1 00:00:02,560 --> 00:00:05,920 Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how Stuff, 2 00:00:05,960 --> 00:00:14,440 Speaker 1: What's coom? Hey there everyone, and welcome to tech Stuff. 3 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:16,880 Speaker 1: My name is Jonathan Strickland. I am one of the 4 00:00:16,920 --> 00:00:19,759 Speaker 1: two hosts of this podcast. The other host of this 5 00:00:19,840 --> 00:00:22,440 Speaker 1: podcast is Lauren Vogelbaum, and that is the person speaking 6 00:00:22,520 --> 00:00:25,200 Speaker 1: right now. In case you didn't figure that out, Alright, awesome, 7 00:00:25,239 --> 00:00:27,840 Speaker 1: we've got that under control. So today we wanted to 8 00:00:27,920 --> 00:00:31,840 Speaker 1: focus on another personality and technology. Uh you know, we 9 00:00:31,840 --> 00:00:34,120 Speaker 1: did an episode not that long ago where we talked 10 00:00:34,120 --> 00:00:38,280 Speaker 1: about the Internet Darling Tesla Tesla, and today we're going 11 00:00:38,320 --> 00:00:41,840 Speaker 1: to talk about a guy who runs a company called Tesla. Mr. 12 00:00:41,880 --> 00:00:46,199 Speaker 1: Elon Musk, Yeah, Elon Musk, and uh, he's sort of 13 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:50,959 Speaker 1: he's an interesting iconic figure. I would say he's he's 14 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:53,599 Speaker 1: a wee bit like Tony Stark. Yeah, a little bit 15 00:00:53,640 --> 00:00:55,720 Speaker 1: like Tony Stark, a little bit like Steve Jobs, a 16 00:00:55,760 --> 00:01:00,440 Speaker 1: little bit like uh well, one Esquire article I read 17 00:01:00,880 --> 00:01:03,560 Speaker 1: said that it was a bit Tony Stark and a 18 00:01:03,640 --> 00:01:07,759 Speaker 1: bit Donald Trump. Okay, Yeah, and supposedly he's actually friends 19 00:01:07,760 --> 00:01:10,559 Speaker 1: with the director of the current uh iron Man movies 20 00:01:10,600 --> 00:01:12,800 Speaker 1: and that they sort of based that character a tiny 21 00:01:12,840 --> 00:01:16,119 Speaker 1: bit on him. Interesting I have never met the man, 22 00:01:16,319 --> 00:01:19,880 Speaker 1: so I am going to try my best to not 23 00:01:20,040 --> 00:01:25,000 Speaker 1: make any sort of assumptions. Um I say try, because 24 00:01:25,240 --> 00:01:28,000 Speaker 1: there's certain things about this man's life that I find 25 00:01:28,440 --> 00:01:32,280 Speaker 1: particularly interesting, and it might be difficult to avoid editorializing 26 00:01:32,800 --> 00:01:36,839 Speaker 1: because I'm an opinionated idiot, But like like like many 27 00:01:36,880 --> 00:01:41,120 Speaker 1: big famous billionaires who have started really fascinating companies that 28 00:01:41,480 --> 00:01:44,360 Speaker 1: you know, go into space and create fancy electric vehicles, 29 00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:46,920 Speaker 1: you know, like all of those people in the world, 30 00:01:47,640 --> 00:01:50,600 Speaker 1: all those with those other guys, He's a very driven, 31 00:01:50,680 --> 00:01:54,240 Speaker 1: very very big personality. He's a sort of nerd rock star. Yeah, 32 00:01:54,440 --> 00:01:57,040 Speaker 1: that's that's why we're doing this profile, and it's there's 33 00:01:57,120 --> 00:01:59,720 Speaker 1: and there's some great articles that are out there, Lauren, 34 00:01:59,760 --> 00:02:02,840 Speaker 1: you wanted me to one on Forbes. There's an Esquire 35 00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:06,400 Speaker 1: profile that is phenomenal. There's some great information out there. 36 00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:08,360 Speaker 1: If you really want to know about this guy's life, 37 00:02:08,400 --> 00:02:10,280 Speaker 1: we're gonna give you kind of an overview. And we 38 00:02:10,320 --> 00:02:12,280 Speaker 1: also want to point out we're not going to dive 39 00:02:12,320 --> 00:02:16,320 Speaker 1: too deeply into each of his ventures because frankly, they 40 00:02:16,320 --> 00:02:20,480 Speaker 1: would each you know, Merrit their own podcast, so so 41 00:02:20,520 --> 00:02:22,280 Speaker 1: maybe maybe later for all that, and I would I 42 00:02:22,320 --> 00:02:24,760 Speaker 1: would really love too, because I didn't. I honestly had 43 00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:27,519 Speaker 1: to keep tearing myself away from everything that SpaceX is doing. 44 00:02:27,520 --> 00:02:29,480 Speaker 1: And I would love to revisit that right. And we 45 00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:31,639 Speaker 1: should also point out we're recording this just a few 46 00:02:31,720 --> 00:02:35,600 Speaker 1: days after another SpaceX launch. There was a Falcon nine 47 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:41,200 Speaker 1: launch vehicle that launched the Dragon spacecraft out to rendezvous 48 00:02:41,240 --> 00:02:44,400 Speaker 1: with the International Space Station, which it did. It's successfully docked. 49 00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:48,280 Speaker 1: It's the first private vehicle, I believe to successfully Yeah, 50 00:02:48,280 --> 00:02:50,360 Speaker 1: it's done this before. This is not the first time 51 00:02:50,400 --> 00:02:52,280 Speaker 1: that the Dragon spacecraft has done it, but it is. 52 00:02:52,320 --> 00:02:55,720 Speaker 1: The Dragon spacecraft was the first private spacecraft to dock 53 00:02:55,840 --> 00:02:58,880 Speaker 1: with the International Space To This came with the headline 54 00:02:58,919 --> 00:03:04,320 Speaker 1: happy Birthday birth b r H Well and and that 55 00:03:04,400 --> 00:03:07,720 Speaker 1: was that was a big deal because while the launch 56 00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:12,360 Speaker 1: went went fairly well, like there wasn't anything majorly wrong 57 00:03:12,360 --> 00:03:15,239 Speaker 1: with the launch, it was discovered pretty soon after the 58 00:03:15,320 --> 00:03:18,280 Speaker 1: launch then not all of the systems aboard the Dragon 59 00:03:18,360 --> 00:03:21,120 Speaker 1: spacecraft were working properly, and there was some question for 60 00:03:21,160 --> 00:03:22,800 Speaker 1: a while as to whether or not they would be 61 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:25,079 Speaker 1: able to dock with the International Space Station. But we'll 62 00:03:25,080 --> 00:03:27,880 Speaker 1: get into that or at least mention it again. Uh, 63 00:03:28,040 --> 00:03:31,799 Speaker 1: let's start with his birth, the Elon Musk's birth, which 64 00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:38,480 Speaker 1: was on June nineteen seventy one in pre Torria, South Africa. Yeah. 65 00:03:38,680 --> 00:03:42,320 Speaker 1: I love the South African accent. Yeah. Yeah, I can't 66 00:03:42,320 --> 00:03:44,240 Speaker 1: do it other than say South Africa. That's a be 67 00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:46,520 Speaker 1: as close as I can get. So I apologize to 68 00:03:46,560 --> 00:03:50,520 Speaker 1: all South Africans out there. But his father, Errol, was 69 00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:54,280 Speaker 1: an engineer and his mother, May was a neutri still 70 00:03:54,360 --> 00:03:57,200 Speaker 1: is a nutritionist and model. Yeah she Yeah, she's a 71 00:03:57,280 --> 00:04:00,240 Speaker 1: very popular model. Actually there. I looked at a couple 72 00:04:00,240 --> 00:04:01,320 Speaker 1: of pictures of her and I was like, oh, you 73 00:04:01,360 --> 00:04:04,840 Speaker 1: know that lady. Yeah, she's still modeling today in fact Um. 74 00:04:04,880 --> 00:04:08,160 Speaker 1: And he has siblings. He's got a brother named Kimball 75 00:04:08,200 --> 00:04:12,600 Speaker 1: and a sister named Tosca. And his childhood was a 76 00:04:12,600 --> 00:04:14,520 Speaker 1: little rough. I mean, for one thing, he was growing 77 00:04:14,600 --> 00:04:17,440 Speaker 1: up in South Africa, which, for those who don't know, 78 00:04:17,839 --> 00:04:21,000 Speaker 1: it's an area that has a history with with some 79 00:04:21,120 --> 00:04:25,560 Speaker 1: big social problems and things like violence. Uh. He was 80 00:04:26,040 --> 00:04:30,360 Speaker 1: apparently bullied at school quite a bit. His brother Kimball, 81 00:04:30,400 --> 00:04:32,440 Speaker 1: has said that he was He got to a point 82 00:04:32,480 --> 00:04:35,320 Speaker 1: where he really hated the idea of going to school. 83 00:04:35,360 --> 00:04:38,760 Speaker 1: He loved learning. Elon Musk has always shown that he 84 00:04:38,960 --> 00:04:42,280 Speaker 1: just he devours information right right. Well, And I think 85 00:04:42,320 --> 00:04:44,440 Speaker 1: I read one thing from I think it was from 86 00:04:44,440 --> 00:04:48,239 Speaker 1: his brother Kimball saying that that Elon tended to correct 87 00:04:48,320 --> 00:04:51,200 Speaker 1: people factually even when he was a child, and that 88 00:04:51,200 --> 00:04:54,039 Speaker 1: that maybe is what led to some of that bullying. Yeah. Yeah, 89 00:04:54,279 --> 00:04:56,360 Speaker 1: it was one of those things where from Elon's point 90 00:04:56,400 --> 00:04:59,200 Speaker 1: of view, he wasn't trying to behave in a way 91 00:04:59,200 --> 00:05:02,080 Speaker 1: that was superior to other people, but rather that, oh, 92 00:05:02,120 --> 00:05:04,680 Speaker 1: you made a mistake, you probably don't want to do that. 93 00:05:05,320 --> 00:05:07,840 Speaker 1: I will help you. But the problem is that when 94 00:05:07,839 --> 00:05:10,320 Speaker 1: you help people by pointing out they make mistakes, they 95 00:05:10,360 --> 00:05:13,000 Speaker 1: can get a little they might not like you. And 96 00:05:13,200 --> 00:05:14,760 Speaker 1: I've done the same thing, and I've had the same 97 00:05:14,760 --> 00:05:17,200 Speaker 1: thing done to me because I'm human, I make lots 98 00:05:17,200 --> 00:05:20,720 Speaker 1: of mistakes, and yeah, he can get pretty irritating. And 99 00:05:20,800 --> 00:05:23,920 Speaker 1: yet I still do it when to other people, And 100 00:05:24,240 --> 00:05:27,120 Speaker 1: I don't know what that says about me. But anyway, 101 00:05:27,440 --> 00:05:30,400 Speaker 1: so he had a kind of rough childhood at eight 102 00:05:30,440 --> 00:05:33,080 Speaker 1: when he was eight years old, his well, depending upon 103 00:05:33,400 --> 00:05:35,400 Speaker 1: how you read the story, because he's also a fairly 104 00:05:35,440 --> 00:05:39,400 Speaker 1: private man about his own personal details. His either his 105 00:05:39,480 --> 00:05:42,920 Speaker 1: father left or his mom took the kids and left, 106 00:05:43,600 --> 00:05:47,480 Speaker 1: but in either case he no longer was having a 107 00:05:47,800 --> 00:05:51,840 Speaker 1: day contact with his dad. Eight years old, uh and 108 00:05:52,080 --> 00:05:55,440 Speaker 1: he very much wanted to get out of South Africa. 