Elon, Inc.

For those who haven’t been following Elon Musk’s voluminous and combative X posts about the UK—good for you. It’s a confusing situation where Musk backed and then renounced fellow right-winger Nigel Farage, and then tried to taint Prime Minister Keir Starmer with a “scandal” tied to when he was a prosecutor. Starmer, for his part, said “a line has been crossed” with Musk’s messaging. Musk then made an X poll asking people, essentially, if it was time for a coup in the UK. David discusses this with Bloomberg Opinion columnist Marc Champion, Musk reporter Dana Hull and UK government reporter Alex Wickham. Then, Kurt Wagner and Max Chafkin join Hull to talk about changes at X. Musk seems to have changed the platform’s policy to privilege posts that are “positive” in nature. The timing of this has the panel wondering if he plans on boosting people who are saying nice things about, say, how his new boss is doing come Jan. 20. Finally, “Adrian Dittman.” It’s been a longstanding rumor that this person is actually Musk—his voice sounds like Musk’s in various recordings and he posts often about Musk in glowing terms. A recent story seemed to debunk that rumor, but the internet doesn’t seem ready to let go.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Over the holiday break, Elon Musk was busy making news on X, furiously posting his way into a multipronged fight with ultra-right wing MAGA luminaries Laura Loomer and Steve Bannon about immigration visas. But over the past 24 hours, two other stories arguably overshadowed the civil war in Trumpland: a deadly Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas and some surprisingly bad sales numbers from Tesla. David Papadopoulos is joined by Max Chafkin and Dana Hull to break down the news. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As we established in our last podcast—an episode recapping 12 months of ups and downs and ups for the world’s richest man—this was a unique year for Elon Musk. This week, our look back continues—along with a look forward—in the second part of a holiday special of Elon, Inc. Host Max Chafkin is joined by Elon Musk reporter Dana Hull, tech editor Sarah Frier and special guest Ryan Broderick, host of the podcast Panic World and founder of the Garbage Day newsletter. Together they play some games and handicap Musk’s next moves. On the game front, how well does the panel know Musk’s “eexing” (aka posting habits on X)? Can they identify who Joe Rogan is talking to—Musk, Donald Trump or a cryptozoologist? Can they determine the status of Trump’s relationship with his richest donor? We also get predictions not only from our panelists but from a slew of other personalities. How will Musk wield his new-found power as part of Trump’s second administration? Will there be more legal troubles? We try our best to prophesize.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What a year 2024 has been for Elon Musk. From the ups-and-downs of Tesla stock, to his rapid ascent to the top of Republican party politics to various SpaceX wins and losses, it seems like a year that Musk won’t forget. And neither will we: for the year-end episode, we actually have a two-part special, featuring Max Chafkin as host, Dana Hull (Elon Musk reporter) and Sarah Frier (Big Tech editor) as panelists and a special guest, Ryan Broderick, host of his own podcast, Panic World, and Garbage Day newsletter founder. In the first part, we go over the word (or words) that describe Musk’s year; discuss both the biggest and most underappreciated stories of the year; and figure out who was the most important sidekick among Elon’s ever evolving entourage.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.