March 3, 2021 • 20 mins
NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo continues to be in hot water as a third woman has come forward to allege unwanted advances and sexual harassment. Cuomo now faces an investigation by the NY Attorney General and also calls for his resignation from both parties. David Freedlander, contributor to NY Magazine, joins us for how Cuomo is trying to navigate these scandals as his political future is called into question.
Next, the market for a type of new digital asset known as a non-fungible token or NFT has exploded. These NFT’s can be anything from digital art, sports cards, or even pieces of land in a virtual environment and are authenticated by blockchain which proves you own it. Recently, a 10-second video artwork that was originally bought for $67,000, sold for $6.6 million. Elizabeth Howcroft, Reporter at Reuters, joins us for how NFT’s are booming right now.
Finally, researchers are looking to disease resistant patients in the hopes to expose weaknesses in Covid-19. Studies are being done to identify people who were heavily exposed to the virus, but never came down with it and also had no antibodies. Some of the answers lie in gene susceptibility, autoantibodies, and mutations. David Cox, freelance journalist at the BBC, joins us for how scientists are looking for Covid’s weak spots.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Wednesday, March three. I'm Oscar Ramirez in Los Angeles,
and this is the Daily Dive. New York Governor Andrew
Cuomo continues to be in hot water as a third
woman has come forward to allege unwanted advances and sexual harassment.
Cuomo now faces an investigation by the New York Attorney
(00:21):
General and also calls for his resignation from both parties.
David Friedlander, contributor to New York Magazine, joins us for
how Cuomo is trying to navigate these scandals as his
political future called a new question. Next, the market for
a type of new digital asset known as a non
fungible token or n FT as exploded. These n f
(00:42):
t s can be anything from digital art, sports cards,
or even pieces of land in a virtual environment, and
they're all authenticated by blockchain, which proves you own it. Recently,
a ten second video artwork that was originally bought for
sixty seven thousand dollars sold for six point six million.
Elizabeth Howcroft, reporter at Reuter's joins us for how n
(01:02):
f t s are booming right now. Finally, researchers are
looking to disease resistant patients and hopes to expose weaknesses
and COVID nineteen studies are being done to identify people
who were heavily exposed to the virus but never came
down with it and also had no antibody. David Cox,
freelance journalists at the BBC, joins us for how scientists
(01:22):
are looking for COVID's weak spots. It's news without the North,
Let's dive in. These allegations are very serious against Governor Cuomo,
made by serious individuals, and deserve a serious and independent investigation.
Joining us now is David Friedlander, contributor to New York Magazine.
(01:43):
Thanks for joining us, David, Thank you. New York Governor
Andrew Cuomo is facing a series of sexual harassment allegations.
We're up to three women now. The latest said that
Cuomo inappropriately grabbed her and kissed her on the cheek
at a wedding. So we're hearing a lot of different things,
and what we're also seeing is increasing calls for Cuomo
(02:04):
to either resign, We're gonna have an investigation by the
Attorney General. I mean, there's really just a lot going
on and what's happening behind the scenes with Andrew Cuomo
and his team is kind of a mishmash. Also, some
are very worried, some are thinking that this could blow over.
But his political future is being called into question right now.
And uh, you know you've written extensively about this. Now
(02:27):
there's this other wrinkle too, you know, he there's a
lot of people that don't really like him in the
area when it comes to the State Senate and Assembly.
So there's just a ton of stuff going down, David,
help us walk through some of it. I mean, as
you say, they're currently three, uh, allegations of you know what,
I guess we'll call sexual harassment. I think most people
(02:47):
expect more to come somehow. There's just not a lot
of goodwill with regards to Cuomo in the legislature. I mean,
he has a reputation of being a bully, being a
control freak, of calling people at all hours of the
night and rating them or demanding things from them, making
them do stuff in the same ones sort of staff level.
(03:09):
So now that he's on the ropes, I think, you
know a lot of lawmakers are sort of quite content
to let him twist on those ropes or or even
you know, get their own shops in just because there
isn't a lot of love for him. There doesn't seem
like he was going to come in and save them.
And so the real question is whether or not there's
a sort of enough of a support for removal in
(03:30):
the state legislature, which is democratically controlled and by supermajorities
in most cases. How does the Democrat party figure into
all of this? So, I mean, I think there's sort
of two questions there. There's a sort of his support
from the state party and then of course his support
from National Democrats. I think both of those are like
a little less complicated than the sort of state government
(03:52):
dynamic the state party here in New York. Is it
just a whole you know, subsidiary Cuomo and there will
be the last ones to sort of leave, you know.
