In this episode of Richardson’s Rubicon, I’m joined by Matt Witten to discuss his speculative thriller 51% and the mechanics of the world behind it.
Set in a near-future America where the country has effectively been privatised, 51% imagines a society in which corporate syndicates own roads, schools, police departments, healthcare, and in some cases people themselves. We explore what that looks like in ordinary life, from selling percentages of your future income to pay for education or medical care, to the brutal threshold at which being “51% owned” means losing control over your own life.
Crowdfunding Investigations in 51%
A major focus of the conversation is one of the book’s sharpest ideas: in this world, homicide detectives have to raise money to investigate murders. That means victims with no money, no family, or no visibility may struggle to get justice at all. We talk about why Matt chose that pressure point, how it reshapes policing, and why the role of Haylee Navarro as a crime marketing consultant is such a revealing piece of worldbuilding.
We also get into the moral pressure on the novel’s two central characters: Juke O’Keefe, a detective driven by an old-fashioned sense of justice and haunted by a past failure, and Haylee, who is financially vulnerable, pregnant, and trying to avoid being dragged deeper into a system that already owns part of her future.
This is a conversation about worldbuilding through systems, incentives, and character pressure rather than backdrop alone. If you like speculative fiction that asks how a society actually works on the ground, there’s plenty here.
Matt’s details:
https://www.instagram.com/mattwitten22/
https://www.threads.com/@mattwitten22
https://www.facebook.com/wittenmatt
And, his website where you can learn more about his voluminous body of work and get the book:
