GRIFTONOMICS

Aug 29 2022 520

GRIFTONOMICS Podcast artwork

We are living in a time where a JPEG can sell for a million dollars, celebrities openly endorse Ponzi schemes and when what you've invented doesn't matter nearly as much as what you say you've invented. As snake oil increasingly becomes our new currency, regulators and lawmakers are asleep at the wheel while pay-to-play journalists pump out puff pieces from their slurp juice-induced hangovers. Join us as we explore the dizzying, unending roster of these 2020s-era rackets. Welcome to the age of GRIFTONOMICS.

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The Cancel Culture Con (w/ Katelyn Burns)

Aug 29 2022 55 mins

The notion of being “canceled” online is a fear held by many, often associated with consequences such as losing your job, friends and reputation. But increasingly, so-called “canceled” individuals seem to be fairing OK, and those consequences are becoming harder to find. So what does “cancel culture” mean in this day and age, and is it really a ticket to being exiled fr

The Road to Nowhere (w/ Paris Marx)

Aug 22 2022 58 mins

Electric cars, underground tunnels, and autonomous vehicles are just a few of the fantastical ideas you’ve probably heard about when it comes to news coverage of the transport industry. But how did we get here? Are these sci-fi concepts really the future of our society, or should we rethink more than just the dominance of the automobile as we consider the future of transport? To

Life According to Longtermism (w/ Émile P. Torres)

Aug 15 2022 56 mins

If you’ve been following the tweets and interviews of our billionaire class lately, you may have noticed a recent interest from this group in topics such as global birth rates, colonizing far away planets and downloading your brain to a computer. Some billionaires have gone as far to share what they call a “longtermism” philosophy; endorsing, and in many cases, donating to or

The Reality of Virtual Real Estate (w/ Jathan Sadowski)

Aug 08 2022 62 mins

We’re living in a time where a large portion of the population can only dream of owning their own house or land due to increasing prices and stagnant wages, but alas, something called “virtual” real estate is a hot new market, raking in billions of dollars in sales in the last year alone. But why would anyone want to own virtual real estate and who are the driving forces behi

The "Buy Now, Pay Later" Bubble (w/ Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan of FT)

Jul 04 2022 45 mins

If you’ve made a purchase online recently, you’ve probably encountered the option to “Buy Now, Pay Later”. In the last few years, dozens of tech startups have sprouted up and have been successful in convincing merchants to offer their service to consumers. With a market already estimated to be in excess of $100B, the industry is growing quickly and now bigger players

Mapping The Manosphere (w/ münecat)

Jun 29 2022 36 mins

In recent years you may have heard of something called the “Manosphere”. Existing across a range of mediums and levels of cringe, content focusing heavily on embracing one’s masculinity, quickly descending into misogyny, has acted as a pipeline for radicalization - especially amongst younger men. But who are the people running this, what are their real motives and are they ma

Crypto Energy Crisis (w/ Ketan Joshi)

Jun 20 2022 60 mins

The crypto mining space is a very contentious space - some people will tell you the industry are burning as much electricity as a small country while others will tell you that it’s actually pushing forward the revolution of renewable energy. To help us untangle all of this, we’re joined by Ketan Joshi, climate analyst and communications expert. Follow Ketan: Twitter Website F

Debunking DeFi (w/ Bennett Tomlin of Crypto Critics' Corner)

Jun 13 2022 62 mins

DeFi, short for “Decentralized Finance”, has been a popular buzzword of late - you might have had a friend or family member tell you about this hot new technology that can make you massive returns each week. At its peak, the DeFi ecosystem has come close to a reported $100B invested. But what really is DeFi and is it everything it’s cracked up to be? In recent months, the ind

Carbon Credit Cards (w/ Polly Hemming of The Australia Institute)

Jun 07 2022 60 mins

You might have heard more and more recently about carbon offsetting - with companies labeling their products as carbon neutral or airlines allowing you to offset the emissions of your ticket with a one-time fee. Carbon credits, the financial market behind this movement are becoming big business - with billions of dollars in credits traded last year alone. But how much oversight do

That's So Meta (w/ Maxwell Strachan of Motherboard)

May 30 2022 50 mins

It’s been just over 6 months since Facebook rebranded their company to Meta, and in the process reignited mainstream interest in the concept of a Metaverse. Since then, billions of dollars of investment across the tech industry have poured into Metaverse-related projects, and many established companies have quickly jumped on the bandwagon to stay relevant and published some form