What happened when Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, tried to buy Twitter? Comedian Bec Hill finds out.
6. Free Bird
Now that Elon Musk is officially the CEO of Twitter, how will the richest man in the world choose to shape the future of the most influential social media platform? Bec Hill finds out by assembling her team of Elon experts to unpack everything that has happened in the days since Elon walked into Twitter HQ with a bathroom sink.
As the 16-year-old app begins an unprecedented transformation, Bec talks to tech journalists about the plans Elon has already laid out for blue ticks, content moderation and potentially bringing back controversial users. They discuss the swift cuts Elon made to his senior management team and what this could all mean for the future of Twitter. Then Bec speaks to the voice of Elon’s tweets about what it was like to inhabit the Chief Twit and what he and the other guests would do if they were powerful tech billionaires.
Produced by Audio Always for BBC Radio 5 Live.
11/2/2022 • 30 minutes, 38 seconds
5. BREAKING NEWS: Deal or No Deal
The news is in, Elon Musk has closed the deal with Twitter. We find out how he broke the news, who he has fired, and ask - what is going on with THAT sink?
Produced by Audio Always for BBC Radio 5 Live.
10/28/2022 • 9 minutes, 50 seconds
4. Dealing with Elon
In this episode of Elon Musk Vs Twitter, Bec Hill finds out why Elon wanted to pull out of the Twitter deal and how he went from making a $44 billion offer to being faced with a potential $44 billion lawsuit. Through conversations with journalists, financial experts, and Twitter users, Bec tries to get to the bottom of the story and find out whether the deal could make Elon another fortune, or put the future of his empire in jeopardy.
When the deal was announced Twitter’s shareholders were excited at the prospect of the funding Elon would bring to the app but not everybody was so optimistic, so Bec talks to tech reporters about how Twitter employees reacted to news of the sale and why Twitter was ready to sue Elon for the price he’d offered to buy them at. She finds out how the issue of bots threatened to unravel the deal, explores whether or not Elon Musk did enough due diligence before putting in his offer, and asks could a whistleblower’s testimony could be the key to Twitter’s future?
Produced by Audio Always
10/27/2022 • 33 minutes, 36 seconds
3. A History of Tweets
In this episode of Elon Musk Vs Twitter, Bec Hill boards her mini-submarine to dive deep into the ocean of jokes, memes and legal mistakes that make up Elon Musk’s Twitter history. She analyses some of Elon’s most controversial tweets and learns about how one of them got him in so much trouble that he had to pay a 20 million dollar fine, step down from his role as the CEO of Tesla and get a Twitter - sitter.
Elon Musk wanted to buy Twitter so he could make major changes to the platform, so Bec speaks to the tech journalists who’ve been following every minute of the deal to find out what Elon wanted to change and whether the deal to buy Twitter could change the future of how we interact online.
Produced by Audio Always
10/26/2022 • 31 minutes, 16 seconds
2. The Town Square of the Internet
In just 16 years, Twitter has become the “town square of the internet”; it’s the centre of all the most important cultural conversations. But is it really worth the 44 billion dollars that Elon Musk offered to buy it for?
In this episode of Elon Musk Vs Twitter, Bec Hill dives deep into Twitter’s history and talks to tech journalists about its cultural impact to uncover how it became one of the most powerful social networks of our time. She speaks to the comedian Rosie Holt about trolls, going viral and what keeps us scrolling through the chaos, then finds out what happened when Elon Musk decided to buy a stake in Twitter.
Produced by Audio Always
10/25/2022 • 23 minutes, 13 seconds
1. Superhero Fantasy vs Flawed Reality
In this first episode of Elon Musk Vs Twitter, in trying to understand what happened when Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, tried to buy Twitter, comedian Bec Hill explores Musk’s backstory and the myths and legends that surround him.
She speaks to Jill Lepore, the host of the BBC Sounds series Elon Musk: The Evening Rocket, about the influence Science Fiction stories have had on Musk’s career and self-perception. She also chats to comic book scholar Kelly Kanayama and tech correspondent Marc Cieslak about how Elon’s public persona and business ventures have shaped the way that some people perceive him as a superhero and others see him as a supervillain.
Produced by Audio Always
10/18/2022 • 26 minutes, 24 seconds
Introducing...
Taking a deep dive into the world’s biggest and most chaotic tech takeover.