Endgame with Amanda Cassatt

Toby Shorin, cultural theorist and essayist, argues that the biggest threat of our time isn’t AI taking your jobit’s the optimization mindset turning every natural human impulse into a protocol to follow.In this episode, we discuss:Why the embodied turn in culture goes way beyond peptides and biohackingThe real difference between a protocol and a practiceand why it has political consequencesWho actually benefits from the loneliness epidemic narrativeWhat the AI cult in the Bay Area looks like from the insideWhy poetry might be the only real escape from living life as a spreadsheetTimestamps: 0:00 Introduction 2:44 Why everyone is obsessed with their body right now 7:08 The philosophy behind biohacking and morphological freedom 10:42 Why "don't die" is actually a fear-based philosophy 13:27 What AI really threatens it's not your job 14:50 AI mastered chess. Chess adoption only grew. 18:05 Why PE firms are buying sports teams 20:41 Body as asset vs. body as practice 26:24 What is a narrative subsidy? 28:44 Who actually benefits from the loneliness epidemic 29:20 We forgot how to do the dance 31:52 Did Andrew Huberman invent seeing light in the morning? 32:44 How insurance culture took over everyday life 36:45 Two ways out of the optimization loop 38:00 The poetic way of seeing 40:29 Toby reads a poem he wrote this morning 42:09 The William Carlos Williams connection🎧Stay ConnectedSubscribe to Endgame ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/@endgamepodcast ● Amanda on X: https://x.com/amandacassatt ● Serotonin on X: https://x.com/serotonin_hq ◽️Links to Follow:Endgame on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/45B9szUxVXEwfCDA6uRxwq?si=HT9XXqF9Q2CcM9hfLbmkVg ◽️Endgame on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/endgame-with-amanda-cassatt/id1801809440 ◽️Follow Toby Shorinhttps://www.instagram.com/tobyshorin/https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobyshorin🔔 Don’t forget to Subscribe!#Endgame #TobyShowin #BodyFuturism

Your identity, your assets, your privacy, do you actually own any of it online? Binji Pande from the Ethereum Foundation says no. And he's spent his career trying to change that. In this episode, Amanda sits down with Binji to explore why crypto is really about redesigning human incentives, what digital rights actually mean, and what it would take to build a world where freedom online isn't a privilege.Timestamps:00:00 Introduction 03:21 How Binji got into crypto 05:17 If you can program money, you can change the world 09:53 Moloch, prisoner's dilemmas & why the system isn't evil, just indifferent 13:48 From Northwestern to Coinbase: breaking into crypto without a CS degree 15:12 The Ethereum tattoo and what it really means 18:23 Hardware. Software. Trustware. 20:05 How do you know if Ethereum is actually decentralized? 26:29 Ethereum's communication challenge 31:41 Digital rights: you can lock your bathroom door, why not online? 37:16 Privacy as dignity: data breaches, ZK, and the next frontier 43:19 CROPS: what the Ethereum Foundation actually stands for 44:44 Ethereum's roadmap: Is it shipping fast enough? 45:04 Canton, Tempo, competing chains, should Ethereum be worried?47:00 The world worth buildingStay ConnectedSubscribe to Endgame: https://www.youtube.com/@endgamepodcast Amanda on X:  https://x.com/amandacassatt  Serotonin on X: https://x.com/serotonin_hq Links to Follow:Endgame on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/45B9szUxVXEwfCDA6uRxwq?si=HT9XXqF9Q2CcM9hfLbmkVg   Endgame on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/endgame-with-amanda-cassatt/id1801809440  Follow Binjihttps://www.linkedin.com/in/binjix23/@binji_x

Everyone in crypto is chasing TPSEunice Giarta thinks that's the wrong race entirelyAs co-founder of Monad Foundation, she spent four years building what she calls the Ethereum of high-performance blockchains  a chain with validators on six continents, in 30 countries and 58 cities, that doesn't sacrifice decentralization for speed.In this episode of Endgame, Amanda Cassatt sits down with Eunice to break down what actually makes a blockchain worth building on in 2026, what the real killer use case for Monad looks like, and why bear markets build better products than bull markets.But the most unexpected part isn't the tech it's the path. Eunice went from Merrill Lynch to Shutterstock to a pastry kitchen at Jean-Georges in New York. A Pi Day pandemic layoff sent her down the crypto rabbit hole. Four years later, she co-founded one of the most talked-about L1s in the space.Timestamps:0:00 Why there's no solid high-performance chain yet2:30 Monad's 200 validators across 6 continents5:30 Placing Monad on the decentralization spectrum9:00 Why TPS is a misleading metric12:00 The real use case: on-chain order books15:30 How to measure real demand vs. incentive-driven usage19:30 What AI agents would use Monad for22:00 RWAs and institutional adoption24:00 Monad's token launch and the bear market27:00 From trading analyst to pastry chef to blockchain co-founder31:30 Favorite macaron: chocolate miso from Pierre HerméStay ConnectedSubscribe to Endgame https://www.youtube.com/@endgamepodcast Amanda on X:  https://x.com/amandacassatt  Serotonin on X: https://x.com/serotonin_hq Links to Follow:Endgame on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/45B9szUxVXEwfCDA6uRxwq?si=HT9XXqF9Q2CcM9hfLbmkVg   Endgame on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/endgame-with-amanda-cassatt/id1801809440  Follow Eunice Giarta https://www.linkedin.com/in/eunicegiartahttps://x.com/0x_eunice?lang=en

