WEBVTT - Citizen Elon, Episode 3: Vox Dei

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<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

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<v Speaker 2>Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome President elect Donald J. Trump,

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<v Speaker 2>First Lady Melaia Trump, and the Trump family.

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<v Speaker 3>It's around two thirty am, the night of the election,

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<v Speaker 3>West Palm Beach, Florida.

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<v Speaker 4>Well, I want to.

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<v Speaker 5>Thank you all very much.

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<v Speaker 4>This is great.

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<v Speaker 5>These are our friends.

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<v Speaker 4>We have thousands of friends in this.

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<v Speaker 5>Incredible movement.

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<v Speaker 3>Pretty much everyone was expecting a close race, the polls,

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<v Speaker 3>the pundits, even the candidates. But by midnight on the

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<v Speaker 3>East Coast, we more or less new Trump had done it,

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<v Speaker 3>and not just Trump.

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<v Speaker 4>Let me tell you, we have a new star. The

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<v Speaker 4>star is born Nylan noh he is now He's an

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<v Speaker 4>amazing guy.

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<v Speaker 3>By the next morning, it was official. Trump won Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan,

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<v Speaker 3>North Carolina, Georgia, every swing state but Nevada and Arizona.

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<v Speaker 3>Later that week he'd win those two. Kamala Harris called

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<v Speaker 3>Trump the next morning to congratulate him. Biden called two

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<v Speaker 3>at four pm. Harris gave her concession speech.

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<v Speaker 6>I was relieved and grateful that we had a decision

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<v Speaker 6>so fast.

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<v Speaker 3>Joan Donovan, again journalism professor, disinformation expert, spent a lot

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<v Speaker 3>of time thinking and writing about January sixth of twenty twenty.

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<v Speaker 3>She's been watching Elon Musk plus his army of followers

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<v Speaker 3>and fanboys. In the months before the election, they posted

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<v Speaker 3>so many conspiracy theories Democrats were going to steal the

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<v Speaker 3>vote again. You can't trust the media and trust the polls.

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<v Speaker 3>That anything other than a landslide victory for Trump is fraud.

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<v Speaker 3>And so she figured if Harris wins, or even if

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<v Speaker 3>it's close, Elon could call it fraud. That means violence

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<v Speaker 3>against a poll worker or a poll site or something worse.

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<v Speaker 6>And so it's very difficult to know what they're going

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<v Speaker 6>to do. People are planning different kinds of violence and

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<v Speaker 6>destruction if Trump hadn't won again.

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<v Speaker 3>This wasn't theoretical fear. Post election things are mostly calm.

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<v Speaker 3>Three weeks ago, not so much. Ballot boxes set on

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<v Speaker 3>fire in Washington and Oregon and Arizona, bomb threats called

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<v Speaker 3>into polling places in Georgia and Pennsylvania. Elon tweeting like

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<v Speaker 3>a maniac. Felt like we were in a tinderbox and

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<v Speaker 3>he was holding the match.

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<v Speaker 6>And so at least we know what the outcome is,

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<v Speaker 6>we can accept that outcome and can move forward with

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<v Speaker 6>some social assurances that the election had not been rigged.

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<v Speaker 3>There were so many warnings from both sides, from experts

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<v Speaker 3>like Joan about the future of democracy. But then it worked.

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<v Speaker 3>The person with the most votes won. Like Elon said

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<v Speaker 3>when he brought Trump back on Twitter, the voice of

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<v Speaker 3>the people is the voice of the gods.

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<v Speaker 5>I'm Max Chafkin. This is citizen Elon.

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<v Speaker 3>So we made it post election. Trump definitely won. Something

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<v Speaker 3>else that's indisputable.

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<v Speaker 5>Elon won. How did he get there? How did he

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<v Speaker 5>do it? James?

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<v Speaker 3>Are you there not hearing James from Flat Rocket? On

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<v Speaker 3>November fourth, the night before the election, Elon scheduled one

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<v Speaker 3>of his town halls. It was supposed to be virtual

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<v Speaker 3>and it be live streamed on Twitter as usual. The

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<v Speaker 3>event started late, a few things went wrong. Elon got frustrated.

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<v Speaker 7>You know, I think, let's uh, let's cancel this. Give

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<v Speaker 7>him this in some technical challenges, and.

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<v Speaker 3>He announced instead of this town hall Q and A,

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<v Speaker 3>folks should listen to the interview he'd done that day

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<v Speaker 3>on Joe Rogan's show at two and a half hour podcast.

