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From Wondery, Flipping the Bird, Elon

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versus Twitter, is a new podcast that

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unravels the fascinating story of

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Elon Musk's unexpected bid to

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buy Twitter and all of the drama that

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has happened since then. As one of the richest

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men on earth and

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a self-described business maverick,

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Elon epitomizes the Silicon Valley

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ethos of move fast and break things.

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And once Elon became Twitter's

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new CEO, you were either with him or

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against him. Those still employed

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at Twitter soon saw the company and

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its culture morphed into something they didn't recognize.

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He laid off 75% of the Twitter

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workforce, reinstated exceedingly

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problematic and dangerous users, and

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even encouraged his staff to sleep in the

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office. Ex-employees, Elon's

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critics, and fellow CEOs were quick

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to denounce him as an in-over-his-head

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rich guy. But Twitter's doors

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are still open today. Is Elon

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all talk or are his unruly methods

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actually the work of a genius? However

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you feel about his approach, Elon's

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influence is not only ushering in a

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new era of Twitter, but shaping the future of free

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speech on the internet

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as we know it. I'm about to play a clip from

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Flipping the Bird, Elon versus Twitter. While

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you're listening, follow Flipping the Bird wherever you

1:16

get your podcasts. Hey, Prime members, you can listen to episodes

1:19

ad-free on Amazon Music. Download

1:22

the Amazon Music

1:23

app today. One minute.

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Twitter is under new ownership.

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Elon Musk has arrived at Twitter's San Francisco

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offices. And he's got big ideas

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about how his platform should

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be. I believe in the free flow of ideas.

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Is someone you don't like allowed

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to say something you don't like? That

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is a sign of a healthy, functioning,

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free speech situation. Except

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maybe for one Twitter employee

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who does just that. Open

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up my phone, open up Twitter.

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first week I saw when I opened the app was from

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his new boss. I'd like to apologize

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for Twitter being super slow in many countries.

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App is doing more than 1,000 poorly

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batched RPCs just to render

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a home timeline. I was like, this doesn't

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make sense. So he responds

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in the free flow of ideas, tagging

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Elon for effect. I spent six

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years working on Twitter for Android and

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can say this is wrong. Turns out there

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are limits to what Elon will tolerate

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on his platform.

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He's fired.

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You know, your heart kind of sinks a little bit. Like

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this is the end of eight years. This is how

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this ride's going to end. From

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Wondery, the makers of We Crashed and

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In God We Lust comes a new

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series, Flipping the Bird, Elon

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versus Twitter. A story about

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what happens when the richest man on the

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planet decides to acquire

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a powerful social media company in

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the name of free speech. It started

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off promising and

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then he just kind

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of, you know, keeps going on and on.

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But does he have what it takes? I

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can't believe I have to transition from aliens away

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from this conversation back to Twitter. What

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do you do? I'm not saying it's aliens, but it's

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aliens.

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I'm supposed to leave this man as a genius. Or

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is this all just about Elon? He's

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essentially mad that his tweets

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aren't performing as well as

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he would have expected them to.

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He'll like tweet a thing and then everyone's like, we got to

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work on that now because he tweeted

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it. It really just felt like, okay, this really is

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just a platform being ruled by a dictator

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who does things on his own land.

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And what will be left of Twitter by

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the time he's done? Basically, my entire

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team was gone. By the end of it, infrastructure

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was just completely gutted. They literally auctioned

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off the contents of the Market Street

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San Francisco Twitter headquarters.

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It just felt like everything

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was kind of descending into chaos.

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I'm David Brown, the host of Business Wars. Follow

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Flipping the Bird, Elon versus Twitter,

4:09

on Amazon Music or wherever you get

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your podcasts. You can start listening

4:13

to Flipping the Bird early and ad-free by

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subscribing to Wondery Plus and Apple

4:17

Podcasts or the Wondery app.

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I must confess I've made a mess of what

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should be a small success, but I'd like rats at

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least. I've tried my very best,

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I guess. Put me on a

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pedestal and I'll only disappoint you. Tell me I'm

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exceptional, I

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promise to exploit you.

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Make some noise for the richest man in the world.

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It sounds like someone's going to hit me fire in the audience.