Ryan Knutson
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Here's MBS in a Discovery Channel documentary talking about the genesis of NEOM. Northwest of Saudi Arabia, untouched, almost empty.
The area MBS was planning to develop was huge, roughly the size of Massachusetts. And it wasn't a completely blank slate. There were villages there, and native tribes who'd been calling the area home for generations. They'd need to be relocated, by force if necessary. But for an authoritarian ruler like MBS, that didn't present much of an impediment.
The area MBS was planning to develop was huge, roughly the size of Massachusetts. And it wasn't a completely blank slate. There were villages there, and native tribes who'd been calling the area home for generations. They'd need to be relocated, by force if necessary. But for an authoritarian ruler like MBS, that didn't present much of an impediment.
The area MBS was planning to develop was huge, roughly the size of Massachusetts. And it wasn't a completely blank slate. There were villages there, and native tribes who'd been calling the area home for generations. They'd need to be relocated, by force if necessary. But for an authoritarian ruler like MBS, that didn't present much of an impediment.
No, this area was a place where he could enact the radical changes the rest of Saudi Arabia wasn't ready for. In Neom, foreigners would be welcome. It would have its own business-friendly legal system. It would be a home for new industries, tourism, media, biotech, clean energy that could help diversify the Saudi economy. And it would be more socially liberal.
No, this area was a place where he could enact the radical changes the rest of Saudi Arabia wasn't ready for. In Neom, foreigners would be welcome. It would have its own business-friendly legal system. It would be a home for new industries, tourism, media, biotech, clean energy that could help diversify the Saudi economy. And it would be more socially liberal.
No, this area was a place where he could enact the radical changes the rest of Saudi Arabia wasn't ready for. In Neom, foreigners would be welcome. It would have its own business-friendly legal system. It would be a home for new industries, tourism, media, biotech, clean energy that could help diversify the Saudi economy. And it would be more socially liberal.
Women could wear bikinis at the beach. There were even discussions about allowing alcohol. And so, MBS went to the people you go to to turn lofty, fantastical visions into reality. Management consultants.
Women could wear bikinis at the beach. There were even discussions about allowing alcohol. And so, MBS went to the people you go to to turn lofty, fantastical visions into reality. Management consultants.
Women could wear bikinis at the beach. There were even discussions about allowing alcohol. And so, MBS went to the people you go to to turn lofty, fantastical visions into reality. Management consultants.
Those 2,000 pages are not a plan for NEOM per se. It's more like a brainstorming document of every conceivable amenity a city of the future could possibly have. And some of these ideas are straight out of sci-fi.
Those 2,000 pages are not a plan for NEOM per se. It's more like a brainstorming document of every conceivable amenity a city of the future could possibly have. And some of these ideas are straight out of sci-fi.
Those 2,000 pages are not a plan for NEOM per se. It's more like a brainstorming document of every conceivable amenity a city of the future could possibly have. And some of these ideas are straight out of sci-fi.
Some of the wildest ideas came from MBS himself.