The Becoming Sovereign Podcast

In this episode of the Becoming Sovereign podcast, host Brandon Karpeles sits down with Tony Beck and JP Bulow, co-founders of the Santa Fe-based regenerative meat purveyor Beck & Bulow. Tony and JP share their journey from slinging wild-harvested bison steaks out of a cooler at local farmers markets to operating a 120-acre guest ranch, serving hundreds of premier restaurants, and managing the...

In this episode of the Becoming Sovereign podcast, host Brandon Karpeles is joined by Brendan O'Shaughnessy, founder of the Kansas City-based design and branding studio, Ocean & Sea. Brendan shares his lifelong entrepreneurial journey, detailing how he started his first company at 13 and eventually built his current studio, which has accepted Bitcoin for goods and services since 2017. The...

 This week on the Becoming Sovereign podcast, I was unable to record an episode. I am in the middle of the move and was out without internet for a portion of the week. So we decided to put together a clip show of some of our favorite highlights and moments from past episodes over the past year and a half. So please give this a listen. I hope you'll enjoy it, and if you just started listening o...

In this episode of the Becoming Sovereign podcast, host Brandon Karpeles is joined by Rod Palmer, credentialed journalist and co-host of Bugle News . Moving away from strictly evergreen topics, Brandon and Rod capture the cultural and economic zeitgeist of late summer 2026—breaking down the sudden market surge, the aftermath of recent hardware sponsor shocks, and the deepening cracks in global mac...

In this episode of the Becoming Sovereign podcast, host Brandon Karpeles sits down with Captain Remington, the founder of the SatoBoat Project. Captain Remington shares his remarkable journey from working in energy building efficiency in Brussels to quitting his career after a podcast recording, buying a boat, and setting off across the open ocean to spread the Bitcoin ethos. They discuss the evol...

In this episode of the Becoming Sovereign podcast, host Brandon Karpeles is joined by Gwyn Lauber from Canaan Mining. They dive into the rapidly expanding world of home mining and heat reuse, exploring how individuals and businesses are offsetting their heating costs by stacking sats. Gwyn shares stories from the HeatPunks conference and discusses how Canaan's consumer products—like the Avalon...

In this episode of the Becoming Sovereign podcast, host Brandon Karpeles sits down with Tim Niemeyer and Jeff Hilsenbeck, co-founders of the Illinois Bitcoin Council (IBC). Tim and Jeff break down the core pillars of the 501(c)(6) non-profit organization—education, advocacy, and collaboration—and discuss their ongoing efforts to paint the state of Illinois orange despite heavy political friction....

In this unscripted solo episode of the Becoming Sovereign podcast, host Brandon Karpeles breaks from the usual format to share a raw, deeply personal reflection on the chaotic 72 hours surrounding the recent ColdCard hardware wallet vulnerability. What began as a peaceful family evening in Chicago quickly devolved into a high-stakes emergency after a 60-message alert dropped in a developer chat. B...

In this episode of the Becoming Sovereign podcast, host Brandon Karpeles is joined by Staci Castopoulos, host of The Bitcoin Nova podcast and member #1 at the Chicago Bitcoin Collective. Staci shares her experience running Angie's Hair Studio alongside her mom near O'Hare, where they accept Bitcoin directly at point-of-sale using Square terminals to eliminate oppressive 3% credit card proc...

In this episode of the Becoming Sovereign podcast, host Brandon Karpeles sits down with David Bennett, the host of the daily podcast Bitcoin& and an expert in molecular biology and permaculture. David maps out a profound, first-principles exploration of how a systematically corrupt currency functions exactly like a biological virus—infecting and devaluing everything from building architectures...

In this episode of the Becoming Sovereign podcast, host Brandon Karpeles is joined by Eric FJ, the first returning guest and co-founder of Conduit Market. Eric shares a major look into the Open Markets Movement, detailing how a global collective of developer misfits completely threw out their old codebase to deliver an upgraded, NIP-99 compatible alpha ecosystem. They challenge the modern e-commer...

In this episode of the Becoming Sovereign podcast, host Brandon Karpeles sits down with Paul in the Jungle and Director Hodl Matthew, the creators behind the independent documentary Hummingbird , currently streaming on IndieHub. What originally began as a plan to film a quick five-minute hit piece on Costa Rica's local circular economy radically transformed after an offhand comment during an i...

