Crisis in Perception

What happens when efficiency stops being a means and becomes the standard by which society organizes everything? Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. In The Technological Society, Jacques Ellul examines technique—not simply machines or technological devices, but the growing use of rationalized methods designed to achieve maximum efficiency across human a...

What if an enemy is sometimes not merely discovered, but socially constructed? Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Using Inventing the Enemy and Other Occasional Writings by Umberto Eco as our lens, this Deep Dive centers on the title essay and examines how communities can define their own identity by constructing an opposing Other. Eco traces a recurri...

What if recurring problems persist because we keep changing what is visible while leaving the structure that produces them intact? Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Using Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella H. Meadows as our lens, this Deep Dive investigates how interconnected structures generate their own characteristic patterns of behavior. Mea...

In 1898, a thriving Black community and a multiracial political coalition challenged the established power structure of Wilmington, North Carolina. Within months, organized white supremacists had destroyed the city's elected government through violence and intimidation. Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Drawing on David Zucchino's Wilmington&#...

What if the places we regard as normal are quietly determining how we move, spend, interact, and live? Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Using The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape by James Howard Kunstler as our lens, this Deep Dive investigates the system behind America's automobile-centered landscape...

A lawsuit is supposed to resolve a dispute. But what happens when the process of litigation becomes a strategic advantage in its own right? Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. In Plaintiff in Chief: A Portrait of Donald Trump in 3,500 Lawsuits , James D. Zirin draws on decades of legal proceedings to examine how Donald Trump's litigation practices s...

America's elections increasingly resemble contests between opposing political camps. But does that visible division accurately reflect what citizens believe? Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Using Do We Have A Center? 2016, 2020, and the Challenge of the Trump Presidency by Walter Frank, this Deep Dive investigates American political polarization...

What happens when a civilization becomes so confident in technological progress that it struggles to recognize the physical limits supporting its prosperity? Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. In Too Much Magic: Wishful Thinking, Technology, and the Fate of the Nation , James Howard Kunstler challenges America's faith in technological rescue, argui...

What happens when an economy becomes increasingly dependent on the same financial and energy arrangements that may be making it more fragile? Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Using Living in the Long Emergency by James Howard Kunstler as our lens, this audio investigation explores the hidden dependencies connecting fossil fuels, economic growth, fina...

How did corporations come to possess constitutional protections, and what does that transformation reveal about the relationship between economic power and democratic government? Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. In Unequal Protection: How Corporations Became “People”—and How You Can Fight Back , Thom Hartmann traces the historical expansion of corpor...

What happens when the relationship between a president and a news network becomes so intertwined that each begins shaping the other's version of reality? Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. In Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth , journalist Brian Stelter investigates the relationship between Donald Trump, Fox News, a...

What happens when political power becomes increasingly insulated from the information needed to exercise it responsibly? Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. In Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency , journalist Michael Wolff reconstructs the turbulent final months of Donald Trump's first administration, from the struggling 2020 reelectio...

What if children begin learning about race long before adults deliberately teach them anything about it? Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Using How to Raise an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi as our lens, this Deep Dive investigates racial socialization and the larger environments through which children develop ideas about race, identity, inequality, be...

What happens when political allegiance becomes intertwined with identity, belonging, fear, and the information a person trusts? Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. In The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control, Steven Hassan applies his experience studying destructive influence to Donald Trump and the political...

What separates a political betrayal from the constitutional crime of treason? And can public officials escape one form of accountability while remaining subject to another? Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. In Traitor: A History of American Betrayal from Benedict Arnold to Donald Trump , author David Rothkopf examines American history through the recu...

What if a presidential debate does not simply reveal political viability, but participates in creating it? Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Using The Audience Decides: Applause-Cheering, Laughter, and Booing during Debates in the Trump Era by Patrick A. Stewart as our lens, this investigation examines how debate structure, candidate performance, audi...

Why do people who resist authority sometimes become fiercely loyal to leaders who promise protection from outsiders? Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. In The Securitarian Personality , political scientist John R. Hibbing offers an evidence-based investigation into the psychological motivations of Donald Trump's most ardent supporters. Rather than...

What happens when constant change stops being a temporary disruption and becomes the normal condition of life? Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. In Liquid Modernity, Zygmunt Bauman argues that modernity has shifted from seeking durable social arrangements toward valuing flexibility, mobility, reversibility, and continuous adaptation. This Deep Dive ex...

What happens when a system can transform mass killing into administrative duty? Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Using Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt as our lens, this Deep Dive investigates the relationship between bureaucracy, obedience, moral judgment, and individual responsibility. Arendt’s portrait of Ad...

What happens when an economy grows richer, but prosperity becomes increasingly concentrated? Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. In Does the Richness of the Few Benefit Us All?, sociologist Zygmunt Bauman challenges the widely accepted belief that the enrichment of a small economic elite necessarily benefits society as a whole. Drawing on research into...

What happens when predicting human behavior becomes a business—and greater certainty becomes a competitive advantage? Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. In The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power, Shoshana Zuboff argues that a distinctive form of capitalism has emerged around the extraction of human...

What happens when not knowing stops carrying a political cost—and begins carrying a political reward? Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. In Profiles in Ignorance: How America's Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber, Andy Borowitz traces what he describes as the evolution of political ignorance through three stages: Ridicule, Acceptance, and Celebration....

Why do narcissistic relationships and public conflicts become so difficult to escape—even when everyone recognizes that something is wrong? Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Using Fragile Bully: Understanding Our Destructive Affair with Narcissism in the Age of Trump by Laurie Helgoe, PhD, this investigation examines the interaction between grandiosit...

What happens when exposing the failures of universal ideals begins to erode confidence in the ideals themselves? Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Using Left Is Not Woke by Susan Neiman as our lens, this investigation examines her argument that parts of the contemporary “woke” left have moved away from three principles she regards as essential to left...

What happens when political events arrive so quickly that yesterday’s shock becomes today’s baseline? Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world. Using The List: A Week-by-Week Reckoning of Trump’s First Year by Amy Siskind as its lens, this episode investigates how information overload, shifting expectations, public memory, and institutional norms interact dur...