How did the CFA franc come to be the common currency of 14 West and Central African nations? Who controls it and why did it suddenly lose half of its value in 1994? In this episode, we are joined by software engineer and founder of Bitcoin Developers Academy, Fodé Diop, for a discussion on the fascinating monetary history of West Africa. Fodé explains how the CFA franc has allowed France to maintain economic dominance in West Africa, how the 1994 devaluation affected his family, and why he is su...
Aug 02, 2022•2 hr 52 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this seminar, learners at saifedean.com discuss the current state of the fiat monetary system as the world experiences the dollar strengthening and other fiat currencies weakening. Regular seminar attendee Nasr El-Hadi discusses the history and the current state of the Libyan monetary system, where the central bank has split into two central banks each issuing the same currency with a different signature, with hilarious and disastrous consequences. Find out what happens when fiat 'hard f...
Jul 26, 2022•2 hr 33 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, CEO of bitcoin mining company Iris Energy Dan Roberts joins us to discuss whether bitcoin can (and should) help fix renewable energy. Dan explains the problems that intermittent wind and solar energy create for power grids, and how his company works to solve them through bitcoin mining. He and Saifedean discuss whether grids would be better off only using reliable energy sources, how bitcoin’s difficulty adjustment forces miners to become more efficient, and why Iris Energy has ...
Jul 18, 2022•1 hr 23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Bitcoin educator and investor Giacomo Zucco joins us to explain why he thinks bitcoin cannot be hard money unless it is dark money. We discuss: How dark is bitcoin given that its ledger of transactions is public, and given the recent identification of several hackers through chain analysis? Is bitcoin’s privacy overestimated by bitcoiners? What chance does the average user have at remaining anonymous? Does bitcoin need to be anonymous to remain secure? Can bitcoin survive government attack if mo...
Jul 13, 2022•2 hr 18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Has Saifedean changed his mind on stablecoins? After handling $7b of redemptions in 48 hours, has USDT proven its resilience? Could regulated fiat banks handle this level of redemption? What happens to stablecoins if their adoption continues to grow? Can they replace foreign central banks as dollar providers to the world? Will they become major holders of US Treasuries? How will central banks deal with stablecoins? Are stablecoins a gateway to bitcoin? Can USDT be built on top of bitcoin's ...
Jul 04, 2022•2 hr 49 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode Saifedean joins Isabel Oakeshott and James Melville for an interview at the Speakeasy Podcast. They discuss why Saifedean decided to write The Bitcoin Standard, his views on the recent bitcoin price dip and the impact of the fiat “magic money tree” on society. Resources The Speakeasy podcast on Apple Podcasts . Saifedean’s first book, The Bitcoin Standard available in 20 languages. Saifedean’s second book, The Fiat Standard available in English, Turkish, Spanish and French. All o...
Jun 28, 2022•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this interview with the Practical Islamic Finance podcast, Saifedean discusses Bitcoin from an Islamic perspective, and makes the case for why it is more compatible with Islamic Sharia law than government money. Whereas the creation of government money happens through the creation of interest-bearing debt which is forbidden in Islam, the creation of bitcoin is no different than the creation of a market commodity, with a competitive market for its production. Bitcoin's decentralization ma...
Jun 13, 2022•1 hr 25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Tarek El Diwany’s book “The Problem with Interest” has attracted attention from scholars of Islamic finance and bitcoiners alike, including Allen Farrington, whose newly published book, Bitcoin Is Venice, draws heavily on Tarek's work. In this episode, Saifedean hosts Tarek and Allen to talk about the morality of lending with interest, why the practice is prohibited in Islam, and how an economy would function without interest rates. They discuss how monetary systems that require the creatio...
May 31, 2022•2 hr 37 min•Transcript available on Metacast In perhaps his most comprehensive interview to date, Saifedean talks to Lex Fridman about the history of money, the foundations of economics, and why bitcoin represents a pathway to a more peaceful and prosperous world. Starting from Lex’s question “What is money?”, Saifedean draws on insights from his most recent book, The Fiat Standard, to take the listener on a four-hour historical journey. He explains how money emerged as a market good; why the gold standard developed in Britain and spread a...
May 23, 2022•4 hr 17 min•Transcript available on Metacast Fiat money doesn't just affect economic exchange, its impact on society is much wider. In this episode, Marty Bent, host of the Tales from the Crypt Podcast, interviews Saifedean about the ways fiat money encourages negative societal impacts ranging from climate alarmism to soil degradation to poor diets. They focus on the widely accepted need to transition to from fossil fuels to “renewable” energy and how government funding of science encourages the publication of studies that predict cat...