109 00:05:56,320 --> 00:05:59,240 Speaker 1: When he was seventeen years old, he left South Africa 110 00:05:59,279 --> 00:06:02,560 Speaker 1: for ontary O, Canada. His mother was a Canadian national 111 00:06:02,640 --> 00:06:05,520 Speaker 1: by the way, so um and And the story goes 112 00:06:05,560 --> 00:06:09,479 Speaker 1: that he mostly left because he was fleeing compulsory service 113 00:06:09,520 --> 00:06:12,920 Speaker 1: in the South African Defense Force. Yes, and that specifically 114 00:06:12,960 --> 00:06:16,240 Speaker 1: he was doing it not because he really objects to 115 00:06:16,360 --> 00:06:19,560 Speaker 1: military service, but he objected to the kind of military 116 00:06:19,560 --> 00:06:22,120 Speaker 1: service that they were engaging in a k A. Pressing 117 00:06:22,160 --> 00:06:25,760 Speaker 1: black people right. Yes, that was his His stance on 118 00:06:25,800 --> 00:06:28,240 Speaker 1: the military has been that he's pro military when it 119 00:06:28,360 --> 00:06:31,800 Speaker 1: is quote in the service of good um And, so 120 00:06:31,920 --> 00:06:34,360 Speaker 1: he you know, you could draw the conclusion that he 121 00:06:34,400 --> 00:06:38,320 Speaker 1: saw South Africa's military as being uh not aligned with 122 00:06:38,360 --> 00:06:41,160 Speaker 1: that and so he did not want to participate. Also, 123 00:06:41,279 --> 00:06:44,440 Speaker 1: I have read that he had aspirations to become an 124 00:06:44,440 --> 00:06:47,280 Speaker 1: American citizen early early on. He really wanted to be 125 00:06:47,320 --> 00:06:49,719 Speaker 1: an American, but he also thought that it would be 126 00:06:49,760 --> 00:06:56,760 Speaker 1: easier to become an American if he first went to Canada. Um, so, yeah, 127 00:06:57,360 --> 00:07:00,160 Speaker 1: he leaves for Ontario. Yeah, I was. I was to say, 128 00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:02,400 Speaker 1: I wonder if if part of part of that ambition 129 00:07:02,440 --> 00:07:04,360 Speaker 1: to be an American was was he was a very 130 00:07:04,440 --> 00:07:07,200 Speaker 1: enterprising child. He had written a code for a video 131 00:07:07,279 --> 00:07:09,840 Speaker 1: game called a blast Star. I believe that he sold 132 00:07:09,840 --> 00:07:12,720 Speaker 1: to a computer mag for five hundred bucks, which isn't 133 00:07:12,720 --> 00:07:15,480 Speaker 1: bad when you say twelve. Yeah, yeah, he he was, 134 00:07:15,800 --> 00:07:17,800 Speaker 1: and that was one of those things. He was immediately 135 00:07:17,840 --> 00:07:21,320 Speaker 1: interested in computers. He had begged his family to get 136 00:07:21,320 --> 00:07:24,400 Speaker 1: a computer essentially as soon as personal computers became a thing, 137 00:07:25,120 --> 00:07:28,840 Speaker 1: and uh and yeah, he just soaked it up. It 138 00:07:28,880 --> 00:07:30,720 Speaker 1: was one of those things that he really had an 139 00:07:30,720 --> 00:07:33,240 Speaker 1: affinity for. He tried to open an arcade I read 140 00:07:33,320 --> 00:07:35,960 Speaker 1: with with his brother when he was thirteen or fourteen, 141 00:07:36,240 --> 00:07:38,480 Speaker 1: that they abandoned the plans when they realized that they 142 00:07:38,520 --> 00:07:40,880 Speaker 1: would have to get an adult signature to obtain a 143 00:07:40,920 --> 00:07:43,320 Speaker 1: permit to open this arcade, so they wound up just 144 00:07:43,360 --> 00:07:46,640 Speaker 1: making homemade chocolate and selling it to their classmates instead. Yeah. Essentially, 145 00:07:46,680 --> 00:07:49,280 Speaker 1: the story I read says that he and his brother, 146 00:07:49,840 --> 00:07:53,480 Speaker 1: without any permission on the part of their parents, decided 147 00:07:53,520 --> 00:07:56,080 Speaker 1: to have this plan to make an arcade. Then they 148 00:07:56,160 --> 00:07:58,640 Speaker 1: ran into the problem that they would require this adult 149 00:07:58,680 --> 00:08:02,800 Speaker 1: signature and realized that this was not going to work out, 150 00:08:02,920 --> 00:08:07,960 Speaker 1: and so essentially they you know, they hit a bureaucratic obstacle. 151 00:08:08,400 --> 00:08:11,800 Speaker 1: And then their parents were furious when they found out 152 00:08:12,160 --> 00:08:14,560 Speaker 1: that these two kids that just actually, I guess mom 153 00:08:14,640 --> 00:08:18,040 Speaker 1: mainly was furious that these these kids had decided to 154 00:08:18,240 --> 00:08:21,400 Speaker 1: just often started a business, started business, you know, on 155 00:08:21,440 --> 00:08:24,400 Speaker 1: their own, without any adult supervision. Now granted, of course 156 00:08:24,400 --> 00:08:26,840 Speaker 1: it didn't go very far in that case, but um, yeah, 157 00:08:26,840 --> 00:08:30,640 Speaker 1: it shows that Musk was not really uh interested in 158 00:08:30,720 --> 00:08:34,000 Speaker 1: having to get permission to do things, which I thought 159 00:08:34,040 --> 00:08:37,840 Speaker 1: was a running theme in his life. Absolutely. Uh. Yeah, 160 00:08:37,840 --> 00:08:41,000 Speaker 1: he went to school. Uh, well, he had relatives in 161 00:08:41,040 --> 00:08:44,280 Speaker 1: Canada because his mom was from Canada. So he goes 162 00:08:44,480 --> 00:08:47,880 Speaker 1: over to Canada and he enrolls in school in Queen's University, 163 00:08:48,160 --> 00:08:52,600 Speaker 1: and uh he starts studying physics there. Uh. But then 164 00:08:52,720 --> 00:08:55,559 Speaker 1: he ends up transferring as well to the University of 165 00:08:55,600 --> 00:09:00,120 Speaker 1: Pennsylvania and uh gets degrees in uh, in physics and 166 00:09:00,240 --> 00:09:03,720 Speaker 1: in business. He actually gets two different bachelor's degrees. Here's 167 00:09:03,720 --> 00:09:06,920 Speaker 1: a quote from him. My areas of interest was cross disciplinary, 168 00:09:06,960 --> 00:09:10,200 Speaker 1: focused on the physics of high energy density capacitors, which 169 00:09:10,240 --> 00:09:13,800 Speaker 1: is a mixture of quantum physics and materials science plus 170 00:09:13,840 --> 00:09:17,760 Speaker 1: business um. While he was in college, he met a 171 00:09:17,880 --> 00:09:21,760 Speaker 1: young lady. Actually this would be back in Queen's University. Uh, 172 00:09:21,800 --> 00:09:24,600 Speaker 1: he would eventually marry her. That young lady's name was 173 00:09:24,800 --> 00:09:27,920 Speaker 1: Justine J. Wilson. So we'll talk about her in a 174 00:09:27,960 --> 00:09:31,440 Speaker 1: couple of years. I believe I believe she's a writer 175 00:09:31,520 --> 00:09:33,760 Speaker 1: or novelist. I was going to yes, yes, and also 176 00:09:33,960 --> 00:09:37,720 Speaker 1: a blogger as well, but yes, a novelist and uh, 177 00:09:37,960 --> 00:09:40,160 Speaker 1: very interesting writer. I've I've read some of her work 178 00:09:40,320 --> 00:09:44,439 Speaker 1: and she turns a good phrase. I will say I 179 00:09:44,760 --> 00:09:49,240 Speaker 1: enjoyed reading what she had to write. So he went 180 00:09:49,320 --> 00:09:51,760 Speaker 1: to school, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with the 181 00:09:51,800 --> 00:09:54,640 Speaker 1: degrees in physics and business, and he began to work 182 00:09:55,040 --> 00:10:00,680 Speaker 1: on ultra capacitors at Pinnacle Research in Silicon Valley. And 183 00:10:00,920 --> 00:10:03,720 Speaker 1: essentially from why I understand, he was doing this so 184 00:10:03,760 --> 00:10:06,720 Speaker 1: that he could understand their potential as an energy storage 185 00:10:06,760 --> 00:10:09,920 Speaker 1: mechanism for electric vehicles, because even at that time he 186 00:10:09,960 --> 00:10:13,880 Speaker 1: was already interested in the idea of electric vehicles. So 187 00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:17,800 Speaker 1: he was going to go to Stanford. Yeah. Yeah, he 188 00:10:17,840 --> 00:10:20,800 Speaker 1: was accepted to Stanford for a grad degree. He dropped 189 00:10:20,800 --> 00:10:22,840 Speaker 1: out from what I read after two days on campus. 190 00:10:23,040 --> 00:10:27,920 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, he he was he had the opportunity to 191 00:10:28,200 --> 00:10:32,160 Speaker 1: co found a company, and the problem was that he 192 00:10:32,280 --> 00:10:36,679 Speaker 1: did not have the time to devote both to graduate 193 00:10:36,679 --> 00:10:41,680 Speaker 1: studies and to launch this this company at the same time. 194 00:10:41,720 --> 00:10:43,840 Speaker 1: And he asked to Stanford if he could get a 195 00:10:43,880 --> 00:10:47,080 Speaker 1: deferral for a quarter. They were on the quarter system, 196 00:10:47,520 --> 00:10:50,720 Speaker 1: but he wanted to get one quarter deferral because he said, 197 00:10:51,240 --> 00:10:54,720 Speaker 1: he realized that startup companies have a habit of not 198 00:10:55,080 --> 00:11:00,280 Speaker 1: always succeeding. And he thought, Okay, if the company succeeds, 199 00:11:00,320 --> 00:11:02,920 Speaker 1: I'm in great shape. But more likely than not, that 200 00:11:02,960 --> 00:11:05,680 Speaker 1: company is not gonna work out. It's just, you know, 201 00:11:05,760 --> 00:11:09,520 Speaker 1: it'll maybe it's a time, So maybe I'll just ask 202 00:11:09,559 --> 00:11:12,280 Speaker 1: for a deferral, and that way I can really concentrate 203 00:11:12,280 --> 00:11:14,880 Speaker 1: on this company for one quarter worth of time and 204 00:11:14,920 --> 00:11:17,720 Speaker 1: then go back to school. He did not get that deferral, 205 00:11:18,200 --> 00:11:20,280 Speaker 1: so really it was an all or nothing. It was, 206 00:11:20,400 --> 00:11:23,120 Speaker 1: you know, land the ships on the shores of America 207 00:11:23,160 --> 00:11:25,600 Speaker 1: and burned them. Yeah, well, I mean, you know, that's 208 00:11:25,720 --> 00:11:28,040 Speaker 1: I think that's the same year that that Netscape had 209 00:11:28,040 --> 00:11:30,640 Speaker 1: just quintumpled in value the day that it went public, 210 00:11:30,720 --> 00:11:32,559 Speaker 1: and that was launched by someone who was even younger 211 00:11:32,600 --> 00:11:36,000 Speaker 1: than him at the time, and that's you know, yeah, 212 00:11:36,160 --> 00:11:39,360 Speaker 1: the Internet man, the Internet. So the company he founded 213 00:11:39,440 --> 00:11:43,959 Speaker 1: or co founded back was called Zip two and it 214 00:11:44,080 --> 00:11:48,000 Speaker 1: served as a platform for delivering ads and directories on 215 00:11:48,040 --> 00:11:51,679 Speaker 1: the Internet. So he co founds this company, he starts 216 00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:55,760 Speaker 1: building it up, and it's doing really well. It starts 217 00:11:55,760 --> 00:12:00,920 Speaker 1: to increase in value year over year, and then and um, 218 00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:05,679 Speaker 1: he ends up marrying his college sweetheart, Justine J. Wilson. 