Welcome to the MotoManTV Podcast, the reimagined version of Inside the MotoMan Studio. Join MotoMan for in-depth conversations with the key people shaping the automotive, tech & business worlds. From CEOs and legendary designers to race car drivers, we bring you the human stories behind the cars we
The global auto industry is changing faster than it has in decades — and Bob Lutz has some very strong opinions about who is getting it right, who is getting it wrong and which automakers may be in serious trouble. This week on the MotoMan Podcast, Bob Lutz returns for a wide-ranging conversation about China, the future of the German auto industry, electric vehicles, Porsche, Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, General Motors, Ford, Tesla, Hyundai, Kia, Ferrari, Corvette and the rapidly changing economics of building cars. Are Chinese automakers really leaving the West behind? Bob argues…
Are EVs actually failing—or did the automotive industry simply promise too much, too soon? This week on the MotoMan Podcast, George sits down with EVgo product leader Alex Keros for a candid reality check on electric vehicles, EV charging infrastructure and where the industry goes from here. Alex has spent years working on alternative-fuel vehicles, from hydrogen at General Motors to today’s public EV charging network. And his view of the electric future is far more nuanced than the usual pro-EV vs. anti-EV debate. His philosophy? Stop dealing in “hopeful math” and deal with reality. That…
How does a young engineer from the Greek island of Crete go from selling buses to leading Mercedes-Benz in America? Dimitris Psillakis never mapped out the career that followed. He joined Mercedes-Benz through an international management-trainee program, took responsibility for a small bus division in Greece and then accepted a series of increasingly complex assignments across four continents. Along the way, he oversaw operations across 29 Latin American countries, helped establish a Mercedes-Benz factory in Brazil, encountered customers armoring everything from C-Classes to Smart cars,…
Slate is promising a $25,000 electric truck with no traditional trim levels, no sprawling options list and a radically different approach to personalization. But can that idea survive contact with manufacturing, service and the realities of launching a new car company? CJ Waelti joins the MotoMan Podcast to explain why the electric powertrain may be the least interesting part of Slate. Drawing on a career that has taken him from Harley-Davidson to Tesla, Rivian and now Slate, CJ lays out how the company is combining old-school mechanical expression with modern manufacturing. We dig into…
Chris Benjamin’s path to the top of automotive design was anything but straightforward. Long before becoming Chief Design Officer at Scout Motors, Benjamin arrived at design school unable to properly draw a car in three dimensions, learned a painful lesson after being labeled “unreliable,” and eventually landed what looked like a dream job at Mercedes-Benz. There was just one problem: he was so deep in debt that he spent his days designing Mercedes and his nights working a full-time shift at Taco Bell—sometimes surviving on barely three hours of sleep. That experience helped shape a career…
What will car collectors want when today’s roads are filled with electric, autonomous computers on wheels? According to Tommy Mica of TFLcar, the answer may be the exact opposite of a Tesla Model Y. In this very different MotoMan podcast episode, Tommy makes the case for the strange, tactile and overlooked cars hiding in plain sight. They discuss why analog experiences are returning, what actually makes a car collectible and which affordable cars could be tomorrow’s classics—from Land Rover LR3s and Pontiac Fieros to early Aston Martin V8 Vantages, forgotten Cadillacs, 1990s GM performance…
Slate Auto has been described as a Jeff Bezos-backed EV startup building a $25,000 electric truck — but that is only part of the story. In this episode of the MotoMan Podcast, we sit down with Rod Copes, Slate Auto board director and employee number one, to discuss the real strategy behind Slate: radical simplicity, American manufacturing, affordability, and avoiding the mistakes that crushed so many EV startups. Rod explains what he learned from Harley-Davidson, Royal Enfield, and Rivian, including what “production hell” really means and why Slate is deliberately doing less on purpose. The…
