Hyperloop: Elon Musk's Fast Lane to Flopdom with Aparna Nancherla and Greta Titelman | 58

The Big Flop

Wondery

Society & Culture, Comedy, Business

4.6 • 884 Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2024

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When Elon Musk boasted to Shervin Pishevar about inventing a revolutionary form of transportation, Pishevar took him at his word — turns out with Elon, that's a huge mistake. Musk promised travel at the speed of sound, unprecedented city connections, and a complete societal transformation, but conveniently left out the potential for catastrophic failure. After wasting millions of dollars and buckets of clout on the promise of Hyperloop, MULTIPLE billionaires are still reeling from the experience. At least they're not being sucked into a deadly vacuum! Or would that be a good thing?

Aparna Nancherla (BoJack Horseman, The Introvert's Survival Guide) and Greta Titelman (Problemista, Senior Superlatives) join Misha for the ride of their lifetimes with Hyperloop.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to the Big Flop early and ad-free.
0:05.3	Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:14.8	On November 8th, 2020, Josh Geigel, Chief Technology Officer at Virgin Hyperloop
0:26.3	and his colleague Sarah Lucian, Director of Passenger Experience,
0:31.4	strapped themselves into a sleek, futuristic pod inside a tube, ready to embark on a groundbreaking journey.
0:40.0	This is no ordinary test run.
0:42.8	It's a trial of Hyperloop, a revolutionary transport system dreamed up by Elon Musk.
0:50.9	It promises to travel at the speed of sound and potentially transform the future of human transportation.
0:59.9	The sleek capsule, the very expensive result of years of meticulous development,
1:05.9	rests on a test track in the Nevada desert, which is adorned with cyberpunk purple lights, exuding a
1:13.1	distinctly sci-fi vibe and an air of danger it probably deserves. In a worst-case scenario,
1:21.0	the passengers inside the tube could boil alive in seconds. But Josh and Sarah have a job to do.
1:30.4	With their fighter pilot seat belts fastened and cute little headsets on,
1:35.0	they can't help but smile as the engineers countdown three, two, one, and off they go.
1:43.4	Destination, the future.
1:47.6	The pod accelerates,
1:50.7	shaking its giddy passengers.
1:53.4	Yes.
1:54.6	Yes.
1:56.1	Josh keeps repeating.
1:58.3	That was awesome.
1:59.9	That was awesome.
	...

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