219 00:12:06,400 --> 00:12:09,320 Speaker 1: Uh and uh. He marries her in two thousand and 220 00:12:09,360 --> 00:12:11,880 Speaker 1: then he ends up while he's engaged to her, Actually, 221 00:12:11,960 --> 00:12:16,120 Speaker 1: he ends up selling zip too to Compact. They bought 222 00:12:16,120 --> 00:12:20,640 Speaker 1: the company for three hundred and seven million dollars in cash, 223 00:12:20,840 --> 00:12:22,800 Speaker 1: and that was the biggest sum paid for an Internet 224 00:12:22,840 --> 00:12:25,040 Speaker 1: company ever at the time, and he got twenty two 225 00:12:25,080 --> 00:12:27,760 Speaker 1: million of that. Yeah, so he was twenty years old 226 00:12:27,800 --> 00:12:31,520 Speaker 1: when that happened, So he became a millionaire overnight. Justine 227 00:12:31,640 --> 00:12:34,040 Speaker 1: was was in a relationship with him at this time. 228 00:12:34,080 --> 00:12:36,360 Speaker 1: She actually has written about that in one of the 229 00:12:36,480 --> 00:12:40,240 Speaker 1: articles which I'll cite a little bit later. Um, and 230 00:12:40,320 --> 00:12:43,600 Speaker 1: so that was a phenomenal time, I mean, like its transformative. 231 00:12:43,640 --> 00:12:47,160 Speaker 1: He ended up they moved out of this little apartment 232 00:12:47,160 --> 00:12:50,600 Speaker 1: into a nice house, and he got a really really 233 00:12:50,760 --> 00:12:55,040 Speaker 1: fancy car, uh, a McLaren F one, which is the 234 00:12:55,120 --> 00:13:01,080 Speaker 1: fastest production model car made. So it had the highest 235 00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:03,640 Speaker 1: top speed of any production model car. So he so 236 00:13:03,720 --> 00:13:07,360 Speaker 1: he literally bought the fastest that he could possibly going 237 00:13:07,440 --> 00:13:10,480 Speaker 1: doors too. Just like my favorite car in the world, 238 00:13:10,520 --> 00:13:15,120 Speaker 1: the DeLorean, uh favorite for all the nostalgic reasons. Obviously 239 00:13:15,320 --> 00:13:18,240 Speaker 1: it's of course performance. It's not that great of a car. 240 00:13:18,960 --> 00:13:20,720 Speaker 1: I did a full episode about that. So we do 241 00:13:20,760 --> 00:13:22,959 Speaker 1: have a delirian episode of tech stuff way back in 242 00:13:23,000 --> 00:13:25,040 Speaker 1: the archives if you really want to listen to it. 243 00:13:25,400 --> 00:13:29,720 Speaker 1: But he then also founded a company that would eventually 244 00:13:29,720 --> 00:13:33,000 Speaker 1: be called PayPal. He co founded originally it was it 245 00:13:33,040 --> 00:13:36,800 Speaker 1: was called the company that he founded was x dot com. 246 00:13:35,360 --> 00:13:39,840 Speaker 1: It was an online financial services thing that enabled people 247 00:13:39,880 --> 00:13:43,040 Speaker 1: to make payments first first off by via email. Yeah, 248 00:13:43,040 --> 00:13:45,560 Speaker 1: it was. It was again a very disruptive business because 249 00:13:45,559 --> 00:13:47,400 Speaker 1: it was an idea of you know, there was this 250 00:13:47,640 --> 00:13:51,760 Speaker 1: big notion of doing huge amounts of business online like 251 00:13:51,800 --> 00:13:57,120 Speaker 1: the Internet, held limitless possibility when it came to uh 252 00:13:57,160 --> 00:14:00,520 Speaker 1: conducting businesses. But one of the issue was how do 253 00:14:00,559 --> 00:14:03,800 Speaker 1: you process payments? How do you create a payment system, 254 00:14:03,920 --> 00:14:08,720 Speaker 1: especially when you're talking about people connecting with other people 255 00:14:08,760 --> 00:14:11,760 Speaker 1: and wanting to transfer payments over the Internet without having 256 00:14:12,240 --> 00:14:15,200 Speaker 1: a big company in between, like right, and and Musk 257 00:14:15,320 --> 00:14:17,760 Speaker 1: said he'd a quote from him is that banks are 258 00:14:17,880 --> 00:14:20,720 Speaker 1: terrible at innovation, and financial services is a huge sector. 259 00:14:20,760 --> 00:14:23,000 Speaker 1: So I thought, now there should be something there. Yeah, 260 00:14:23,040 --> 00:14:27,320 Speaker 1: so he did that. He the company acquired actually kind 261 00:14:27,320 --> 00:14:30,720 Speaker 1: of merged with another company called Confinity, and together they 262 00:14:30,720 --> 00:14:34,400 Speaker 1: became PayPal. Uh. And uh that was where you had 263 00:14:34,440 --> 00:14:38,239 Speaker 1: the online point of sale functionality that was so important 264 00:14:38,320 --> 00:14:40,800 Speaker 1: for those those early days. I mean it really it 265 00:14:40,880 --> 00:14:45,160 Speaker 1: meant that people who were selling things uh personally could 266 00:14:45,160 --> 00:14:47,560 Speaker 1: get paid for it without having to go through some 267 00:14:47,600 --> 00:14:50,200 Speaker 1: other retailer to send their stuff to them and then 268 00:14:50,240 --> 00:14:53,320 Speaker 1: get a cut of it. Uh, even if you're providing 269 00:14:53,320 --> 00:14:55,400 Speaker 1: a service. You know, for example, I I do some 270 00:14:55,400 --> 00:14:57,440 Speaker 1: freelance editing, and so if I want to do that 271 00:14:57,480 --> 00:14:59,440 Speaker 1: and I also want to get paid for it then 272 00:15:00,120 --> 00:15:03,960 Speaker 1: which I do. Yeah. Well, and then uh that that 273 00:15:04,000 --> 00:15:07,680 Speaker 1: company was bought by a little company called eBay, and 274 00:15:08,760 --> 00:15:11,040 Speaker 1: at the time, Musk was the chief product officer and 275 00:15:11,120 --> 00:15:15,840 Speaker 1: was also the largest shareholder in PayPal and eBay paid 276 00:15:15,880 --> 00:15:19,520 Speaker 1: them at one point five billion dollars. Yeah, so at 277 00:15:19,520 --> 00:15:25,280 Speaker 1: this point Musk goes from being rich to whoa is 278 00:15:25,600 --> 00:15:28,320 Speaker 1: that the official term? Scientific? Yeah, it was two thousand 279 00:15:28,360 --> 00:15:30,560 Speaker 1: two when eBay bought the company for one point five billions, 280 00:15:30,560 --> 00:15:33,520 Speaker 1: So he's been married for two years at that point. Uh. 281 00:15:33,720 --> 00:15:37,000 Speaker 1: He experienced some tragedy in his life at this time 282 00:15:37,040 --> 00:15:41,800 Speaker 1: as well. He and his wife. Uh He and Justine 283 00:15:41,960 --> 00:15:46,960 Speaker 1: had their first son, and their first son, at ten 284 00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:53,280 Speaker 1: weeks old, passed away from sudden infant death, and it 285 00:15:53,360 --> 00:15:57,200 Speaker 1: was it was obviously devastating for Justine. She says in 286 00:15:57,280 --> 00:16:00,200 Speaker 1: an article that she wrote for Marie Claire that, uh 287 00:16:00,320 --> 00:16:05,800 Speaker 1: Ellen really internalizes things like loss, and so there wasn't 288 00:16:05,800 --> 00:16:09,200 Speaker 1: a lot of outward emotion. Now, I am sure Mr 289 00:16:09,320 --> 00:16:15,920 Speaker 1: Musk suffered unimaginable loss at this but but there wasn't 290 00:16:15,960 --> 00:16:19,160 Speaker 1: a lot of outward sign of that. Justina, on the 291 00:16:19,160 --> 00:16:23,520 Speaker 1: other hand, was very expressive of her grief as as 292 00:16:23,600 --> 00:16:28,200 Speaker 1: is understandable. But they ended up pursuing some in vitro 293 00:16:28,280 --> 00:16:32,600 Speaker 1: fertilization techniques so that they could have another child, and 294 00:16:32,880 --> 00:16:36,800 Speaker 1: they they had five of them. They end up with 295 00:16:36,840 --> 00:16:40,400 Speaker 1: one set of twins and one set of triplets, all boys, 296 00:16:40,680 --> 00:16:44,680 Speaker 1: so all sons. Uh. And so it's a pretty amazing thing. 297 00:16:44,800 --> 00:16:46,920 Speaker 1: And and we'll get more into his family in a 298 00:16:46,960 --> 00:16:50,000 Speaker 1: little bit. It was around this time as well, after 299 00:16:50,040 --> 00:16:52,440 Speaker 1: he was seeing this amazing amount of success and had 300 00:16:53,000 --> 00:16:57,200 Speaker 1: reaped in quite a bit of money from those early ventures, 301 00:16:57,480 --> 00:17:02,280 Speaker 1: that he first started talking about the idea of privatized 302 00:17:02,440 --> 00:17:06,280 Speaker 1: space exploration, and that in fact, he started chatting about 303 00:17:06,320 --> 00:17:08,479 Speaker 1: this with a friend of his and they were they 304 00:17:08,520 --> 00:17:11,840 Speaker 1: were just talking about why was it so expensive to 305 00:17:11,920 --> 00:17:14,399 Speaker 1: go out in space? And how expensive could it be? 306 00:17:14,480 --> 00:17:16,919 Speaker 1: And could a private company do this? I mean, is it? 307 00:17:17,440 --> 00:17:20,639 Speaker 1: These were these were new conversations. Like you know, before 308 00:17:20,680 --> 00:17:24,200 Speaker 1: it was essentially governments that were sending up rockets. Right. 309 00:17:24,280 --> 00:17:26,480 Speaker 1: But but but around this time was when you know, 310 00:17:26,560 --> 00:17:30,080 Speaker 1: everyone was terribly losing funding. Yeah, they were having you know, 311 00:17:30,400 --> 00:17:33,959 Speaker 1: Elon Musk had had this fascination with space exploration. Some 312 00:17:34,040 --> 00:17:37,080 Speaker 1: might call it an obsession with space exploration and the 313 00:17:37,119 --> 00:17:41,240 Speaker 1: idea of eventually colonizing other planets or maybe a moon 314 00:17:41,359 --> 00:17:44,520 Speaker 1: or something, Mars being one of those destinations that he's 315 00:17:44,640 --> 00:17:49,320 Speaker 1: absolutely fixated upon. And so it began this this really 316 00:17:49,320 --> 00:17:52,280 Speaker 1: passionate discussion about well, if no one else can do it, 317 00:17:52,359 --> 00:17:55,560 Speaker 1: why couldn't private individuals do it? And Uh, the first 318 00:17:55,600 --> 00:17:59,239 Speaker 1: company that he made to try and go after this 319 00:17:59,320 --> 00:18:02,640 Speaker 1: goal was called Life to Mars. Life to Mars. Yeah, 320 00:18:02,640 --> 00:18:05,320 Speaker 1: this was an idea that he had where the the 321 00:18:05,359 --> 00:18:08,800 Speaker 1: goal would be to send a rocket with a payload 322 00:18:08,840 --> 00:18:11,800 Speaker 1: that has some sort of life form on it, and 323 00:18:12,320 --> 00:18:16,320 Speaker 1: the the life form was a matter of debate. Uh, 324 00:18:16,440 --> 00:18:17,760 Speaker 1: there was a point where it was going to be 325 00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:19,639 Speaker 1: a mouse, and then there was a point where