The Deposition ✅
These are all real things Elon Musk said in a real court of law
Hi, welcome to Podcast Promise, the newsletter dedicated to only podcasts that truly inspire me to write something about them for real. They might be new releases, they might not. In this case, it is a podcast I MADE!: The Deposition. It drops the Fourth of July.
Yes, I am talking up my own work this time. I think I’ve earned it. I think making this podcast has broken parts of my brain forever and ever. I think I’ve earned it.
This podcast is a dramatic reading of the entire real deposition from Elon Musk in the libel lawsuit filed by Ben Brody. I need to emphasize this: everything in this podcast (except for when we break character) is a real thing said in a real deposition from the real Elon Musk. We used the court transcript as our script. This is not a Gay Future situation, but if you liked Gay Future, I do think you’ll like this — and if you didn’t like Gay Future, hey, what the hell man, that show was really good.
It’s also very inspired by Beach Too Sandy, Water Too Wet: We have music and sound design throughout — until we break character and start laughing and editorializing.
This is not a bit. I promise this is real. You can even check us by referring to the court transcript itself via HuffPo. I promise. Omg — I PODCAST PROMISE.
And I also promise when I say this is hands down the funniest show we’ve ever made or could ever hope to make. I will never, ever write something funnier than this real event that really happened.
Here’s the show’s description:
On March 27th, 2024, Elon Musk was deposed in a libel lawsuit filed by Ben Brody, a 22-year old Jewish political science major at the University of California. When Elon Musk twote that Ben Brody could be a neo-nazi undercover federal agent in a “false flag” situation, Ben Brody was faced with so much harassment he and his family had to leave their homes. Welcome to The Deposition, a dramatic reading of the public record transcript of Elon Musk’s deposition in full. We promise: this is really real, a real thing that happened in a real lawsuit that exists in real life, word for word – with the addition of some actor editorialization.
📃Objection to form!
When the Elon Musk deposition dropped, I didn’t even think twice about reading the entire 111-page court transcript, because there’s a lot of things deeply wrong with me. I’m used to reading nightmarish legal documents; I worked in international education during the dark, dark Executive Order days of the Trump presidency. This meant I had to read similar documents and analyze them and their impacts every day. Legal documents are nothing to me now — let alone ones I knew would be at least kind of funny. And like, I made VALENCE. So, y’know. This proba bly isn’t surprising to folks who listened to that. (Please listen to that. Please.)
I sent it along to Anne, my other half at Hug House Productions, because thank god, they’re the same kind of deeply unwell as me in this specific instance. Same for my other brain half, Elena Fernández Collins.
It wasn’t long before we were all sending quotes back and forth in a group chat. Every single page, we found something new to scream about. HuffPo et all did a fine job summarizing some of the most unreal, unhinged moments of this deposition: Business Insider has a pretty good quote roundup.
But what these sources just couldn’t give was how every single page — again, that’s over 100 pages — has at least one absolutely wild moment worth noting. And there was even more revealed to me as we acted the entire thing out that just can’t be captured the same on the page (like the countless times Musk’s lawyer says “Objection to form” or a beguiling iteration thereof).
So I knew pretty immediately what we had to do. Most people are not fucked up little freaks like us at Hug House. We knew most people would not sit down and read a very long court document.
But that means people wouldn’t know what actually happened in the deposition. And y’all really, really should.
🐦Objection to the form!
I hate Elon Musk.
I hate his racism and his transphobia. I hate his embarrassing attempts to be cool and funny. I hate his gross breeding kink that he makes everyone else’s business. I hate how he thinks he should be relevant at all, let alone in everyone’s minds. I hate what he means for capitalism, and what he reflects about capitalism — and misogyny, and masculinity.
I hate his stupid fucking cars.
Every time I pass a Tesla, I yell, “NO BITCHES! NO BITCHES!” This is both a declaration of truth (if you own a Tesla, you are now legally divorced whether or not you have ever been married) and a curse (and I am cursing you to never get laid or even kissed again, ever).
But something I hate more than most other things about Elon Musk is how his wealth makes him impervious from any real consequences to his stupid, uninformed, out of touch, catastrophic, destructive, embarrassing decisions.
There’s one line early in the deposition transcript that made me feel like I had to make this podcast:
“This isn't like a real case. This is just some stupid –”
This is a real thing said by Elon Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro. They do not take this libel case — a case that revolves around a young Jewish man being falsely identified as a neo-Nazi, a case that revolves around him and his family having to leave their homes due to threats and harassment — as a “real case.” They do not see their victims as real people. They do not see the impact on those victims’ lives as real impacts. They want to get away with this, like they do with everything else.
I don’t think this podcast is going to help ensure that some consequences actually, like, occur. Obviously. But I do know that Alex Spiro tried to retroactively have the deposition marked as confidential. It wasn’t, because that’s not how things work, lol. But I like knowing that this is another thing in which they could not succeed. If I get just a handful more people to know what happened in this deposition, in full, I feel fulfilled in doing something that goes against the direct wishes of Musk and Spiro. And that’s enough for me.
And hey, maybe I’m being too cynical. Alex Spiro was also the lawyer on the Alex Jones case, and look at how that’s gone for him! 😇
Objection: form!
