The Rolling Stone 40th Anniversary Issue

For the third installment of our Fortieth Anniversary issues, we're featuring audio excerpts and extended interviews from notable artists, politicians, scientists and visionaries as they discuss the world they helped shape and the future.

Eddie Vedder

Pearl Jam's conversation with Rolling Stone's David Fricke covered the future of the music industry, selling out to advertisers and how being a father has changed him. In this audio excerpt, Vedder discusses the shady groundwork that eventually blossomed into the war in Iraq.

Paul Krugman

Rolling Stone's Eric Bates interviewed the economist and columnist about the most profound economic problems the country faces, whether China will replace the U.S. as the world's superpower and who Krugman thinks the next president will be. In this audio excerpt, Krugman talks about the how technology will affect both the economy and the world over the next twenty years.

Bruce Springsteen

Interviewed by Rolling Stone's Joe Levy, Springsteen talks about what he imagined the future would be like when he was younger, how technology has affected society and how he was inspired by Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited. In this audio excerpt, Springsteen talks about the American identity and how it influences his music.