Ep. 49: Michelle Weekley - Whistleblowing on Corruption

My guest today is Michelle Weekley, a courageous woman, free speech advocate and global corruption whistleblower. Michelle is the Director of Product Development at Byte Federal, one of the first bitcoin ATM companies. Previously she spent 10+ years working with tech startups in the “startup mafia” and two years in Dubai and China working in Foreign Direct Investment.  In this episode we explore whether Data is the new oil, and how deep does global and government corruption go. We visit the intersection of politics and Bitcoin and the challenges of Bitcoin regulation. Michelle explains what’s foreign direct investment & shares her experience from working and living overseas. We discuss the impact of Covid on societal awareness, and the role of Bitcoin as a potential path to reclaiming freedom.  ► If you got value, please like, comment, share, subscribe and support my work. Thank you! -- SPONSORS -- ►► Get your TREZOR wallet & accessories, with a 5% discount, using my code at checkout (get my discount code from the episode - yep, you’ll have to watch it): https://affil.trezor.io/SHUn   ►► Join me in any of these upcoming events:https://www.efrat.blog/p/upcoming-events  Nov. 2024 - Adopting Bitcoin, El Salvador (code EFRAT for 10% off) May 2025 - Bitcoin Vegas (prev. Nashville) (code EFRAT for 10% off) June 2025 - BTC Prague (code EFRAT for 10% off) -- LINKS -- Michelle’s Twitter: https://x.com/michelleweekley  Efrat's Twitter: https://twitter.com/efenigson Efrat's Telegram: https://t.me/efenigson Watch/listen on all platforms: https://linktr.ee/yourethevoice Support Efrat's work: ⁠https://www.buymeacoffee.com/efenigson⁠ Support Efrat with Bitcoin: https://geyser.fund/project/efenigson -- CHAPTERS -- 00:00 Coming Up... 02:30 Intro & Background 03:15 Background in Foreign Direct Investment and Corruption 04:13 Data Commodification and Manipulation 07:31 Self Custody with Trezor (Ad) 08:03 Michelle At The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) 16:27 China's Ghost Cities, Smart Cities & 15-minute Cities 23:14 Michelle's Journey Into Bitcoin 25:40 Covid As a Wake Up Call 27:55 Challenging Beliefs and Defining Freedom 32:17 Working At Byte Federal & Bitcoin Regulatory Challenges 36:35 Bitcoin & Politics 44:00 Defending Non-KYC Bitcoin & Preserving Privacy 49:09 Promoting Freedom & In-Person Communities