In just 16 years, Twitter has become the “town square of the internet”; it’s the centre of all the most important cultural conversations. But is it really worth the 44 billion dollars that Elon Musk offered to buy it for? 
In this episode of Elon Musk Vs Twitter, Bec Hill dives deep into Twitter’s history and talks to tech journalists about its cultural impact to uncover how it became one of the most powerful social networks of our time. She speaks to the comedian Rosie Holt about trolls, going viral and what keeps us scrolling through the chaos, then finds out what happened when Elon Musk decided to buy a stake in Twitter.
Produced by Audio Always

In just 16 years, Twitter has become the “town square of the internet”; it’s the centre of all the most important cultural conversations. But is it really worth the 44 billion dollars that Elon Musk offered to buy it for? In this episode of Elon Musk Vs Twitter, Bec Hill dives deep into Twitter’s history and talks to tech journalists about its cultural impact to uncover how it became one of the most powerful social networks of our time. She speaks to the comedian Rosie Holt about trolls, going viral and what keeps us scrolling through the chaos, then finds out what happened when Elon Musk decided to buy a stake in Twitter. Produced by Audio Always

2. The Town Square of the Internet

The story of Elon Musk, the way it's usually told, makes him sound like a fictional character, a comic-book superhero - or supervillain. He's the world's richest man, and now an adviser to the US President. He uses X - his social media platform - to berate politicians he doesn't agree with around the world. He plans to put chips in people's brains, and to save the world by colonising Mars. Musk's visions of the future seem to stem from the science fiction that has fired his imagination since he was a boy. But what's the real story, the true history, behind the comic book? Back in 2021 Harvard History Professor and New Yorker Writer Jill Lepore became fascinated by this question. So she made a Radio 4 podcast which tried to explain Musk through the science fiction he grew up with - tales of superheroes with origin stories that seemed to influence how he understands his own life. So much has happened since then that we decided to update that series - and add three new episodes, too. Because Musk keeps changing, and so does what Lepore calls 'Muskism' - his brand of extreme capitalism and techno-futurism. And strangely, his origin story keeps changing, too. How can understanding these fantasy stories - some of them a century old - help us understand the future Musk wants to take us to?

Technology

The story of Elon Musk, the way it's usually told, makes him sound like a fictional character, a comic-book superhero - or supervillain. He's the world's richest man, and now an adviser to the US President. He uses X - his social media platform - to berate politicians he doesn't agree with around the world. He plans to put chips in people's brains, and to save the world by colonising Mars. Musk's visions of the future seem to stem from the science fiction that has fired his imagination since he was a boy. But what's the real story, the true history, behind the comic book? Back in 2021 Harvard History Professor and New Yorker Writer Jill Lepore became fascinated by this question. So she made a Radio 4 podcast which tried to explain Musk through the science fiction he grew up with - tales of superheroes with origin stories that seemed to influence how he understands his own life. So much has happened since then that we decided to update that series - and add three new episodes, too. Because Musk keeps changing, and so does what Lepore calls 'Muskism' - his brand of extreme capitalism and techno-futurism. And strangely, his origin story keeps changing, too. How can understanding these fantasy stories - some of them a century old - help us understand the future Musk wants to take us to?

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2. The Town Square of the Internet

2. The Town Square of the Internet

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