Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots
A podcast about the design, development, and business of great software. Each week thoughtbot is joined by the people who build and nurture the products we love.
Episodes
April 24, 2025 • 43 mins
Sami and fellow thoughtboter Rémy look to the stars as they talk all things astronomical.
Learn about Rémy’s new open source gem Astonoby (https://github.com/rhannequin/astronoby) that plots the coordinates of objects in space, the hidden inventions developed as humans looked to the stars and listen as the pair theorise whether there truly is other life in the universe.
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If you’re enthusiastic about space and want to try out Rémy...
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April 17, 2025 • 50 mins
Chad, Will and Sami discuss life outside of thoughtbot and the hobbies that occupy them in their down time.
Sami talks about taking the cold plunge, Will about his recent efforts with running, before Chad takes his co-hosts down the rabbit hole that is Dungeons and Dragons.
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Watch the trailer for Chad’s upcoming production Thresher (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQs51JGy0iQ), a collaboration between his production company 12 S...
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April 10, 2025 • 32 mins
Chad talks with Karen King, Found of Gold Star Pro (https://www.usegoldstar.com), and her drive to help small business owners reach their full potential.
Karen talks about the all-inclusive space Gold Star Pro offers for solopreneurs, the automation behind it all, as well as balancing a life of world travel with running a successful business.
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Want to take a step up in your small business and ditch plethora of different plat...
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April 3, 2025 • 42 mins
Sami goes back to school as he asks Otto Terrell and Polly Gupta, head of sustainability and sustainability strategist at True (https://www.true.tech/), the key questions around the environmental buzz words of 2025.
Sami finds out the differences between carbon neutral and net zero, why the big corporations have been so slow to adopt a sustainable model, and how true is working with companies to forge a clear path for everyone to n...
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March 27, 2025 • 34 mins
Sami talks with Steven Wardell, managing partner of Wardell Advisors LLC, about the lacking tech developments within the healthcare sector.
Together they assess why digital health products have failed to maintain the same pace as other consumer technology, the difficulties and regulations involved when develop technology for the health sector and whether AI could finally bridge the gap to play a larger role in medical assessments ...
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March 20, 2025 • 41 mins
Sami chats with Tanu Chellam, Senior Vice President of Product at Seldon (https://www.seldon.io) and Chairperson of the Board at Atlas Rosetta (https://atlas-rosetta.com/), about her journey and career in the world of products.
Tanu covers her journey from start to finish, from building websites as a teenager and her dreams of travelling, all the way through to her time at AutoDesk where she was instrumental in scaling one of the...
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March 13, 2025 • 43 mins
Ever wondered how our Giant Robots hosts got into programming in the first place? In today’s episode Sami and Will take some time to dive into their coding journeys and the lessons they learnt along the way.
Hear about their ambitions growing up and where they thought they were headed, the motivation, drive and hurdles they overcame to get to where they are today and how impostor syndrome isn’t just a “new job” problem.
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Hear mo...
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March 6, 2025 • 38 mins
Chad talks with Andrei Oprisan, head of engineering at Agent.AI (https://Agent.AI), about his new approach to making AI tools and agents accessible to everyone.
Hear how the community are helping to shape and build on Agent.AI in ways the team never thought of, the road blocks of developing such an accessible market place, and the desire to make every AI agent as easy to use for as many people as possible.
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Explore Agent.AI’s...
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February 27, 2025 • 42 mins
Sami is joined by James Hueston, venture investor at Primetime Partners (https://www.primetimepartners.com/), as they discuss technology’s failure to connect with the older generation.
James explains how technology aimed at older people is often not fit for purpose, how the investment process for new startups is currently swamped with the same AI ideas, and Sami explores the idea of how AI can help improve loneliness in our modern ...
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February 20, 2025 • 37 mins
Chad talks with fellow thoughtboters Dawn Delatte and Elaina Natario about the evolution of design sprints within the company.
Listen to how design sprints helped shape and streamline the discovery stage of work with clients, how it helps route out what should and shouldn’t be done in a project, as well as the way thoughtbot has tweaked the formula over the years to build their own playbook.
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Check out thoughtbot’s Design Sprint...