Most car designers are supposed to follow a path. Alfonso Albaisa did not. Before he became the global design leader behind Nissan’s future, he was a Cuban-American kid in Miami who did not learn English until he was six or seven, dressed like Napoleon, drew in a closet, nearly failed engineering with a 0.5 GPA, and found his way through art, architecture, balsa wood boats, New York, Detroit, and one unforgettable Jaguar E-Type. In this episode of the MotoMan Podcast, Alfonso Albaisa joins MotoMan for a deeply personal conversation about the unlikely road that took him from South Florida to…
Greg Tada left software development to chase something far more personal: motorcycles. In this episode of the MotoMan Podcast, Greg joins MotoMan at ArtCenter to tell the story of how he went from working in tech to designing motorcycles for some of the most important brands in the industry, including Kawasaki, Indian Motorcycle, Piaggio, Aprilia, and Moto Guzzi. This conversation covers the moment motorcycles took over Greg’s life, why motorcycle design is different from car design, what it took to help relaunch Indian Motorcycle, why brand heritage matters, and why some mechanical details…
What happens when a university engineering project completely upends the power dynamics of the world's most elite supercar manufacturers? In this episode of the MotoMan Podcast, we meet Dr. Tim Woolmer, the CTO and Founder of YASA Motors. Long before the automotive establishment fully embraced electrification, Woolmer engineered a radical departure from traditional propulsion: the axial flux "pancake" motor. By rewriting the core physics of electric motor topology, YASA managed to strip away 80% of necessary iron, delivering an astonishing three-to-one power-to-weight advantage over…
What happens when you apply the brutal discipline of elite military training and the high-stakes pressure of a two-Michelin-star kitchen to the wild west of the modern digital algorithm? In a total departure from our usual deep dives with the key people shaping the car, tech, racing or business worlds, this episode MotoMan sits down with digital creator Read Choi for a raw, unscripted peer-to-peer conversation. Far removed from horse-power metrics, standard car reviews, or corporate strategy, this discussion pulls back the curtain on the actual human cost of modern media execution, the…
What happens when you take the collective genius behind Tesla, Lucid, and BYD, and use it to build an EV that completely rejects Silicon Valley tech bloat? In this episode of The MotoMan Podcast, we sit down with Mark Tapscott, co-founder of the radical new British automotive startup, Longbow. Mark shares his incredible journey through the EV revolution—from early days spent as Elon Musk's chauffeur and launching the Model S in the UK, to building out Lucid Europe from scratch and setting up operations for BYD in the Middle East. Now, he’s putting all that insider knowledge into a vehicle…
In this exclusive vault episode of the MotoMan Podcast, MotoMan goes behind the scenes at Toyota’s North American R&D center with legendary former Chief Engineer Mike Sweers. Before his recent retirement, Sweers was the driving force responsible for the engineering DNA of Toyota’s entire body-on-frame lineup. But it almost didn’t happen. In this career-spanning deep dive, Sweers uncovers the hidden corporate battles required to keep the Tundra and Sequoia alive when leadership in Japan was ready to pull the plug. From his gritty beginnings on a Michigan farm to surviving the collapsing…
What does it take to become the ultimate authority on classic car values? In this special vault episode, MotoMan sits down with Dave Kinney—the founder and the publisher of the Hagerty Price Guide. From a fateful, unfiltered conversation at a New York City Shake Shack in 2006 that completely altered MotoMan's career path, to Dave’s own wild journey of turning a 2.3 GPA and severe dyslexia into a prolific writing career for The New York Times, Octane, and Automobile magazine, this episode goes far beyond simple market numbers. Whether you want to understand market arbitrage, the real…
In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Philipp Skogstad , CEO of Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America, to discuss the radical shift in how the world’s oldest car company builds for the future. While Philipp’s background includes a rebellious streak—hacking a serial port into his father’s car in the 90s to get internet on the road —his primary focus today is bridging the gap between German craftsmanship and the Silicon Valley mandate to "spend money, not time" . We dive deep into the internal processes and technological philosophies driving Mercedes-Benz today: The Software…
