
Hubris Maximus
The Shattering of Elon Musk
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Narrated by:
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André Santana
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By:
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Faiz Siddiqui
About this listen
The rise, fall, and revival of the Caesar of Silicon Valley.
Elon Musk has cast himself as the savior of humanity, an altruistic force whose fortune is tied to noble pursuits from halting our dependence on fossil fuels to colonizing Mars. Once frequently heralded as a modern-day Edison, Musk has taken up a new place in the public consciousness with his growing desire to disrupt not just the automotive and space industries but the policies that shape our nation, placing him at the center of America’s most complex undertakings in manufacturing, politics, and defense and technology, even as his increasingly erratic personal behavior has raised questions about his stability and judgement.
Musk famously leads his companies from a bully pulpit, eroding guardrails and cutting through red tape whenever possible with little regard for the fallout as long as it serves his larger goals. Many in his orbit have seen their lives upended or their careers throttled by believing in his utopian vision. As the scale of the wagers he makes with his fortune and concerns about his credibility have grown in recent years, he alternately seems to be in complete command or on the verge of a meltdown. Yet in the long run, he has only become wealthier, and now the stakes have risen. Thanks to astute political maneuvering, Musk is no longer limited to gambling with a company’s bottom line or the livelihoods of his workers; he is poised to apply his uncompromising approach to business to the foundational rules and regulations that hold our society together.
At a moment when America’s tech gods are more influential than ever, Hubris Maximus is a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of lionizing magnetic leaders. Washington Post journalist Faiz Siddiqui offers a gripping, detailed portrait of a singularly messy and lucrative period in Musk’s career, as well as a case study in the power of using one’s platform to shape the public narrative in a world that can’t turn away from its screens.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.
©2025 Faiz Siddiqui (P)2025 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Siddiqui blends insightful reporting with prescient analysis to give an authoritative look at one of the world’s most polarizing figures. He captures the ambition of Elon Musk’s innovations while also holding power to account, questioning the societal and cultural impact at the heart of his transformation. In this time, when Musk’s influence is tangible in everything from how information is shared to the race for space colonization, Siddiqui’s work could not be more vital.”—Astead Herndon, host of the New York Times political podcast “The Run-Up”
"Siddiqui dissects the rise and psychological unraveling of one of the most influential and controversial figures of our time. Combining meticulous research with vivid storytelling, he reveals how Musk's bold vision and unchecked ambition transformed industries, reshaped public narratives, and courted chaos. From Tesla’s triumphs to Twitter’s disasters, this gripping book exposes the cost of power without accountability in a world that idolizes innovation."—Bradley Hope, Pulitzer Prize finalist and coauthor of New York Times bestseller Billion Dollar Whale
“An electrifying masterpiece of investigative journalism, offering a riveting deep dive into the rise and fall of Elon Musk, and the definitive account of his transformation from inspirational entrepreneur to a dangerous and polarizing figure. With unmatched clarity and depth, Siddiqui dissects Musk’s power and influence. The book is a gripping cautionary tale and a masterful cultural critique—essential reading for anyone captivated (or confounded) by the most controversial billionaire of our time.”—Taylor Lorenz, Author of Extremely Online and founder of User Magazine
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Overall
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In The Project, award-winning journalist David A. Graham offers much-needed context and distills the essential elements of this sprawling document. Breaking down the Project’s strategy for transforming—and radically empowering—the executive branch, Graham then explains what the architects behind Project 2025 would do with that power: restoring traditional gender norms and the supremacy of the nuclear family, decimating the civil service, performing mass deportations, reducing corporate regulation and worker protections, and more.
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Terrifyingly informative
- By Forest Gloomwood on 06-04-25
By: David A. Graham
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Extremely Hardcore
- Inside Elon Musk's Twitter
- By: Zoë Schiffer
- Narrated by: Jaime Lamchick
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Before he conceived of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk flexed his control and influence during his unprecedented, $44 billion buyout of Twitter. This is the stunning true story of how Musk managed to upend the world's largest free speech platform through sheer, unilateral force—and what that means for the protection of power in the modern age.
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THE EMPERORS NEW CLOTHES
- By C.Schillings~ on 03-20-24
By: Zoë Schiffer
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God-Like
- A 500-Year History of Artificial Intelligence in Myths, Machines, Monsters
- By: Kester Brewin
- Narrated by: Kester Brewin
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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In this profound and urgent new book, leading thinker on technology Kester Brewin shows how AI is both stunningly new and rooted in the most ancient human desires. Hailed by the UK government's own lead on AI as 'god-like', as we finally welcome this stunning technology amongst us—with Frankenstein and Faustus, from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel to the underbelly of Silicon Valley—Brewin skillfully leads us through the myths, machines, and monsters that have influenced the development of our greatest and most longed-for invention, and how we can learn to live alongside it.
By: Kester Brewin
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What Is Ancient History?
- By: Walter Scheidel
- Narrated by: Michael Langan
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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It's easy to think that ancient history is, well, ancient history—obsolete, irrelevant, unjustifiably focused on Greece and Rome, and at risk of extinction. In What Is Ancient History?, Walter Scheidel presents a compelling case for a new kind of ancient history—a global history that captures antiquity's pivotal role as a decisive phase in human development, one that provided the shared foundation of our world and continues to shape our lives today.
By: Walter Scheidel
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American Raiders
- The Race to Capture the Luftwaffe's Secrets
- By: Colonel Wolfgang W. E. Samuel
- Narrated by: Basil Sands
- Length: 18 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The last battle of World War II was not for military victory but for the technology of the Third Reich. In American Raiders, Wolfgang Samuel assembles from official Air Force records and survivors' interviews the largely untold stories of the disarmament of the Luftwaffe and of Operation Lusty—the hunt for Nazi technologies.
