Book your ticket to happiness with Sun Express Airlines. I'm going Sykes. We're going to

a little bit of a detour today because I've had this book around my house now for several

months I'm holding it up for you YouTube viewers the end of reality how four

billionaires are selling a fantasy future of the Metaverse, Mars, and crypto by Jonathan Taplin.

And I gotta say it is scary and since it is not necessarily in my wheelhouse, I really wanted to talk with you Jonathan so good

morning welcome to the podcast appreciate it very much

great to be here just a little bit of background I mean you were a man of many many

careers I mean you put the Renaissance and Renaissance man you were a

tour manager for Bob Dylan and the band I'm guessing there's a book in there

somewhere film producer most notably of Martin Scorsese mean streets in the

last wall's founder of the

pioneering video-and-demand company entertainer and director emeritus of the

Annenberg Innovation Lab at USC and this latest book, okay I'll tell you what got me about your book Jonathan, is I keep thinking I always worry about while we're focusing on the big orange sun in front of us and while we're fighting that what's going on in the background

and we're fighting authoritarianism and the guy who's going to be the dictator of the day

and yet you think about all of these other things that are moving ahead including the rise of an American oligarchy.

And I wanted to bounce that word off you because you write about these billionaires and you call them

the technocrats.

But let's just for a moment, I don't want to sound like just sort of going through some sort

of 1930s rhetoric, but the concentration of wealth in this country you know has been a growing

concern but the concentration of wealth power and influence feels like we're reaching a peak moment.

Do we have an oligarch problem?

So I have a chart I use when I give talks which shows that the rise of the 1% really

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