Episode description

Hello from the Matt Levine fan club! 

This week, the writer and editor Max Read returns to discuss the disintegration of the tech world. 

2:45 – First, Max and Jay explain what happened to cryptocurrency exchange FTX, founded by Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), and how its calamitous end has eroded people’s faith in crypto. We marvel at FTX’s narrative arc (“Star Wars” and a Bahamian polycule!), the social network that enabled SBF’s messianic rise, and the material conditions in tech-business journalism. Plus: Did SBF’s obsession with effective altruism (or, as Tammy puts it, the Davos-ification of philosophy) inoculate him against criticism? 

38:50 – Speaking of Silicon Valley founder fetish… we then turn our attention to the train wreck of Twitter under Elon Musk. Could this disastrous moment in tech workers’ rights shift the industry’s (and especially Twitter’s) stance on unions? Or will downsizing keep workers in their place? Which of the Max’s predicted paths will Twitter take, and what would its death mean for the left and for journalism? 

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