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Charles Steel – The Curious Mind of Elon Musk

9 Ways He Thinks Differently

Interview with Charles Steel about his book The Curious Mind of Elon Musk: 9 Ways He Thinks Differently. Explains Elon Musk’s unique philosophy of curiosity aimed at advancing human consciousness. Tesla, SpaceX, and X.AI – are vehicles for this mission, driven by first principles thinking and a culture of relentless innovation to find better questions about the universe. Advocates balancing innate curiosity with hard work, embracing productive struggle, and understanding one’s risk tolerance for personal and professional fulfilment.

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Eric Zwick – The Everywhere Millionaire

Who Is Really Rich in America and How They Got There

Interview with Eric Zwick about his book The Everywhere Millionaire: Who Is Really Rich in America and How They Got There, co-authored with Owen Zidar. Argues the American rich are far more numerous, dispersed, and ordinary, comprising ‘main street millionaires’ – owners of private businesses with $5–100 million in net worth, not just media-covered billionaires. Wealth is often accumulated through everyday businesses – like car dealerships or dental practices – benefiting from restrictive practices, anti-trust failures, and political influence in tax policy and local regulations. Suggests room for upward mobility through entrepreneurship, whilst highlighting significant policy problems including tax loopholes and local market power that enable wealth concentration.

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Quinn Slobodian – Muskism

A Guide for the Perplexed

Capitalisn’t | 7 May 2026 | 0h 53m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Quinn Slobodian about his book Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed. Defines Muskism as a state-symbiosis in which private firms instrumentalise government for profit rather than seeking its elimination, leverage infrastructure as power through vertical integration, and bypass democratic constraints with an engineering mindset that treats social contracts as optimisation problems. Unlike Fordism’s promise of social peace, Muskism sells security and sovereignty through technology amidst perceived global threats. Argues that Musk uses outsized promises to maintain financial dominance and vassalize state functions.

Jon McNeill – The Algorithm: The Hypergrowth Formula that Transformed Tesla, Lululemon, General Motors and SpaceX

Motley Fool Money | 5 April 2026 | 0h 26m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Jon McNeill about his book The Algorithm: The Hypergrowth Formula that Transformed Tesla, Lululemon, General Motors and SpaceX. Shares stories about Elon Musk and Telsa while discussing the five-step formula for achieving hypergrowth, the hidden metric every investor should track, and the AI revolution.

Tom Levitt – The Business of History

Library of Mistakes | 4 February 2026 | 0h 40m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Tom Levitt about his book The Business of History: Tales and Lessons from Two Centuries of British Commerce. Discusses his investigation of the subsequent fates of the businesses and brands written about by WH Beable in his 1926 book Romance of Great Businesses.

Sara Byala – Bottled: How Coca-Cola Became African

New Books in Economic and Business History | 30 December 2025 | 1h 07m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Sara Byala about her book Bottled: How Coca-Cola Became African. Discusses Coca-Cola’s century-long involvement in Africa from recycling and education to the anti-apartheid struggle, showing that Africans have harnessed Coca-Cola in varied expressions of modernity and self-determination: this is not a story of American capitalism running amok, but rather of a company becoming African, bending to consumer power in ways big and small.

Richard Ruback & Royce Yudkoff – HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business

New Books in Economics | 24 November 2025 | 0h 53m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Richard Ruback and Royce Yudkoff about their book HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business: Think Big, Buy Small, Own Your Own Company. Discusses entrepreneurship through acquisition, where individuals buy and run established small businesses. Suggests targeting enduringly profitable companies with high margins and recurring revenue, emphasizing mitigating risk, managing the emotional search process, and advising new owners to wait 6–12 months before making significant changes to learn the business’s fundamentals.

Codie Sanchez – Main Street Millionaire

Book Club with Michael Smerconish | 19 November 2025 | 0h 20m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Interview with Codie Sanchez about her book Main Street Millionaire: How to Make Extraordinary Wealth Buying Ordinary Businesses. Unpacks the wealth hidden in “boring” businesses like laundromats, car washes, HVAC companies, and vending routes. Explains why these recession-resistant, AI-proof businesses are often more profitable than glamorous careers, why boomers are desperate to sell, and how anyone can start buying small businesses using simple, practical frameworks.