Julia Black

Julia Black, an investigative journalist known for her exposé on Elon Musk's hidden children, delves deep into Musk’s controversial views on parenting. She explores the ideological underpinnings of his pronatalism and his quest for genetic optimization, including embryo screening. The episode also touches on the emotional impact of Musk's public remarks on his trans daughter, Vivian Wilson, and the ethical dilemmas surrounding emerging technologies like Neuralink. It's a thought-provoking exploration of family, society, and future technologies led by the tech elite.

Paris Marx is joined by Julia Black to discuss tech billionaires’ embrace of pronatalism and how it’s part of a broader rationalist project to remake society and protect their privileged positions. Julia Black is  a senior correspondent at Insider and previously worked at Esquire and Vox. Follow Julia on Twitter at @mjnblack.Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.Also mentioned in this episode: Julia wrote about pronatalism, Lex Fridman, and Sam Altman. Paris wrote about eugenics in Silicon Valley. Marc Andreessen wrote “It’s Time to Build” in April 2020. Timnit Gebru gave a presentation on the TESCREAL bundle of ideologies. Émile Torres made a thread on Twitter about it. Support the show

Julia Black, an investigative journalist known for her deep dives into Elon Musk's family dynamics, shares compelling insights about Musk's extensive family of 14. She uncovers previously unknown children and discusses the ethical implications of embryo screening linked to Musk’s quest for genetic optimization. Black also explores Musk's pronatalist ideology, the role of surrogates, and how these practices could shape future identities, raising important questions about inequality and genetic stratification.