The now actual party I think is a little bit different.
I mean, you know who we are at this moment
with relic Bill Cumming and vaccines, and nobody wants a
New York governor to be a distraction, certainly not to
(04:13):
abide it. It was a close ally from certainly certainly
not Truck Schumer. The set of majority eater who although
is isn't I don't think particularly close to Cuomo is
also gonna be on the ballot in two and so
he doesn't want Cuomo next to him, bringing his numbers down.
So back to kind of these allegations and how Cuomo
has handled these. You know, he's released a few statements.
(04:35):
He apologized if he made anybody feel that or you know, inappropriate.
He said he was being playful at certain moments, and
that he works so much he considers the staffers and
other employees they're, you know, friends. How has this handling
been as far as his statements go in reaction to
these allegations, Not great, is the sort of short answer.
(04:56):
He kind of came up with a statement. Originally, when
the very first allegation should surface, I should say, they
sort of denied it outright, said they even acknowledged it,
and someone leaked the personnel file of the accuser to
sort of make it seem as if she were, you
know a little bit not exactly steady or something. And
the latest allegations came. I mean, they've just been sort
(05:17):
of coming out with sort of statement after statement, and
none of them have quite answered the question. I think
the first one said, you know, we're this is all
I have to say that and we're not going to
answer you more questions at this time. And then it
just kind of went on from there. This was clearly
a case where it was supposed to be referred to
the sort of inquiry was supposed to be referring to
the attorney general, and Cuomo tried to protect that's them
happening and thought someone else should do it. And then eventually,
(05:40):
after sort of a long day of many statements and
much back and forth, he ended up with this really
long statement that, as you say, was kind of talking
about his relationships with his staffers and how he likes
to be playful and it's banter and it was just
cringe inducing, was the only sort of phrase that came
to mind. Yeah, definitely, what's the plan out he Obviously
(06:00):
they're going to be pushing back on these allegations. They
have to wait for this investigation to go through and
see what happens in that report. But I mean they're
just gonna be trying to avoid the issue. I mean,
it's gonna be very hard to you know, you can
only talk about vaccines and reopening the states so much
to try to avoid this. They're not talking about anything
right now, and that that's sort of the problem. I mean,
(06:22):
I think that people who are kind of on the
fen about whether or not these allegations warrant removing the
governor or sort of growing alarm to the fact that
the governor has been in a bunker for the last
I don't know however many days. It's been four or
five days, you know, hasn't done any public offense, hasn't
met the press, not doing anything. So I think this
(06:45):
current situation is not spendable. I mean, he's gonna have
to come out at some point. I think we've got
to wait to see if more news drops. I mean,
I think that is there aren't further damaging stories. I
think they, you know, maybe the attorney general's investigation finds
bad behavior but come wrongdoing. Maybe they think they can
sort of gut it out and run for reelection in
(07:08):
But boy, that will be a bloody, bloody fight. David Friedlander,
contributor to New York Magazine. Thank you very much for
joining us. Thank you appreciate what kind of assets that
can be n f t s are actually really varied.
(07:29):
Digital lot is a major example, as you say, but
they can also be things like a patch of land
in a virtual world environment or a digital collectible items
sort of like trading cards or even exclusive use of cryptocurrency.
Walleant name joining us now is Elizabeth Hawcroft, reporter at Reuter's.
Thanks for joining us, Elizabeth, thank you for having me.
(07:49):
There's a lot of buzz going on right now about
n f t s non fungible tokens. So these are
kind of a type of digital asset. It's a way
to monetize really digital art. And this is authenticated on blockchain.
You know, you get your token, it proves that you
own whatever this piece of digital art could be. And
we're hearing stories of these types of things being sold
(08:12):
for hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars. One
of the stories we just heard was a ten second
video by an artist named People. It was sold to
a Miami based art collector. He bought it for sixty
seven thousand dollars. Mind you, it's a ten second video artwork,
right and it was sold for six point six million dollars.
So right away, people's ears perk up and they're like,
(08:34):
what is all this stuff? What are we talking about?
So Elizabeth, help us walk through some of this. What
is non fungible tokens. What are these n f t
s and this digital artwork that we're dealing with now, So,
as you say, n f T stands for non fungible token,
and this phrase non fungible just means that, unlike most
digital items which can be endlessly reproduced and copied, each
(08:55):
item that's made as an n f T is unique
and has only one true owner, whose status as the
owner is authenticated by blockchain technology. So the blockchain access
are kind of public ledger that verifies that they're the owner.
