1
00:00:02,560 --> 00:00:04,080
Speaker 1: All right, we're ready.

2
00:00:04,480 --> 00:00:08,720
Speaker 2: Yeah. Five weeks ago I sat down with biographer Walter

3
00:00:08,840 --> 00:00:11,799
Speaker 2: Isaacson to try and unpack his new six hundred page

4
00:00:11,840 --> 00:00:16,079
Speaker 2: biography of Elon Musk. Already some stories had jumped off

5
00:00:16,120 --> 00:00:17,439
Speaker 2: the page.

6
00:00:17,560 --> 00:00:19,960
Speaker 1: That night, he was deciding whether or not to allow

7
00:00:20,040 --> 00:00:23,960
Speaker 1: starlink to be enabled to allow a sneak attack on Crimemea.

8
00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:27,320
Speaker 2: When Isaacson set out to write this biography, he believed

9
00:00:27,320 --> 00:00:29,280
Speaker 2: he was taking on a world changing figure.

10
00:00:29,840 --> 00:00:32,080
Speaker 1: Must turns to his security guard, said you got a

11
00:00:32,120 --> 00:00:35,240
Speaker 1: pocket knife, and he takes off the flow aboard himself.

12
00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:36,440
Speaker 1: He just prized it open.

13
00:00:36,800 --> 00:00:39,880
Speaker 2: What he got was a subject who was also volatile,

14
00:00:40,479 --> 00:00:43,120
Speaker 2: increasingly so in chaos and conspiracy.

15
00:00:43,560 --> 00:00:45,920
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm thinking it's any artic to buy Twitter

16
00:00:45,960 --> 00:00:50,320
Speaker 1: because he doesn't have a fingertip feel for social emotional networks.

17
00:00:51,560 --> 00:00:54,080
Speaker 2: And so Isaacson did what he'd done with Steve Jobs

18
00:00:54,560 --> 00:00:57,120
Speaker 2: and tried to capture it all through stories.

19
00:00:57,600 --> 00:00:59,440
Speaker 1: And I said, I want to be by your side

20
00:00:59,480 --> 00:01:01,880
Speaker 1: at all times, and I want for two years to

21
00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:05,600
Speaker 1: have nothing off limits. In a very low mono, Tony

22
00:01:05,720 --> 00:01:06,640
Speaker 1: goes Okay.

23
00:01:07,240 --> 00:01:10,000
Speaker 2: It allowed him to see up close, for better and worse,

24
00:01:10,600 --> 00:01:11,600
Speaker 2: how Musk operates.

25
00:01:11,920 --> 00:01:15,240
Speaker 1: Musk is probably the richest councher forever. So he would

26
00:01:15,280 --> 00:01:17,680
Speaker 1: stay with Larry Page and they'd stay up all night,

27
00:01:18,080 --> 00:01:21,240
Speaker 1: and Musk would talk about how we have to be

28
00:01:21,319 --> 00:01:25,240
Speaker 1: careful of AI, and believe it or not, these fights

29
00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:28,640
Speaker 1: caused him to quit speaking to each other. He'd see

30
00:01:28,640 --> 00:01:31,679
Speaker 1: some calm on a factory line or at a launch pad,

31
00:01:31,800 --> 00:01:34,360
Speaker 1: and he'd be unhappy. He'd say, I've got to stir

32
00:01:34,560 --> 00:01:37,880
Speaker 1: things up getting to Mars. Done. Excuse being a total

33
00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:42,080
Speaker 1: but I want the reader to see it in action.

34
00:01:42,280 --> 00:01:45,680
Speaker 2: And to examine as Isaacson did, what gave Musk as

35
00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:47,559
Speaker 2: boy Wonder a reputation in the first place.

36
00:01:49,280 --> 00:01:53,600
Speaker 1: Musk and this cadre around him, they have Kansas spray

37
00:01:53,640 --> 00:01:57,640
Speaker 1: paint and they're just putting big xes on machines and

38
00:01:57,680 --> 00:02:02,640
Speaker 1: it's almost like kids playing on playground. These people are

39
00:02:02,720 --> 00:02:07,520
Speaker 1: standing there overlooking the Gulf of Mexico in this god

40
00:02:07,600 --> 00:02:12,200
Speaker 1: forsaken place, and all they can focus on is how

41
00:02:12,240 --> 00:02:14,239
Speaker 1: are we going to get a colony to Mars. He

42
00:02:14,400 --> 00:02:18,320
Speaker 1: gets a very lean team that's willing to put up

43
00:02:18,720 --> 00:02:24,400
Speaker 1: with him being cold and angry for those amazing moments

44
00:02:24,919 --> 00:02:26,800
Speaker 1: where they feel like they're changing the world.

45
00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:30,960
Speaker 2: My name is Evan Ratliffe and this is On Musk

46
00:02:31,120 --> 00:02:34,880
Speaker 2: with Walter Isaacson. Join us in this four part series

47
00:02:34,919 --> 00:02:38,200
Speaker 2: as Isaacson breaks down what he saw shadowing Elon Musk,

48
00:02:38,639 --> 00:02:42,240
Speaker 2: the speed and the drama that fuel Musk's accomplishments, and

49
00:02:42,280 --> 00:02:45,640
Speaker 2: the wreckage she leaves behind. We'll discover how Isaacson clung

50
00:02:45,720 --> 00:02:48,280
Speaker 2: on to this tornado for just long enough to capture

51
00:02:48,280 --> 00:02:50,760
Speaker 2: a vivid portrait of a polarizing genius.

52
00:02:51,320 --> 00:02:53,280
Speaker 1: Well. I like the fact that people who say I'm

53
00:02:53,280 --> 00:02:55,680
Speaker 1: not as tough on Musk as I should be are

54
00:02:55,720 --> 00:02:58,560
Speaker 1: always using anecdotes from my book to show why we

55
00:02:58,560 --> 00:02:59,880
Speaker 1: should be tough on Musk.

56
00:03:01,880 --> 00:03:05,079
Speaker 2: Listen to On Musk on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,

57
00:03:05,160 --> 00:03:06,600
Speaker 2: or wherever you get your podcasts.