In this episode of the Becoming Sovereign podcast, host Brandon Karpeles sits down with Zack, a veteran filmmaker and the founder of IndeeHub (indeehub.studio). Zack breaks down how his platform leverages cutting-edge Lightning Network infrastructure to build a direct, pay-per-second relationship between creators and audiences. They dive into a deep economic critique of Hollywood's command-and...

In this episode of the newly rebranded Becoming Sovereign podcast, host Brandon Karpeles sits down with Steve Martin, the founder of Bitcoin Beans. Steve tracks his radical lifestyle transformation from working as a corporate accountant in London to living on a functioning permaculture farm in Colombia, exploring what it truly means to apply the principles of proof of work to the food we put into...

In this episode of the Becoming Sovereign podcast, host Brandon Karpeles reconnects with Daniel Prince, host of the Once Bitten podcast and author of Choose Life . They take a deep dive into what it truly means to break away from state-mandated narratives—from abandoning an 18-year career in traditional financial services to separating your children's education from the state through worldscho...

In this episode of the Becoming Sovereign podcast, host Brandon Karpeles sits down with Adam O'Brien, the founder and CEO of Bitcoin Well. They unpack what it truly means to live with a sovereign mindset in 2026, stepping far beyond the transactional mechanics of business to look at the deeply philosophical and spiritual battles underpinning modern society. Adam shares his recent experiences b...

In this episode of the newly rebranded Becoming Sovereign podcast, Brandon Karpeles sits down with Seth, an OG Nostr developer and the creator of Zap. Cooking. They discuss the origins of Zap. Cooking as a simple, ad-free alternative to bloated legacy recipe websites and how Nostr's decentralized protocol enables true value-for-value interactions. They explore the profound importance of home c...

Welcome to the newly rebranded Becoming Sovereign podcast! In this episode, host Brandon Karpeles announces the show's name change to better reflect our mission of helping individuals take true control of their money and their lives. Following the announcement, Brandon sits down with Keith Gardner, founder of Branta. After a career at Bloomberg, Keith realized that while Bitcoin is economically pe...

In this episode, Brandon Karpeles sits down with Brian Hirschfield (also known as Fundamentals), founder of Magic Internet Math, for a deep dive into the philosophy, mathematics, and psychology of Bitcoin. Brian shares why his true mission is building people up rather than just trying to "End the Fed," and how leaving a 30-year career as an actuary taught him the value of trusting the pr...

In this episode, Brandon Karpeles is joined by Foise, the chef behind Fork & Coin and a co-founder of the Chicago Bitcoin Collective. They discuss the journey of building a physical Bitcoin hub in Chicago, taking over a commercial space, and creating a restaurant that bridges the gap between "normie" foodies and hardcore Bitcoiners. They dive into the challenges and triumphs of sourc...

In this episode, Brandon Karpeles sits down with Cedric Youngelman, host of The Bitcoin Matrix podcast, to discuss the philosophical and economic realities of shifting to a Bitcoin standard. Cedric shares his journey from being a corporate accountant trying to outpace inflation to discovering Bitcoin as the ultimate savings technology that can drain the volatility out of your life. They dive deep...

In this episode, Brandon Karpeles sits down with Matt Hill, co-founder of Start9, to discuss the critical transition from centralized cloud computing to sovereign, self-hosted computing. Matt explains why relying on third-party software providers exposes businesses and individuals to privacy invasions, security breaches, and escalating costs. They dive deep into the hardware Start9 is building to...

In this episode, Brandon Karpeles is joined by Mathieu Agee, founder of o21 Solutions and an energy sector veteran with 20 years of experience at companies like ExxonMobil and AWS. They discuss how o21 Solutions provides "Bitcoin strategy as a service" to oil and gas companies, helping them solve immediate operational problems through mining and preparing their corporate treasuries to su...

In this episode, Brandon Karpeles speaks with Mark Smith, Co-Founder and CEO of Carbon Country. After spending over a decade in corporate America navigating the political and business landscape for major brands, Mark stepped off the hamster wheel to build a regenerative farm powered by solar energy and secured by Bitcoin. They discuss the broken incentives of industrial fiat agriculture and how co...

In this episode, Brandon Karpeles sits down with Nostr legend and creative mind Avi Burra, host of Plug Chain Radio and creator of the Finding Home travel show. Avi shares his recent realization that creating artistic and philosophical content exclusively for the hardcore Bitcoin echo chamber might be a massive product-market fit error. They dive deep into the creator economy, the pitfalls of Bitc...