In Episode 11, Christopher Smith sits down with creator and strategist Sujal Lethwani to unpack how he built a 200,000-follower personal brand and a network reaching over 4 million people — all beginning as a 15-year-old posting motivational content from his bedroom.

Sujal shares the mindset, systems, failures, bans, rebuilds, and algorithmic insights that shaped his rise on Instagram, as well as the deeper story of going from a self-described "loser" in school to a leader with global reach.

This episode explores his journey through content creation, Network School, mentorship, decentralization, and the psychology behind building a long-term personal brand in the age of platform risk.

A fast-paced and inspiring conversation for creators, builders, and anyone trying to understand how attention actually works online.

Follow Sujal:
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/sujal.jethwani

Follow Quantus:
X (Twitter) – https://x.com/QuantusNetwork

Quantus Network Community – https://t.me/quantusnetwork
Tech Support – https://t.me/quantustechsupport
Announcements – https://t.me/quantusannouncements

⏱ Chapters

(00:00) Opening Story & Sujal's Early Motivation
(00:04) Meeting Sujal & His First Instagram Experiments
(00:09) Balaji, Network School & Moving to Dubai
(00:14) From 15-Year-Old "Loser" to Building a Community
(00:18) Global Markets: US/UK Demand, Bans & Platform Limits
(00:23) Hacks, Recoveries & Reinventing Your Brand
(00:28) Platform Dynamics: YouTube, Instagram & Permissions
(00:32) Decentralization, Nostr & Who Owns Your Followers
(00:37) Governance, Network Effects & Metcalfe's Law
(00:41) The Three-Part Framework: Foundation, Exploration, Transformation
(00:46) Culture, Diwali, Personal Philosophy & What Comes Next

From The Quantus Podcast – Network School Series (Oct 2025)

🎥 The Quantus Podcast — Network School Series (Sept 2025)
Network School brings together remote workers, digital nomads, creators, personal trainers, self-improvers, event organizers, and engineers — all collaborating to build themselves up while building the next generation of startup societies. Founded by Balaji Srinivasan — https://x.com/balajis

📍 Recorded Sept 2025 in the Quantus popup studio at Network School, Forest City.

In this episode of The Quantum Podcast, Christopher Smith sits down with Jake Explains — a creator whose path is anything but ordinary. Jake went from becoming the #3 RuneScape player in the world, mastering systems and optimization at an early age, to building a career in optical engineering, teaching astronomy, and finally becoming one of the fastest-growing creators in global education and geopolitics.

Jake describes how years of obsessive gameplay developed the ability to model systems, analyze incentives, and think strategically — the same mental tools he now uses to engineer viral content. He discusses the transition from aerospace and optical engineering into media, and how mastering hooks, pacing, curiosity loops, and storytelling structure turned his short-form videos into a global learning channel.

The conversation expands into quantum computing platforms — from photonic systems to NMR and topological qubits — along with the fundamentals of laser technology and the intersections between physics, engineering, and future cryptography. Jake also explores the psychology of human attention, why 99% of people interact with your brand for under a second, why he moved from space content to geopolitics, and what he's learned from building intentional communities around the world.

They dive deep into the American diet crisis, Jake's move to Asia, how environment rewires health, and why real-life community is critical for mental wellbeing in an age of digital overstimulation. The episode ties together systems thinking, global trends, technical depth, and the art of storytelling — through the lens of someone who has mastered multiple domains.

Follow Jake

YouTube: @JakeExplains
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jake_explains?igsh=bmQwNXNqcmN5a3du

Follow Quantus

X (Twitter): https://x.com/QuantusNetwork

Telegram:
Quantus Network Community — https://t.me/quantusnetwork
Tech Support — https://t.me/quantustechsupport
Announcements — https://t.me/quantusannouncements

Chapters

00:00 — RuneScape mastery & learning to think in systems
02:00 — From engineering to content creation
04:00 — How virality works & why attention is everything
06:00 — The shift from space content to geopolitics
08:00 — What five-hour production workflows taught him
12:00 — Lasers, optical engineering & the physics behind his career
16:00 — Quantum computing platforms explained
20:00 — The American diet crisis & moving to Asia
24:00 — Community living, mental health & the digital age
28:00 — The future of encryption & quantum-era security

From The Quantus Podcast – Network School Series (Oct 2025)

🎥 The Quantus Podcast — Network School Series (Sept 2025)
Network School brings together remote workers, digital nomads, creators, personal trainers, self-improvers, event organizers, and engineers — all collaborating to build themselves up while building the next generation of startup societies. Founded by Balaji Srinivasan — https://x.com/balajis

📍 Recorded Sept 2025 in the Quantus popup studio at Network School, Forest City.

In this episode of The Quantum Podcast, Christopher Smith and Joe Mattia sit down with Sara in WonderTech for a deeply curious conversation about AI, psychedelics, childhood development, self-awareness, cybernetics, and the ways the human mind learns, adapts, and transforms.

Sara brings insight from her background in machine learning, consciousness exploration, meditation, psychology, and Internal Family Systems (IFS), blending scientific thinking with personal experience in a way that feels both grounded and adventurous.

