How It Happened

How It Happened: Elon Musk vs. Twitter Part V: Cracks in the Empire explores whether Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter has made his cross-industry empire too big for one billionaire to run. Host Erica Pandey examines Musk's first months as CEO of Twitter and the simultaneous challenges facing his other companies. Reporting from around the Axios newsroom unpacks lawsuits, a federal investigation, and more facing Musk's other companies, including SpaceX, Tesla, and Neuralink...

How It Happened: Elon Musk vs. Twitter Part IV: Musk's Must-Do List features reporting from Axios media reporter Sara Fischer about the challenges at Twitter that Musk could inherit — and what he might do about them. Fischer takes listeners inside Twitter to understand how the platform has struggled with content moderation over the years. The episode unpacks Musk's vision for free speech and what it could mean for a platform that has become the global public square...

Just days before a trial to determine if Elon Musk would be forced to buy Twitter was scheduled to begin, Musk sent a letter offering once again to buy Twitter for the same price he'd originally offered in April. Musk has a unique tolerance for risk at his companies, but the surprise move still shocked the tech world, and it's not clear yet if it will successfully knock the trial off the docket...

How It Happened: Elon Musk vs. Twitter Part II: Empire of Risk explores how Musk's philosophy on risk brings people far beyond his consumers and employees into the experiments he runs. Axios reporters Joann Muller and Miriam Kramer draw on years of reporting on Tesla and SpaceX respectively to detail how risk fits into Musk's framework at these companies.  The episode also features interviews with people who have known Musk for years, who have watched him across his career...

How It Happened: Elon Musk vs. Twitter Part I: Not A Chill Normal Dude tells the story of Musk's meteoric rise to become the world's richest man and a cross-industry mogul. Through interviews with people who were instrumental early in Musk's career, the episode chronicles how Musk moved from industry to industry. The episode also features Musk in his own words over the years, reflecting on his career and ambitions, and examines how he uses Twitter...

How it Happened: Elon Musk vs. Twitter is a first-of-its-kind newsroom collaboration featuring exclusive reporting on the rise of Elon Musk to become world's richest man, the parallel rise of Twitter as the global public square, and the collision of these two titans this year...

How It Happened: Putin’s Invasion Part V: The Fight for the Donbas goes straight to the frontlines of the war, seen through the eyes of a journalist who has been covering the war there and a soldier who has been fighting there, both since 2014.  After the failed effort to take Kyiv, Russian President Vladimir Putin turned his focus to the Donbas, vowing to "liberate" the entire region, which was partially controlled by pro-Russian separatists before he launched his full-scale invasion on Feb...

In part four of How It Happened: Putin’s Invasion, Axios World editor Dave Lawler digs into polling indications that Russians are rallying around their president even as Western sanctions and global condemnations escalate. This episode features interviews with a top political opposition leader, the director of the leading independent polling firm in Russia, a prominent sociologist from the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences and a journalist on the ground in Moscow...

In part three of How It Happened: Putin’s Invasion, Axios World editor Dave Lawler examines a difficult reality — that the only clear path to peace in Ukraine is a deal between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but the red lines drawn by the Russian and Ukrainian leaders do not intersect. This episode features interviews with Zelensky’s chief of staff, a member of Parliament in his party, two close observers of Putin and the Kremlin, and a former U.S...

In part two of How it Happened: Putin's Invasion, Axios world editor Dave Lawler explains how Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to invade Ukraine catalyzed a chain of events that are reshaping our world. Lawler is joined by Axios managing editor Margaret Talev to discuss President Biden's decades of political experience with Russia and the sanctions the U.S. and Europe have brought against the country...