Dukes of Hazards: The Emergency Management Podcast

The Dukes relive a heroic day with Drs. Tricia Wachtendorf and James Kendra, authors of American Dunkirk: The Waterborne Evacuation of Manhattan on 9/11. From the first impact on the towers, boat captains came by the dozens to rescue hundreds of thousands of survivors in under nine hours. If you don't know this story, you should. Tricia and Jim use it to explore a whole new theory of disaster management. Plus: Andrew learns the Texas Chicken Maneuver and, yes, Mitch cheated. ALSO, we swear (but only about New Jersey). (Some audio borrowed from Boatlift, a brief documentary about the evacuation that you should check out on YouTube).

Pulitzer-prize winning author and New York Times journalist Sheri Fink ("Five Days At Memorial") for some reason agrees to visit the Dukes! She takes us on an intense tour of health and medical lessons from the historic 2017 Coastal Storm season, including stops in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. Plus, we learn how Sheri first got obsessed (er, interested) in disasters in the Balkans, and why she always asks her interviewees about their last drills but never goes to see disaster movies. And, yes, it took Mitch years to make a go kit for his wife, but he feels really bad about it now.

The Dukes shut up (for once) and hand things over to their crack co-hosts, Drs. Nicolette Louissaint and Samantha Montano, to discuss the personal and professional journeys of women in Emergency Management. Joined by Sarah Miller and Susamma Seeley, we cover everything from first mentors to being the only woman in the room to why every single middle age white guy needs to explain things to you and check in about your hair. Really? Plus, it's a bigger problem: If emergency managers keep creating rooms without women, how will they make sure they serve all survivors? No worries: We have an Improvement Plan on the way, and mostly no F-bombs.

The Dukes hotwash the International Association of Emergency Management (IAEM) conference and programs with a whole host of experts - Susamma Seeley, Sarah Miller, Diane Logsdon and Andrew McGuire. From Tech (Drones! Smart Cars!) to Education (Are EM degrees worth it?) to Healthcare (Yes, there are healthcare emergency managers), we catch you up on all the latest issues in your global network of fine disaster practitioners. Pro tip: Pronounce it "I'AM" Also: we take a look at the culture of emergency management, which is working to diversify, but still has a ways to go.

Mitch and Andrew swallow the red pill with Kathleen Tierney, the former head of the Natural Hazards Center, and learn how society creates disaster risk as well as how homeland security after 9/11 made things worse, not better. Plus, the best congressional testimony of all time (seriously) and how one stroke of a President's pen hurt the professionalization of emergency management. Also, which FEMA Director would be which Marvel Avenger? and we ALMOST get Mitch's Wifi password on the air.