Musk and the military industrial complex

Make Me Smart

English - September 28, 2023 00:32 - 17 minutes - 11.8 MB - ★★★★★ - 4.6K ratings
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Previous Episode: The real problem with passing the federal budget

Next Episode: The sliver of the federal budget Congress is fighting over

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:

“Elon Musk Wins US Space Force Contract for Starshield” from Bloomberg

“Elon Musk’s Shadow Rule” from The New Yorker

“Retail theft isn’t actually increasing much, major industry study finds” from CNBC

“Target says it will close nine stores in major cities, citing violence and theft” from CNBC

“NASA astronaut Frank Rubio is home after a year in space” from Ars Technica

“US Won’t Have Any Pandas for the First Time in 50 Years” from Bloomberg

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