Category: Podcast

  • Why Socialists should NOT cede crypto to the Right

    For this interview I spoke to Joshua Citarella (@JoshuaCitarella on social media), an artist, researcher, and Twitch streamer who studies niche online communities. He authored the book the Politigram and the Post-Left exploring esoteric online political beliefs. He’s done a lot of work exploring various “e-deologies” and the very online young people who create and subscribe to them. We discussed…

  • Extitutional Theory: No Rules, No Roles, just Dynamics

    I spoke to Primavera De Filipi (@yaoeo), one of the earliest scholars on law and crypto, Internet activist, and artist. She is permanent researcher at the CNRS and Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. She is author of the book Blockchain and the Law published by Harvard University Press. During the…

  • MEV: existential threat to blockchains or solvable problem?

    You may have heard of Maximal Extractable Value, or MEV, which refers to the extraction of value from Ethereum users by reordering, inserting, and censoring transactions within blocks by block producers. It’s become a hot topic of debate on how best to deal with it, however these types of conversations can become very technical very…

  • How to make a good ART PONZI

    I’m not much of an art NFT collector myself, but I do dabble in at least appreciating some NFT art that I find to be interesting in one way or another. So for this episode I spoke to Chainleft, my potential anon online doppelganger, who has recently started a new NFT collection he calls ART PONZI. Having…

  • Review of Decentralized Society and Soulbound Tokens Paper by Vitalik

    In this bonus episode I give my review of the recent article published titled Decentralized Society: Finding Web3’s Soul written by Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, Glen Weyl, and Puja Ohlhaver. The paper received a bit of attention as it goes into some high level details about how the authors view a potential future with the…

  • Aligning DAOs and Cybernetics

    For this episode I spoke to Kelsie Nabben (@kelsiemvn), a qualitative researcher on resilience in decentralised technologies and governance at RMIT in Australia. She recently co-wrote a piece titled Aligning the concept of ‘Decentralized Autonomous Organization’ to Precedents in Cybernetics with Michael Zargham whom you may know from a previous episode. Kelsie also publishes on her Substack about  decentralised digital infrastructure, security,…

  • Interview with Black Swan DAO (Live in Paris)

    About a month ago I did the first live podcast interview in Paris at an event hosted by EBB with two members of Black Swan DAO, a Berlin-based collective pursuing horizontal and decentralised approaches to art-making. Penny Rafferty (@pennny_rafferty) and Calum Bowden (@calsbot) are both artists and the members of the DAO who came to speak with me…

  • Crypto and the Left with Cory Doctorow

    Cory Doctorow (@doctorow) is a long time digital rights activist, author of many book on technology and sci-fi, and a journalist. You can find out more about him as well as his books on his website. Well known for being one of the most vocal left-of-center activists in the technology space, he has also expressed several…

  • CCG Chronicles #12 – Origins of the Crypto Commons

    During the CCG I interviewed a co-founder of the event and organization that runs it, the Crypto Commons Association, Felix Fritsch (@FelixFritsch2) . Felix is a PhD student who focuses on the synthesis of cryptocurrencies with commons theory and has written articles like  “Challenges and Approaches to Scaling the Global Commons” with many others including those who have…

  • CCG Chronicles #11 – Designing systems without fetishes, the frame, and cups

    During the CCG I had a long conversation with Pekko Koskinen and Michael Zargham about systems design, avoiding fetishizing objectivity when designing systems, and cups and spoons. It was an extremely cerebral discussion! Pekko Koskinen is a game designer, artist and developer specialized in gamification of social conventions and currently, he coordinates the Economic Space…

  • Democracy as a Design Space (Interview with Nathan Schneider)

    Nathan Schneider (@ntnsndr) is a professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder and the editor of “Proof of Stake: The Making of Ethereum and the Philosophy of Blockchains,” a collection of essays by Vitalik Buterin that will be published this September. He is also one of the most prominent thinkers on cooperativism and…

  • Idena: Digital Democracy without a Centralized Entity

    A case for crypto for the left would undoubtedly have to include the potential for creating resilient methods for digital democracy. However to make real democracy of one person one vote is incredibly difficult without having a very good system of sybil resistance, or for a way to tell that a single account is a…

