When Walter Isaacson, the legendary biographer of Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, and Leonardo da Vinci, started shadowing Elon Musk, he found himself following "a guy who was one of the most popular people on the planet, and ended up with a guy who's the most controversial." Today on the show, Isaacson unpacks the transformation.
(This epis ... Show More
Mar 16
The Story of Stories
What do the campfire, printing press, motion picture, and smartphone have in common? They're all storytelling technologies. Each one gave us a new medium through which to transmit tales, reshaping how we think, what we believe, and who holds power. And we may be on the brink of t ... Show More
56m 4s
Mar 9
A War Correspondent on the Crisis in Iran
As the war with Iran enters its second week, two big questions loom: How did we get here? And how will it end? We put those questions to Scott Anderson. Scott is a veteran war correspondent who has reported from Israel, Lebanon, Egypt, Bosnia, Northern Ireland, Sudan, and El Salv ... Show More
40m 22s
Apr 2025
Is Elon Musk the Ultimate Scam Artist? with Max Chafkin
<p>Author and journalist Max Chafkin, co-host of the podcast Elon, Inc., joins Trevor and Christiana to discuss one of today’s most fascinating and controversial figures: Elon Musk. The three talk about how Elon came to be the world’s richest person, whether he’s a brilliant entr ... Show More
1h 10m
May 2025
Nikola Tesla: life of the week
Nikola Tesla is remembered as an enigmatic, eccentric genius who harnessed the power of electricity. But if we strip away some of this myth, what can we really say about the inventor's life and legacy? For this Life of the Week episode, Iwan Morus joins Ellie Cawthorne to reveal ... Show More
38m 44s
Sep 2023
🧠 “The Genius Ingredient” — Elon’s biography takeaway. Twinkies’ snack sale. Google’s antitrust megatrial.
Walter Isaacson’s biography on Elon Musk arrives today, so we jumped in for you — And we found the common ingredient among geniuses like Elon, Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Steve Jobs: Curiosity.Twinkies’ parent Hostess is being acquired for $5.6B by Smuckers — Because the mos ... Show More
19m 19s
Nov 2024
Leonardo da Vinci with Ken Burns
<p>Leonardo da Vinci was a man like no other. A restless visionary and polymath, his paintings are some of the best known of all works of art.</p><br><p>To talk about Leonardo, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Ken Burns, the multi-award winning American filmmaker who has ... Show More
39m 26s
