For better or worse, 2023 was the Year of Elon.

The world’s richest man entered the year humbled: Tesla’s stock had fallen precipitously over the previous 12 months, Musk had been forced by a Delaware judge to buy Twitter (since renamed X) at what looked like an inflated price (one he’d set himself, in what now looks like the world’s most misguided attempt at a weed joke), and he’d been booed by an arena full of Dave Chappelle fans. (Musk claimed, limply, that the crowd was mostly cheering “except during the quiet periods.”)

You can say a lot about what Musk has said and done in the months since then, but no one would argue he’s been marginalized. Surveys suggest that Musk’s reputation has taken a hit amid his amplification of right wing conspiracy theories, his endorsement of antisemitism, and his suggestion that the chief executive of one of the world’s most beloved companies “go f--- yourself.” And yet: Musk has put himself at the center of the news and has managed to stabilize his business empire. To make sense of this turn of events, the Elon Inc. crew invited PJ Vogt, the host of the Search Engine podcast, which earlier this year went deep down the Elon Musk rabbit hole to understand how, exactly, one of the world’s most admired technologists turned into a trolling, right wing memelord.