The 6 most interesting quotes from the podcast hosted by Elon Musk's friends that Twitter staff were reportedly told to listen to amid layoffs

• Some Twitter staff were told to listen to a podcast hosted by Elon Musk's associates, Platformer reported.
• A Twitter VP reportedly told staff it would provide insight into why layoffs were necessary.

As Elon Musk cut Twitter's workforce roughly in half, some surviving employees were told to listen to a podcast hosted by two of the billionaire's closest associates, according to a report from Platformer.

The publication reported that one Twitter vice president told employees on the company's health team that the podcast would provide "some insight into why this is happening/necessary."

The latest "All-In Podcast" aired just a day after the layoffs were announced and is cohosted by four top Silicon Valley investors, including billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya and tech investor David Friedberg. David Sacks and Jason Calacanis — two of Musk's close associates who have stepped in to help him at Twitter — also cohost the show.

In the hour and a half podcast, the investors share some dire warnings about the future of the economy and discuss everything from their involvement at Twitter to their perspectives on the layoffs at the company.

Here are some of the most interesting quotes from the conversation.

'Just helping a friend'

During the podcast, Sacks and Calacanis attempted to clarify their new roles at Twitter. Sacks, who runs the venture capital firm Craft Ventures, said the reports around his involvement at Twitter are "wild" and "blown out of proportion."

"Jason and I are just pitching in and helping out while Elon establishes his permanent team at the company," Sacks said. "Elon's the CEO, he's running it, he's the decider, he's making the decisions and some of us are just kind of helping out in any way we can and that's really the extent of it. It's very much a part-time thing. We're just helping a friend."

"I'm just trying to be helpful where I can," Calacanis added.

On Sunday, The Washington Post reported that Sacks and Calacanis were some of several personal acquaintances Musk had brought into the company. The two men have also been cited for being involved in several conversations regarding moderation efforts and new features for the platform.

Musk previously worked alongside Sacks at PayPal and Calacanis was an early Tesla investor. Both men were supportive of Musk's efforts to buy Twitter and Calacanis even offered to serve as CEO at one point, describing it as his "dream job," private texts between the two men reveal.

Claims surge in hate speech on Twitter 'an organized operation'

Researchers from Montclair State University found that in the 12 hours immediately following Musk's takeover at Twitter hate speech surged on the site.

But, Sacks attributed the burst of hate speech — including an almost 500% jump in the use of the N-word on the platform — to a 4chan attack.

"Basically people from this message board created bots to post hundreds of thousands of spam messages that contained racist words and epithets," Sacks said, noting that the issue was addressed within hours and shut down.

The investor called the situation "unfair," saying the incident was an "organized operation" by people who wanted to "manufacture and incident that they can use to hurt the company."

Musk expressed a similar sentiment last week, tweeting that advertisers were boycotting Twitter due to pressure from activists.

'Parroting' a hoax

The investors also spent several minutes cracking jokes about a recent hoax at Twitter.

The day after Musk bought Twitter, CNBC interviewed two men who claimed to have been laid off from Twitter — Rahul Ligma and Daniel Johnson. It was later discovered that the men had never worked for Twitter.

Friedberg said the situation was the perfect example of journalists "parroting a story because it fed their narrative." And Palihapitiya said even his preteen children were able to spot the hoax on their own.

"They didn't figure it out because they didn't want to because it fit their narrative," Sacks said.

'Just the beginning' of layoffs

The investors said they anticipate mass tech layoffs will continue in the months to come.

"I think this is just the beginning," Palihapitiya said, pointing to rising interest rates. "Rates will probably be higher than all of you think and they'll be higher for longer than all of you want," he added.

As a result, Palihapitiya said companies will have to prioritize short-term profits.

"The dollar that's right in front of you is now meaningfully more important than the dollar that's far far away from you," he said. "Companies are now bearing down and they're realizing 'Oh man, I need to get my cost structure in line.'"

Over the past few months, numerous tech companies have begun to announce layoffs and hiring freezes, but Sacks said he anticipates layoffs will spike further as the year winds down.

Silicon Valley could 'mimic the Elon playbook'

Friedberg said Musk's cost-cutting measures at Twitter could quickly become a new Silicon Valley standard amid the economic downturn.

Musk laid off about 50% of Twitter's staff on Friday.

"You could see a flurry of violent activity as more folks come in and maybe try to mimic the Elon playbook," Friedberg said.

He added companies could quickly realize: "Wow, you don't actually need 50% of the workforce in order to keep the product running and to drive profitability."

"He shows the entirety of Silicon Valley that you can cut deep and you can turn a profit and you can do it fast," Friedberg said. "It really kind of sets a new standard that a lot of folks might then end up saying, maybe we should go deeper," he added, referencing recent cuts at companies like Snap and Stripe that have slashed about 20% and 14% of staff, respectively.

'The economy is headed off a cliff'

Sacks said he's seeing warning signs within his portfolio that the US could be in the beginning stage of "a really serious recession" and workers are only just starting to see the job cuts pile up.

"It feels like the economy is headed off a cliff now," he said. "Even the best companies in our portfolio now are seeing major headwinds. I think this is just an economy wide slowdown," the Craft Ventures founder added.

Palihapitiya said there's "no free lunch anymore" and he anticipates the recession could last until 2025.

"There was just an abundance of free money and risk seeking that is now out of the market," the billionaire said.

Ultimately, Sacks said the only way for companies to survive is to cut spending — and quickly at that.

"Those who are most willing to adapt the most quickly are going to survive and the ones that are stubborn and refuse to accept the new market regime are going to die," Sacks said. "If you're a company that doesn't cut until the end then you're going to run out of money and die, but if you make the cuts right away quickly you have enough runway to weather the storm."