Jill Lepore on Elon Musk's imaginary world

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Science, Technology, Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2022

⏱️ 57 minutes

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Summary

Sean Illing talks with historian Jill Lepore about her new podcast: The Evening Rocket explores Elon Musk and the new form of extravagant, extreme capitalism — which Lepore dubs "Muskism" — that he has ushered in. They discuss the formative role played by science fiction stories, why the super-wealthy are drawn to space travel, and why, according to Lepore, Elon Musk is not much of a futurist after all. Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling), Interviews Writer, Vox Guest: Jill Lepore, podcast host; professor, Harvard University References: • Elon Musk: The Evening Rocket by Jill Lepore (Pushkin/BBC; Nov. 2021) • Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World, dir. Werner Herzog (2016) • The Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars) by Kim Stanley Robinson (Del Ray; 1992, 1993, 1996; re-issue 2021) • Technocracy Digest issues on the Internet Archive • "Science Fiction and Mrs. Brown" by Ursula K. Le Guin (1976) • Elon Musk on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (Sept. 10, 2015) • Elon Musk's Neuralink demonstration (Aug. 28, 2020) • "Newt Gingrich trying to sell Trump on a cheap moon plan" by Bryan Bender (Politico; Aug. 19, 2019) Enjoyed this episode? Rate Vox Conversations and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Subscribe for free. Be the first to hear the next episode of Vox Conversations by subscribing in your favorite podcast app. Support Vox Conversations by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts This episode was made by: • Producer: Erikk Geannikis • Editor: Amy Drozdowska • Engineer: Paul Robert Mounsey • Deputy Editorial Director, Vox Talk: Amber Hall • Vox Audio Fellow: Victoria Dominguez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Rico Daily. I'm Adam Clark Estes. Some people say that Elon Musk is the Thomas
0:10.6	Edison of the 21st century. Some say he's a real-life Tony Stark from the Iron Man comics.
0:17.5	Either way, it's indisputable that the billionaire entrepreneur behind SpaceX and Tesla has
0:22.3	changed the world with his sometimes reckless form of innovation. And he's attracted an
0:27.9	extremely enthusiastic fanbase along the way. But who is Elon Musk really? And what drove him to
0:34.2	become the figure he is today? In a recent episode of Vox Conversations, Sean Elling spoke with
0:39.9	Harvard historian Jill LaPore about the strange but familiar appeal of muskism.
0:46.9	Who is Elon Musk? Really?
0:52.1	I'm Sean Elling and I'm your host for Vox Conversations.
0:58.4	I don't have a good answer to that question. I'm not sure anyone does. Half the time I'm in
1:10.4	awe of Musk and the other half I'm baffled by his antics. But as a cultural figure, Musk
1:17.6	really occupies his own space. No pun intended. He's now the richest person on the planet or the
1:24.9	second richest depending on the day. And as his fame has grown, the line between the man and the
1:31.5	myth has blurred. Some of that has to do with his gift for self-mythology. And some of it has to
1:38.0	do with his very real achievements. Whatever you think of Musk, there's no denying his impact.
1:44.4	I mean, this is a guy who moves markets with a single tweet. And I know it's cliche to say this,
1:50.9	but he really is the closest thing we have to a real-life comic book character.
1:56.5	So what are we to make of that? And what are we to make of him?
2:02.0	The founder of SpaceX Elon Musk is not just a dreamer. He made his fortune with PayPal.
2:09.7	He's building Tesla electric cars and is now constructing the largest factory for batteries
2:16.4	on this planet. After setbacks, he's now successfully launching rockets.
2:26.3	A new podcast series by the Harvard historian Jill LePore called the evening rocket
	...

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