Hello, welcome to the Editor's Desk. This is the podcast where we take a closer look at the essays and articles in the latest print issue of First Things Magazine. I'm Rusty Reno on the editor of First Things Magazine, and I'm here with you today at the editor's desk.

I'm delighted today to have Matthew Schmitz here at the First Things office to talk about his

April 2025 piece for us, Elon's Family Values.

Welcome to the podcast, Matthew. Thanks for having me,

Rusty. Elon, right there in the title, I mean, has he attained that that kind of notoriety that

just the first name like The Donald or Travis and Taylor, that that's enough.

Yes, it's an unusual name, and he really is one of the most remarkable people of our age.

I think in many ways admirable.

When you see these rockets coming down and being grabbed by the you know, the robotic arm.

You know, it's a huge achievement.

He's also, you know, I think represents this kind of way in which things kind of change

form in our time.

He started out.

He, his big success, Tesla, it's a government-backed company so is

SpaceX but it's government-backed it's green you know he seems like the model of the kind of

democratic party's vision of how the economy should be working and now there's this shift to the

right so he uh i think like a lot of great figures has taken on a couple different forms.

Shift to the right, I think your piece suggests that this is a complicated issue.

You open up by talking about a battle in the right over children.

I guess it's a battle over fertility.

I mean, I could observe that I think, really,

it's a left-right consensus that's emerging

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