transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:00] Science Friday is supported by MathWorks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink software for technical computing and model-based design. MathWorks, accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and science. Learn more at mathworks.com.

Speaker 2:
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Speaker 3:
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Speaker 4:
[01:19] 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 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?

Speaker 5:
[01:57] They printed all these parts because you can't get a claw that needs to pick up soup just like that.

Speaker 4:
[02:03] Or a robot that could cut your veggies for you.

Speaker 5:
[02:06] The chopping machine is a revolutionary invention that helps you chop just about anything. Chop lemon. The neighbor's cat that pees on your lawn. Tomatoes.

Speaker 4:
[02:19] Or a drone that could cut your hair.

Speaker 5:
[02:23] Duct tape a trimmer to the bottom of it and this is a very bad idea.

Speaker 4:
[02:30] 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. Hi.

Speaker 5:
[03:09] Oh my God. What a lovely intro. I can't believe I'm 200 in YouTube years.

Speaker 4:
[03:14] That's a compliment, obviously.

Speaker 5:
[03:16] No. It's great. I thoroughly enjoy being ancient.

Speaker 4:
[03:21] 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 to people who've missed out. 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?

Speaker 5:
[03:41] Yeah, I take a lot of pride in not being able to neatly fit into any category. But yeah, it is a little bit messy to explain what I do. I think if I don't want to talk about it a lot, I just say that I'm an engineer, which 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 product designer.

Speaker 4:
[04:10] That adds up. I mean, how do you pick your projects?

Speaker 5:
[04:14] 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? I just think that I want them to do more or to pull their weight, and I'm basically the terrible parent that's like, why can't you do all the things?

Speaker 4:
[04:38] Piano lessons for you, toaster.

Speaker 5:
[04:40] Yeah, no, totally. It's like, why aren't you also playing me a song? 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 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.

Speaker 4:
[05:22] And believing that you can, that you can make things better.

Speaker 5:
[05:25] 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. The projects that I'm taking on now, I would never have dared to take on a couple of years ago.

Speaker 4:
[05:40] 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.

Speaker 5:
[05:49] No, actually, I have your photos posted all over the workshop. I'm just like, what does Flora mean?

Speaker 4:
[05:55] This does feel like a very common problem. And I loved how you talked about it, because you said, as you unveiled it, you're designing not for our best day, but for our normal day. Is that kind of the design philosophy in a nutshell?

Speaker 5:
[06:12] 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, 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. Like it gives those clothing items a proper home.

Speaker 4:
[07:02] Which is like, yeah, that makes it, it is a problem that I feel like many of us have. I mean, you made a name for yourself as the Queen of Shitty Robots, and we're going to bleep it because it's not my adjective. It's like basically your trademark for yourself.

Speaker 5:
[07:19] Oh gosh. Yeah, it was a choice. It was a choice.

Speaker 4:
[07:22] It is a choice. But do you feel like you've graduated from Shitty Robots? Yeah.

Speaker 5:
[07:27] 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 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 such a great way for me to be able to create without getting in my own way. Because if I had set out to 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 throws soup in my face. But then the cool thing about doing things on YouTube is that you grow and you change as a person. And I went through some really 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.

Speaker 4:
[08:42] I mean, is there a through line from the robots to the fancy chair?

Speaker 5:
[08:45] 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 more commonalities with it than people think.

Speaker 4:
[09:18] You know, you converted the Tesla sedan to a truck. That seems like a major project. You know, 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?

Speaker 5:
[09:35] 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 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. Cause 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 really did that a lot. But now, as I'm furthering 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.

Speaker 4:
[10:37] Did you encounter that online? Like people being like, oh, young lady, there's no way you made that.

Speaker 5:
[10:45] 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. I mean, 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. I'm a woman on the Internet who is in a very male-dominated field. The sad fact is that I run the world's largest female-led engineering YouTube channel.

Speaker 4:
[11:36] Wow.

Speaker 5:
[11:36] 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.

Speaker 4:
[11:43] 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?

