Flipping the Bird: Elon vs. Twitter

407

When Elon Musk posted a video of himself arriving at Twitter HQ carrying a white sink along with the message “let that sink in!” it marked the end of a dramatic takeover. Musk had gone from Twitter critic to “Chief Twit” in the space of just a few months but his arrival didn’t put an end to questions about his motives. Musk had earned a reputation as a business maverick. From PayPal to Tesla to SpaceX, his name was synonymous with big, earth-shattering ideas. So, what did he want with a social media platform? And was this all really in the name of free speech...or was this all in the name of Elon Musk? From Wondery, the makers of WeCrashed and In God We Lust, comes the wild story of how the richest man alive took charge of the world’s “digital public square.”

Binge all episodes of Flipping the Bird: Elon vs Twitter exclusively and ad-free by joining Wondery+ in Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/flipping-the-bird-elon-vs-twitter/ now.

Recent Episodes

Episodes loading...

Recent Reviews

DianeW98683

Very relevant to current events

This is a bingeable podcast. Once I started listening to, I kept listening until I finished all the episodes. It helps you understand Elon Musk better and you can see parallels between his takeover of Twitter and his current takeover of the US government. Wondery should make a TV series about this and put it on Netflix.
Lisa cushman

Informative and entertaining

This podcast is both entertaining and informative. It was worth my time.
a king 348976

Great I need more

This podcast was great. But I need more. There’s so much more that’s happened and happening. Please season 2.
MasterChi!

Interesting, musk fanboy tears are funny to

Pretty good, my only nitpicks was the narrator emphasizing the H sound in W words like: What, Why, and Where. Funny but distracting. Very informative about how the acquisition went down and the details of the aftermath. I liked how they had text messages, slack messages, and emails on hand to read out what was said by key players throughout the story The only thing that wasn’t thorough was the release of the twitter files, I had no idea what those were about and I was excited to learn more about that. But the podcast glossed over that in the span of a minute emphasizing the doxxing instead of what the files meant
jmdawson la

Excellent

I’m skeptical of the negative reviews and not because this is a perfect podcast but because the criticism is ridiculous and suspiciously uniform. I find it hard to believe Musk has admirers because he’s more styled for sycophants who lean on “bias” as an insult.
Btr1985

Mediocre

The first few episodes were solid because they were based on transcript. Then it became opinionated and one-sided. Many interviews with low level employees and no info from employees that agreed. Not a full picture.
Boberino9%

Great listen

The negative reviews are written by those who think reporting facts that happen to reflect poorly upon someone is “biased.” Most of it is not bias, it’s objective reality. Whatever bias that can be found in this podcast, (and shades of bias are found in everything,) is dwarfed by the pro-Elon bias motivating the negative reviews in the first place.
Stephy 1235

Incredibly Insightful

This show offers phenomenal insight into the Twitter-Musk purchase and takeover. Easily one of the best produced podcasts out there. Every episode is detailed, the narrative captivating, and the facts are the facts.
CjdJazzTpt

Biased much?!?

This is a poor attempt at a hit piece on Musk. Very easy to see when the story is being told and when it’s pure rhetoric. As the episodes pass, the bias becomes unbearable. One star.
RealTCjunkie

Loved this

So pretty sure the name of the podcast should let you know it probably wasn’t Pro Musk. Once I start listening I couldn’t put it down. Any one person with enough money to purchase a huge social media platform to provide free speech no matter which way you slant that should interest you.
Patrick Name 100

Hypocrisy

A company that censored on the basis of politically affiliation is the progressive champion while a man that thinks the marketplace of ideas should be celebrated is the villain. A company that saves a few sheets of paper and grows herbs for its own lunch room is the model of environmentalism while a man who put more electric vehicles on the road than anyone is to be despised. Biased, hypocritical and an utter waste of time!
Aaron Marcizzle

It Is What It Is

I don’t understand the critical reviews of this podcast or why so many are jumping to defend Musk. Much of what is stated in this series is easily verified and actually happened. I also don’t think this should be a surprise to anyone. The “visionaries” are rarely good managers. This is a pretty simple truth of business. And those who seek power to fix their insecurities rarely make decisions with others’ best interest in mind. The final episode does shift to being more commentary and opinion rather than reporting, but I found most of this series to be very accurate and fascinating.
CarlosDanGarcia

Good journalism is supposed to be boring

Very biased. Great podcast if you like to watch CNN or MSNBC without questioning their agenda. To each their own.
Reviewer92024

