The Builders
by iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope
Alex Karp: Silicon Valley Broke Its Promise to America
About this podcast
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!
Episodes
- Alex Karp: Silicon Valley Broke Its Promise to America · 50 min · Season 1 Episode 6To outsiders, Alex Karp seems an unlikely choice to lead Palantir. A philosopher by training, the billionaire co-founder has built his business at the intersection of…
- Garry Tan Decides Who Gets to Build the Future · 40 min · Season 1 Episode 5As the leader of Y Combinator, the startup accelerator behind Airbnb, Stripe and DoorDash, Garry Tan backs founders with the ambition to change how we live. Tan wants more…
- After The Builders: On Dario & Daniela Amodei and Mustafa Suleyman · 48 minEpisodes three and four of The Builders with Walter Isaacson explore two poles of the AI safety debate through interviews with Daniela and Dario Amodei, co-founders of Anthropic…
- Mustafa Suleyman: AI Should Serve Humanity, Not Replace It · 52 min · Season 1 Episode 4As a co-founder of DeepMind, Mustafa Suleyman helped launch the modern AI race. Now, he’s challenging the way it’s being built. As CEO of Microsoft AI, Suleyman believes the…
- Dario & Daniela Amodei: "This Is Gonna Determine the Fate of Nations and the Future of Humanity” · 41 min · Season 1 Episode 3Dario and Daniela Amodei, the siblings behind Anthropic, left OpenAI to pursue a different, “more human” approach to the technology. Their promise is to put AI safety and ethics…
- After The Builders: On Musk and Thiel · 50 minCurious 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…
- Peter Thiel: “We Need to Hit the Accelerator As Hard As Possible” on AI · 58 min · Season 1 Episode 2Peter 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…
- Elon Musk: "Humans Won't Be in Control" When AI Becomes Smarter Than Us · 40 min · Season 1 Episode 1Elon 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…
- ON MUSK Episode Four: What is Musk's Legacy? · 44 min · Episode 4As 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…
- ON MUSK Episode Three: Storytelling and Hot Takes · 45 min · Episode 3As 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…
- ON MUSK Episode Two: Demons · 44 min · Episode 2As 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…
- ON MUSK Episode One: Genius · 32 min · Episode 1As 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…
- Coming Soon! The Builders · 2 min · Season 1Whose 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…
