Episodes
Wednesday Oct 19, 2022
Wednesday Oct 19, 2022
Presenting on PBS TV entails luck, months of preparation, and confidence. Entrusted as a topic ambassador sets forth high expectations - not to mention standing before a live audience. I delivered two school safety presentations on PBS TV: School Safety in America: Rhetoric vs Reality (2019) and School Security and Crisis Preparedness (2013). In this episode, I will explain how I received an offer to present on PBS; show preparation; things that happen the day of the broadcast; giving the presentation - including the techy podium; rules and tips for a successful televised show; what happens immediately following the show - it’s not what you might think; what PBS does with the presentation - from close-captioning to syndication; and how people around the nation responded to me in days and even years after I was TV. HOW TO GET AN OFFER TO PRESENT ON PBS. I was a school administrator on December 14, 2012. That was the day of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. It was a watershed moment in school shootings due to the young age of the students. Media coverage swarmed to the community of Newtown, Connecticut, and wagged microphones at anyone who would speak. After that adrenalized day, parents and educators sought empirical guidance on school safety. There wasn’t a clearinghouse presentation - an impartial expert attempting to frame, in layman’s language, the phenomena of school security and how and why schools prepare for crisis situations - what are the ingredients to their plans and are we as powerless to interrupt disasters as was implied by the media. So, I contacted my local PBS affiliate, pitched the idea of a school safety special, and the folks in charge issued the green light. I would assemble and deliver PBS’s first school safety special. SHOW PREP. Where to begin, right? My show was scheduled for May so I had roughly 5 months to craft my presentation. I spent hundreds of hours developing outlines, PowerPoint slides, rehearsing, and having member checks evaluate my content and delivery. I also contacted parents of children killed or injured in acts of school violence. My presentation would be tight and punchy, but I had to read the room. I would not stir grieving parents. Instead, they served as member checks, to point to the line in the sand. The show wasn’t about the students, teachers or parents - but they were all wedded to the topic. DAY OF THE SHOW. I arrived 3 hours before air time. Phase one is acclimating to the studio and receiving coaching on the various knobs, screens, and lights on the massive podium. Next, I signed waivers. Then it was time for the dry run in an empty hall. Other than sound checks, I spoke softly to preserve my voice. Some last-minute adjustments to font sizes, too. About 30 minutes before the show, the doors opened and people claimed seats. I made small talk with the host and the presentation was locked from future changes. THE PRESENTATION - RULES & TIPS. Stay behind the podium and look at the real-time display embedded in the lectern to track your presentation. It was OK to periodically step left of the podium. It was never appropriate to look over your shoulder and point to the big screen in front of the audience. That might mess up the camera crew and the people at home were fed from different angles from the person in the third row. Watch the timer on the podium, colored lights up in the booth, and friends in the audience strategically placed to cue me on time markers. Hitting the allotted time was not only necessary, but going long would limit the ability for syndication. 60 minutes. WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE SHOW | NOT WHAT YOU MIGHT THINK! The end of the show isn’t the actual end of the show. Off camera, the presenter answers questions from the audience and this can go on for an hour or more. I even went out for an impromptu late supper with audience members! DOES PBS RERUN THE PRESENTATION? Yes. After the live presentation, PBS edits, closed-captions, and submits the show for a TV Parental Guidelines rating. The presentation is then premiered and available for syndication by affiliate networks. My shows continue to air on PBS stations - especially following a sentinel school safety event. In addition, the shows are available to view at no cost at PBS.com. RESPONSES TO MY PRESENTATIONS. People have emailed, called, and met me in person to share their thoughts about my shows. School leaders, board of education members, and school safety directors convey that the content validates their efforts toward sensible school safety. Parents share personal stories. Others inform me of their research and lines of inquiry, such as a relationship between food additives and violence. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. This is episode 191 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 10-19-2022.
Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Books:
- School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com
- Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com
Tuesday Mar 29, 2022
Tuesday Mar 29, 2022
Remember fiddling around until the final hour to hunker down and complete an assignment for school or a project for work - even though you knew of the deadline for weeks? There you were, confident you could serviceably complete the task and submit it in a nick of time. WHAT IS PARKINSON’S LAW? Parkinson’s Law is the adage that work will expand to fill the time allotted for its completion. The term was first coined by Cyril Northcote Parkinson in a humorous essay he wrote for “The Economist” in 1955. If someone has 5 hours to rake leaves from a yard - and apprises that task of clearing the small yard might take, at most, 2 hours, the tendency - per Parkinson’s Law, is for the person to take the full 5 hours to rake the leaves. They might rake at a slower pace, take frequent breaks, walk around to assess their progress, adjust their gloves, hat and jacket, and so on. NEW DEFINITION OF PARKINSON’S LAW. In his book The Velocity of Information: Human Thinking During Chaotic Times, Doc postulates a second interpretation of Parkinson’s Law. In this take, Parkinson’s Law represents the ingrained need for humans to have a distinct ritualistic start and end routine to their work days. He wrote about this in his book, centering on a business owner in Chicago who found people knocking on his door (a closed non-essential virtual reality gaming business), to inquire about renting a table for a few hours - so they could unfold their laptops and “got to work.” BREAKING PARKINSON’S LAW IN CHICAGO. The following is an excerpt (pages 75-76) from the book The Velocity of Information: Human Thinking During Chaotic Times by David P. Perrodin. “Prior to 2020, Aaron Sawyer’s Redline VR, a virtual reality club and bar in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago, was doing great business. His mega-computers, 3D game configurations, and 360-degree immersive goggles and haptic wearables were something that people could not get at home. He offered the best zombie-battling experience in the city. So much so that Sawyer considered opening a second location (1). Then the pandemic hit. Chicago city government started deciding which businesses were “essential,” and thus allowed to operate, and which were not. Redline VR was not deemed “essential.” Under Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan, Redline VR was allowed to reopen in phase four (2) at 25 percent capacity. There was no phase five. There was no revenue coming into the business. So Sawyer pivoted. Again and again (3) Parkinson’s Law states that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion (4).” Linda Stone, the consultant who has studied attention behavior, found that during the pandemic, people were checking work emails “at all hours of the night,” as their homes became their workplace (5). At the outset of the pandemic, many people left their office on a Friday, began working remotely the following Monday, and did not return to their offices. Many still have no return date in sight, and a significant number of positions have become permanently remote. Getting out of the home, and into an office setting, became an attractive option for some people. At home, the roles of spouse and mother and caregiver all intersect with the workday. Work now fills the physical space once reserved for family and relaxation. The mind is not always able to differentiate between the two.” REMOTE WORKERS WANTED A PLACE TO GO TO WORK. In May and June 2020, Aaron Sawyer observed an uptick in people asking if they could rent his VR stations, which were similar to work cubicles, for a few hours or for a day. “Redline VR rebranded to offer rented office space, at just fifteen dollars for the day. Curtains and separators were put up so people could keep their social distance and have a work space of their own, away from home and family.” CITATIONS. (1) Aaron Sawyer, interview with the author, August 14, 2020; (2) City of Chicago. “Reopening Chicago.” City of Chicago. 2020. https://www.chicago .gov /city /en /sites /COVID -19 /home /reopening -chicago .html; (3) Sawyer, interview with the author; (4) Parkinson, Cyril Northcote. Parkinson’s Law [And Other Studies in Administration] (Cambridge, MA: The Riverside Press, 1957), 3. http://sas2 .elte .hu /tg /ptorv /Parkinson -s-Law.pdf; (5) Linda Stone, personal communication with the author, August 14, 2020. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. This podcast and blog post represent the opinions of David P. Perrodin and his guests to the show. The content here is for informational purposes only. Please consult with your safety professional regarding the unique needs of yourself or your organization.This is episode 175 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 03-29-2022. Order Doc’s new book today and suggest it as a purchase for your local library! The Velocity of Information: Human Thinking During Chaotic Times.
Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Books:
- School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com
- Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com
Tuesday Dec 14, 2021
Top Ten Questions About Working At The School For The Blind | SDP162
Tuesday Dec 14, 2021
Tuesday Dec 14, 2021
Have you wondered what life is like for staff and students at a state residential school for blind children? In this episode, Doc shares his experiences as the director of rehabilitation services for a school for the blind. Did his expectations match what he encountered with the job? What are things few people know about working with visually impaired students? Why was there a swingset inside of the school? How did working with visually impaired students and staff change the ways that Doc thought about school safety? His book, School of Errors - Rethinking School Safety in America, was written during the time he worked at the school for the blind. Here are the top ten questions about working at the school for the blind. (1) DO STAFF HAVE TO LEARN BRAILLE? Surprisingly, no. Most staff learn how to visually read the Braille alphabet and common words, but learning to read and write tactile Braille is required primarily of instructors of Braille. A student taught Doc the Braille alphabet and he used a free “Braille Helper” phone app to practice words written in the six dots braille system (Braille is not a language, but a way to communicate a language). (2) IS IT A SAD PLACE TO WORK? No. With less than a hundred students and a high staff-to-student ratio, the campus had a positive tone. There was little staff turnover and students had an array of activities to participate in during school and after hours. (3) ARE THERE SPORTS AND EXTRACURRICULARS? Yes. The school offered track, swimming, wrestling, 4H, and numerous clubs. The most popular sport was goalball. At one time, the school had its own radio station and former students continue to work in radio and communications. (4) DO THE STUDENTS LIVE AT THE SCHOOL? Most of the students stay in the dorms during the week - especially students who live 90 minutes away from the school. In fact, some students are flown into the local airport each Sunday for school and then flown back home on Fridays. Other students are transported to the campus daily and some split time between the campus and local schools or the two-year college. (5) DO THE OLDER STUDENTS DATE? Yes. This is similar to students in other school settings. However, online matchmaking presents unique challenges for blind students as dating apps aren’t accessible and students sometimes ask staff to help them complete dating profiles and give opinions on their potential matches. Staff divert those questions to the students' adult friends or sighted peers. (6) ARE ALL OF THE STUDENTS BLIND? All of the students have some level of vision loss that meets criteria for them to receive services at the school for the blind. However, some students have partial sight and a few are even able to obtain a driver’s permit for daytime driving! (7) DO STUDENTS GET INTO TROUBLE? Yes, but staff with experience at different school settings generally concur that school discipline incidents happen less frequently and with less severity at the school for the blind. Typical violations of the code of student conduct might be bullying or having tobacco on campus. (8) HOW IS SCHOOL SAFETY ADAPTED FOR BLIND STUDENTS? There is a heavy emphasis on verbal communication and teaching students to identify landmarks, such as the perimeter sidewalk that loops the campus. Safety-purposed phone apps are seldom reliable for students with vision loss as such apps don’t have VoiceOver features to read information or present choice menus. All students participate in all safety instruction and all drills. (9) WHO WOULDN’T WANT TO WORK THERE? A hurdle for new employees is that students’ schedules are very fluid. This is due to orientation and mobility instruction and braille courses taking priority along with maximizing field practice. If a residential student is ill, they typically miss the entire week of school due to transportation schedules of picking students up on Sundays and taking them home on Fridays. As all students at the school have disabilities, working there can present a moral dilemma for people who believe that it isn’t an inclusive setting and that students should be educated in their schools of residence. (10) WHAT ARE THE MOST UNIQUE EXPERIENCES FOR STAFF? It was common for half the school’s staff and students to go on impromptu bike outings on warm fall or spring days. The school had tandem or three-wheeled bikes and a staff member or community volunteer was paired with a student. Doc describes a special CPR awareness project he helped a student work on which brought in the local TV and the student was given awards at an assembly. And, there was the pesky dorm cow that roamed the hallways at the most inopportune times! FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE, BLOG & BOOKS: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. This is episode 162 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 12-13-2021.
Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Books:
- School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com
- Velocity of Information - Human Thinking During Chaotic Times. www.velocityofinformation.com
Monday Nov 22, 2021
Entropy of Structures and Systems | The New Fire Engine Effect | SDP159
Monday Nov 22, 2021
Monday Nov 22, 2021
Entropy is the gradual decline into disorder. An example of entropy is a melting ice cube. Water molecules are fixed and ordered in the cube. As it melts, the molecules become free to move and become independent and therefore become disordered. The second law of thermodynamics is that all things lead to entropy - from ice cubes to the human body. In this episode, Doc examines the entropy of structures and systems and centers these concepts on the example of a small village purchasing a replacement for its 30-year-old fire engine. ENTROPY OF STRUCTURES. Over time, cars will rust, pavement will crack, and the human body will deteriorate. Although entropy of structures is a certainty, preventive measures and maintenance will slow the rate of entropy. For the car, it’s washing, waxing, and applying touch-up paint to new chips. Exercise staves off muscle atrophy. Even if all structures on Earth were immune from entropy, the sun would engulf the planet. ENTROPY OF SYSTEMS. When the Texas power grid failed in the winter of 2017, a forensic analysis revealed a power grid system that had become old, outdated, and inefficient. Remember when you were in elementary school and participated in a monthly fire drill? The purpose of the drill was to ensure fidelity of the evacuation system. If you only practiced a fire drill the first week of the school