One of the worst

Literally sounds like an MSNBC segment read by a car commercial voiceover actor. The bias and intent is obvious in the first 4 minutes and lasts through to the end. Awful.
Ricky R Richard

More Opinion than Journalism

Imagine if Ann Coulter was assigned to do a podcast on the career of Joe Biden. This podcast is so absurd in its bias I spent most of my time laughing while listening.
Home Shine

Biased

I was excited to listen, then realized how lopsided the podcast leaned. It’s difficult to listen to for that reason. I admire what Elon was trying to do and all he’s accomplished in his life so far. Mistakes are inevitable when trying to do big things.
Tabmel

Biased

An interesting account but clearly intent on promoting a particular view rather than giving a wider and more accurate overview.
Cardiffjen

Interesting behind the scene story

Fascinating account of what happened with Twitter. A lot of the information used are fact-based revealed by the trial and actual tweets from Elon. Other than the last episode, I find the podcast to be fair and objective.
j_a_x_

Great Podcast About A Trash Human

Broflakes- Elon is the literal elite. He spent $44 Billion so he can censor what people say about him, he ain’t a free speech absolutionist! This podcast is just telling what happened, an honest look at the rambling nonsense behaviors of a pathological liar with too much money. What kind of loser spends all day tweeting?
DinaForHill

I’m interested in the topic

The background “music” makes it impossible for me to listen.
MizFit2

Why does it sound like a noire mystery?

This happened in 2022. The noire noises and voices don’t make any sense.
Shotamazing

Biased

Came here for an honest review of the Twitter acquisition. Got a very biased, one-sided view with a lot of misinformation and misleading content. Still listened to it all, but if you are a Twitter user- you will see what I mean.
kuckphoto

The narration is almost painful

It's like Casey Kasem was narrating this thing. It was a terrible job of narration. I don't know if this was AI reading it's own written script or if was actually read by an individual. Also, much like most media these days, it was slanted. You can be pretty certain by the podcasts that Wondery is a left leaning company. I'm not quite sure how people are surprised by this. Overall it's a below average podcast 2 stars for this review.
MediaMogul99

Well produced and entertaining

If you’re a Musk fan, you might want to skip this, it’s pretty harsh on him. But it’s well produced and highly entertaining. If you think Musk has an overinflated sense of self, I you’ll thoroughly enjoy this.
alhirsch

Super Al

Over dramatized and completely slanted for entertainment purposes. Too soon for this story to be told. Still in the early innings. Let it play out
Jmurrah

Insanely one-sided

Unrealistic view of how wonderful Twitter was pre-Elon. It is borderline propaganda.
DSJ26

Thank G-d for Elon

Wow. This podcast was so left leaning it almost tipped over. It was so obvious this was a hit job from the left. Instead of eating $20 avo 🥑 and not showing up for work, look up to Elon how and see his dedication to his work and expects the same work ethic from his employees.
suzicremecheese

Great show, spot on

Excellent video! Very well balanced. Just the facts and no bias. The elon simps are weeping. Anything they dont like is “why ya gotta be so left?”😭 Odd how straight up facts and quotes from the head twit himself and interviews with former and current employees are accused of having a non right-wing political bent. How very elon.
Blair04

One-sided and angry

Am I really supposed to believe this is a factual, unbiased account of Musk and Twitter? Please! Clearly put together by a bunch of whiny brats who think their freedom of speech was suppressed by Musk. No one can possibly take this podcast seriously.
BarelyMental

Lol. Left Propaganda?

So u think all a sudden Twitter is bad? 🤣😃🤣They allowed all kinds of foul stuff on it before Elon. It didn’t lean left it was obviously a left wing platform. If u disagree with the Dims policy or agenda u could lose followers, be suspended, or thrown off. The employees are far left disciples so I’m sure they are talking trash about Elon😃They banned a newspaper!! Just because the article was about a Biden. The total double standard & hypocrisy was glaring on Twitter before Elon. Much like how the media is now. The WH Dinner shower how bad. 😃
Sgtosd

Do better

So one-sided that it is hard to believe people actually believe stories like this. The entitlement of the former employees is exactly why it took someone like Elon to step in. He has proven that it does not take a huge mob to run Twitter, but you won’t actually tell that side of the story🤷‍♂️
johnsonable

narration makes content effectively unavailable

I’m really interested in this story, but I’ve stopped three minutes into the first episode because I can’t stand the narration. It’s very… 90’s Dateline or something. It’s not the speaker’s voice that I find off-putting, it’s the drama and cheesiness of the delivery. It just sounds like bad fiction.
jmoney19877

Too bad

Great content but keep the political left leaning nature out of it next time. Very disappointing, had a great concept and you screwed it up with political agenda.
Philly B 911

Great Show!!

