Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right

He is also the recipient of the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award from the News and Documentary Emmys.

His films include Taxi to the Dark Side, Enron, The Smartest Guys in the Room, Going Clear, Scientology and the Prison of Belief, In Restless Dreams, The Music of Paul Simon, The BB Files, Wise Guys, David Chase and the Sopranos, and The Dark Money Game.

His documentary Knife, the attempted murder of Salman Rushdie, was released last month.

And he's here to discuss his terrific new film, the highly anticipated and critically acclaimed documentary Musk.

Alex, welcome back into the back room.

Thanks, Andy.

So the last time we did this was back at the Nantucket Film Festival in 2025, soon after your docuseries, The Dark Money Game, came out.

During that conversation, we talked about this project that you were working on, which you couldn't really talk about much, a documentary about Elon Musk.

Right.

I remember way back when reading a book by Jane, Jane Meyer called Dark Money.

And when you start to look at the years and years and years and years of plotting and influence from the 0.0001%, we're not talking about just millionaires or even multimillionaires.

We're talking about money, money.

I am Sam.

Today we're talking about Dark Money by Jane Mayer, and it's one of those books that changes how you see every political headline afterward.

Sophie, I have to ask, is this a book about campaign finance, or is it something much bigger than that?

Hi there, Sam.

It's so much bigger.

Jane Mayer is a staff writer at The New Yorker, and dark money is really a decades-long story about a small group of billionaire ideologues who didn't just want to win elections.

They wanted to change what America even argues about.

That's the part that stayed with me.