Podcasts · Society & Culture · Technology

The Builders

iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope

9 episodes

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.

More about the show

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!

Episodes

  1. Dario & Daniela Amodei: "This Is Gonna Determine the Fate of Nations and the Future of Humanity”

    · 40 min · S1 E3

    Dario and Daniela Amodei, the siblings behind Anthropic, left OpenAI to pursue a different, “more human” approach to the technology. Their promise is to put safety and ethics at the center of the tech race… but with an…

  2. After The Builders: On Musk and Thiel

    · 50 min

    Curious how those chronicling Elon Musk and Peter Thiel are feeling about their appearances on The Builders? There's an episode of TechStuff for that. Host Oz Woloshyn is joined by his Kaleidoscope co-founder Mangesh…

  3. Peter Thiel: “We Need to Hit the Accelerator as Hard as Possible” on AI

    · 58 min · S1 E2

    Peter Thiel has become one of the most mysterious and controversial figures in tech. He’s a visionary investor who recognizes transformative ideas before everyone else. But he’s also seen as a shadowy figure whose…

  4. Elon Musk: "Humans Won't Be in Control" When AI Becomes Smarter Than Us

    · 40 min · S1 E1

    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…

  5. ON MUSK Episode Four: What is Musk's Legacy?

    · 44 min · Episode 4

    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…

  6. ON MUSK Episode Three: Storytelling and Hot Takes

    · 45 min · Episode 3

    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…

  7. ON MUSK Episode Two: Demons

    · 44 min · Episode 2

    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…

  8. ON MUSK Episode One: Genius

    · 32 min · Episode 1

    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…

  9. Coming Soon! The Builders

    · 2:25 · Trailer

    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…

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