Tesla Is the Topic on New Season of Vox Media's 'Land of the Giants' Podcast

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It is not hyperbolic to state that Tesla is the most influential and important automobile company of the 21^st century so far. It deserves credit for innovations and products that have shaped the industry and its future. But its influence—and that of its autocratic leader, Elon Musk—has come at a cost.

The latest season of Vox Media's tech podcast "Land of the Giants"—which has previously looked at such brands as Amazon, Google, Netflix, Facebook/Meta, and Apple—now dives into the EV car company. Through dogged reporting, veteran car journalists Tamara Warren (The Verge, the New York Times) and Patrick George (Jalopnik, The Drive) weave together—at least in the two episodes we've had the privilege of hearing so far—a history of this EV juggernaut and its impact on the car industry, government, and the larger global context.

Aren't We Tired of Tesla by Now?

But, as one of the most covered companies and people in the media landscape, we have to ask, why does the world need any further reporting on the subjects? "It's easy to get caught up in the daily news about Tesla because there's just so much," says Warren, who has been writing about the company since its launch. "But when I joined this podcast, I was struck by how interesting it was to look back on the history, and retrace what's happened, and then do a serious evaluation of how that impacts the market today and where it's going tomorrow."

In its headstrong rush toward a future it is helping to define, Tesla and Musk have certainly disrupted our notion of what a car can and will be, along with things like the direction of our transportation policy, how we live, how we buy cars, and how we produce them. The podcast explores all of this. But its real strength is in describing the impact of this breakneck transformation on the lives of the actual people involved. There is no doubt their existences were disrupted too.

For Good or Ill, It Was Life-Altering to Work There

"I think generally I would characterize for them that this was a life-altering experience. Whether that experience was positive or negative varied depending on who I spoke with and what their role was," Warren says. Many reveal that they had a really difficult time working at a company where there wasn't a lot of work-life balance, where the protective structures that exist in a traditional industry intentionally didn't exist, and where people—even at the highest levels—were seen as expendable.