Stand For What Is Right Even You Stand Alone, this is not the time to remain silent. Let's the world know what is happening in Gaza.
Ya Allah shower your mercy on Palestinian people. Shower your mercy on Gaza.🤲
The world is blind now.
#starlinkforgaza#CeasefireNOW
𝕏 — The Origin Story
It all started exactly two years ago, in July 2021.
I was spending a lot of time on Clubhouse and the idea of creating a club had been on my mind for a while. However, Clubhouse content was ephemeral: those who weren’t present in the room to hear the conversations missed out. I was willing to dedicate time and effort to organize discussions around topics I was passionate about but I also wanted to generate content that others could enjoy long after the room had closed.
Then @DavidSacks launched the private beta of @getcallin, a social podcasting app: it was exactly what I was looking for as it provided everything that was missing in Clubhouse.
I created my Callin profile and on September 4, I created the 𝕏 show.
The Show would discuss @elonmusk and his ventures (Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and The Boring Co.)
The Name of the show wasn’t easy to come up with. Naming it the ‘Elon Musk Show’ or the ‘Boring Neuralink SpaceX Tesla Show’ was obviously out of the question lol. It was well-known that Elon owned the one-character domain name https://t.co/A2b6GggMky which was not being used and, at the time, people on Twitter were toying with the idea that he could create X Corp, an umbrella parent corporation for all his ventures. Also, the letter 'x' is often used as a variable, which was perfect given the variety of topics the show would encompass and tackle from one episode to the next.
The Hosts of the show would discuss these topics through different lenses according to their knowledge and expertise: engineering, technology, innovation, finance, stock market, breaking news, etc. I initially approached @meckimac with the idea and she immediately jumped on board. Together we invited @AdamBerg4680, @SawyerMerritt, and @wholemars to join the team.
The Branding of the show was somewhat challenging. Using the standard letter 'X' would be boring and uninspired. We needed an edgy typeface that could be used in Callin and Twitter as text, as well as a large distinctive logo. I chose the Unicode character 𝕏 (U+1D54F) for use in the display name of the show. Based on that character, I made a slightly more refined and pronounced graphic logo for use as the profile photo. I also picked a striking B&W photograph of Elon for use as the show’s banner and episode thumbnails. Jessica searched for an available handle on Twitter and created the @OfficialXPod account. Jessica also created and managed our Slack channel.
On September 11, we had our 𝕏 Pod Launch Party episode.
Later on, inspired by @ks_kulk’s fantastic math rooms, we did a few 'Show & Tell' episodes which were simultaneously held on Callin and @MiroHQ. After the episode, Sawyer would painstakingly merge and sync the Callin audio recording and the Miro whiteboard screen recording into a single video file that he uploaded on our 𝕏 Pod channel on YouTube. Sawyer also created small teaser excerpts of episodes in video format with audio waveform renderings for Twitter, as well as a stunning promo video.
We discontinued 𝕏 Pod in February 2022 after our beloved Jessica passed away.
Eight months later, Elon acquired Twitter.
Nine months after that, Elon replaces the with 𝕏, signalling the dawn of the Everything App.
Even if 𝕏 is only an interim logo that will be refined by a professional graphic artist, I’m nevertheless happy and proud to see it be chosen by a man I deeply admire and respect, to be used by the platform I love, the platform that saved freedom of speech.
The 𝕏 was inspired by Elon and so, it must have been fate for Elon to be inspired by the 𝕏