Podcast Summary: There Are No Girls on the Internet

Episode: Ashley St. Clair Apologized. Elon Musk Threatened to Take Her Kid

Host: Bridget Todd (iHeartPodcasts)
Guest: Parker Malloy (Writer, "The Present Age" newsletter)
Date: January 20, 2026

Overview

This episode explores the recent controversy involving right-wing influencer Ashley St. Clair, her relationship with Elon Musk, and her public apology for anti-trans rhetoric. The host, Bridget Todd, and guest Parker Malloy delve into how the outrage-driven right-wing media machine operates, what happens when one of its own attempts to step off, and the wider implications for marginalized communities online. At its core, the conversation asks: What does genuine change look like in a toxic digital ecosystem, and how should we respond when former antagonists express regret?

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Story of Ashley St. Clair and Elon Musk

• Ashley St. Clair, a right-wing influencer, wrote "Elephants Are Not Birds," an anti-trans children's book (02:57).
• In 2024, she had a child with Elon Musk, kept private for nearly a year. Musk offered her $15 million and $100,000/month child support to keep his paternity secret via NDA. She refused (02:57).
• After her refusal, St. Clair faced alleged retaliation: Musk’s AI chatbot Grok generated sexualized images of her (including photos from when she was a minor), her X (Twitter) account was demonetized, and features were removed (03:23).
• Ashley sued X; Musk responded by threatening to seek sole custody, falsely suggesting her public regret about transphobia meant she planned to transition their child (03:48).

2. The Right-Wing Outrage Machine

• Many conservative influencers thrive by generating outrage—especially around trans issues—because algorithms and audiences reward divisiveness and cruelty (07:40).
• "Conservative media figures are able to really just deploy anti trans rhetoric for clout and cash." – Bridget Todd (06:58).
• Outrage cycles are self-sustaining: deviation, doubt, empathy, or apology make you the new “content” and target of the machine you once fed (18:25).
• Example: Tommy Lahren being ousted for expressing pro-choice views shows strict boundaries for diversity of opinion in right-wing media (19:00).

3. Is Change and Redemption Possible?

• Ashley St. Clair apologized for her anti-trans past, expressing regret and saying she feels immense guilt––especially if she hurt Musk’s trans daughter, Vivian (12:43).
• Quote:
  "I feel immense guilt for my role and even more guilt that things I said in the past may have caused my son's sister more pain... I also haven't said much on this because I have gone back and forth over whether my voice would be helpful... But, yeah, I am sorry. Let me know how I can help." – Ashley St. Clair (12:43)
• Parker reflects on how to approach apologies from former antagonists:
  "Do I want to punish people who used to hold bad views or do I want fewer people to hold bad views? If it's the latter, I have to leave room for people to change." – Parker Malloy (15:04)
• Motivation for change is complex; sometimes it’s personal circumstances or loss of status, but the path to empathy, even if self-centered, can still be real (27:00).
• The sincerity of apologies isn't as important as modeling public change: "If we demand perfect motives before we accept an apology, we're never going to accept any apologies." – Parker Malloy (30:17)

4. Audience Capture and Escalation

• Right-wing creators often feel trapped by their audience's expectations—pushed to take more and more extreme positions (21:36).
• "You have to keep one upping yourself... It's one of those things where I do understand feeling sort of trapped by what your audience expects from you." – Parker Malloy (21:36)
• Some eventually perform rather than believe the extreme positions they're rewarded for ("putting on a performance"). But stepping back results in instant loss of support (26:25).

5. Empathy and the Dilemma of Response

• Both Bridget and Parker discuss efforts to resist knee-jerk unsympathetic responses to people like St. Clair—challenging themselves to honor their own values rather than indulge schadenfreude (37:20; 45:31).
• Quote:
  "It was like the voice in my head was no longer connected to my own humanity... It's not even really about them. It's about me." – Bridget Todd (45:31)
• Parker emphasizes maintaining empathy is essential not just for societal healing but personal well-being in the face of relentless online toxicity (46:33).

6. Musk’s Political Motivations and Platform Power

• The show discusses how Musk’s acquisition of Twitter/X was rooted in explicit transphobia (53:04).
• Media coverage often sanitizes motivations of people like Musk, treating their bigotry as just another political viewpoint (53:50).
• Musk actively manipulates algorithms, policies, and AI chatbot outputs to mainstream his own fringe views and make platforms hostile to marginalized groups (55:54).
  • Example: After rules against deadnaming and misgendering were removed, Twitter became "open season" on trans users, causing many to leave (55:54).

7. What Next? The Role of Former Antagonists

• If people like St. Clair continue to speak honestly about their change, they may have critical influence over audiences who would never listen to activists or those from marginalized groups themselves (62:02).
• "We're probably not going to be the ones to change people's minds, but she might." – Bridget Todd (61:29)
• True progress comes not from medals for changed minds, but from more people shifting away from bigotry and speaking up about their journeys (61:29).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the dangers of the outrage machine:
  "The same people who cheered your attacks on trans kids will turn those same weapons on you. Even in what she wrote, St. Clair seems very aware... 'As soon as I say anything, this is going to feed the right wing outrage machine.' And by golly, she was right." – Bridget Todd (18:25)
• On leaving room for change:
  "Do I want to punish people who used to hold bad views or do I want fewer people to hold bad views? If it's the latter, I have to leave room for people to change." – Parker Malloy (15:04)
• On the public/private intersection of Musk's actions:
  "...to just relegate them to 'his private life' misses the ways that he's terrorizing people, women and trans folks, both privately and publicly in ways that are linked." – Bridget Todd (37:20)
• On empathy:
  "I caught myself being the kind of person who I didn't recognize, like, wishing for bad things for people. And I'm really trying to not be in that space because that's not who I want to be." – Bridget Todd (45:31)
• On why marginalized voices online matter:
  "Marginalized voices have always been at the forefront of the internet, yet our stories often go overlooked... We need monuments to all of the identities that make being online what it is." – Bridget Todd (From episode description)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Ashley St. Clair’s story setup: 02:57 – 04:48
• Introduction of guest Parker Malloy: 04:48 – 05:32
• Explaining the "outrage machine": 07:40 – 10:28
• Summary of St. Clair/Musk dispute: 10:29 – 12:43
• St. Clair’s apology read and discussion: 12:43 – 15:04
• Machine’s reaction to deviation (Tommy Lahren, Nick Fuentes): 18:58 – 26:25
• Exploring paths to empathy and change: 27:45 – 32:41; 45:31 – 48:15
• Media’s framing of Musk’s motivations: 53:04 – 55:54
• Reflections on building space for redemption and impact on policy: 61:29 – 65:00

Tone and Style

• The episode is thoughtful, compassionate, and at times confessional—emphasizing reflection and challenging listeners to reconsider their own reactions to redemption and change.
• Both host and guest share personal anecdotes, offer societal critique, and ground their points in both lived experience and media analysis.
• The language is direct, conversational, and rooted in a desire for justice and empathy—but never naive about the realities of online cruelty and power dynamics.

For listeners new to the story or the show, this episode is an incisive look at digital outrage culture, the messy business of public apologies, and the stakes of who controls the internet’s platforms—and narratives.