From Uncanny Valley: ‘Stop Trying to Unmask Satoshi Nakamoto’ Says Actor Ben McKenzie
kill switch
Kaleidoscope
4.7 • 635 Ratings
🗓️ 18 May 2026
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Here’s a recent favorite of ours from our friends at the Uncanny Valley podcast.
Actor Ben McKenzie (The O.C.) is out with a new documentary, Everyone Is Lying to You for Money, which follows his journey into becoming an anti-cryptocurrency advocate. He says we should all stop trying to unmask the presumed original developer(s) of bitcoin known as Satoshi Nakamoto because it benefits only the mysterious inventor. The actor-director talks with Katie about why he thinks crypto is a scam, and why he says people are falling for it.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.0 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:08.0 | From Wired, this is the big interview, where we'll get to know the people behind the headlines |
| 0:13.0 | in conversations that explore the intersection of technology, power, and culture. |
| 0:17.0 | I'm Katie Drummond, Wired's global editorial director, |
| 0:20.0 | and people of a certain age may |
| 0:22.5 | know my next guest as an actor, but these days you're equally likely to know him for his other |
| 0:28.3 | leading role, crusading against cryptocurrency. In my opinion, the cryptocurrency industry |
| 0:34.2 | represents the largest Ponzi scheme in history. |
| 0:38.2 | Surveying the cryptocurrency mania during the summer of last year, I came to a terrifying conclusion. |
| 0:43.9 | The supposedly multi-trillion dollar industry was nothing more than a massive speculative bubble bound to pop. |
| 0:50.8 | That's Ben McKenzie testifying before Congress on the spectacular collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX in late November 2022. McKenzie, who has an undergrad degree in economics, has written a book on the subject. And now he's out with a new documentary, Everyone is lying to you for money. Very good name, I must say. Ben's here now. Thank you so much for joining me. Thanks for having me, Katie. It's an honor to be here. |
| 1:12.3 | We are delighted to have you here. And I had intended to start with that congressional testimony. |
| 1:17.4 | And I want to get back to that in a minute. But I actually was just at my desk upstairs and was reading this New York Times piece that came out today. We're talking in early April. This episode will come out in a few |
| 1:28.2 | weeks, but it was this sweeping investigation, yet another sweeping investigation into the identity |
| 1:33.1 | of Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin. And I'm not even interested in talking about who |
| 1:39.4 | Satoshi is. Like I, I'm not, I haven't cared about that for a really long time. |
| 1:45.4 | But this piece came out and I knew we were talking. And I'm just so curious about your impressions of this sort of like mythology and, and online fascination and almost sort of obsession. |
| 1:58.4 | Right. |
| 1:58.7 | With this like mythical figure, this magician, this wizard who created Bitcoin and sort of obsession with this like mythical figure, this magician, this wizard, |
| 2:02.4 | who created Bitcoin and sort of catalyzed this entire movement that we're now talking about. |
| 2:08.8 | What are your thoughts on that? |
... |
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