A new Wondery original podcast series on the events that unravelled after Elon Musk acquired Twitter in October 2022 has just launched, with host David W Brown.
The six-part investigative series titled Flipping The Bird: Elon vs. Twitter features never-before-heard accounts from employees who witnessed Musk’s management of the social media platform. This includes a first-hand account from Eric Frohnhoefer, a software engineer who was fired by Musk after working for Twitter for eight years because he publicly corrected him on the platform for getting technical information about the company wrong.
“A story about what happens when the richest man on the planet decides to acquire a powerful social media company in the name of free speech,” said Brown in the trailer. “But does he have what it takes or is this all just about Elon? And what will be left of Twitter by the time he’s done?”
Episodes one and two of the podcast launched yesterday and are available for subscribers of Wondery+ and will become available on all podcast platforms for free on 1 May. Amazon Music Prime members can also listen to the podcast ad-free from 1 May.
Brown, who is the anchor and managing editor of public radio news programme Texas Standard, also hosts Wondery’s investigative podcast Business Wars which has been running since 2018 and has unravelled a number of big company feuds, including Disney-Pixar vs Dreamworks, Apple vs Microsoft, and, most recently, the evolution of diet companies like Weight Watchers and Noom.
The podcast amassed massive success with over 15 million downloads within its first year of production and has received a number of awards, such as the 2023 Ambie Award for Best Business Podcast. Brown also hosts the series’ companion podcast, Business Wars Daily, which gives brief daily updates on the latest on company wars.
Wondery, which is an Amazon company, has made a number of expansions into the podcast space recently, including signing its first European distribution and ad sales deal with award-winning true-crime podcast Redhanded. With this partnership, the network now has exclusive rights to sell advertising against the show and fans that are subscribed to Wondery+ can enjoy ad-free listening and bonus content.
