How Science Fiction Led Elon Musk to DOGE

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

News, David, Books, Arts, Storytelling, Wnyc, New, Remnick, News Commentary, Yorker, Politics

4.2 • 5.5K Ratings

🗓️ 18 April 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The staff writer Jill Elpore says that Musk misreads sci-fi cautionary tales as instruction manuals. Plus, a protester shares her fears of government suppression.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Listener supported, WNYC Studios.
0:10.8	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and the New Yorker.
0:18.1	Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.
0:22.0	It may take us many years to understand fully what's happening in America right now.
0:27.6	This attempt by Donald Trump, as well as Elon Musk, Stephen Miller, the authors of Project 2025, and so many others, to radically reshape this country and its institutions as quickly and as brutally as possible.
0:41.7	We've been talking a lot on the radio hour about the colossal upheaval of the first hundred days of the Trump administration
0:48.3	and what could be more important.
0:51.0	But today the subject that we're going to drill down on is an appraisal of Elon Musk and
0:55.9	his vision of our future. Of the many politicians who have tried to position themselves as Trump's
1:02.5	heir and closest advisor, really only Elon Musk rivals the boss. And in some ways, he exceeds him.
1:10.2	There's that astronomical untold him. There's that astronomical, untold wealth.
1:13.7	There's his delight in trolling his enemies and his contempt for government and its rules.
1:18.3	And there's a deep belief in him that what's good for Elon Musk is precisely what matters.
1:25.7	And yet the thing is, Elon Musk is not just a chaos agent, as he's sometimes
1:29.8	called. He's driven by a distinct ideology, or at least a clear set of obsessions. And to find out
1:37.3	more about this, I called up Jillipur, the best-selling author of these truths and other works of
1:43.0	history. And I called her because
1:44.9	she's written about Elon Musk for The New Yorker, and she's also produced a podcast about him
1:49.9	called X-Man. She's a professor at Harvard University and a staff writer at the New Yorker. We spoke last
1:57.5	week. Jill, Elon Musk is only recently a MAGA figure.
2:04.1	He supported Obama.
2:05.5	He supported Biden in 2020.
	...

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