The podcast episodes on the Lex Fridman Podcast explore the topic of Social Robotics, particularly in the context of Rana el Kaliouby's work on emotion recognition and the development of the social robot Cozmo by Boris Sofman and Anki.

In episode #322, Rana el Kaliouby discusses her pioneering work on Emotion AI and the role of empathy in creating human-centric AI systems, with applications in areas like automotive and robotics. This relates to the broader field of Social Robotics and the importance of emotional intelligence in human-robot interaction.

Similarly, episode #241 features an interview with Boris Sofman, who shares his experiences in developing the social robot Cozmo and the technical challenges and design considerations involved in creating compelling user experiences through human-robot interaction.