Tailboard Talks Firefighter Podcast

Send a text Karl is a retired police officer who made some serious life changes following a massive heart attack.  After his heart attack he started paying close attention to the way he eats, moves, his relationships, stress, and sleep. Don't be fooled though, as you'll hear in the episode, anything short of his heart attack would not have convinced him to make these adjustments. Karl is...

Send a text Christy Lister is a volunteer for First HELP which is a foundation offering training and support for the families and departments that have suffered a suicide.  She is also the host of the Beyond The 1st Response podcast which focuses on bringing first responders, families, and mindset together for serious and humorous conversations on mental health. Christy and I are both presenting a...

Send a text Call it Spidey Sense, cynicism, or reality, but there are going to be people in this world that you just can't care to like. In terms of firefighters, we mostly all have a common thread of service, interest, or at least complaint that can bond us together.  But there will always be someone that you'd rather not know. Curt and I are sharing some thoughts on the situation. Supp...

Send a text In my 38th year I had to re learn the use of inter vs intra.  After the episode was finished of course. Training is a staple of the fire service but also approached differently by every department, crew, and individual.  Through my career as a firefighter and coach I've seen and made plenty of mistakes but in this episode I share some ways that I've seen work. Support the sho...

Send a text Dear Chief, nobody was as surprised as me when I went to go look for the recording that Curt and I had done, and found nothing. So there I was, 3pm, recordingless, and out of time to re-do it.  Enter the IG poll to save the day. Not only did I get todays episode topic, but several others for the future.  So thank you. Spring4Change is starting in a couple weeks and this episode is a qu...

Send a text It's 8:30 pm, I'm 38 years old, Katie is getting over being sick, we have two microphones and 20 minutes worth of steam. Welcome to our kitchen. This one is light on the firefighting, but heavy on the banter. Correction- my socks were from Target. Support the show Affiliate links: Rescue1CBD Use code TAILBOARD for 15% off Frontline Optics use code TAILBOARD for 15% off Fourth...

Send a text Alex Jabr of @EmergencyResilience wants to prepare you for when the patient dies.  More specifically, how to stand in front of the patients family and deliver the news. Please enjoy the first 45 minutes of her flawless maneuvering around my ambush-like question asking on random yet pertinent studies, observations, and theories. But DO NOT miss the second 45 mins of this episode.  Alex...

Send a text Monday and Tuesday I attended the AFFI Health and Safety Conference.  This was one of the first appearances by the Resiliency Committee that Joe Galli had founded and spoken about on previous episodes. The speakers, content, and experience was excellent and in this episode I do my best to explain why it was so different than any other conference I've been to. If you're an Ill...

Send a text The decision to workout or not when you're sick can be an extremely easy one, or a real hand wringer.  But, in this episode I give a couple simple tips and guidelines to keep in mind. We're also talking about a very common theory that suggests you are more prone to sickness and infection following bouts of intense aerobic exercise.  This has a strong foothold in the endurance...

Send a text Absent might be a tough label but it also might be uncomfortably true for firefighters and paramedics. Katie and I are in the thick of the nasty with some an almost 2 and almost 4 year old running the house.  We've had to drastically alter...everything...in our best attempt to maximize the good times and mitigate the tough. This just scratches the surface of our lives, but it&apos...

Send a text From hockey, to CrossFit Football, to the Firefighter. We have several opportunities to try on some different personalities during our career.  In this episode I'm telling a few stories about the hockey days, some lessons learned from Raph Ruiz in the CrossFit Football days, and then tying it together on how we operate as Firefighters. Thank you so much for listening and I'd...

Send a text You might be pleasantly surprised that a conversation about diets and their pitfalls starts with DumDums, Butterbeer, and Dairy Queen Mini's. 80/20, Keto, Whole 30, Intermittent Fasting, Buzzword, Fad, Sales Pitch.  There are so many options out there and we do our best to narrow down our thoughts on them. But we get sidetracked by the Glycemic Index, Ozempic, Food Poisoning, Seaf...

