Good evening from San Francisco.

Today, we’ve got a double-barreled edition of The Stratosphere—which a friend or a colleague can sign up for here, as always.

First, a smorgasbord of reporting on the latest moves in politics, media and crypto from Sam Bankman-Fried, the omnipresent—if not quite omnipotent—mogul.

Then, below the fold, stick around for an exclusive interview with Nicole Shanahan, the philanthropist and donor who, until recently, was married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin. Nicole is someone I have long wanted to feature in these digital pages, and she’s going to be a person of influence going forward. It’s worth the subscription.

On the political front, however, S.B.F. keeps racking up blaring defeats. First, there was the record $12 million that he spent trying to elect Carrick Flynn, a political neophyte congressional candidate who got creamed in Oregon. Then, in a less-noticed but equally seismic political whiff, S.B.F. and his team spent another $12 million or so that, for now, just disappeared into the electoral ether. On Friday, it became clear that a California ballot initiative supported by S.B.F.’s lobbying group, Guarding Against Pandemics, wouldn’t qualify for the 2022 ballot, despite over $21 million in campaign money behind the effort, including about $9 million from Open Phil, the Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz’s philanthropy...