Follow Rick’s latest analysis, essays, interviews, and podcast conversations on revolution, legitimacy, faith, fiction, and the systems that hold societies together—or tear them apart.

Latest from Substack Articles

• Want to Upset an Organization? Solve Its Problems.
  Most organizations exist to solve problems.
• One City Is Not a Revolution
  Or, Why the Unit of Analysis Matters
• Fault Lines Newsletter
  June 25, 2026
• You Still Don’t Get It: The Rise of TikTok Terrorism
  Terrorism has evolved from organizations into ecosystems.
• Find the Space Between the Trees
  Finding Stability, Purpose, and Hope in an Unstable World
• How Did We Lose Control?
  We didn’t. We gave it away.
• Sanctions, Airstrikes, and Wishful Thinking
  Apparently, Step Two Was "And Then a Miracle Occurred."
• The Defining Political Dynamic of the 21st Century, Part I of 2
  The Long Hangover After the Fall of the Soviet Union

Media Appearances

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Space Tomatoes

Audio Podcast

Topics: Governmental legitimacy, Revolution, Societal Change

The Uncommon Minds Experience

Audio Podcast

Topics: Systemic Breakdown, Government Legitimacy, Revolution

Born Before the Algorithm

Audio Podcast

Topic: Citizenship in the Algorithmic Age, revolution, legitimacy, and modern instability

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Control or be Controlled

Audio Podcast

Topic: Culture, legitimacy, and modern instability

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Coffee with Bearded Bad Dad

Audio Podcast

Topic: Eight Stages book, revolution, legitimacy, and modern instability

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The Thought Atlas Podcast

Audio Podcast

Topic: Culture, legitimacy, and modern instability

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The Listening Tube

Audio Podcast

Topic: Eight Stages book, revolution, legitimacy, and modern instability

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Break It Down Show (2nd Appearance)

Video Podcast

Topics: Army Intelligence and Counterintelligence in the 21st Century, Rick’s new product: Fault Lines,

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Break It Down Show (1st Appearance)

Video Podcast

Topics: Eight Stages book, revolutions around the world, US susceptibility to revolution

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