Show Notes
Crypto promised money that needs no trust. Ben McKenzie thinks that promise is the con. New episode out now. Michael J. Hershman sits down with Ben McKenzie, actor turned author, known for The O.C., Southland and Gotham, and now one of crypto's best known skeptics, for a conversation about fraud, money and what happens to a country that stops trusting its own institutions. Inside this one: why an economics graduate watching crypto ads around live sport in 2021 decided he had a duty to warn people, and what it felt like to be proved right in 2022; what he learned interviewing Sam Bankman Fried and Alex Mashinsky before both went to prison, and why he thinks most frauds start with one small lie rather than a plan; how Trump coin worked, and why the family reportedly cleared 1.4 billion dollars while investors lost multiples of that; the 42 percent of young men who have bought crypto and the advertising that put them there; and why he argues money cannot be trustless, because trust is the only thing money has ever been. He also makes the case that the 40 trillion dollar national debt and the crypto boom are the same problem wearing different clothes, and that neither gets fixed until the system looks fair enough to believe in. 🎧 EP7 of The Fairfax Files Podcast - "Crypto, Con Men, and the Golden Age of Fraud" - host Michael J. Hershman in conversation with Ben McKenzie (actor turned author, known for The O.C., Southland and Gotham, and now one of crypto's best known skeptics).
▶️ Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/YYB2hHaZU3Y #BenMcKenzie #MichaelHershman #Crypto #TheFairfaxFiles #NewEpisode
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