The Economy of Nothing Podcast

Episode 215

📚 References & Lore

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Episode 215 Patreon Exclusive — The Alien in the Elevator Told Me Everything

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🎧 Audio Podcast

Mr. Green is a telepath. He's known this whole time. The Captain does not take it well.

On the elevator up to Nothing Corp, Mr. Green finally comes clean — he's been reading minds since the job got too boring to stay inside his own head. The Captain immediately starts thinking about whether Mr. Green is reading his mind, which Mr. Green confirms is the most tedious experience imaginable.

From there: Tesla earnings spiral into the robo-taxi economy and why every tangible thing is being replaced with a subscription. The World Economic Forum's "you'll own nothing" vision, CBDC stablecoins, and Iran as the point of leakage. A detour through the Niemöller poem, organized crime as a model for government, and why the Wild West — for all its chaos — at least had a code. Red Dead Redemption, Hamilton, and why nobody stands by anything they say anymore.

Then: the Paramount-CBS deal and the day journalism died, why the news used to be a loss leader and a public good, Game of Thrones High Sparrow energy in real life, the physical limits of processor miniaturization, and quantum computing as the industry's longest-running piece of fan fiction.

With great power comes zero accountability. The elevator doors open. We're going in.

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