• 4:47Speaker 02

  No, actually, I have your photos posted all over the workshop. I'm just like, what does Flora mean? Yeah.

• 4:53Flora Lichtman?

  This does feel like a very common problem. And I loved how you talked about it because you said, you know, as you unveiled it, that you're like designing not for our best day, but for our normal day. Is that kind of the design philosophy in a nutshell?

• 5:10Speaker 02

  I mean, I think to an extent, I think that the design philosophy is very messy because I'm interested in a lot of different things. But I really like that aspect of like, instead of, it's so easy to just beat ourselves up and being like, why can't I be neater and cleaner? Why can't I always fold my clothes and put them away? But instead, just accepting that life isn't perfect and designing for that. There's just something very loving about it. So the chair is basically a chair that has a rail for your half dirty clothes. So instead of having your chair buried under a pile of like the T-shirt that you've only worn once, you don't want to put it back in a drawer, but you don't want to throw it in the hamper because it's not fully dirty.

• 5:55Speaker 02

  Like it gives those clothing items a proper home.

• 5:59Flora Lichtman?

  Which is like, yeah, that makes, it is a problem that I feel like many of us have. I mean, you made a name for yourself as the queen of [BLEEP] robots. We're gonna bleep it because it's not my adjective. It's like basically your trademark for yourself.

• 6:17Speaker 02

  Oh, gosh. Yeah, it was a choice. It was a choice.

• 6:20Flora Lichtman?

  It is a choice. But do you feel like you've graduated from [BLEEP] robots?

• 6:25Speaker 02

  Yeah, I so I started out building, it was kind of like robot comedy and I would make these useless inventions. And it was always robots that would like be really poorly engineered or just way too violent for the job that I was giving them. And I did that for many years and I was thriving in it and it was it was such a great way for me to be able to create without getting in my own way because if I had set out to like build something that was perfect, I would never have gotten anything done. So it lowered the bar enough for me to dare to try and especially as somebody who's self taught and who wanted to build robots, it's like for me to build something sophisticated wasn't really in the books for me. But I could definitely build a robot that like throws soup in my face.

• 7:11Speaker 02

  But then like the the cool thing about doing things on YouTube is that you grow and you change as a person. And I went through some really like tough things. I had a brain tumor, went through brain surgery and just changed a lot as a human and grew up. And I realized also that my skill set was really, really different from when I started because I started to actually become good at building things. So I wanted to try to tackle real problems.

• 7:40Flora Lichtman?

  I mean, is there a through line from the robots to the fancy chair?

• 7:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, for sure. I think the through line is unique solutions. So when I built robots, then it was like uniquely bad. But it was still a novel take on like a somewhat relatable situation or relatable problem. And now I wanted to be unique but good. And I think the joy is still there. So, yeah, it feels very different, but I think that there's definitely.

• 8:13Speaker 02

  More commonalities with it than people think.

• 8:16Flora Lichtman?

  You know, you converted the Tesla sedan to a truck. That seems like a major project. You know, that's, that's like a different realm than a robot that feeds you soup. Does it take a village? I mean, was it a solo pursuit? Or how did it work?

• 8:33Speaker 02

  That one definitely took a village. Like, that was an entire team of people and project managers and engineers and mechanics. So that one was, was definitely a village. And I think in the beginning of my career, I was so adamant about doing everything myself. Like, I would put in every screw myself and do everything because I think I was so ready for people to question that I had actually built it. So I was very much on the defense in that way. And I wanted to make sure that people wouldn't be like, oh, no, but you didn't actually do that. Like, some guy probably built that for you. And so I, I, I really did that a lot.

• 9:16Speaker 02

  But now I've furthered in my career and I feel more comfortable in my skill set and what I know. I definitely get more help. So, and for the product business that I'm running, like, we have an entire team of people and that I will pull in to do things as well. So it's much more collaborative now than it was in the beginning.

• 9:35Flora Lichtman?

  Did you encounter that online? Like, people being like, oh, young lady, there's no way you made that.

