A quick trip to Target might seem like a break from the chaos — unless you're Elon Musk. For him, stepping into a store like Target or CVS turns into a security scramble before he even makes it past the front doors. "There's an immediate ‘can I have a selfie' line that forms," he said. "It's not that I don't want to. I simply can't."
That moment came during an episode of "The Katie Miller Podcast" last week, where Musk discussed everything from artificial intelligence and sleep habits to the very real risks of being one of the most recognizable people on the planet. Asked when he last did something "extremely ordinary," like shopping at Target or CVS, Musk didn't dodge the question — he shut it down. "I can't go to things where there's the general public," he said.
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It's not just about attention or crowd control. Musk brought up the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, saying incidents like that have only heightened the threat level. "There are serious security issues," he said. "Life is on hardcore mode. You make one mistake and you're dead. And it only takes one." When asked if Kirk's death changed his behavior, he said it didn't — it "reinforced" what he already knew.
The conversation covered more than just his absence from the grocery aisle. Musk said he averages just under six hours of sleep per night — five hours, 56 minutes, to be exact — and spends most of his day handling "information triage" across Tesla, SpaceX, X, xAI, and more. One of his goals is to avoid constant context switching because of the cognitive drain. "If you had to context switch every three seconds, the penalty would be very high," he said.
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Musk also spoke about his longstanding anxiety over AI. "I've had AI nightmares many days in a row," he said. Despite leading the charge in AI development, he made it clear he's not cheering for where things are headed. "People get confused. They think what I predict will happen is what I want to happen. It's not."
On a lighter note, Musk named Trump as the funniest person he's met. "President Trump is very funny… it's somewhat effortless," he said, recalling a moment where Trump, asked if he was a fascist, told New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, "Just say yes. It's easier that way."
Host Katie Miller also asked which life moments Musk would relive just to feel them again. His answers: the births of his children, SpaceX's first successful orbit, and the moment Tesla made its electric car work.
But casually running into Musk in the toothpaste aisle? Don't count on it. He's not hiding. He's staying alive.
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