This week, Uncanny Valley hosts Brian Barrett and Leah Feiger dive into the key tech industry figures who show up in the final batch of the Epstein files. Then, they discuss SpaceX and xAI’s blockbuster merger, and what it says about the future of Elon Musk’s companies. Plus, we share the story of how a whistleblower revealed—and fled—the inner operations of a crypto scam compound in Laos.
Articles mentioned in this episode:
- The Tech Elites in the Epstein Files
- Elon Musk Is Rolling xAI Into SpaceX—Creating the World’s Most Valuable Private Company
- Inside the ICE Forum Where Agents Complain About Their Jobs
- He Leaked the Secrets of a Southeast Asian Scam Compound. Then He Had to Get Out Alive
You can follow Brian Barrett on Bluesky at @brbarrett and Leah Feiger on Bluesky at @leahfeiger. Write to us at uncannyvalley@….com.
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Transcript
Note: This is an automated transcript, which may contain errors.
Leah Feiger: Hey, Brian, how's it going?
Brian Barrett: Leah, it's great. We missed you last week.
Leah Feiger: I missed you guys, but hopefully you've had a lot of time without me to catch up on all cultural things happening in the United States of America right now. The Melania documentary. Have you seen it?
Brian Barrett: No. I have not seen it. I had a hard time getting a ticket.
Leah Feiger: Oh, no.
Brian Barrett: No. That's not true. That's not true. So no Melania. I'm excited for the Olympics coming up.
Leah Feiger: Yeah. That's going to actually be way better. I think it's ice skating for me or bust.
Brian Barrett: I'm going to try to convince you and Zoë to let me do a whole episode on the biathlon.
Leah Feiger: I'm in. Wait, the biathlon. No, I'm not in.
Brian Barrett: No. Get in, Leah, all the more reason to do the episode.
Leah Feiger: I want to do an episode on the Olympics, period. That's actually very interesting to me. Again, my section will be ice skating. I'm really sad to tell everyone that Zoë is not here with us this week, but she did leave a treat for ….com in the form of her review of the Melania documentary, and more specifically, all of the people that went to go see it. So everyone check it out, and don't miss Zoë too much. But should we get started? Should we get into this?
Brian Barrett: Yeah. In the meantime, welcome to …'s Uncanny Valley. I'm Brian Barrett, executive editor.
Leah Feiger: And I'm Leah Feiger, senior politics editor. Brian, let's start off with the gift that keeps on giving for better, for worse, the Epstein files.
Brian Barrett: Oh, what a way to phrase that.
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