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Profile of a Nation
- Trump’s Mind, America’s Soul
- By: Bandy X. Lee
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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An unprecedented report for unprecedented times, Profile of a Nation: Trump’s Mind, America’s Soul is a unique and timely accomplishment by one of America’s leading intellectuals. Dr. Bandy Lee’s previous New York Times bestseller, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President, opened the door to understanding the Trump presidency from a mental health perspective and has been published in many countries and languages. This new book goes beyond Donald Trump to explaining the followers who elevated him and the nation that tolerated ...
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An Analysis That could have saved the Nation
- By Tom on 11-17-24
By: Bandy X. Lee
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Weed Empire
- How I Battled Gangsters, Investment Banks, and the Department of Justice to Build the Cannabis Industry in America
- By: Adam Bierman, Herb Wesson - foreword
- Narrated by: Adam Bierman
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Adam Bierman wasn’t planning on selling weed—or developing a network of cannabis stores, or safeguarding his money in shoeboxes, or facing off with gangs in dark corners of parking lots, or taking on the public markets and justice system itself. But, of course, not everything goes according to plan.
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Great business and life lessons story
- By Nach on 05-22-25
By: Adam Bierman, and others
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Heart of American Darkness
- Bewilderment and Horror on the Early Frontier
- By: Robert G. Parkinson
- Narrated by: Shawn Compton
- Length: 15 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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We are divided over the history of the United States, and one of the central dividing lines is the frontier. Was it a site of heroism? Or was it where the full force of an all-powerful empire was brought to bear on Native peoples? In this startlingly original work, historian Robert Parkinson presents a new account of ever-shifting encounters between white colonists and Native Americans.
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The Ministry of Truth
- The Biography of George Orwell's 1984
- By: Dorian Lynskey
- Narrated by: Andrew Wincott
- Length: 13 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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1984 isn't just a novel; it's a key to understanding the modern world. George Orwell's final work is a treasure chest of ideas and memes - Big Brother, the Thought Police, Doublethink, Newspeak, 2+2=5 - that gain potency with every year. Particularly in 2016, when the election of Donald Trump made it a best seller ("Ministry of Alternative Facts", anyone?).
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words from MY mouth...
- By Amazon Customer on 08-02-19
By: Dorian Lynskey
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More Everything Forever
- AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity
- By: Adam Becker
- Narrated by: Greg Tremblay
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Tech billionaires have decided that they should determine our futures for us. According to Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman, and more, the only good future for humanity is one powered by technology: trillions of humans living in space, functionally immortal, served by superintelligent AIs. In More Everything Forever, science writer Adam Becker investigates these wildly implausible and often profoundly immoral visions of tomorrow—and shows why, in reality, there is no good evidence that they will, or should, come to pass.
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Puts words to thoughts that have been haunting me
- By Ellen L. on 04-24-25
By: Adam Becker
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Mad House
- How Donald Trump, MAGA Mean Girls, a Former Used Car Salesman, a Florida Nepo Baby, and a Man with Rats in His Walls Broke Congress
- By: Annie Karni, Luke Broadwater
- Narrated by: Karen Murray
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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The United States Congress has always been messy and far-from-august, but as Annie Karni and Luke Broadwater show here, in scorching, shocking detail, it has reached some kind of chaotic bottom. The anarchy that reigned over Congress’s lower chamber in the wake of the January 6th attack on the Capitol Building—the election of serial liar and con-man George Santos, revenge porn being shown on the floor of the house, and the theatrical high jinks of Lauren Boebert—all were a sign of decay and dysfunction of the highest order.
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The crazy behind the scenes in DC
- By Charles Staten Island NY on 04-28-25
By: Annie Karni, and others
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The Acid Queen
- The Psychedelic Life and Counterculture Rebellion of Rosemary Woodruff Leary
- By: Susannah Cahalan
- Narrated by: Susannah Cahalan
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Rosemary Woodruff Leary has been known only as the wife of Timothy Leary, the Harvard professor-turned-psychedelic high priest, whose jailbreak captivated the counterculture and whose life on the run with Rosemary inflamed the government. But Rosemary was more than a mere accessory. She was a beatnik, a psychonaut, and a true believer who tested the limits of her mind and the expectations for women of her time.
By: Susannah Cahalan
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Ingenious
- A Biography of Benjamin Franklin, Scientist
- By: Richard Munson
- Narrated by: Keith Brown
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Benjamin Franklin was one of the preeminent scientists of his time. Driven by curiosity, he conducted cutting-edge research on electricity, heat, ocean currents, weather patterns, chemical bonds, and plants. But today, Franklin is remembered more for his political prowess and diplomatic achievements than his scientific creativity. In this incisive and rich account of Benjamin Franklin's life and career, Richard Munson recovers this vital part of Franklin's story.
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A very personal feeling biography
- By eclectic reader on 12-08-24
By: Richard Munson
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Dividing Lines
- How Transportation Infrastructure Reinforces Racial Inequality
- By: Deborah N. Archer
- Narrated by: Diana Blue
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Our nation's transportation system is crumbling. But as acclaimed scholar and ACLU president Deborah Archer warns in Dividing Lines, before we can think about rebuilding and repairing, we must consider the role race has played in transportation infrastructure, from the early twentieth century and into the present day.
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Jim Crow in asphalt
- By melissa on 05-15-25
2. How our systems of unbridled capitalism beget such antisocial and self serving behavior
3. How important our role is in both creating and upholding these systems and influencers
A must read for everyone today!
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intriguing
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Brilliant analysis of one of the most psychopathic personalities destroying democracy. it's a page turner.
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