Punk Rock Safety

It's big episode 50 over here at Punk Rock Safety, and the boys have made it exactly 49 episodes further than anyone would have thought. By now, you've probably caught on to the whole NOFX theme. It's not a song title for the episode, but it's a reference to Fat Mike, so that counts. Except this time, we've got Skinny Mike. Mike Rayo from THE Ohio State University's Cognitive Systems Engineering L...

This episode is what happens when the boys hit record while hanging out with Todd Conklin and then decide, “Good enough, let’s roll with it.” The Toddfather has definitely been seen rocking Birks, so he gets his very own NOFX song reference. It starts where all serious safety conversations should start: punk records, new tattoos, banjo heckling, and arguing about what “tier” everyone is in. Then T...

The boys are back (and they're looking for trouble - see if you can sort out that lyric) for Episode 48, kicking off 2026 with the standard blend of profanity, punk rock references, and sometimes solid safety insights. And it's another NOFX reference for an episode title. This episode tackles the problem of bloated safety stuff; those processes, procedures, and bureaucratic bullshit that organizat...

Happy New Year, you beautiful punks! It's not a NOFX song, but the title is from Separation of Church and Skate, so that counts. Shocking, but his one is a full “figure it out live” episode. No prep. No agenda. Just the boys looking forward to some time off, talking shit, and accidentally landing on a pretty okay idea. There's a lot of the usual BS, but it's important to know that Dave rides an e-...

My heart is yearning (yep, it’s a NOFX song) in anticipation. Of what? Well, that’s what the episode is, you jerk. Don’t ruin the surprise. Coming on the heels of the tragic shooting in Sydney, Australia, the boys couldn’t help but notice the commentary about how someone, somewhere, should have anticipated it. What does that have to do with Punk Rock Safety? Well, anticipation is one of what Erik...

After the usual BS of “Did anyone invite a guest?” and “Let’s text random people while we're recording,” the boys get down to business: a whole lot of safety plans are the same recycled Word doc with a new company logo slapped on. Sounds almost the same as every ska song does. Turns out, not a lot of people spend time creating real, specific plans, so they just do a “File, Save As” on their way to...

This episode dives into the reality of safety management systems; how they often feel disconnected, bloated, and stuck in the past. You know. Like a dinosaur. Maybe worse than being a dinosaur is being a dinosaur just for the sake of having something to show off, even when it's just to call something a "system" or to have something to point at. The boys chase down the idea that safety activities l...

If you've never read all the way to the bottom of the episode notes, you won't know what PRSL is. Now you do. It's a good name for an episode, but seriously, go check out www.punkrocksaveslives.org. They're solid folks doing really kickass work. Not like this podcast. In this episode, the boys start off debating the merits of bacon and egg rolls. Or egg and bacon rolls, because priorities. Pretty...

First things first, fun without Dave already happened. Ron and Ben saw The Casualties, Adolescents, Adicts, and Dwarves. All of those bands have been around for a long time - like 30-40 years - and that definitely doesn't make us old. It's another Bad Religion episode title. They put on a badass show at Punk in the Park, and they're old like us, too. This episode is sort of a nod to Fletcher. Yep,...

It's a deep cut, but it's another NOFX song title for the episode. Probably don't go to work wasted, but if you do, make sure you talk about it in the pre-job brief.   Pre-job, or pre-task, or pre-work briefs - or whatever you want to call them - are sort of a contentious topic these days. On one hand, they're often connected to JSA/JHA paperwork, and that's not always helpful. There are exception...

Another listener question. How good, right?   The question? "I am still learning how to apply HOP principles. Can you talk about how they can be used to help us see and respond to risks that never show up in incident data?" It's sort of a version of asking how we know what's happening when nothing is happening, and how the five principles of HOP, if you're into that sort of thing, support that. Wh...

We're finally back to a NOFX song title, so things are looking up. A lot of the time, when we decide someone did something dumb, we say things like "dude, how'd you fuck that up, it should just be common sense." It's a good way to distance ourselves, blame someone, and be fucking lazy all at the same time. But what is "common sense" anyway? Sometimes it seems like what we're trying to do is take c...

