Here's an excerpt from Max Chafkin's new podcast Everybody's Business, co-hosted with Stacey Vanek Smith. From now on, if you want to hear the whole episode and all past and future episodes, head to your podcast app of choice and search for Everybody's Business. A handy collection of links can be found here.

For now, enjoy this conversation with stacy-marie ishmael about President Trump's novel crypto strategy.

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When Bloomberg’s Mishal Husain interviewed Elon Musk last week, it caused quite a stir. This was especially the case when Musk proclaimed, “in terms of political spending, I’m gonna do a lot less in the future.” (Most news reports missed a sly qualification that made this seem more like an ultimatum. But more on that below). Coverage of the supposed end of Musk’s role as Republican Party’s Sugar Daddy added fuel to the ongoing “what will Elon do now?” frenzy. Over the weekend, a substantial outage at his social media platform X may have added some clarity. In response, the serial entrepreneur announced he was going “back to spending 24/7 at work and sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms.”

Or not. In this episode of Elon, Inc., Max Chafkin brings together Elon Musk reporter Dana Hull and social media reporter Kurt Wagner to discuss whether Musk means what he says about politics, subsidizing the GOP or even going back to work. Is he really leaving politics in the rearview mirror? Or were these statements calculated? Could they be a way for him to intimidate lawmakers who are expecting campaign funds while assuring investors he’s on top of his sometimes struggling companies?

To round things off, they rank Musk’s most immediate plans on a scale of how likely they are to succeed in the foreseeable future. Will it be X Money? A functioning fleet of “robotaxis?” Or maybe shooting Tesla’s humanoid robot Optimus to Mars? There was some disagreement.

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Check out the feed of our sister podcast Everybody's Business in any podcast app of your choice. After several week's of cross publishing, in the future you're going to have to head to that feed to enjoy the show. But for now...
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All the economy is a stage this week, as the “big beautiful” tax bill passed the House in the wee hours of Thursday morning, and millions of college graduates got their diplomas and set off into the the job market, competing with an ever growing army of robot workers.

In the second episode of Everybody’s Business from Bloomberg Businessweek, hosts Stacey Vanek Smith and Max Chafkin dive into the tax bill, the AI job threat, and the turning of (actual) lead into (actual) gold.

The tax cut extension still has to pass the Senate, but the House version would add roughly $4 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, and would be, by far, the most expensive policy the Trump administration has enacted. In spite of this, the tax bill has not gotten nearly the attention of other policies, including the Department of Government Efficiency (its cuts have not amounted to even 1% of the federal budget). But all the sound and fury signifying a rounding error is by design according to author and economic journalist Kyla Scanlon. Scanlon says you can learn a lot about the Trump Administration’s economic policies by watching Wrestlemania.

Then Bloomberg reporter Sarah Frier joins to talk about AI and jobs. Fears are growing in the US workforce that jobs are being lost to artificial intelligence, and a new study estimates up to ⅓ of jobs in developed countries will be “transformed” by AI. Frier looks at what jobs might be under threat and how real the worries are.

Finally, Stacey and Max talk about a major development in commodities markets. Scientists were able to turn lead into gold! Stacey thinks this could be a turning point for the gold market and all mankind. Max has doubts…after all, all that glitters is not gold.

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Elon Musk was interviewed Tuesday by Bloomberg’s Mishal Husain at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha. The wide-ranging conversation spanned the multibillionaire’s work on behalf of President Donald Trump and at his “Department of Government Efficiency,” protests against Tesla and a careful assertion that he might wind down his political contributions. The chat turned tense at times, with Musk becoming visibly upset while discussing demonstrators who vandalized Tesla showrooms and how “DOGE” has vastly undershot its promised savings. In this week’s Elon, Inc., David Papadopoulos and Max Chafkin dissect some notable moments from the interview.

Also on the show, Max goes through the wild week of xAI’s chatbot Grok. First off, the artificial companion spent an entire day talking about “White genocide” in clearly irrelevant responses to unrelated queries. The company then managed to strike a deal with prediction betting site Kalshi and finally ended up in the cloud of arch-nemesis Microsoft. Max has a lot of explaining to do.

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Elon Musk was just interviewed by Bloomberg’s Mishal Husain at the Qatar Economic Forum. It was a sometimes tense exchange that covered everything from DOGE savings, via Tesla protestors, to Elon’s plans to wind down his political contributions. Today’s episode of Elon, Inc. will break down the interview and analyze highlights but for now, you can listen to the whole 40 minutes here.

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Where’s the inflation? With this week’s Consumer Price Index coming in softer than predicted (inflation at its lowest level since 2021, according to government data), a lot of people are wondering why tariffs haven’t pushed prices up. In the debut episode of Everybody’s Business from Bloomberg Businessweek, hosts Stacey Vanek Smith and Max Chafkin tackle President Donald Trump’s trade war, inflation and when the rubber will (if ever) hit the road.

Consumer spending columnist Amanda Mull takes Stacey on a tariff tour through Target, explaining why import taxes have yet to show up in inflation data and how you’re likely to see them in the future. It turns out flatscreen TVs, pineapples and mascara will all manifest tariffs in different ways. Mull concludes tariffs could very well ruin Christmas.

Then sports reporter Randall WIlliams joins to talk about why private equity has started buying up sports teams. It turns out teams are becoming more valuable as games dominate live television, attracting bigger audiences (and commanding higher ad rates). That’s got private equity sneaking into the game, pumping up prices and injecting billions of dollars into teams. Randall concludes that private equity won’t ruin sports (but Max and Stacey are skeptical). Finally, for the underrated story for the week, we look at the rising trend of rising sneaker soles. Shoe brands are creating ever puffier soles even as racing authorities try to put restrictions in place. Ultramarathoner Max realizes his beloved sport is in the crosshairs of controversy.

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In this week’s episode of Elon, Inc., host Max Chafkin and Bloomberg Elon Musk reporter Dana Hull sit down with Matthew LaBrot, a former Tesla sales manager who made headlines last week following his departure from the company. LaBrot was the man behind the “Tesla Employees Against Elon” website, which consisted of an open letter from an initially anonymous LaBrot criticizing the company’s multibillionaire CEO. He suggested Tesla would be better off continuing its mission without the South Africa native, his antics and the headlines that follow in his wake. Despite recent reports of the company board also having second thoughts about Musk’s performance as CEO, the company seemingly didn’t agree, and took swift action.

On the podcast, LaBrot outlines why he decided to write the letter, how he came to part ways with the company and how Tesla employees handle, or willfully ignore, “the elephant in the room.” As a former sales manager, LaBrot also spells out the internal struggles of the company as sales started plummeting in tandem with Musk’s far-right turn and association with President Donald Trump.

Hull and Chafkin also go through a list of additional Musk news from the week. These include a spat with Bill Gates, some good news for the Boring company and the latest example of cross-pollination in the Musk empire: Tesla hardware powering xAI’s supercomputer.

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This week on Everybody’s Business, Max and Stacey explore the future of friendship. With OpenAI and Meta ramping up efforts to give chatbots personalities and emotional intelligence, the hosts ask: could an AI ever truly be your friend? And will this lead to the downfall of humanity? Reporter Sarah Frier joins the conversation.

Then, Lights, Camera... Tariffs? President Trump wants to slap massive new taxes on films shot overseas, arguing it’s a national security issue. Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw stops by to explain what this could mean for the movie industry, how real the threat is, and what this might mean for the movie industry.

Finally, for the underreported story of the week, Max and Stacey attempt to untangle an international crypto story. It’s a wild tale of geopolitics, digital cash, and the ever-expanding business of influence.

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