How do you build a global automotive media brand from a "B-Tier" city with no budget and zero industry connections? You get scrappy. Today on the MotoMan Podcast , we sit down with Jakub Wrobel , the visionary behind the "Walmart Top Gear" production style that helped The Straight Pipes leapfrog the automotive establishment. Jakub pulls back the curtain on the "psychopathic" decision to quit his stable job with only a limited buffer and a car he couldn’t actually afford. We explore the "abusive relationship" with a 1980 C3 Corvette that made him hate the brand for 20 years, and why—at the…
What does it actually take to become a racing legend? For Ron Fellows, it wasn’t a silver spoon—it was a shovel. In this episode, the Corvette icon pulls back the curtain on the brutal financial reality of his early career. From spending nearly a decade digging trenches for a natural gas company to fund his passion , to the "red flag" moment of financing a race car through a local bank , Ron shares the incredible story of how he managed to climb out of $50,000 in debt to become one of the most successful drivers in GM & Corvette history. Chapters: 00:00 – Built Not Bought 01:18 – The…
For over 30 years, Simon Sproule has been inside the rooms where the biggest decisions in the car industry get made. From working alongside Elon Musk at Tesla… To witnessing the rise and fall of Carlos Ghosn… This is a rare, behind-the-scenes look at how the modern car industry actually works. We go deep into Tesla’s early momentum, what made it different, and why the rest of the industry is still trying to catch up. Along the way, we unpack Ford’s luxury ambitions, Nissan’s comeback, Aston Martin’s brand power, and the decisions that separate the brands that survive from the ones that…
What happens when a hobby born out of "doomscrolling" turns into a global audience of 11.8 million people ? In this episode, we sit down with Forrest Jones , the pioneer of the vertical car review format who fundamentally changed how we consume automotive media. Forrest opens up about the high-stakes journey of building a massive digital empire, from the "leap of faith" moving to California during the pandemic to the viral Honda Odyssey clip that changed everything. We explore the tension of maintaining a "real" voice while managing a massive business, including why he walked away from the…
Most people see the smoke and the sideways Mustangs, but they don't see the payroll, the sleepless nights, or the massive career gamble that started it all. In this episode, Vaughn Gittin Jr. pulls back the curtain on the 20-year journey from a stable 9-to-5 to becoming the CEO of RTR Vehicles . We discuss why he chose to move his entire life to the "Silicon Valley" of racing to stay ahead of the curve and how fatherhood forced a shift toward quality over quantity in his professional life. Episode Chapters: 00:00:00 Vaughn Gittin Jr. and the Drifting Empire 00:01:25 ‘Vault’ episode…
In this episode of the MotoMan Podcast, Sasha Selipanov shares the story behind some of the most important modern performance cars — and why he ultimately left the biggest automotive brands to start his own company. From growing up in 1990s Russia and sketching cars as a kid, to shaping icons like the Lamborghini Huracán and Bugatti Chiron, Sasha reveals the tension between engineering and design inside major OEMs, the creative realities of studio life, and what he learned working with Ferdinand Piëch and Koenigsegg. The conversation then shifts to Sasha’s next chapter: founding Nilu and…
Hyundai is on a design tear — from the IONIQ 5 N to the bold new “Art of Steel” Hyundai Crater Adventure Concept. But what’s really driving Hyundai’s rise? In this episode of the MotoMan Podcast, Hyundai Americas Design Director Brad Arnold sits down with MotoMan for a deep dive into the real story behind Hyundai’s design revolution. Brad shares how he went from “not a car guy” to leading design at one of the world’s most aggressive automotive studios. He opens up about his time at ArtCenter, the brutal reality of design school (including sleeping in a Chevy S10), and the surprising work…
In this episode of the MotoMan Podcast, we sit down with Steve Saleen — racing legend, car builder, and the man behind some of the most iconic American performance cars ever made. From selling his house to go racing… to building the original Saleen Mustang… to secretly engineering the Dodge Viper and manufacturing the 2005 Ford GT, Steve shares stories few have ever heard — including the rise and collapse of his $2 billion China venture, complete with a hostile takeover and 500 stolen patents. This is the untold story of America’s Supercar pioneer, told in Steve’s own words. Chapters: 0:00…
