Elon Musk casually smoked a joint on live YouTube

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/JRE)

last updated 7 September 2018

After about two hours of conversation and sipping Old Camp whiskey on comedian Joe Rogan's live podcast Thursday night, Tesla founder Elon Musk accepted what Rogan said was marijuana wrapped in tobacco and took a nice long toke. "I mean, it's legal, right?" Musk asked. His friends were apparently watching the YouTube feed. "I'm getting text messages from friends saying 'What the hell are you doing smoking weed?'" Musk said after his phone started vibrating a few minutes later. "I'm not a regular smoker of weed," he added, telling Rogan that he "almost never" smokes it because "I don't think it's very good for productivity."

Things got a little heady after that, with Rogan suggesting Musk terra-farm Mars and "turn it into a big Jamaica," and Musk saying it would be "sad" if "we were forever confined to Earth." And then Musk started talking about his brain. "When I was 5 or 6 or something, I thought I was insane," he told Rogan. Compared with other kids, "it was clear their minds weren't exploding with ideas all the time," he added. "I don't think most people would like to be me."

Tesla's investors and shareholders were already concerned about Musk after an aborted attempt to take the company private, odd behavior on Twitter, and a maudlin interview with The New York Times in which his friends also expressed concern about his workaholism and use of Ambien. Tesla shares dropped 1.4 percent in trading before U.S. exchanges opened, Bloomberg reports. If you have two and a half hours to spare, you can watch the entire interview for yourself.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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