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<v Speaker 5>Good Joe Wrogan Experience.

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<v Speaker 8>First of all, thank you so much for buying Twitter.

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<v Speaker 8>You're looking so much. I think you changed the course

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<v Speaker 8>of history. I really do.

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<v Speaker 3>If you've ever listened to Rogan, you know the conversations wander.

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<v Speaker 3>They started with video games.

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<v Speaker 8>Surgeons who regularly play video games make less errors.

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<v Speaker 3>How awesome eating meat is, how creatine is good for you.

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<v Speaker 8>Yeah, creatine is actually a neotropic, believe it or not, but.

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<v Speaker 3>Factory farming isn't. And about the exact right dosage of

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<v Speaker 3>amphetamines in higher doses.

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<v Speaker 7>Man, I've seen people turn into just raging monsters. They're

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<v Speaker 7>just angry, like extremely angry all the time.

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<v Speaker 5>Yeah, they're messed up.

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<v Speaker 3>They went through a long list of Elon's grievances, which

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<v Speaker 3>basically boiled down to anything stopping him from making money

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<v Speaker 3>is bad, if not evil.

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<v Speaker 7>They decided SpaceX was a target like Stalin's, like chief Torturer.

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<v Speaker 7>One of his famous quotes was show me the man,

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<v Speaker 7>and I'll show you the crime.

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<v Speaker 3>Right, And eventually they got to the White House Correspondent's

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<v Speaker 3>Dinner twenty eleven. Rogan remembers Obama basically saying Donald Trump,

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<v Speaker 3>you know what, You'll never.

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<v Speaker 5>Be president of the United States.

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<v Speaker 8>You see Trump and the ions going okay, I'm on

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<v Speaker 8>the floor.

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<v Speaker 7>The degree to which they attacked Trump at that whitest

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<v Speaker 7>Correspon Center was really so over the top. It was

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<v Speaker 7>like making everyone uncomfortable. They twisted the knife big on Trump,

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<v Speaker 7>and I was like, man, this is not good karma,

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<v Speaker 7>you know.

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<v Speaker 3>And there it is a shared sense of grievance, humiliation,

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<v Speaker 3>a revenge story.

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<v Speaker 5>Elon and Trump.

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<v Speaker 3>They really are the same person, and Elon seems to

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<v Speaker 3>know it. But then Rogan brought up the impetus Obama

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<v Speaker 3>wasn't roasting Trump for the hell of it. He was

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<v Speaker 3>responding to the literal conspiracy theory Trump successfully spread about

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<v Speaker 3>the president not being born in America. And what's funny

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<v Speaker 3>is Elon went ahead and rewrote history.

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<v Speaker 5>He asked Rogan, was Trump actually saying that.

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<v Speaker 9>No, he definitely was.

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<v Speaker 5>He was definitely saying he's from Kenya.

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<v Speaker 3>Trump, Rogan said, he was actually a victim of a

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<v Speaker 3>busted up information ecosystem, people wanting to manipulate him. Elon,

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<v Speaker 3>though he stayed on message, he turned somberly, looked straight

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<v Speaker 3>into the camera and said, men.

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<v Speaker 7>Need to vote. That is the biggest issue. So I'm

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<v Speaker 7>just like saying, there's a message to the men out there.

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<v Speaker 7>Vote like your life depends on it, because I think

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<v Speaker 7>it does. Vote quote tomorrow like your life depends on it.

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<v Speaker 5>Nothing is more important. Oh.

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<v Speaker 3>For a few hours on election day, it seemed Elon

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<v Speaker 3>worried he'd backed the wrong horse. He was quiet he'd

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<v Speaker 3>gambled so much on Trump. The money, yes, but also

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<v Speaker 3>his reputation. Tesla's customers they're fans of the old Elon Musk,

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<v Speaker 3>not the guy who tweets about immigrants replacing white people.

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<v Speaker 3>Mostly they're Kamala voters. In the late afternoon, Musk voted

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<v Speaker 3>in Brownsville, right on the Mexico border. He posed for

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<v Speaker 3>a photo op, then he got on his plane headed

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<v Speaker 3>to mar A Lago, where Trump was. By eight thirty

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<v Speaker 3>that night, things started leaning in Trump's favor. Elon started

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<v Speaker 3>cracking jokes again on Twitter. Later, a picture began circulating

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<v Speaker 3>from Trump's private watch party in mar A Lago. Three

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<v Speaker 3>men huddled in conversation, Donald Trump, his transition co chair,

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<v Speaker 3>and of course Elon Musk. In the background was a

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<v Speaker 3>CNN screen with the electoral count Trump was winning.

