New ep with Matthew Mottola, CEO of Human Cloud. Early access for @Fountain subs now. He told me: - 40% layoffs are coming at large companies - He's automated 98% of his company's podcast workflow with Claude - Most agencies are quietly run by freelancers - Google runs on 60% contractors and doesn't advertise it - Universities are mostly a waste unless it's Oxford, Cambridge, Stanford or Harvard We disagreed on plenty. Especially the AI bit. https://fountain.fm/episode/kp3VAMl5DhNqtVTSMktH

He quit Poland for the best job in Bitcoin. @Tomek ⚡ K visited Próspera a year ago. Day two: bought a motorbike on Facebook Marketplace to lock the move in. He's never left. He's now building the Bitcoin District: a modular Bitcoin neighborhood up a jungle valley, inside the only jurisdiction on earth where you can pay 1% corporate tax in BTC and denominate your books in sats. 👇 https://fountain.fm/episode/uDCMkio9FJhVSCZxKKMv

The only jurisdiction on earth where you can denominate your books in BTC, pay 1% corporate tax in sats, and incorporate a Bitcoin-only startup is a free economic zone on a Caribbean island. 15+ Bitcoin companies are already operating there. @Tomek ⚡ K visited a year ago. On day two, he bought a motorbike on Facebook Marketplace to lock the move in. He hasn't left. What's there: Orangeville, a wooden modular Bitcoin neighborhood climbing a jungle valley, phase one funded. Bitcoin Arena renovated, 1,000+ kids through it weekly. ~60 merchants accepting BTC across Roatán. ~10 to 15% of Próspera's economy already on Bitcoin transactions, including rent and tax. BitChill quarterly retreats. Satoshi Saturdays. Coffee for 2,000 sats at the Bitcoin Center. Bitcoin Games: 150 players, 2 BTC prize pool. Bitcoin Vibe Camp hackathon in August. Bitcoin++ and Sovereign Engineering both in talks. The bet: Roatán becomes the most Bitcoin-dense island on earth. Madeira's still ahead on merchant count. The race is on. Episode covers Hal Finney cryogenics, quantum threats to Satoshi's coins, the Hollywood sub-genre of Satoshi films, the Bitcoin standard at Próspera, Saylor, lower-price-is-better-for-Bitcoin, and the wooden neighborhood up the jungle. Subs have early access NOW, Everyone else can listen on Friday. https://fountain.fm/episode/uDCMkio9FJhVSCZxKKMv

Some context from the country that birthed free speech. A 44-year-old mother was sentenced to 31 months in prison for a tweet. She deleted it after 3.5 hours. The police came a week later. She served 12 months prison. She's out now, on licence until March 2027. The state can put her back inside for what she says publicly between now and then. Britain arrests roughly 12,000 people a year for things people have said online. If you're here, you probably already understand why this matters. Here's Lucy Connolly telling her story.

Free Cities Podcast • 182 - Jailed for a Tweet | Lucy Connolly • Watch on Fountain

She tweeted in anger. Deleted it 3.5 hours later. A week later the police knocked on her door. The next time Lucy Connolly slept in her own bed, it was 12 months later. This is an unbelievable story...

Free Cities Podcast • 182 - Jailed for a Tweet | Lucy Connolly • Watch on Fountain

Brazil has had a Free City for 45 years. Nobody noticed. Built in 1980 by a banker who'd never heard of charter cities... running its own water, sewage, security, and urban planning to this day. Paloma Lecheta is now trying to make it official. Full story on the new Free Cities Podcast 👇

Last year, 1,200 millionaires left Brazil. Most of them were founders. Paloma Lecheta is one of the people trying to give them a reason to stay. In my latest Free Cities Podcast episode, the Brazilian entrepreneur and co-founder of Founder Haus walks through: ▸ The 45-year-old private development in Florianópolis already operating like a Free City ▸ The proposed Digital Economic Zone (Floripa 10) that could give it formal autonomy ▸ Why the difference between crazy and visionary is execution WATCH:

Free Cities Podcast • 181 - Brazil's First Free City | Paloma Lecheta • Watch on Fountain

The Free City That's Been 45 Years in the Making - Paloma Lecheta is a Brazilian entrepreneur and co-founder of Founder Haus, a hub for what she ca...

Brazil already has a Free City. It's been operating quietly for 45 years. Paloma Lecheta on the new Free Cities Podcast. Fountain subs have access today..

