Zoë Schiffer: It must have been a long walk.
Lauren Goode: I mean, I’ve heard a lot about jujitsu. 56 minutes of this performance were devoted to jujitsu, and then the question was asked: “And how to live forever.” I don’t know. Yes.
Michael Calore: I really want to hear it because I was fascinated when you started talking about it and Zoë was talking about it. I don’t want to read his book, but I would listen to him performed by Joe Rogan. For me, the greatest Joe Rogan was the recent performance of Marc Andreessen.
Lauren Goode: Oh, how was that?
Michael Calore: It was about 18 hours.
Lauren Goode: Wow. You were deep in the broligarchy.
Zoë Schiffer: I was listening to this because you were talking about it, and I thought… And this is relevant to our conversation today, but damn, was that long?
Michael Calore: This is. And this program will not last 18 hours, but it is relevant to the topic because we will be talking about DOGE.
Lauren Goode: So, broligarchy once again.
Michael Calore: Broligarchy.
Lauren Goode: Let’s do it.
Michael Calore: This is WIRED’s Uncanny Valley, a show about the people, power and influence of Silicon Valley. My name is Michael Calore and I am the Director of Consumer Technology and Culture at WIRED.
Lauren Goode: And I’m Lauren Goode. I’m a senior writer at WIRED.
Zoë Schiffer: I’m Zoë Schiffer, WIRED’s director of business and industry.
Michael Calore: Today we are debunking DOGE, the Department of Government Effectiveness, the meme coin. As Lauren calls it, broligarchy. We’ll talk about the key players, what their plan is for the U.S. government, and what we think is really behind it all. DOSE. OK. Today we are talking about DOGE and no, not a meme coin.
Zoë Schiffer: Although the meme coin is essential here because it’s a massive joke. That’s why they chose this acronym. To give you a little background on what this even means, meme coins are a type of prank-based cryptocurrency. It’s 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 believe were named after his dog Floki, not BONK. They are actually a type of cryptocurrency, but they are based on an internet joke.
Lauren Goode: Wasn’t there also a Hawk Tuah coin recently?
Zoë Schiffer: Hey.
Michael Calore: Was. Yes.
Lauren Goode: Yes. And how did it go?
Michael Calore: Not good.
Zoë Schiffer: Yes.
Michael Calore: Meme coins are generally not good. But it got a second life because it has now changed its name to the Department of Government Effectiveness, one of the people responsible for which is Elon Musk.