SOCIETY & CULTURE | WEEKLY SERIES
On Musk
Walter Isaacson discusses the behind-the-scenes story of writing his Elon Musk biography.
What is it like to shadow Elon Musk for two years? To sit courtside as he builds a rocket, tears apart an engineer, or couch-surfs at the homes of billionaires?
Walter Isaacson is the biographer of giants: Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Jennifer Doudna, Steve Jobs—and now Elon Musk. In this four-part series, author Evan Ratliff sits down with Isaacson to draw out the behind-the-scenes stories of this epic biography and what the writer learned as an outsider inside Silicon Valley.
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Episode 1: Genius
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.