The Check Engine Light and the Space Shuttle
From the Challenger space shuttle tragedy to the biggest Ponzi scheme in history, it’s often all too easy to ignore the obvious.
ABOUT
This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io.
The most shocking and surprising tragedies of the modern era were actually the predictable consequences of obviously bad decisions. There are far fewer surprises and unforeseen twists than we would like to believe, and most disasters stem from known issues and small, obviously terrible choices.
Credits
This episode was written by George Ettinger with editorial assistance by Adam B. Levine and Adrian Blust. The music is by Jared Rubens and Gurty Beats. Album art for the episode uses an image by Jean-Philippe Delberghe on Unsplash, while the front page artwork is in the public domain.
HOST
Adam B. Levine joined CoinDesk in 2019 as the editor of its new audio and podcasts division. Previously, Adam founded the long-running Let's Talk Bitcoin! talk show with co-hosts Stephanie Murphy and Andreas M. Antonopoulos.
Finding early success with the show, Adam transformed the podcast's homepage into a full newsdesk and publishing platform, founding the LTB Network in January of 2014 to help broaden the conversation with new and different perspectives. In the Spring of that year, he would go on to launch the first and largest tokenized rewards program for creators and their audience. In what many have called an early influential version of "Steemit"; LTBCOIN, which was awarded to both content creators and members of the audience for participation was distributed until the LTBN was acquired by BTC, Inc. in January of 2017.
With the network launched and growing, in late 2014 Adam turned his attention to the practical challenges of administering the tokenized program and founded Tokenly, Inc. There, he led the development of early tokenized vending machines with Swapbot, tokenized identity solution Tokenpass, e-commerce with TokenMarkets.com and media with Token.fm. Adam owns some BTC, ETH and small positions in a number of other tokens.

EPISODES
The Blockspace Pod: Inside the $220M Bitcoin Infrastructure SPAC w/ Ryan Gentry
Ryan Gentry, CEO of Bitcoin Infrastructure Acquisition Corp, discusses his $220M IPO, the "aerospace mafia" thesis, a...
56 minutes ago
THE MINING POD: ERCOT’s 266 GW Surge, IREN’s $2.3B Raise, GPUs > ASICs, Whatsminer M70
This week in bitcoin mining news, ERCOT sees a 266 GW of interconnection requests in 2026, IREN closed a $2.3 billion...
Dec 12, 2025
Zcash Founder Zooko Wilcox: Surveillance Is a "Dangerous Experiment"
Zcash Founder Zooko Wilcox on Why Privacy is Actually the Historical Norm.
Dec 11, 2025
Inside the CFTC's Digital Asset Pilot Program with Acting Chairman Caroline Pham
Announcing the CFTC's Digital Assets Pilot Program with Acting Chairman Caroline Pham.
Dec 11, 2025

The Mining Pod
Feb 10, 2025

CoinDesk Podcast Network
The top stories and best shows in the blockchain world, delivered daily from the team at CoinDesk.
Dec 20, 2023

Markets Outlook
Tune in as CoinDesk runs down action in the crypto market and some of the most important recent industry development.
Dec 19, 2023

Unchained
Unchained, your no hype resource for all things crypto by former Forbes senior editor Laura Shin, author of The Cryptopians.
Dec 18, 2023