And, of course, I just really have to give a shout out to my cast for this podcast. We made this thing so fast, and everyone really showed up so excited and so dialed into their characters.
I don’t typically direct audio dramas because I don’t really think I’m good at it, to be honest. But this time, I knew exactly what direction to give them all. At the start of each recording, I gave them two specific directions:
Take it as seriously as you can, until you cannot.
Every single character here thinks they are the protagonist and the hero of this deposition.
That was all they needed to give me some of the best, funniest performances I ever could have hoped for, right down to our bit roles.
Anne Baird, my other Hug House half, is not typically an actor, but they absolutely fucking killed as Alex Spiro. They deliver this sense of haughty self-importance laced with incredulity. You can really hear the eye rolls. And the way they handled every single instance of “Objection to form” is maybe my favorite running joke (or something???) in the series. I was so blown away by how they got right into Spiro’s head and exposed him for the dumbass he is — all without making it too self-aware of a performance.
Elena Fernández Collins is a master of monologues, which I know from when we made VALENCE. Ely is so kind, so bright, so motivated, so thoughtful, so insightful that having them as Mark Bankston felt like a no-brainer. Bankston, representing Ben Brody, is the only person here with a single damn scruple, and he knows it. Ely knew exactly what they were doing with this role. They showed up having studied. And they made all of us break so many times with their deadpan dry humor. I’m used to Ely breaking hearts with their roles, and it’s so fun to hear them breaking our ribs with how hard they made us all laugh.
Josh Rubino is really the only person we ever could have chosen to play Elon Musk, honestly. We opened up casting to our entire team at Hug House, but like, I mean . . . I feel like we all knew this one would gotta be Joshy. Josh’s roles have almost entirely been villains (except that time he went protag for us in VALENCE, and my god, what an extraordinary job he did), and what is Elon Musk but a sci-fi comedy villain in real life? Josh’s performance as Musk is so, so good: it’s an impression, but it’s not over the top or distracting. He embodies Musk without sounding like he’s doing an SNL bit. And he does that all while staying in character, even as he says some of the most baffling, buckwild shit ever in the world. He’s always amazing at playing villains who don’t think of themselves as villains, and that is used in such hilarious ways here.
C. N. Josephs learned we were making this podcast and immediately begged for a role, even small. I was more than happy to oblige. He’s a dear friend and one of the funniest people I know. He plays the videographer who has few lines, but hearing them go from confident and even to more and more confused, even just in subtle ways, is so good and so satisfying. I’m so thrilled I got to work with him here.
Zach Orsulak is my husband, and he’s the funniest person alive. He plays Mr. Grant and gets under 10 words total, and each of those words is said with the bleak, monotone disdain they deserve. He’s the funniest person alive, he’s the nicest boy who ever lived, he always grates cheese for me so I don’t have to, and he’s perfect, and you should blow him a kiss.
🎙️Go subscribe!
The Deposition drops on the Fourth of July, and you can and should please go subscribe now, please, I’m so proud of this, and it’s so funny, please please please please please please please.
And if you listen, please for the love of god tell me we did good. If we did, I mean. You could leave a comment. That would be really niceys of you.
And omg did you read this all even knowing I was marketing myself? I love you I love you I love you. Here’s episode 1, early. Hell, I’ll even give you episode 2 because I love you. (If you want more early episodes, give us money about it.)
Other recs
⚙️What I’ve been making
Nevermorphed is my newest podcast baby, in which I read the Animorphs books for the first time ever. These books are so fucked up. It’s honestly insane. And they’re so good??? Come join me as I read this series that puts its contemporaries to shame in like 500 ways. And if you’re an Animorphs person, come be a guest!
How to Act Fereldan is a fancast about all things Dragon Age, and it’s OUT NOW! 🎉🐲🎉 In this podcast, Anne Baird and I explain Dragon Age to the wonderful Giancarlo Herrera, who’s playing the games for the first time as we go. It’s got grief over the gaming industry, ruminations on colonization, and the best segment in the universe: What’s That Dragon Age? It also has the best podcast art I’ve ever made. Go subscribe!
I can’t say much, but I read all 10 scripts for our upcoming audio drama Levian by Samy Souissi, creator of Desperado. These are easily some of the best scripts I’ve ever read. They had me in full suspense, laughing out loud, and absolutely sobbing. This show is going to be so special. You can listen to the pilot episode now, and more will come soon!
🎞️What I’ve been watching
📰What I’ve been reading
Still reading Babel and every sentence hurts me and it’s so brilliant and beautiful. I fucking love it. I’m SO STRESSED OUT. Robin just did The Thing. It’s a nightmare. It makes me way to puke. I’m having a great time.
👆🏻As always, not affiliate codes, I just owe Changing Hands my life.
“The Podcast Industry Has Learned Nothing” by Alex Sujong Laughlin over at Defector is a must read. I’m so grateful that this piece exists.
🎶What I’ve been singing
Honestly, kind of in a music rut right now! I have been doing so much work my brain is a milkshake! Send me your recommendations! ✨
Listening meow. And LOL. Now I get all your "Objections"