The kind of assets that can be n f t
s are actually really varied. Digital artists a major example,
as you say that, they can also be things like
a patch of land in a virtual world environment, or
(09:18):
a digital collectible items sort of like trading cards, or
even exclusive use of cryptocurrency wallet name. It's a really
varied area. But yeah, as you say, digital artists are
definitely catching some headlines at the moment. Now, what kind
of value? And I know a lot of this can
be very subjective, but what kind of value does this hold?
You said, there's an n f T could be a
(09:38):
patch of virtual land in a game or something like that.
What kind of real value does that hold? I know
the blockchain, that whole part of it shows that there's
an owner and all that, but how does that propel
it to be so valuable? Well, I think one of
the reasons why people are so interested in n f
T s is because they raise really big questions about
what we mean by value, and people aren't really sure
(10:00):
how to judge the value of these things. But one
reason a lot of enthusiasts who I spoke to said
that they do have value and that that they merit
the sort of prices that they're going for is that
these are items or assets that exist in the online realm,
and for most of us, that's where we're spending most
of our lives. Actually, a few people all gave the
same example, which is, if you're spending all your time
on the internet or sitting behind your computer and you
(10:22):
want to splash out on something, Why buy an expensive
gold watch that none of your friends are going to
see that doesn't exist in your online life when you
can buy something that actually does exist in that world,
and that's the world where you're spending your time. So
that's some people's rational for it. Give me a few
more examples in your article you mentioned clip of Lebron
James doing a slam dunk. It's sold for two and
(10:43):
eight thousand dollars. So this kind of got started for
the u S National Basketball Association top Shot website, so
people can kind of make video highlight clips and sell those.
The NBA gets a cut of that, they get royalties
off of that. I mean, this is just kind of
an example of how people are creating these clips, this
digital art however you want to call it, and then
(11:04):
making money off of that. So NBA top Shot is
a really interesting example. It's a really big platform that's
actually been credited with bringing a lot of new people
into the n f T space. As you say, people
can buy, sell, and trade these n f T s
in the form of video highlights of key basketball moments
on this site, and the NBA gets a royalty on
(11:25):
every sale. To give you an idea of the rate
at which that's grown, sales on this site for February
alone were nearly two hundred million, having increased nearly fivefold
from January where it was forty four million. So so
the rate of growth on a site like this is
really huge. There's a lot of excitement around it. There's
these people that are kind of already in this realm.
There's a lot of people that are looking at this speculatively.
(11:47):
You know, hey, maybe I can deal in some of this.
There's real art dealers kind of getting into this realm.
So it is a growing area. But there are investors
that are urging caution. You know. There's a lot of
money flowing back and forth on all this stuff. They
say that this could represent a price bubble in the future.
Do these digital pieces of art and whatnot hold their
(12:09):
value over time? These are big questions that are really
unanswered yet. To me, it seems that there's not just
one big driver behind n f t s, but rather
they come at the center of a number of different
things that are going on at the moment. They could
be benefiting from the hype around cryptocurrencies and blockchain, as
well as the idea of virtual reality maybe being able
to one day create online worlds in which these items
(12:30):
would be valuable. The sort of explosion of interests in
this area has also coincided with the surgeon retail trading,
so people sitting at home and speculating on markets, so
that has made a few people sort of concerned that
this could be a bubble, and one person I spoke
to who had been in the market for a while
actually says in the article that he thinks it could
be a bubble. Also, the fact that it's sort of
(12:51):
driven by hype in a way means that there's also
risks in the sense of possible fraudsters in the market,
particularly as a lot of people are operating under pseudonyms,
so it's a sort of risky area. Elizabeth Halcroft, reporter
at Reuter's, Thank you very much for joining us. Thank
You's been reports of maybe around a thousand couples likes
(13:18):
of around the world where one partner has got COVID
nineteen and often had it quite badly, and the other partner,
despite being likes of repeatedly exposed, has not had any
trace of the virus likes and whatsoever. When they've done
lights of antibody testing in their blood, they haven't found
any levels of any antibodies. Joining us now is David Cox,
freelance health journalist at BBC and other outlets. Thanks for
(13:42):
joining us, David, thanks so much for hiring me on
the show. I wanted to talk about disease resisted patients
to COVID nineteen. You know, as this whole thing has
been started, you know, going on, we've been really learning
about COVID in real time as it's been happening. You know,
we're a year, a little more than a year into it,
and we're finally getting handle on things with treatments, with vaccines,
(14:03):
but we still need to find out more about it
and also in the efforts to prevent this from happening again.
So right now it's kind of a contrast and studies.
We're trying to find people that are resistant to this disease,
but in doing that, we also have to look into
why people are extra susceptible to this disease. So, I
know there's a few studies that are going on right
now about all of this. David helped us out walk
(14:24):
through some of it. Even before the pandemic happened. There
was a team. There's been a whole collection of scientists
all around the world who've been looking into people who
have unusual resilience against illnesses ranging from heart disease to
limes disease to Alzheimer's and trying to work out the
genetic factors which make them resilient. Because if you can
identify with as genetic factors, you can then use them
(14:45):
to develop treatments. And this is particularly interesting because this
is what actually led to the first breakthrough for HIV
twenty years ago. They managed to find one person who
was actually resistant to the HIV virus. He had this
mutation which prevented it from binding onto his white blood cell,
which meant he could never actually get properly infected in
the virus, and that was what led to the first
treatment for HIV. And so basically, as soon as the
(15:07):
pandemic began, like so this whole likes of series of
scientists around the globe began wondering are the people out
there who are resistant to COVID nineteen and if there
are likes of them, we can perhaps you'd find those
mutations and use them to create anti vile drugs which
can help protect against COVID nineteen and also future pandemics.
So there's a number of studies going on lights of
(15:28):
at the moment. One of the most interesting is there's
been reports of maybe around a thousand couples likes of
around the world where one partner has got COVID nineteen
and often had it quite badly, and the other partner,
despite being likes of repeatedly exposed, has not had any
trace of the virus likes of whatsoever. When they've done
likes of antibody testing in their blood, they haven't found
(15:50):
any levels of any antibodies. So this suggests that they
have some kind of mutation which is preventing them from
getting infected with COVID nineteen. So they're at the moment
scientists are basically trying to do likes of genetic sequencing
of those people to try and find out, you know,
what is it about them which makes them resilient. So
when we look at these people that we suspect to
(16:12):
have this resilience, we're looking at a few different things,
so it can get a little wonky and technical, but
they've already seen an association between blood types and getting
seriously ill from COVID. There's also obviously that you mentioned
these genetic mutations that people have, and these also these
things called auto antibodies that are all part of this.
So what are we learning about these individual portions of
(16:35):
it what people are looking like to so far with
the studies of resilience, is is there some kind of
mutation which basically prevents the virus from being able to
get into people's cells. If there is, then lights of
pharmaceutical companies can go forward and try and find a
drug which mimics the effects of this particular mutation. Like
right now, likes of these studies are still very much
likes of ongoing. Like there's another one of lights of
(16:57):
people over a hundred lights of there's like a group
of people of a hundred only had very mild cases
of COVID nineteen, and they're sequencing the genomes of these people.
So we're going to find out the results of these
probably over the next six months likes of to a
year like. So far, we don't have any major findings
on that side of things. But what we do have,
which is the outlayers at the opposite end of the
spectrum people who are unusually susceptible to COVID nineteen, and
(17:20):
this is where the stuff about auto antibodies like comes in.
So scientists are also very interested in people who are
saying likes of twenty thirty and most of those people
you'd only expect to have a mild case of COVID nineteen.
And some of these people seem to be unusually susceptible,
like the end up in intensive care. So what is
it about them which is making them particularly susceptible. So
(17:41):
one of the reasons likes of for this, which we
do know so far, like the biggest findings have come
so far on the susceptibility side of things, is that
the body has likes of its own lights of internal
alarm system against viruses. So whenever, like a virus gets
into the bloodstream, there's basically this protein called interference, and
that's like the body is like alarm signal that something
(18:02):
is wrong. So cells released interfer on and it tells
everything else in the body that there's a virus here
and we need to fight it. But now some people
that of all ages like basically are susceptible because they
have a mutation which means they can't produce them defer on,
or they have these high levels of antibodies in their
blood which basically remove interfer on, so that alarm signal
(18:23):
never sounds, and that's why they end up having a
particularly severe reaction to COVID nineteen. You know you're mentioning
they interfere on, right, So they can use that information
to make medicines to make treatments to help on that side,
so that you know, maybe somebody doesn't get as your
an illness from COVID nineteen exactly exactly. I mean, So
(18:44):
what they're hoping really with the next pandemic is that
you know, we will have better diagnostic screening programs, so
in the early stages we will be able to identify
all the people who might be susceptible to this virus,
who have these problems, like so we're producing interfer on,
and then they can give them artificial in tofer on
which will protect them and prevent them from getting a
severe infection. So that's one of the big ways where
(19:06):
these studies of susceptibility will come in with the studies
of resilience. Hopefully that will enable us to find lights
of better drugs which can mimic the effects of these
resilience mutations, and then that will be treatments which can
to be applied to everyone in the future. David Cox,
freelance health journalists at the BBC and other outlets. Thank
you very much for joining us. Thanks so much for
(19:28):
having me. That's it for today. Join us on social
media at Daily Dive, pot and for Twitter and Instagram,
leave some comment, give us a rating and tell us
the stories that you're interested in. Follow us an I
Heeart Radio, or subscribe wherever you get your podcast. This
(19:50):
episode of The Daily Divers produced by Victor Right and
engineered by Tony Sargantina. Hi'm Oscar Ramirez and this is
a Daily Dive bron bro
It's Wednesday, March three. I'm Oscar Ramirez in Los Angeles,
and this is the Daily Dive. New York Governor Andrew
Cuomo continues to be in hot water as a third
woman has come forward to allege unwanted advances and sexual harassment.