it 326 00:18:19,680 --> 00:18:21,840 Speaker 1: was just going to be a plant. But the idea 327 00:18:21,880 --> 00:18:25,880 Speaker 1: would be to send this thing to Mars as kind 328 00:18:25,880 --> 00:18:31,159 Speaker 1: of an unmanned but life bearing mission as a step 329 00:18:31,320 --> 00:18:36,080 Speaker 1: toward the eventual landing on and possible colonization of Mars 330 00:18:36,359 --> 00:18:39,879 Speaker 1: by human beings. Yeah, he's he said that that this 331 00:18:39,920 --> 00:18:41,920 Speaker 1: is a direct quote. I'd put the extension of life 332 00:18:41,920 --> 00:18:44,960 Speaker 1: to another planet slightly above the transition from life in 333 00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:48,040 Speaker 1: the oceans to life on land. Yeah. He also said, 334 00:18:48,160 --> 00:18:50,600 Speaker 1: I've always thought that space is important to the future 335 00:18:50,640 --> 00:18:52,680 Speaker 1: of humanity. I think it's important that we one day 336 00:18:52,680 --> 00:18:55,600 Speaker 1: become a spacefaring nation, and I just didn't see that 337 00:18:55,680 --> 00:18:58,040 Speaker 1: happening by itself. I just didn't see that from Boeing 338 00:18:58,200 --> 00:19:01,879 Speaker 1: or Lockheed or big aerospace companies. So that's why I 339 00:19:01,960 --> 00:19:05,720 Speaker 1: started SpaceX. So if you heard about SpaceX, I that's 340 00:19:05,800 --> 00:19:10,040 Speaker 1: that's the company that, again Musk was behind. And uh, 341 00:19:10,520 --> 00:19:13,240 Speaker 1: the early days of SpaceX we're kind of interesting because 342 00:19:13,680 --> 00:19:16,000 Speaker 1: at first he was thinking, you know, I got a 343 00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:19,960 Speaker 1: lot of money because because eBay bought my stuff, uh 344 00:19:19,960 --> 00:19:22,560 Speaker 1: and not on an auction. It was like, you know, 345 00:19:22,600 --> 00:19:24,840 Speaker 1: a company I made, So I'm gonna take this here 346 00:19:24,840 --> 00:19:27,560 Speaker 1: money and I'm gonna buy myself some rockets. And that 347 00:19:27,640 --> 00:19:29,840 Speaker 1: was originally his plan was that he was gonna buy rockets. 348 00:19:29,880 --> 00:19:32,439 Speaker 1: He wasn't he wasn't making a company to build stuff. 349 00:19:32,440 --> 00:19:35,080 Speaker 1: He wanted to buy things. But then he realized that 350 00:19:35,080 --> 00:19:37,399 Speaker 1: that really, you know, those other rockets were kind of crap. 351 00:19:37,800 --> 00:19:41,439 Speaker 1: Well beyond that, it was the people that were crap. Okay, 352 00:19:41,480 --> 00:19:44,840 Speaker 1: this is this is according to the Esquire article and 353 00:19:45,400 --> 00:19:48,959 Speaker 1: uh so full disclosure. This is just based upon what 354 00:19:49,080 --> 00:19:54,719 Speaker 1: Musk's experiences were. So Musk goes to Russia because Russia, 355 00:19:54,800 --> 00:19:58,800 Speaker 1: as it turns out, had a pretty big supply of 356 00:19:59,080 --> 00:20:02,160 Speaker 1: intercontinental listic missiles on its hands that no longer really 357 00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:05,399 Speaker 1: needed anything for any reason. And originally it looked like 358 00:20:05,480 --> 00:20:09,119 Speaker 1: he would be able to purchase said missiles at seven 359 00:20:09,119 --> 00:20:13,159 Speaker 1: million dollars a pop. So he thought, oh, that's reasonable 360 00:20:13,240 --> 00:20:15,760 Speaker 1: by a BYBM, So I'll use that as my launch 361 00:20:15,840 --> 00:20:21,440 Speaker 1: vehicle for for whatever you know, spacecraft I design. So um. 362 00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:25,720 Speaker 1: The story in Esquire tells tales of corruption and bribery 363 00:20:25,880 --> 00:20:30,000 Speaker 1: and lots and lots of vodka and uh and I'm 364 00:20:30,040 --> 00:20:32,600 Speaker 1: not kidding it really does. I mean, when we read this, 365 00:20:32,720 --> 00:20:37,680 Speaker 1: it's both entertaining and kind of infuriating. But essentially, Musk 366 00:20:37,760 --> 00:20:39,800 Speaker 1: felt like he was getting jerked around by the Russian 367 00:20:39,840 --> 00:20:42,200 Speaker 1: officials that he was dealing with, that that they would 368 00:20:42,240 --> 00:20:44,560 Speaker 1: quote him one price, and when he was finally ready 369 00:20:44,560 --> 00:20:47,240 Speaker 1: to move on it, that price would suddenly triple. So 370 00:20:47,359 --> 00:20:49,520 Speaker 1: saying oh no, no, no, not twenty one million for 371 00:20:49,600 --> 00:20:52,240 Speaker 1: three of them, twenty one million for one. And so 372 00:20:52,280 --> 00:20:54,720 Speaker 1: at that point that's it. I'm building my own and 373 00:20:54,800 --> 00:20:58,639 Speaker 1: he left. So it's like, so he decided at that 374 00:20:58,680 --> 00:21:03,160 Speaker 1: point that's space X was going to manufacture its own rockets, 375 00:21:03,160 --> 00:21:05,680 Speaker 1: and he started looking around for people who would help 376 00:21:05,760 --> 00:21:08,600 Speaker 1: him do that. One of those was a guy named 377 00:21:09,160 --> 00:21:12,720 Speaker 1: Thomas Mueller, who was an engineer, part of a group 378 00:21:12,760 --> 00:21:16,560 Speaker 1: of people who were really kind of rocket enthusiasts. They 379 00:21:16,680 --> 00:21:20,880 Speaker 1: called themselves the Reaction Research Society. Only Mueller was not 380 00:21:21,040 --> 00:21:25,080 Speaker 1: like an amateur rocket scientist. He was an engineer with 381 00:21:25,840 --> 00:21:29,399 Speaker 1: Northrop Grumman, so he actually had a pedigree in rocket 382 00:21:29,520 --> 00:21:32,760 Speaker 1: and rocket science. Like when you say it's not rocket science, 383 00:21:32,840 --> 00:21:34,720 Speaker 1: he says, no, it totally is. Rocket science is what 384 00:21:34,720 --> 00:21:38,439 Speaker 1: I do rocket scientists. Um. But he he was the 385 00:21:38,440 --> 00:21:41,680 Speaker 1: one that must contacted to be the guy to design 386 00:21:41,760 --> 00:21:47,680 Speaker 1: the engine that he wanted to propel spacecraft into the stars. Um, 387 00:21:47,760 --> 00:21:49,800 Speaker 1: not literally into the stars, but because that would be 388 00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:52,760 Speaker 1: very that would be low, low cost efficiency for you. Yeah, 389 00:21:52,800 --> 00:21:55,320 Speaker 1: you don't, you know, you don't get any reusability once 390 00:21:55,359 --> 00:21:58,480 Speaker 1: you shoot it into the stars. And actually he thought 391 00:21:58,480 --> 00:22:01,120 Speaker 1: that the reusability thing, and I think he still does 392 00:22:01,240 --> 00:22:05,440 Speaker 1: really argue that reusability is key to making space travel 393 00:22:06,040 --> 00:22:09,440 Speaker 1: economic because you know, to to use these things one 394 00:22:09,560 --> 00:22:11,879 Speaker 1: time and then have to build a new one is 395 00:22:11,960 --> 00:22:14,760 Speaker 1: not efficient at all. Yeah. Yeah, And and what he's 396 00:22:14,800 --> 00:22:18,679 Speaker 1: really arguing with SpaceX of about performance versus reliability and 397 00:22:18,800 --> 00:22:21,840 Speaker 1: says that what he's looking for is really reliability. He 398 00:22:21,840 --> 00:22:24,119 Speaker 1: he said that he aspires for SpaceX to be the 399 00:22:24,200 --> 00:22:30,160 Speaker 1: Southwest Airlines of space. Interesting. So he Musk was personally 400 00:22:30,240 --> 00:22:34,199 Speaker 1: involved in the design of two different launch vehicles that 401 00:22:34,320 --> 00:22:37,320 Speaker 1: SpaceX developed. First was called the Falcon one and the 402 00:22:37,359 --> 00:22:40,560 Speaker 1: second was the Falcon nine. And he was also instrumental 403 00:22:40,600 --> 00:22:43,800 Speaker 1: in the design of the spacecraft, which they called Dragon, 404 00:22:44,280 --> 00:22:50,000 Speaker 1: whereas Mueller designed the engine which was called Merlin. Now, um, yeah, well, 405 00:22:50,080 --> 00:22:52,480 Speaker 1: and we'll talk a little bit about SpaceX some more 406 00:22:52,520 --> 00:22:55,399 Speaker 1: in a second, but before we get into that, let's 407 00:22:55,440 --> 00:22:59,119 Speaker 1: take a quick moment to thank our sponsor Alright, getting 408 00:22:59,119 --> 00:23:03,040 Speaker 1: back into space Tex. So, the early days of SpaceX 409 00:23:03,119 --> 00:23:07,160 Speaker 1: did not go so well for for Mr Musk. Yeah, 410 00:23:07,160 --> 00:23:10,639 Speaker 1: they had they had a bunch of early failures. Yeah, 411 00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:13,879 Speaker 1: and you've got to understand, like this, this whole process 412 00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:18,840 Speaker 1: of him searching out the possible sources for rockets, deciding 413 00:23:18,880 --> 00:23:21,800 Speaker 1: to go with building rockets on his own, having to 414 00:23:21,880 --> 00:23:24,320 Speaker 1: work with various vendors for the various parts that he 415 00:23:24,400 --> 00:23:27,200 Speaker 1: needed to build the rockets, and the stories that about 416 00:23:27,320 --> 00:23:30,639 Speaker 1: him dealing with vendors are kind of like carbon copies 417 00:23:30,680 --> 00:23:33,679 Speaker 1: of his experience with the Russians in the vodka, perhaps, 418 00:23:33,720 --> 00:23:36,280 Speaker 1: but eitherwise a little bit. In fact, Esquire says the 419 00:23:36,280 --> 00:23:38,399 Speaker 1: exact same thing, like it's not as much vodka, but 420 00:23:38,440 --> 00:23:40,520 Speaker 1: otherwise very similar in the sense that he would get 421 00:23:40,600 --> 00:23:44,359 Speaker 1: quoted one price and then end up being told another 422 00:23:44,359 --> 00:23:46,480 Speaker 1: when it was time to actually deliver, and that his 423 00:23:46,600 --> 00:23:48,639 Speaker 1: decision was, well, heck, I will find a way to 424 00:23:48,640 --> 00:23:51,400 Speaker 1: do that on my own. He eventually started running into 425 00:23:51,440 --> 00:23:55,680 Speaker 1: some hard obstacles they couldn't easily get around, like where 426 00:23:55,680 --> 00:23:57,919 Speaker 1: do you get your aluminum if they tell you that 427 00:23:57,960 --> 00:24:01,320 Speaker 1: the price has gone up? But anyway, he was having 428 00:24:01,400 --> 00:24:03,800 Speaker 1: to sink a lot of his money into this, so 429 00:24:04,320 --> 00:24:07,920 Speaker 1: the success of this venture could have very much determined 430 00:24:08,080 --> 00:24:11,880 Speaker 1: whether or not he would have maintained his status as 431 00:24:11,920 --> 00:24:16,359 Speaker 1: internet billionaire or gone bankrupt. Right because he was funding 432 00:24:16,359 --> 00:24:18,080 Speaker 1: most of this himself. It wasn't you know. I mean, 433 00:24:18,080 --> 00:24:20,120 Speaker 1: he did have some money from investors at that time. 434 00:24:20,200 --> 00:24:22,120 Speaker 1: He had he had a there's like a hundred million 435 00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:24,840 Speaker 1: dollars of investment money there was, And then later on 436 00:24:24,960 --> 00:24:28,280 Speaker 1: NASA would end up giving a huge contract. But in 437 00:24:28,280 --> 00:24:31,960 Speaker 1: those early days, nothing was certain and and three well 438 00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:35,720 Speaker 1: publicized failures launch failures did not help the Yeah, the 439 00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:38,439 Speaker 1: first one failed twenty nine seconds after lift off, the 440 00:24:38,480 --> 00:24:41,680 Speaker 1: main engine caught fire. Yeah. Yeah, and uh and apparently 441 00:24:41,760 --> 00:24:45,119 Speaker 1: the the ride home with Musk and Mueller in the 442 00:24:45,160 --> 00:24:50,359 Speaker 1: same car was intense. Yeah, like, why did your engine 443 00:24:50,359 --> 00:24:54,440 Speaker 1: catch fire like that? That is that is a level 444 00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:57,560 Speaker 1: of intensity that I've very rarely encountered in the workplace. 