The Bitcoin Standard Podcast
Dr. Saifedean Ammous
Saifedean's The Bitcoin Standard Podcast is the place to discuss Bitcoin and economics from the Austrian school's perspective. Listen to the weekly saifedean.com discussion seminar, where a group of learners from all over the world discuss the website's online courses, as well as a wide variety of economic, political, and social issues, and occasionally host special guests for the discussion. The podcast also includes the most interesting interviews conducted with Saifedean on other shows.
Episodes
Mentioned books
15 snips
May 12, 2026 • 1h 18min
325. Principles of Economics Lecture 14: Credit and Banking
A lecture-style discussion on how credit and banking channel savings into investment. It explores time preference as the driver of interest rates and contrasts commodity credit with money-created circulation credit. Topics include the origins of interest, a proposal for zero-interest free markets with hard money, historical trends of falling rates, and shifts toward equity finance.
20 snips
May 5, 2026 • 1h 24min
324. Apolar Money: Lecture at the Global Economy & Finance Conference in Seoul
Saifedean Ammous, economist and author of The Bitcoin Standard, gives a lecture promoting Bitcoin as an apolar money alternative to global fiat reserve currencies. He outlines problems with government money, how fiat fuels asset bubbles and war financing, why alternatives fail, and Bitcoin’s role as a scarce digital settlement. Talks cover geopolitics, adoption paths, policy advice, and privacy questions.
6 snips
Apr 28, 2026 • 42min
323. Principles of Economics Lecture 13: Time Preference
A lecture on time preference and why people value present goods over future ones. Discussion of how secure property, hard money, and reliable money reduce time preference and encourage saving and investment. Examination of how disasters, crime, and currency debasement raise time preference and harm capital formation. Exploration of Bitcoin’s design as a form of hard money that can lower time preference for adopters.
7 snips
Apr 21, 2026 • 59min
322. Principles of Economics Lecture 12: Capitalism
A clear breakdown of capitalism as private ownership and free trade of capital goods. How stock markets let anyone become a capitalist by abstracting capital. Why profit-and-loss drives allocation and makes market feedback essential. Historical examples of socialism destroying capital markets. Why planners cannot perform economic calculation without property rights.
5 snips
Apr 14, 2026 • 1h 6min
321. Principles of Economics Lecture 11: Markets
How money and specialization let people trade and boost productivity. Why market incentives make self-interest serve others. How prices originate from aggregating individual valuations into demand and supply. What equilibrium means and how price controls create surpluses or shortages. Which factors shift demand and supply and why consumer valuation guides production.
6 snips
Apr 7, 2026 • 1h 35min
320. Principles of Economics Lecture 10: Money
A deep dive into how money emerges from trade and solves the coincidence-of-wants problem. Discussion of saleability, liquidity, bid-ask spreads, and why some goods become dominant money. Exploration of hardness, stock-to-flow, and why durable, hard money like gold historically prevails. Examination of money's role in saving, capital formation, and enabling complex economic calculation.
Mar 31, 2026 • 53min
319. Escalating from Suez to Waterloo
A close reading of a one-month Iran war timeline and its global stakes. Discussion of how low-cost drones and missiles reshape modern warfare. Analysis of shifting U.S. military power and the obsolescence of traditional platforms. Exploration of sanctions, oil market shifts, and potential effects on yields and the dollar. A stark framing of choices between capitulation and full escalation.
5 snips
Mar 24, 2026 • 1h 1min
318. Principles of Economics Lecture 9: Trade
A lively look at trade as voluntary exchange that benefits everyone. Covers subjective valuation, marginal utility, and why differing preferences enable deals. Explains absolute and comparative advantage with Crusoe and Friday examples. Shows how specialization, division of labor, and larger markets boost productivity and build cities and civilization.
6 snips
Mar 17, 2026 • 1h 13min
317. Principles of Economics Lecture 8: Energy and Power
A deep look at why energy and power drive productivity, trade and modern living standards. Clear explanations of energy, work and power with vivid comparisons from humans to tractors. A historical tour of fuels, energy density and the hydrocarbon leap. A critical take on renewables, batteries, grid reliability and the political economy of energy.
9 snips
Mar 10, 2026 • 47min
316. Principles of Economics Lecture 7: Technology
A lecture about technology as non-material capital that raises productivity and fuels long-term growth. It explores why innovation creates new kinds of work instead of eliminating jobs. Historical examples like steam engines and aviation illustrate how tinkering and entrepreneurship drive breakthroughs. Topics include software as informational capital, population effects on innovation, and resistance to new tech.