Cuomo now faces an investigation by the New York Attorney
(00:21):
General and also calls for his resignation from both parties.
David Friedlander, contributor to New York Magazine, joins us for
how Cuomo is trying to navigate these scandals as his
political future called a new question. Next, the market for
a type of new digital asset known as a non
fungible token or n FT as exploded. These n f
(00:42):
t s can be anything from digital art, sports cards,
or even pieces of land in a virtual environment, and
they're all authenticated by blockchain, which proves you own it. Recently,
a ten second video artwork that was originally bought for
sixty seven thousand dollars sold for six point six million.
Elizabeth Howcroft, reporter at Reuter's joins us for how n
(01:02):
f t s are booming right now. Finally, researchers are
looking to disease resistant patients and hopes to expose weaknesses
and COVID nineteen studies are being done to identify people
who were heavily exposed to the virus but never came
down with it and also had no antibody. David Cox,
freelance journalists at the BBC, joins us for how scientists
(01:22):
are looking for COVID's weak spots. It's news without the North,
Let's dive in. These allegations are very serious against Governor Cuomo,
made by serious individuals, and deserve a serious and independent investigation.
Joining us now is David Friedlander, contributor to New York Magazine.
(01:43):
Thanks for joining us, David, Thank you. New York Governor
Andrew Cuomo is facing a series of sexual harassment allegations.
We're up to three women now. The latest said that
Cuomo inappropriately grabbed her and kissed her on the cheek
at a wedding. So we're hearing a lot of different things,
and what we're also seeing is increasing calls for Cuomo
(02:04):
to either resign, We're gonna have an investigation by the
Attorney General. I mean, there's really just a lot going
on and what's happening behind the scenes with Andrew Cuomo
and his team is kind of a mishmash. Also, some
are very worried, some are thinking that this could blow over.
But his political future is being called into question right now.
And uh, you know you've written extensively about this. Now
(02:27):
there's this other wrinkle too, you know, he there's a
lot of people that don't really like him in the
area when it comes to the State Senate and Assembly.
So there's just a ton of stuff going down, David,
help us walk through some of it. I mean, as
you say, they're currently three, uh, allegations of you know what,
I guess we'll call sexual harassment. I think most people
(02:47):
expect more to come somehow. There's just not a lot
of goodwill with regards to Cuomo in the legislature. I mean,
he has a reputation of being a bully, being a
control freak, of calling people at all hours of the
night and rating them or demanding things from them, making
them do stuff in the same ones sort of staff level.
(03:09):
So now that he's on the ropes, I think, you
know a lot of lawmakers are sort of quite content
to let him twist on those ropes or or even
you know, get their own shops in just because there
isn't a lot of love for him. There doesn't seem
like he was going to come in and save them.
And so the real question is whether or not there's
a sort of enough of a support for removal in
(03:30):
the state legislature, which is democratically controlled and by supermajorities
in most cases. How does the Democrat party figure into
all of this? So, I mean, I think there's sort
of two questions there. There's a sort of his support
from the state party and then of course his support
from National Democrats. I think both of those are like
a little less complicated than the sort of state government
(03:52):
dynamic the state party here in New York. Is it
just a whole you know, subsidiary Cuomo and there will
be the last ones to sort of leave, you know.
The now actual party I think is a little bit different.
I mean, you know who we are at this moment
with relic Bill Cumming and vaccines, and nobody wants a
New York governor to be a distraction, certainly not to
(04:13):
abide it. It was a close ally from certainly certainly
not Truck Schumer. The set of majority eater who although
is isn't I don't think particularly close to Cuomo is
also gonna be on the ballot in two and so
he doesn't want Cuomo next to him, bringing his numbers down.
So back to kind of these allegations and how Cuomo
has handled these. You know, he's released a few statements.
(04:35):
He apologized if he made anybody feel that or you know, inappropriate.
