Jordan Peterson and Elon Musk Interview

Overview

Jordan Peterson and Elon Musk Interview refers to a 45-minute conversation between conservative influencer and clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk that was posted to the Daily Wire, where Peterson is a contributor, and also to X / Twitter, the social media platform that Musk owns, in late July 2024. After its release, various moments from the conversation in which Peterson and Musk expressed opinions that some found strange and off-putting circulated online as clips and were widely memed.

Background

Prior to the interview, Jordan Peterson had long been a frequent user of X / Twitter and an activist on issues that Elon Musk was also concerned with. The interview between the two men was posted to the Daily Wire on July 22nd, 2024, as an episode of the Jordan Peterson Podcast and also to X that same day.^[1] Peterson's posting of the livestream of the conversation (seen below) received over 56,000 likes, 14,000 reposts and 5,700 replies in the course of two days.^[2]

Musk also promoted his appearance on Peterson's podcast on his personal X account that same day (seen below), receiving over 116,000 likes in the course of two days.^[3]

Developments

Livestream

The livestream, which was two hours and 14 minutes long, received over 36.9 million views on X in two days, according to the platform's measurements. After it concluded, many commenters talked about Peterson's interviewing style, arguing that he had not given Musk enough space to speak. For example, on July 22nd, 2024, X user @C_Kavanagh echoed the comments of several in the replies to postings of the livestream (seen below), which earned over 400 likes in the course of two days.^[8]

Online Reactions

On July 23rd, 2024, X user @still_oppressed posted a clip of the interview in which Peterson described medieval Christian iconography at length, leading Musk to respond, "Yeah," which many perceived as him being confused by what Peterson was saying. The post clipping the video received over 21,000 likes in two days.^[4] Also that day, Ian Miles Cheong described the same exchange as, "A cerebral interview. Never seen anything like this."^[6]

On July 22nd, X user @NicholasGuyatt clipped a moment in which Peterson attempted to sell Elon Musk on his all-meat "carnivore diet," receiving over 7,600 likes in two days.^[5] After Musk described fighting a sumo wrestler and injuring himself, Peterson told him that he should eat all beef, claiming it would fix his health concerns.

Musk also shared that his conflict with what he called the "woke mind virus" stemmed from his daughter, who is transgender. Musk said that he "lost his son" when his daughter came out as trans, which motivated him to act. On July 22nd, 2024, right-wing influencer and X user @Liz_Wheeler shared a video of this exchange (seen below), receiving over 62,000 likes in the course of two days.^[7]

Following the interview, X user @dieworkwear, Menswear Guy, posted a thread criticizing Peterson's fashion choices, something which he had done several times before. The thread, from July 23rd, 2024, received over 11,000 likes in the course of one day.^[9]

Search Interest

External References