My conversation with Samo Burja, founder of Bismarck Analysis. He chairs the editorial board of Palladium Magazine.

Topics we discuss are well captured by the timestamps below.

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Timestamps

0:00 - Intro

1:18 - Live players

5:41 - Great Founder Theory

11:20 - Our material technology rests on our social interactions

14:23 - Optimism, pessimism, and human agency

23:21 - Operationalized knowledge

25:22 - Lost and dead traditions of knowledge

27:34 - Tradition of criticism

29:36 - The most important piece of knowledge to preserve

32:27 - Common features of declining societies

39:18 - Are the Spartan warriors overrated and just had very good PR?

42:07 - DOGE and bureaucracy in America

45:28 - The machinery of freedom

47:43 - Tech Samo is most excited about over the next 5 years

50:10 - Curtis Yarvin and the orbital authority

55:01 - Samo’s advice for young people

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My conversation with Zooko Wilcox and Josh Swihart on unstoppable private money.

Zooko Wilcox is a legendary cypherpunk and one of the founders of Zcash—private, digital money.

Josh Swihart is the CEO of Electric Coin Company, the team behind the Zcash protocol and the Zashi wallet app.

Topics we discuss are well captured by the timestamps below.

Watch on YouTube or X. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast platform. Follow me on X for updates on future episodes.

Timestamps

0:00 - Maya Protocol integrates with Zcash

3:52 - Coinbase social engineering attack

7:43 - Private money negates capital controls

14:13 - Privacy comes from money at rest

18:24 - The Zashi effect and future roadmap

25:11 - Project Tachyon

39:10 - Zcash’s anonymity set doesn’t depend on the number of its users

45:37 - Turnstiles in Zcash and the 2018 inflation bug

57:28 - “ZK” has become a marketing stunt among crypto projects

59:48 - On Binance delisting ZEC

1:01:35 - A transition toward using crypto as it was originally intended

1:04:52 - Should exchanges use transparent addresses?

1:17:38 - Coin holder voting in Zcash

1:23:38 - Sci-fi influence

1:28:37 - Gary Gensler

1:29:40 - Why I like Zcash

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My conversation with Ethan Thornton, founder of Mach Industries.

Topics we discuss are well captured by the timestamps below.

Watch on YouTube or X. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast platform. Follow me on X for updates on future episodes.

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Timestamps

0:00 - Intro

1:07 - Why Mach needs to exist

3:16 - Early experiments

5:07 - Dropping out of MIT

8:36 - Raising $85 million at 19 years old

11:20 - Decentralized vertical supply chains

13:54 - The most important domain of the next century

15:55 - Betting on hydrogen

18:11 - Overview of Viper and Glide

21:06 - Building feedback loops across teams

25:29 - Facing regulatory hurdles

28:19 - Knowing when to be risk tolerant

29:54 - Time until China invades Taiwan

31:45 - The future of warfare

42:29 - Takeaways from the (unmanned) war in Ukraine

48:23 - Biggest influences on Ethan’s life

49:37 - Mach’s long-term plan

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