year, then some students would forget the protocols as the year went on. THE NEW FIRE ENGINE EFFECT. In October, 2021, the village board of a community of 1500 people in Wisconsin approved an expenditure for a new fire engine. At $400,000, the rescue pumper would be the costliest purchase in the village’s 2022 budget. The volunteer department’s fire chief was grilled by the city council members to justify the large expenditure. The prepared chief noted that the village's primary engine, a 1990 pumper bought for $78,000, was well-maintained and also succumbing to entropy of structure and systems. In other words, the engine itself was demonstrating fatigue and it was difficult to find replacement parts for the aging apparatus. But there was something else. The outside world evolved 30 years beyond the world the engine entered. This is important. Let’s say that an exact new replica of the 1990 engine could be delivered to the fire station. Would that make sense? The firefighters would be familiar with the various levers and controls, right? Going back to the 1990 engine - it doesn’t have a crew cab and therefore only 3 firefighters can travel in it. Because of this limitation, the engine always needed a companion as the department always sent at least 4 firefighters to a call. This meant that two fire trucks were sent to accidents in order to have sufficient personnel - an accepted practice in 1990 - in fact, the firehouse was often emptied for most calls as the mindset was to bring as many assets to an incident as possible. Today, the “industry” protocol is to send a single "rescue" engine specifically built to transport 4-5 crew and extrication gear. The stalwart 1990 engine had a 1000 GPM pump. New engines are outfitted with a 1500 GPM pump. The village's fire rating fell over the years due to static pumping capacity as the once-tiny industrial park flourished with new businesses. And then there's GPS, comms, LED lighting and improved designs so ladders can be stored on top of the apparatus and lowered with ease. So that was all on the structure entropy side of things. The next part was systems entropy. In 1990, nobody thought about extinguishing an electric vehicle. Firefighters today train differently than their 1990 counterparts. The system of individual fire departments battling any blaze was a thing in 1990. In that Wisconsin village,a massive fire on Main Street was tackled by the fire department and the neighboring rural town’s department. Today, such a fire would activate mutual aid from multiple communities. With the advent and acceptance of mutual aid, fire departments are streamlining their fleets and pool assets. SCHOOL SAFETY. So what does this mean for school safety? As entropy happens slowly, it's almost impossible for schools to detect it. Plus, there is frequent turnover of school staff - so these folks aren’t around long enough to observe entropy. What can a safety expert do for a school? Identify the state of entropy and make recommendations to restore structures or systems (to original), refurbish them (modernize them as possible), or replace them. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David P. Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. This is episode 159 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 11-22-2021.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com
Tuesday Oct 26, 2021
Tuesday Oct 26, 2021
One lesser-mentioned reason for the sustained and worsening supply chain disruption is that manufacturing has entered the “transfer portal” between JIT and 3D printing. In other words, an old technology is being usurped by a new technology. The pandemic hastened the process and the question centered on in this episode is how the baton pass will occur as the race track is quaking. WAREHOUSE to JIT to 3D PRINTING. In the 1990s, manufacturing experienced an evolution from warehouse manufacturing (or creating excess product and to ship as needed), to Just In Time (JIT) manufacturing - which meant products would skip the warehouse and go directly from the manufacturer to the store / business / consumer. JIT was clunky at first, but as computers improved, RFID to quickly track and improve asset management, and sophisticated transportation logistics, the JIT system was proven, and improving, by the early 2000s. 3D-PRINTED HOUSES GO MAINSTREAM. (Yahoo News’ Joann Muller, Monday, October 25, 2021) Doc shares a story about 3D-printed cement houses. Instead of conventional materials like steel, aluminum and lumber, 3D-printed structures are built by a robot squeezing a cement mixture out of a nozzle, layer upon layer, like a soft swirl ice cream cone. It's the same additive manufacturing process used to make everything from dental implants to airplane parts — just on a much, much larger scale. Texas-based ICON has delivered two dozen 3D-printed homes in the US and Mexico and has raised $207 million to expand. The homes are printed on-site. While something as disruptive as 3D printed houses seems far-fetched, Doc noted that from 1908 to 1940, you could choose from over 400 styles of homes to purchase through Sears, Roebuck and Co. mail-order catalog. HOW 3D-PRINTED FOOD COULD CHANGE THE WAY WE COOK AND EAT. General Electric's GE Additive Manufacturing branch released a report in 2020 describing 3D-printing of food as entering mainstream testing. “At one gourmet restaurant in the United Kingdom, everyone is eating 3D-printed food because that is all that is served. The enterprising entrepreneurs at London’s Food Ink decided to push additive manufacturing to its logical extreme. Everything is 3D printed, including the utensils, plates, tables and chairs. At Miramar, a gourmet restaurant in Spain, food printers take on more mundane tasks, freeing chefs to better focus on their creative cuisine.” BENEFITS OF 3D PRINTING (Statsys.com) (1) Advance time-to-market turnaround; (2) Save on tooling costs with on-demand 3D printing; (3) Reduce waste with additive manufacturing; (4) Save weight with complex part designs; (5) Eliminate shipping of finished products, along with packaging. ISSUES WITH 3D PRINTING (1) Need for raw materials - you won’t be able to harvest from your backyard; (2) Intellectual property enforcement - while some open source and public domain, it’s most likely 3D printers will have a subscription service like Amazon; (3) Unclear as to how 3D printed items will be recycled; (4) What is liability if you 3D print something that fails - like a part for your car; (5) Ransomware and hackability. What prevents 3D food printers from being corrupted? FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. The show seeks to bring forward productive discourse on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 156 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 10-26-2021.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com.
