The 2021 Bestie Awards PLUS Jack Dorsey starts the Web3 Wars

The episode opens as the hosts' 2021 year-end show, a follow-up to the prior year's "Bestie Awards" for the best and worst of the year. One host notes they are nine episodes away from episode 69 and jokes about lining up a special guest for that or for episode 420, with the banter settling on a guest they will not name here.

The group turns to whether they could get Jack on the show, and a host is teased for repeatedly "dunking on Jack" to the point of allegedly alienating potential guests. The joke extends to pairing Jack with Chris Dixon, described as a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz who runs their crypto fund, for which another host mock-objects. The exchange references Jack having left his CEO role at Twitter, framed humorously rather than reported as news.

The substance under the jokes is a Web3 dispute: a host says Chris Dixon posted something on Web3 and Jack reacted sharply, and the same with a figure the transcript renders as "Bellji." One host says he would like to hear Jack's views on Web3 and the democratization of access to finance without badgering him about censorship. Sacks counters that his single question would be why Jack, who praises Bitcoin for its censorship resistance, did not "stand tall" against censorship while running Twitter. Others push back that Jack need not answer to critics and cite board dynamics, lawsuits and the Capitol riot context. These are the hosts' own characterizations.

After a comic red-carpet framing, the awards begin with Biggest Winner in Politics. Sacks picks Eric Adams, the new mayor of New York City, describing him as a huge underdog and a former cop who still carries a gun. Sacks credits the win to Adams rejecting what he calls the "woke" sensibilities of other Democratic candidates and running on supporting the police, public safety and charter schools, and says Adams pushed to make the city friendlier to tech and crypto. The claim that Adams carried four or five boroughs and black and Latino precincts in the primary is Sacks's own.

Friedberg offers a more abstract pick: the blockchain. He argues that embracing it as a technology enabling a move away from centralized control systems aligns with a populist current he sees sweeping the United States, and that it is waking up politicians to a way of organizing social, economic and political action that could eventually pull society away from today's systems. He frames it as a serious threat to the current political and economic order. The source breaks off here.

Friedberg finishes his blockchain pick, arguing it has created a new model for human organization that is waking up the political class. Chamath then names Glenn Youngkin, the governor of Virginia, calling him a former private equity executive who had to distance himself from Trump while still courting his support, and who ran a centrist, pro-education, anti-crime, pro-business campaign to beat Terry McAuliffe in a state that had not swung that way in a while. Chamath presents this as a roadmap for candidates of either party to capture a silent majority tired of fringe behavior on both sides.

The host moderating picks Joe Manchin, calling him a kind of shadow president who dictated what could pass and helped cut the Build Back Better package from a much larger figure down to roughly $1.5 trillion if it passes at all. Asked whether Manchin is a rising or falling star after denouncing the bill, Sacks notes West Virginia went for Trump by about 20 points, so Manchin is an anomaly as a Democrat surviving there, and Democrats should be grateful he votes with them at all. These vote counts and margins are the hosts' own.

A host compares Manchin to a John McCain-style maverick blowing things up and drawing attention. Sacks embraces the analogy, likening Manchin to McCain's decisive vote against Obamacare repeal, and argues Manchin may be doing the Democrats a favor because, in his view, the country cannot afford all the new spending. That affordability claim is Sacks's opinion.

For Biggest Loser, one host picks Elizabeth Warren, arguing her goals of taxing billionaires have in effect been achieved by others: he cites a tweet from Elon claiming the largest-ever US tax bill of $11 billion, and says Amazon now pays wages in the twenties and offers free college, things he says Warren and Bernie Sanders never accomplished. He frames her far-left politics as fading in importance. The $11 billion figure and the wage and benefit claims are repeated from the host and are unverified.

Another host broadens the pick to "the progressive left and the alt right," arguing both extremes have been exposed as lacking substance: progressive policies tried in some cities and states and far-right politics at the federal level both failed in his telling, leaving a wave of normalcy. He says fringe voices get outsized attention for being salacious but cannot actually govern.

Sacks picks Vice President Kamala Harris, citing a 28% approval rating and polls showing her lagging Biden by about 10 points, and says no vice president has polled this poorly since Dan Quayle. He argues the public is tired of being lectured about "woke sins" and that a forced laugh will not reassure people who feel accused. A host recalls that Jason predicted last year that Harris would become the first female US president, a prediction tied to doubts about whether Biden would finish his term; they defer revisiting it to a prediction show. The approval and polling figures are Sacks's own.

Friedberg adds Tony Fauci, arguing he was trapped by determinism: to drive action he had to promise that getting vaccinated would end the pandemic, and when that framing proved too binary and the virus evolved, he lost credibility with people who might otherwise have stood behind him. Friedberg says he still regards Fauci as an honest, forthright scientist who had a rough year. This is Friedberg's interpretation.