Carnegie Endowment 66d ago

Elon Musk is one of the most influential figures of our era. He remade the space, car, social media, and AI industries. He shaped the Ukraine War. He helped put Donald Trump back in office and became Washington’s most powerful official. How can one CEO alter the fate of multiple nations—and what does that say about our world? A provocative new book, Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed, argues that Musk has pioneered a new form of capitalism that fuses technology with political power. On this episode of The World Unpacked, authors Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff explore Musk’s historical meaning and debate the politics of technocracy with host Jon Bateman. Like and subscribe to our channel: https://bit.ly/38sljlH Find the episode transcript and streaming audio, and get the show direct to your inbox, here: https://carnegieendowment.org/podcasts/the-world-unpacked/how-elon-musk-is-reinventing-capitalism Host: Follow Jon on X: https://x.com/JonKBateman Guest: Benn Tarnoff Quinn Slobodian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/quinn-slobodian-14731a401/ Chapters: [00:00:00] What Is Muskism? [00:01:45] Beyond Elon Musk [00:02:03] System Over Man [00:03:01] Muskism Defined [00:03:15] Tech = Power? [00:03:46] Dependence Trap [00:03:58] SpaceX Dominates Orbit [00:05:01] Starlink War Control [00:05:15] Tech Inside Government [00:05:48] Sovereignty With Strings [00:07:50] Genius or Opportunist? [00:09:33] Capitalism and Cost-Cutting Innovation [00:12:09] Tesla vs X: Politics of Tech [00:15:48] Technocracy and Its Risks [00:17:45] The Abundance Debate [00:20:17] Silicon Valley’s Political Shift [00:22:40] Designing Public–Private Power [00:25:02] DOGE and Government Reengineering [00:26:44] Could Progressives Build a “DOGE”? [00:30:28] Government vs Business Logic [00:33:30] Limits of Technological Accountability [00:34:55] Decentralization as an Alternative [00:36:21] State Capitalism Returns? [00:39:59] Beyond State vs Market [00:41:25] The Progressive Dilemma [00:43:01] How Musk Might Respond [00:46:18] Muskism as “Technical Rule” The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace generates strategic ideas and independent analysis, supports diplomacy, and trains the next generation of international scholar-practitioners to help countries and institutions take on the most difficult global problems and advance peace. Visit our website: https://carnegieendowment.org/ Follow us on X: https://x.com/CarnegieEndow Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnegieendow/