The Bitcoin Standard Podcast

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. They also talk about the merits of gold versus bitcoin as money, and how Maxime would change Canada’s monetary policy. Saifedean pitches Maxime on the advantages of bitcoin for Canada, and Maxime announces that he's looking to accept donations in bitcoin!ResourcesMaxime on TwitterOfficial website of the People’s Party of CanadaAlternative measures of inflation on Shadow Stats.Official inflation statistics in CanadaMises Institute article on Canadian trucker protests by Lew RockwellSaifedean’s first book, The Bitcoin StandardSaifedean’s second book, The Fiat StandardEnjoyed 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. 

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 funding of science creates incentives for groupthink and for bad ideas to survive unchallenged. They also talk about why fiat inflationism creates a strong incentive for researchers to support any pseudoscience that concludes you should avoid price-sensitive essential fuels in favor of less effective, cheaper alternatives.Resources:Tom on TwitterTom’s article Useful Notes for Climate Sceptics on SubstackThe Politically Incorrect Guide to Climate Change by Marc MoranoFake Invisible Catastrophes and Threats of Doom by Patrick MooreWatts Up with That blog by Anthony WattsThe Moral Case for Fossil Fuels by Alex EpsteinSteve McIntyre’s website Climate Audit website.The spiral structure of the Milky Way, cosmic rays, and ice age epochs on Earth by Shaviv, Nir J. and speech discussing the paper.Saifedean’s podcast episode with Patrick MooreSaifedean’s podcast episodes with Alex Epstein in Nov 2021 and Dec 2020, and his appearance on Alex’s Power Hour podcast.Saifedean’s first book, The Bitcoin StandardSaifedean’s second book, The Fiat Standard

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 replace them with gold and commodities? Will we witness the birth of a new commodity or gold-based monetary order? In this seminar, we use the insights from The Bitcoin Standard and The Fiat Standard on temporal and spatial salability to explain why reports of the death of the dollar and the emergence of a new gold standard may be exaggerated.ResourcesBretton Woods III memo by Credit Suisse analyst Zoltan PozsarArthur Hayes’ blog Energy CancelledReuters report on commodities crisisAmerica’s Quiet Default by Nic CarterSaifedean’s first book, The Bitcoin StandardSaifedean’s second book, The Fiat Standard

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.ResourcesCate on TwitterCate’s books Deep Nutrition, The Fat Burn Fix and Food Rules on her official websitePhD thesis that influenced Cate’s early ideas on nutrition: Lipid peroxidation in Vivo by Eva SödergrenBook criticised by Cate for manipulation of statistics: The Seven Countries Study: A Scientific Adventure in Cardiovascular Disease EpidemiologyThe Future of Fat SummitThe Weston Price Foundation’s official websiteDentist and beauty theorist Stephen R. Marquardt on WikipediaRegional Eats documentary series on AmazonFlavorful Origins on NetflixWeston Price’s book Nutrition and Physical DegenerationThe Bitcoin Standard Podcast episode with Dr. Shawn Baker on Meat, Fiat Foods, and BitcoinCate’s lecture “Feed the Masses” about Harvard’s 70-year public health experimentDr Nadir Ali’s official websiteSaifedean’s first book, The Bitcoin StandardSaifedean’s second book, The Fiat StandardSaifedean'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 FedGuido 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 LipsSaifedean’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 StandardSaifedean’s second book, The Fiat StandardEnjoyed 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 FedGuido Hülsmann’s book The Ethics of Money Production Saifedean’s first book, The Bitcoin StandardSaifedean’s second book, The Fiat StandardEnjoyed 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. ResourcesSamson on TwitterOfficial website of PixelmaticBlockstream explainer outlining differences between Liquid and Lightning as Layer 2 scaling solutions for bitcoinBlockstream announcement on Baillie Gifford Series B investmentBlockstream blog post announcing that El Salvador will issue $1bn in volcano bondsThe Blocksize War by Jonathan BierSaifedean’s first book, The Bitcoin StandardSaifedean’s second book, The Fiat StandardEnjoyed 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 TwitterLyn’s 2020 article 3 Reasons I’m Investing in BitcoinLyn’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 inflationGold 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 HoweAmerica’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 2022Lyn’s critique of Nassim Taleb’s Bitcoin Black PaperSaifedean’s first book, The Bitcoin StandardSaifedean’s second book, The Fiat Standard