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Society & Culture

The Builders

Whose imagination do you want to live in? In this new series, bestselling biographer Walter Isaacson sits down with the most consequential names in AI and tech to understand the futures they’re racing to build. Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, Fei-Fei Li, Dario and Daniela Amodei, and more open up about their ambitions, what frightens them, how they think about humanity, and what drives them to build so big and so fast. The conversations are intimate, charming, and sometimes chilling. But mostly, they’re impossible to dismiss. Because whether or not you agree with them, it’s their imagination we’re all starting to live in.

ABOUT THE HOSTWalter Isaacson is the bestselling author of biographies of Elon Musk, Jennifer Doudna, Leonardo da Vinci, Steve Jobs, Benjamin Franklin, and Albert Einstein. He is a professor of history at Tulane University and previously served as CEO of the Aspen Institute, chair and CEO of CNN, and editor of Time. He was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2023.

IN THIS SEASONElon Musk (Tesla, SpaceX, xAI)Peter Thiel (Founders Fund, PayPal, Palantir)Mustafa Suleyman (Microsoft AI, DeepMind)Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei (Anthropic)and more!

Latest Episodes:

Elon Musk: "Humans Won't Be in Control" When AI Becomes Smarter Than Us Oct 20, 2026

Show notes

Elon Musk has spent his career turning improbable ideas into companies that reshape the world. To some, the entrepreneur behind Tesla and SpaceX is an engineering genius whose ambitions have transformed electric cars and space travel. To others, his politics and extraordinary influence raise serious questions about the future he is building. Either way, the world’s first trillionaire is betting on AI, humanoid robots and life beyond Earth.

In this season’s debut episode, Walter asks Musk about DOGE regrets, why he believes robots will solve America’s national debt, and the dark politics that have consumed his own platform, X. Along the way, Musk shares why living in a simulation demands that we all be less boring. A candid conversation about the imagination, drive and contradictions of a man determined to turn his vision into our future.

Interview taped August 6, 2026.

And be sure to pick up Walter Isaacson’s The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution, wherever fine books are sold.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ON MUSK Episode Four: What is Musk's Legacy? Oct 17, 2026

Show notes

As a teaser to our upcoming series The Builders-- which kicks off with an interview with Elon Musk, we're re-airing our critically acclaimed 2023 podcast On Musk, Walter Isaacson's behind-the-scenes telling of writing the Elon Musk biography. We hope you enjoy it!

Which of Musk’s efforts will mark his legacy? Will it be Starship and his work bringing Americans back into orbit, or will it be X and his amplifications of the worst of humanity? Isaacson wrestles with his time in Silicon Valley, and relays a comparison of Jobs and Musk that’s sure to stay with you.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ON MUSK Episode Three: Storytelling and Hot Takes Oct 16, 2026

Show notes

As a teaser to our upcoming series The Builders-- which kicks off with an interview with Elon Musk, we're re-airing our critically acclaimed 2023 podcast On Musk, Walter Isaacson's behind-the-scenes telling of writing the Elon Musk biography. We hope you enjoy it!

Be a storyteller, not a preacher. That was novelist Walker Percy’s legendary advice to a young Walter Isaacson. One he takes to heart in his work as a journalist at Time and CNN, and as a biographer of creative genius across the centuries—and in trying to capture someone as volatile as Elon Musk. He reflects on the challenges of holding the complexity of a character in his mind—and the minds of readers—in the modern age, when everyone just wants to know if the emerald mines were real.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ON MUSK Episode Two: Demons Oct 15, 2026

Show notes

As a teaser to our upcoming series The Builders-- which kicks off with an interview with Elon Musk, we're re-airing our critically acclaimed 2023 podcast On Musk, Walter Isaacson's behind-the-scenes telling of writing the Elon Musk biography. We hope you enjoy it!

What kind of titan of industry has a "giddy mode"? Or a "demon mode"? The two aspects of Musk’s personality are forces that drive his choices and behavior at work—and vectors Isaacson finds critical to understanding how Musk operates. From ripping out servers on Christmas Eve on a whim to buying Twitter against better wisdom, and reaming out staff members left right and center, we stare into the darker parts of Musk as chronicled by Isaacson.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ON MUSK Episode One: Genius Oct 14, 2026

Show notes

As a teaser to our upcoming series The Builders-- which kicks off with an interview with Elon Musk, we're re-airing our critically acclaimed 2023 podcast On Musk, Walter Isaacson's behind-the-scenes telling of writing the Elon Musk biography. We hope you enjoy it!

Space travel, electric vehicles, future-powering batteries—the ability to push technology forward and to bring it into the world in a real way is without a doubt the best of Elon Musk. In his 600 page biography, Walter Isaacson chronicles a man with superlative engineering skills, but who “doesn’t have a fingertip feel for social emotional networks.” On this first of four episodes, Isaacson shares the aspects of Musk that gave meaning and muscle to … the rest of Musk.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Coming Soon! The Builders Oct 06, 2026

Show notes

Whose imagination do you want to live in? In this new series, bestselling biographer Walter Isaacson sits down with the most consequential names in AI and tech to understand the futures they're racing to build. Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, Fei-Fei Li, Dario and Daniela Amodei, and more open up about their ambitions, what frightens them, how they think about humanity, and what drives them to build so big and so fast. The conversations are intimate, charming, and sometimes chilling. But mostly, they're impossible to dismiss. Because whether or not you agree with them, it's their imagination we're all starting to live in.

ABOUT THE HOST
Walter Isaacson is the bestselling author of biographies of Elon Musk, Jennifer Doudna, Leonardo da Vinci, Steve Jobs, Benjamin Franklin, and Albert Einstein. He is a professor of history at Tulane University and previously served as CEO of the Aspen Institute, chair and CEO of CNN, and editor of Time. He was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2023.
IN THIS SEASON
Elon Musk (Tesla, SpaceX, xAI)
Peter Thiel (Founders Fund, PayPal, Palantir)
Mustafa Suleyman (Microsoft AI, DeepMind)
Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei (Anthropic)
and more!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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