May 17, 2022•1 hr 23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Most people think of bitcoin primarily as a form of money or store of value, but in this episode Darrin Feinstein argues that it also represents history’s most important accounting innovation. He explains why, as the world’s first incorruptible ledger, bitcoin allows us to remove fraud from the realm of accounting, and bring about a shift from “double-entry” to “triple-entry” bookkeeping. Darin and Saifedean discuss how the global accounting industry might differ in a world where bitcoin is used...
May 10, 2022•2 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Can we eliminate the use of fossil fuels? Can electric cars replace gasoline cars? Is a transition to wind and solar energy possible? At what cost? What impact will a forced transition have on economic development? How do the costs of eliminating fossil fuels compare to the dangers of increased CO2 emissions? What evidence is there for a pending climate catastrophe? The Mises Institute's Jeff Deist and Bob Murphy host Saifedean for a fascinating discussion of these and many more questions! ...
May 09, 2022•1 hr 18 min•Transcript available on Metacast April 27th 2022. Without government who would build the roads? Should prostitution, speculating and price gouging be outlawed? In this episode Saifedean discusses these questions with eminent Austrian School economist Dr Walter Block. They cover fundamental issues in economics such as whether there is such a thing as a “public good”, whether economics is an empirical science, and whether it is ethical to outlaw “victimless crimes”. Dr Block also shares the story of he became a libertarian and Au...
May 04, 2022•2 hr 31 min•Transcript available on Metacast March 28th 2022. What is the case for monarchy? Why are monarchies better at long-term thinking? Why do monarchies outcompete republics in protecting property rights, promoting peace, raising living standards, and protecting the value of money? Would a return to hard money bring back the age of monarchies? We discuss all these questions with HRH Prince Philip of Serbia, who became the first monarch to publicly announce being a bitcoiner. Their conversation touches on the story of the Karađorđevi...
Apr 11, 2022•2 hr 47 min•Transcript available on Metacast March 22nd 2022. In a country dominated by statist politicians, what it is like to campaign for freedom, personal responsibility, and limited government? In this episode, Saifedean talks to leader of the People’s Party of Canada, Maxime Bernier about Canadian politics and whether bitcoin can protect Canadians from government overreach. They discuss Maxime’s journey into politics as a libertarian, why Canadian inflation is so high, and why Maxime supported recent protests by Canadian truckers. Th...
Apr 01, 2022•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast March 21st 2022. Is earth too hot? Is the weather getting worse? Are we experiencing a climate crisis? Is CO2 the control knob for the earth's climate? Is climate science basic physics? Do all scientists agree on these questions? Tom Nelson is an independent researcher who has spent many years studying these questions in-depth. He joins us to give us a rigorously researched perspective that contradicts the hysterical groupthink in fiat academia and media. He and Saifedean discuss how fiat f...
Mar 28, 2022•2 hr 51 min•Transcript available on Metacast March 17th 2022. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the US confiscated the Russian central bank’s significant monetary reserves, and banned some Russian banks from the SWIFT network. Serious questions are being asked about the survival of the postwar dollar-based world monetary order. Will Russia, China, and other countries actually build an alternative international settlement system, after years of threatening to do so? Will global central banks stop accumulating US treasury bonds and repl...
Mar 23, 2022•1 hr 26 min•Transcript available on Metacast March 9th 2022. Saifedean hosts Dr Cate Shanahan to discuss her remarkable work on nutrition and the long term consequences of traditional foods and modern fiat foods. Cate's experience at medical school was powerless to stop her own health deteriorating, causing her to look at nutrition as a deeper cause of health problems, sending her down a rabbit hole to discover the horrors of modern seed oils, and the devastating damage caused by mainstream theories of health and nutrition, particular...
Mar 18, 2022•2 hr 9 min•Transcript available on Metacast February 25th 2022. In this episode, Saifedean appears on The Tom Woods Show for a discussion on how the damage caused by fiat money extends beyond economics. Saifedean and Tom discuss why fiat money increases the power of governments and heightens societal time preference, disincentivising long-term planning. They also talk about the rise of “fiat mentality” and how societal attitudes have changed in areas such as diet, education and energy. They then discuss the “misery industry” of debt-based...
Mar 10, 2022•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast February 24th 2021. In this episode, Saifedean appears on The Tom Woods Show for a discussion of fiat money and debt slavery. Saifedean and Tom talk about the role of government debt in the creation of fiat money; the recent freezing of bank accounts in the wake of Canadian protests, and why bitcoin improves on the shortcomings of gold. They then discuss how the fiat monetary system warps societal incentives by making debt accumulation a winning strategy. Resources: The Tom Woods Show official w...
