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In 2021, Elon Musk started calling himself The Dogefather to signal his support for Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency based on a joke meme about a dog. That dog, Jill Lepore argues, is now wagging the tail of the world’s economy. In the 2024 US presidential election, nearly half of all corporate spending came from the cryptocurrency industry. When Trump won that election, leading figures in the cryptocurrency industry celebrated his creation of DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, a task force led by Musk. DOGE’s mandate is to reduce government spending and to eliminate regulations - including regulations affecting cryptocurrency companies. Cryptocurrency is, essentially, money without government. A libertarian’s dream. In this episode, Lepore looks at Silicon Valley's cryptocurrency craze through the lens of some very old science fiction. She argues that, like everything else about Muskism that purports to be futuristic, the idea of reinventing money is a relic whose history serves as a warning. Jill Lepore is the Kemper Professor of American History at Harvard University and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She’s also a staff writer at The New Yorker and an acclaimed author. Series Producer: Viv Jones Researchers: Simon Leek, Oliver Riskin-Kutz Editors: Richard Vadon, Hugh Levinson Sound design and mix: James Beard, Graham Puddifoot Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke Original music by Corntuth Production Coordinators: Jack Young, Maria Ogundele CREDITS VOA, NBC, Tucker Carlson Network