Marshall here. Welcome back to The Realignment.

As listeners know, especially Deep Cup ones, I've interviewed a lot of founders, venture

capitalists, and tech postalizers on this show. I've interviewed A16Z's Merchandrison,

Srivara Krishnan, and Catherine Boyle. Matthew Ball came on to talk about The Metaverse,

David Sachs of The All-in Podcast, came on Ukraine, Keither Boy, and Mike Salana from Founders Fund,

Peter Teales VC Fund, Made an Appearance. Plus, we had Jill Lawnsdale. Of course, Asher Advanced

came on a few months back to talk about the prioritization of space. So I like to have friendly

interviews of people that have different points of views on different topics. I wanted to speak

with someone who doesn't quite see tech with the same rose-shaded glasses as everyone I just

listed. That said, I also didn't want to just have that conversation with any old critic,

who could be easily dismissed as an angry journalist, throwing stones from the rafters.

My guest today, Jonathan Toplin, perfectly fits the build where I was looking for. He's the author

of The End of Reality, how four billionaires are selling a fantasy future of The Metaverse,

Mars, and Crypto. He's worked across every industry and cultural wave of the last century.

He was Bob Dylan's tour manager in the 60s, a participant in civil rights movement,

produced films by Warren Scorsese and Gus Van Sant in the 70s, helped save Disney from a hostile

takeover in the 80s, plus worked with Merrill Lynch on media acquisitions on Wall Street,

and created the first video streaming service in the 1990s. Today, he's the director emeritus of

USC's Annabberg Innovation Lab and the chair of the Americana Music Foundation. If you're

particularly interested in Jonathan Toplin's background, which we spend a decent amount at the

start of the show discussing, I highly recommend his recent book The Magic Years Scenes From a Rock

and Roll Life. On the tech side, there's plenty to disagree with him on, especially when it comes

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