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<v Speaker 10>It's kind of rare for people to change their strikes.

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<v Speaker 3>That's Josh Green again. He works with me at BusinessWeek.

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<v Speaker 3>Josh was skeptical of Elon's commitment to politics, that is,

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<v Speaker 3>before Elon started putting his money where his mouth.

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<v Speaker 10>Was, and the fact that he's kind of rocketed onto

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<v Speaker 10>the scene no pun intended. What's exciting about Trump, at

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<v Speaker 10>least from a journalistic standpoint, is there are always these

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<v Speaker 10>new characters and storylines, and like, you know, Elon is

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<v Speaker 10>like the star of Season two, Episode one of the

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<v Speaker 10>Trump White House.

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<v Speaker 3>Elon's everywhere in mar al Lago on election night, Uncle

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<v Speaker 3>Elon on Instagram and Trump's family photos, at meetings with

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<v Speaker 3>lawmakers and DC on the phone with Vladimir Zelenski. Trump

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<v Speaker 3>turns it into a running joke. Wherever he goes, Elon

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<v Speaker 3>goes too.

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<v Speaker 4>You know, he likes his place.

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<v Speaker 5>I can't get him out of here.

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<v Speaker 6>He just likes this place.

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<v Speaker 4>He's done a fantastic job. Really an incredible miss.

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<v Speaker 3>Insult wrapped in compliments. We've seen it before. Trump has

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<v Speaker 3>a long history of firing people. It was true on

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<v Speaker 3>The Apprentice, it was true in the White House almost always.

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<v Speaker 5>You can see it coming, you know, when Trump starts

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<v Speaker 5>to get annoyed with people.

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<v Speaker 10>You can kind of feel it in the Richter's scale

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<v Speaker 10>in Washington, like, there will be little asides in Politico

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<v Speaker 10>or Washington Post stories, and you know they'll be leaked

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<v Speaker 10>anonymously by Trump aids, and then Trump himself will say

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<v Speaker 10>something or tweet something belittling, like publicly humiliating him to

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<v Speaker 10>sort of, you know, assert his dominance and express his annoyance,

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<v Speaker 10>you know, and then all of a sudden, one day

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<v Speaker 10>it will just be announced that, like, you know, he's

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<v Speaker 10>no longer in the end circle.

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<v Speaker 5>Or that's one possibility. There's others too.

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<v Speaker 3>A week after the election, Trump officially named Elon the

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<v Speaker 3>co head of the still unrealized Department of Government Efficiency.

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<v Speaker 3>By the way, the Department of Government Efficiency doge. Elon

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<v Speaker 3>named it for a cryptocurrency he likes. Trump says it

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<v Speaker 3>will become quote potentially the Manhattan Project of our time.

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<v Speaker 10>So really, at the end of the day, it's what

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<v Speaker 10>used to be in Washington, a blue ribbon commission. It's

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<v Speaker 10>basically this kind of phony concoction that you whip into

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<v Speaker 10>being to give important people something to do and something

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<v Speaker 10>to talk about, hopefully draw some media attention. But that

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<v Speaker 10>doesn't have any real power. And as far as I

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<v Speaker 10>can see, Elon's DOGE office doesn't have any real power.

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<v Speaker 3>The thing is, and maybe it's because I've spent nearly

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<v Speaker 3>two decades watching Elon star grow. Part of me thinks

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<v Speaker 3>that Josh could be wrong, that Doge could have power.

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<v Speaker 3>Either way, Elon's already won. In the days following the election,

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<v Speaker 3>He's gotten richer, a lot richer.

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<v Speaker 5>By Friday of that week, his.

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<v Speaker 3>Net worth had gone up by fifty billion dollars. And

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<v Speaker 3>that doesn't even account for money that could be coming

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<v Speaker 3>in in the form of defense contracts or killed investigations

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<v Speaker 3>into his business dealings, or new subsidies or regulations that

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<v Speaker 3>could be tweaked to turn his money into more money. Already,

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<v Speaker 3>Trump's picked Brendan Carr, a massive fan of Elon's, to

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<v Speaker 3>run the fc SEE, which means Elon's satellite internet company, Starlink,

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<v Speaker 3>is much more likely to get money from the government.

