Since it seems that most everyone in ‘Third Row’ has spoken up about their direction w/ ‘Third Row Podcast’, I will too.
Third Row was started by me after the 2019 Shareholders mtg.
I saw a dynamic team of people that I felt would be great at interacting about all things Tesla.

We all Tesla. We all are very different personalities w/ differing skillsets.
Through a group chat we shared Tesla information.
In late November of 2019, @Sofiaan shared with @Tesla_Truth, the idea of doing a radio podcast. Omar & Sofiaan came up with doing a video podcast.

The idea was presented to the Third Row as something they would love us to support & be part of. Of course we supported our members! We knew the that there would plenty of other creative ideas we would explore.
(Not to mention the endeavors @gali & @vincent13031925 had alone.)

The Podcast is really @Sofiaan & @Tesla_Truth. The twitter account was created by @teslaownersSV for the Third Row chat back in June/ July, in case we had any fun ideas we wanted to use it for. (Thx John )
At some point John felt it best he depart to bein his club & family.

The account was labeled ‘Third Row’ Podcast after Thanksgiving 2019.

*All* members given access to tweet & post from it. It was unexpletively know that a certain member had lost an account not less than a month prior & would now have a way to reach out again. Win/ win.

The account was well received by the Tesla community. How could it not be? Our driver is a talented & well loved community member. The member’s gift of drawing an audience and supporting Tesla & @elonmusk is unrivaled. A natural writer who can create a story w/ ease & truth.

What unfolded after was surreal to say the least as members continued to support Elon, from his winning the 420 trial w/ @Kristennetten medium article Elon liked, to fresh hot info out of China by @vincent13031925 & home-front happenings by @Sofiaan.

*Something big happened*

@flcnhvy, known for perfectly detailed tweets to Elon, replied to Elon joking about silly edits to his @Wikipedia page. Viv, prob the most interacted account by Elon, asked Elon to come on our podcast .. & he said, “sure”.

Fledgling podcast — just went vertical

So there we were around Christmas time in shock. We were feeling elated, praising Viv for asking for the group & pinching ourselves.
Fast forward to pinning down the details and we were given the first two weeks of January as the window Elon had available to record.

Getting Viv over from Germany on such notice was no easy or cheap task. The group forked out money to help get her over here. Other members flew or drove in as they were stateside already. We helped the team out.

At this point the date was being bounced around and had to be changed. Another member departed, @tesla_raj, this was not something that was easy to deal with but it was btw the member and a few other members.

Date was finally set by Elon’s team & we moved forward. January 03, 2020 meet at SpaceX.
The day was monumental — we were all ready .. then we got a text. “Need to reschedule.” Bummer.
That evening new text & schedule, meet at one of Elon’s houses at 10am. We freaked out.

The day 01/ 04/ 2020 “420” was so unbelievable. We drove in two cars to Elon’s. Sof’s & Omar’s Teslas. (I flew in — no car.)
I asked Omar play “Fresh Prince of BelAir” theme song. Omar blasted it as we drove & he shouted out the window to strangers, “We are going to Elon’s!”

We thought that we would only have 1 hour with Elon.
We pull up to what is Gene Wilder’s former house. Golden ticket day.
We are greeted by security. We sign NDAs which we are so excited we can’t remember what they say.
We are shown where we will film the podcast.

The equipment we purchased was chosen after plenty speculation to which would be best. I had noticed that @ARKInvest used a mixer & microphones w/ their Elon interview. So you could say they inspired us. It would be our first edit using the equipment & Sof would be editing.

Elon’s assistant & I went around the table choosing the best lighting for Elon to sit. Place was chosen. Sof asked that Viv sit next to Elon as she had requested the interview. I took a seat across from Elon, I knew it had the worst lighting, but I didn’t care, we were w/ Elon.

Then — Elon walked in ———
Into his house. The house we were in. Oh this was all so surreal.
He said something like, “I was going to exercise but I am here instead Haha”. Elon had put aside his Saturday stuff for us.
Another surprise, May tagged along w/ her & Elon’s pups.

We all quickly shook hands made small talk & dived in. Questions were written out the weeks prior with us doing a dry run the night before. This podcast was supposed to be Elon retelling his story, of his life, not us asking technical questions for our agenda. Elon led.

As we started the podcast w/ Elon we all were nervous .. we could see the look of excitement, awe & nerves in our faces. People asked me, “Were you nervous?” I’d say yes, but Elon is so confident I was actually feeling very calm. Each of us had question A & B we would ask Elon.

Viv was told to go first since she landed the interview. From there we took cues from Elon to where we would interject. Omar started asking questions, in fact, he was so nervous he started asking some of our personal questions hahaha. (Didn’t want to kick him under the table.)

As we approached lunch, hour in, Elon mentioned lunch to his assistants. Did this mean we were having lunch with Elon? He is a very kind host.
Then — @Kimball walked in! Another amazing surprise! I joked w/ him “should we expect Tosca too?!”
We asked him to pull up a chair.

We talked for awhile more then lunch arrived. We all went into this quaint kitchen of this Willie Wonka home. I held a cabinet door as Elon got plates out for everyone. I remarked on how I loved the character of the house & Elon stated that Gene Wilder is one of his fav actors.

Lunch was fun too haha. Engaging Maye, Kimbal & Elon in the kitchen. Maye & I talking about chips while Elon remarked that a restaurant in France actually served an earthworm on their menu, mind you we asked what the weirdest thing he’d seen on a menu. (Some of us too giddy.)

We quickly cleaned up & went back to the podcast. A wonderful 3 more hours of podcast :)
As it approached 5 o’clock it was suggested we wrap up. We had just spent a lovely day w/ Elon & family hearing about Elon’s life & hopefully correcting misconceptions from wiki etc

We stepped outside, giving Elon a few thank you gifts, & took a picture as a group w/ Elon.
So special, Maye remarked she doesn’t get 5 hrs on a Saturday w/ Elon.
After that we just continued giving content we know the community loves to hear.
Just being ourselves. Here.

Hope we can give you more content you love. Thank you for growing with us in all of this.