Send a text Risky statement here but I don’t think you’ve convinced anyone of anything ever, in your life. But maybe you presented some info and that person was willing to convince themselves. Conversations, arguments, disagreements, debates, and diatribes.  Hallmarks of the fire service and some of the most entertaining but horribly useless things in our industry. In this episode I’m talking abou...

Send a text Megan is a career Firefighter and Paramedic.  She recently submitted her final paper for her masters program on the topics of firefighter fertility issues, pregnancy considerations, return to work, and policy issues. Megan brings a level of diplomacy and understanding to these conversations that we could all learn from. Please share this episode with someone who might need it Support t...

Send a text Yes We Can! Firefighters are excellent at distilling down complex structures to simple rules and operational tasks.  we are even better at taking simple tasks and turning them into rocket surgery requiring weekly meetings. Complexity bias, Neophiles, and the most simple way to adjust any program or activity to meet your goals, bicycle component reviews and coffee brewing strategies.  T...

Send a text Welcome to 2023 and we're kicking it off with a multi-topic episode.  If you have ever heard the theory that light roast coffee has more caffeine than a dark roast, then hold on to your beans because we have some info to pour over. We also go into the saga that is the Peloton company.  From a 50 billion dollar valuation to stocks at less than 10 bucks and firing 5000 people in jus...

Send a text This is one of the most listened to, and most reacted to episodes so far. Curt and I sat down about a week after some significant issues were exposed in one of our probationary firefighters and shared some general and specific thoughts on the matter. These conversations are not the most fun thing ever.  And they are tough to handle and manage from both sides.  But they are much needed...

Send a text One of the most popular episodes to date is this conversation with Matt Mangum.  Matt has been a competitive powerlifter, NCAA D1 Strength Coach, Firefighter, and much more. The lessons and stories in this episode are from the front lines, and from hard experience.  Matt has done a lot of living and there are a few lifetimes to go. Support the show Affiliate links: Rescue1CBD Use code...

Send a text In the past 2-3 weeks, I've had one of those streaks where seemingly random things that were all on the same parallel thought track kept popping up.  Conversations with clients, chats with peers on social media, and listening to a podcast I hadn't seen in my feed for months. What it all comes down to is two things; 1. Thank you to my clients, friends, and supporters.  The com...

Send a text Welcome back for the second portion of our post-workout chat session with my good friend and District 4 VP candidate, Joe Galli. In this episode we're talking more about the DVP role, how Joe has prepared for it, his plans and vision for the future of District 4, a surprise entrance by Nathan, and a possible future video segment modeled after Hot Ones, but with split squats instea...

Send a text Joe Galli is back and the first 25 minutes of this episode is exactly what Tailboard Talks is all about.  Stories. But, then we get into the real reason he stopped by (besides the workout)  Joe Galli is running for Illinois AFFI District 4 Vice President.  If you don't know what that means, don't worry neither did I.  So, I chose to sound like an idiot in front of the expert...

Send a text Kate Foster is a mother, wife, and career firefighter. It was also a fortunate turn of events that I was with her on her first fire earlier this year.  In this episode we recap the story but also dive into some topics on parenting, sharing information with our kids, and her experience and growth as a female firefighter. It was a really fun talk and Kate will absolutely be a repeat gues...

Send a text The thought of CBD brings up a lot of opinions, feelings, and criticisms.  To Jon Vought, the owner of Rescue 1 CBD, they are all warranted and valid, but he has information, science, and patience on his side. Jon has been a career firefighter for the past 14 years and after a significant surgery, he had an all too common experience and relationship with opioid painkillers.   From that...

Send a text "I thought we were in the trust tree, in the nest?"   Did you know that the Circle of Trust is from Meet the Parents and the Trust Tree is from Old School?  I found that when I had to google the video clips to make this description. So here we are, in the circle, in the tree, near a nest.  But you gotta have that handful of people who you can turn to for help solving problems...

Send a text In this episode, we're celebrating Halloween with a very serious conversation about candy, sick time use, an update on the Uncomfortable Conversations episode, the firefighter cycle of misery, and a visit from my dogs from beyond the grave.  Spooky stuff. Curt joins me in the newly renovated garage gym/recording studio and we cover a lot of ground in 40 mins. For the record, we co...