Clubhouse Goes Mainstream—Where Does It Go Next?

Elon Musk made headlines again this week. As usual, it was something involving Mars, memes, Tesla, and … monkey brain implants? These topics, among others, were the subject of a conversation Musk had on Clubhouse, the voice chat app that’s big with Silicon Valley VC types. But Musk’s appearance may have been a turning point for the app that moves it into the mainstream. After Musk’s talk, Clubhouse’s user base nearly doubled, going from 3 to 5 million almost overnight. It’s a powerful, popular format, and one that other social media companies are eager to get muscle their way into.

This week on Gadget Lab, former cohost of the show and WIRED senior writer Arielle Pardes joins us to dish about Elon, Clubhouse, and where this kind of social platform goes from here.

Show Notes

Read more about Elon Musk’s visit to Clubhouse. Coverage of GameStop and Robinhood is here. You can also listen to audio of Musk’s Clubhouse appearance.

Recommendations

Arielle recommends the wine delivery service from Eater Wine Club. Lauren recommends the show Your Honor on Showtime. Mike recommends the autobiography Being Ram Dass by, well, Ram Dass.

Arielle Pardes can be found on Twitter @pardesoteric. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.

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