SRA Podcasts
Let’s Talk Risk with the Society for Risk Analysis, the world’s leading authority on risk science and its applications, helps bring clarity to the world of risk, uncertainty, and ambiguity.
Misinformation on Social Media: How to Debunk and Stop the Spread (8/23/22) On this episode of Let’s Talk Risk, Professor Jun Zhuang, the Morton C. Frank Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Buffalo, joins to talk misinformation on social media. Zhuang breaks down what misinformation on social media is and why it’s important for us to think about.
Explore a Low-Carbon Future & the Tradeoffs of Climate Geoengineering (6/10/22) Benjamin K. Sovacool, professor at Boston University, University of Sussex, and Aarhus University, joins the podcast to discuss his new research on climate geoengineering. Sovacool dives into the risk tradeoffs of carbon removal and solar radiation management. His research highlights different risks in the climate system, and the institutional, political, behavioral, social and cultural risks that accompany deployment of new technology. To close out the podcast, Sovacool shares the three policy implications from the study.
A New Metric to Fight Inequity in Home Evaluations (4/21/22) Dr. David Johnson, professor of industrial engineering with a joint appointment of political science at Purdue University, joins Let’s Talk Risk to discuss his most recent work on the inequities and health impacts of flooding. States and communities struggle when thinking about how to better incorporate equity consideration into their planning process. To combat this, Johnson explains a new metric to evaluate projects that normalize the value of homes: treating all households the same. Instead of trying to prioritize projects based on protecting value, Johnson and his fellow researchers created an alternative metric that thinks about protecting households, irrespective of their value.
The Importance of Consumer Willingness to Pay for Sustainable Products (4/4/22) There are plenty of environmental issues plaguing the world today. Whether it’s climate change, water shortage or waste, it always boils down to one thing: consumption patterns. Prerna Shah, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Communication at the State University of New York at Buffalo, joins the podcast to share her and Dr. Janet Yang’s research where they analyze whether communication can help dispel inaccurate beliefs on sustainable products and if it can drive people toward more positive behavior.
All Things Extreme Weather Events: Outages, Patterns, Restoration, & More (3/22/22) Nicole Jackson, Ph.D., of Sandia National Labs, joins the Let’s Talk Risk podcast to talk about her work analyzing how extreme weather events and climate hazards impact physical infrastructures. Jackson shares her experiences on researching how long outages are and how many people were affected to get a sense of the duration of the event and the kind of magnitude of the event from a human perspective. This conversation covers how communities are equipped for extreme weather events, energy equity, resiliency of different countries, socio-economic factors, and more.
A Closer Look at the Risk of Mail-In Ballots (2/22/22) Natalie Scala, associate professor at Towson University, joins the podcast to discuss her recent research on evaluating mail-based security for electoral processes. Since the 2020 Presidential Election took a dramatic shift, it was time to look at what was happening on the ground. When you strip the politics out, a fundamental question of the dramatic scale up of mail voting remains: Did mail-in voting introduce additional risks to the election process?
COVID-19 was a Risk Communication Failure. How do we Avoid this in the Future? (2/8/22) Jose Palma-Oliverira, professor at the University of Lisbon, joins the podcast to talk all things risk communication regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Oliverira discusses the importance of having a trusted communicator and understanding the audience’s belief systems, the population’s perception of the communicator, the contradiction between individual rationality and global rationality, and much more. Without this understanding, Oliverira notes that the communicator will lose their audience and explains how to avoid this.
The COVID-19 Pandemic: Where is it Headed Next? (11/23/21) Let’s Talk Risk Podcast is happy to welcome back Ben Trump, a research social scientist at the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center to talk about vaccine and booster shot rollout. Ben discusses the everchanging COVID climate including the vaccine for kids from ages 5-eleven, where the pandemic may be headed next, closing the equity gap, improving communication, and everything in between. Disclaimer: Opinions are the speakers’ alone, and not representative of the US Government or any state government.
How Do You Apply Complex COVID-19 Risk Model for Safe Reopening a Major University and Elementary Schools (10/22/2021) Dr. Seth Guikema discusses complex risk modeling for the University of Michigan’s COVID-19 reopening plan. Seth is a professor in the Department of Industrial Operations Engineering and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Michigan as well as a past SRA president. Seth explains his university’s process in developing the reopening plan and the challenges along the way and how this same modeling process can also be used for elementary schools and other institutions.
COVID-19 Vaccines from a Risk-Based Perspective (5/25/2021) What does vaccination development look like from a risk-based perspective? Seth Guikema, Ph.D., University of Michigan, talks with Ben Trump, a member of the Army Corps of Engineers, about the complex process of COVID-19 vaccine development. Between accounting for technical science perspectives, considering various forms of regulatory approval, and addressing risk assessment-based challenges, parsing through the process for COVID-19 emergency use vaccination efforts can seem arduous. Disclaimer: Opinions are the speakers’ alone, and not representative of the US Government or any state government.
Texas Energy Crisis – Sustainability vs. Resilience, a Risk Perspective (4/30/2021) What happens when the power grid fails and resilience is lacking? Seth Guikema, Ph.D., University of Michigan and Mark H. Weir, Ph.D., The Ohio State University, have a timely conversation about the Texas Energy Crisis with Roshi Nateghi, Ph.D., who teaches industrial engineering at Purdue University and particularly focuses on infrastructure sustainability and resilience. They discuss the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) oversight on the bulk power system and what happens when their resilience falls under the jurisdiction of states when it comes to distribution systems. Simple assignment of blame is incorrect and counterproductive, and through risk sciences, can be avoided.