• 9:43Speaker 02

  You know, honestly, a lot less than I thought I would. I was so ready for vitriol. I was so ready for, yeah, people to question me and question my skill set and be like, you didn't actually do that. I remember I saw a comment of somebody saying that I was a plant from Discovery Channel, which I thought was really funny. Just like, really, you think that this is what they would opt to do? But no, I feel like I was so ready to not be welcomed. And then I was really welcomed and like, you know, I'm a woman on the internet who is in a very male dominated field.

• 10:25Speaker 02

  Like, the sad fact is that I run the world's largest female-led engineering YouTube channel.

• 10:33Speaker 02

  And it's honestly been really, really great. I've been very, very fortunate in that people have been a lot nicer than I expected them to.

• 10:40Flora Lichtman?

  You know, like we noted at the top, 10 years YouTube time is a lot of years. Do you feel like you know the secret to longevity online?

• 10:52Speaker 02

  I think the secret to longevity, I mean, at least for me, it's being genuinely excited about what I'm doing. So I think it's just making content that you want. It's so many people think about, and I think this goes for a lot of areas of business, is you're so concerned thinking about the target audience that you lose out on the most important target audience, which is yourself. And I think I both build and make videos mostly for myself. And it's like, do I think it's good? Do I think it's worth watching? Do I think this product is worth buying? And I think as soon as I would lose sight of that,

• 11:33Speaker 02

  I think things would start deteriorating from there.

• 11:38Flora Lichtman?

  We have to take a break, but don't go away because when we come back, I want you to build something for me.

• 11:43Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 11:44Flora Lichtman?

  I want you to solve my problems.

• 11:47Speaker 02

  Happy to.

• 11:54Speaker 00

  Science Friday is supported by PBS, presenting Going Wild. If you love learning about the natural world and meeting the scientists who help us understand it, be sure to check out the new season of Going Wild with Dr. Rae Nguyen-Grant. It's the chart-topping and Webby Award-winning podcast from the folks at Nature on PBS, now with a video companion series. In this season of Going Wild, host acclaimed wildlife ecologist Dr. Ray Wynn Grant heads out into the field to explore the animals, people, and stories that make nature worth saving. Stops include a hibernating black bear den in Arkansas and an underwater shipwreck site off the Florida coast. If you're looking for a place to start, check out the season's debut episode, where Ray joins beloved biologist and influencer Jordan King in the Florida Everglades

• 12:38Speaker 00

  to learn about his unlikely journey into science and how to study a wetland when it's not very, well, wet. So don't miss out. Follow Going Wild with Dr. Ray Wynn Grant on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 12:52Speaker 03

  Support for Science Friday comes from the Hyacinth Simons Foundation, unlocking knowledge, opportunity, and possibilities. More at hsfoundation.org.

• 13:06Flora Lichtman?

  Is there an invention you have not been able to crack? Like, do you have a white whale?

• 13:12Speaker 02

  I think my white whales, in some way, are just small and infuriating. And I'm like, I'm gonna get to you later. So it's not, there's not like a project where I have like, yeah, I really want to build a spaceship. But it's like, I've been wanting to make this necklace that is a roller coaster. So like, the necklace is kind of a choker, and you have a little roller coaster car on ball bearings that could move all the way around your neck. And that's like, honestly, one of the most frustrating builds of my career. Like, I just can't pull it off because the scale is so itty-bitty, and everything needs to be so smooth. So I guess it's like a white whale, but it's a white ant.

• 13:57Flora Lichtman?

  A tiny white minnow.

• 13:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, totally.

• 14:00Flora Lichtman?

  Is there, is there a skill that you're dying to pick up? You know, like underwater welding or something like that?

• 14:07Speaker 02

  You know, it's, it's funny, I am...

• 14:11Speaker 02

  In many ways such a bad learner because I'm always like, okay, I know enough to get running. Stop, stop telling me what to do. And I'm always like, it's the same with like welding. I'm a very below average welder, but it's good enough for me to pull off the projects that I want to do. And I really want to spend more time investing in skills because I think also the more skills I have and the more tools I'm competent in, the more ideas I will have in that area.

