Elon Obsesses Over Babies and Linda Yaccarino Loses an Ally | Elon, Inc.

Why is Elon Musk so obsessed with birth rates? And what is he doing about it? Those questions are at the heart of today’s episode, as well as the Bloomberg Businessweek feature by Sophie Alexander and Dana Hull. They join David Papadopoulos to talk about their reporting (and their scoop on Musk’s twelfth known child). Plus, what’s happening at X? Falling revenues have led to a high-level shake-up, as Kurt Wagner comes aboard to discuss.
An employee said to be close to X’s Linda Yaccarino-Joe Benarroch-recently left the company, according to Fortune. He handled communications for the social media platform, a notoriously difficult position in any Musk enterprise given that the billionaire often acts as the company’s unfiltered mouthpiece.
The development may be a signal that the embattled company’s many Musk-induced troubles are finally reaching the C-Suite, and perhaps soon Yaccarino herself.
Musk has long evinced concern with falling birth rates. This worry, however, isn’t shared by many experts. Granted, it’s a complicated issue, since there are indeed negative economic impacts of a population of aging citizens.
One thing that can change a country’s population trends, of course, is immigration. But a big part of Musk’s far-right agenda includes stoking fears of an “open border” in the US, despite a severe immigration crackdown by the Biden administration.
Despite this contradiction, the South Africa native has been advocating for a pro-natalist agenda. This holds for his own life: Bloomberg reported he has a third child with employee Shivon Zillis, which would mean Musk has at least 12 children.
Musk has given $10 million to the Population Wellbeing Initiative housed at the University of Texas at Austin. It represents his largest donation to higher education. It arguably also shows the depth of Musk’s anxiety about population collapse, and his desire to insert these ideas into mainstream academia. Demographers have a lot of trouble predicting reproductive behavior and fertility patterns with any certainty in the future, however.
The fears related to population collapse, and the desire to advocate for having more kids, have long ties to ugly chapters of American (and world) history. Starting in the 1800s, the “science” of eugenics contained racist ideas and policies that celebrated White families while bemoaning the growth of non-White families. Musk’s critics say it’s a short distance between his anti-immigration, pro-natalist stances, and the historically bigoted verbiage around who should and should not reproduce.
On a lighter note, Feud Watch returns! This week, we look at Elon’s tweets against billionaire ex-wives who, in his estimation, “might be the downfall” of civilization. Max Chafkin sees a potential upside for Musk in this battle: a way to market Cybertrucks to a very specific post-apocalyptic part of the car-buying population.
Elon Musk’s sprawling business empire has granted the billionaire a degree of power and global influence that transcends the industries he’s reshaped. He is the leader of no fewer than six hugely influential companies, spanning electric vehicles to wartime communications, and their innovations could shape the fates of nations.
Musk is polarizing, confounding and inescapable. And he is the biggest business story of our time.
Each week, listen in as host David Papadopoulos convenes a panel of Bloomberg Businessweek journalists who are tracking Musk’s companies and the surprising ways they intersect. They break down the business mogul's latest moves and analyze what they could mean for us all.
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By "YouSum Live"
00:09:25 Elon Musk's concern about population decline
00:10:04 Elon Musk's belief in the importance of sustaining population
00:10:27 Elon Musk's unconventional approach to addressing population concerns
00:12:53 Elon Musk's personal involvement in procreation
00:15:01 Challenges arising from Elon Musk's personal and professional relationships
00:17:30 Concerns about the impact of declining birth rates on the economy
00:19:24 The intersection of population concerns with race and culture
00:19:49 Dark history of demography's ill intentions
00:21:25 Demographers caution on predicting birth behaviors
00:21:59 Elon Musk's significant donation to UT Austin
00:23:31 Musk's influence in academia through pronatalist movement
00:27:58 Elon Musk's unconventional philanthropic approach
00:28:46 Elon Musk's unconventional views on ex-wives as threats
00:29:29 Feud rankings and Elon Musk's conspiracy theories
By "YouSum Live"