E32: Balaji on SBF and the Israel-Hamas War

Balaji Srinivasan returns to Upstream for an unfiltered conversation about recent events: SBF's conviction and the conflict in the middle east. Make informed decision for high impact donations with GiveWell, which is offering Econ 102 listeners donation matching up to $100. To claim your match, go to givewell.org ➡️ pick “Podcast” enter "Upstream with Erik Torenberg" at checkout.

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X / TWITTER:

@balajis (Balaji)

@eriktorenberg (Erik)

@upstream__pod

@turpentinemedia

TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Episode Preview

(01:20) Why should we still care about the SBF story

(05:17) An uncensored Twitter exposed the crimes

(08:25) Why the system got an F on SBF

(11:30) Why the network succeeded over the state

(15:10) Sponsors: Shopify | GiveWell

(18:00) Actual crimes vs political crimes

(20:00) Did the press coverage force the indictment?

(22:00) Why didn’t the state move faster if all the pieces were there?

(29:30) Political fallout

(30:30) Sponsor: Oracle

(40:00) Progressive Muslim alliance

(42:40) Pro Middle Eastern tech

(47:50) Support for anti-Israel is where support for gay marriage was in 2000s

(48:20) TikTok is global public opinion minus India and China

(50:35) Should America intervene in the Middle East?

(52:30) The six regimes

(55:30) War with China

(57:00) Retribalization of society