Making Sense of Elon Musk
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 15 August 2018
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about how Google has been tracking and storing your location—even after you’ve asked it not to. Then they review some of the disturbing security news out of DEF CON, the annual hacker conference in Las Vegas, including a demonstration in which an 11-year-old managed to hack a voting machine in minutes.
The hosts are joined by Dana Hull, a reporter for Bloomberg News, who covers the electric-car company Tesla and the space transportation company SpaceX. What those companies have in common, of course, is their CEO, the enigmatic Elon Musk. Will and April ask her what to make of Musk’s latest machinations, including his surprise bid to turn Tesla back into a private company.
Don’t Close My Tabs:
Huffington Post:The Story Behind the Story That Created a Political Nightmare for Facebook
The Washington Post: A Small-Town Couple Left Behind a Stolen Painting Worth Over 100 Million Dollars - And a Big Mystery
Podcast production by Max Jacobs
If Then plugs:
You can get updates about what’s coming up next by following us on Twitter @ifthenpod. You can follow Will @WillOremus and April @Aprilaser. If you have a question or comment, you can email us at ifthen@slate.com.
If Then is presented by Slate and Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, New America, and Slate. Future Tense explores the ways emerging technologies affect society, policy, and culture. To read more, follow us on Twitter and sign up for our weekly newsletter.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to If Then, a show about how technology is changing our lives and our future. |
| 0:11.0 | I'm Will Oremus. |
| 0:12.2 | And I'm April Glazer. |
| 0:28.4 | Hey, everyone, welcome to If Then. We're coming to you from Slate and Future Tense, a partnership between Slate, Arizona State University, and New America. |
| 0:31.9 | We're recording this on the afternoon of Tuesday, August 14th. |
| 0:38.3 | On today's show, we'll talk about how Google has been tracking and storing your location, even after you asked it not to. |
| 0:48.2 | Then we'll review some of the disturbing security news out of DefCon, the annual hacker conference in Las Vegas, including a demonstration in which an 11-year-old managed to hack a voting machine. |
| 0:50.4 | And that happened in less than 10 minutes. |
| 0:52.3 | All right. That actually is disturbing. |
| 0:55.4 | Later, we'll be joined by Dana Hull, a reporter for Bloomberg News, who covers the electric car company Tesla and the space transportation company, SpaceX. |
| 1:01.0 | What those companies have in common, of course, is their CEO, the enigmatic Elon Musk. |
| 1:05.8 | We'll ask her what to make of Musk's latest machinations, including his surprise bid to turn Tesla back into a private company. And lastly, we'll have Don't Close My Tabs, some of the most interesting stories we found online this week. All right, April, how are you doing this week? I'm okay. I didn't have time to grab a sweater before I left the house. And since it is summer in the Bay Area, it is very kind of chilly outside. But beyond that, |
| 1:28.7 | everything's somewhat normal. Will, how are you doing? I'm doing well. I am kind of jealous of you |
| 1:34.1 | needing a sweater. It's muggy here in my new home in Delaware. I've moved in like two weeks ago, |
| 1:40.8 | and I'm trying to get the hang of small town American life and all the exotic customs that go with it. |
| 1:47.2 | So, like, for instance, I'm trying to figure out, can I just go ring my neighbor's doorbell or do I need to like, you know, get their number and send them a text before I just pop on over? |
| 1:56.1 | I don't know. I, there's certainly no public transit to to take you anywhere. So you have to either walk for 30 minutes or dry for five minutes, right? |
| 2:03.5 | It's these kinds of decisions that you make in kind of suburban areas, I think. |
| 2:09.0 | I'm super lucky. |
| 2:10.1 | I live right downtown in Newark and the Amtrak zooms by my house on an hourly basis. |
| 2:15.4 | I hate their Wi-Fi, but I love Amtrak. |
| 2:17.9 | But I use their Wi-Fi. |
... |
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