Episode 140: The Basics of Bitcoin with John Bush of Live Free Academy
The Paradocs Podcast with Eric Larson
Release Date: 08/05/2021
Episode 154: Rethinking Vaccine Mandates and the Omicron Variant with Dr. Monica Gandhi
The Paradocs Podcast with Eric Larson
Vaccine mandates, mask mandates, boosters, and variants have been a constant source of debate and controversy with the pandemic. My guest today is Dr. Monica Gandhi, an expert in immunology and infectious disease who runs the HIV clinic at UCSF. She has been a fairly prominent voice in support of the mask and vaccine mandates in her home state of California and city of San Francisco. She returns from her visit in June for SARS-CoV-2 in which she guessed that it wouldn't evade the vaccine or prior infection (spoiler alert: she was right). Do Vaccine Mandates Make Sense? Dr. Gandhi is...
info_outline
Episode 153: Crowd Health is Go Fund Me for Health Care on Nitro with CEO Andy Schoonover
The Paradocs Podcast with Eric Larson
What happens when you take Go Fund Me and put it into an ecosystem of likeminded folks who want to build a community to care for each other's health care expenses? You get which draws upon some of the concepts of crowd funding for one time health care expenses within its community. By taking people from all over the country and putting them into a community where there are expectations of caring for others, Crowd Health offers a solution to paying for health care expenses without breaking the bank. Is Crowd Health Insurance? If you've been paying attention to the US health care...
info_outline
Episode 152: The COVID Drawdown
The Paradocs Podcast with Eric Larson
Today we are going to discuss the COVID drawdown. Essentially, this is what must inevitably happen for us to return to lives of normalcy where we have typical interactions with others at family gatherings, sporting events, concerts, and business meetings. Unless we are prepared to radically change the way we live our lives and choose isolation (which probably has far greater physical and mental health detriments) then we have to consider how the drawdown occurs and what conditions ned to be present for it to happen. What HaS TO HAPPEN FOR THE DRAWDOWN TO OCCUR? We've talked to...
info_outline
Episode 151: Health Care for Those Who Don't Earn High Wages with Dr. David Berg
The Paradocs Podcast with Eric Larson
One of the scariest times for many workers is being presented with a bill for medical services. Even if they have insurance "coverage", the deductible or co-pay might be more than they can afford. For hourly workers in entry level jobs or low skilled positions, medical bankruptcy is a real fear. While barely making ends meet an additional bill for an ER visit or doctor's office stop can send you to collections and destroy your credit. Unfortunately, a lot of Americans are in this exact spot as they earn a living working these low paying jobs but have little medical security even if...
info_outline
Episode 150: Make Sure Your Health Insurance Broker is Working for You and not the Insurance Company with David Contorno.
The Paradocs Podcast with Eric Larson
When you run a business, one person you usually meet and hire is a health insurance broker. In theory, these brokers work with the employers to secure the best deals for health insurance to meet the company's health care objectives. However, in practice, the brokers serve as a sales force for the insurance companies who lavish them with bonuses, trips, and gifts. The seedy underbelly of the health insurance broker industry is that they are really not working to save money or get deals for their clients - the checks are written by the insurance carriers and that's who they answer to. Who do...
info_outline
Episode 149: Is Asymptomatic Spread of SARS-CoV-2 a Thing? with Daniel Halperin, PhD
The Paradocs Podcast with Eric Larson
Not only has the COVID pandemic politicized our country - it has led to a lot of misinformation and a shutdown of communication. For instance, is there really asymptomatic spread of COVID? Or just pre-symptomatic and symptomatic spread? That might seem like splitting hairs but it can have a profound effect on policy for quarantining and testing. We've talked about this before on the show as well as general discussions on COVID policy which can be found , , and . 12 Myths and 12 Facts About COVID-19 If there is one certainty during this confusing pandemic it is that there are plenty of...
info_outline
Episode 148: Urgent Care as Primary Care with Dr. Juliet Breeze of Next Level Medical
The Paradocs Podcast with Eric Larson
There are a lot of urgent care clinics all over the country. But few of them, to my knowledge, also operate as regular primary care clinics. But that is exactly what is happening today in the Houston, Texas area with the emergence of Next Level Medical. If you think about it, it makes perfect sense to leverage all the facilities needed for a primary care clinic - exam rooms, physicians, etc. and use it to deliver regular and sometimes non-urgent care. We've discussed before that lower the cost of care with transparency so this seems like the next logical step with urgent care. We...
info_outline
Episode 147: Has the Pandemic Led to Infants Losing IQ? - with Sean Deoni, PhD
The Paradocs Podcast with Eric Larson
The COVID pandemic has brought on all sorts of changes to the way we live our lives. From wearing masks, working from home, stay at home orders, and restrictions on social interactions, the virus has caused untold disruption to the way our society functions. Although the changes COVID has brought to our schools and the lives of our school age children, it is perhaps less appreciated what changes have occurred for our infants. It is a well known fact that our environment and meaningful stimulation is necessary for normal intelligence and brain development. Infants are completely...
