S7E22 -Meditation, Mac‑Fixes & Digital Clones: A New Era for Blacks in Tech with Brandon Cooper

“I wish I could just clone myself…have a digital version of me doing the work while I get paid” – that line from Brandon Cooper set the tone for this electric conversation on Detroit Is Different. In this compelling episode, Khary Frazier sits down with Brandon Cooper—Detroit native, former Apple Senior Advisor, meditation advocate, and the visionary CEO behind Aphid AI—to explore the intersections of legacy Black Detroit, tech innovation, and ancestral wisdom. They take listeners on a journey from Rosedale Park and Seven Mile playgrounds where bike‑built forts and street basketball sparked young Brandon’s creative ingenuity, to the spiritual practices—including chakra work and Qigong—that awakened him to the concept of energetic frequencies shaping our lives. Along the way, Brandon reflects on growing up fatherless, witnessing his mother’s unshakeable strength, and navigating elite spaces like DAP‑CEP and Michigan State where stepping outside comfort zones shaped his worldview. As he shifted from hip‑hop culture and early app‑store entrepreneurship to managing end‑to‑end Mac troubleshooting at Apple, Brandon developed a rare blend of technical fluency and spiritual insight. Now, with Aphid, he’s building “digital clones” that can replicate human work through autonomous AI agents—positioning Black creators and founders on the leading edge of a future Detroit can command. Whether unpacking the power of intuitive flow or calling for banishing violent rap from the soundtrack of youth, Brandon’s perspective holds one central thread: the stories we write in Detroit’s past light the path to transcendent, tech‑empowered futures.

Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit www.detroitisdifferent.com to hear, see and experience more of what makes Detroit different.

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