445 00:24:57,560 --> 00:24:59,400 Speaker 1: I have to say, I gotta say, I've never been 446 00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:01,760 Speaker 1: in a car that I think would have had that 447 00:25:01,840 --> 00:25:03,800 Speaker 1: much tension in it. I mean, there's there's one thing 448 00:25:03,840 --> 00:25:06,600 Speaker 1: that comes to like, you should have turned back there 449 00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:11,119 Speaker 1: that level of tension to your engine caught fire, and 450 00:25:11,200 --> 00:25:14,840 Speaker 1: my billion dollar industry may crumble as a result. That 451 00:25:14,840 --> 00:25:19,600 Speaker 1: that's a whole different level. Yeah. But then the second 452 00:25:19,680 --> 00:25:23,800 Speaker 1: launch also suffered a failure, and the third launch was 453 00:25:23,840 --> 00:25:28,919 Speaker 1: particularly costly because the the UM payload included stuff from 454 00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:32,640 Speaker 1: NASA and the Department of Defense, as well as the 455 00:25:32,680 --> 00:25:36,080 Speaker 1: ashes of one James Dowon, better known to some as 456 00:25:36,119 --> 00:25:41,000 Speaker 1: Scotty from Star Trek yes literally irreplaceable, Yeah, as someone 457 00:25:41,080 --> 00:25:43,639 Speaker 1: that I had actually had the pleasure of meeting in person. 458 00:25:44,320 --> 00:25:49,440 Speaker 1: Um Yeah, full disclosure, had breakfast with the man very 459 00:25:49,520 --> 00:25:53,880 Speaker 1: charming and entertaining guy that was at a science fiction 460 00:25:53,920 --> 00:25:56,400 Speaker 1: convention because my dad's a science fiction author. So yeah, 461 00:25:56,800 --> 00:25:59,600 Speaker 1: when I heard about that failure, I thought, oh, that's 462 00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:03,840 Speaker 1: that's just so that's personally that's very sad. Yeah, I 463 00:26:03,840 --> 00:26:06,399 Speaker 1: mean all of these, of course are sad for the 464 00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:10,159 Speaker 1: whole industry of private space exploration. Right, of course, it 465 00:26:10,280 --> 00:26:12,440 Speaker 1: was putting all of that at risk. In fact, there 466 00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:15,040 Speaker 1: were people who were already saying, oh, well, this is 467 00:26:15,040 --> 00:26:18,200 Speaker 1: why there isn't private space exploration. It's too hard, it's 468 00:26:18,240 --> 00:26:20,800 Speaker 1: too hard, it's impossible. Yeah, you just can't get the 469 00:26:20,840 --> 00:26:23,480 Speaker 1: money and the right Yeah. So it was getting to 470 00:26:23,480 --> 00:26:26,560 Speaker 1: the point where this the fourth attempt was was pivotal. 471 00:26:26,720 --> 00:26:29,800 Speaker 1: It was sort of a make or break situation. If 472 00:26:29,840 --> 00:26:35,080 Speaker 1: the if the launch vehicle did not performed successfully, it 473 00:26:35,200 --> 00:26:37,840 Speaker 1: might have meant that Elon Musk would have gone bankrupt. 474 00:26:38,160 --> 00:26:43,679 Speaker 1: But it did successfully launch, so then, uh, that was 475 00:26:43,800 --> 00:26:48,000 Speaker 1: pretty much the beginning of the real space X story. 476 00:26:48,640 --> 00:26:51,400 Speaker 1: Two thousand eight, NASA awarded space x a one point 477 00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:54,800 Speaker 1: six billion dollar contract for twelve cargo flights to and 478 00:26:54,880 --> 00:26:59,440 Speaker 1: from the International Space Station. So essentially at that point, 479 00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:03,879 Speaker 1: SpaceX becomes the replacement for the Space Shuttle program. So 480 00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:07,120 Speaker 1: that that ended up being discontinued. So it was the 481 00:27:07,200 --> 00:27:10,640 Speaker 1: first private company to launch a private spacecraft that later 482 00:27:10,720 --> 00:27:13,160 Speaker 1: docked with the International Space Station, and that that first 483 00:27:13,600 --> 00:27:18,800 Speaker 1: uh successful docking was on May in a sense repeated that, 484 00:27:18,960 --> 00:27:22,000 Speaker 1: so it's slowly getting to its way of those twelve 485 00:27:22,040 --> 00:27:25,359 Speaker 1: cargo flights, but you know, it does take time between 486 00:27:25,440 --> 00:27:27,720 Speaker 1: launches for this to happen. And the most recent one, 487 00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:30,600 Speaker 1: who was March one, I guess because we were originally 488 00:27:30,640 --> 00:27:32,760 Speaker 1: going to record this episode on March first, and then 489 00:27:32,760 --> 00:27:34,880 Speaker 1: we thought maybe we should wait and find out if 490 00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:38,240 Speaker 1: that launch is successful and then we can talk about 491 00:27:38,240 --> 00:27:41,199 Speaker 1: it and much yea, much better than sitting there and 492 00:27:41,200 --> 00:27:43,359 Speaker 1: going like, well, it's going on right this very like 493 00:27:43,640 --> 00:27:45,480 Speaker 1: at the moment we're recording this, but as by the 494 00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:47,760 Speaker 1: time you listen to it, it has already either happened 495 00:27:47,840 --> 00:27:51,639 Speaker 1: or spectacularly not happened. As it turned out, the launch 496 00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:55,760 Speaker 1: did go off pretty much without a hitch until it 497 00:27:55,880 --> 00:28:00,240 Speaker 1: became apparent that a couple of the thrusters on the 498 00:28:00,400 --> 00:28:04,000 Speaker 1: Dragon spacecraft we're not responding properly, and there was some 499 00:28:04,080 --> 00:28:07,520 Speaker 1: concern that there wasn't enough control for it to dock 500 00:28:07,600 --> 00:28:12,240 Speaker 1: successfully with the International Space Station. But fortunately for everyone involved. 501 00:28:12,359 --> 00:28:14,720 Speaker 1: It worked. It worked well enough for them to be 502 00:28:14,760 --> 00:28:18,040 Speaker 1: able to dock. So um, it definitely again brought more 503 00:28:18,119 --> 00:28:21,919 Speaker 1: scrutiny to space X and probably to those kind of 504 00:28:21,960 --> 00:28:27,320 Speaker 1: statements about you know how safe versus reliable kind of stuff. 505 00:28:27,359 --> 00:28:30,359 Speaker 1: You know, this idea that we really need this to 506 00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:35,360 Speaker 1: be uh as as close to um too perfect as possible, 507 00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:37,640 Speaker 1: especially once we get to the point where real live 508 00:28:37,720 --> 00:28:40,920 Speaker 1: human beings. But at a certain point, performance is in 509 00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:45,040 Speaker 1: fact a measure of reliability and so yeah, so uh 510 00:28:45,520 --> 00:28:51,000 Speaker 1: in SpaceX began to work on spacecraft to actually carry 511 00:28:51,040 --> 00:28:55,000 Speaker 1: astronauts and that was part of an ANASA award, and 512 00:28:55,040 --> 00:29:00,640 Speaker 1: their first man flights are expected sometime in Yeah. So um, 513 00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:04,040 Speaker 1: you know, obviously that performance reliability issue needs to be 514 00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:05,960 Speaker 1: worked out for that, because when you're talking about human life, 515 00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:08,120 Speaker 1: I mean, that's you know, the NASA has had its 516 00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:11,000 Speaker 1: own share of tragedies as far as the space program 517 00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:12,800 Speaker 1: is concerned, and no one wants to see a repeat 518 00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:15,240 Speaker 1: of that, certainly not so. So all of this started 519 00:29:15,240 --> 00:29:17,720 Speaker 1: off when U the Dragon was actually also the first 520 00:29:17,720 --> 00:29:20,520 Speaker 1: privately owned ship to return safely from Earth's orbit, which 521 00:29:20,520 --> 00:29:23,000 Speaker 1: again is a big thing that must go Oh sure, yeah, 522 00:29:23,080 --> 00:29:26,280 Speaker 1: and again very important because you want that reusability. You 523 00:29:26,320 --> 00:29:28,640 Speaker 1: want to be able to reuse as much as you can. UH. 524 00:29:28,640 --> 00:29:31,200 Speaker 1: And you know, ideally he Musk wants to be able 525 00:29:31,200 --> 00:29:34,200 Speaker 1: to reuse the rockets themselves, not just the spacecraft, and 526 00:29:34,400 --> 00:29:37,400 Speaker 1: spacecraft is important, but to be able to reuse the 527 00:29:37,480 --> 00:29:41,480 Speaker 1: rockets would mean a dramatic decrease in the cost of production. 528 00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:45,480 Speaker 1: Uh And Forbes had an interesting thing. They said that 529 00:29:45,600 --> 00:29:49,040 Speaker 1: Musk is the space equivalent of a nineteenth century railroad 530 00:29:49,040 --> 00:29:52,160 Speaker 1: tycoon poised to make a fortune in private space industry, 531 00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:57,200 Speaker 1: because you know, when when you're the main game out there. 