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<v Speaker 3>And that's just one example. Normally this is where accountability

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<v Speaker 3>measures come in. But who or what could hold somebody

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<v Speaker 3>like Elon Musk to account. He's got a major media platform,

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<v Speaker 3>he's richer than anyone in all of history, and he's

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<v Speaker 3>got Trump in his pocket.

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<v Speaker 5>I asked Josh about this.

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<v Speaker 10>I don't know what the bright line is between just

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<v Speaker 10>being like a kind of a human hurricane in Washington

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<v Speaker 10>and like destroying these ethical and political norms and being

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<v Speaker 10>an out and out authoritarian. But but it looks, you know,

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<v Speaker 10>it looks more and more like we're gonna we're gonna

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<v Speaker 10>test those bounds every day.

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<v Speaker 3>I don't know where we go from here. There's a

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<v Speaker 3>case to be made that right now, Elon is the

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<v Speaker 3>most powerful person on this planet, maybe in history too.

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<v Speaker 9>Elon Musk, he's a unicorn. He's suey generous.

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<v Speaker 3>David NASA professor meritith of history at CuNi and biographer,

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<v Speaker 3>and I've.

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<v Speaker 9>Written a bunch of books, including biographies of Andrew Carnegy,

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<v Speaker 9>William Randolph Hurst, Joseph Kennedy.

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<v Speaker 3>David's beat is really powerful men, and here he sees

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<v Speaker 3>a lot of parallels with Elon.

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<v Speaker 9>Let me take but one example. He is not the

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<v Speaker 9>first rich man to fund a candidate in the hopes

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<v Speaker 9>of getting a quid or a quo for his quids,

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<v Speaker 9>or however you say it, getting some sort of payback.

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<v Speaker 9>What's different is that this is not dark money. His

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<v Speaker 9>is anything but dark. I mean, it glows, it sparkles.

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<v Speaker 9>He is out front saying this is what I'm doing,

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<v Speaker 9>you know, and this is why I'm doing it, and

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<v Speaker 9>that is unprecedented. In the past, huge donors to campaigns

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<v Speaker 9>who saw it influenced thereafter kept it quiet.

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<v Speaker 3>Like Carnegie, the guy who built America steel industry. He

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<v Speaker 3>was rich, like Elon or Hurst, who the movie Citizen

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<v Speaker 3>Kane is literally based on, had mega cultural influence like

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<v Speaker 3>Elon or Kennedy the original Kennedy had immense political influence

0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:33.400
<v Speaker 3>like Elon, But David says those guys were mostly behind

0:13:33.440 --> 0:13:36.360
<v Speaker 3>the scenes. They didn't act the way that Elon does.

0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:41.000
<v Speaker 9>The other thing that's new is that this guy has

0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:48.360
<v Speaker 9>more He's more presumptuous than any business leader I've seen.

0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:53.040
<v Speaker 3>For instance, Elon's live Twitter interview with Trump back in August,

0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:56.600
<v Speaker 3>when the idea of a government efficiency commission was first floated.

0:13:57.440 --> 0:13:59.960
<v Speaker 3>David points out that was Elon's idea.

0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:05.079
<v Speaker 9>Nobody talked about him entering the government until he did.

0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:09.200
<v Speaker 9>You know, if you look at if you listen to

0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:15.120
<v Speaker 9>that interview, about fifty minutes in, Trump mentioned something about inflation,

0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:21.560
<v Speaker 9>and Musk says, yeah, you're right, and I think we

0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:23.760
<v Speaker 9>need a Department of government efficiency.

0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:27.480
<v Speaker 7>I think we need like a government efficiency commission to say, like, hey,

0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:29.120
<v Speaker 7>where are we spending money that's sensible?

0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:30.400
<v Speaker 9>Where is it not sensible?

0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:34.400
<v Speaker 7>And would you agree that we need to take a

0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:39.440
<v Speaker 7>look at governspending and have perhaps a government efficiency commission

0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:43.120
<v Speaker 7>that just I mean, I think it'd be great to

0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:45.440
<v Speaker 7>just have a government efficiency commission that takes a look

0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:48.960
<v Speaker 7>at these things. And I'd be happy to help out

0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:49.800
<v Speaker 7>on such a commission.

0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:52.160
<v Speaker 9>And Trump doesn't know what to do about it, and

0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:52.560
<v Speaker 9>then he.

0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:54.880
<v Speaker 5>Says, yeah, you know, it's funny.

