Behavioral scientist and author Gad Saad revealed a previously untold story about a late-night meeting with billionaire , describing a series of security checkpoints and mysterious escorts that made him feel like “James Bond.”
Speaking on the “” podcast, Saad said Musk sent him a text with an address in Austin, Texas, that led him to transportation for what became a secretive meeting.
“I receive a one-line text from Elon at around 9:30 at night, the address of his house in Austin,” Saad said. “Driver comes, picks me up. I go through these canyons and he goes, We’re here, sir. I’m like, Were here where? It’s like in the middle of a canyon. I can’t see anything.”
He said after he was dropped off in the canyon around 10 p.m., he saw a black van and walked toward it.
“I said, Well maybe that’s my only shot here. I walk up to the van. It’s completely different. The door, the window goes down. Name, sir?’ Gad Saad. ‘OK, keep walking up and then there’ll be a gate that opens. I keep walking, the gate opens, a guy kind of materializes,” he said, describing the man as coming “out of the trees.”
The story offered a rare glimpse into operation before the two men finally met face to face for the first time. Saad said after meeting this final person, he was told to “follow” him.
“10 seconds later, I’m hugging it out with Elon,” Saad said, describing how he later told the story to his wife. “So, I tell her the story, and I said to her, I think I’m James Bond. She goes, I think you’re James Bond also.”
Musk has repeatedly shared Saads posts on X, including . Saad has described suicidal empathy as the idea that excessive compassion is currently undermining Western countries survival instincts, including the United States.
Earlier this month, Musk reposted a message from Saad that read, “Every action that I partake is animated by two ideals: Truth and freedom. Seeing the endless attacks on both ideals throughout the West is soul-crushing.”
“We did not lose a war of aggression. We decided that giving up our women, our children, our heritage, our society, our religions, our culture, our safety, our liberties, and our freedoms was LESS important than protecting the honour of those who wish to enslave us, kill us, vanquish us,” he wrote.
“It was all self-inflicted via parasitic suicidal empathy. Remember my words. We have signed up for endless strife and conflict.”
Speaking with Hannity, Saad went deeper on his theory about suicidal empathy, saying decades of research show of happiness than their counterparts on the left, arguing the difference stems from how each side views society.
“I offer a speculative explanation, but I think it makes sense,” he said in Tuesday’s episode.
“The conservative wakes up in the morning with a sense of existential comfort. It may not be a perfect society, but we have freedom, we have liberties, we have all sorts of foundational values that are worth conserving, and it’s conservative.”
“On the other hand,” he continued, “the progressive wakes up with existential angst. We live in a transphobic, Islamophobic, misogynistic, racist, bigoted [society].”
Because of that contrast, he suggests conservatives are more likely to feel content and optimistic about their lives, while  can contribute to dissatisfaction and anxiety.
Fox News Digitals Taylor Penley contributed to this report.