532 00:29:57,680 --> 00:30:00,440 Speaker 1: And I've seen a lot of criticisms directed towards ace X, 533 00:30:00,480 --> 00:30:04,760 Speaker 1: saying that it's not really a private space company because 534 00:30:04,880 --> 00:30:08,560 Speaker 1: it's funded by NASA. Yeah, because NASA is their chief client, right, 535 00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:11,960 Speaker 1: So it's like, really from their perspective, their point is 536 00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:15,160 Speaker 1: saying that SpaceX is really just a different contractor, so 537 00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:17,800 Speaker 1: that instead of NASA paying one group of contractors like 538 00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:21,560 Speaker 1: Lockheed and Boeing, it's now paying a different contractor, SpaceX, 539 00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:24,680 Speaker 1: and so that really the companies have changed, but the 540 00:30:24,680 --> 00:30:28,280 Speaker 1: game is the same now. Musk, for his part, denies that. 541 00:30:28,360 --> 00:30:30,560 Speaker 1: He says that No, No, you're looking at this far 542 00:30:30,600 --> 00:30:33,480 Speaker 1: too narrow a field. Yes, right now, NASA is our 543 00:30:33,480 --> 00:30:35,640 Speaker 1: main client, but that's not how this is going to 544 00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:37,560 Speaker 1: be in the future. Right, That's only because NASA is 545 00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:39,800 Speaker 1: the only the only company that really has a company, 546 00:30:39,840 --> 00:30:42,640 Speaker 1: the only organization that has the amount of dollars to 547 00:30:42,640 --> 00:30:44,840 Speaker 1: toss it kind of thing. Right, It's like, the reason 548 00:30:44,880 --> 00:30:47,520 Speaker 1: this NASA is my customers because it's the only customer 549 00:30:47,560 --> 00:30:49,880 Speaker 1: to have right now. That's kind of the point that 550 00:30:50,080 --> 00:30:53,280 Speaker 1: that Musk is making, But that in the future his 551 00:30:53,360 --> 00:30:57,160 Speaker 1: customers will be anyone who has the you know, whatever 552 00:30:57,280 --> 00:31:00,080 Speaker 1: the base prices for you to take a rye it 553 00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:04,000 Speaker 1: up to Mars or whatever. Um. So Meanwhile, while all 554 00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:06,160 Speaker 1: this SpaceX stuff is going on, other stuff is going 555 00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:08,200 Speaker 1: on in his life. In two thousand and eight, he 556 00:31:08,320 --> 00:31:13,160 Speaker 1: filed for divorce from Justine Musk, and she does keep 557 00:31:13,240 --> 00:31:17,080 Speaker 1: that surname. She's known as Justine Musk. And then six 558 00:31:17,120 --> 00:31:20,200 Speaker 1: weeks six weeks later, six weeks after he falls for divorce, 559 00:31:20,200 --> 00:31:22,800 Speaker 1: he sends a text message to her that says that 560 00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:26,480 Speaker 1: he's engaged to British actress to Lula Riley. I think 561 00:31:26,480 --> 00:31:28,520 Speaker 1: it was twenty three at the time. And he was 562 00:31:28,560 --> 00:31:32,440 Speaker 1: maybe what was that like thirty seven something around there. Yeah, 563 00:31:32,520 --> 00:31:35,600 Speaker 1: and then Justine ended up writing up her experiences with 564 00:31:35,640 --> 00:31:40,280 Speaker 1: the divorce for Marie Claire I mentioned earlier, Um, it's 565 00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:42,160 Speaker 1: a really it's a really oh snap kind of article. 566 00:31:42,160 --> 00:31:45,000 Speaker 1: If you guys enjoyed that sort of thing, it's it's 567 00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:47,520 Speaker 1: it's heartbreaking to read too. I mean you you hear 568 00:31:48,080 --> 00:31:51,040 Speaker 1: like apparently at their wedding, in the first dance he 569 00:31:51,160 --> 00:31:54,000 Speaker 1: said to her like, I am the alpha in this relationship, 570 00:31:54,520 --> 00:31:56,440 Speaker 1: and she just kind of shrugged it off at the time, 571 00:31:56,480 --> 00:32:01,000 Speaker 1: not realizing that he meant it. He apparently meant it, uh, 572 00:32:01,080 --> 00:32:04,680 Speaker 1: and that, um, you know, she has her own perspective obviously, 573 00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:07,600 Speaker 1: and that's that's the perspective that article is written in, 574 00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:10,520 Speaker 1: of course. And again, Musk is a very private person 575 00:32:10,560 --> 00:32:12,680 Speaker 1: about about his own life. And so even though even 576 00:32:12,680 --> 00:32:16,600 Speaker 1: when he's enjoying enormous attention from the press, which he 577 00:32:16,640 --> 00:32:20,560 Speaker 1: does frequently, he's he's pretty standoffish about these personal details. 578 00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:22,720 Speaker 1: So we don't really have his perspective exactly. So we 579 00:32:22,760 --> 00:32:24,920 Speaker 1: have one side of the story, but it's it's a 580 00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:29,320 Speaker 1: pretty eye opening and grim story. I mean, here's one 581 00:32:29,440 --> 00:32:34,920 Speaker 1: quote from her Marie Claire article. Elon's judgment overruled mine, 582 00:32:35,040 --> 00:32:37,560 Speaker 1: and he was constantly remarking on the ways he found 583 00:32:37,600 --> 00:32:40,160 Speaker 1: me lacking. I am your wife, I told him repeatedly, 584 00:32:40,200 --> 00:32:43,160 Speaker 1: not your employee. If you were my employee, he said, 585 00:32:43,200 --> 00:32:47,280 Speaker 1: just as often I would fire you. Oh yeah, so 586 00:32:47,760 --> 00:32:52,280 Speaker 1: not the happy household that you would hope. And apparently, uh, 587 00:32:52,520 --> 00:32:55,640 Speaker 1: you know, they share joint custody of their sons, and 588 00:32:55,680 --> 00:33:00,040 Speaker 1: apparently she deals with his assistant when it comes to 589 00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:03,760 Speaker 1: anything that deals with their children. Yeah, so apparently she hasn't. 590 00:33:03,800 --> 00:33:07,160 Speaker 1: She has next to no contact with him. She has, though, 591 00:33:07,960 --> 00:33:11,680 Speaker 1: struck up a friendship with Telula Riley. Yeah, apparently the 592 00:33:11,680 --> 00:33:15,280 Speaker 1: two women get along very well, and she she had 593 00:33:15,360 --> 00:33:17,800 Speaker 1: written to her. This is paraphrasing. I don't have the 594 00:33:17,880 --> 00:33:19,680 Speaker 1: quote in front of me, but she wrote to her 595 00:33:19,720 --> 00:33:21,800 Speaker 1: saying that I hope that we can be like a 596 00:33:21,880 --> 00:33:24,920 Speaker 1: French film where the two women in a man's life 597 00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:28,560 Speaker 1: can be perfect friends with each other and no one's 598 00:33:28,600 --> 00:33:31,080 Speaker 1: the bad guy, so not like an American film where 599 00:33:31,080 --> 00:33:33,719 Speaker 1: you have one person who's clearly the good guy and 600 00:33:33,800 --> 00:33:38,680 Speaker 1: one person who's clearly the the the buttress, the home 601 00:33:38,720 --> 00:33:41,760 Speaker 1: wrecker or whatever. And Tellula Robec said let's do as 602 00:33:41,800 --> 00:33:43,920 Speaker 1: the French do, So it was kind of kind of 603 00:33:43,920 --> 00:33:47,600 Speaker 1: cute and sweet. We'll talk more about Telula in a 604 00:33:47,600 --> 00:33:51,720 Speaker 1: little bit. Uh, but uh, yeah, there was a there's 605 00:33:51,760 --> 00:33:54,720 Speaker 1: a lot in that that article, the Marie Claire article 606 00:33:54,880 --> 00:33:58,400 Speaker 1: that that is very personally revealing, both for Justine and 607 00:33:58,480 --> 00:34:01,240 Speaker 1: for Elon. And if you are interested more in that 608 00:34:01,360 --> 00:34:03,600 Speaker 1: story and sort of the personal side of Elon Musk, 609 00:34:04,120 --> 00:34:06,280 Speaker 1: I highly recommend it. It's a great read. You do 610 00:34:06,400 --> 00:34:08,279 Speaker 1: see that just he's a very good writer, but it 611 00:34:08,360 --> 00:34:10,359 Speaker 1: is heartbreaking. Well, we'll toss out a couple of links 612 00:34:10,360 --> 00:34:14,400 Speaker 1: on our social media. Yeah. Now back to Elon Muskin 613 00:34:14,520 --> 00:34:18,279 Speaker 1: and his professional life. He he's involved in a couple 614 00:34:18,320 --> 00:34:21,959 Speaker 1: of other companies besides SpaceX. One of them is called 615 00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:26,080 Speaker 1: solar City. He's the chairman of solar City and that's 616 00:34:26,400 --> 00:34:29,279 Speaker 1: a company obviously that's very concerned with solar power. He 617 00:34:29,320 --> 00:34:33,080 Speaker 1: provides strategic direction for the company, and he conceived this 618 00:34:33,160 --> 00:34:37,560 Speaker 1: company to help combat global warming and minimize air pollution. Right. 619 00:34:37,800 --> 00:34:40,640 Speaker 1: What he did was combined several solar power companies, I believe, 620 00:34:40,680 --> 00:34:43,720 Speaker 1: starting in California, but they've spread out across the country 621 00:34:43,840 --> 00:34:47,640 Speaker 1: um to offer solar panel installation on the cheap. Yeah, 622 00:34:47,640 --> 00:34:50,399 Speaker 1: and I know that. At a recent TED talk, he 623 00:34:50,560 --> 00:34:53,720 Speaker 1: said that within twenty years he would expect solar power 624 00:34:53,800 --> 00:34:56,880 Speaker 1: to become a primary source of energy, which is kind 625 00:34:56,920 --> 00:34:59,919 Speaker 1: of interesting. Uh, if you know anything about solar power, 626 00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:03,440 Speaker 1: it's not the most efficient, efficient way of generating energy. 