Hello you,

I’m writing this newsletter from Washington, D.C. where last night I hosted the Portrait of a Nation Gala at the National Portrait Gallery. The event honored Dr. Anthony Fauci, Marian Wright Edelman, Venus Williams, Ava DuVernay, José Andrés, Clive Davis, and Serena Williams with awards and placement of their new portraits in the museum collection for the next year. I always love returning to my hometown of D.C., but this was extra special. I felt like I got to take part in some form of national service and got to hang out with presenters like Hillary Clinton and Alicia Keys. Yeah, humble brag time!

The National Portrait Gallery is part of the Smithsonian and has been expanding the types of pieces it exhibits well beyond past presidents and first ladies, so it was a real honor to play a role in this. As I’ve been walking around D.C., I visited a great exhibit at the M.L.K. branch of the D.C. Public Library focused on the city’s history and the...

Can’t see the full story? You're receiving the free version of this newsletter at . For full access to Puck, and to each of my colleagues, you can subscribe here.

Musk Fast and S.B.F. Things

A mantra of an age, as emblemized by the Zuckerberg generation of Silicon Valley megastars, meets its fitting conclusion with extraordinary speed in a week.

BARATUNDE THURSTON

By now you’ve likely heard about the stunning collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange, FTX, and its associated high-risk trading company, Alameda Research. I won’t attempt to fully summarize how FTX went from being worth some $32 billion to declaring bankruptcy, practically overnight. But at its core, the story is this: S.B.F., as he’s known, and the byzantine web of companies that comprised his crypto empire, hid things from investors. He reportedly lent billions of dollars linked to depositor funds from FTX to Alameda; took outsize risks with other people’s money; experienced a liquidity crunch and then a modern-day bank run when a rival crypto king, Binance’s Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, tipped the first domino by dumping his FTX tokens. 

In the end, it appears S.B.F. has lost everything. His reputation, of course, is toast. His personal wealth has all but evaporated. FTX investors, employees, customers, portfolio companies, grantees—all will now have to fight for pennies on the dollar in bankruptcy court, if there’s anything left to fight over. Since declaring bankruptcy, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of funds have...

FOUR STORIES WE'RE TALKING ABOUT

The S.B.F Pandemic

Notes on the implosion of crypto exchange FTX and founder S.B.F.  

TEDDY SCHLEIFER

Hollywood’s M.A.D.

The streaming arms race has set up a studios vs. writers showdown. 

MATTHEW BELLONI

Russia’s It Girl

The curious case of Ksenia Sobchak illustrates a profound truth about modern Russia.

JULIA IOFFE

Licht’s Debate Prep

Notes on the mood inside of a CNN under construction. 

DYLAN BYERS