The Bitcoin Standard Podcast

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, particularly the work of "the Keynes of Nutrition" Ancel Keys, who has arguably killed more humans than anyone in history. Cate contrasts his work to that of Weston Price, "the Mises of Nutrition", whose study of traditional diets worldwide remains enormously informative and useful, in spite of the medical and nutrition establishment ignoring it. Cate also explains how your food determines the health, fitness, and beauty of your children, and the warped financial incentives of modern fiat medicine.

Resources

• Cate on Twitter
• Cate’s books Deep Nutrition, The Fat Burn Fix and Food Rules on her official website
• PhD thesis that influenced Cate’s early ideas on nutrition: Lipid peroxidation in Vivo by Eva Södergren
• Book criticised by Cate for manipulation of statistics: The Seven Countries Study: A Scientific Adventure in Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology
• The Future of Fat Summit
• The Weston Price Foundation’s official website
• Dentist and beauty theorist Stephen R. Marquardt on Wikipedia
• Regional Eats documentary series on Amazon
• Flavorful Origins on Netflix
• Weston Price’s book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
• The Bitcoin Standard Podcast episode with Dr. Shawn Baker on Meat, Fiat Foods, and Bitcoin
• Cate’s lecture “Feed the Masses” about Harvard’s 70-year public health experiment
• Dr Nadir Ali’s official website
• Saifedean’s first book, The Bitcoin Standard
• Saifedean’s second book, The Fiat Standard
• Saifedean's guide to eating meat & defeating fiat foods: https://saifedean.com/meat/

Enjoyed this episode? You can take part in podcast seminars, access Saifedean’s courses and read chapters of his forthcoming books by becoming a Saifedean.com member. Find out more here.

Visit saifedean.com/meat to find out more about Saifedean’s experience following the carnivore diet. 

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 development aid – promoted by International Financial Institutions like the IMF – and how this industry has held back economic progress in the developing world.

Resources:

• The Tom Woods Show official website.
• Tom’s free ebook Our Enemy The Fed
• Guido Hülsmann’s book The Ethics of Money Production for a discussion of the moral implications of inflation.
• Gold Wars: The Battle for the Global Economy by Ferdinand Lips
• Saifedean’s podcast episode with Nina Teicholz for a discussion of seed oils and government dietary guidelines.
• The Ultimate Resource 2 by Julian Simon for a discussion of failed predictions about resource scarcity.
• Introduction to the concept of opportunity cost on Mises Wiki.
• Saifedean’s first book, The Bitcoin Standard
• Saifedean’s second book, The Fiat Standard

Enjoyed this episode? You can take part in podcast seminars, access Saifedean’s courses and read chapters of his forthcoming books by becoming a Saifedean.com member. Find out more here.

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 website.
• Tom’s free ebook Our Enemy The Fed
• Guido Hülsmann’s book The Ethics of Money Production 
• Saifedean’s first book, The Bitcoin Standard
• Saifedean’s second book, The Fiat Standard

Enjoyed this episode? You can take part in podcast seminars, access Saifedean’s courses and read chapters of his forthcoming books by becoming a Saifedean.com member. Find out more here.

 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 – the victory of the small blockers was inevitable. Samson then shares his views on bitcoin adoption in Latin America, including El Salvador’s issuance of bitcoin-backed “volcano bonds” as a means of evading the debt-fuelled development model encouraged by the IMF. In the Q&A, Samson answers questions about bitcoin privacy, proof-of-stake and the issuance of securities on the Liquid Network.

Resources

• Samson on Twitter
• Official website of Pixelmatic
• Blockstream explainer outlining differences between Liquid and Lightning as Layer 2 scaling solutions for bitcoin
• Blockstream announcement on Baillie Gifford Series B investment
• Blockstream blog post announcing that El Salvador will issue $1bn in volcano bonds
• The Blocksize War by Jonathan Bier
• Saifedean’s first book, The Bitcoin Standard
• Saifedean’s second book, The Fiat Standard

Enjoyed this episode? You can take part in podcast seminars, access Saifedean’s courses and read chapters of his forthcoming books by becoming a Saifedean.com member. Find out more here.

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. In the Q&A Safdar answers questions about the Islamic definition of “speculation” and how this differs from “gambling”.

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 II diabetes can be reversed and the environmental impact of monocrops.

 Visit saifedean.com/meat to find out more about Saifedean’s experience following the carnivore diet. 

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 companies. In the Q&A Lyn answers questions about whether we can trust the Federal Reserve and how she uses the Austrian School economic framework to inform her thinking on investment.

Resources:

• Lyn on Twitter
• Lyn’s 2020 article 3 Reasons I’m Investing in Bitcoin
• Lyn’s January 2022 Newsletter The Capital Sponge for a discussion of recent developments in the US stock market with historical context (includes a breakdown of her model portfolio).
• A Tiger by the Tail by F.A. Hayek for a discussion of the Keynesian legacy of inflation
• Gold Wars by Ferdinand Lips for an account of Switerland’s abandonment of the gold standard.
• The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy by William Strauss and Neil Howe
• America’s Great Depression by Murray N. Rothbard. See pages 3-80  for Rothbard’s explanation of Austrian Business Cycle Theory.
• Lyn’s last appearance on The Bitcoin Standard Podcast in May 2022
• Lyn’s critique of Nassim Taleb’s Bitcoin Black Paper
• Saifedean’s first book, The Bitcoin Standard
• Saifedean’s second book, The Fiat Standard

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 bitcoin isn’t too volatile to why bitcoin can’t be banned. In the Q&A Parker discusses rumours that he will run for mayor of Austin and whether hyperbitcoinization will lead to US dollar inflation.

Resources

· A full list of Parker’s articles on the Nakamoto Institute website.

· Bitcoin can’t be copied

· Bitcoin is Not Too Volatile

· Bitcoin Cannot be Banned

· Vijay Boyapati’s article The Bullish Case For Bitcoin for discussion of bitcoin’s volatility.

· Saifedean’s first book, The Bitcoin Standard

· Saifedean’s second book, The Fiat Standard

· Parker on Twitter.

 Enjoyed this episode? You can take part in podcast seminars, access Saifedean’s courses and read chapters of his forthcoming books by becoming a Saifedean.com member. Find out more here.

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 the fiat monetary system we live under today was created, and how it is controlled by the US and US-controlled institutions such as the IMF: to the detriment of the rest of the world. They talk through the disastrous consequences of the fiat system including its destruction of wealth through inflation, its disruption of economic calculation, the unprecedented power it has provided to governments, and its propensity to lead to conflict. They then move on to discuss the broader societal consequences on areas of life ranging from academia to medicine to diet. Finally, they discuss how a bitcoinized world, absent of inflation, would solve the problems fiat has created.

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 also talk about Tom’s work promoting rational thinking on masks and coronavirus lockdowns, the influence of “fiat” academics like Dr Fauci, and the censorship Tom has had to overcome on popular social media platforms.