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The preconditions are present in the U.S. today. If Congress is quiescent and the public listless, Donald Trump can set the country down a path toward illiberalism, institutional subversion, and endemic graft. Full Text can be found here: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/03/how-to-build-an-autocracy/513872/

How to Build an Autocracy - David Frum - The Atlantic March 2017

The Riff is a 24 minute conversation about one topic, with one expert, hosted by David Tisch and Andy Weissman. 

Riff #1 is about the television news business. A conversation with CNN senior technology correspondent Laurie Segall.

Playlist: Intro > what is media > CNN over 10 years > what is different now > mistrust toward big media? > who are the trust agents > what is a "story" > who does CNN speak for? > slows news days > who knows what media is > do people turn on the tv/what is distribution > young people v old people > why not all-internet/why 24 hours > wrap up

The Riff #1 with Laurie Segall

The Riff is a 24 minute conversation about one topic, with one expert, hosted by David Tisch and Andy Weissman. Riff #2 is about the business of "direct to consumer." A conversation with Jeff Raider, the founder of Warby Parker and Harry's.

Playlist:  Intro > what is a direct to consumer brand > welcome Jeff Raider > glasses and shaving > DTC = controlling the whole process > what is the math >  what happens to retailers? >  brand storytelling > over 50% commerce online in 5 years > rebundling/discovery/Facebook marketing > Harry's won't sell on Amazon > Allbirds > wrap up

The Riff #2 with Jeff Raider

Most of us have probably heard of bitcoin and ethereum -- but did you know there were 15 new cryptocurrencies launched this past month alone? How then do we know which protocols to invest in -- not just as a developer or user, but as an investor? Because, let's face it, open source software and services need resources not just to survive but thrive.

General partner Chris Dixon talks about this dynamic between open vs closed in this episode of the a16z Podcast in conversation with Sonal Chokshi and with Olaf Carlson-Wee, founder of (a16z investment) Polychain, a new kind of hedge fund that invests directly in cryptocurrencies at the protocol layer. But what does that actually mean? Instead of investing in the companies that are building on top of these protocols, Polychain invests in the protocols themselves -- in much the same way that you could have invested in domain names instead of early internet companies like Amazon in the early days (which most people actually didn't have access to do). Imagine if you could have bought equity in Linux!

As people create application-specific tokens for these protocols (also known as “app coins”) to crowdfund and share equity in these networks, it's actually "bringing capitalism into open source" -- and could even one day lead to less centralized platforms and a web owned by users. It's also creating a whole new asset class... but whatever you do, do NOT try this at home!

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a16z Podcast: Cryptocurrencies, App Coins, and Investing in Protocols

Ryan Shea and Muneeb Ali, the cofounders of Blockstack, on how their tools enable users to control their own data, why the internet should have universal usernames but no company should control that, and why Blockstack’s storage system still allows users to choose centralized options &nbsp;like Google Drive and Dropbox. They also talk about how other blockchain systems are thinking about scaling wrong, why they launched a developer fund, and why a developer would choose Blockstack over Ethereum. Show notes:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2017/09/05/blockstack-on-how-to-take-control-from-google-facebook-and-amazon/ BlockStack: https://blockstack.org/

Blockstack On Getting Independence From Google, Facebook And Amazon

Zachary Fallon, a former SEC staffer and author of the Reg A JOBS Act crowdfunding rules and a principal at Blakemore Fallon, discusses Blockstack's filing for a token offering under Reg A+, what that means for the security status of the tokens and what types of investors the company can raise from. We also talk about several of the particulars of the Blockstack filing, such as the time-lock on the tokens, the ability to raise money in bitcoin and ether, and the cap on the dollar amount of tokens any single investor can purchase. Zach also covers how much they must have worked with the SEC until this point, how long it might take the SEC to offer a response and what the filing means for token offerings going forward. Thank you to our sponsor! CipherTrace: http://ciphertrace.com/unconfirmed Episode Links Zach Fallon: https://twitter.com/ZacharyFallon &nbsp; Blakemore Fallon: https://blakemorefallon.com Blockstack: https://blockstack.org Stackstoken: https://www.stackstoken.com App mining for Stacks: https://app.co/mining Blockstack's Reg A+ filing:  https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1719379/000110465919020748/a18-15736_1partiiandiii.htm Wired story on the filing:  https://www.wired.com/story/startup-sell-you-crypto-tokens-with-sec-backing/

Blockstack's Reg A+ Filing and the Future of Token Offerings - Ep.069

Insights and Analysis From the Top Minds in Crypto

Blockstack's Reg A+ Filing and the Future of Token Offerings - Ep.069

Unconfirmed Podcast