Elon Musk’s business relationship with the Pentagon is going strong. SpaceX just scored its first defense contract from the U.S. Space Force, giving Musk more control over on-off switches (see: Ukraine). We’ll get into the potential consequences of having a single private citizen like Musk so entangled in geopolitics. Plus, welcome home, astronaut Frank Rubio, and bye-bye panda cams?
Here’s everything we talked about today:
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Is GM feeling iffy about EVs?
The circular economy and closing our resource loop
OpenAI’s “breakthrough”
Who wants to work in Congress anymore?
The origins of America’s consumer-driven economy
The rise of stay-or-pay hiring
Grief and work in the time of war
The governing work that remains to be done
What would a Starlink IPO mean for Elon Musk’s geopolitical clout?
The moral conundrum of carbon credits
Has the movie business reached peak superhero?
Polarization, partisanship and threats to democracy
Actors and studios strike a (tentative) deal
The national debt is turning economists’ heads
The promises and risks of carbon capture
Elon Musk’s Starlink business going gangbusters
Promises won’t pay for climate adaptation
AI safety takes center stage
Where the fractured GOP goes from here
Hydrogen’s potential as a climate solution
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