Writer, VC, and podcaster Nic Carter joins us to talk about Balaji's bet, Operation Chokepoint 2.0, and the Fed's financial crisis. We record our interviews with Riverside. Go to https://bit.ly/Riverside_MoZ + use code ZEN for 20%.

Check out the debut of Erik's new longform interview podcast Upstream. This coming season features interviews with Marc Andreessen (Episode 1 is live now), David Sacks, Ezra Klein, Balaji Srinivasan, Katherine Boyle, and more. Subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0bYfnuju3PhHFtSGgiMmoz

(0:00) Intro
(3:00) Reflections on Balaji episode 
(10:00) Coinbase and SVB
(14:00) Sponsors
(15:00) Operation chokepoint 2.0
(16:45) We find out the reason for Antonio’s circumcision
(25:00) Crypto banking crisis
(36:00) How much of crypto is new?
(38:40) Main benefits of crypto 
(47:20) Finance is politicized 
(55:00) Defining a CDBC
(1:02:00) Nic’s biggest crypto beef
(1:07:30) Nic’s take on Balaji’s bet
(1:12:30) Why crypto should vote republicans next election
(1:19:30) We’re in a financial crisis caused by the fed
(1:20:30) Our options for addressing the crisis
(1:27:00) If we were kings for a day how we’d solve it
(1:28:50) Nic would rather cut rates than raise rates
(1:30:00) AI is the U.S.’s main hope

More shownotes and reading material released in our Substack: https://momentofzen.substack.com/

Thank you Secureframe for sponsoring (Use "Moment of Zen" for 20% discount) and Graham Bessellieu for production.