meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Unchained

Writing the Book on FTX’s Downfall: ‘It Was All Just Sam’ - Ep. 490

Unchained

Laura Shin

News, Business News, Tech News

4.61.3K Ratings

🗓️ 9 May 2023

⏱️ 61 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Longtime crypto reporter Brady Dale has beat Michael Lewis to market with the first book on the dramatic collapse of FTX. In stores today, “SBF: How the FTX Bankruptcy Unwound Crypto’s Very Bad Good Guy,” tells the tale of the outsized role that Sam Bankman-Fried played in the FTX-Alameda death spiral. Drawing on years of reporting and interviews with SBF himself, the book charts the rise and fall of the one-time crypto wunderkind. “It became clear to me that Sam got really addicted to fame,” said Dale. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: Brady’s background and how he came to cover crypto how covering the space for a crypto outlet is different from a more mainstream publication how Brady was able to finalize his book so fast  what Brady’s favorite parts of the book are who was really responsible for the collapse of the FTX empire whether Sam Bankman-Fried will plead guilty  whether FTX will make a comeback how SBF thinks differently from other people, and how it led to his downfall why Brady thinks the “dot-com bust” for crypto has yet to arrive whether crypto has betrayed its cypherpunk ideals Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com Guests: Brady Dale, writer and reporter at Axios, and author of “SBF: How the FTX Bankruptcy Unwound Crypto’s Very Bad Good Guy” Previous coverage of Unchained on Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX: The Chopping Block: Was FTX a Scam From the Very Beginning?  How Much Prison Time Is FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried Facing?  Why the Legal Process for FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried Could Take Years The Chopping Block: SBF Wants to Win in the Court of Public Opinion. Will He? Jesse Powell and Kevin Zhou on How FTX and Alameda Lost $10 Billion Is the Collapse of Crypto Lending Over, or Is It Just Starting? Did the Bahamian Government Direct SBF and Gary Wang to Hack FTX? The Chopping Block: Why Lenders Didn’t Liquidate Alameda When It Was Underwater  Erik Voorhees and Cobie on Why FTX Loaned Out Customers’ Assets The Chopping Block: FTX: The Biggest Collapse in the History of Crypto? Sam Bankman-Fried on How to Prevent the Next Terra and 3AC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hi, everyone. Welcome to Unchained, your no-hype resource for all things crypto. I'm your

0:09.0

host, Laura Shin, author of The Crypto Beans. I started covering crypto seven years ago,

0:14.5

and as a senior editor, Forbes was the first mainstream media reporter to cover cryptocurrency

0:18.6

full-time. This is the May 9, 2023 episode of Unchained. If you're looking for more

0:24.1

Unchained, check out our website, UnchainedCrypto.com, or follow us on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok,

0:29.7

or YouTube. Buy, trade, and spend crypto on the Crypto.com app. New users can enjoy zero

0:36.3

credit card fees on crypto purchases in the first seven days. Download the Crypto.com app

0:41.7

and get $25 with the code Laura. Link in the description.

0:46.9

If you've been enjoying Unchained and find the discussions here, fascinating, mind-blowing,

0:51.0

more as Crypto tends to be. Download bonkers. Please share this episode with a friend to

0:56.1

keep the conversation going. Today's guest is Brady Dale, writer and reporter at Axios

1:01.7

and author of SBF, How the FTX bankruptcy unwound cryptos, Very Bad Good Guy. Welcome,

1:08.2

Brady. Hey, Laura. Great to be here.

1:11.4

You've been a reporter covering crypto full-time since 2017. How did you get into it and

1:16.6

what had your background been before? Immediately before I was a general tech reporter

1:21.8

at the Observer, which published the New York Observer, which is how most people know

1:25.5

it, though I wasn't in the actual paper very often. But I was a general tech reporter there,

1:31.1

and I've always gravitated towards kind of the weird stuff. And so I would, CoinDesk noticed

1:36.8

me, I got hired by CoinDesk in 2017, and they noticed my ICO coverage because I was

1:40.5

doing that when that was kind of taking off in 2017. But actually the first, well, I

1:46.3

did some other like tiny sort of lame Bitcoin stories before that. But the first time I

1:50.2

really dug it is what blockchains were. I was very interested in kindles and ebooks, like

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Laura Shin, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Laura Shin and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.