Unable to run or build images in podman - containers

Question

I recently tried to install podman on my mac.
podman machine init and podman machine start seem to work.
podman machine list
NAME VM TYPE CREATED LAST UP CPUS MEMORY DISK SIZE
podman-machine-default* qemu 2 hours ago Currently running 1 2.147GB 10.74GB
podman system connection list
Name Identity URI
podman-machine-default* /Users/k/.ssh/podman-machine-default ssh://core#localhost:65137/run/user/1000/podman/podman.sock
podman-machine-default-root /Users/k/.ssh/podman-machine-default ssh://root#localhost:65137/run/podman/podman.sock
So these seem to be OK too...
However, when I try commands like:
podman run -dt -p 8080:80 nginx I get the error:
podman --log-level=debug run -dt -p 8080:80 nginx
INFO[0000] podman filtering at log level debug
DEBU[0000] Called run.PersistentPreRunE(podman --log-level=debug run -dt -p 8080:80 nginx)
DEBU[0000] SSH Ident Key "/Users/k/.ssh/podman-machine-default" SHA256:<redacted> ssh-ed25519
DEBU[0000] Found SSH_AUTH_SOCK "/private/tmp/com.apple.launchd.ESzXNsREXi/Listeners", ssh-agent signer(s) enabled
DEBU[0000] DoRequest Method: GET URI: http://d/v3.4.4/libpod/_ping
DEBU[0000] Adding port mapping from 8080 to 80 length 1 protocol ""
DEBU[0000] Loading registries configuration "/etc/containers/registries.conf"
DEBU[0000] No credentials for https://index.docker.io/v1/ found
DEBU[0000] Found credentials for docker.io in credential helper containers-auth.json in file /Users/k/.config/containers/auth.json
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Users/k/Downloads/google-cloud-sdk/lib/gcloud.py", line 104, in <module>
main()
File "/Users/k/Downloads/google-cloud-sdk/lib/gcloud.py", line 62, in main
from googlecloudsdk.core.util import encoding
File "/Users/k/Downloads/google-cloud-sdk/lib/googlecloudsdk/__init__.py", line 23, in <module>
from googlecloudsdk.core.util import importing
File "/Users/k/Downloads/google-cloud-sdk/lib/googlecloudsdk/core/util/importing.py", line 23, in <module>
import imp
File "/usr/local/Cellar/python#3.9/3.9.10/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.9/lib/python3.9/imp.py", line 23, in <module>
from importlib import util
File "/usr/local/Cellar/python#3.9/3.9.10/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.9/lib/python3.9/importlib/util.py", line 2, in <module>
from . import abc
File "/usr/local/Cellar/python#3.9/3.9.10/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.9/lib/python3.9/importlib/abc.py", line 17, in <module>
from typing import Protocol, runtime_checkable
File "/usr/local/Cellar/python#3.9/3.9.10/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.9/lib/python3.9/typing.py", line 26, in <module>
import re as stdlib_re # Avoid confusion with the re we export.
File "/usr/local/Cellar/python#3.9/3.9.10/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.9/lib/python3.9/re.py", line 124, in <module>
import enum
File "/Users/k/Downloads/google-cloud-sdk/lib/third_party/enum/__init__.py", line 26, in <module>
spec = importlib.util.find_spec('enum')
AttributeError: module 'importlib' has no attribute 'util'
DEBU[0000] Error looking up credentials for staging-k8s.gcr.io in credential helper containers-auth.json: error getting credentials - err: exit status 1, out: ``
Error: 1 error occurred:
* error getting credentials - err: exit status 1, out: ``
I'm at a loss as to why this exception is coming and why is it picking up google SDK. I don't think I have registered on GCR in podman....
Additionally, I logged into docker.io with podman (successful) but it still throws this error.
This is the same error if I try to build a dockerfile as well.
How do I debug this?
podman --version
podman version 3.4.4
MacOS Monterey 12.1 (Intel MacBook)