Responder Resilience

245 Episodes

Reverse

S6 E39 Veterans Turned First Responders: A Deeper Dive with Guest Dr. Stacy Raymond

2026-09-3057:25

One of our most-downloaded episodes was our first conversation with Dr. Stacy Raymond, PsyD, on treating veterans who transitioned into first responder roles. This is the deeper dive. In this Clinician's Guide Masterclass, Dr. Raymond returns to go past the overview: distinguishing moral injury from PTSI, working with a veteran's military identity as it collapses or adapts, the real function of hypervigilance, and how to address firearms and suicide risk without breaking the therapeutic allia...

S6 E38 Firefighter AI Spots the Drift Before You Do with Guest Gary Roberts

2026-09-2341:30

Nobody radios in "I'm not okay." You just push through the next call, and the one after that. Gary Roberts has pushed through calls for more than twenty years, as an active firefighter and paramedic in Fort Lauderdale. He's also built an AI company on the side, between shifts, on no sleep, because he got tired of watching guys wait too long to say something. His company is called Neurovus, and the AI agent is NAVI. It doesn't diagnose you. It doesn't talk to your chief. It watches what your w...

S6 E37 Cultural Empathy vs. Competency: How Chief Manny Almaguer Actually Earns Trust

2026-09-1646:04

Assistant Chief Manny Almaguer draws a distinction most fire departments have never heard: cultural competency and cultural empathy are not the same thing. One checks a box. The other earns trust. In this conversation, he breaks down what that difference actually looks like on the ground. Before he ever put on turnout gear, Almaguer spent years working in psychiatric institutions, and that background shapes everything about how he leads. In 26 years, he's held nearly every role in the Denver ...

S6 E36 600+ FDNY Illness Deaths From 9/11 with Guest Ret. Deputy Chief Richard Alles

2026-09-0941:00

Twenty-five years after 9/11, more than 600 FDNY members have died from Ground Zero-related illness, nearly double the number lost in the collapse itself. Retired FDNY Deputy Chief Richard Alles arrived 20 minutes after the second tower fell and spent nine months on-site. Today, as Director of 9/11 Community Affairs for Barasch & McGarry, he works full-time helping first responders and survivors access the WTC Health Program and Victim Compensation Fund. In this conversation, Chief Alles ...

S6 E35 AI Leadership Coaching For Fire Officers: Dr. Johnny Torgeson

2026-09-0243:51

Dr. Johnny Torgeson opened a top-grossing fitness franchise at 25, served as an Army sergeant, and now commands operations at a federal fire department. Along the way he identified a gap most fire officers never get taught: how to actually build a team, not just staff one. He wrote Forging Your Team: Demystifying Team Development for First Responders. Then he built Forging Teams AI, a 24/7 leadership coaching agent trained on his own research and experience, designed to help officers diagnose...

#box-pro-ellipsis-179098196910584{-webkit-line-clamp:2;}Responder Resilience