He said he was being playful at certain moments, and
that he works so much he considers the staffers and
other employees they're, you know, friends. How has this handling
been as far as his statements go in reaction to
these allegations, Not great, is the sort of short answer.
(04:56):
He kind of came up with a statement. Originally, when
the very first allegation should surface, I should say, they
sort of denied it outright, said they even acknowledged it,
and someone leaked the personnel file of the accuser to
sort of make it seem as if she were, you
know a little bit not exactly steady or something. And
the latest allegations came. I mean, they've just been sort
(05:17):
of coming out with sort of statement after statement, and
none of them have quite answered the question. I think
the first one said, you know, we're this is all
I have to say that and we're not going to
answer you more questions at this time. And then it
just kind of went on from there. This was clearly
a case where it was supposed to be referred to
the sort of inquiry was supposed to be referring to
the attorney general, and Cuomo tried to protect that's them
happening and thought someone else should do it. And then eventually,
(05:40):
after sort of a long day of many statements and
much back and forth, he ended up with this really
long statement that, as you say, was kind of talking
about his relationships with his staffers and how he likes
to be playful and it's banter and it was just
cringe inducing, was the only sort of phrase that came
to mind. Yeah, definitely, what's the plan out he Obviously
(06:00):
they're going to be pushing back on these allegations. They
have to wait for this investigation to go through and
see what happens in that report. But I mean they're
just gonna be trying to avoid the issue. I mean,
it's gonna be very hard to you know, you can
only talk about vaccines and reopening the states so much
to try to avoid this. They're not talking about anything
right now, and that that's sort of the problem. I mean,
(06:22):
I think that people who are kind of on the
fen about whether or not these allegations warrant removing the
governor or sort of growing alarm to the fact that
the governor has been in a bunker for the last
I don't know however many days. It's been four or
five days, you know, hasn't done any public offense, hasn't
met the press, not doing anything. So I think this
(06:45):
current situation is not spendable. I mean, he's gonna have
to come out at some point. I think we've got
to wait to see if more news drops. I mean,
I think that is there aren't further damaging stories. I
think they, you know, maybe the attorney general's investigation finds
bad behavior but come wrongdoing. Maybe they think they can
sort of gut it out and run for reelection in
(07:08):
But boy, that will be a bloody, bloody fight. David Friedlander,
contributor to New York Magazine. Thank you very much for
joining us. Thank you appreciate what kind of assets that
can be n f t s are actually really varied.
(07:29):
Digital lot is a major example, as you say, but
they can also be things like a patch of land
in a virtual world environment or a digital collectible items
sort of like trading cards or even exclusive use of cryptocurrency.
Walleant name joining us now is Elizabeth Hawcroft, reporter at Reuter's.
Thanks for joining us, Elizabeth, thank you for having me.
(07:49):
There's a lot of buzz going on right now about
n f t s non fungible tokens. So these are
kind of a type of digital asset. It's a way
to monetize really digital art. And this is authenticated on blockchain.
You know, you get your token, it proves that you
own whatever this piece of digital art could be. And
we're hearing stories of these types of things being sold
(08:12):
for hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars. One
of the stories we just heard was a ten second
video by an artist named People. It was sold to
a Miami based art collector. He bought it for sixty
seven thousand dollars. Mind you, it's a ten second video artwork,
right and it was sold for six point six million dollars.
So right away, people's ears perk up and they're like,
(08:34):
what is all this stuff? What are we talking about?
So Elizabeth, help us walk through some of this. What
is non fungible tokens. What are these n f t
s and this digital artwork that we're dealing with now, So,
as you say, n f T stands for non fungible token,
and this phrase non fungible just means that, unlike most
digital items which can be endlessly reproduced and copied, each
(08:55):
item that's made as an n f T is unique
and has only one true owner, whose status as the
owner is authenticated by blockchain technology. So the blockchain access
are kind of public ledger that verifies that they're the owner.
The kind of assets that can be n f t
s are actually really varied. Digital artists a major example,
as you say that, they can also be things like
a patch of land in a virtual world environment, or
(09:18):
a digital collectible items sort of like trading cards, or
even exclusive use of cryptocurrency wallet name. It's a really
varied area. But yeah, as you say, digital artists are
definitely catching some headlines at the moment. Now, what kind
of value? And I know a lot of this can
be very subjective, but what kind of value does this hold?
You said, there's an n f T could be a
(09:38):
patch of virtual land in a game or something like that.
