The Sensory Deception — Ransom Stephens

"I can't believe I ate a seal. And really enjoyed it."

Moments after venture capitalist Gloria Baradaran experiences what it's like to be a polar bear -- really be a polar bear -- she knows she's found something revolutionary. Farley Rutherford and his team ? migraine-tortured neurologist "Chopper" Vittori and uber-geek engineer Ringo Hayes -- have created sensory saturation, a virtual reality system that drops users into the psyches of endangered animals as they fight for survival, and they believe the profound experience could turn the indifferent masses into avid environmentalists. Ringo's hardware is ready to go, but the pressures to get the system off the ground are immense. The money-men want more bang for their buck, and that includes bigger, more dangerous animals, and -- more than anything -- the ability to turn the machines into profitable games. But to Farely and his team, this is anything but a game. To some, in fact, this is a cause they'd kill for.

The Sensory Deception is a mind-blowing, globe-trotting ride that will take listeners from cut-throat Silicon Valley boardrooms to the pirate ships off the Somali coast to the devastated rain forests of the Amazon all to ask the question: What is a human life worth compared to that of an entire planet?