0:14 Good morning, good morning, good afternoon.

0:15 How are you doing out there in the world?

0:18 And well, this is a revamp of prepare responder covers program we put on last two, oh, guess two years ago, right, We started with it.

0:29 I'm looking into all different aspects of what it is to respond to large scale emergencies and not just Emergency Management. Still, we're looking at law, fire, EMS, private industry, public side of things.

0:47 It's a broad brush.

0:49 And so I'm excited.

0:51 And so Todd and I, Todd Manzat is the 2 Todd's here.

0:55 Start talking about it, what it is and, and, and you know, he's got some really great insight.

1:01 I've known Todd for a while now.

1:04 And as you can tell here, the Blue Cell is the premier sponsor of this program.

1:08 And so I want to thank Todd for that.

1:10 And Todd, welcome.

1:11 Welcome to our show, I guess, for lack of better term.

1:14 Hey, well, thanks, thanks for the welcome.

1:16 And, you know, it was, it was kind of funny as we were kind of batting this around at the end of last year and, you know, here we are now getting ready to kind of jump right into it.

1:29 But certainly the world's events have helped us to have at least some stuff to talk about in the last 30 days.

1:38 It feels like it's April already.

1:40 And I know we'll get into a little bit of that.

1:42 But thanks for having me.

1:43 I'm glad to be part of it.

1:46 I think this is the longest January I've ever lived, Right?

1:53 Well, it's, you know, in some ways we're thinking back a little bit to, you know, what's going on.

1:58 I was in New Orleans this week and the events of New Year's Eve are in the distant past when they're worried about the Super Bowl.

2:06 They had a snowstorm and they had a a Sugar Bowl.

2:09 And it's, it's really interesting that the tempo right now is as real as it gets with regards to, you know, what we are going to be talking about here, you know, interested about that.

2:22 It's like, you know, obviously the, the events of January 1st with both New Orleans and Vegas, how quickly it came out of, out of the news cycle because you know, fires happened in, in, in California, you know, and that kept us hopping over here.

2:40 You know, obviously you guys all know that I live in, well, maybe not everybody, but I, I live in Southern California.

2:46 And so those fires directly impacted my area, not necessarily where I live, but close enough to where I have friends that lost homes and stuff in the fire.

2:57 So, I mean, and then then we got rain right after that, which is causing problems.

3:03 And then there's snow storms in in Louisiana in the South that's causing problems there.

3:07 And we're still not recovering from Hurricane Helene, You know, And then in the midst of all this, we get a new presidential administration, which is definitely moving fast, you know, And yeah, so are, are we going to be able to take your breath?

3:28 Well, you know, I don't know that we have a choice, right?

3:30 It's that kind of race.

3:32 And, you know, being as ready as we can be in different places, that's kind of part of it.

3:38 So that the folks who are sprinting as fast as they can can be relieved.

3:41 And one of the things that was interesting when I was in, in Louisiana this past week, they were talking about barring snow plows from another state.

3:49 Who, who does know how to do that, you know, pretty interestingly.

3:52 And then obviously, unfortunately, the events in DC with the, with the plane crash as the, you know, the most recent thing, another really, you know, significant type of event and response.

4:09 Just hearing, you know, some of the press conference stuff where they're talking about, you know, the things that, you know, I teach all the time, Unified command 300 responders out there.

4:21 Got to replace those responders.

4:23 Got a lot going on, got a lot of media, right.

4:26 All those aspects of something that makes any kind of response a little more complex.

4:34 Definitely it's going to be a a fun filled year of topics if we stay at this at this pace for sure.

4:44 Yeah, I want to talk about that plane crash here for forbid, not not about the plane crunch itself, but about how as a those of us in the field, you know, I know a whole bunch of people that are traveling at any given time.

5:01 I mean, you're one of them, a couple of friends down in Texas.

5:05 You have a friend of mine who carries Fronza, who's the president of IEM, who she was travelling during this time.

5:13 And I went to my, my, my click box of, oh, who do I need?

