The Perception Podcast

Today’s guest on the Perception Podcast is Steve "Tiger" Briones. Tiger has over two decades of distinguished service in the United States Air Force, where he built a career defined by innovation, strategic leadership, and mission impact. From commanding Detachment 24 to serving as Division Chief of Innovation and Technology—better known as “Digital Hammer”—he led pioneering initiatives that advanced the operational art and science of the military.

Now, he continues that mission in the private sector, driving innovation in simulation and edge computing for government, defense, and enterprise organizations. With a focus on next-generation solutions, strong partnerships, and forward-leaning policy, he’s helping to shape the future of mission-critical technology. So strap in cause the Gforces are about to hit!

Paul Propster has spent over 25 years helping organizations turn complex ideas into stories that inspire action. From small startups to global enterprises in energy, tech, and aerospace, he guides teams to find what truly matters and communicate it in a way that connects, motivates, and drives results.

He’s the Founder and former Chief Story Architect of StoryLab at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Lab’s first “story accelerator,” where he helped scientists and engineers translate cutting-edge science into narratives that engage, persuade, and spark support.

An educator and speaker, Paul has lectured at Caltech, Cal State Northridge, and numerous HBCUs, sharing his insights on the power of storytelling in innovation, leadership, and change. Known for blending creativity with practical tools, he helps teams collaborate, clarify their message, and tell the right story to the right audience—every time.

Based in Altadena, California, he balances his work with surfing, cycling, music, and film.

Today on the Perception Podcast, we're bringing on Chris Noessel, sci-fi interface expert and author. Chris is a veteran interaction designer whose career has been focused on design for AI for the past 8 years. He teaches, speaks about, and evangelizes design around the world. His spidey-sense goes off semi-randomly, leading him to investigate and speak about a range of things from interactive narrative to ethnographic user research, interaction design to generative randomness, and designing for the future. He is co-author of Make It So: Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fiction (Rosenfeld Media, 2012), co-author of About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design, 4th Edition (Wiley, 2015), keeper of the blog scifiinterfaces.com, and author of Designing Agentive Technology: AI That Works for People (Rosenfeld Media, 2017). He is currently writing a book about assistants that make users smarter for having used them, due fall 2025.

Today on The Perception Podcast, we’re joined by a true pioneer in the world of technology, storytelling, and future-forward thinking — Kevin Kelly.

Kevin Kelly is Senior Maverick at Wired magazine. He co-founded Wired in 1993, and served as its Executive Editor for its first seven years. His newest book is Excellent Advice for Living, a book of 450 modern proverbs for good living. He is co-chair of The Long Now Foundation, a membership organization that champions long-term thinking and acting as a good ancestor to future generations. And he is founder of the popular Cool Tools website, which has been reviewing tools daily for 20 years.

From 1984 to 1990, Kelly was publisher and editor of the Whole Earth Review, a subscriber-supported journal of unorthodox conceptual news. He co-founded the ongoing Hackers’ Conference, and was involved with the launch of the WELL, a pioneering online service started in 1985.

Other books by Kelly include:

1 The Inevitable, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller,

2 Out of Control, his 1994 classic book on decentralized emergent systems,

3 The Silver Cord, a graphic novel about robots and angels,

4 What Technology Wants, a robust theory of technology, and

5 Vanishing Asia, his 50-year project to photograph the disappearing cultures of Asia.

He is best known for his radical optimism about the future.

In this conversation, we dive into how stories influence innovation, how science fiction inspires real-world technology, and how our perception — of time, agency, and even reality — is evolving right alongside the tools we build.

So let’s go deep with Kevin Kelly!

Today, we welcome a very special guest onto the podcast, Dr. Tom Chatfield, a British author, tech philosopher, and educator. Tom’s work focuses on the intersection of technology, culture, and human behavior. He’s the author of several books, including "Wise Animals," which explores the evolving relationship between humanity and technology, and the best-selling textbook "Critical Thinking," which is used widely in academic settings. Tom is also known for his debut novel, "This is Gomorrah," which was shortlisted for major thriller awards and won France’s 2020 Prix Douglas Kennedy for the year’s best foreign thriller.

In addition to his writing, Tom is a thought leader on topics like AI ethics, digital literacy, and future skills. He collaborates with universities, business schools, and companies to improve our understanding of technology’s role in education, policy, and engagement. He’s spoken at global platforms like TED, the Cannes Lions Festival, and the Houses of Parliament, and regularly contributes to media outlets like the BBC.

We're very excited to chat with Tom today and dive into his insights on technology and the future of our digital world.

Step inside "The Perception Lens" series, a special feature of the Perception Podcast where co-founders Jeremy Lasky and Danny Gonzalez dive deep into the expansive realms of design, technology, entrepreneurship and innovation. In this series, we discuss how visionary concepts come to life and share insights into the processes that shape the future of design. Each episode is dedicated to exploring the dynamic interplay between business and creativity through the lens of our cutting-edge design studio. Take an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at Perception as we pull back the curtain on the ideas and experiences driving our unique Science Fiction Thinking approach.

This week, we delve into our creative inspirations and reflect on how they've influenced us over the years.

Welcome back everybody, you’re listening to our BITESIZE segment, a small yet powerful dose of key takeaways and notable moments from each episode of The Perception Lens Series. This week, we pieced together some special highlights from our latest full-length episodes, Milestones and Turning Points Part 1 and 2.

You’re listening to our very first BITESIZE segment, a small yet powerful dose of key takeaways and highlights pulled from every full-length episode of The Perception Lens series. If you couldn’t catch our last episodes, Milestones and Turning Points Part 1 and 2, then tune into this week’s BITESIZE, where we recount our journey with Marvel Studios and the beginnings of our longstanding collaboration.

Step inside "The Perception Lens" series, a special feature of the Perception Podcast where co-founders Jeremy Lasky and Danny Gonzalez dive deep into the expansive realms of design, technology, entrepreneurship and innovation. In this series, we discuss how visionary concepts come to life and share insights into the processes that shape the future of design. Each episode is dedicated to exploring the dynamic interplay between business and creativity through the lens of our cutting-edge design studio. Take an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at Perception as we pull back the curtain on the ideas and experiences driving our unique Science Fiction Thinking approach.

This week, we continue our journey through the evolution of Perception, delving into how we came to work on our first feature film for Marvel Studios: Iron Man 2.

Step inside "The Perception Lens" series, a special feature of the Perception Podcast where co-founders Jeremy Lasky and Danny Gonzalez dive deep into the expansive realms of design, technology, entrepreneurship and innovation. In this series, we discuss how visionary concepts come to life and share insights into the processes that shape the future of design. Each episode is dedicated to exploring the dynamic interplay between business and creativity through the lens of our cutting-edge design studio. Take an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at Perception as we pull back the curtain on the ideas and experiences driving our unique Science Fiction Thinking approach.

To kick off our debut episode, we share the story of how Perception has evolved and how we navigated some major markers throughout the journey of growing our business into what it is today.