  • CCG Chronicles #10 – Issues with the Sharing Economy and Platform Cooperativism

    This episode is a continuation of the CCG Chronicles series which is a collection of interviews conducted during the Crypto Commons Gathering (CCG) in Austria back in August 2021. The interviews were also filmed to potentially be a part of a documentary I’m making with a few others. During the CCG I interviewed Blanka Vay and Andreas …

  • CCG Chronicles #9 – Surviving Sanctions: Mutual Credit in Venezuela

    This episode is a continuation of the CCG Chronicles series which is a collection of interviews conducted during the Crypto Commons Gathering (CCG) in Austria back in August 2021. The interviews were also filmed to potentially be a part of a documentary I’m making with a few others. During the CCG I interviewed Aleeza Howitt (@aleezagroks) and…

  • We’re de-pegging Terra for “research purposes”

    In this episode I spoke to Quinn Dupont (@quinndupont), an  early crypto academic, founder of Alumni Labs, and author of the book Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains.   During the interview we spoke about his recent publication through Alumni Labs on A Progressive Web3,  some of the ethical issues around studying cryptocurrencies that people should be aware of which he’s written extensively about,…

  • How to Make a Song Every Day and Turn it in to a DAO Cooperative: Interview with Jonathan Mann

    In this interview I spoke to Jonathan Mann (@songadaymann), also known as the Song A Day guy, who has, in case you can’t tell, published a new song every day for the past ~14 years. There’s a good chance you’ve heard one of his songs at some point since many have gone viral in the…

  • CCG Chronicles #8 – Token Engineering and Holochain

    This episode is a continuation of the CCG Chronicles series which is a collection of interviews conducted during the Crypto Commons Gathering (CCG) in Austria back in August 2021. The interviews were also filmed to potentially be a part of a documentary I’m making with a few others. During the CCG I interviewed Scott Morris (@CS_Morris) and…

  • Are we a Psyop to left-wash crypto?

    For this episode I interviewed Danny O’Brien (@mala) , current senior fellow at the Filecoin Foundation and special advisor to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Danny worked with the EFF for a very long time and has a podcast called How to Fix the Internet. During the interview we talked about  his experience of the early internet and…

  • Crypto hackers don’t care about your libertarian ideology

    For this episode I spoke to Jaya Klara Brekke (@jayapapaya), an academic researcher on crypto and Head of Strategy at NYM who recently gave the keynote speech for the Haus Der Kunst DAO Summit. During the interview we spoke about her skepticism and cautious optimism she mentioned in the keynote speech, the contradictory feelings on the market…

  • CCG Chronicles #7 – Sovereignty for the Commons

    This episode is a continuation of the CCG Chronicles series which is a collection of interviews conducted during the Crypto Commons Gathering (CCG) in Austria back in August 2021. The interviews were also filmed to potentially be a part of a documentary I’m making with a few others. I interviewed Dr. Sarah Manski who I had on the podcast previously about…

  • CCG Chronicles #6 – How to Metagame the Labor Market

    This episode is a continuation of the CCG Chronicles series which is a collection of interviews conducted during the Crypto Commons Gathering (CCG) in Austria back in August 2021. The interviews were also filmed to potentially be a part of a documentary I’m making with a few others. I interviewed Peth (@Petheth), founder of Metagame, a very interesting…

  • Lunarpunk, Black Markets, and Agorism in the 21st Century

    For this interview I spoke to Dr. Paul Dylan-Ennis (@polarpunklabs), professor at University College Dublin, and Rose O’Leary (@lunarmining), previous writer at CoinDesk and now a programmer for DarkFi. They are both also the editors for a new philosophy journal called Agorism in the 21st Century which recently published its first issue.  Agorism is a heterodox libertarian political tendency…

  • Crypto Leftists go to ETHDenver

    This is a teaser of a Patreon bonus episode. For this bonus episode I spoke to Marisa and James who are working on PactDAO, a mutual aid network in NYC, and had the opportunity to take part in the events around ETHDenver. Since I didn’t get to go, I thought it would be interesting to hear…

