How did Lex Fridman get big?

Looking back through his Wikipedia page, he didn't seem to have a hugely distinguished career in academics or tech that would suggest he was rubbing shoulders with the sorts of names he has on his show.

Not too long after starting his podcast he did some bullshit, non-peer-reviewed study demonstrating the positive health effects of Tesla autopilot which seemed to lead to an interview with Elon Musk and Fridman's podcast really taking off, but before that he had Stephen Pinker, Eric Weinstein, and other quite prominent names and I don't know enough about (or care to spend time learning by listening to a million hours of interviews, hence the post) his early podcasting and pre-podcast days to work out how he booked those sorts of guests.

Like Fridman himself, I'm a humble guy who's just asking questions. Now ANSWER ME