Mar 09, 2022•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, Saifedean talks to Samson Mow, outgoing CSO of Blockstream and CEO of Pixelmatic, about why we should be “augmenting” rather than trying to change the bitcoin network. They begin by discussing Blockstream projects such as the Liquid Network that extend the range of options available to bitcoin users, while accepting the network’s fundamental protocol rules. They also discuss Samson’s role as a prominent “small blocker” in the 2015-2017 “Blocksize War” and whether – in retrospect...
Mar 05, 2022•2 hr 33 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, Saifdean talks to Safdar Alam, CEO of investment firm Maydan Capital, about Islamic finance. Safdar starts by describing the basic principles of Islamic finance and the ethical justification for Islam’s prohibition on lending with interest. He and Saifedean then talk about how Islamic finance works in practice today; how it is mimicking the mainstream financial system; and the ways in which bitcoin might provide an ethical alternative to common practices often considered haram ....
Mar 01, 2022•2 hr 50 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, Saifedean talks to author and health coach P.D. Mangan about how to improve wellbeing and slow ageing through some simple diet and fitness practices. They discuss why humans have adapted to thrive on a meat-based and paleo diets, the flawed science used to support widely accepted government dietary guidelines, and why so many people fail in their attempts to lose weight, combat fatigue and improve their wellbeing. In the Q&A, P.D. answers questions on fasting, whether type I...
Feb 17, 2022•2 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this epsisode Saifedean talks to economist and investor Lyn Alden about her views on the global macroeconomy. They start by discussing recent market turbulence in light of the Federal Reserve’s plans to tighten monetary policy, whether these plans are realisable, and what this will mean for consumer price inflation and the stock market. They then move on to a discussion of Lyn’s portfolio, her reasons for allocation across particular industries, and why she holds shares in silver mining compa...
Jan 31, 2022•2 hr 48 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode Saifedean talks to writer and head of business development at Unchained Capital Parker Lewis about his Gradually, Then Suddenly series. They start by discussing Parker’s career in traditional finance during the 2008 financial crisis, and how discovering Austrian economics and bitcoin helped him to truly understand the workings of global finance. They then talk about the arguments of some of Parker’s well-known articles on topics ranging from why bitcoin can’t be copied to why bit...
Jan 23, 2022•2 hr 59 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode investor Preston Pysh and Saifedean do a deep dive in Saifedean’s new book The Fiat Standard. They discuss why analysing the fiat monetary system through the lens of bitcoin can help readers understand the advantages, and numerous disadvantages, of the fiat system. They talk about how fiat partially solved the age-old problem of gold’s lack of saleability across space, and how this eventually led to gold’s capture by governments and its ultimate demonetization. They explain how t...
Jan 08, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode Saifedean talks to author and Mises Institute fellow Tom Woods about the importance of sound economics in an age of Covid hysteria. They discuss their experiences studying at Columbia University, and the different paths they took to discovering Austrian Economics. They then move on to discussing how they became independent academics, operating outside of traditional institutions and how this gave them more of freedom of speech and allowed them to reach a larger audience. They als...
Dec 30, 2021•2 hr 43 min•Transcript available on Metacast This seminar hosts Microstrategy CEO and bitcoin mega-bull Michael Saylor to discuss the correct strategies for buying, holding, and promoting bitcoin. Michael explains what he sees as increasing regulatory clarity around bitcoin and increasing risk around altcoins, which it is becoming clear are digital securities, while bitcoin is digital property. We discuss his views on the adoption of bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador, and whether it presents bitcoin as more of a currency than a proper...
Dec 16, 2021•3 hr•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode Saifedean talks to Jeff Deist, president of the Mises Institute: the leading think tank dedicated to spreading the ideas of the Austrian School of Economics. They discuss the mission of the Mises Institute, its origins, and how its approach to economics differs from other think tanks such as the Cato Institute. They also talk about the problems of modern empirical economics and how most mainstream economists have failed to articulate the “unseen” costs of government interventions...
Dec 10, 2021•2 hr 34 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, Saifedean invites his newsletter subscribers to join a Q&A seminar normally only available to Saifedean.com members. He answers questions on whether money and debt are the same, whether bitcoin whales or “monopolists” will gain too much power on the free market, the impact of energy trends on bitcoin mining, and the risks of holding bitcoin on an exchange. Participants also share their personal stories about how reading The Bitcoin Standard changed their life by lowering the...
Dec 03, 2021•2 hr 53 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