627 00:35:03,560 --> 00:35:06,279 Speaker 1: So in order for that to happen, not only will 628 00:35:06,320 --> 00:35:10,680 Speaker 1: we need to create huge solar farms to harness this energy, 629 00:35:10,760 --> 00:35:14,160 Speaker 1: but we'll have to improve efficiency on a pretty grand 630 00:35:14,160 --> 00:35:16,359 Speaker 1: scale to make it useful. Yeah. Yeah, well, I mean, 631 00:35:16,400 --> 00:35:18,160 Speaker 1: you know, just to just to get people in the door. 632 00:35:18,200 --> 00:35:21,920 Speaker 1: If if what you're spending on it costs more than yeah, 633 00:35:22,040 --> 00:35:24,520 Speaker 1: it's never going to catch on, right exactly. Yeah. And 634 00:35:24,520 --> 00:35:28,720 Speaker 1: and there are other elements literally that are a concern, 635 00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:33,759 Speaker 1: like uh, like like rare earth minerals that are Yeah, 636 00:35:33,800 --> 00:35:35,640 Speaker 1: so there's there's a lot of issues that need to 637 00:35:35,640 --> 00:35:39,480 Speaker 1: be worked out. But he's he's very much a well, 638 00:35:39,520 --> 00:35:42,920 Speaker 1: at least he's an evangelist for solar power. Whether or 639 00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:46,400 Speaker 1: not his vision becomes reality remains to be seen, but 640 00:35:46,440 --> 00:35:48,920 Speaker 1: he's definitely passionate about it. And another one of those 641 00:35:48,920 --> 00:35:51,080 Speaker 1: great quotes from from him is that he wants to 642 00:35:51,080 --> 00:35:53,719 Speaker 1: do for solar energy what Del did for computers. Yeah, 643 00:35:53,760 --> 00:35:56,920 Speaker 1: that's pretty that's a pretty good quote. He's also he's 644 00:35:56,960 --> 00:35:59,799 Speaker 1: known for generating quotes like that, No, I love it. 645 00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:03,680 Speaker 1: Lots of lots of buzzwords and buzz phrases and very punchy, 646 00:36:03,760 --> 00:36:07,320 Speaker 1: very twitter iff. Yeah, and he does. He does tweet 647 00:36:07,400 --> 00:36:10,799 Speaker 1: quite a bit. So in July July, suppose I do 648 00:36:12,120 --> 00:36:15,520 Speaker 1: as my southern coming out. In July eleven, he donated 649 00:36:15,520 --> 00:36:20,799 Speaker 1: two hundred fifty thousand dollars via his philanthropic Musk Foundation, 650 00:36:21,560 --> 00:36:24,880 Speaker 1: which is a charitable organization, not some place where they 651 00:36:24,960 --> 00:36:27,120 Speaker 1: keep a lot of musk, which is what it's what 652 00:36:27,239 --> 00:36:28,840 Speaker 1: I first thought when I read it. But they offered 653 00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:32,640 Speaker 1: they offered grants for research and educational endeavors. Right, but yes, 654 00:36:32,840 --> 00:36:35,280 Speaker 1: And through that foundation he donated two or fifty thousand 655 00:36:35,280 --> 00:36:38,360 Speaker 1: dollars to fund a solar power project in the city 656 00:36:38,400 --> 00:36:41,360 Speaker 1: of so Much, Japan, which was which is one of 657 00:36:41,440 --> 00:36:44,000 Speaker 1: the locations that it's hit by the tsunami, yes, the 658 00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:46,520 Speaker 1: earthquake and tsunami, and in fact was also in the 659 00:36:46,560 --> 00:36:51,120 Speaker 1: pathway of the fallout from the nuclear power plant. So 660 00:36:51,480 --> 00:36:53,640 Speaker 1: this was sort of a way that he saw of 661 00:36:53,680 --> 00:36:58,080 Speaker 1: alleviating some of the distress in that area and to 662 00:36:58,239 --> 00:37:02,600 Speaker 1: help with the energy problems that that area was encountering. Um. 663 00:37:02,680 --> 00:37:05,720 Speaker 1: And then of course we get to the other company 664 00:37:06,080 --> 00:37:08,920 Speaker 1: he's known for, probably one of the you know, along 665 00:37:08,920 --> 00:37:11,120 Speaker 1: with SpaceX. I would say that this is the most 666 00:37:11,200 --> 00:37:14,960 Speaker 1: visible of all of his second perhaps too SpaceX, and 667 00:37:14,960 --> 00:37:17,280 Speaker 1: and that you know, it's not launching things into space, 668 00:37:17,320 --> 00:37:19,960 Speaker 1: which carries with it a necessary amount of journalism. But yes, 669 00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:24,680 Speaker 1: Tesla Motors. Yeah, so, Tesla Motors known for creating electric vehicles, 670 00:37:24,680 --> 00:37:26,920 Speaker 1: and not just electric vehicles. The very the very first one, 671 00:37:26,960 --> 00:37:30,240 Speaker 1: the Tesla Roadster, was known as like the super sexy 672 00:37:30,280 --> 00:37:33,920 Speaker 1: sports car electric vehicles and and and Musk argues with 673 00:37:33,960 --> 00:37:36,320 Speaker 1: the with the concept that they're an electric car company. 674 00:37:36,360 --> 00:37:39,560 Speaker 1: He said that they're luxury car company that happens to 675 00:37:39,600 --> 00:37:42,200 Speaker 1: make electric vehicles. And I think that first one was 676 00:37:42,200 --> 00:37:46,759 Speaker 1: what a hundred thousand dollars, uh, baby, there was would 677 00:37:46,760 --> 00:37:48,920 Speaker 1: have something. You know, I don't have the figure in 678 00:37:48,960 --> 00:37:50,719 Speaker 1: front of me. It seems to me like that might 679 00:37:50,760 --> 00:37:53,080 Speaker 1: even be on the low end, but and it was 680 00:37:53,080 --> 00:37:54,920 Speaker 1: probably right around there, but yeah, it was. It was 681 00:37:55,040 --> 00:37:59,919 Speaker 1: known as being the super sexy, sleek, fast, silent car 682 00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:01,759 Speaker 1: that that was the thing that a lot of people, 683 00:38:02,360 --> 00:38:04,239 Speaker 1: you know, really focused on was not only was this 684 00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:06,680 Speaker 1: thing fast, but it was quiet, so it wasn't like 685 00:38:06,719 --> 00:38:10,360 Speaker 1: other you know, supercharged cars that have these incredibly powerful 686 00:38:10,719 --> 00:38:14,279 Speaker 1: engines in them, and had this very quite um and 687 00:38:14,280 --> 00:38:17,799 Speaker 1: and you know, the whole Tesla story again, we'll probably 688 00:38:17,840 --> 00:38:20,680 Speaker 1: do a full podcast on it someday, the Tesla Motors, 689 00:38:20,680 --> 00:38:24,799 Speaker 1: not Nicholas Tessel. You already did that one, um all. 690 00:38:26,360 --> 00:38:29,439 Speaker 1: But another little thing to keep in mind about Elon 691 00:38:29,520 --> 00:38:32,000 Speaker 1: muskis if he buys your company, that doesn't necessarily mean 692 00:38:32,040 --> 00:38:34,920 Speaker 1: you're in good shape. Because he invested in Tesla in 693 00:38:34,960 --> 00:38:38,080 Speaker 1: two thousand four, then he took control of the board 694 00:38:38,080 --> 00:38:41,160 Speaker 1: of directors, and in two thousand seven he deposed the 695 00:38:41,200 --> 00:38:46,600 Speaker 1: founder of the company, Martin Eberhard. So yeah, he said 696 00:38:46,760 --> 00:38:50,080 Speaker 1: I like this, I want it, and now, yeah, that's 697 00:38:50,160 --> 00:38:54,640 Speaker 1: that's us paraphrasing editorializing. For a while there, he was 698 00:38:54,680 --> 00:38:56,960 Speaker 1: looking for I think someone to take over as the 699 00:38:57,000 --> 00:39:01,000 Speaker 1: CEO and uh and and couldn't couldn't find anyone. Well, 700 00:39:01,040 --> 00:39:03,640 Speaker 1: there there was a time where he had a different 701 00:39:03,640 --> 00:39:07,680 Speaker 1: CEO in place, Okay, but there were issues between what 702 00:39:07,760 --> 00:39:10,719 Speaker 1: Tesla was promising Tesla Motors was promising and what they 703 00:39:10,719 --> 00:39:13,920 Speaker 1: could deliver. Essentially, they were getting they were getting orders 704 00:39:14,120 --> 00:39:17,440 Speaker 1: for Tesla roadsters, and they were having trouble meeting the 705 00:39:17,520 --> 00:39:20,200 Speaker 1: demand that they were and it was a limited demand. 706 00:39:20,200 --> 00:39:24,359 Speaker 1: I'm not saying like thousands of people were by it, yeah, 707 00:39:24,520 --> 00:39:26,360 Speaker 1: but but it was still difficult for the company to 708 00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:28,960 Speaker 1: meet that demand. And as a result, the company was 709 00:39:28,960 --> 00:39:31,680 Speaker 1: starting to get into some financial trouble and so as 710 00:39:31,760 --> 00:39:34,480 Speaker 1: a response to that, Musk began to do things like 711 00:39:34,600 --> 00:39:38,320 Speaker 1: layoff employees and he even ended up firing the CEO 712 00:39:38,440 --> 00:39:40,879 Speaker 1: he had hired to replace the former CEO, and then 713 00:39:40,920 --> 00:39:43,960 Speaker 1: he assumed the role of CEO. And it was all 714 00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:46,239 Speaker 1: in an effort, you know, from Musk's point of view, 715 00:39:46,280 --> 00:39:50,160 Speaker 1: I assume, to keep the company alive. UM. And it 716 00:39:50,200 --> 00:39:52,440 Speaker 1: wasn't just the roadster that they developed. They developed some 717 00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:56,080 Speaker 1: other vehicles as well, including an suv and the Models 718 00:39:56,160 --> 00:40:00,400 Speaker 1: which was the pre first world's first premium electrics sedan, 719 00:40:01,200 --> 00:40:04,880 Speaker 1: the Model X was the suv minivan and UM and 720 00:40:04,960 --> 00:40:08,960 Speaker 1: he's guiding the development of that, yeah, so he he 721 00:40:09,080 --> 00:40:13,640 Speaker 1: definitely is still very much in uh involved in that. Recently, 722 00:40:13,760 --> 00:40:16,800 Speaker 1: there's been a bit of a some controversy. The Tesla 723 00:40:16,920 --> 00:40:22,080 Speaker 1: Roadster has been the victim of some poor press, as 724 00:40:22,160 --> 00:40:26,520 Speaker 1: has the the the models, and there's some dispute about 725 00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:30,279 Speaker 1: how accurate that was in fact outright indignation on the 726 00:40:30,320 --> 00:40:32,279 Speaker 1: part of Musk. Well, it was. It was a It 727 00:40:32,320 --> 00:40:35,480 Speaker 1: was a New York Times reporter. That was the most recent. 728 00:40:35,600 --> 00:40:38,759 Speaker 1: Before that, there was an episode of Top Gear where 729 00:40:38,760 --> 00:40:41,680 Speaker 1: they drove a Tesla Roadster and then showed people pushing 730 00:40:41,680 --> 00:40:45,280 Speaker 1: the roadster back to the studio and then uh Elon 731 00:40:45,360 --> 00:40:49,560 Speaker 1: Musk said, I called shenanigans on this because, um, all 732 00:40:49,640 --> 00:40:52,560 Speaker 1: the data from the car shows that there was plenty 733 00:40:52,600 --> 00:40:54,440 Speaker 1: of energy for it to get back to where it was. 734 00:40:54,560 --> 00:40:57,279 Speaker 1: They were just doing this for the purposes, for the 735 00:40:57,320 --> 00:40:59,960 Speaker 1: purposes of showing, like what happens when your electric car 736 00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:02,160 Speaker 1: and solve juice. I don't know what happens when your 737 00:41:02,160 --> 00:41:04,839 Speaker 1: car runs out of gas. Maybe you should watch your 738 00:41:04,920 --> 00:41:06,959 Speaker 1: charge on it and make sure that you don't, yeah, 739 00:41:07,320 --> 00:41:09,000 Speaker 1: because I mean that. That was one of the goals 740 00:41:09,080 --> 00:41:11,880 Speaker 1: of Tesla Motors was to create an electric vehicle that 741 00:41:11,920 --> 00:41:15,319 Speaker 1: could run on a full charge about as far as 742 00:41:15,320 --> 00:41:18,799 Speaker 1: a comparable car would on a full tank of gasoline. 