Bitcoin started as a .PDF

Bitcoin explained and made simple

Bitcoin, the most popular and well-known example of a cryptocurrency, came on the scene around 2010, with its evangelists proclaiming it would eventually displace government-backed traditional cash. While the concept of a digital currency may seem straightforward, the details can be deceptively simple. This quick video overview provides the foundation for a deeper dive into the world of decentralized currency.

Since its introduction, the price of bitcoin has experienced significant volatility

Driven in large part by speculation and intense social media attention during the pandemic, along with the availability of capital during near-zero interest rate periods, the price has seen at least three major crashes despite steadily increasing over the long run since 2014.

Spellcaster: the rise and fall of Sam Bankman-Fried

The rapid collapse of FTX, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, in late 2022 shocked the world. At the center of the fiasco was Sam Bankman-Fried, a 29-year-old wunderkind who had entranced politicians, journalists, financiers, and others with his melding of altruism and digital currency. The sordid details revealed as the empire fell captured public attention—venture into the death spiral with this in-depth podcast from Bloomberg.

The story of a bitcoin loophole that gave one man millions

James Parker discovered a glitch in an Australian cryptocurrency exchange that would allow him to cash in credits worth over $20M and make big gifts to his friends. Like most loopholes, the authorities found out, but not before his life was transformed. The first in a six-part series.

‘Tulip mania’ may have been the first financial bubble. It still shapes markets today

This podcast revisits tulip mania, the 1630s Dutch craze where rare bulbs were briefly traded like luxury assets. It unpacks the myths surrounding the event and shows how its legend continues to shape modern perceptions of financial bubbles.

Listen to a podcast episode from 1440's editor in chief that explains how a credit card transaction works behind the scenes.

When you buy even something as small as a $5 latte, a global relay between banks and networks like Visa and Mastercard is triggered. It all started with a 1958 campaign from Bank of America that jump-started the credit card revolution.

The memecoin casino

This podcast episode dives into the origin story of memecoins like Dogecoin and how people make money off of them in the crypto world.

The Chain Reaction podcast: The latest in bitcoin and blockchain developments

There are constantly new tokens, DeFi projects, NFT collections, and DAOs being launched, but how can you make sense of everything going on in the crypto space? TechCrunch senior crypto reporter Jacquelyn Melinek explores the impact of crypto on finance, art, web3, and society as a whole. One the best resources to keep up with actual—meaning, beyond the hype—developments in the world of bitcoin and blockchain.

Bitcoin's founder has always remained anonymous

A pseudonym used by the person or group of people who created bitcoin—the first decentralized cryptocurrency—the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto has baffled millions of enthusiasts for years.

Princeton University offers a free online bitcoin course

Want to understand bitcoin and cryptocurrencies? A free online course from Princeton University unpacks the details of bitcoin, from how it works to what distinguishes it from other currencies, to the security and anonymity associated with its use. Explore explainer videos, or take the course as a series of lessons.

The role stories play in mass economic trends like bitcoin, crashes

Economics is dominated by numbers, but stories play a huge role in the emotional shifts seen within macroeconomic trends. For example, bitcoin is not just a cost-benefit winner, but a compelling tale of decentralization and independence. This is a 20-minute summary of Nobel prize-winning economist Robert Shiller's "Narrative Economics."

Some venture capitalists believe cryptocurrency will revolutionize global finance

Some of the brightest minds at Andreesen-Horowitz, one of the country’s leading venture capital firms, believe the cryptocurrency ecosystem will revolutionize global finance in the coming decades. This podcast recounts, through their view, the history of crypto, how it works, and trends they see emerging in the future.

Two Papa John’s pizzas were the first real-world transaction involving cryptocurrency

In 2010, a programmer Laszlo Hanyecz made the first real-world transaction involving cryptocurrency—purchasing two Papa John’s pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins. While the transaction was lauded as a milestone for cryptocurrency, it has also become a tongue-in-cheek cautionary tale—the value of the purchase price exceeded $620M at bitcoin’s all-time high.

How much money you'd have now if you bought bitcoin years ago

Do you ever wonder how much money you'd have now if you bought bitcoin in 2019? 2018? 2017? This calculator provides the answer. Plug in the amount of bitcoin you would have purchased, plus the year and the currency.