  • CCG Chronicles #5 – The Credit Commons, Currency Design, and Totemomics

    This episode is a continuation of the CCG Chronicles series which is a collection of interviews conducted during the Crypto Commons Gathering (CCG) in Austria back in August 2021. The interviews were also filmed to potentially be a part of a documentary I’m making with a few others. I interviewed Matthew Slater, creator of the Credit Commons Protocol which is…

  • From Net Art to the rise of NFTs in an age of austerity

    For this episode I spoke to Dr. Tina Rivers Ryan (@TinaRiversRyan), Assistant Curator at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, art historian, critic, and educator. She’s been involved in digital art on the internet well before NFTs were ever a thing but has written some interesting critiques about it all. During the interview…

  • CCG Chronicles #4 – Is there nothing better than liberal democracy?

    This episode is a continuation of the CCG Chronicles series which is a collection of interviews conducted during the Crypto Commons Gathering (CCG) in Austria back in August 2021. The interviews were also filmed to potentially be a part of a documentary I’m making with a few others. I interviewed Grace Rachmany,  founder of Voice of Humanity and DAO Leadership, a…

  • CCG Chronicles #3 – The autopoiesis of complexity and the cognitariat

    This episode is a continuation of the CCG Chronicles series which is a collection of interviews conducted during the Crypto Commons Gathering (CCG) in Austria back in August 2021. The interviews were also filmed to potentially be a part of a documentary I’m making with a few others. I interviewed Denis ‘Jaromil’ Roio, founder of Dyne a “think and…

  • The Anarchist Case for DAOs

    For this interview I spoke to @againstutopia he’s known as on anarchist and crypto Twitter. He has a background in working in tech, platform cooperatives, and is one of the stewards of PrimeDAO. We  had followed each other online but finally had the opportunity to meet in person during The DAOist in Lisbon a few months ago. During…

  • Proof of Work vs Proof of Stake From a Socialist POV

    After being pulled in many different directions the past couple of months, I’ve finally had time to record this episode which was based on the results of the last patron poll. This one also required a little bit more research and thinking on my part because it started to get more complicated the more I…

  • Platform Socialism and Web3

    For this episode I spoke to James Muldoon (@james_muldoon_), a researcher at Autonomy in the UK, senior lecturer at University of Exeter, and author of the book Platform Socialism , coming out with Pluto Press on January 20th.  You may have seen that I also reviewed Platform Socialism on my site so check that out as well if you want to…

  • Mix Nets and Crypto: Privacy on the Internet Beyond Tor with Nym

    For this episode I spoke with Harry Halpin (@harryhalpin), open internet advocate, professor, internet researcher, and the current CEO of Nym. Nym is  a project trying to build a global privacy commons for the internet using mix nets, crypto, and anonymous credentials. During the interview we talk about the current issues with privacy on the internet…

  • Dancing with radical economics at the DisCO: A feminist cooperative alternative to DAOs

    This week, after a a few delays, I was finally able to interview  a couple of the masterminds behind DisCO (Distributed Cooperative Organization). I spoke to Stacco Troncoso (@StaccoP2P) and Natalia Avlona who are both members of the crew working on DisCO, also called DisCONAUTS. A DisCO is an alternative / critique / complement to DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations)…

  • CCG Chronicles #2 – A taxonomy of crypto-politics

    This episode is a continuation of the CCG Chronicles series which is a collection of interviews conducted during the Crypto Commons Gathering (CCG) in Austria back in August 2021. The interviews were also filmed to potentially be a part of a documentary I’m making with a few others. I interviewed Vangelis Papadimitropoulos, a political theorist, social…

  • Prefiguring post-capitalist work with DAOs

    For this week’s episode I spoke to Ori Shimony (@orishim),  co-founder of dOrg, a full-stack Web3 development collective. dOrg is incredibly interesting because it is run similarly to a worker-owned cooperative but functions as a DAO while also being at the forefront of building some of the most cutting-edge crypto platforms and products. During the interview…

  • CCG Chronicles #1 – Interview with Jeff Emmett of Commons Stack

    Hi all, I have a pretty big announcement to make which is that I’m filming a documentary about the cryptocurrency space! As part of the film I’ve been doing a bit of traveling going to different crypto-related conferences and filming the events. The first event I joined was the Crypto Commons Gathering (CCG) in Austria back in…

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