It’s interesting to learn of aspects I wasn’t aware of concerning this mid-life crisis Elon put himself and millions of others through. It’s the gift that keep on giving.
Pitchspeeder

Rare review

This is only the second review I’ve written in many thousands of hours of podcast listening but this show is the worst of them all. The story is told in such a ridiculously one sided way that any thinking person would never take any of it seriously.
FOUNDPUNK

The text messages are killing me…

Dude, the sound of the text on your presentation had me wondering if they were you or my phone. It was getting to be too much. But you have good information, because we’ve seen it all happen IN REAL TIME, and can actually think back at what had been done. Lastly, the series theme music at the start of the production is super appropriate!!!
d00kes

Missing the whole story

I was fascinated by the story of Musk purchasing Twitter and while this podcast does tell some of the story of what happened behind the scenes, I’m missing the other half of the story. Also with one episode left, Twitter is still functioning and if not making money from verified accounts and subscription, it’s not bleeding cash anymore soooo…it can’t all be doom and gloom in the end. Just seems like the former employees interviewed have never been a part of a company under going restructuring and layoffs. What did they expect?!?! 🤷🏼‍♀️
outandaboutsandy

Elon Flips the Bird

This has been very interesting and just a very good example how money does not bring happiness. I fear, Elon will one day self destruct – he seems like a lost soul.
sacto11c

It’s a podcast, not a dissertation

The podcast shares fact checked information in a very interesting way. Don’t hate on the host for delivering information you may not like, be open minded. The show is great, the sound is phenomenal, and the information is what you take from it. Listen to the end FACT CHECKED!
garce is so

Great 👍🏼

Awesome and Informative
Jdub5161976

So much about this I didn’t know

I thought I had been keeping up with the Elon /Twitter saga but there was so much I didn’t know about this story. I found it fascinating to see how a billion can just decide to takeover a company one day and do whatever they feel like.
Peter Douche

Hard pass

Poorly written, voice work is subpar. Am I supposed to believe this is a professionally produced podcast? Fourth rate research.
A_pack_77

A great podcast

To those complaining about a left slant, reality has a left slant. Deal with it.
xenolon

Good Info, off-putting production

Really wanted to get through this for the content, but the audio production and narration feels like an audiobook of a spy thriller released in the 90s. It’s just way too overly dramatic and cheesy.
timpad

Selective reality

Not one word about the Twitter Files. Not one interview from the other side. Just a bunch of noise from now-formerly highly-paid butthurt activists masquerading as engineers and doing things like hardcoding server paths. All the while weaponizing empathy in the name of "...protecting the most vulnerable people on the platform." All the ruined lives in the wake of the Twitter Stasi. A little less identity politics and a little more actual effort has defeated the techy doomers and Twitter lives on. It should be buried in a concrete sarcophagus for having been (and probably still being, let's face it) a treasonous adjunct to state power, but it is what it is.
Urban_Mikki

Engrossing & Informative

Another’s enjoyable podcast as expected from Wondery! Engrossing storytelling grounded in journalistic integrity. Could do without annoying notification alarm sound effects though.
Mom to sandwich lovers

Nope.

It's an interesting story, but the background noise/ overly dramatic music is distracting. In particular, the constant text message alerts are incredibly annoying. I couldn't finish because I was using my phone to listen and every time the text message alert came on but it was the podcast, not an actual text, I lost it. Pro tip, you don't actually need to make the sound of a text message alert every time you reference the fact that somebody texted somebody in this or any podcast.
Kop198123

Unapologetically Biased

Agenda filled and biased which is ashame. Could have been a very enjoyable podcast. Despite the hate Elon has the last laugh and Twitter 2.0 is proving to be a success.
nameforappreviews

Hot Garbage

Cool. Now do some actual journalism and dissect Twitter’s collusion with the alphabet agencies revealed in the Twitter Files. Or, carry on as usual, and continue being another whiny outlet for intelligent people to mock. Who actually believes this hot garbage? It’s gross.
rose_designs

Too One Sided

It was clear from the first episode that the writer of this podcast did not like Elon Musk. He narrates the story completely from the perspective of someone unhappy with Musk’s takeover, so it was honestly hard to distinguish what has really transpired. I expect better from Wondery.