The Space Race Is So Back — EP 76 Ashlee Vance And Kylie Robison

The theme for this week’s episode is tick, tick, boom.

America is running out of time to catch up with China on manufacturing, and we’re physically incapable of spending an hour together without bringing it up. Release the glorious machines please!! We also go behind the scenes on Kylie’s reporting on motors and actuators — the unglamorous parts that sit in every joint of a humanoid robot, account for roughly 60% of what that robot costs to build, and come almost entirely from China. Her piece profiles the two startups trying to change that. Plus a new proposed bill out of Congress that would kick Unitree’s robot doggies to the curb.

Then the rockets send Ashlee off on his space tangents. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin had an expensive mishap recently when an explosion took out the rocket, its launch pad, and possibly America’s dreams of beating China back to the moon. Ashlee walks through why a pad explosion can be a near-death moment for a rocket company, and why SpaceX — now flying roughly every two days while everyone else is grounded or behind — increasingly just wins by default. Plus the new Starfall capsule, SpaceX’s move into making medicine and maybe chips in orbit, and the wild logic behind a $1.77 trillion IPO.

We also got into the media drama consuming our X timeline: the firing of Scott Pelley from 60 Minutes. Ashlee tweeted an opinion, the trolls came for him hard, and he pleads his case here. We’re a little biased since, well, we’re off building this whole new-media thing ourselves. Will there still be a ticking clock and a man in a suit raking in views twenty years from now? Tune in for what we think, and leave your hot take in the comments.

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(Ed. Kylie - Don’t think I forgot to make you a playlist. “Lazy Eye” and “New Slang” were key to my college experience. I first crushed on Rivers Cuomo thanks to “Perfect Situation.” Listen to it here, and don’t forget to leave a comment to win tickets to their tour).

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Timestamps

* 00:00:00 – Intro

* 00:02:05 – The American Actuator Crisis

* 00:06:51 – WestMag vs. Atlas Motion Systems

* 00:14:21 – Uncle Sam Pays Attention

* 00:16:47 – Chinese Robot Ban

* 00:21:16 – A Robot in Every Home

* 00:24:29 – Are You AGI-pilled Yet?

* 00:27:23 – Shoutout to Micayla Sortland

* 00:31:01 – Blue Origin’s Explosive Launch

* 00:42:52 – Low Earth Orbit Drugs

* 00:49:42 – The Two-Trillion-Dollar Elon Bet

* 00:57:07 – Founders Fund’s Viral “Mafia” Game Night

* 01:01:23 – Ashlee Braves His Notifications

* 01:06:12 – Legacy Media vs. The World

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