Wednesday Oct 13, 2021
Wednesday Oct 13, 2021
Doc peels apart the big sticky questions about K-12 school mask mandates. What’s kicked off the flurry of mask/mitigation lawsuits filed by parents? Have county health services abandoned their obligations to school districts? Are school boards spending pandemic funds on football fields? Why are doctors invited to present at school board meetings instead of environmental services experts? Learn what is happening and what should be happening is schools around America. MASK GUIDANCE. Schools are frantically seeking guidance from county health departments. While some counties have stepped up, others have stepped away and turned off the lights. Boards of Education (BOEs) then attempt to align decisions to the CDC, state recommendation, advice from legal counsel, or local doctors. MASKS IN THE REAL SCHOOL WORLD. School officials are unable to define what is an effective and acceptable mask. Hundreds of students might wear old masks, homemade masks, or fashion masks. Should schools issue masks to students and staff to ensure some baseline of quality? How are students educated about mask wearing and how are schools responding to medical exemption orders for some students with disabilities? CONTACT TRACING. We’ve all heard this concept. In practice, it’s messy for schools providing in-person instruction. What frequently happens is that a student tests positive for COVID-19 and then the district notifies parents that their child was in “close proximity” to a child that tested positive for COVID-19. The parents are advised to observe their child for symptoms, but typically aren’t required to have the student self-quarantine or receive a rapid test. How does a parent distinguish symptoms of colds, seasonal flu, allergies, COVID-19, and fatigue? ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES. The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund (March, 2021) pumped cash into schools in the form of block grants that allowed schools to spend the dollars to increase student achievement or mitigate pandemic concerns. Some districts spent their dollars on staffing and cleaning. Others installed artificial turf athletic fields, tracks, and new weight rooms. There was much, and unchecked, interpretation of what measures promoted student health during a pandemic. Doc also notes that few schools spend the funds on HVAC upgrades due to the technical barriers of upgrading existing systems. For example, filters that remove viruses decrease air flow through the system and strain circulation motors. Furthermore, equipment and installers are in short supply as supply chains fell apart in 2021. SHOULD SCHOOLS TEST FOR COVID-19 ON SURFACES AND IN THE AIR? Yes. Schools have utilized professional environmental services to test for mold or MRSA, remove impacted areas, and help to prevent future problems. Environmental companies that offer those services are able to test surfaces and air samples for the presence of COVID-19. Doc states that professional environmental services should be informing school boards about COVID-19 management in schools. PARENTS SUE SCHOOLS - MY CHILD GOT COVID-10 AT SCHOOL. Doc notes very recent lawsuits that parents have filed against schools in his state alleging that the school “failed to implement reasonable COVID-19 mitigation measures.” How might schools respond to the lawsuits? Will parents prevail. If so, then what happens? Doc describes how foreseeable tort law might be something we begin to hear about and what that term means for BOEs. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. The show seeks to bring forward productive discourse on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 154 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 10-13-2021.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com.
