If you plan on picking up a copy later, peace be with you. But if a 688-page read about a mercurial entrepreneur isn’t your preferred way to spend $35, here’s a taste of what Walter Isaacson talks about in Elon Musk.

Musk’s childhood and personal life: Isaacson writes that Musk’s dad, described as emotionally and physically abusive, is the No. 1 demon in his mind—and that demon, in part, motivates Musk. He also revealed that Musk has three children with Grimes, bringing the total number of children he is known to have fathered to 11. The pair had kept their third child, a boy named Techno Mechanicus, a secret.

His relationship with another tech titan: A portion of the biography focuses on Musk’s relationship with Bill Gates, including their meeting at a Tesla factory. The tour turned sour when Musk told the Microsoft co-founder, a notable philanthropist, that most philanthropy is “bullshit” and grilled him on why he had shorted Tesla stock. Grimes’s take on their dynamic was, “I imagine it’s a little bit of a d*ck-measuring contest.”

The extent of Musk’s influence and power via Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink, and X: It’s not a surprise that Musk’s world-changing companies occupy significant space in his biography, but what may be news to non-Musk scholars is what Musk genuinely believes about them.

• Musk called Tesla “the company doing the most to solve climate change,” when Gates told him batteries would never power large semitrucks.
• He built SpaceX with the explicit goal of turning humanity into a multiplanetary species, even hosting meetings about future governance…on Mars.
• Musk created Starlink, which made headlines last week for the book’s revelations about its role in Ukraine’s fight against Russia, to generate profit while he worked on the whole interplanetary thing.
• He was so committed to his “hardcore” takeover of Twitter (now X) that he hired moving vans to transfer the company’s servers from one data center to another on Christmas Eve.

For more CEO bios...Michael Lewis’s Going Infinite, which follows Sam Bankman-Fried and the downfall of FTX, will be released on October 3.—CC

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​​ Charter customers got to watch a Monday Night Football thriller. Disney, which had been withholding its channels, including ESPN and ABC, from the cable company’s ~15 million Spectrum subscribers while the two hashed out a new rate deal, reached an agreement with Charter. And just in the knick of time: The deal was finalized hours before the Aaron Rodgers-less NY Jets defeated the Bills in an instant classic on ESPN. The dispute had the potential to become cable TV’s last gasp, but the deal looks pretty standard: Charter will pay Disney higher rates for its channels and will be able to offer versions of streamers Disney+ and ESPN+ to its customers.

Instacart and Klaviyo are valued at less than they used to be. Both are VC-backed companies gearing up for IPOs that are considered indicators of where the market stands, and both have slashed their valuations since they last took money from private investors. The grocery delivery app said it plans to sell shares for between $26 and $28, giving it a $9.3 billion valuation at most—compared to $39 billion in 2021. Klaviyo’s proposed pricing puts its value below $9 billion, even though the company was valued at $9.5 billion in 2022. But both companies may be pricing their shares low so they’ll have strong opening days, which generate lots of good buzz.

UAW gives a little in negotiations with automakers. The union, whose members are prepared to strike if it does not reach new labor agreements with Ford, GM, and Stellantis by midnight on Thursday, lowered its ask to a 36% raise from the 40% it had been seeking. It’s the first noteworthy sign of progress since negotiations began, and it could help avert a strike that Anderson Economic Group estimates could cost the US economy $5.6 billion if it lasts for 10 days.

Jelly company J.M. Smucker announced yesterday that it is buying the purveyor of plastic-wrapped cakes, Hostess Brands, for $5.6 billion. That’s a lot of Twinkies.

Set to close by the end of January, the deal is worth roughly $2 billion more than Hostess’s market value. If you think it would behoove Smucker to reconsider throwing that kind of money at a twice-bankrupt company, think again: The snack business is booming—up 11% last year, according to Circana Group—and Smucker is looking to get in on the nosh gains.

• Between 2019 and 2022, Hostess’s revenues skyrocketed 50%. Meanwhile, Big Food behemoths Hershey and Mondelez International (which owns Oreos and Ritz, among others) grew their overall sales by 30% and 22%, respectively.
• For Smucker, sugary treats like Twinkies, Ho Hos, and Ding Dongs may be especially lucrative—“indulgent” snacks have grown 20% faster than healthy ones in the last three years, CEO Mark Smucker said.

Zoom out: The snacks sector is consolidating; Mars and Unilever both recently acquired companies specializing in snacks. And in another sign that quick bites are all the rage, Kellogg’s board of directors decided yesterday to segment its chips and treats into a new company, Kellanova.—ML

Kim Jong Un may not have been sipping Aperol on the Amalfi Coast like all your friends this summer, but he is taking a rail journey to Russia this week.

The North Korean autocrat embarked on a 20-hour train ride from Pyongyang to the Russian Far East city Vladivostok yesterday, his first international trip since before the pandemic. Kim will huddle with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss cooperation between the two heavily sanctioned countries.

Reportedly on the agenda:

• North Korea is considering shipping ammo to bolster Russia’s war arsenal for the fight against Ukraine and sending more workers to help fill gaps in civilian labor.
• In exchange, Russia could offer its neighbor much-needed hard currency, food, and technological know-how.

Idiosyncratic traveler

Kim Jong Un tries to avoid the jet-setter lifestyle, preferring to globetrot by rail. While his armored train’s sleepy 37 mph top speed makes even the most anemic Amtrak lines look good, the same can’t be said of the amenities:

• Its 20+ carriages have contained a medical station, Kim’s personal Mercedes limo, and a karaoke room.
• Russian officials who rode with previous DPRK leader Kim Jong Il recalled the train menu featuring airlifted live lobsters, French wine, and donkey meat.

Sanctions could make luxury imports harder…the US already warned North Korea it will “pay a price” if it supplies munitions to Russia.—SK

Stat: When Beyoncé makes a request, her fans get in formation: The singer recently caused a run on shiny Etsy merch after making a last-minute plea that concert attendees at her Renaissance Tour wear silver to create a “shimmering human disco ball” in celebration of her birthday (Sept. 4) and all of Virgo season. Etsy searches for silver blouses, corsets, and tops—and for “disco hats”—spiked 25% the week she put out the call from the week before, according to CNN.

Quote: “It takes something from your soul or psyche; that is very disturbing, especially if it has to do with you. It’s like a robot taking your humanity, your soul.”

Tim Burton, whose aesthetic suggests he’s done more ruminating on soul-sucking than most of us, is not a fan of AI creations inspired by his work. The director told the Independent that he was creeped out by a BuzzFeed list that rendered Disney characters in his signature style (though he did call some of the not-quite-Burton characters “very good”).

Read: No one’s talking online anymore. (Embedded)

Book recs: Five reads that will teach you all about AI.

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See: The gang from the Hundred Acre Wood as murderous psychos in the first images from the stuffed bear slasher sequel Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2.

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iPhone trivia

Here are a few questions about iPhone releases to get you hyped for Apple’s big event today.

1. What new feature debuted on the iPhone 4s in 2011?
2. Which of the following iPhones is not real? a) iPhone 12 Mini b) iPhone XR c) iPhone 5c d) iPhone 9s
3. What was the name of the U2 album that Apple foisted on all its users alongside the launch of the iPhone 6?
4. How much did the original iPhone cost in 2007?
5. Of the top five free apps in the App Store right now, two are owned by the same company. Can you name them?