Speaker 5:
[11:54] 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, I think things would start deteriorating from there.

Speaker 4:
[12:40] We have to take a break, but don't go away, because when we come back, I want you to build something for me. I want you to solve my problems.

Speaker 5:
[12:49] Happy to.

Speaker 1:
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Speaker 3:
[14:09] WNYC Studios is supported by Bayer. Science is a rigorous process that requires questions, testing, transparency and results that can be proven. This approach is integral to every breakthrough Bayer brings forward. Innovations that save lives and feed the world. Science delivers.com.

Speaker 6:
[14:27] You know, every day on Up First, NPR's Golden Globe nominated morning news podcast, we bring you three essential stories. At the heart of each story are questions. What really happened? What really mattered? What happens next? At NPR, we stand for your right to be curious and to follow the facts. Follow Up First wherever you get your podcasts and start your day knowing what matters and why.

Speaker 4:
[14:55] Is there an invention you have not been able to crack? Do you have a white whale?

Speaker 5:
[15:02] 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 there's not a project where I have, yeah, I really wanna build a spaceship. But it's like, I've been wanting to make this necklace that is a roller coaster. So 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.

Speaker 4:
[15:47] A tiny white minnow.

Speaker 5:
[15:49] Yeah, totally.

Speaker 4:
[15:51] Is there a skill that you're dying to pick up? You know, like underwater welding or something like that.

Speaker 5:
[15:57] You know, it's funny, I am in many ways such a bad learner because I'm always like, okay, I know enough to get running. 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.

Speaker 4:
[16:28] Yeah, it expands your imagination.

Speaker 5:
[16:30] Exactly, yeah. I want to get into welding. I would love to get a water jet.

Speaker 4:
[16:36] What's a water jet?

Speaker 5:
[16:38] It's basically a machine that cuts things with water, and you can cut through really thick metal and stuff like that.

Speaker 4:
[16:44] I wanted to ask how you think about AI. Like, do you have AI dread?

Speaker 5:
[16:48] 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.

Speaker 4:
[17:09] Okay. Here's where I need your help. So, I was thinking about how you designed 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 home of my own with junk drawers. And I feel like it's a problem for me. How would you solve the junk drawer?

Speaker 5:
[17:37] 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 gripe 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. 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.

Speaker 4:
[18:18] If you were to take this on, what's your method for starting? Is it like having these conversations in your head about the essence of the junk drawer or where do you go?

Speaker 5:
[18:29] My method for starting is having a glazed over look for a while and just being like, but what if? I would really start thinking about what is the actual problem. 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.

Speaker 4:
[19:19] Yeah, or like an index. If I could know what's in there without breaking into a sweat as I'm rummaging quickly when I need something, that would be helpful to me.

Speaker 5:
[19:29] Yeah. Okay, I'll think about it.

Speaker 4:
[19:32] Thank you. Okay, Simone, where do you see yourself in 10 more YouTube years?

Speaker 5:
[19:37] 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 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. If I didn't have that natural pressure and those deadlines, I don't know if I would constantly be trying out new things. So, yeah, I will probably still be on YouTube, and I don't know. It's so amazing to feel like I'm doing exactly what I want to do, and I feel like I've really met my work true love, 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.

Speaker 4:
[20:50] 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.

Speaker 5:
[20:59] Thank you so much.

Speaker 4:
[21:01] This episode was produced by Charles Berquist. If you have thoughts about how we might tinker with this podcast, or a problem you think SciFri can solve for you, or if you have a solution to my junk drawer problem, please call us at 877-4-SciFri. That's 877-4-SciFri. Thanks for listening. I'm Flora Lichtman. On Science Friday, we talk about the science, tech and health stories changing our world, from a pancreatic cancer vaccine, to data centers in space, to AI and art, to the real science behind Cold Plunges. We talk with world experts on issues listeners really care about. When you sponsor Science Friday, you connect with curious, engaged audiences who care deeply about discovery, innovation and evidence-based insight. To find out more about sponsorship opportunities visit sponsorship.wnyc.org.