0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:57.120
<v Speaker 3>The thing that was surprising to me in that interview

0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:01.560
<v Speaker 3>was how subservient he allowed himself to beat a Trump.

0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:07.240
<v Speaker 9>He was subservient, He rolled over on any number of questions.

0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:13.320
<v Speaker 9>But then he saw his opportunity when inflation was mentioned,

0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:15.960
<v Speaker 9>and he must have known this was what he was

0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:21.840
<v Speaker 9>going to do, but he waited almost an hour to

0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:23.480
<v Speaker 9>put in in his plug.

0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:27.480
<v Speaker 3>David says he wants not the first guy to try

0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:31.240
<v Speaker 3>buying himself political influence. All three of his moguls, he

0:15:31.320 --> 0:15:33.840
<v Speaker 3>calls it my moguls. By the way, that's what they

0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:37.000
<v Speaker 3>tried to do too. But the presidents they helped put

0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:41.040
<v Speaker 3>in office mostly ignored them focused on making their voters happy,

0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:47.800
<v Speaker 3>which you know, that's democracy working this time. We don't

0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:51.600
<v Speaker 3>know those moguls of the past. They didn't have Elon

0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:56.280
<v Speaker 3>social media, following a newspaper, even a chain of newspapers.

0:15:56.760 --> 0:15:58.720
<v Speaker 3>It's not the same as owning a social network.

0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:02.240
<v Speaker 1>I just see a lot of triumphalism.

0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:05.880
<v Speaker 3>Ellie Reeve again an expert on right wing extremism. We

0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:09.120
<v Speaker 3>spoke with her in episode one. She says that Twitter

0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:12.240
<v Speaker 3>has been different since Elon bought it, and especially since

0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:14.920
<v Speaker 3>he came out in favor of Trump. It's not just

0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:17.520
<v Speaker 3>that there's a lot of hate, it's that the people

0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:19.800
<v Speaker 3>promoting hate have gotten less restrained.

0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:24.080
<v Speaker 1>Like I was just watching this video hosted by Benny Johnson,

0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:27.680
<v Speaker 1>who used to work for BuzzFeed in other places, talking

0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:32.160
<v Speaker 1>to him Trump official, who was saying joking but not joking,

0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:35.120
<v Speaker 1>We're going to rain down hell fire when we take office.

0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:37.880
<v Speaker 1>We're going to deport all these people and their kids

0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:40.000
<v Speaker 1>and their grandparents, and it's going to be awesome.

0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:44.480
<v Speaker 11>Ten million people in growing anchor babies, their parents, their grandparents.

0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:47.359
<v Speaker 11>We're gonna put kids in cages. It's gonna be glorious.

0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:51.000
<v Speaker 11>We're gonna deport a lot of people. I will reign

0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:54.240
<v Speaker 11>hell on Washington, DC. We've talked about this.

0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:55.200
<v Speaker 5>Like that's the kind of stuff.

0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:58.440
<v Speaker 1>I see real names, real faces saying the stuff you

0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:00.640
<v Speaker 1>could only say anonymously ten years ago.

0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:04.639
<v Speaker 3>Elon says he bought Twitter to save free speech, to

0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:08.960
<v Speaker 3>bring back the town Square. But I don't know. I'm

0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:12.639
<v Speaker 3>not convinced what he's built. It feels less like a

0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:16.159
<v Speaker 3>public forum and more like a soapbox for him and

0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:17.080
<v Speaker 3>his side to stand on.

0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:20.080
<v Speaker 5>I have affection for my.

0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:26.680
<v Speaker 9>Three guys, my three moguls, Carnegie, Hurst and Joe Kennedy.

0:17:27.560 --> 0:17:32.159
<v Speaker 9>I don't have the same affection for Elon Musk. I

0:17:32.200 --> 0:17:37.760
<v Speaker 9>think in the long term, Elon Musk is more dangerous,

0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:47.800
<v Speaker 9>is smarter, and has amassed a kind of political and

0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:51.840
<v Speaker 9>cultural power that no one should have that kind of power.

0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:55.080
<v Speaker 3>Maybe it's that you have been able to figure out,

0:17:56.640 --> 0:17:58.480
<v Speaker 3>like what matters to him beyond himself.

0:17:58.840 --> 0:17:59.760
<v Speaker 5>That's absolutely right.

0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:04.800
<v Speaker 9>What I can't figure out about Musk is what drives him.