Free Cities Podcast • 181 - Brazil's First Free City | Paloma Lecheta • Watch on Fountain

The Free City That's Been 45 Years in the Making - Paloma Lecheta is a Brazilian entrepreneur and co-founder of Founder Haus, a hub for what she ca...

So, Gary's Economics has officially said he'll be voting Green. No surprises there of course but I'm genuinely looking forward to the inevitable interview he will have with Zak Polanski. It will be something to study and learn from. They'll use every socialist slight of hand in the book.

"I'm a Bitcoiner. I studied Bitcoin for 20,000 hours. I often judge people on that. If they start talking about Bitcoin and tell me something that's bullshit, I know they probably didn't study a lot of other things either."

Free Cities Podcast • 180 - Why Bad Ideas Persist | Crémieux • Watch on Fountain

Crémieux on representative democracy: "Voice is annoying." Watch & Listen on @Fountain -

Free Cities Podcast • 180 - Why Bad Ideas Persist | Crémieux • Watch on Fountain

Crémieux is on the show this week. Subs have early access now...

Free Cities Podcast • 180 - Why Bad Ideas Persist | Crémieux • Watch on Fountain

Just lost my Waymo virginity in Austin.

In 1967, a British WWII veteran named Paddy Roy Bates seized an abandoned North Sea fort and declared it the Principality of Sealand. A British court ruled it had no jurisdiction. His family has defended it ever since - against the Royal Navy, a German-led coup in 1978, and decades of a government hoping they'd disappear. Now the third generation has taken the reins. Prince Liam Bates talks about what comes next: building towers in the North Sea, reclaiming land to create an actual island and growing an e-citizen community that already spans 124 countries with 1.5 million followers. The family funded the operation for decades through a shellfish business. Noble titles and e-citizenship now sustain it. The plan is full sovereignty, physical expansion, and a permanent population. "That's the only way you can drive change. You can't ask to do anything. The world's regulated. They tell you no. So you just have to go and do it." https://fountain.fm/episode/wx2mWplRLVACJdGBJGrE

You don’t build a new jurisdiction with ideas. You build it with deals, capital, and leverage. Here are 8 hard truths from one of the OGs of the Free Cities ecosystem. https://fountain.fm/episode/ciFR5rnH4BWYm3oYL7NV

I've got Milton's grandson, a Free Cities OG on the pod this week. Subscribe for early access.. https://fountain.fm/episode/ciFR5rnH4BWYm3oYL7NV

Music recommendation: This isn't gonna be for everyone, but I reckon Meshell Ndegeocello's music is excellent:

Three years ago, Próspera had one building and a hostile government that swore to destroy it. Today? Every metric is up and to the right. On today's show I sat down with co-founder Gabriel Delgado to hear the full story - and the master plan that's even bigger than I previously thought. https://fountain.fm/episode/6z7Iezt9eMsfXHRy1KSm

I went back to this older episode today and it feels more relevant now than when I recorded it. Not because it “predicted everything”, but because the core questions have only got sharper: Ukraine as a proxy battleground, migration as a destabilising force, Israel’s centrality in Middle East power politics, and how media narratives shape what the public is allowed to see. https://fountain.fm/episode/XIiKUFNCzaKkPNp4c1tt

"Just a bit of economic freedom can cause absolute miracles. It did in the past. It can do so again." In Episode 176 of the podcast, I sat down with James Price - a former senior adviser across five UK government departments including the Treasury and Cabinet Office. This isn't your typical political commentary. James has been inside the machine and explains, with remarkable clarity, how it actually operates. Some things that stood out: → When the UK government changed in 2024, only 200 people across the entire state changed roles. Everyone else stayed exactly where they were. → Civil servants are more likely to die in the job than be fired. → Special advisers are "constitutionally not allowed to tell civil servants what to do." → During the vaccine rollout, a minister had to tell civil servants to Google the logistics industry because they had zero experience moving anything anywhere. He breaks down how democracy got eaten from the inside by the people nobody voted for. How the blob digests every election and nothing changes. How Hayek and Burnham saw all of this coming 80 years ago. And why more people are starting to ask whether the nation-state is the problem — not the solution. This one's a masterclass in how the modern state actually works - and why it doesn't. https://fountain.fm/episode/tuZpY3c4GgvGqdbO8qnk