Episode 211: Elon Was Always Like This

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Gem is joined by Lauren, Ashlyn, and Laura to talk in some detail about Elon Musk’s misadventures, including his history with PayPal, the Hyperloop and the Boring Company, and some of the less savoury aspects of his family life.

Not covered in detail here (as it’s been covered exhaustively elsewhere): Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, OpenAI, Twitter, and Elon Musk’s history of making extremely wrong, extremely dangerous predictions. (See the Bonus links below.).

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that explores the intersection of science and society.

An “Ideas Guy”: Elon Musk calls British diver in Thai cave rescue ‘pedo’ in baseless attack (The Guardian) | The Biggest Challenges That Stand in the Way of Hyperloop (Interesting Engineering) | What We Know About Elon Musk and the Emerald Mine Rumor (Snopes.com)

Zip2, X.com, Confinity, and PayPal: Was Elon Musk Fired from PayPal? (Snopes.com) | How PayPal bros ousted Elon Musk from CEO job, saved SpaceX (New York Post) | The Elon Musk & PayPal Story: Why He Was Removed (Shortform Books) | 21 Years Ago Elon Musk Was Fired from Paypal — Here’s How He Bounced Back (Entrepreneurship Handbook) | Why Was Elon Musk Fired From Paypal (CEO Influencers) | PayPal (Wikipedia) | The History of PayPal (TheStreet.com) | Timeline of PayPal (Wikipedia) | Zip2 (Wikipedia) | X.com (bank) (Wikipedia) | Confinity (Wikipedia) | Why is Elon Musk obsessed with the letter X? (The Independent) | Can Canadians Finally Use Venmo in 2025? Here’s the Truth (Mac Issues) | Is Venmo Available in Canada? (The Financial Geek) | Why You Can’t Venmo In Canada (The Peak) | How PayPal took over Canada (Montréal Guardian)

The Boring Company: Elon Musk’s underground transit system in Las Vegas is a magnet to trespassers and confused drivers who have to be escorted out (Fortune) | Elon Musk’s Boring Company is building tunnels to nowhere (Vox) | The Boring Company: What It Is, Products, and the Elon Musk Factor (Investopedia) | Prufrock (The Boring Company) | I Took Elon Musk’s Las Vegas Loop And It’s Just As Dumb As I Was Expecting (Jalopnik) | The financial pickle facing Elon Musk’s Las Vegas Loop system (TechCrunch) | Almost 7 Years Ago, Elon Musk Announced He’d Turn Tunnel Dirt Into ‘Bricks For Low-Cost Housing.’ Another One Of His Ideas That Fizzled Out? (Yahoo! Finance) | The Boring Company goes brick-and-mortar with The Brick Store (TechCrunch) | The Evolution of Tunnel Boring Machines (Construction Physics) | The Vegas Tesla Loop Is A Glorified Crosswalk (Jalopnik) | Vegas Loop workers burned, report says; Boring Co. faces $100K in fines (The Strip) | Elon Musk’s Boring Company plan for a 69-station ‘Vegas Loop’ is anything but nice (The Verge) | The hyperloop is dead for real this time (The Verge) | Musk’s Boring Company makes list of ‘Dirty Dozen’ workplace safety offenders (Nevada Current)

Elon’s Family Life: Elon Musk’s ex-wife refutes his claim that firstborn child died in his arms (The Independent) | Talulah Riley opens up about still loving Elon Musk and asking him to buy Twitter (The Independent) | Vivian Jenna Wilson on Being Elon Musk’s Estranged Daughter, Protecting Trans Youth and Taking on the Right Online (Teen Vogue) | 6 times Vivian Wilson murdered her father Elon Musk with words (Pride) | Elon Musk quietly dating musician Grimes (Page Six) | Elon Musk’s Wives, Women, and Kids: A Deep Dive Into His Long and Messy Relationship History (Glamour) | Elon Musk’s First Wife Justine Musk Talks Their Messy Divorce (Marie Claire) | Elon Musk’s 13 Children: All About the Controversial Billionaire’s Many Kids (Parade) | SpaceX Paid $250,000 to a Flight Attendant Who Accused Elon Musk of Sexual Misconduct (Business Insider)

Bonus: Elon’s History of Making Dangerous Predictions That Will Get People Killed: List of predictions for autonomous Tesla vehicles by Elon Musk (Wikipedia) | Elon Musk’s False Covid Predictions: A Timeline (Forbes)

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