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In 2020, Elon Musk and the singer Grimes had a baby that they named X, born just around the time that one of Musk’s older children—whom he’d named after Professor Xavier of the X-Men--began to undergo a gender transition. In this episode, Jill Lepore explores the 1972 feminist science fiction story, ‘Baby X,’ that challenged conventional notions of gender. The science fiction that Silicon Valley techno-billionaires like Elon Musk adore concerns gleaming futures in which fantastically powerful, immensely rich men colonize other planets. In this episode, Lepore looks at the science fiction that’s usually left out of this vision - including New Wave, Afrofuturism or feminist science fiction. What does Muskism’s vision of the future—itself so influenced by the visions of writers like Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein—leave out and fail to see?

Jill Lepore is the Kemper Professor of American History at Harvard University and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She’s also a staff writer at The New Yorker and an acclaimed author.

Series Producer: Viv Jones
Researchers: Simon Leek, Oliver Riskin-Kutz
Editors: Richard Vadon, Hugh Levinson
Sound design and mix: James Beard, Graham Puddifoot
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
Original music by Corntuth
Production Coordinators: Jack Young, Maria Ogundele