SpaceX may be the face of the private space industry now, but it wasn’t always that way. In the 16 years since its founding, the company went from curious newcomer to leading the sector. And the reason? It’s made a business out of building and launching affordable, reusable rockets, attracting clients like NASA who use SpaceX rockets to get their devices into space. Elon Musk may be the company’s founder and CEO, but Gwynne Shotwell has been the company’s chief operating officer for over a decade and is the person running the company day to day. Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal took a tour with Shotwell of SpaceX’s flagship manufacturing facility, where they talked about the state of the commercial space industry, what it’s like to run a rocket company and the plan to put people on Mars within 10 years.
Editor’s note (Dec. 12, 2018): The headline has been updated.

SpaceX’s Gwynne Shotwell says we’ll be on Mars within 10 years

Kai Ryssdal’s Conversations From the Corner Office brings you inside the room with the business and cultural leaders transforming our economy. In this business leadership podcast, Ryssdal interviews experts and entrepreneurs on a wide range of topics from the news of the day, successes, failures and what’s next.

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Joanne Heyler, founding director of the Los Angeles contemporary art museum The Broad, takes Kai on a tour of the vaults where the collection that’s not on display is kept. They discuss both how art can reflect the economy and the business of running a museum.

Running a contemporary art museum is a balancing act

Despite unprecedented economic expansion in the U.S., the global economy is slowing down. On today’s episode, a wide-ranging conversation on what’s standing in the way of economic growth with Janet Yellen, former Chair of the Federal Reserve, and David Malpass, President of the World Bank Group. Recorded live on stage at the George Washington University, sponsored by the Bipartisan Policy Center, they touched on how everything from consumer debt, to the U.S./China trade war and the new coronavirus could affect the global economy.  

Janet Yellen and David Malpass on global economic slowdown

This season, you have a record 532 scripted TV shows to choose from. Netflix, Apple and cable networks are spending billions on marquee talent, intellectual property and reboots, some of them with the help of big data. AMC, however, is trying something different. Sarah Barnett took over as president the legacy network in late 2018, as the streaming war was heating up and cord cutters threatened cable’s dominance. She spoke with us about her plan to counter the streaming giants, AMC’s legacy of big hits like “Breaking Bad” and why investing in new voices is crucial to making good TV. 

AMC’s Sarah Barnett on legacy TV in the streaming era

About one in nine Americans lacked access to affordable nutrition last year, according to the USDA. Enter Feeding America, a network of tens of thousands of food banks, meals programs and more. CEO Claire Babineaux-Fontenot talked with us about how she uses her corporate background to run one of the nation’s largest charities, and how she stays positive in the face of such a big problem.

How Feeding America provides 4 billion meals a year

Kelly Sawyer Patricof and Norah Weinstein knew they wanted their nonprofit, Baby2Baby, to do big things to help kids living in poverty. But they didn’t realize that a photo featuring Jessica Alba and Nicole Richie at one of their first events would lead to a donation of 100,000 diapers and a totally new strategy for growth. They talked with us about running their nonprofit as a business, working together as co-presidents and why their work is nowhere near done.

SpaceX’s Gwynne Shotwell says we’ll be on Mars within 10 years

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