Long Reads: Trillion Dollar Baby w/ Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff (Part 1)

Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire last week after the record-breaking IPO of his company SpaceX. SpaceX went public after more than two decades in business and is now one of the most valuable listed companies in the United States. Musk presents the firm’s economic take off as the necessary means to a wider end for humanity, to become a multi-planetary species.

“That’s what SpaceX is all about,” Musk recently said at the company’s headquarters. “To take the fiction out of science fiction.”

While Musk was looking to the stars, the people of Belfast were still reeling from several days of racist violence. The Belfast pogrom drew strength from the far-right ecosystem that Musk has nurtured with the money from SpaceX, Tesla, and other companies. Musk himself repeatedly called for anti-immigrant protests and boosted the messaging of Britain’s neofascist right. His social-media platform generated the atmosphere of a frenzied lynch mob.

Over two episodes, Long Reads will explore the two sides of Elon Musk and his impact on the world. Our guests are Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff, authors of Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed. This interview was conducted a few days before the SpaceX IPO.

Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies with music by Knxwledge.