Airbnb started as a vacation rental startup and soon disrupted the hospitality industry

In this podcast episode, Airbnb gets the "How I Built This" treatment. The "How I Built This" host speaks with the entrepreneurs behind today's largest businesses about how they got started. In this episode, Airbnb's cofounder Joe Gebbia talks about how he built Airbnb.

Hear why the Continental Congress decided to declare independence—and how the text took shape

In this episode of "Ben Franklin's World," historians Danielle Allen, Patrick Spero, and Peter Onuf examine why Congress pursued a declaration, how Congress chose the drafters, and how Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin shaped its language and Revolutionary intent.

How K-pop conquered the world

How did Korean musical acts go from unpopular and at times maligned to filling arenas and creating one of the most viral music videos of all time? This 25-minute audio documentary from BBC World Service explains how social networks, plastic surgery, and government tax breaks helped turn K-pop into the multibillion-dollar global juggernaut we know today.

BBC Radio 4 tackles the history of Stonehenge

On this podcast, host Greg Jenner humorously unpacks Stonehenge’s biggest myths and mysteries—from what a “henge” actually is, to how alien theories emerged, and why the monument was once sold for just £6,000.

Here's why pennies don't make sense

Did you know that pennies cost roughly 3 cents to produce? That fact doesn't seem to make sense, being that pennies are only worth 1 cent each. This podcast episode explains why we still have pennies, plus where they came from, why Americans don't use pennies, and how we got here. Click here to listen.

Unpacking the famous argument in the 'Are We Living in a Computer Simulation?' paper

In 2003, philosopher Nick Bostrom published a paper in a journal arguing the technological possibility that humanity is living in a simulation. The argument, while popularly mocked (or cheered), is presented seriously in the paper. This podcast episode explores the contours of the arguments in an accessible way.

Behind the scenes on tariff politics

Economist Gene Grossman joined the Trade Talks Podcast to discuss why tariffs really happen. The episode digs into how voters, politicians, lobbyists, and even campaign cash can affect when protectionist trade policies are put forward. Produced in 2019, the podcast also discusses how populist trade policies and identity politics accounted for Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 Presidential election.

The global horse market is worth about $400B

In this podcast episode from a new series on horses, Freakonomics explores the market around buying and selling some of the world's top sport horses, and the nebulous forces that make them so valuable.

Dive into the history of beer via comic book

Why was the covered beer stein invented, and what led to the creation of the Vienna Lager beer style? Find out in this article about a 173-page comic book outlining the history of beer. According to creator Mike Smith, the history of beer is a...

The Wall Street Journal: a timeline

The Wall Street Journal got its start as a financial news bulletin for people trading stocks. Since then, it has evolved beyond just financial news. It now ranks among the preeminent global business news sources.

The first music delivered by podcast was the Grateful Dead

In 2001, Dave Winer pioneered the podcast by using his RSS feed to send the Grateful Dead's "Truckin'" to his subscribers. That would pave the way for the podcasting revolution, which came just a few years later, along with a corresponding music genre: podcast theme music.

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

The idea for the Federal Reserve was conceived in secret in 1910—with bankers donning duck hunt gear for disguise while traveling to a remote country club on Georgia's Jekyll Island

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

The US dollar is the most widely circulated currency in the world, and is involved in nearly 90% of global transactions

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

Watch this video that uses Lego bricks to explain how venture capital works.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

Jimmy Carter signed a 1978 bill that legalized home brewing, a move credited with kick-starting the craft beer industry.

See how fireworks are made and learn how metals like magnesium and copper are responsible for different colors.

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

According to the physics of black holes, our 4D reality may be a hologram—a projection of information coded on a 2D surface on the edge of the universe.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

US housing costs have risen by roughly 175% between 1991 and 2026—but a growing number of Gen Zers are becoming homeowners anyway. In 2025, 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before.

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

Watch contemporary footage covering the US-backed Shah of Iran fleeing the country in the face of the 1979 Iranian Revolution

The term 'algorithm' originated from the Latinized name of al-Khwārizmī, a 9th-century mathematician whose works introduced Arabic numerals and the decimal-based numeral system to Europe and whose treatise 'Al-Jabr' gave algebra its name.