“A lot of users don’t need a bank. What they need is a wallet.”In this episode of Endgame, Amanda Cassatt sits down with Richard Teng, CEO of Binance, for a conversation about what crypto actually became and whether that’s the right thing. Richard spent three decades in traditional finance, including the Central Bank of Singapore, before joining Binance in 2021. He doesn’t argue like a convert. He argues like someone who watched the old system fail for thirty years and decided the new one had to work differently.They start at the founding question: is crypto self-sovereign freedom tech or licensed infrastructure run by a handful of platforms? Richard’s answer is that the frame is wrong. Centralized exchanges aren’t a betrayal of the movement. They’re the interface the movement needs to reach the 1.4 billion people the financial system never bothered to serve. From there they move through Binance’s regulatory strategy in markets like Dubai, why the Genius Act sent stablecoin volume past Visa in under a year, and why regulatory clarity is the unlock for institutional capital, not just compliance overhead.Amanda pushes on financialization risk, tokenization of ownership, and whether crypto has run out of native narrative. Richard’s case for the SAFU fund, recovering assets sent to wrong chains, and what a financial super app means in frontier markets is the clearest argument for why centralization isn’t just commercially convenient but structurally necessary for the thing to work at all.Timestamps:00:00 - Is crypto still freedom tech or licensed infra?00:55 - 1.4 billion unbanked: why the system fails them03:00 - Why 65% quit after their first onchain transaction05:04 - What a bank actually does  and what replaces it07:30 - Binance as a financial super app for the excluded09:30 - Binance does more for inclusion than governments11:02 - China, protectionism and why countries need Binance13:52 - The Dubai story: building a crypto hub from scratch17:09 - Regulation as a moat vs regulation as a product19:32 - The Genius Act and the stablecoin explosion21:37 - Is compliance becoming incumbent protection?24:39 - Binance's approach to the US market26:29 - AI + Blockchain will rebuild every industry28:42 - Will AI suck all trading value to the biggest firm?33:11 - Binance AI Pro: what it actually does36:46 - Crypto out of ideas? RWAs and the next narrative39:14 - Why 24/7 trading changes everything41:38 - Invisible crypto and the abstraction risk45:58 - Hyperliquid vs Binance: who wins?48:47 - Where does Binance's growth actually come from?50:00 - The future: wallets replace banks52:16 - The SAFU fund: $1B to protect users54:23 - Crypto's real legacy: financial education56:00 - Do banks really create money from a spreadsheet?Stay ConnectedSubscribe to Endgame: https://www.youtube.com/@endgamepodcast Amanda on X:  https://x.com/amandacassatt  Serotonin on X: https://x.com/serotonin_hq Links to Follow:Endgame on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/45B9szUxVXEwfCDA6uRxwq?si=HT9XXqF9Q2CcM9hfLbmkVg   Endgame on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/endgame-with-amanda-cassatt/id1801809440  Follow Richard https://www.instagram.com/tengrich/https://x.com/_RichardTeng

“The block explorer is your x-ray machine. Open it up, and you find rooms full of people.”In this episode of Endgame, Amanda Cassatt sits down with Austin Federa, former Head of Strategy at Solana and co-founder of DoubleZero, for a rare, candid conversation shaped by shared history on opposite sides of the Ethereum–Solana divide.They unpack the real meaning of decentralization: is it a philosophy, a design choice, or just branding? The discussion moves from the Drift hack—revealing how a months-long social engineering attack exposed crypto’s underlying security culture—to broader questions about trust, control, and the human systems beneath supposedly autonomous technology.Along the way, they explore financial nihilism, the psychological impact of the internet on risk-taking, and whether blockchains should stand for anything beyond speed and efficiency. What happens to values like openness and censorship resistance once real money enters the system? And who carries the ideology when institutions drift from it?Timestamps:00:00 Crypto values and philosophy03:07 Speed and the evolution of blockchain design06:05 Decentralization vs. centralization08:58 Solana’s practical approach11:48 FTX and Solana’s resilience15:03 The role of decentralization in finance17:58 Meme coins and perceived value20:58 Financial nihilism and Gen Z30:15 The psychology of comparison online34:34 Roots of financial nihilism37:41 What money actually is41:21 The Drift hack and crypto security culture53:00 Building the future: DoubleZeroStay Connected:Subscribe to Endgame: https://www.youtube.com/@endgamepodcast Amanda on X:  https://x.com/amandacassatt  Serotonin on X: https://x.com/serotonin_hq Austin on X: http://x.com/Austin_FederaDoubleZero on X: https://x.com/doublezeroLinks to Follow:Endgame on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/45B9szUxVXEwfCDA6uRxwq?si=HT9XXqF9Q2CcM9hfLbmkVg   Endgame on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/endgame-with-amanda-cassatt/id1801809440