Slapping an “I bought this before Elon went crazy” sticker on a $49,000 Model Y is the move du jour for embarrassed Tesla owners who couldn’t unload their cars before the Nazi salutes started.
But when was Elon Musk not crazy? Or at least not obviously a “sick and suffering” person operating from some sealed-off internal well of defensiveness and pain?
In this episode, part one of a two-part series based heavily on Walter Isaacson’s 2023 Musk biography, we push past the excruciatingly unfunny memes and limp-dick chainsaws, to look at who Elon Musk is and who he always was: a smart, maladjusted man, wounded by a terrifying father. We wish it were more interesting than that but after months of research, we can confirm it isn’t.
Born into privilege in apartheid South Africa, Musk grew up in a family shaped by violence, white supremacy, and a domineering father he still hasn’t cut ties with. That father, Errol Musk, who has publicly expressed racist views and fathered two children with his former stepdaughter, remains a looming presence in his son’s life.
Against that backdrop, Musk has carved a path of emotional wreckage through failed marriages, estranged children, and relationships scorched by control and contempt. He can never get out of his own way.
This all plays out just as loudly in his public life. In May, the WSJ reported Tesla had hired a CEO scouting firm. His so-called Department of Government Efficiency—which rabidly chomped its way through federal funding and jobs relied on by so many Americans—saved a sliver of the $3 trillion he promised campaigning for Trump. And now, he has parted ways with the president. Not with a bang, but with a black eye that he blamed on his four-year-old son, X.
Last Friday, as Musk appeared dazed with a fresh shiner before news cameras during his Oval Office bon voyage, the New York Times was publishing a behind-the-scenes report on his alleged worsening dependency on Ketamine and other drugs, as well as the legal battles his ex Grimes is waging to win custody of X.
We all knew where this was going. Just days after his send-off by the Trump cabinet, Musk turned to Twitter, which he has owned since 2022, to slam Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill as adding to the nation’s debt. In a now-familiar pattern, Trump’s top donor attempted to rearrange reality and dodge accountability, tweeting Tuesday, "In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people."
These episodes look at who Elon Musk is and what it will take to Febreze him from our nation’s cultural fabric. He isn’t a once-in-a-lifetime engineer, ready to save civilization from a melting earth on the last rocket out of here. He’s a guy with a net worth of $400 billion dollars and a reported substance abuse problem, damaged by his abusive father, still in his grip and in need of his approval. Like everything else about Elon Musk, it’s as ordinary as it looks.
Listen to Part One here, on our shiny new Substack, or on Apple, Spotify, and the like. See you next week for Part Two!
Love,
Elizabeth, Matt and Erin
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