Elon Musk was once hailed as one of the brightest wealthy Americans who was standing up for progressive causes like climate change. Then he threw away that reputation as he rapidly shifted rightward and publicly embraced white nationalist conspiracy theories. This week, June and Josh explore Elon Musk’s under-discussed but high-priority views on birth rates, natalism, the Great Replacement theory, and sexy chatbots.

***WE WANT YOUR THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEKLY MAILBAG! Send an email with feedback about this week's episode to illconceivedpod@gmail.com***

EPISODE ART: Elon Musk, the current wealthiest man in the world and by some metrics the wealthiest man to ever live, wearing a black hat that says DOGE on it. Musk's current net worth is estimated around a half trillion dollars based on his equity positions in Tesla and SpaceX. He also owns X, the social media network formerly known as Twitter.

AUDIO CLIPS:

24:38 – Elon Musk in an interview with WELT Documentary
36:09 – Bob Page, the primary antagonist of the 2000 video game Deus Ex, in one of the game's three endings
58:20 – Elon Musk in an interview with Matteo Salvini, the deputy prime minister of Italy
1:12:09 – Luke Priddy, a YouTube content creator who teaches American English, reviewing Grok's "Ani" persona as a teaching tool
1:18:07 – A demonstration video of "Ani" posted by Elon Musk to his X account on July 18, 2025

SOURCES:

FOLLOW THE SHOW:

FOLLOW JOSH:

Website: joshboerman.com
Bluesky: @bosh.worstpossible.world
Other podcast: The Worst of All Possible Worlds
Stream: Traditional Scrench

FOLLOW JUNE:

Bluesky: @junlper.beer
Other podcast: Kill The Computer
Writing: June's Substack