The discussion moves through how AI relates to human intelligence, how psychedelics can act as tools for introspection, and how meditation, confusion tolerance, and embodied awareness shape the way we learn. They explore childhood, trauma, identity, and consciousness, as well as cybernetics, feedback loops, and the idea of self-programming. The conversation also touches on what it means to "upgrade" the mind and how awareness influences creativity and intelligence.

This episode is a journey through technology, philosophy, psychology, and the strange edges of human potential.

Follow the Guests

Sara in WonderTech
Instagram – @sarainwondertech

Christopher Smith
https://x.com/YuviLightman

Quantus Network
https://x.com/QuantusNetwork
https://www.quantus.com/
https://t.me/quantusnetwork
https://linktr.ee/quantusnetwork

Chapters

00:00 — Introduction & Background
02:00 — AI → Crypto: Why Chris Made the Switch
04:00 — Early Bitcoin, Mt. Gox & the 2012 Origin Story
06:00 — Money, Fairness & "Fix the Money, Fix the World"
08:00 — Psychedelics, Mind Exploration & Early Influences
10:00 — Consciousness, Cybernetics & the Human Biocomputer
14:00 — Trauma, Parts Work & Internal Family Systems
18:00 — Meditation, Awareness & Body-Based Intelligence
22:00 — Confusion Tolerance & Learning Like a Child
26:00 — AI, Intelligence & the Limits of Generalization
30:00 — Creativity, Self-Reflection & Rewriting Inner Code

🎥 The Quantus Podcast — Network School Series (Sept 2025)
Network School brings together remote workers, digital nomads, creators, personal trainers, self-improvers, event organizers, and engineers — all collaborating to build themselves up while building the next generation of startup societies. Founded by Balaji Srinivasan — https://x.com/balajis

📍 Recorded Sept 2025 in the Quantus popup studio at Network School, Forest City.

In this episode, Christopher Smith and Joe Mattia sit down with John Kim inside the Quantus Network School Podcast Studio

Over steaming cups of tea, John shares a lifetime of insights spanning venture capital, AI, Korean history, travel, psychedelics, creativity, brain modularity, complexity theory, and how human connection shapes identity and health.

This is one of the most wide-ranging and human conversations yet — blending technology, culture, empathy, and transformation.

Follow the Guests

John Kim
Website – https://www.johnkim.co/

Christopher Smith
https://x.com/YuviLightman

Quantus Network
https://x.com/QuantusNetwork
https://www.quantus.com/
https://t.me/quantusnetwork
https://linktr.ee/quantusnetwork

Chapters

00:00 — Introduction & Welcome
02:00 — John's Background: VC, AI & Building Across Industries
06:00 — Korean Family History & Visiting North Korea
10:00 — Language, Culture & How Communication Shapes Thought
14:00 — AI and the Future of Language Learning
20:00 — Tech, Empathy & Human Connection
30:00 — Psychedelics & Personal Transformation
40:00 — Brain Modularity, Autism & Creativity
50:00 — Complexity Theory & Defining Health
59:00 — Closing Thoughts

🎥 The Quantus Podcast — Network School Series (Sept 2025)
Network School brings together remote workers, digital nomads, creators, personal trainers, self-improvers, event organizers, and engineers — all collaborating to build themselves up while building the next generation of startup societies.

Founded by Balaji Srinivasan — https://x.com/balajis

📍 Recorded Sept 2025 in the Quantus popup studio at Network School, Forest City.

What happens when quantum computing, AI surveillance, and open-source movements collide?

In this episode of The Quantum Podcast, Christopher Smith (founder of Quantus Network) and Joe Mattia explore how the next generation of cryptography, privacy tools, and open protocols will determine the balance between control and freedom in the digital world.

From hidden vulnerabilities inside Bitcoin and stablecoin minting keys, to NSA secrecy, Signal's post-quantum upgrade, and the philosophy behind open source — this is a deep, technical, yet very human discussion about power, transparency, privacy, and trust.

They break down everything from "save now, decrypt later" attacks, to AI automating law, to the broken economics of intellectual property, and why encryption is ultimately about human dignity.

A must-watch for anyone thinking about the future of security, surveillance, and freedom in the quantum era.

Follow the Guests

Christopher Smith
https://x.com/YuviLightman

Joe Mattia
https://x.com/JoeMattia

Quantus Network
https://www.quantus.com/
https://t.me/quantusnetwork
https://linktr.ee/quantusnetwork

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 – Entering the real world of quantum computing
02:00 – Bitcoin mining myths vs digital signature reality
04:00 – Stablecoin minting keys & catastrophic vulnerabilities
06:00 – NSA secrecy, intelligence agencies & the hidden quantum race
08:00 – "Save now, decrypt later" and post-quantum messaging
10:00 – WhatsApp, Signal & the slow death of privacy
13:00 – AI surveillance, metadata & the illusion of consent
16:00 – AI as your lawyer: automation, bureaucracy & legal disruption
19:00 – Intellectual property, open source & why information wants to live
23:00 – Cryptography, dignity & the next generation of digital freedom

How do you build quantum-secure systems before quantum computers even exist?