Friday Oct 30, 2020
Friday Oct 30, 2020
Doc returns from sabbatical for this Master Class and delivers updated interpretations of Finite Voltage, Crowd-In Behavior, and his newest concept of "Failure to Regress to the Mean" to describe the current condition of society. Read the full blog post for episode #149 at safetyphd.com TACTICAL WISDOM. David begins with sharing a recent post by Joe Dolio at tactical-wisdom.com. Joe offers a heavy dose of face validity in sharing his observations of the greater Detroit area including photos of a WalMart that removed all guns and ammunition as a “precaution” in the event the store was compromised during election-related civil unrest. Increased outward-facing lighting at a power substation was another image that warned that corporations and municipalities are anticipating a collapse of law and order in the coming weeks. PRAIRIE FIRE. Author Clay Martin, a previous guest on The Safety Doc Podcast, released another “essential reading” book on October 15th. Per Clay, “Prairie Fire is a guide for Red Counties to survive and thrive during what looks to be another Civil War brewing. Drawing on his experience in Special Forces with counter insurgency, the author creates a step by step road map to making it out alive.” Doc will review the book in a future podcast. WHAT IS REGRESSION TO THE MEAN? It’s a concept (actually a tendency) from statistics and means that things tend to return to “average” over time. Doc describes that American’s expectation for similarity, or that their days tend to be the same, was interrupted in mid-March with COVID19 lockdowns, exacerbated with civil unrest in the summer, and will be even further distorted with pending Presidential election protests, riots, and potential legal battles. There is no evidence that Americans’ lives are regressing to the mean - or returning to some form of similarity. This is a precarious, unsettling situation that is already amplified by Finite Voltage and Crowd-in Behavior. Dr. Perrodin notes that while we are accustomed to life “bouncing back” in a matter of days, we need to prepare for many months, or even years, until our lives regress to the mean - something last experienced by Americans in the latter 1930s. SPORTS ILLUSTRATED JINX. One example of regression to the mean is the infamous Sports Illustrated cover jinx. The jinx states that whoever appears on the cover of SI is going to have a poor following year (or years). But the “jinx” is actually regression towards the mean. Player’s make the cover after an exceptional year and it’s statistically unlikely that they will either repeat that performance or improve upon it. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. The show seeks to bring forward productive discourse on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 149 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 10-30-2020.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America www.schooloferrors.com
Saturday Aug 08, 2020
SDP146: Survival Expert Morgan Rogue | Subtle Signs of Chaos | Livestream 8-7-2020
Saturday Aug 08, 2020
Saturday Aug 08, 2020
Morgan Rogue’s mantra is to conquer tomorrow by preparing today! She lives on 40 acres of land in the southern United States with her husband, two daughters and two dogs. She is the owner and founder of Rogue Preparedness, a website dedicated to emergency preparedness and survival skills. Morgan has published extensively in crisis preparedness and response including Preparedness For Busy People, and Prepare & Survive Economic Crisis - which is a primer to help people understand bartering, valuable items, and controlling fear. She has a fast-growing YouTube channel with diverse content including: hunting, survival, camping, hiking, guns, prepping, urban survival, family preparedness, bug out bags, gear reviews, prepping on a budget, dogs, homesteading, and all things outdoors and adventure. New videos and blog posts are published weekly! WHY MORGAN WAS INVITED TO THIS SHOW. Morgan is an authentic person seeking knowledge. She doesn’t hesitate to post a first-take video of attempting to build a solar-powered food dehydrator. Don’t get me wrong, she presents as a tremendously competent person. Her videos and posts are concise, personable and interesting without massive editing or saturated with promotions. Morgan reveals that life and preparedness have bumpy first takes. After reading Morgan’s posts, watching her videos, and exploring her website, I discovered, or perhaps re-discovered, an appreciation of preparedness and immediately re-visited the things I could do to increase my survival skills. In an infamous Tweet, I wrote, “Her [Morgan’s] contributions to safety stand out as curated and calibrated with easements for people new to preparedness as well as experienced preppers.” That sums it up - and I hope that makes it onto the praise page of one of her future best sellers. PREPAREDNESS AS A PARENT OF YOUNG KIDS. Are kids a liability during a crisis? Some people think so, but not Morgan. She’s noted that there is no magic age to introduce children to survival and self-reliance skills. Her kids are with her when she hikes, her daughter has used a survival straw to drink from a creek, and Morgan published a brilliant blog post of 45 outdoor activities for kids in a time when parks and theaters were closed due to the pandemic. One recommendation was to have kids draw a map of their house, neighborhood, or a trail. Spatial orientation. Distance. Landmarks. Planning. What Morgan shares isn’t data you offload until a disaster - instead, it’s vetted advice on how to make yourself better - right now. SUBTLE SIGNS OF CHAOS - SEWING MACHINES. The early days of the coronavirus stay home orders sparked scarcity buying - toilet paper, pasta, and cleaners. When people anticipate that a chaos event will last months, other items begin to disappear from the market. Morgan shared that she was unable to find a new or used sewing machine in May. Locating a freezer was equally challenging, despite searching stores and secondary online sites such as Craigslist. LEARN A SKILL TODAY. Morgan identified several ways that people could improve their self-reliance today. Everything takes practice, but most people can learn to sharpen a knife, make basic sewing repairs or grow food - even if in a container inside their house. Also, get fit! Fit people are better able to get to safety, recover from trauma, help others, and be easier to be aided by others. COMMUNICATIONS - CONSIDER HAM RADIO. Should you consider a landline (in case the cell towers fail)? Morgan noted that a landline is valuable, and added that there are still payphone locations in some areas and those might be an option if cellular communications are disrupted during a crisis. She encourages people to learn more about HAM radio. Morgan and her husband use HAM radios and communicate with people hundreds of miles away. Every year, HAM radio conducts a Field Day which is an amatuer radio experience to demonstrate temporary transmitting stations in public places - with an emphasis on emergency communication preparedness. A basic HAM radio receiver (listen only) is $50. Morgan notes that the HAM radio community has always been essential and reliable during crisis events. She identified a few organizations to visit to learn more about obtaining a HAM license. HAM’s more than survival, it’s a wonderful hobby. Many colleges, for example, have HAM radio clubs. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. The show seeks to bring forward productive discourse on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 146 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 8-7-2020.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com.
