Why We Need to Pay Attention to Elon Musk Again

Channels with Peter Kafka

Vox Media Podcast Network

Technology, Tv & Film, Business News, News

4.4 • 585 Ratings

🗓️ 1 April 2026

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Elon Musk has spent the last year being quieter than usual — by Elon Musk standards.That may be about to change in a very big way, as his SpaceX moves toward what could be one of the biggest IPOs in history. So what, exactly, is Musk selling? A rocket company? A satellite internet giant? An AI play? Or just the latest, biggest version of Elon himself?Bloomberg’s Max Chafkin, who has been tracking Musk for a couple of decades, joins me to walk through what Musk has actually been up to lately. We talk about what SpaceX is now that it includes multiple businesses under one roof; why Musk might want to take it public after years of insisting he didn’t; and how much of the pitch is grounded in real operating businesses — rockets! Satellite internet! — versus the familiar promise of something much vaguer and hard to assess.Then we broaden out: Tesla’s drift from car company to AI-and-robotics story, whether X is still a business or simply a political and cultural weapon, and what changed after Musk’s break with Trump. The bigger question underneath all of it: has Musk built a coherent empire — or just a very effective machine for turning hype, power, and celebrity into capital? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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1:19.0	users. From the Vox Media Podcast Network, this is Chann peter kofka that is me i'm also
1:31.0	chief correspondent at business insider and today we are focusing on elon musk which feels a little
1:38.7	weird to say since we have already spent an enormous amount of time focused on the world's
1:43.8	which is man you could argue we've spent more than enough time but now We have already spent an enormous amount of time focused on the world's rich as man.
1:44.7	You could argue we've spent more than enough time.
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