In this episode of The Quantum Podcast, Christopher Smith (founder of Quantus Network) and Joe Mattia break down the misconceptions, mathematics, and market signals behind the global race toward post-quantum cryptography.

They explore how cryptographic security is proven through mathematical guarantees rather than hardware tests, why Bitcoin's elliptic-curve signatures are vulnerable to quantum attacks, and why lattice-based cryptography — including Dilithium, now standardized by NIST — represents the next frontier of secure digital infrastructure.

From safe-cracking analogies and electromagnetic side-channel attacks, to reversible transactions, photonic quantum computing, and the real-world politics of quantum-era Bitcoin, this episode maps the coming transformation of global security — and how Quantus is preparing the internet for the post-quantum world.

Follow the Guests

Christopher Smith
https://x.com/YuviLightman

Joe Mattia
https://x.com/JoeMattia

Quantus Network
https://www.quantus.com/
https://t.me/quantusnetwork
https://linktr.ee/quantusnetwork

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 – Quantum Monday & setting the record straight
02:00 – Why we don't need quantum computers to build quantum security
05:00 – Modeling quantum algorithms & the math that drives cryptography
08:00 – Classical vs quantum speed & why factorization breaks everything
11:00 – Debug loops, hardware evolution & why quantum machines are hard to build
14:00 – Market signals, investment flows & the real quantum arms race
17:00 – Bitcoin's elliptic-curve vulnerability & quantum-era politics
20:00 – Lattice cryptography, Dilithium & the future of secure signatures
24:00 – Side-channel attacks, constant-time coding & listening to the hardware
27:00 – The coming quantum upgrade & how Quantus is building ahead of it

What happens when reverse engineering, psychological warfare, and quantum physics collide?

In this episode, Joe Mattia and Christopher Smith (founder of Quantus Network) unpack some of the most fascinating and mind-bending stories from the world of computer science, cryptography, and consciousness.

From Chris Domas' legendary DEFCON talk on reverse engineering tricks — where compilers could literally mess with analysts by showing them photos of their families inside IDA Pro — to rewriting GCC with a single x86 instruction, this conversation explores the art of digital mischief and the philosophy beneath it.

They dive into the mysteries of hidden CPUs inside Intel chips, quantum key distribution as the bridge between security and physics, and how placebo and nocebo effects reveal the coded nature of reality itself.

A journey through hacking, metaphysics, and human perception — where code meets consciousness.

⏱ Chapters

00:00 – Intro: Reverse Engineering, DEFCON, and the Hacker's Mindset

02:00 – Chris Domas' Compiler Trick: Code That Hacks the Analyst

04:00 – Rewriting GCC with a Single x86 Instruction

06:00 – The Psychology of Reverse Engineering

08:00 – The Hidden CPU Inside Intel Chips

10:00 – Intel Management Engine and Invisible Architecture

12:00 – The Art of Obfuscation and Cyber Misdirection

14:00 – Security Research as Modern Magic

16:00 – Quantum Key Distribution and Unbreakable Encryption

18:00 – Entanglement, Distance, and the Physics of Communication

20:00 – How Quantum Physics Mirrors Consciousness

22:00 – The Observer Effect and the Nature of Perception

24:00 – Placebo, Nocebo, and the Power of Belief

26:00 – Mind Over Matter: The Science of Perception

28:00 – When Physics Becomes Spirituality

30:00 – Reality as Code — and Consciousness as the Compiler

33:00 – Closing Reflections: What Is Real?

Christopher Smith

https://x.com/YuviLightman

Joe Mattia

https://x.com/JoeMattia

Quantus Network

https://www.quantus.com/

https://t.me/quantusnetwork

https://linktr.ee/quantusnetwork

What happens when two builders at the frontier of AI and blockchain get philosophical about code, consciousness, and creativity?

In this episode of The Quantum Podcast, Nik Heher — software architect and AI developer — joins Christopher Smith (founder of Quantus Network) for a deep, technical, and surprisingly human conversation about how AI is transforming the very act of creation.

Together they explore everything from deleting code as a spiritual practice, to vibe coding, abstraction layers, reverse engineering psychology, quantum computing, and the strange parallels between programming languages and the human mind.

A wide-ranging dialogue about learning from machines, building smarter systems, and remembering what consciousness really means in a world increasingly shaped by code.

Follow the Guests

Christopher Smith

https://x.com/YuviLightman

Nik Heger

https://x.com/n13

Quantus Network
https://www.quantus.com/
https://t.me/quantusnetwork
https://linktr.ee/quantusnetwork

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 – Vibe coding, creativity & the AI learning curve
03:00 – Deleting code, technical debt & rewriting from scratch
06:00 – Abstraction, genius & the Polkadot ecosystem
09:00 – Teaching AI to truly read code (not just docs)
12:00 – Word cells vs shape rotators: two types of minds
15:00 – AI orchestration, no-code limits & leaking abstractions
18:00 – Reverse engineering psychology & binary art
21:00 – Hidden CPUs, fuzzing & quantum-era security
24:00 – Physics, consciousness & the observer effect
27:00 – Dreams, conditioning & mental reprogramming