Episode 23: NFTs — The Hype, The Crash & What They Actually Are

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Show Notes:

In this episode, Zahra tackles something that made her feel genuinely stupid years ago — NFTs. During COVID, everyone became a cryptocurrency expert overnight. Workshops everywhere. Acronyms flying. And Zahra, reading "non-fungible token" for the first time, thought it was a fungus company developing biological weapons or psychedelic drugs for medical research.

Years later, she's ready to admit she had no idea what was happening — and this time, she's doing the research properly. From Beeple's $69 million JPEG sold at Christie's to the metaverse hype to her own NFT purchases (gold on the Loggy platform), Zahra breaks down what NFTs actually are, why the market exploded in 2021, and why it crashed so spectacularly afterward.

Meanwhile, Sami teases next week's episode on Abstract Expressionism — the movement he never thought he'd care about until Instagram showed him Mark Rothko's rectangles and he thought "I could do that." Spoiler: he couldn't. And the story behind why is wild.

Highlights:

• Why Zahra thought NFTs were fungus during COVID
• The 2021 hype: when everyone became a crypto expert
• What "non-fungible token" actually means (blockchain, unique digital assets, metadata)
• Beeple's $69 million Christie's sale — the moment NFTs hit mainstream
• The metaverse connection and why digital ownership mattered
• Zahra's own NFT purchases: gold on Loggy platform
• The crash: why the NFT market collapsed
• Current state: dead or just dormant?
• NFTs vs traditional art: same rules apply (artist credibility, scarcity, demand)
• Sami's teaser: Abstract Expressionism, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, the CIA, and why people cry looking at color fields