Fine, Simple Plan is only sort of punk. Or punk adjacent. They're about as pop punk as pop punk gets. But it makes for a decent episode name. Why, because safety strategy gets oversimplified a lot. Or really, the idea of it gets oversimplified. Most safety strategy is a lot of BS anyway that ends up not being strategic at all. The boys talk about whether or not a safety strategy is even useful. Ro...

This episode dives into what it really means to “do safety” when your job is inherently dangerous, like military, police, or even things like aviation. The strategy has to be at least a little better than Live Fast, Die Young (that's the title of this episode, and for once it's not NOFX, but if you're cool, you know this one, too). Ben, Ron, David, and their guest James Kolozsi (who’s got cred fro...

Ian Madison rolls in with a background of ethically hunted animals (that's what he told us), evidence of like eight million Bad Religion shows, and some serious desire to talk about how traditional safety measurements are about as useful as a broken guitar string. Not a bass string, because a broken bass string is about as useful as the rest of them anyway. Seriously, though. Check out the video o...

Even though they're not really into punk rock, Michael and Taylor from Imperial Oil are pretty badass (and the title of this episode is a NOFX song that Michael somehow remembered, so we'll take it). And they're movie stars in a video from Energy Safety Canada about the 4Ds from Learning Teams, Inc. The Imperial boys are the first to tell you they aren't safety people - they're field ops guys just...

"Sometimes work just fucking sucks" That's what David Strano said back on the Decline episode, and if you're not careful, saying smart things gets you volun-told for a guest appearance on the pod. David's a former touring roadie turned HSE director. That basically means he knows a lot about both parts of the PRS podcast, so the boys are considering just handing over the reins. Shit, he even knows...

This week, the boys are talking about theory and practice, because, as the listener who submitted the question says, "fuck you, that's why." It's true, there's a lot of safety literature out there that's gotten more head-up-its-own-ass. Moralizing about safety is cool until it isn't, and the question is a good one (it was something like wanting to hear more about decision-making and doing things i...

"I think the context was kind of like, how do you go about trying to maybe introduce or convince your organization on some of the more contemporary ideas, when your organization is deeply rooted in zero harm and... Well, I think that's mostly it. Or something like that."   It's our first *official* episode dedicated to a listener question, and Dave totally nailed the summary with the leadoff quote...

It was sort of like a NOFX show. People had the wrong time, Ron rolled in when he felt like it, a lot of friends were there, and a few hooligans showed up to make sure we actually did something. Seriously, though, thanks to the gang for ideas and discussion. It wasn't quite as messy as inviting Fletcher on stage, but we've got time to work up to it. With the faithful there (and Ron later on), the...

First off, every new episode is sort of a surprise, but making it to Episode 30 is about 29 more than the boys expected. And of course the title is from a NOFX album. In celebration of Ron's (new) real job at a bit of a startup, we thought that talking about how you'd build your safety empire from scratch might look. The boys' discussion centers on starting with executive leaders to create a visio...

Two-thirds of the dickheads on this podcast are consultants, so an episode about consulting seemed like a good idea. Also, there's a lot of chatter at conferences, online, and probably in bars that play ska music about how safety has just become commoditized and monetized. Usually, it's a consultant trying to sell something who's saying that. Ben, Ron, and Dave head into the dimly lit back alleys...

It's almost a theme at this point, but if you guessed the episode title is also a NOFX song, you're the winner. It's a pretty deep cut from the Backstage Pass album, but it gets right to the point of this episode - that culture shapes meaning. And safety can mean a lot of different things when we aren't careful to understand it in the context of culture. We could have gone with the Pennywise song...

Hey, you guessed it - a title from a NOFX song. This time, the boys are talking about power. It's a pretty punk rock topic, because there's a lot of music about subverting power. The conversation starts with the same BS as usual - you're welcome. Eventually, it moves to the good stuff of complexities of power and politics in safety and the importance of decentralized decision-making and deference...

Like the Sex Pistols song, but with more cowboys and stuff. There's been some talk of abolishing the health and safety regulator - OSHA - in the US. It's pretty punk to think of full-scale safety anarchy, but is that what would really happen? Maybe leaving safety performance up to companies wouldn't be so bad. After all, things were going great before regulation, right? It was a magical place wher...