Call It Like I See It

Was the Agricultural Revolution humanity's biggest mistake? In this episode of the Call It Like I See It podcast, James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana dive into Part 2 of Yuval Noah Harari's best-selling book "Sapiens." We explore how farming didn't necessarily liberate humanity, but instead locked us into the "luxury trap," how domesticating crops turned into crops domesticating us, and why large-scale...

When does party loyalty require you to check your moral compass at the door? In this episode of the Call It Like I See It podcast, James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana break down the dangerous new normal of American politics. We look at recent political attack ads, the pressure of bunker mentalities, and how hyper-partisanship and tribalism push people to justify the un-justifiable. Drawing parallels to...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana take a look at the huge protests that have been going on in France, consider what the protests may say about the state of the political center in many democratic societies around the world, and discuss how the power of messaging is often overlooked by grassroots movements and leveraged by the ruling class. More than 1,300 arrested as clashes follow another day of mass...

- Understanding this, the question becomes what can Gen Z learn from the excesses of earlier generations? This is an excerpt from the episode "Millennials and Gen Z Were in Trouble Once Baby Boomers Decided Greed Was Good" ( Link ) In that episode, James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discussed the shocking statistics on how little spending power Gen Z has compared to what Baby Boomers had in their twent...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana continue their “Streaming Between the Lines” series and discuss the 2022 documentary “Theodore Roosevelt” (directed by Malcolm Venville), exploring the 26 th President’s legacy as a fighter against corruption and for working people as well as his efforts to regulate industry and protect public interests.  The guys also consider how historical insights from the time of...

Excerpt from the episode "Assessing the AI Doomsday Warnings: the Call is Coming from Inside the House" ( Link ) In that episode, James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana took a look at what appears to be an increasing number of warnings that humans may already be losing control of artificial intelligence systems and these systems may kill us all, discussed how many of the warnings seem to be that coming fro...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana take a look at a recent attempt to quantify the extent to which culture, as opposed to genetic evolution, enabled humans to quickly adapt to different conditions and rapidly spread out all over world, discuss elements from Yuval Noah Harari's "Sapiens" which touched on this concept a decade ago, and consider how the convergence of culture that defines the modern age m...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana take a look at what appears to be an increasing number of warnings that humans may already be losing control of artificial intelligence systems and these systems may kill us all, discuss how many of the warnings seem to be that coming from AI professionals, and consider whether American society’s investment into AI is already so substantial that it would be unable to...

Why do people support leaders who pick their pockets? In this clip, Tunde Ogunlana and James Keys break down the profound and disturbing Lyndon B. Johnson quote on social hierarchy, the psychology of transference, and how modern political movements weaponize status to distract from massive financial grift. The LBJ quote: “If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored m...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss Nikole Hannah Jones’ decision to send her own daughter to an under resourced public school and how her effort to be a part of the solution to the problems facing inner city public schools and consider whether the systemic issues in American education are solvable.  The guys then take a look at the controversy involving Macklemore, Ed Sheeran and Robert Kraft a...

Excerpt from the episode " Jay-Z Selling Out Mainstream Black America Is Understood Through Eugene Robinson’s 'Disintegration' " In that episode, James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discussed the Jay-Z’s deal with Target to exclusively release the 30th anniversary edition of his first album Reasonable Doubt despite (or taking advantage of) efforts from black activists to maintain boycott against Target...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana take a look at some recent research that investigates how having power really can change a person down to a hormonal and brain chemistry level, and consider whether this refutes or explains the old idiom that power tends to corrupt and absolute power absolutely corrupts.  The guys also discuss how certain personality traits and power tend to come together and how acco...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss the growing controversy around mass surveillance systems, especially Flock-style license plate tracking systems, and consider the extent that the issue is about cameras on street corners, or something deeper about privacy, evolutionary triggers, and how much surveillance society is willing to normalize.  The guys also explore the role of corporations in buildi...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana take a look at the settlement of a landmark federal child safety lawsuit involving Meta, Facebook and Instagram, discuss the use of the judicial branch to regulate business out destructive behavior, and consider whether this is something that can make a meaningful difference in how young people engage with social media. Time limits and a midnight cutoff: Meta’s new ru...

Excerpt from the episode "Are Prediction Markets Built for Insider Information and Sucker Bets?" (https://callitlikeiseeit.com/are-prediction-markets-built-for-insider-information-and-sucker-bets) In that episode, James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discussed the story of the US soldier that is being charged for using confidential insider information to win bets about the capture of Maduro on the predic...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss how the Lindsay Clancy case, which involves a mother killing her three young children and appearing to try to take her own life after having taken many psychiatric drugs over several months while under the care of doctors, exposes some significant faultlines in how our society organizes itself and in how our legal system holds people and companies accountable...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana take a look at a recent analysis done by Public Citizen that looked at the connection between political donations by corporations and their tax liability as well as recent reports about how much Google co-founder Sergey Brin spent to try to defeat a one-time wealth tax in California, and then consider the extent to which the huge sums of money being spent by billionai...

Excerpt from the episode "Why a Political System Goes from Order to Disorder, and the Reason 'the Why' Matters."  In that episode, James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana considered whether what feels like rising disorder America’s political and legal system is actually the result of entropy, as understood in a physics sense, and discussed what this means for people who value things like representative gove...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss at the controversy in the WNBA surrounding the idea of transgender participation that has followed statements by Sophie Cunningham suggesting that transgender girls should be banned from women’s sports and consider why this issue can so reliably get people fired up and how, because of this, it may be being used opportunistically by many actors to raise their p...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana consider whether what feels like rising disorder America’s political and legal system is actually the result of entropy, as understood in a physics sense, and discuss what this means for people who value things like representative government and rule of law.  The guys then react to a recent article that argues that a rise in self-imposed perfectionism that may be tied...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana take a look at the online backlash to Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” over its inclusion of black characters and consider the extent to which it is driven by people are trying to “own the past” in the Orwellian sense, people who are just ignorant as far as the history of the Mediterranean, or just general malcontents.  The guys then discuss the recent move by Tuskeg...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss Mark Galeotti’s “Homo Criminalis - How crime organises the world,” the 2025 book that takes a look at the many forms organized crime has taken in societies throughout history, including how an argument can be made that the state itself is one of those forms.  The guys then look at how much of what we see in modern times further illustrate the blurry lines betw...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss the recent article by Rose Horowitch of The Atlantic entitled “The End of Reading is Here,” including how widespread reading shaped and sharpened minds of people, and of society as a result, over the past few hundred years, why people today are reading for information or entertainment so much less, and how societies may fundamentally change as people read less...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss the video “How Amsterdam Invented Capitalism” and consider how what took place in Amsterdam actually exposes some of the inherent contradictions between how capitalism is perceived versus how it is practiced.  The guys then discuss how capitalism and other economic systems evolve over time even if the perception of them remains fairly static. How Amsterdam Inv...

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana react to the revelation that President Trump made over $2 billion in in his first year back in office and discuss whether the free pass many Trump supporters give him with his obvious self-dealing is a result of Trump giving them “somebody to look down on.”  The guys then take a look at the recently released autopsy report of the 2024 election from the Democratic part...