0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:07.359
<v Speaker 9>He says what drives him is he wants to go

0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:10.440
<v Speaker 9>to Mars. At various times, he says what drives him

0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:14.359
<v Speaker 9>is that he wants more smart children to be born.

0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:17.520
<v Speaker 9>You know where the country is going to fall apart.

0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:24.280
<v Speaker 9>At various times he wants to save the planet, and

0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:27.800
<v Speaker 9>I don't know what's most important in the end. Somehow

0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:34.960
<v Speaker 9>I think that he he has succeeded in so many

0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:39.639
<v Speaker 9>different areas that he thinks he's godlike.

0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:44.680
<v Speaker 3>Something occurred to me Musk's favorite saying, the voice of

0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:47.800
<v Speaker 3>the people is the voice of the gods. Maybe what

0:18:47.880 --> 0:18:50.720
<v Speaker 3>he actually means is the voice of the people is

0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:51.679
<v Speaker 3>whatever I say it is.

0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:57.040
<v Speaker 9>He can't be president, he can't be king, but he

0:18:57.040 --> 0:19:02.040
<v Speaker 9>can be God. And I think the more he achieves,

0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:08.359
<v Speaker 9>the more power he amasses, the more he thinks he

0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:12.840
<v Speaker 9>is Zeus, you know, And it's you know, it's up

0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:15.639
<v Speaker 9>to us to say, no, we don't want a Zeus.

0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:20.320
<v Speaker 9>We want to live in a democracy.

0:19:21.000 --> 0:19:23.720
<v Speaker 5>What David's saying, I've been thinking about it.

0:19:24.520 --> 0:19:28.560
<v Speaker 3>Of course, it's dramatic, but it also captures the dramatic

0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:32.879
<v Speaker 3>scale of Elon's ambitions and what we've made of them

0:19:32.920 --> 0:19:36.400
<v Speaker 3>looking back. Something I got wrong about Elon from the start,

0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:39.200
<v Speaker 3>when his whole thing was just rockets.

0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:41.120
<v Speaker 5>And climate change. He seemed like some.

0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:44.440
<v Speaker 3>Sort of superhero, like larger than life, more than just

0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:47.120
<v Speaker 3>some guy Elon.

0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:48.040
<v Speaker 5>Musk is not zeus.

0:19:49.080 --> 0:19:52.280
<v Speaker 3>What he is, though, is a celebrity, and we've got

0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:56.000
<v Speaker 3>a lot of say in that. After all, Fox popular

0:19:56.840 --> 0:19:59.920
<v Speaker 3>the people we do make up hathy EQ.

0:20:10.400 --> 0:20:10.800
<v Speaker 5>Citizen.

0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:14.520
<v Speaker 3>Elon is produced by Lena Mesitzis, Rayon Harmonci is our

0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:18.280
<v Speaker 3>senior editor, Blake Maples handles engineering and Emma.

0:20:18.040 --> 0:20:19.200
<v Speaker 5>Sanchez fact checking.

0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:22.800
<v Speaker 3>Brendan Francis Newham is our executive producer, and Sage Bauman

0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:25.800
<v Speaker 3>is the head of Bloomberg Podcasts. Big thanks to the

0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:30.600
<v Speaker 3>Elon Ink crew, David Popadopoulos, Naomi Shaven, Magnus Hendrickson, Stacy

0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:34.639
<v Speaker 3>Wong listen every Tuesday for breaking Elon news. Thanks as

0:20:34.640 --> 0:20:38.560
<v Speaker 3>well to our Bloomberg colleagues David Fox, Julia Press, Dana Hall,

0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:43.960
<v Speaker 3>Sarah Fryar, Kurt Wagner, Josh Green, Mark Million, Margaret Sutherland,

0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:49.520
<v Speaker 3>Alison Mobley, Jackie Kessler, Ariel Brown, Chris Nocenzo, and Albert Hicks.

0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:53.480
<v Speaker 3>An extra big thanks to Brad Stone, editor of BusinessWeek,

0:20:53.640 --> 0:20:56.720
<v Speaker 3>and Katie Boyce, executive editor of Bloomberg Digital, for their

0:20:56.800 --> 0:20:57.760
<v Speaker 3>unflagging support.

0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:00.000
<v Speaker 5>I'm Max Schaft.

0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:02.200
<v Speaker 3>If you have a minute, rate and review our show,

0:21:02.280 --> 0:21:03.880
<v Speaker 3>it'll help other listeners find us