She sits in on his business meetings, defends him on X, and travels to give talks about how she raised him, the richest man in the world—but who is Elon Musk’s mother? Today on the show, we learn all about the model, influencer, and author, Maye Musk, while dissecting her most recent travels to China and her possible influence on foreign politics.
You can follow Michael Calore on Bluesky at @snackfight, Lauren Goode on Bluesky at @laurengoode, and Zoë Schiffer on Bluesky at @zoeschiffer. Write to us at uncannyvalley@wired.com.
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Transcript
Note: This is an automated transcript, which may contain errors.
Michael Calore: Hey, Zoë, what does your mom call you?
Zoë Schiffer: I feel like I’ll erode a lot of my credibility if I tell you, so I’m just going to say that a lot of people call me Zoe for short.
Michael Calore: Okay.
Zoë Schiffer: Which is what my name looks like.
Michael Calore: If you don’t have the umlaut over the E, it just looks like Zoe?
Zoë Schiffer: Yeah, because it doesn’t have the Y so people always get confused. I’m like, “Oh, no, my parents call me Zoe. Don’t worry about it.”
Lauren Goode: Oh. Right, right. Like Zooey Deschanel, she has the Y, right? Yeah, okay.
Michael Calore: But she’s Zooey.
Lauren Goode: I never thought about that before.
Michael Calore: Isn’t she? Isn’t she Zooey?
Lauren Goode: No, she’s Zooey.
Zoë Schiffer: Like Franny and Zooey is spelled Zooey but it’s Zooey, Franny and Zooey. Anyway, Mike, what do your parents, what did they call you when you were little?
Lauren Goode: She’s deflecting really hard. She doesn’t want to tell us the real nickname.
Zoë Schiffer: I can’t. I just feel like I already have too much imposter syndrome.
Michael Calore: For a very long time, my mother referred to me by my full name, Michael, and so did my father.
Lauren Goode: What’s your middle name?
Michael Calore: Seth.
Lauren Goode: Did they call you Michael Seth?
Michael Calore: On very, very rare occasions.
Zoë Schiffer: Seth really could be your first name, too. I feel like that feels like that almost fits.
Lauren Goode: Oh, yeah. You’re a Seth.
Michael Calore: Do I present as Seth?
Zoë Schiffer: A little bit. Seth rising, if you will.
Michael Calore: Okay.