743 00:41:19,160 --> 00:41:21,439 Speaker 1: You know, to get that as close as possible, because 744 00:41:21,480 --> 00:41:24,440 Speaker 1: I mean that's clearly a big concern that people have 745 00:41:24,480 --> 00:41:26,560 Speaker 1: with electric cars is the idea that you would run 746 00:41:26,560 --> 00:41:30,160 Speaker 1: out of juice halfway back from going out and then 747 00:41:30,680 --> 00:41:32,440 Speaker 1: do you know, Yeah, and since you don't have a 748 00:41:32,520 --> 00:41:35,400 Speaker 1: you don't have an electric car station every you know, 749 00:41:35,480 --> 00:41:37,880 Speaker 1: two miles like you do a gas station, right, what 750 00:41:37,920 --> 00:41:40,239 Speaker 1: do you do? And and so this was sort of 751 00:41:40,280 --> 00:41:43,000 Speaker 1: playing on those fears, and Tesla was like Shenanigan. There 752 00:41:43,040 --> 00:41:45,240 Speaker 1: was plenty of juice in that. I mean, I understand 753 00:41:45,239 --> 00:41:47,520 Speaker 1: what your your concerns are, but we are meeting those 754 00:41:47,520 --> 00:41:50,160 Speaker 1: concerns by building up these charging stations, particularly in the 755 00:41:50,239 --> 00:41:53,320 Speaker 1: United States. Well, the New York Times piece that Lauren 756 00:41:53,360 --> 00:41:58,240 Speaker 1: referred to was an article that also went into detail 757 00:41:58,360 --> 00:42:01,000 Speaker 1: about the Tesla. I think this the Models. That was 758 00:42:01,080 --> 00:42:05,560 Speaker 1: like a specific um. Yes, the Tesla Models test drive, 759 00:42:06,040 --> 00:42:08,920 Speaker 1: and uh, it was John M. Broder who wrote the 760 00:42:08,920 --> 00:42:11,840 Speaker 1: piece and wrote that it did not perform up to 761 00:42:11,880 --> 00:42:15,040 Speaker 1: standards and that in fact, the car died on part 762 00:42:15,080 --> 00:42:16,680 Speaker 1: of one of the legs of the journey and it 763 00:42:16,719 --> 00:42:18,479 Speaker 1: had been too Yeah, there's a photo of it getting 764 00:42:18,560 --> 00:42:21,080 Speaker 1: up onto a flat that. Yeah. And then Elon Musk 765 00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:25,120 Speaker 1: again said Shenanigans park too, and then pulled all the 766 00:42:25,200 --> 00:42:28,400 Speaker 1: data off the car and showed earlier. You know, he 767 00:42:28,560 --> 00:42:30,920 Speaker 1: wrote a blog post that he produced this data and 768 00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:32,920 Speaker 1: showed it off to everybody. Whether or not the data 769 00:42:33,040 --> 00:42:35,600 Speaker 1: is accurate, I can't say, but it was from his 770 00:42:35,600 --> 00:42:39,280 Speaker 1: his blog post, he said, this guy did not charge 771 00:42:39,480 --> 00:42:41,360 Speaker 1: the car as long as it needed to be charged. 772 00:42:41,360 --> 00:42:43,279 Speaker 1: He was told how long by the car, like you 773 00:42:43,320 --> 00:42:45,719 Speaker 1: need to charge this much in order to go that far, 774 00:42:46,040 --> 00:42:49,560 Speaker 1: and then he stopped charging prematurely. That he still went 775 00:42:49,680 --> 00:42:53,440 Speaker 1: further than what was projected. So the car outperformed what 776 00:42:53,560 --> 00:42:55,359 Speaker 1: it should have been able to do, but it still 777 00:42:55,400 --> 00:42:56,960 Speaker 1: wasn't able to get through the full leg of the 778 00:42:57,000 --> 00:42:58,759 Speaker 1: journey because it had not been charged all the way. 779 00:42:58,840 --> 00:43:01,520 Speaker 1: And that he was doing things like driving around in 780 00:43:01,600 --> 00:43:06,760 Speaker 1: circles in a parking lot right right, and and generally 781 00:43:06,840 --> 00:43:09,920 Speaker 1: not um not adhering to the best practices. I mean, 782 00:43:09,960 --> 00:43:12,440 Speaker 1: because electric cars will tell you everything about you know, 783 00:43:12,480 --> 00:43:15,000 Speaker 1: you can really micromanage how you're using it synergy, and 784 00:43:15,440 --> 00:43:17,799 Speaker 1: he was not. He was not doing that thing. That's 785 00:43:17,880 --> 00:43:20,920 Speaker 1: that's what Elon Musk says. Because again we don't have 786 00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:24,080 Speaker 1: the full story here. Mark Margaret Sullivan, who was the 787 00:43:24,400 --> 00:43:28,680 Speaker 1: editor in charge of this story, says that she looked 788 00:43:28,760 --> 00:43:32,920 Speaker 1: into this and that she felt that Broder was not 789 00:43:33,000 --> 00:43:38,279 Speaker 1: being dishonest, but that he might have been less accurate 790 00:43:38,560 --> 00:43:40,760 Speaker 1: then he needed to be like he wasn't taking careful 791 00:43:40,920 --> 00:43:44,160 Speaker 1: enough notes and he wasn't paying enough attention to what 792 00:43:44,200 --> 00:43:46,319 Speaker 1: he was doing, but that but that she was not 793 00:43:46,800 --> 00:43:49,640 Speaker 1: she did not think that it was intentional, That's what 794 00:43:50,080 --> 00:43:52,400 Speaker 1: she says. Elon Musk, on the other hand, says that 795 00:43:52,480 --> 00:43:55,640 Speaker 1: John Broder had just a grudge against electric vehicles in general, 796 00:43:56,000 --> 00:43:58,600 Speaker 1: and that this was him carrying a bias over into 797 00:43:58,719 --> 00:44:01,920 Speaker 1: a test drive and that that was what was guiding 798 00:44:02,000 --> 00:44:05,560 Speaker 1: him and doing these things. Response was really quite strong, 799 00:44:05,680 --> 00:44:07,400 Speaker 1: and he got a little bit of flak in the 800 00:44:07,400 --> 00:44:10,000 Speaker 1: press for that. For yeah, well, there's and there's been 801 00:44:10,000 --> 00:44:13,040 Speaker 1: a lot of back and forth in the blogosphere between 802 00:44:13,160 --> 00:44:15,920 Speaker 1: Musk and Broder and as well as with Margaret Sullivan. 803 00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:18,000 Speaker 1: So it's it's kind of it's it's a lot of 804 00:44:18,120 --> 00:44:20,759 Speaker 1: trash throwing. It's kind of interesting to read. I mean, 805 00:44:20,800 --> 00:44:24,920 Speaker 1: it's entertaining. Uh And honestly, honestly, I don't know who's 806 00:44:24,920 --> 00:44:27,640 Speaker 1: in the right in this. I mean, uh, I would 807 00:44:27,719 --> 00:44:31,680 Speaker 1: like to think that the electric vehicles are really well 808 00:44:31,719 --> 00:44:34,640 Speaker 1: made and can perform as advertised, because I think electric 809 00:44:34,760 --> 00:44:38,400 Speaker 1: vehicles could be a wonderful, wonderful future, assuming that we 810 00:44:38,440 --> 00:44:40,719 Speaker 1: find a way to produce that electricity cleanly, like if 811 00:44:40,760 --> 00:44:47,319 Speaker 1: we do the solar stuff that Tesla must imagine. That's 812 00:44:47,320 --> 00:44:51,920 Speaker 1: what I'm calling your besties. Um. I guess that brings 813 00:44:51,960 --> 00:44:54,480 Speaker 1: me around to the final bit about Elon Musk. He 814 00:44:54,560 --> 00:44:58,480 Speaker 1: got divorced from Tallula Riley in he had married her 815 00:44:58,480 --> 00:45:03,000 Speaker 1: back in a twenty Yes, supposedly he they were loaned 816 00:45:03,000 --> 00:45:06,279 Speaker 1: with the Google judge for their honeymoon. Yeah, Elon Musk 817 00:45:06,440 --> 00:45:09,399 Speaker 1: is friends with a lot of people in Silicon Valley, 818 00:45:09,440 --> 00:45:12,200 Speaker 1: a lot of celebrities as well. But anyway, Yeah, so 819 00:45:12,360 --> 00:45:15,880 Speaker 1: they got divorced in twelve. She got four point two 820 00:45:15,920 --> 00:45:18,160 Speaker 1: million dollars out of it. Keeping in mind that Musk 821 00:45:18,280 --> 00:45:22,040 Speaker 1: is worth a couple of billion. Yeah, yeah, so, um, 822 00:45:22,080 --> 00:45:24,080 Speaker 1: in fact, there were there was at least some reports 823 00:45:24,120 --> 00:45:26,720 Speaker 1: like she only got four point two million, And I'm thinking, 824 00:45:29,239 --> 00:45:30,960 Speaker 1: you add up all the money I've ever made in 825 00:45:31,000 --> 00:45:33,480 Speaker 1: my life, and I don't come close to that. But yeah, 826 00:45:33,560 --> 00:45:37,560 Speaker 1: four point two million dollars. But there's a weird happy ending. 827 00:45:37,600 --> 00:45:42,719 Speaker 1: They're reunited apparently back. Yeah, she's trying to make him, 828 00:45:43,080 --> 00:45:46,440 Speaker 1: prevent him from going King crazy, which she says is 829 00:45:46,440 --> 00:45:48,360 Speaker 1: a thing in England, like when you become king, you 830 00:45:48,440 --> 00:45:52,040 Speaker 1: go nuts. That seems like it's a common phrase back 831 00:45:52,040 --> 00:45:54,680 Speaker 1: where I'm from. Like, really, I'm an anglophile, and I 832 00:45:54,719 --> 00:45:56,680 Speaker 1: don't think I've ever heard anyone say, you know, I'm 833 00:45:56,680 --> 00:45:59,680 Speaker 1: preventing him from going King crazy or King nad. I 834 00:45:59,719 --> 00:46:02,960 Speaker 1: know the You've had your share of you know, e centric, 835 00:46:03,120 --> 00:46:07,439 Speaker 1: eccentric royal. Yeah, eccentric is I think a mild term. 836 00:46:07,480 --> 00:46:09,680 Speaker 1: But sure, I mean, but but I mean England has 837 00:46:09,680 --> 00:46:11,239 Speaker 1: its own way of dealing with them, right, They just 838 00:46:11,360 --> 00:46:13,799 Speaker 1: put a parking lot over them, all right. Well, that 839 00:46:13,800 --> 00:46:16,360 Speaker 1: that wraps up this this profile on Elon Musk. Like 840 00:46:16,400 --> 00:46:18,759 Speaker 1: we said, we'll probably do profiles on some of the 841 00:46:18,840 --> 00:46:21,680 Speaker 1: specific companies, I mean everything from you know, PayPal would 842 00:46:21,680 --> 00:46:25,080 Speaker 1: be a good one. SpaceX and Tesla Motors are all 843 00:46:25,560 --> 00:46:28,440 Speaker 1: great candidates for future episodes. But if you guys have 844 00:46:28,520 --> 00:46:31,440 Speaker 1: your own suggestions for episodes we should tackle in the future, 845 00:46:31,719 --> 00:46:33,319 Speaker 1: I highly suggest you get in touch with us and 846 00:46:33,360 --> 00:46:36,439 Speaker 1: let us know. Our email address is tex Stuff at 847 00:46:36,640 --> 00:46:39,520 Speaker 1: discovery dot com, or you can let us know on 848 00:46:39,520 --> 00:46:42,279 Speaker 1: Facebook or Twitter or handle at both those locations. Is 849 00:46:42,400 --> 00:46:45,759 Speaker 1: text stuff H. S W and Lauren and I will 850 00:46:45,760 --> 00:46:49,200 Speaker 1: talk to you again really soon. For more on this 851 00:46:49,360 --> 00:46:52,080 Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics, visit has staff works dot 852 00:46:52,080 --> 00:46:52,319 Speaker 1: com