Ben McKenzie vs. crypto
4/14/20261 hr 20 min
During the height of the cryptocurrency craze a few years ago, the actor Ben McKenzie found himself wondering why no one else was seeing what he was seeing. He joins the show to explain his yearslong attempt to understand Bitcoin and the crypto world, all of which is in his new documentary Everyone Is Lying to You For Money. (You can probably guess how he feels.) After that, The Verge's Victoria Song tells us about her testing of continuous glucose monitors, which have gone from medical device to influencer trend in some worrying ways. Finally, we answer a question from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com!) about why all our gadgets seem the same these days. Vote for The Vergecast in the Webby Awards! A vote for The Vergecast is a vote that Brendan Carr is a dummy, that buttons are good, and that party speakers rule the world. Voting is open until April 16. https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2026/podcasts/shows/technology Further reading: Everyone is Lying to You for Money Low interest rates and loneliness: the origins of the pandemic crypto boom Continuous glucose monitoring made me continuously crazy Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11. (Timestamps are approximate.) 00:00:00 Sprinkler Duty Intro 00:03:00 Ben McKenzie Crypto Journey 00:04:00 Is Crypto Really Money 00:09:00 El Salvador Reality Check 00:11:00 Could Crypto Ever Work 00:14:00 Crypto Culture 00:19:00 Casino Capitalism And Crime 00:23:00 Why Bitcoin Keeps Rising 00:30:00 CGMs Explained 00:32:00 FDA OTC And Wellness Boom 00:33:00 Government Push For Wearables 00:39:00 Longevity Wearables Boom 00:41:00 Why Try CGMs 00:44:00 Scary Readings Doctor Visit 00:47:00 Living in the Data 00:48:00 Apps Scores Calibration 00:51:00 Disordered Eating Spiral 00:54:00 No Consensus for Non Diabetics 00:57:00 Medication Tradeoffs 01:00:00 Wellness vs Medical Regulation 01:04:00 Using CGMs Thoughtfully 01:10:00 Vergecast hotline 01:11:00 Why Gadgets Got Bland 01:22:00 Final Thoughts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsDavid Pierce· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Welcome to the Vergecast, the flagship podcast of number go up and also down. I'm your friend David Pierce, and I am sitting in my backyard on sprinkler duty. So a thing you've probably already guessed about me, given my entire deal, is that I'm not good at keeping plants alive. Um, I can't remember how tall the grass is supposed to be when you mow it. I don't exactly know which of my plants is which and how often I'm supposed to water any of them. But we had some work done on the backyard this weekend. They, they put down some sod. They made the backyard bigger. It all looks great. I'm very excited about it, and the guy gave me a speech where he was like, "David, you have to water this thing like you would not believe for the next 10 days." So for the next 10 days, I, I live out here in the backyard just moving sprinklers around. This is apparently what I do now. Anyway, we have a really fun show coming up. First, we're gonna talk to Ben McKenzie, who is an actor and author, and you might know him as Ryan Atwood from "The O.C." He just made a documentary called "Everyone Is Lying To You For Money" about kind of his descent into the crypto world and sort of his own descent into madness as a result. It's a really fun documentary with a lot of really interesting reporting and lessons about crypto. So he came on the show to talk about how he feels about crypto now. Then The Verge's Vi Song is gonna come on and talk about her, I think, 18-month journey testing continuous glucose monitors, and actually kind of her own descent into madness. We're doing descents into madness here on the Vergecast today while I sit and descend into madness moving sprinklers around. We also have a really fun hotline, really fun