ON A RAINY NIGHT in early April, Elon Musk brought his young son XÆ A-12-whom everyone calls X-to the Lobster Club for a PBS-documentary-screening party. "The younger Musk wandered around the restaurant wearing a Tesla shirt" while his father schmoozed with guests, the New York Times reported under the headline "Partying on a Tuesday With Elon Musk and His 3-Year-Old."
Photos show a cheerful Musk leaning in to chat with the TV series' executive producer, Kathryn Murdoch. Had Tesla shares tumbled after the company's disastrous first-quarter results? Did the market-research firm Caliber say the day before that the Tesla CEO's right-wing rants and public feuds were likely "contributing to the reputational downfall" of the brand, hurting sales? Yes to both. But how adorable did Lil X, as his father has called him, look in that picture? The message, intentional or otherwise, was clear: This was not the erratic, share-tanking shitposter you've heard about but a cuddly dad who has it all.
Nor was this the first time X, Musk's eldest son with the singer Grimes, had been carted around the way children his age might clutch a stuffie. What's weird is how little flak Musk gets for this behavior, which often gets chalked up to charming eccentricity or Musk being Musk. His fatherly antics-met with admiration on the platform formerly known as Twitter, which he owns-are evidence of Musk showing his personal commitment to reversing the population collapse he rarely fails to mention. "At the end of the day, birth rate is all that matters for civilizational continuity," he recently posted, bemoaning the rise of young people who identify as LGBTQ. Schlepping one of his ten known children around becomes another way to show how much skin he has in that doomerist game.
Denne historien er fra April 22 – May 05, 2024-utgaven av New York magazine.
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Denne historien er fra April 22 – May 05, 2024-utgaven av New York magazine.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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THE BEST ART SHOWS OF THE YEAR
IN NOVEMBER, Sotheby's made history when it sold for a million bucks a painting made by artificial intelligence. Ai-Da, \"the first humanoid robot artist to have an artwork auctioned by a major auction house,\" created a portrait of Alan Turing that resembles nothing more than a bad Francis Bacon rip-off. Still, the auction house described the sale as \"a new frontier in the global art market.\"
THE BIGGEST PODCAST MOMENTS OF THE YEAR
A STRANGE THING happened with podcasts in 2024: The industry was repeatedly thrust into the spotlight owing to a preponderance of head-turning events and a presidential-election cycle that radically foregrounded the medium's consequential nature. To reflect this, we've carved out a list of ten big moments from the year as refracted through podcasting.
THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
THE YEAR IN CULTURE - BEST BOOKS
THE BEST THEATER OF THE YEAR
IT'S BEEN a year of successful straight plays, even measured by a metric at which they usually do poorly: ticket sales. Partially that's owed to Hollywood stars: Jeremy Strong, Jim Parsons, Rachel Zegler, Rachel McAdams (to my mind, the most compelling).
THE BEST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
2024 WAS one big stress test that presented artists with a choice: Face uncomfortable realities or serve distractions to the audience. Pop music turned inward while hip-hop weathered court cases and incalculable losses. Country struggled to reconcile conservative interests with a much wider base of artists. But the year's best music offered a reprieve.
THE BEST TELEVISION OF THE YEAR
IT WAS SURPRISING how much 2024 felt like an uneventful wake for the Peak TV era. There was still great television, but there was much more mid or meh television and far fewer moments when a critical mass of viewers seemed equally excited about the same series.
THE BEST COMEDY SPECIALS OF THE YEAR
THE YEAR IN CULTURE - COMEDY SPECIALS
THE BEST MOVIES OF THE YEAR
PEOPLE LOVED Megalopolis, hated it, puzzled over it, clipped it into memes, and tried to astroturf it into a camp classic, but, most important, they cared about it even though it featured none of the qualities you'd expect of a breakthrough work in these noisy times.
A Truly Great Time
This was the year our city's new restaurants loosened up.
The Art of the Well-Stuffed Stocking
THE CHRISTMAS ENTHUSIASTS on the Strategist team gathered to discuss the oversize socks they drape on their couches and what they put inside them.