5:17 Who do I need to call to see if they're impacted by this?

5:20 And even if it's something as far away as DC, you know, and now you're going, oh, crap.

5:25 I mean, I called you or at least reached out to you to see if you know if you're travelling yet.

5:30 So you don't.

5:30 It's just this is amazing, like how small of a world we truly are when it comes to that.

5:36 And then I have friends that work and you do too, Todd, you know, that work in the capital that a part of Metro and and and DC fire and Fairfax fire.

5:46 And you know, you, you see this happening.

5:48 You're going, these are people who you know closely that are already impacted by this event, let alone the tragedy of the those lives that were lost, you know, in this tragic accident.

6:01 And I think that's part of the thing with what we do here between you and myself and, and the, and the organizations that, you know, we do touch every aspect of, of the United States and at some point global when it comes to Emergency Management, We're going to be able to bring those, that perspective to, to the this conversation.

6:24 Yeah.

6:24 I think the, the other thing that kind of jumped out at me was, you know, trying to think back through the history and, and certainly some of the legacy media folks were talking about the last time we had a crash and how long ago it was.

6:38 And in fact, I don't know if you picked up on it.

6:41 That last one was Buffalo and obviously Buffalo, NY.

6:46 You've got connections to that place, right?

6:48 Yeah, yeah, right.

6:52 And I'm headed to Binghamton, NY next Friday, which is not that far down the road.

6:57 So it's, you know, to bring it somewhat full circle, preparedness, response and recovery are interconnected.

7:05 All these disciplines are interconnected.

7:09 How we do things, we're trying to make them as interconnected, you know, as possible.

7:17 And I think it's going to be the right conversation, especially when we bring some doctrinal things in and and talking about some specific topics and then trying to overlay it to things that are really happening.

7:31 I think that's going to be one of the unique things about the conversation, hopefully, as we move the show forward.

7:38 Yeah, absolutely.

7:39 And I think the other thing too, Todd, that you know, you and I have some really deep conversations, you know, when it comes to the state of Emergency Management, the state of disaster response, you know, where where we need to go and how to get there.

7:57 And you know, the fact that we have a kind of book in this thing here, but we have progressive states that look at Emergency Management and disaster response and disaster preparedness and planning as holistic, right?

8:13 So that means like fire, police, EMS, public works, right, that we always forget, you know, public health, they're all involved in the conversation.

8:23 And then you have some States and somewhere areas that are myopic, right?

8:27 And they're very much silos on everything they they do.

8:30 I think some of the conversation that we're going to have here is hopefully to break down those silos and and be able to have those full conversations that we are all hazards approach to everything that we look at.

8:42 And I think that's critical, right?

8:45 And I think also in the, you know, our show concept, and I think it's important to share, you know, in this first episode, it won't just be me and you hanging out with each other.

8:55 I think our concept of bringing in guests as a, a third element to the show, a third voice, I think will be important.

9:04 I know you're working on lining up a few.

9:06 I'm working on lining up a few.

9:08 It'll be exciting.

9:09 And, you know, as we move into the coming weeks to get that guest line up out to folks and they can kind of hear a perspective and we'll definitely, you know, be leveraging our relationships.

9:21 I think to to bring in some strong, strong individuals to give a dynamic focus on, you know, what we're talking about.

9:31 And Speaking of relationships, I mean, you know, the other good part about this too is Todd, you and I both have some good relationships with some people that can bring really great insight.

9:43 And so we'll be leveraging those relationships as well to be able to bring you the audience some more insight to what what's happening in, in close to real time as possible.

9:53 And then of course, you know, my position with IEM allow some conversations to to happen as well.

10:01 And the Today as an example, well, we, we have to talk a little bit about the, the elephant in the room is what's going on with FEMA.

10:10 The, the president has set forth his vision on, on making changes.

10:16 And I don't think there's an emergency manager in the United States right now that doesn't think the Stafford Act needs to be, you know, looked at and, and fixed, right?

10:30 You know, it's an old act, right?

10:33 And that FEMA does need to