What kind of real value does that hold? I know
the blockchain, that whole part of it shows that there's
an owner and all that, but how does that propel
it to be so valuable? Well, I think one of
the reasons why people are so interested in n f
T s is because they raise really big questions about
what we mean by value, and people aren't really sure
(10:00):
how to judge the value of these things. But one
reason a lot of enthusiasts who I spoke to said
that they do have value and that that they merit
the sort of prices that they're going for is that
these are items or assets that exist in the online realm,
and for most of us, that's where we're spending most
of our lives. Actually, a few people all gave the
same example, which is, if you're spending all your time
on the internet or sitting behind your computer and you
(10:22):
want to splash out on something, Why buy an expensive
gold watch that none of your friends are going to
see that doesn't exist in your online life when you
can buy something that actually does exist in that world,
and that's the world where you're spending your time. So
that's some people's rational for it. Give me a few
more examples in your article you mentioned clip of Lebron
James doing a slam dunk. It's sold for two and
(10:43):
eight thousand dollars. So this kind of got started for
the u S National Basketball Association top Shot website, so
people can kind of make video highlight clips and sell those.
The NBA gets a cut of that, they get royalties
off of that. I mean, this is just kind of
an example of how people are creating these clips, this
digital art however you want to call it, and then
(11:04):
making money off of that. So NBA top Shot is
a really interesting example. It's a really big platform that's
actually been credited with bringing a lot of new people
into the n f T space. As you say, people
can buy, sell, and trade these n f T s
in the form of video highlights of key basketball moments
on this site, and the NBA gets a royalty on
(11:25):
every sale. To give you an idea of the rate
at which that's grown, sales on this site for February
alone were nearly two hundred million, having increased nearly fivefold
from January where it was forty four million. So so
the rate of growth on a site like this is
really huge. There's a lot of excitement around it. There's
these people that are kind of already in this realm.
There's a lot of people that are looking at this speculatively.
(11:47):
You know, hey, maybe I can deal in some of this.
There's real art dealers kind of getting into this realm.
So it is a growing area. But there are investors
that are urging caution. You know. There's a lot of
money flowing back and forth on all this stuff. They
say that this could represent a price bubble in the future.
Do these digital pieces of art and whatnot hold their
(12:09):
value over time? These are big questions that are really
unanswered yet. To me, it seems that there's not just
one big driver behind n f t s, but rather
they come at the center of a number of different
things that are going on at the moment. They could
be benefiting from the hype around cryptocurrencies and blockchain, as
well as the idea of virtual reality maybe being able
to one day create online worlds in which these items
(12:30):
would be valuable. The sort of explosion of interests in
this area has also coincided with the surgeon retail trading,
so people sitting at home and speculating on markets, so
that has made a few people sort of concerned that
this could be a bubble, and one person I spoke
to who had been in the market for a while
actually says in the article that he thinks it could
be a bubble. Also, the fact that it's sort of
(12:51):
driven by hype in a way means that there's also
risks in the sense of possible fraudsters in the market,
particularly as a lot of people are operating under pseudonyms,
so it's a sort of risky area. Elizabeth Halcroft, reporter
at Reuter's, Thank you very much for joining us. Thank
You's been reports of maybe around a thousand couples likes
(13:18):
of around the world where one partner has got COVID
nineteen and often had it quite badly, and the other partner,
despite being likes of repeatedly exposed, has not had any
trace of the virus likes and whatsoever. When they've done
lights of antibody testing in their blood, they haven't found
any levels of any antibodies. Joining us now is David Cox,
freelance health journalist at BBC and other outlets. Thanks for
(13:42):
joining us, David, thanks so much for hiring me on
the show. I wanted to talk about disease resisted patients
to COVID nineteen. You know, as this whole thing has
been started, you know, going on, we've been really learning
about COVID in real time as it's been happening. You know,
we're a year, a little more than a year into it,
and we're finally getting handle on things with treatments, with vaccines,
(14:03):
but we still need to find out more about it
and also in the efforts to prevent this from happening again.
So right now it's kind of a contrast and studies.
We're trying to find people that are resistant to this disease,
but in doing that, we also have to look into
why people are extra susceptible to this disease. So, I
know there's a few studies that are going on right
now about all of this. David helped us out walk
(14:24):
through some of it. Even before the pandemic happened. There
was a team. There's been a whole collection of scientists
all around the world who've been looking into people who
have unusual resilience against illnesses ranging from heart disease to
limes disease to Alzheimer's and trying to work out the
genetic factors which make them resilient. Because if you can
identify with as genetic factors, you can then use them
(14:45):
to develop treatments. And this is particularly interesting because this
is what actually led to the first breakthrough for HIV
twenty years ago. They managed to find one person who
was actually resistant to the HIV virus. He had this
mutation which prevented it from binding onto his white blood cell,
which meant he could never actually get properly infected in
the virus, and that was what led to the first
treatment for HIV. And so basically, as soon as the
(15:07):
pandemic began, like so this whole likes of series of
scientists around the globe began wondering are the people out
there who are resistant to COVID nineteen and if there
are likes of them, we can perhaps you'd find those
mutations and use them to create anti vile drugs which
can help protect against COVID nineteen and also future pandemics.
