Austin native & actor Ben McKenzie chats with Trey Elling about EASY MONEY: CRYPTOCURRENCY, CASINO CAPITALISM, AND THE GOLDEN AGE OF FRAUD. Topics include:
- Finally releasing a book that was nearly two years in the making (1:00)
- How “The Emperor’s New Clothes” & cannabis inspired the book (1:43)
- What clued him in on crypto as a scam (3:32)
- Being a skeptic in a sea of crypto hysteria at SXSW 2022 (5:32)
- Visiting the largest crypto mining facility in the US (10:02)
- Seeing the effects of El Salvador making Bitcoin a legal tender (14:55)
- Interviewing Sam Bankman-Fried in the summer of 2022 (19:22)
- A surprising aspect of the SBF/FTX/Alameda takedown (21:30)
- Ben testifying in front of the Senate Banking Committee (22:58)
- Is he considering a film adaptation? (24:30)
- What he loves about his hometown of Austin (26:37)