The network state moment
About this episode
The episode discusses the concept of network states and their influence on American politics, featuring guest Sam Venis.
CUJO is a podcast about culture in the age of platforms. Episodes drop every other week, but if you want the full experience, we recommend signing up for a paid subscription. Paid subscribers also get access to our CUJOPLEX Discord and The Weather Report , a monthly episode series where we take stock of where the cultural winds are blowing and tell you what’s rained into our brains. Hey guys. Following our 2026 predictions episode (thanks to everyone for all the love), we’re back to our regularly scheduled programming. And speaking of things we think everybody should be paying attention to this year, today we’re talking about network states . Popularized by Twitter-famous VC philosopher and former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan , the network state is basically what happens when a bunch of crypto bros and entrepreneurs pool their money, buy land, negotiate regulatory exceptions, and attempt to start a new nation-state around an ideology or practice, like life-extension research or the keto diet. Until recently, network states felt like a fringe libertarian concern—a kind of 2020s remix of seasteading , super-charged by crypto and AI tooling. But especially since finding a…
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