So there's a number of studies going on lights of
(15:28):
at the moment. One of the most interesting is there's
been reports of maybe around a thousand couples likes of
around the world where one partner has got COVID nineteen
and often had it quite badly, and the other partner,
despite being likes of repeatedly exposed, has not had any
trace of the virus likes of whatsoever. When they've done
likes of antibody testing in their blood, they haven't found
(15:50):
any levels of any antibodies. So this suggests that they
have some kind of mutation which is preventing them from
getting infected with COVID nineteen. So they're at the moment
scientists are basically trying to do likes of genetic sequencing
of those people to try and find out, you know,
what is it about them which makes them resilient. So
when we look at these people that we suspect to
(16:12):
have this resilience, we're looking at a few different things,
so it can get a little wonky and technical, but
they've already seen an association between blood types and getting
seriously ill from COVID. There's also obviously that you mentioned
these genetic mutations that people have, and these also these
things called auto antibodies that are all part of this.
So what are we learning about these individual portions of
(16:35):
it what people are looking like to so far with
the studies of resilience, is is there some kind of
mutation which basically prevents the virus from being able to
get into people's cells. If there is, then lights of
pharmaceutical companies can go forward and try and find a
drug which mimics the effects of this particular mutation. Like
right now, likes of these studies are still very much
likes of ongoing. Like there's another one of lights of
(16:57):
people over a hundred lights of there's like a group
of people of a hundred only had very mild cases
of COVID nineteen, and they're sequencing the genomes of these people.
So we're going to find out the results of these
probably over the next six months likes of to a
year like. So far, we don't have any major findings
on that side of things. But what we do have,
which is the outlayers at the opposite end of the
spectrum people who are unusually susceptible to COVID nineteen, and
(17:20):
this is where the stuff about auto antibodies like comes in.
So scientists are also very interested in people who are
saying likes of twenty thirty and most of those people
you'd only expect to have a mild case of COVID nineteen.
And some of these people seem to be unusually susceptible,
like the end up in intensive care. So what is
it about them which is making them particularly susceptible. So
(17:41):
one of the reasons likes of for this, which we
do know so far, like the biggest findings have come
so far on the susceptibility side of things, is that
the body has likes of its own lights of internal
alarm system against viruses. So whenever, like a virus gets
into the bloodstream, there's basically this protein called interference, and
that's like the body is like alarm signal that something
(18:02):
is wrong. So cells released interfer on and it tells
everything else in the body that there's a virus here
and we need to fight it. But now some people
that of all ages like basically are susceptible because they
have a mutation which means they can't produce them defer on,
or they have these high levels of antibodies in their
blood which basically remove interfer on, so that alarm signal
(18:23):
never sounds, and that's why they end up having a
particularly severe reaction to COVID nineteen. You know you're mentioning
they interfere on, right, So they can use that information
to make medicines to make treatments to help on that side,
so that you know, maybe somebody doesn't get as your
an illness from COVID nineteen exactly exactly. I mean, So
(18:44):
what they're hoping really with the next pandemic is that
you know, we will have better diagnostic screening programs, so
in the early stages we will be able to identify
all the people who might be susceptible to this virus,
who have these problems, like so we're producing interfer on,
and then they can give them artificial in tofer on
which will protect them and prevent them from getting a
severe infection. So that's one of the big ways where
(19:06):
these studies of susceptibility will come in with the studies
of resilience. Hopefully that will enable us to find lights
of better drugs which can mimic the effects of these
resilience mutations, and then that will be treatments which can
to be applied to everyone in the future. David Cox,
freelance health journalists at the BBC and other outlets. Thank
you very much for joining us. Thanks so much for
(19:28):
having me. That's it for today. Join us on social
media at Daily Dive, pot and for Twitter and Instagram,
leave some comment, give us a rating and tell us
the stories that you're interested in. Follow us an I
Heeart Radio, or subscribe wherever you get your podcast. This
(19:50):
episode of The Daily Divers produced by Victor Right and
engineered by Tony Sargantina. Hi'm Oscar Ramirez and this is
a Daily Dive bron bro
The Daily Dive News
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