What really killed America’s optimism — and car culture along with it? In this explosive new episode, MotoMan sits down with Jack Baruth — automotive journalist, racer, and one of the most outspoken voices in the car world — for an unfiltered conversation about everything wrong (and right) in today’s auto industry. From telling off David Spade at the Tower Bar to why the Lincoln Mark VIII represented the last great moment of American optimism, Jack opens up about how we lost the plot — and how car enthusiasm might still make a comeback. They dive deep into: 🚗 The real reason young people…
In this episode, MotoMan sits down with Bob Boniface, Design Director of @Cadillac , for a wide-ranging conversation on the future of Cadillac design and the brand’s next chapter beyond the CELESTIQ and Escalade. Bob shares his journey from @buick to Cadillac, insights on leading a design team through the EV transition, and why Cadillac is not abandoning internal combustion just yet. From the evolution of American luxury design to what opportunities lie ahead for Cadillac, this episode dives deep into how the brand plans to stay relevant — and aspirational — in a changing automotive…
MotoMan sits down with Lucid Motors' Senior VP of Brand and Design, Derek Jenkins, for an unfiltered discussion. We talk about the launch of the Lucid Air, the Gravity SUV, the company's funding journey, and Derek's career through VW, Audi and Mazda. Plus, a deeply personal conversation about his car collection and surviving the Malibu Fires.Chapters:0:00 He Walked Away From His Dream Job for an EV Startup2:31 The Secret Pitch That Lured Derek Jenkins from Mazda to Lucid5:31 The Ex-Tesla Team That Convinced Him Lucid Could Win6:49 Sedan vs SUV: Lucid's First High-Stakes Debate9:29 Why Lucid…
In this episode of the MotoManTV Podcast, we discuss the $25,000 EV Revolution: Slate Auto's Customizable EV Pickup. Is this the electric pickup that finally makes EVs accessible for everyone? The Slate Auto is an ultra-minimal, $25,000 electric workhorse with a radical plan: let the owner decide what their truck should be. In this special podcast episode, we dive deep with Jeff Jablansky of Slate into the philosophy and engineering behind the blank Slate. We discuss: The Radical Price: Can the $25,000 EV Pickup win over buyers as the government incentives end? Modularity & Customization:…
In this episode of the MotoManTV Podcast, automotive journalist Craig Cole joins us to break down the changing world of car media. From EV startups like Slate shaking up the industry to the evolution of automotive journalism, we explore where the industry has been, where it’s going, and what it means for enthusiasts, journalists, and automakers alike. Craig shares his candid thoughts on: The rise of EV startups and how they’re disrupting the automotive world The state of automotive media and how journalism has changed since 2015 What the future holds for car coverage, journalism, and content…
In this episode, we sit down with Andreas Bovensiepen, CEO of Alpina, to explore the brand’s unique philosophy and enduring legacy. Founded by his father in the 1960s, Alpina has built a reputation for creating refined, high-performance BMWs that blend speed, luxury, and craftsmanship unlike anything else on the road. Andreas shares stories about growing up in the family business, what defines the “Alpina way,” and how the company continues to thrive while staying true to its roots. If you’ve ever wondered why Alpina builds cars differently from BMW M, their future now that BMW AG has…
In this episode of the MotoManTV Podcast, we sit down with Miles Branman, the car content creator behind the popular MilesPerHr cars YouTube channel. Miles has built a career as an automotive journalist at the intersection of cars, storytelling, and digital media. He shares what it really takes to succeed as a modern automotive journalist and content creator. We dive into: How Miles built and grew the MilesPerHr brand The changing landscape of automotive journalism & car media on YouTube vs traditional outlets The challenges (and opportunities) of turning passion for cars into a full-time…
About MotoManTV Podcast
Welcome to the MotoManTV Podcast, the reimagined version of Inside the MotoMan Studio. Join MotoMan for in-depth conversations with the key people shaping the automotive, tech & business worlds. From CEOs and legendary designers to race car drivers, we bring you the human stories behind the cars we
MotoManTV Podcast is a English leisure & travel podcast from MotoManTV Podcast. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.
The Melo app keeps playing with the screen off, works in the car and on your watch, wakes you to your station, and browses the whole catalogue offline. Free, no ads, no account.
