{"id":42256,"date":"2026-06-20T00:23:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T04:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/06\/20\/americast-elon-musk-the-trillionaire-does-the-global-economy-need-him-to-succeed-bbc-sounds\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T00:23:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T04:23:27","slug":"americast-elon-musk-the-trillionaire-does-the-global-economy-need-him-to-succeed-bbc-sounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/06\/20\/americast-elon-musk-the-trillionaire-does-the-global-economy-need-him-to-succeed-bbc-sounds\/","title":{"rendered":"Americast &#8211; Elon Musk the trillionaire&#8230; does the global economy need him to succeed? &#8211; BBC Sounds"},"content":{"rendered":"<section aria-labelledby=\"\u00abR1imm\u00bb\" id=\"main\">\n<h2 id=\"\u00abR1imm\u00bb\">Episode details<\/h2>\n<div data-testid=\"episode-hero\">\n<div><picture><source type=\"image\/webp\"  ><source type=\"image\/jpg\"  ><\/picture><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span><span>News<\/span><span>,<\/span><\/span><span><span>19 Jun 2026<\/span><span>,<\/span><\/span><span><span aria-label=\"duration: 23 mins\">23 mins<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<h2 data-testid=\"page-title\"><span><span>Elon Musk the trillionaire&#8230; does the global economy need him to succeed?<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span>Americast<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"episode-content\">\n<div>\n<p>Available for over a year<\/p>\n<p>The US economy backs Elon Musk\u2019s vision for sending people to Mars, the moon and beyond with SpaceX.  Elon Musk\u2019s rocket, telecommunications and artificial intelligence company SpaceX has listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange with a value of $2.2 trillion; making him the world\u2019s first trillionaire in the process. Other AI companies, including Open AI and Anthropic have plans to follow suit but what does that mean for the US economy and global financial stability? In this episode, Justin speaks to Ryan Mac &#8211; an investigative technology reporter for the New York Times who has extensive experience covering Elon Musk and other leaders in the AI field. SpaceX\u2019s public valuation has made millionaires of many of its past and current employees and generated around $85 billion for the company; money that Elon Musk says is essential to fulfill the company\u2019s plans to build bases on the Moon, put data centres into orbit and send human beings to Mars. But what happens if those plans remain unfulfilled? As more companies offer shares to investors and the general public, Justin and Ryan explore whether America is gambling on the promise of AI? And is the US economy becoming dangerously reliant on one industry?  HOSTS:  \u2022 Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter  GUEST: \u2022 Ryan Mac &#8211; New York Times investigative technology correspondent   GET IN TOUCH:  \u2022 Join our online community: https:\/\/discord.gg\/qSrxqNcmRB  \u2022 Send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 9480 \u2022 Email Americast@bbc.co.uk \u2022 Or use #Americast   This episode was made by Tom Gillett, Grace Reeve, Alix Pickles and Purvee Pattni.   The technical producer was Ben Andrews. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.  If you want to be notified every time we publish a new episode, please subscribe to us on BBC Sounds by hitting the subscribe button on the app.   You can now listen to Americast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say &#8220;Ask BBC Sounds to play Americast\u201d. It works on most smart speakers.  US Election Unspun: Sign up for Anthony\u2019s BBC newsletter: https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-us-canada-68093155   Americast is part of the BBC News Podcasts family of podcasts. The team that makes Americast also makes lots of other podcasts, including Newscast. If you enjoy Americast (and if you&#8217;re reading this then you hopefully do), then we think that you will enjoy some of our other pods too. See links below.  Newscast: https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sounds\/series\/p05299nl Top Comment: BBC Sounds &#8211; Top Comment &#8211; Available Episodes Radical: https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sounds\/brand\/p0gg4k6r The Global Story: https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sounds\/brand\/w13xtvsd<\/p>\n<p><span>Programme Website<\/span><\/div>\n<p><span>More episodes<\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Episode details News,19 Jun 2026,23 mins Elon Musk the trillionaire&#8230; does the global economy need him to succeed? Americast Available for over a year The US economy backs Elon Musk\u2019s vision for sending people to Mars, the moon and beyond with SpaceX. Elon Musk\u2019s rocket, telecommunications and artificial intelligence company SpaceX has listed on the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,21,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-market","category-news","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}