Demystifying the Department of Government Efficiency

Zoë Schiffer: It must have been a long walk.

Lauren Goode: I mean, I heard a lot about jujitsu. 56 minutes of that show was taken up on jujitsu, and then it was also like, “Also, how to live forever.” I don’t know. Yeah.

Michael Calore: I really want to hear that, because I was fascinated when you started talking about it, and Zoë has been talking about him. I don’t want to read his book, but I would listen to him on Joe Rogan. The Big Joe Rogan thing for me was the recent appearance by Marc Andreessen.

Lauren Goode: Ooh, what was that like?

Michael Calore: It was like 18 hours.

Lauren Goode: Wow. You were deep in the broligarchy.

Zoë Schiffer: I listened to it because you were talking about it, and I was like… And it’s relevant for our conversation today, but damn, was it long?

Michael Calore: It is. And this show will not be 18 hours long, but it is relevant to the topic, because we’re going to be talking about DOGE.

Lauren Goode: So once again, the broligarchy.

Michael Calore: The broligarchy.

Lauren Goode: Let’s do it.

Michael Calore: This is WIRED’s Uncanny Valley, a show about the people, power, and influence of Silicon Valley. I’m Michael Calore, director of consumer tech and culture here at WIRED.

Lauren Goode: And I’m Lauren Goode. I’m a senior writer at WIRED.

Zoë Schiffer: And I am Zoë Schiffer, WIRED’s director of business and industry.

Michael Calore: Today, we are demystifying DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, the meme coin. As Lauren calls it, the broligarchy. We’ll talk about the key players, what their proposed plan is for the U.S. government, and what we think is really behind it all. DOGE. Okay. We are talking about DOGE today, and no, not the meme coin.

Zoë Schiffer: Although the meme coin is relevant here, because that is the big joke. That’s why they chose this acronym. So just to give a little background on what that even means, meme coins are a type of cryptocurrency that are based off of a joke. It’s like almost making fun of cryptocurrency itself. So Dogecoin is one that Elon Musk has promoted for a long time now. There are others like BONK and FLOKI that I think are named after his dog, Floki, not BONK. They actually are a type of crypto, but they’re based off of an internet joke.

Lauren Goode: Wasn’t there also a Hawk Tuah coin recently?

Zoë Schiffer: Ew.

Michael Calore: There was. Yes.

Lauren Goode: Yeah. And how did that go?

Michael Calore: Not well.

Zoë Schiffer: Yeah.

Michael Calore: Meme coins generally do not go well. But this one has a second life, because now it’s been rebranded as the Department of Government Efficiency, of which Elon Musk is one of the people in charge.