Why Casey Left Substack, Elon Musk and Drugs, and an A.I. Antibiotic Discovery


Kevin Roose and

Dav is Land

and

Dan PowellMarion LozanoDiane Wong and

Casey is taking his newsletter Platformer off Substack, as criticism over the company’s handling of pro-Nazi content grows. Then, The Wall Street Journal spoke with witnesses who said that Elon Musk had used LSD, cocaine, ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms, worrying some directors and board members of his companies. And finally, how researchers found a new class of antibiotics with the help of an artificial intelligence algorithm used to win the board game Go.

Today’s guests:

  • Kirsten Grind, enterprise reporter for The Wall Street Journal

  • Felix Wong, postdoctoral fellow at M.I.T. and co-founder of Integrated Biosciences

Additional Reading:

  • Why Platformer is leaving Substack.

  • Elon Musk has reportedly used illegal drugs, worrying leaders at Tesla and SpaceX.

  • Researchers have discovered a new class of antibiotics using A.I.

An illustration of a bright yellow exit sign on a turquoise background, with orange and purple code covering one half of the image.
Photo Illustration by The New York Times; Image: AnthonyRosenberg, via Getty Images

“Hard Fork” is hosted by Kevin Roose and Casey Newton and produced by Davis Land and Rachel Cohn. The show is edited by Jen Poyant. Engineering by Alyssa Moxley and original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano, Diane Wong and Pat McCusker. Fact-checking by Mary Mathis.

Special thanks to Paula Szuchman, Pui-Wing Tam, Nell Gallogly, Kate LoPresti and Jeffrey Miranda.