The Transformation of Value with Cody Ellingham

Greg Girard is a Canadian photographer who has spent much of his career capturing the urban landscapes and people of Asia. He has authored several photographic books, including City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City, Phantom Shanghai, and most recently his upcoming book Snack Sakura, which explores Japan’s iconic night-time snack bars.

Greg Girard on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/gregforaday

Greg Girard website - https...

What are charter cities? Is law really just like computer code that can be forked and modified? How do you bootstrap an economy?

Patri Friedman founded The Seasteading Institute, a non-profit exploring the creation of sovereign ocean colonies. He is on the board of the Startup Societies Foundation, advising a variety of new governance projects. Most recently he founded Pronomos, the first charter city investment fund.

Pronomos Ca...

Kevin Whitmore is Chair of the Bitcoin Policy Institute New Zealand, and CEO of Cashbucket.

On November 12th, 2025, the institute held its official launch event in Wellington, New Zealand’s capital, and released its first tax policy paper. The event had a great turnout, with leaders from the Bitcoin community, industry, and across government, including Minister for Courts and Associate Minister of Justice Nicole McKee and MPs J...

Taiwan sits at the heart of global geopolitics, caught between history, identity, and rising tensions with China. In this episode, Chris Horton takes us inside the island’s struggle for survival and what it means for the world today.

Chris is a journalist based in Taiwan since 2015, covering the country’s foreign relations, domestic politics, economy, and society. Chris’ writing has appeared in The New York Times, Nikkei Asia, Bloom...

It has become increasingly difficult, and even dangerous to report on China. What does this mean for journalists covering sensitive topics like military defence, human rights, and politics?

Peter Langan is a journalist with extensive experience including almost 20 years with Bloomberg News in various roles such as: Asia Editor-at-Large and Tokyo Bureau Chief. He later worked as senior editor for the China Desk at South China Morning...

For over 20 years Stiven Kerestegian has been exploring questions of design, innovation, and disruption, working with some of the world’s biggest brands including Microsoft, LEGO, and recently as Head of Global Innovation at IKEA.

But since discovering Bitcoin in 2017 everything has changed, Stiven has turned his focus towards applying design thinking to this new form of money, and how we might use it to build a more open and resili...

Mishima Yukio was an iconic Japanese author who wrote on the deepest questions of beauty, life, and death. But who was he as a man?

Paul McCarthy holds a Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard, and has taught Japanese, Anglo-American, and Comparative Literature at universities in the US and Japan as well as translating many works of Japanese literature.

Paul met Mishima Yukio on a number of occasions. Paul mos...

How does population density effect the economic development of an entire continent? What about agricultural and manufacturing industrial policy? What lessons can we learn from the economic growth of Asia for understanding Africa?

Joe Studwell is a journalist and bestselling author known for his work on East Asian economic development. His 2014 book, How Asia Works, explores the different economic and political trajectories of Asian...

What does it mean to have the ability to simply exit and walk away from a nation state or a company? What does it mean when you can’t? In the situations where it is harder or impossible to leave, what is the role of voice, of expressing your opinion, and trying to affect change in these relationships from the inside, and what happens when they don’t listen?

German economist Albert Hirschman wrote about these questions in his 197...

Why does Bitcoin struggle to find its place in the real economy of supply chains, factories, and things? What role does credit play in building the economy, and could a new layer on top of Bitcoin be the missing piece?

Hubertus Hofkirchner is an economist and entrepreneur from Austria. Hubertus is a key figure in developing the Bitcredit Protocol, an open-source initiative focussed on building a flexible credit money layer on to...

How do American prison gangs facilitate money, trade, and economics behind bars? What causes this and what can we learn from it?

David Skarbek is Professor of Political Economy and Director of the Center for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Brown University.

David’s award-winning book, The Social Order of the Underworld: How Prison Gangs Govern the American Penal System, challenges the view that inmates create prison gangs to p...

Who are we, and what grounds us?

Mike Grimshaw is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. Mike writes and speaks about New Zealand history, economics, education, and culture. In particular he asks critical questions about the future of the country, which faces economic stagnancy, political malaise, and perhaps most dangerously, a complacency with our lot at the bottom of the world.

Mike Grimshaw...

Keyan Kousha is the founder of Stacker News, an online forum where you can share and discuss articles and content without the attention manipulation of social media. Instead of “likes” or invisible algorithms, Stacker News uses Bitcoin as an incentive mechanism, and for ranking content.

Stacker News rewards users for thoughtful contributions, and enables you to support your favourite content with micro-payments via the Bitcoin Ligh...

Johan Nylander is an award-winning author and freelance correspondent from Sweden. His work covering Asia has been published by CNN, National Geographic Travel, and Forbes.

Johan wrote "The Wolf Economy Awakens – Mongolia's fight for democracy, and a green and digital future." He also wrote “The Epic Split – Why ‘Made in China’ is going out of style.”

Johan on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/johannylander/

Johan&#...

Parker Lewis is the author of Gradually, Then Suddenly, A framework for understanding Bitcoin as money. Parker previously worked in finance in the heart of wall street before discovering Bitcoin in 2016. He is now the Head of Business Development at Zaprite, helping businesses migrate to a Bitcoin standard.

Parker on X - https://x.com/parkeralewis

Gradually, Then Suddenly: Essays on Bitcoin Monetization - https://graduallythensud...

Mike Brock writes extensively about democracy, liberalism, and what he sees as the decline of the American Republic. Mike has an extensive tech background formerly working as an executive at Cash App as well as being involved with various open-source projects.

Mike Brock's Substack, Notes from the Circus - https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/

Mike Brock on X - https://x.com/brockm

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