The Core Matter podcast is live. You can listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or watch on YouTube. This post is the home for all interview content; it will be updated as episodes ship.
What is Core Matter Podcast?
Core Matter is a research publication for the Physical AI value chain. We publish long-form reports run on primary sources: filings, datasheets, factory-floor sourcing. For the show, we interview top founders and operators building the Physical AI stack.
The interview series captures the gap between demo videos and deployment reality. Episodes are filmed with operators globally, in Shenzhen, San Francisco, Tokyo, and beyond.
EPISODE 5: What Actually Breaks in Robotic Hands
Guest: Francesco Clemente, Managing Director, Prensilia
Recorded remotely. Published 4 September 2026.
Why robotic hand spec sheets miss durability, how motors, tendons, gears, and fingers fail under load, and why Prensilia thinks fewer motors can make a hand easier to scale.
Three highlights from the conversation:
Prensilia says its Mia hand has survived 300,000 cycles at full grip force. The hand uses three motors and closes in 280 milliseconds.
Motors can account for roughly 35 percent of Mia’s total cost, while mechanical components account for approximately 70 percent, according to Francesco. More motors also add weight, heat, gearheads, and additional failure points.
Prensilia currently outsources component production, then assembles and quality-tests its hands in-house. Francesco says that approach can support hundreds of hands per year, while production at thousands of units per year would require manufacturing changes and external partners.
Links:
Read: https://corematter.substack.com/p/the-hand-that-wouldnt-quit-inside
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EPISODE 4: Why America Still Picks Fruit by Hand: Farm Labor and the Economics of Field Robotics
Guest: Danny Bernstein, Chief Executive Officer, Reservoir
Recorded at Reservoir Farms, Salinas. Published 26 August 2026. 27 minutes.
Why fresh produce is still harvested by hand, what an agricultural machine has to earn back before a grower buys it, and why the next Reservoir site goes on a community college teaching farm.
Three highlights from the conversation:
American farms advertised more than 400,000 seasonal positions in 2025 and received 182 domestic applications, in counties running 9-11% unemployment.
An agricultural machine has to return its cost in about two years, and it is sold to a customer who knows their own per-acre numbers better than the founder does
A college teaching farm carries tree nuts, table grapes, citrus, stone fruit, tomatoes and melons on one property, so a startup can prove one machine across many crops in a single season.
Links:
Read: https://corematter.substack.com/p/reservoir-farms-danny-bernstein-farm-labor
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EPISODE 3: The Missing Sense in Robotics: Tactile Intelligence for Physical AI
Guest: Youssef Benmokhtar, Chief Executive Officer, GelSight
Recorded remotely. Published 11 August 2026. 36 minutes.
Why industrial surface metrology pays the bills, why open-sourcing DIGIT was Meta’s call and is now under review, and why there will be no single tactile foundation model.
Three highlights from the conversation:
GelSight resolves surface geometry down to a single micron, fine enough to read a fingerprint.
Industrial surface metrology is what pays the bills. Robotics is a deliberate market-seeding position the company has chosen not to monetise.
Open-sourcing the DIGIT sensor was Meta’s decision rather than GelSight’s, and the model is under review ahead of the next-generation sensor.
Links:
Read: https://corematter.substack.com/p/giving-physical-ai-the-sense-of-touch
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EPISODE 2: What Americans Do in Shenzhen, and Where Humanoid Value Is Accruing
Guest: Jasmine Bai, FAIRPlus
Recorded in Shenzhen. Published 28 July 2026. 24 minutes.
What American buyers actually come to Shenzhen for, and why component makers
take roughly 70 percent of exhibitor count against 20 to 25 percent for whole-robot firms.
Three highlights from the conversation:
Component makers are about 70 percent of FAIRPlus exhibitors. Whole-robot companies are 20 to 25 percent. The split held steady across both editions.
60,000 visitors attended, 3,000 of them international, drawn from 100 countries. The United States ranked first by international visitors, which surprised the organizers.
Every booth is capped at 9 or 18 square metres with no exceptions, including for Unitree, UBTech, Siemens and Bosch.
Links:
Read: https://corematter.substack.com/p/who-actually-flies-to-shenzhen-for
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EPISODE 1: How Shenzhen Actually Works: A Ground-Level Primer
Guest: Eric Pan, Founder, Seeed Studio
Recorded in Shenzhen. Published 12 July 2026. 23 minutes.
Why Seeed Studio tells Western founders to stop designing hardware from scratch, how the Reachy Mini production ramp worked, and what eighteen years of supplier relationships buy.
Three highlights from the conversation:
A professional robot arm cost $20,000. An open-source arm now costs $1,000,
which opens domains that could not carry the old price.A 12-degree-of-freedom robot hand costs about $100 to build.
Pollen Robotics’ Reachy Mini demand came in five times over forecast. The team spent three months inside Seeed Studio’s office re-engineering the design.
Links:
Read: https://corematter.substack.com/p/how-shenzhen-actually-works-a-ground
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