Everyone is Lying to You for Money(2025)w/ Director Ben McKenzie & Prof. Julian E. Zelizer

Name: Everyone is Lying to You for Money(2025)w/ Director Ben McKenzie & Prof. Julian E. Zelizer
Start: 2026-04-21T19:00:00-04:00
Location: Princeton Garden Theatre

Schedule

Tue, 21 Apr, 2026 at 07:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

Princeton Garden Theatre | Princeton, NJ

Join us for this special screening of the critically acclaimed documentary presented by the film’s director/producer Ben McKenzie. The evening will include an in-person Q&A moderated by Princeton professor and CNN political analyst, Julian E. Zelizer.
Following the film there will be a book signing in the lobby of McKenzie’s NYT bestseller that the documentary is based on — Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud. This book signing is in collaboration with Labyrinth Books. 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗧𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝘁𝘀: princetongardentheatre.org/specials
𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗲: With any and all things crypto being pushed by celebrities, influencers, and politicians alike, actor-turned-author and director Ben McKenzie decides to investigate. Leveraging his celebrity status to gain access to eager prospectors, McKenzie finds himself unraveling the loosely regulated world of cryptocurrency. This skeptical but evenhanded take on the present and future of what we consider money gives a firsthand account of the chaotic financial frontier of our time.
𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿: Ben McKenzie has been a fixture on TV for two decades (Gotham, Southland, and The O.C.). In 2020, he starred in the Broadway play Grand Horizons, which received a Tony Award nomination for Best New Play. Alongside journalist Jacob Silverman, he has written about cryptocurrency for The Washington Post, The Intercept, The New Republic, and Slate. Ben has been interviewed by The New York Times, The Financial Times, CNN, and MSNBC about crypto skepticism. He recently testified before the U.S. Congress as a witness in a Senate Banking Committee hearing on cryptocurrency and the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange. Ben’s debut book Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud became a New York Times bestseller and was longlisted for the Financial Times’ Business Book of the Year in 2023. Ben’s cryptocurrency documentary titled, Everyone Is Lying to You for Money, premiered at SXSW London in 2025 to critical acclaim.
𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒃𝒚 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒕𝒐𝒏 𝑼𝒏𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒚’𝒔 𝑬𝒇𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒏 𝑪𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑴𝒊𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑫𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒑𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑮𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒘𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝑪𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝑬𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒄 𝑺𝒕𝒖𝒅𝒊𝒆𝒔, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝑷𝒖𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒄 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝑨𝒇𝒇𝒂𝒊𝒓𝒔.