Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: Thinking Out Loud
Episode: A Tesla Explosion and America’s Obsession with Violence
Description: “This was not a terrorist attack, it was a wakeup call. Americans only pay attention to spectacles and violence. What better way to get my point across than a stunt with fireworks and explosives.” These are the words of Matthew Livelsberger, a 37-year-old Green Beret who took his own life before detonating a Tesla Cybertruck at the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. What are we to make of such a philosophically motivated act of violence? In this episode, we turn to a consideration of the all-American obsession with violence.