Another Take: What did Elon Musk get from DOGE – and what’s next?
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 748 Ratings
🗓️ 21 March 2026
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Every Saturday, we revisit a story from the archives. This originally aired on June 2, 2025. None of the dates, titles, or other references from that time have been changed.
Elon Musk may have resigned from the Department of Government Efficiency, but few believe he’s stepping away from power. In under a year, DOGE brought Silicon Valley-style disruption to Washington, consolidating federal data and dismantling oversight. Now, Musk is expected to channel what he gained into a private AI venture – with public systems still in reach.
In this episode:
- Matt Binder (@mattbinder), Writer of Disruptionist
Episode credits:
This episode was updated by Tamara Khandaker. The original production team was Tamara Khandaker, Sonia Bhagat, Chloe K. Li, Sarí el-Khalili, Phillip Lanos, Spencer Cline, Kisaa Zehra, Mariana Navarrete, Alexandra Locke, and Natasha Del Toro.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our engagement producers are Adam Abou-Gad and Vienna Maglio. Andrew Greiner is lead of audience engagement and Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer.
Connect with us:
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Hey, I'm Tamara Kondokar, and this is another take, where we resurface episodes from the archives. |
| 0:16.0 | This is one of the grants that you or Mr. Fox identified as craziest in the age. |
| 0:22.6 | Is that right? |
| 0:23.6 | That's right. |
| 0:24.6 | Why did you identify this as one of the craziest friends? |
| 0:27.6 | Because it references feminist and queer insights into prison abolition and LGBT studies. |
| 0:38.3 | Any other reasons? |
| 0:40.3 | No. |
| 0:42.3 | This is a deposition video of Nathan Kavanaugh, a former staffer for Doge, a Trump administration |
| 0:48.8 | initiative that called itself the Department of Government Efficiency. It's one of several videos that have gone viral in recent days. |
| 0:56.0 | The testimony was released as part of lawsuit filings |
| 1:00.0 | by groups like the American Historical Association over cuts made by Doge |
| 1:05.0 | said to be aimed at reducing the federal deficit. |
| 1:09.0 | In its 10 months of existence, the department eliminated over 300,000 federal government jobs, |
| 1:14.6 | while government spending elsewhere ballooned. |
| 1:17.6 | And the videos reveal how those cuts were made. |
| 1:21.6 | The quote-unquote Doge Bros relied heavily on AI and keywords |
| 1:26.6 | to flag grants as DEI related. |
| 1:30.1 | They say they skipped expert review and relied on their own judgment and that they have no regrets |
| 1:36.5 | about the job losses. And now, according to new reporting from the Washington Post, |
| 1:41.8 | a former employee is accused of taking highly sensitive |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Al Jazeera, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Al Jazeera and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.