Why We Defy | Alex Gladstein

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“Voting someone into power is kind of like the cherry on top of the democratic system. First you need free expression, then you need separation of powers, then you need civil society.”
— Alex Gladstein

SHOW DESCRIPTION

Location: San Francisco
Date: Tuesday, July 23rd 2019
Company: Human Rights Foundation
Role: Chief Strategy Officer

On December 6th 2018, I interviewed Alex Gladstein for my podcast What Bitcoin Did to discuss Why Bitcoin Matters for Freedom. Alex and I have stayed in regular touch since the interview, and in May of this year, Alex invited me to the Oslo Freedom Forum.

In Oslo, I saw presentations from Human Rights Activists and met with people working all around the world fighting for freedom. After the event I told Alex that I wanted to launch a new podcast, one which would cover Bitcoin alongside other sister topics such as human rights, censorship and freedom. Alex and I discussed this over the summer, came up with the name Defiance, and Alex wrote the manifesto and agreed to be the guest for the first show.

Alex is Chief Strategy Officer at The Human Rights Foundation and a human rights activist. In this interview, we discuss the extent of authoritarianism around the world, how absolute power corrupts, and how Bitcoin supports financial freedom.

Peter McCormack

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TIMESTAMPS

  • 00:00:00 - Show Intro

  • 00:01:39 - Welcoming Alex to the show

  • 00:03:36 - Birth of Defiance

  • 00:08:08 - Global variances in freedom

  • 00:11:32 - Veil of freedom in Russia

  • 00:17:12 - Why do countries become authoritarian

  • 00:23:02 - Turkey’s migration to dictatorship

  • 00:26:22 - Saudi Arabia international relations

  • 00:31:43 - Collapse of society in Venezuela

  • 00:34:37 - Fallacy of Che Guevara

  • 00:37:01 - Absolute power corrupts

  • 00:43:01 - From an open democracy to dictatorship

  • 00:45:57 - Encroachments in free societies

  • 00:49:46 - Wikileaks and how Bitcoin supports financial freedom

  • 01:12:52 - Why decentralisation is so important

  • 01:15:24 - China’s Belt and Road programme

  • 01:23:54 - Satoshi Nakamoto’s an act of defiance

  • 01:25:41 - Where does change come from?

SHOW NOTES

Connect with Alex:

Connect with The Human Rights Foundation:

Articles by Alex:

Presentations by Alex:

Interviews with Alex:

Mentioned in the show:

People mentioned in the show:

Media references:

Thank you to my sponsor

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Peter McCormack