Crisis in Perception

Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. This episode explores Gender Typing of Children’s Toys by Erica S. Weisgram and Lisa M. Dinella as a systems-level analysis of how gendered play environments influence behavior, belief, and institutional outcomes. By focusing on incentive architecture rather than personalities or events, the episode shows why these sy...

Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. This episode explores The History of the Computer by Rachel Ignotofsky as a systems-level analysis of how computing infrastructure influences behavior, belief, and institutional outcomes. By focusing on incentive architecture rather than personalities or inventions alone, the episode shows why these systems persist —...

Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Author: Andrew Guthrie Ferguson This episode explores Why Jury Duty Matters by Andrew Guthrie Ferguson as a systems-level analysis of how jury systems influence civic participation, democratic legitimacy, and institutional accountability. By focusing on incentive architecture rather than personalities or isolated lega...

Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Author: John Perkins This episode explores Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins as a systems-level analysis of how debt-based development systems influence behavior, belief, and institutional outcomes. By focusing on incentive architecture rather than personalities or events, the episode shows why these...

Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Author: Various Contributors This episode explores True Cost Accounting for Food as a systems-level analysis of how accounting systems, agricultural incentives, and institutional blind spots shape environmental, social, and public health outcomes. By focusing on incentive architecture rather than isolated consumer cho...

Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Author: Terry Tamminen This episode explores Lives Per Gallon by Terry Tamminen as a systems-level analysis of how petroleum infrastructure influences behavior, public health, and institutional outcomes. By focusing on incentive architecture rather than isolated consumer behavior, the episode shows how transportation...

Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Author: Josh Tickell This episode explores Kiss the Ground by Josh Tickell as a systems-level analysis of industrial agriculture, soil degradation, climate instability, and the biological systems hidden beneath modern food production. Rather than framing environmental collapse purely through emissions or individual co...

Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Author: James Randi This episode explores The Faith Healers by James Randi as a systems-level analysis of how faith-healing institutions influence belief, perception, and institutional outcomes through psychological reinforcement, technological deception, and financial incentives. By focusing on incentive architecture...

Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Author: Sarah Wynn-Williams This episode explores Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams as a systems-level analysis of how engagement-driven platform architecture influences behavior, political incentives, and institutional outcomes. By focusing on incentive architecture rather than personalities or isolated scandals...

Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Author: Kip S. Thorne This episode explores Black Holes & Time Warps by Kip S. Thorne as a systems-level analysis of how scientific paradigms, mathematical models, and institutional science influence perception, knowledge, and intellectual boundaries. By focusing on incentive architecture rather than isolated disc...

Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Author: Carl Sagan This episode explores Contact by Carl Sagan as a systems-level analysis of how scientific, political, and religious institutions process uncertainty, evidence, and legitimacy. By focusing on epistemological systems rather than personalities or spectacle, the episode examines why institutions often r...

Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Author: E. F. Schumacher This episode explores Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered by E. F. Schumacher as a systems-level analysis of how economic measurement influences behavior, belief, and institutional outcomes. By focusing on incentive architecture rather than personalities or events, the episode...

Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Author: Ervand Abrahamian This episode explores A History of Modern Iran by Ervand Abrahamian as a systems-level analysis of how oil wealth, centralized state power, and authoritarian modernization influenced political legitimacy, social stability, and revolutionary outcomes in Iran. By focusing on incentive architect...

Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Author: Richard Wolff and David Barsamian This episode explores Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism by Richard Wolff and David Barsamian as a systems-level analysis of how corporate governance, debt dependency, and concentrated economic power influence behavior, belief, and institutional outcomes. By focusing o...

Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Author: Stephen Kinzer This episode explores All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror by Stephen Kinzer as a systems-level analysis of how oil politics, Cold War threat perception, and covert intervention shaped Iranian democracy and long-term geopolitical instability. By focusing on in...

Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Author: Scientific American Editors This episode explores Scientific American: Future Medicine by Scientific American Editors as a systems-level analysis of how biological repair, immune defense, regenerative limits, and evolutionary tradeoffs influence behavior, belief, and institutional outcomes. By focusing on ince...

Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Author: Mariana Mazzucato This episode explores The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy by Mariana Mazzucato as a systems-level analysis of how economic measurement systems influence behavior, belief, and institutional outcomes. By focusing on incentive architecture rather than personalities o...

Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Author: Paul Polman and Andrew Winston This episode explores Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take by Paul Polman and Andrew Winston as a systems-level analysis of how shareholder capitalism, externalized costs, and corporate governance influence behavior, belief, and institutiona...

Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Author: Dirk Eidemüller This episode explores Nuclear Power by Dirk Eidemüller as a systems-level analysis of how nuclear infrastructure influences institutional behavior, geopolitical power, and long-term ecological risk. By focusing on incentive architecture rather than personalities or surface politics, the episode...

Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Author: David Whitehouse This episode explores Journey to the Centre of the Earth by David Whitehouse as a systems-level analysis of how the Earth’s hidden interior shapes planetary stability, magnetic shielding, tectonic recycling, and the conditions necessary for life. By focusing on deep structural systems rather t...

Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Author: Alvin E. Roth This episode explores Who Gets What — And Why by Alvin E. Roth as a systems-level analysis of how matching systems influence opportunity, institutional behavior, and economic coordination. By focusing on incentive architecture rather than personalities or events, the episode shows why matching sy...

Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Author: Charles L. Mee Jr. This episode explores The End of the Aztecs by Charles L. Mee Jr. as a systems-level analysis of how imperial fragility, chance, disease, and alliance incentives influence behavior, belief, and institutional outcomes. By focusing on incentive architecture rather than personalities or events,...

Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Author: Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz This episode explores To End a Presidency: The Power of Impeachment by Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz as a systems-level analysis of how constitutional mechanisms depend on institutional trust, shared facts, and democratic legitimacy. By focusing on incentive architecture rather...

Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Author: Daniel Ellsberg This episode explores The Pentagon Papers as a systems-level analysis of how executive secrecy, geopolitical credibility, and bureaucratic insulation influenced behavior, belief, and institutional outcomes during the Vietnam War. By focusing on incentive architecture rather than personalities o...

Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Author: Robert B. Reich This episode explores The System by Robert B. Reich as a structural analysis of how economic power transforms into political power — and how political power subsequently reshapes the economy in return. The discussion examines lobbying, shareholder capitalism, deregulation, financial bailouts, a...