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From Wondery, Flipping the Bird Elon

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vs. Twitter is a new podcast that

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unravels the fascinating story of Elon

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Musk's unexpected bid to buy Twitter

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and all the drama that has happened since.

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As one of the richest men on earth and a self-described

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business maverick, Elon epitomizes

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the Silicon Valley ethos of move

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fast and break things, and once Elon

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became Twitter's new CEO, you were

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either with him or against him. Those

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still employed at Twitter soon saw the company

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and its culture morph into something they did not

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recognize. He laid off 75% of

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the workforce, reinstated problematic

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and dangerous users, and even encouraged

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his staff to sleep in the office. Ex-employees,

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Elon's critics, and fellow CEOs were

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

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rich guy, but Twitter's doors are still open

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today. Is Elon all talk, or

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are his unruly methods actually the work

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of genius? However you feel about

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his approach, Elon's influence is not

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only ushering in a new era of Twitter, but

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shaping the future of free speech on the

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internet as we know it. You're about to hear a

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clip from Flipping the Bird, Elon vs.

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Twitter. While you're listening, follow

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Flipping the Bird wherever you get your podcasts.

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And hey, Prime members, you can listen to episodes

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ad-free on Amazon Music. Download

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the Amazon Music app today.

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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. Is

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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. One

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of the first tweets

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I saw when I opened the app was... From his

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new boss. I'd like to apologize

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for Twitter being super slow in making...

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Many countries. App is doing more than 1,000

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poorly-patched RPCs just

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to render a home timeline. I

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was like, this doesn't make sense. So

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he responds in the free flow of ideas,

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tagging Elon for a fact. I

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spent six years working on Twitter for Android

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and 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. He's

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fired.

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

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is the end of eight years. This is how this

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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 mean? I'm not saying it's aliens, but yes, aliens.

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I'm supposed to believe this man is 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. He'll like tweet

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a thing and then everyone's like, we got to work on that now

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because he tweeted it. But really just felt like, OK,

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this really is just a platform being ruled

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by a dictator who does things on

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his own land.

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And what will be left of Twitter

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by 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,

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on Amazon Music or wherever you get

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your podcasts. You can start listening

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to Flipping the Bird early and ad-free by

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subscribing to Wondery Plus and Apple

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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

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I'd like to ask at least I've tried my very best, I

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guess. For me, I'm the pedestal and

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I'll only disappoint you. Tell

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me I'm exceptional, I 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 gonna hit me fire in

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the audience.