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Tesla CEO Elon Musk is pictured as he attends the start of the production at Tesla's "Gigafactory" on March 22, 2022 in Gruenheide, southeast of Berlin. Patrick Pleul/POOL/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Patrick Pleul/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is pictured as he attends the start of the production at Tesla's "Gigafactory" on March 22, 2022 in Gruenheide, southeast of Berlin.

Patrick Pleul/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Elon Musk wants to buy Twitter. His vision of the future may not pan out for the platform, but that vision represents what historian Jill Lepore calls 'extreme capitalism.'

Lepore, a Harvard professor and New Yorker writer, is host of the podcast The Evening Rocket, where she examines what she calls Musk's extravagant, "extreme" capitalism — where stock prices are driven by earnings, and also by fantasies.

NPR's Bobby Allyn also explains Twitter's effort to prevent Musk from gaining control of the company.

In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.

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This episode was produced by Mallory YU and Brent Baughman. It was edited by Sarah Handel, Uri Berliner, and Ashley Brown. Our executive producer is Cara Tallo.

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