Episode
Episode #184: David Z. Morris on Effective Altruism and the Inner Workings of Sam Bankman-Fried
- Podcast
- Brazil Crypto Report
- Published
- Jun 5, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3983
- Processing state
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Summary
Ola pessoal! For this week’s episode of Bits and Borders, I’m joined by veteran financial journalist and former CoinDesk colleague David Z. Morris. David is the author of Stealing the Future , a post-trial account of the FTX collapse and the effective altruism ideology behind it. He covered the Sam Bankman-Fried criminal trial for Protos and had a front-row seat to the collapse. His reporting at CoinDesk helped surface the leaked balance sheet that triggered the unraveling. His book is the only comprehensive account of the case built on trial testimony , making it more authoritative than other SBF books that preceded it, such as the works by Michael Lewis and Brady Dale . Notably, David goes beyond discussing what SBF did and didn’t do wrong and explores in-depth the effective altruism ideology that shaped Sam’s thinking and worldview. 🙌 You can listen to Bits and Borders on your favorite podcast platform YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts 🔥 Join our English language Telegram group to continue the conversation Here are the key points from our conversation: * Effective altruism didn’t just influence SPF: it gave him an ethical framework that explicitly justified stealing customer funds , because utilitarian ends-justify-the-means logic overrode rules like “don’t lie” and “don’t steal.” * Michael Lewis’ book about SBF is not just wrong, Morris argues - it functionally operates as part of the cover-up, reflecting how thoroughly Lewis was captured by the social world around FTX. * The “SBF truther” movement is partly organic (bag-holders in denial) and partly, Morris argues, a coordinated disinformation campaign run by SBF’s parents, Joe Bankman and Barbara Fried. * Morris addresses rumors of “Deep State” or intelligence community involvement in FTX as a speculative claim…