21 in 21

Mic Neale, a member of the Spiral team at Block and a core developer of goose, an open source AI agent, joins Haley Berkoe on 21 in 21 to discuss goose, Mesh LLM, and open source AI. Mic shares how goose has evolved from a desktop app and CLI into the goose Development Kit (GDK), making it easier for developers to build AI applications. He also explains how Mesh LLM pools idle compute across devices, why local models and peer-to-peer infrastructure matter, and where he sees the overlap between bitcoin and open source AI. As a longtime open source contributor, Mic closes with advice for anyone looking to get involved in open source projects.

FOLLOW:

x.com/michaelneale

x.com/HBerkoe

LINKS

goose-docs.ai

meshllm.cloud

spiral.xyz

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro & welcome

1:00 Mic's background

3:35 What makes the open-source AI community different?

5:02 What is goose?

6:55 Running AI models locally with goose

8:02 Why goose was designed differently from other AI agents

10:15 Mesh LLM and sharing unused compute across devices

13:20 Could you earn money by contributing inference?

17:05 Joining Spiral and the connection to bitcoin

19:11 The overlap between open-source AI and bitcoin

20:00 Career advice for aspiring open-source developers

22:00 Why open source still matters in the AI era

23:22 Where to find Mic online

Patrick Ball, Director of Research at the Human Rights Data Analysis Group, joins Haley Berkoe on 21 in 21 to discuss how data, bitcoin, and AI can help defend human rights. Patrick explains how his team uses statistics to document mass violence, how bitcoin can help protect the integrity of human rights evidence, and why nonprofits need decentralized tools and local AI to stay resilient.

hrdag.org

On this episode of 21 in 21, Calle discusses his work on Cashu, Bitchat, and Clawi. He explores how AI agents could use bitcoin-native payments and why privacy-preserving infrastructure matters in an increasingly agentic internet. Calle also reflects on his journey down the bitcoin rabbit hole, from early work on Lightning infrastructure to building eCash systems, and shares his perspective on the evolution of AI agents.

https://x.com/callebtc

https://clawi.ai/

https://bitchat.free/

https://cashu.space/

Linn Bieske, Co-Lead of the AI & Technology Track at the MIT Club of Northern California (CNC), AI Product Manager, and Co-Founder of Hack-Nation, joins Haley Berkoe on 21 in 21. They discuss the upcoming Hack-Nation event on April 25 and Spiral’s sponsored challenge exploring what becomes possible when AI agents can earn using the Lightning Network. Linn also shares her perspective on what motivates today’s AI builders, how to design experiences that lead to something more lasting than a 24-hour sprint, and why community and collaboration matter so much.

Apply by April 19 to join the upcoming hackathon, or follow along for the next one.

https://hack-nation.ai/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/linn-bieske-189b9b138/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/hack-nation/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/haleyberkoe/

https://spiral.xyz/

Rainey Reitman joins 21 in 21 for a conversation on financial censorship, free speech, and her new book, Transaction Denied: Big Finance’s Power to Punish Speech. Rainey co-founded Freedom of the Press Foundation and serves on the board as president. She also spent 11 years at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, first as Activism Director and later as Chief Program Officer.

Drawing on years of work in civil liberties advocacy, Rainey explains how lawful speech can still lead to frozen accounts, denied payments, and exclusion from the financial system. She also shares how these issues connect to journalism, whistleblowers, privacy, and Bitcoin’s promise, and limits, as a censorship-resistant tool.

Links to Book:

Amazon: https://a.co/d/04WK0Qek

Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/lists/transaction-denied-big-finance-s-power-to-punish-speech

Audio: https://www.audible.com/pd/Transaction-Denied-Audiobook/B0FJZRQXXR?source_code=AUDORWS0718179KY7

A portion of every book sale goes to support Freedom of the Press Foundation.

“In her timely and necessary book, Reitman illuminates the shocking and widespread censorship exerted by the American banking system, details how Orwellian financial surveillance and control has become the norm, and makes a powerful case for why we must push for change if we want to preserve freedom and privacy in the 21st century.”

— Alex Gladstein, Chief Strategy Officer, Human Rights Foundation

Follow:

https://x.com/RaineyReitman

https://x.com/FreedomofPress