• 14:38Flora Lichtman?

  Yeah, it expands your imagination.

• 14:40Speaker 02

  Exactly. Yeah, I want to get into welding. I would love to get a water jet.

• 14:47Flora Lichtman?

  What's a water jet?

• 14:48Speaker 02

  It's basically a machine that cuts things with water and you can cut through really thick metal and stuff like that.

• 14:54Flora Lichtman?

  I wanted to ask how you think about AI, like, do you have AI dread?

• 14:59Speaker 02

  From a business perspective, I don't really as much because I think that a personality-led content business is in some ways the best position to be in because people will look for people that they know are real. And I think that our desire to be impressed by other humans will never change.

• 15:20Flora Lichtman?

  Okay, here's where I need your help. So I was thinking about how you design to sort of solve problems in our everyday lives and like ask more from the objects around us. And I grew up with a junk drawer. I now have a, you know, a home of my own with junk drawers. And I feel like it's a problem for me. How would you solve the junk drawer?

• 15:47Speaker 02

  I love this so much because I have one too. And I have somehow my criticism hasn't reached into my junk drawer. But it just, it's filled with single-use chopsticks and rubber bands and napkins. That is definitely a ripe for improvement. Let's just say that, but I don't know how I would do that because it's hard. Like the benefit of the junk drawer is that it's so dynamic and versatile. And you can put anything in there. So you could design it where it's like, yeah, this is exactly where the keys go. But that kind of defeats the purpose of the junk drawer because it's where you throw everything that doesn't fit anywhere else.

• 16:28Flora Lichtman?

  If you were to take this on, like, what's your method for starting? Is it sort of like having these conversations in your head about the essence of the junk drawer? Or where do you go?

• 16:39Speaker 02

  My method for starting is having a glazed over look

• 16:46Speaker 02

  for a while and just being like, but what if? You know, I, I, I would really start thinking about what is the actual problem? Like if we accept the junk drawer for the job that it does, which is it collects all our bits and bobs that don't have another home. And we wanted to have some organization to it, but we still didn't want it to be locked into that specific set of items because it fluctuates. It's just, how can you still have an overview of what's in there? So it might be honestly like tackling each individual problem in its own way. Like having a way to have all the keys organized.

• 17:29Flora Lichtman?

  Yeah, or like an index, like if I could, if I could know what's in there without like breaking into a sweat as I'm rummaging quickly when I need something, that would be helpful to me.

• 17:39Speaker 02

  Yeah. Okay. I'll, I'll think about it.

• 17:42Flora Lichtman?

  Thank you. Okay, Simone, where do you see yourself in, in 10 more YouTube years?

• 17:47Speaker 02

  Oh gosh. I mean, my plan was to not be on YouTube anymore. And that was part of why I started a product business. Because that like would let me retire my face. But I realized in running the product business, how essential the YouTube channel is because it's what pushes me to come up with something new every month. And if I didn't have that like natural pressure and those deadlines, I, I don't know if I would constantly be trying out new things. So yeah, I would probably still be on YouTube and

• 18:25Speaker 02

  I don't know, it's so amazing to feel like I'm, I'm doing exactly what I want to do. And I've never, I feel like I've really met my like work true love.

• 18:40Speaker 02

  In the sense that it's like, I have no doubt that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. And I'm sure that what the types of projects I'm interested in will change. But I can't see a future where I'm not still building things. You will have to pry that away from my dead, cold hands.

• 19:01Flora Lichtman?

  I love that so much. Simone Yetch is an engineer, maker, YouTube creator, and founder of Yetch Studio. Simone, thank you so much for talking to us today.

• 19:09Speaker 02

  Thank you so much.

• 19:11Flora Lichtman?

  This episode was produced by Charles Berkquist. If you have thoughts about how we might tinker with this podcast, you know, or a problem you think Sci-Fry can solve for you, or if you have a solution to my junk drawer problem, please call us at 8774-SYFI. That's 8774-SYFI. Thanks for listening. I'm Flor Linkman.