May 1, 2026|4:00–5:30 PM |820 Social Sciences Building
With Quinn Slobodian, Professor of International History, Boston University, and Ben Tarnoff, Journalist
To understand Elon Musk and the world he intends to make, we have to understand the worlds that made him. So argue historian Quinn Slobodian and journalist Ben Tarnoff in their highly anticipated new book, Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed.
From his early years in apartheid South Africa come a deep commitment to racial hierarchy, industrial self-reliance, and fortress futurism. From Silicon Valley came the idea to finance moonshot projects with public money. And online, Musk uses the tools of virality, repetition, and provocation to undermine legacy institutions in pursuit of a kind of techno-state.
Why should we care? Because the worlds that made Musk are now making ours, say Slobodian and Tarnoff. Into a de-globalizing world comes a promise of sovereignty through technology — but importantly, not for everyone. The institutional breakdown of our era offers an opening for Muskism, Slobodian and Tarnoff warn. At some point, society will stabilize on a new basis, and Muskism could provide the foundation.