- Rogue Preparedness website: https://roguepreparedness.com/
Sunday Jul 19, 2020
Sunday Jul 19, 2020
Retired Recon Marine Clay Martin leverages his bonafide credentials and experience to provide listeners with fact-based, authentic concepts regarding the application of survival techniques in their homes, neighborhoods, and any environment that spins into chaos. Clay shares captivating personal stories, including a time when a momentary fatigue of his situational awareness resulted in juggling a hot potato tear gas canister decoyed as a Dr. Pepper bottle. Read the full blog post for episode #143 at safetyphd.com. ABOUT CLAY MARTIN. Clay Martin is a former USMC Infantryman, Reconnaissance Marine, and Scout Sniper. He crossed deck to the US Army and spent the rest of his career in Special Forces, because he is a glutton for punishment. Medically retired at 15 years of service, he wandered the Earth like Caine from Kung Fu, before remembering he could type and starting a career as a gun review monkey and novelist. He is the author of Last Son of the War God and the Sword of the Caliphate, fictional works. CONCRETE JUNGLE - AMAZON BEST SELLER / SEVERAL REVIEWS. Written in 2019 and released in June 2020, Concrete Jungle: A Green Berets guide to Urban Survival, is unfortunately a non-fiction book appropriate to the times we live in. As cultural war clouds gather, cities are becoming the flashpoint. In this volume, retired Special Forces soldier Clay Martin teaches you how to survive it. A multi tour GWOT veteran and Special Forces Advanced Urban Combat instructor, as well as long time prepper and competitive shooter, Clay brings a different type of skill set to the party. From laying in supplies to siege proofing your apartment building, this volume answers the questions other experts cannot. HOUSE BURNED DOWN, MEDICAL EVENT, AND THEN COVID19. Clay and his family were out of town when their house caught fire and was destroyed at the end of January. A week later, Clay was hospitalized with an unexpected blog clot in his right arm that extended into his lungs, and by the time he was released in February, the COVID19 pandemic became something that couldn’t be ignored by Americans - so his family prepared for the pandemic, without many of their possessions, while living in a rental house - and as Clay was a medically-compromised person due to the recent hospitalization. Conditioned for chaotic times, Clay rolled with the situation and stated, “We have water bottles and a backpack, we’ll be fine”, but also found his young children asking, “where are our toys, why are we living in BRBs, …?” SITUATION AWARENESS - YOU CAN LEARN IT. Clay wrote that the American civilian population has been largely insulated and comfortable since 1941. People in America wake up expecting and experiencing a predictable, safe day. He believes that most people are deficient in situational awareness skills unless they’ve grown up in a volatile area, such as a big city - in which situational awareness and survival skills are an evolved process. SNIPER SCHOOL. Clay shared that sniper school focused on identifying nuanced things through binoculars or being able to recall what you passed while walking to lunch. The more you observe your environment, the more you automatically attend to what’s happening around you and also apply a filter of, “What can hurt me right now?” David built on this with an example of taking his family to a baseball game last summer. He taught his daughters to watch the position of the infielders and outfielders in order to predict what might happen next. HOW CLAY BUILT HIS PROXY NETWORK. Clay notes that different people have different abilities to handle things - so learn people’s strengths and play to those strengths when building your information network. If someone’s a spreadsheet fanatic, give him an assignment of aggregating data from members in the field. Clay describes how he built his information network similar to a phone tree - and have the primary people be the ones that live close to you. Remember that your connections in other parts of the country are likely to have their own regional networks. PREDICTORS OF THINGS TO COME. Clay identified alarming patterns of behavior last year including some states and cities choosing to selectively enforce the law and dropping charges - and a trend toward a more lawless society. Clay feels we might be 6-8 months out from hyperinflation and an economic collapse. FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. The show seeks to bring forward productive discourse on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 143 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 7-18-2020.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com.
