Extended Classic: The Future of Humanity, with Elon Musk

Elon Musk unveils the Dragon V2 during a ceremony for the new spacecraft inside SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif. Image Credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis

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About This Episode

Now extended with a new segment from the Cosmic Crib featuring Neil Tyson and Bill Nye discussing human space exploration: the Apollo-era, Bill’s childhood science inspirations, and recapturing the extraordinary optimism of the past. 

Neil deGrasse Tyson explores the future of humanity with one of the men forging that future: billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Motors. Join us as Neil and Elon talk about NASA funding, getting humans excited for the colonization of Mars, and why Elon feels it’s important to not be stuck here on Earth. You’ll also find out why sustainable production and consumption of energy is critically important, but flying cars may not be such a good idea. Meanwhile, back in the studio, guest engineer Bill Nye schools Neil and Chuck Nice about SpaceX’s major innovations and how they’ve improved efficiency and lowered the cost of commercial space flight. They discuss the value of human exploration of space, life on Mars, and Bill’s next book about climate change, Unbounded. Finally, you’ll discover why Elon, who was programming computers at the age of 9, is afraid of the consequences for mankind of developing an artificial super intelligence.

NOTE: All-Access subscribers can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: Extended Classic: The Future of Humanity, with Elon Musk, as well as Neil’s extended interview with Elon Musk here.

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The Future of Humanity with Elon Musk

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  • Aleksandr Motsjonov

    when was this interview taken? Elon just said they havn’t yet recovered the stage.

    • The original version of this episode first aired on March 22, 2015.

      • Aleksandr Motsjonov

        What was the reason of “rebranding” it as of march 2017? I was very excited about the talk and then I felt that I heard it already, and then Musk talked about “not yet recovered booster”

        • Aleksandr, rather than run straight reposts of older content when we don’t have a new episode ready, we revisit older, popular episodes that our audience may not have listened to yet. But we always add a new segment, usually about 12 minutes long, or nearly a quarter of the show. Hence, the “Extended” part of “Extended Classics.” That way, even if you’ve heard the original, there’s something new to listen to, and if you haven’t yet heard it, you get to rediscover it. Since our audience continues to grow, we always have people who have missed some great podcasts. And yes, some elements of a show get dated by time or new scientific discovery, but for the most part, our fans seem to take that in stride.

  • Paul Jackson

    Amazing talk.

  • Grendal

    I’d like to hear a real updated version and interview about this. The discussion is great, it’s just outdated considering the advancements that have happened with SpaceX. The first flight of a reused booster will happen in the next couple weeks. That will be a historic event. An interview after that discussing the implications would be great.

    • Paylin Sal

      also hyperloop, the boring company, tesla (solar roof, model 3, and semi truck, and i believe the company’s name is open ai or open mind – something elon is investing in

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