info_outline
Episode 146: Explaining COVID in 11 Minutes with Dr. Eric Larson
The Paradocs Podcast with Eric Larson
Imagine yourself in California at a clearing in a large forest. And it’s on fire. There are three groups of people standing before you. A large group is screaming and running around pointing at the fire. They’re yelling that we need to do something, anything we can to stop the fire. Meanwhile, there is another group (not as large) with their backs to the fire. They are mocking and ridiculing the group running around panicking. They tell them to calm down and to stop ordering people around. They insist there isn’t anything wrong at all. Of course, the largest group of people are...
info_outline
Episode 145: Surgery without Insurance with Dr. Keith Smith
The Paradocs Podcast with Eric Larson
A lot has happened since we last met with Dr. Keith Smith from the back in 2018. . We also spoke about how the system was rigged to enrich the hospital systems, insurance carriers, and PBMs (what's new right?). So what's happened since then and how has the center done with the pandemic? Is the Surgery Center of Oklahoma Thriving or Just Surviving? Not surprisingly, Dr. Smith says that the center is doing just fine and has increased its market share from other states. Additionally, the international community from Canada is now being allowed to come back into the US for their...
info_outlineBitcoin was invented in 2008 by a pseudonymous programmer (or group of programmers) called Satoshi Nakamoto. It is a currency issued in a decentralized fashion using a complex mathematical equation on a block chain. Bitcoin then launched in 2009 and was adopted by very few people but it held out a promise to usher in a new way we can look at money and preserving value of our time and labor without a central bank debasing it. Bitcoin has since gone from a value of well under one penny to about $40,000 per coin in 12 years.
What's a Cryptocurrency?
My guest today is John Bush, a cryptocurrency advocate and owner of the consulting/teaching institute Live Free Academy. He has been an advocate of bitcoin since 2013 where he gained some prominence attempting to travel around the country with his family using only bitcoins to buy what they needed. Since, he has been a podcaster and teacher for those who want to use bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to improve their lives.
He says all cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin, are basically computer programs that either require computers to solve complicated mathematical equations to verify all the transactions of the block. For their reward, these computers (or miners) are rewarded with newly minted coins. Likewise, with millions of computers attempting to solve this equation, there are a lot of computers that are verifying that all the transactions on the chain were legitimate and the integrity of the chain is preserved.
What's a block Chain?
The block chain is maybe best thought of as a sheet of paper that has every transaction of every coin on it. And with each new creation of a block, the transactions are updated, new coins are added as rewards, and all the decentralized nodes work to verify and agree with the transactions that are on the block. Then a new block is added to the previous as the process is continued forever.
One can see the utility of this technology not only in verifying that the funds used to buy something were real and in someone's possession but also in other contracts or information. I spoke to Dr. Huston way back in episode 018 where she described her plan on using block chains to protect the integrity of physicians' credentials. This means they would control the information and not some health system and would keep it far more secure. You could also use the block chains for other personal information like your health which is what my guest, Brendan Hodge, in episode 014 proposed with Citizen Health.
How Do You Get Started iN Cryptocurrency?
As with everything, getting started is the hardest part of process. Buying, trading, and investing take a little experimentation. But if you have any technological saavy, it isn't too hard to figure out. You merely have to decide what cryptocurrency to buy (there are 8 thousand choices and counting) and then whether or not you want to be in charge of the coin itself or have someone else hold it for you. The exchanges will hold the key to the coins you purchase and allow you to take possession, hold them in their vault, or trade them with other currencies.
Most of the exchanges like Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, or others allow you to convert your fiat (US Dollars) and purchase the new currencies for a fee using either your bank account or credit card. Trading and exchanging always cost some fee which varies depending on the types of coins being purchased and exchanged anywhere from a few dollars to fractions of a penny.
Why Should You Purchase Cryptocurrency?
The big question, is why buy this currency which seems to have so much volatility? John Bush thinks it is wise to be invested in crypto for a couple of reasons:
- Our fiat dollars/euros/yuan are being continually inflated away to lose their value. Many cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin, are very limited in their creation and can hold their value over time much better.
- The world is moving more and more to online and digital currencies will be more commonplace.
- There are a lot of other uses like decentralized finance (which we will discuss in episode 141) which are available if you have cryptocurrency to use as collateral.
- It is a way for the unbanked to have access to capital in many parts of the world opening paths to financial freedom.
John Bush is the lead instructor and owner of Live Free Academy where he teaches the basics of cryptocurrency. John also works with clients to help them grow their portfolios using advanced trading techniques.
show notes
Episode 140: Today's show
Live Free Academy: John Bush's learning institute where you can go for classes, one on one instructions, and much more.
Live Free Now Podcast: Hosted by John Bush
Cryptocurrency fo Beginners Seminar: This is the signup page for his upcoming seminar.
Advice Media: Today's sponsor who will help your practice in its online presence.
Doctor Podcast Network: The home for the Paradocs and a number of other physician based podcasts.
Made Simply Web Site Creations: This is the great, affordable website service that built my wife's podcast site. I cannot recommend this company more to someone looking for creating a website.
Always Andy's Mom: Home of my wife, Marcy's, podcast for parents grieving or those looking to help them.
YouTube for Paradocs: Here you can watch the video of my late son singing his solo on the Paradocs YouTube page.
Patreon - Become a show supporter today and visit my Patreon page for extra bonus material. Every dollar raised goes towards the production and promotion of the show.