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February 13, 2025 • 41 mins
thoughtbot hosts Chad, Will and Sami shoot the breeze in this laid back episode of Giant Robots as they discuss the ins and outs of being a parent and growing up with tech.
The trio discuss how they manage screen-time with their kids as well as themselves, Sami’s internal HTTP coding for his children’s temper tantrums, and other challenges of bringing up their kids in the digital age.
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Listen to the ‘Therapy Through Gaming’ episo...
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February 6, 2025 • 35 mins
Chad is joined by Matt Gale, Chief Strategy Officer for Lawfully (https://www.lawfully.com/), as they talk about the immigration process in the US and how Lawfully is helping both individuals and businesses track applications on the road to becoming US citizens.
Matt explains the challenges of having an app that sees users leave once their the immigration application is complete, how they’ve expanded to help more than just the ind...
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January 30, 2025 • 37 mins
Sami and Rémy are back as your hots as they talk with fellow thoughtbot colleague Caro Sotillo Silva about new EU accessibility laws coming into effect later this year.
Together they discuss the importance of keeping accessibility at the forefront of every project you work on, why you should be testing your code on a wide range of systems and not just the major OS, as well as a few tips and advice on how to prepare yourself for the...
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January 23, 2025 • 45 mins
Chad talks with NYC local Vikram Oberoi about how he used AI to breakdown local city meetings into accessible bitesize chunks.
Learn how Vikram tamed New York’s public records with AI, the lengthy review process involved to make it all and why his model is so well suited to NYC council proceedings in particular.
Vikram also discusses the project’s path to sustainability and the difficulties of expanding his passion project furth...
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January 16, 2025 • 38 mins
Sami talks with Andrew Rashbass, Chairman and Co-Founder of ScultureAI (https://sculture.ai/), about the uses of LLMs and where AI is taking us as a society.
Learn about Andrew’s 35 year long journey with AI (yes that long), the differing views and reliability Sami and Andrew have of LLMs and wade into the discussion with them over whether AI is creating a more fulfilling life for humans, or a disaster waiting to happen.
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If you’...
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January 9, 2025 • 41 mins
Chad talks with Eben Pingree and Mike Gerbush, Co-Founders of Kinsome (https://kinsome.com/), about the struggles of family connection in the modern world and how they’re bringing generations together again.
They discuss the importance of having a close family unit, the difficulties families often face with having relatives being spread out state to state, and how Kinsome works to facilitate daily connections between loved ones no...
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December 26, 2024 • 48 mins
Chad is joined for a special interview by Keira Czarnota, founder of Emagineer (https://emagineer.world/), as they talk all about their recent collaboration on a new AI powered LEGO® app.
Listen to Keira’s incredible journey, the challenges they faced with early AI models, why LEGO® was so keen to support their project and how thoughtbot (https://thoughtbot.com/) was brought in to help.
This episode is a unique crossover event b...
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December 19, 2024 • 30 mins
Luká Yancopoulos, Co-Founder and CEO of Grapevine (https://www.go-grapevine.com/), reveals to Chad how he and his team are working to revolutionise the hospital supply chain system. Luká discusses the difficulties of building such a service and the pushback they’ve received by entering such a large and established sector that’s so resistant to change.
Learn how Luká’s concern for his mom’s health at work during the pandemic lead t...
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December 5, 2024 • 38 mins
After 10 years and 550 episodes of Giant Robots, Chad and Sami are ready to discuss what’s next for the podcast. The pair dive into some podcast role-play as they test out some ideas for iterating the show’s formula.
Peek behind the curtain as they discuss the inner workings of the show, the challenges of working on a mature codebase, how thoughtbot tackles impostor syndrome when onboarding new employees and the developing accessib...
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November 28, 2024 • 34 mins
Chad talks with Aakash Shah, Founder and CEO of Wyndly (https://www.wyndly.com/), about how he built a new online telehealth experience to expand convenient access to allergy immunotherapy. The pair discuss the mechanics of building an online healthcare operation from scratch, the challenges that arise as you begin to scale your business, and how Aakash utilised his past experience as a software engineer to support his new venture....
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