Zoë Schiffer: It must have come a long way.Lauren Goode: I mean, I heard a lot about jujitsu. 56 minutes of the show is taken on jujitsu, and then it’s like, “Also, how to live forever.” I don’t know. Yes.Michael Calore: I really want to hear it, because I was impressed when you started talking about it, and Zoë already talked about her. I don’t want to read his book, but I will listen to him on Joe Rogan. The Big Joe Rogan thing for me is the recent appearance by Marc Andreessen.Lauren Goode: Ooh, what’s that like?Michael Calore: It’s like 6 p.m.Lauren Goode: Wow. You’re inside the broligarchy.Zoë Schiffer: I’m listening because you’re talking about it, and I’m like… And it’s appropriate for our conversation today, but damn, is it long?Michael Calore: It is. And this show won’t last 18 hours, but it’s relevant to the topic, because we’re going to talk about DOGE.Lauren Goode: So one more time, the broligarchy.Michael Calore: The broligarchy.Lauren Goode: Come on. it.Michael Calore: This is WIRED’s Uncanny Valley, showing the people, power, and influence of Silicon Valley. I’m Michael Calore, director of consumer technology and culture here at WIRED.Lauren Goode: And I’m Lauren Goode. I’m a senior writer at WIRED.Zoë Schiffer: And I’m Zoë Schiffer, WIRED’s director of business and industry. Michael Calore: Today, we are demystifying DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, meme coin. As Lauren calls it, a broligarchy. We’ll talk about the main players, what the proposed plan is for the US government, and what we think is behind it all. DOGE. Okay. We are talking about DOGE today, and no, not meme coin.Zoë Schiffer: Although meme coin is relevant here, because it is a big joke. That’s why they chose this acronym. So just to give you a little background on what that means, meme coins are a type of cryptocurrency that is based on jokes. It seems almost like making fun of cryptocurrency itself. So Dogecoin is one that Elon Musk has been promoting for a long time. There are others like BONK and FLOKI which I think is named after his dog, Floki, not BONK. They’re kind of crypto, but they’re based on internet jokes.Lauren Goode: Wasn’t there a Lucky Hawk coin recently?Zoë Schiffer: Ew.Michael Calore: There was. Yes.Lauren Goode: Yes. And how?Michael Calore: Not good.Zoë Schiffer: Yes.Michael Calore: Meme coins in general are not good. But it has a second life, because it has now been renamed the Department of Government Efficiency, of which Elon Musk is one of the people in charge.