- Clay Martin's website: http://off-the-reservation.com/
Tuesday Jul 07, 2020
Tuesday Jul 07, 2020
Joe Dolio is a USMC Veteran with over 20 years in corporate security investigations as a Certified Fraud Examiner and Certified Forensic Interviewer. He is a KyoSaNim (Instructor) and Second Degree Black Belt in Tang Soo Do. Joe is adept in situational awareness and successfully negotiating exits from chaotic environments. He curates the website tactical-wisdom.com which is a repository for his posts about personal safety and grounded wisdom. Read the full blog post for episode #142 at safetyphd.com. SITUATIONAL AWARENESS. Joe distinguishes between intelligence and information. People tend to source information from rumors or from the media instead of getting out and verifying things for themselves. “My cousin’s friend knows a guy…” is information - it is NOT intelligence. What did you do to verify that information? Joe heard that Detroit area hospitals were crowded with COVID19 patients - TV images suggested jammed parking lots and M*A*S*H-like field hospitals popping up across the city. Questioning this information, he drove to the hospitals and found that the parking lots weren’t overflowing as depicted by the media or embellished in personal stories. Grocery stores were also among the places visited by Joe at the onset of the coronavirus as he observed human behavior - how people were “feeling” about the pandemic - calm, nervous, totally panicked! He found that people’s behaviors weren’t necessarily matched to what was authentically happening with the supply chain. MUSTERING YOUR MEMBER CHECK NETWORK - AN APP TO VERIFY INFO. Face validity (face validity is a simple test of asking if what I’m observing makes sense - think of a thermometer that reports 80 degrees during a snowstorm - that’s an error in face validity) is amplified by building a carefully vetted, trained, and coached group of like-minded people who are able to authentically observe and report what they experience in their environments. Joe noted that members of his network used the Solocator app which allowed them to take photos that were automatically tagged with time stamps and GPS coordinates. His network debriefed daily and used Google documents to aggregate data and identify trends. OPTIONS IF TRAPPED IN CAR DURING PROTEST. It’s on everyone’s mind...what if I’m in my car and inadvertently get caught in a protest? It might be an inconvenience - or it might escalate into a dangerous situation. First, Joe advises to check for scheduled protests if traveling and to steer clear of those areas. If you are in your vehicle and caught within a group of protesters, he reminds people of their options to: (1) keep moving (not to collide with people); (2) reverse course - even if it means driving the wrong way or skipping the median; or, in extreme situations, (3) abandon your vehicle if the protests have become violent and you judge your life is in peril and that you have time to get to a safer location. HOW TO GO STEALTH. Joe attended [peaceful] protests as an observer and noted the security teams deployed by protest groups (not the government) to monitor vehicles and people that appeared to be watching the protesters instead of participating in the protest. Joe dressed in jeans, a hoodie, and a baseball cap and kept a change of clothes in his backpack. He shared this information to help people learn how to blend in and get away from impromptu crowds - and noted protests were happening in grocery store parking lots across his city. Have the ability to quickly change your profile. SHOULD I WEAR A BODY CAM? Joe wears a body cam for his professional work and notes that a decent body cam with video and audio costs less than $100. His recommendation is Mini Gadgets Camstick1080p which clips into a pocket. He believes that gun owners should absolutely have a body cam to provide contextual evidence if they decide to use deadly force. Additionally, automotive dash cams are affordable and invaluable during a disputed accident. Check your state’s laws regarding one or two party consent to record. WHAT TO HAVE IN YOUR FIRST AID - DUCT TAPE. Joe insists that duct tape is a staple of every first aid kit. For more on this topic, read his blog post at https://tactical-wisdom.com/2020/07/07/first-aid-skills/ LEARN BASIC SELF DEFENSE. Check out your local dojo for martial arts courses. Get a gym membership and learn to spar and box. Could you defend yourself if someone attempted to tackle you? FOLLOW DR. PERRODIN: Twitter @SafetyPhD and subscribe to The Safety Doc YouTube channel & Apple Podcasts. SAFETY DOC WEBSITE & BLOG: www.safetyphd.com. The Safety Doc Podcast is hosted & produced by David Perrodin, PhD. ENDORSEMENTS. Opinions are those of the host & guests. The show seeks to bring forward productive discourse on topics relevant to personal or community safety. This is episode 142 of The Safety Doc Podcast published on 7-6-2020.
- Purchase Dr. Perrodin’s Book: School of Errors – Rethinking School Safety in America. www.schooloferrors.com
- Joe Dolio's website: https://tactical-wisdom.com/