An Instagram post gets an unexpected boost. A TikTok catches in the algorithm.

Sometimes that's all it takes to launch someone into internet fame.

But then what?

This blew up is a new podcast documentary that reveals how social media

start and is made. It's a different kind of fame.

It's not always as glamorous as it looks.

From Spotify and the Ring or Podcast Network, I'm Alyssa Bereznek.

You can listen to this blew up on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Today's episode is about a crypto implosion that stunned the world.

Or at the very least stunned me.

As listeners of this podcast know, I am not exactly the world's biggest crypto booster.

I consider myself a skeptic who tries not to write off technologies I don't fully understand.

But of all the characters in the crypto landscape, the one I was perhaps most interested in,

even in a way the most impressed by, was Sam Bankman Freed.

He went by SBF.

SBF is the founder of a crypto exchange FTX and a hedge fund Allamator Research.

Sam was a quirky nerd with wild hair who dressed in cargo shorts and t-shirts for conferences.

And he was a fixture of media events.

He appeared on the cover of magazines like Fortune and Forbes.

He donated to Democratic candidates.

He subscribed to a philosophy known as Effective Altruism, which is a kind of utilitarian movement

that seeks to do the most good for the most people now and in the future.

...