Compound Hazards: Should I Stay or Should I Go? (6/25/2020) Robyn Wilson, Ph.D., Ohio State University, and Gina Eosco, Ph.D., NOAA, discuss compound hazards and how that impacts the decision making process for individuals and communities when threatened by both extreme weather events and COVID-19. What actions should people take when faced with both evacuation and stay-at-home orders?
COVID-19 Impacts on Risk Research (5/28/2020) Four panelists discuss the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on their research projects in various disciplines of risk analysis. Panelists: Gabrielle Wong-Parodi, Ph.D., Stanford University, Khara Grieger, Ph.D., North Carolina State University, Mark Borsuk, Ph.D., Duke University, and Roshanak Nateghi, Ph.D., Purdue University
Insights into Reopening the Economy (5/15/2020) Robin Cantor, Ph.D., and Dubravka Tosic, Ph.D., Berkeley Research Group, discuss how businesses and non-profits can begin to re-open and regain their customers post-COVID-19.
COVID-19 Pandemic: Is History Doomed to Repeat Itself? (4/29/20) Vicki Bier, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, discusses lessons learned from the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic.
New Challenges for Risk Analysis from COVID-19 (4/15/20) Rae Zimmerman, Ph.D., research professor at NYU Wagner, discusses the new challenges for risk analysts posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, from a NYC perspective.
Emerging Health Technologies: Do The Risks Outweigh The Rewards? (6/11/19) Sally Wyatt, Ph.D., Maastricht University, and Marie-Valentine Florin, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), discuss direct-to-consumer genetic testing and human genome editing with an overarching theme of risk vs. reward. This episode is hosted by Catherine Wong, University of Luxembourg.
Risk Communication on Social Media: Making Your Messages Go Further (10/1/18) Sarah Vos, Ph.D., a research analyst at the University of Kentucky, and Jeannette Sutton, Ph.D., an associate professor at the University of Kentucky, discuss risk communication on social media and the factors that increase the likelihood of a message being shared and re-tweeted.
Facing Extreme Weather: How do YOU Prepare? (9/10/18) Julie Demuth, project scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, discusses how individual experiences with extreme weather events, such as tornadoes, impact how we prepare for future events. Demuth’s research indicates that people’s risk perceptions are highly influenced by a memorable past tornado experience that contributes to unwelcome thoughts, feelings and disruption, which ultimately increase one’s fear, dread, worry and depression.
How Do We Determine if Our Food is Safe (8/13/18) Christine Hassauer, research associate and doctoral candidate at the Technical University of Munich, discusses her work in developing a conceptual framework to describe food safety.
Building Urban Resilience (7/30/2018) Charlotte Heinzlef, PhD student at the University of Avignon and the University of Mons, discusses her research on the concept of resilience in relation to urban floods. Heinzlef aims to develop a holistic methodology to operationalize resilience by redefining its objectives and actions.
Risk Science and the Regulatory Environment (7/16/18) Frederic Bouder and Mikael Karlsson, PhD, senior researcher at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, discuss risk science and policy, with a focus on European policies.
A Paradigm Shift in Injury Risk Reduction (7/2/18) Gary Wilkerson, EdD, professor of graduate athletic training at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, discusses his recent research on developing an individualized approach to injury prevention for athletes. Using screening tests that measure physical performance in conjunction with Internet of Things devices, Wilkerson was able to gather data to understand the odds of injury recurrence for each athlete.
Emotions Control Your Appetite for Risk (6/18/18) Peter Ayton, associate dean research & deputy dean social sciences at City University of London, discusses the psychological influences on risk and risk perceptions.
Power Systems Resilience: Can We Rely on Renewables? (6/4/18) Hiba Baroud, PhD, professor of civil engineering and environmental engineering at Vanderbilt University, and Andrea Staid, PhD, senior technical staff member at Sandia National Laboratories, discuss short and long term solutions to making our country’s power systems more resilient, especially as extreme weather events become more severe.
Boundaries in Risk Analysis: What’s In and What’s Out? (5/21/18) Robert Goble, PhD, research professor of environment, technology and society at Clark University, discusses what belongs, and doesn’t belong, in a risk assessment. Goble argues that the choice of boundaries is a foundational and practical concern and something that constantly requires revisiting.
Infrastructure Management: Communities Can Profit From Disaster (5/7/18) Seth Guikema, PhD, professor of industrial & operations engineering and civil & environmental engineering at the University of Michigan and Giovanni Sansavini, PhD, professor of reliability and risk engineering at the University ETH Zurich, discuss infrastructure management and anti-fragility. Their research shows that disasters can be an opportunity for infrastructure systems to improve.
Clearing House at the EPA: An Attack on Science (4/23/18) Joe Arvai, PhD, professor of sustainable enterprise and director of the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan, and Robyn Wilson, PhD, associate professor of risk analysis and decision science at the Ohio State University discuss their interactions with the EPA and new regulations impacting the Science Advisory Board.
The Preservation of a Culture (4/9/18) Lukasz Bratasz, PhD, head of the Sustainable Conservation Lab at Yale University, and Barbara Swiatkowska, from the National Museum in Krakow, Poland, discuss risk analysis in relation to the preservation of cultural heritage.
We’ve Been Underestimating Climate Change (3/27/18) Roshanak Nateghi, PhD, professor of industrial engineering at Purdue University, and Seth Guikema, PhD, professor of industrial & operations engineering and civil & environmental engineering at the University of Michigan, discuss harnessing data driven risk analytics and predictive modeling with regard to weather extremes, climate change and the resiliency of critical infrastructure.
The Uncertainty Component (3/27/18) Hiba Baroud, PhD, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Vanderbilt University, discusses resilience in the context of risk analysis, including reconfiguration on systems, anti-fragility, vulnerability, modeling and assessments.