The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management

"I always reference what I call the three e's - educate, empower, and enforce. The older and more mature I get, the more I realize that enforcement works better if you're more positive than negative." Colby Davis, Safety Director, Ervin Cable Construction OK, everyone, this one is packed with wisdom and heart. In this episode of The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management, I sit down with Colby Da...

"We have to get to the point in safety in general across the construction industry, where the safe choice is always the easy choice. And, I mean, I hate to say it, we're not there yet." - Chris Daniels, Senior Safety Director at Mortenson. Safety excellence requires making the safe choice the easy choice, especially in a high-risk construction environment. On this episode of The Canary Report: Saf...

"Safety should be about getting people home, and it should be about the people, not about meeting the bare minimum because the law says we have to." Ecudemio Gutierrez, Director of Safety at DC Water. OK, everyone, if you really care about the people who work for you and getting them home safe every day, this episode is for you. In this episode of The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management, I sit...

"Creating an environment where people feel comfortable to report said near misses is critical." - Jo Pina Hello and welcome everyone. For a start, this one’s packed with rich insights you can use and apply right away at your workplace, and on a personal level, I’ve waited a long time and looked forward to meeting Jo Pina on this week's episode of The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management. Jo is...

"Safety doesn't start on the ground. It doesn't start on the roof. It starts right here, and to me, safety starts with mental health.” Jeanne Boyd Curtis OK, everyone, this one is packed with wisdom and heart. In this episode of The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management, I sit down with Jeanne Boyd Curtis, COO of Boyd Bone Dry, to explore what it really takes to build a safety-first culture in c...

"Mind-blowingly so, every three hours, there is a person or vehicle that negatively encounters railroad equipment. Every three hours." Crystal Blasius OK, everyone, this one is powerful. In this episode of The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management, I sit down with Crystal Blasius, Director of Safety Investigations at Amtrak, to unpack her incredible journey from answering a newspaper ad to resha...

"What we know about suicidality is that it's almost always a combination of a lack of hope and a lack of connection." - Josh Vitale We are celebrating Construction Suicide Prevention Week, and this episode of The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management podcast is dedicated to everyone undergoing mental trauma with the plea to please reach out for help, just know that you’re not alone. I am your ho...

"A bad process will beat a good person every time, and about 85% of the variability in safety that we have is due to the processes and not the people." Blake Baldwin That’s how strongly Blake Baldwin feels about the urgent need to update safety processes and de-risk the working environment. This week on The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management, host Michael Zalle welcomes Blake to explore how s...

What if the key to safer job sites isn’t more rules, but more humanity? In this episode of The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management, host Michael Zalle sits down with Hal Wheatley, Corporate Safety Director at Manhattan Construction Group, for a frank conversation about what it really takes to lead safety well. Hal shares how his transition from ministry to safety leadership taught him that gen...

Treating safety as just a compliance box to check is a mistake, especially at scale. In this episode of The Canary Report: Safety & Risk Management, host Michael Zalle sits down with Heather MacDougall, former Vice President, Worldwide Workplace Health & Safety at Amazon, to talk about leading 9,000+ safety pros across 1,000+ sites, navigating the chaos of COVID, and reshaping how we think about r...

What if the key to better safety leadership isn’t more rules, but better listening? In this episode of The Canary Report, host Michael Zalle welcomes Tim Page-Bottorff, HSSC Senior Director at JLL and a Marine Corps veteran, to break down what it really takes to transform workplace safety culture. Drawing on decades of experience, Tim shares why “Stop, Collaborate, and Listen” isn’t just a lyric,...

Confined spaces in underground infrastructure are nothing like factory floors, and treating them the same is a mistake. In this episode of The Canary Report, host Michael Zalle sits down with Dennis Pivin, Director of Health, Safety, and Environmental at NASSCO, to talk about building better safety cultures, why simulators matter, and how to actually get executives to listen. It’s about worker-fir...

Sustainability is only real when it works for people, business, and for the planet. In this episode of The Canary Report, host Michael Zalle talks with Alana Spencer, VP of Sustainability at Clayco, about what it takes to drive practical, measurable sustainability in construction and real estate. Alana shares how to align sustainability with business goals, where to start, what often gets missed,...

What if you could transform workplace safety by focusing on the human side of risk management? On The Canary Report, host Michael Zalle speaks with Brett Smith, Global Safety Director at Gardner Builders, about transforming safety culture in high-risk construction environments. They discuss mental health support, building trust with subcontractors, and human-centered leadership. Brett shares pract...

Hosted by Michael Zalle, Founder and CEO of YellowBird, The Canary Report features the sharpest minds in risk management and workplace safety. Each episode dives into bold, real conversations that challenge outdated safety models and cut through compliance theater. You’ll hear from guests who bring a powerful mix of tech-driven insight, human-first experience, and hard-won lessons from the field....

YellowBird's Michael Zalle speaks with Kevin Rivera, Director of EHS Operations at HUMA and YellowBird Pro about creating a positive safety culture and how that culture can effect everyday workplaces. Canary in a Coal Mine is a YellowBird podcast. YellowBird is a comprehensive EHS and Risk Management platform making workplaces safer by connecting qualified professionals with safety needs nationwid...

YellowBird's Michael Zalle speaks with Safety 4 NonProfits (S4NP)'s Founder Jack Geissert about S4NP's mission prioritizing safety & health for non-profit workers. Canary in a Coal Mine is a YellowBird podcast. YellowBird is a comprehensive EHS and Risk Management platform making workplaces safer by connecting qualified professionals with safety needs nationwide. Sign Up today!

YellowBird's Michael Zalle speaks with Salute Safety CEO Branden Neal about building businesses to support the safety industry and encouraging the inclusion of tech in modern day workplaces. Canary in a Coal Mine is a YellowBird podcast. YellowBird is a comprehensive EHS and Risk Management platform that makes the workplace safer by connecting qualified professionals with safety needs nationwide....

YellowBird Pro Sharleigh Zavaglia joins YellowBird CEO Michael Zalle to discuss a young professional’s journey into the safety field, and how eliminating worker blame plays a big role in cultivating a positive safety culture.

There may not always be a clear professional path for EHS and Risk Management professionals. Hear from YellowBird Professionals answer a question about career advancement posed by Safeopedia’s CEO Scott Cuthbert. Canary in a Coal Mine is a YellowBird podcast. YellowBird is a comprehensive EHS and Risk Management platform that makes the workplace safer by connecting qualified professionals with saf...

YellowBird's Megan Trummel speaks with Safeopedia's CEO Scott Cuthbert about the challenges that face the EHS professionals in today's constantly changing world. Through the inception and growth of Safeopedia, Scott shares his insight into the needs of the EHS community, shares his curiosity about what long-term career development looks like for safety professionals, and talks about how the U.S. a...

Hear from YellowBird Professionals answer a question posed by our previous guests from CompScience. Canary in a Coal Mine is a YellowBird podcast. YellowBird is a comprehensive EHS and Risk Management platform that makes the workplace safer by connecting qualified professionals with safety needs nationwide. Ready to join YellowBird? Sign Up today!

YellowBird CEO Michael Zalle and Derek Hogan chat with Mike Seling, VP of Growth and Kris Mizel, Head of Loss Control from CompScience. Learn more about how AI can help your business and more about CompScience. Canary in a Coal Mine is a YellowBird podcast. YellowBird is a comprehensive EHS and Risk Management platform that makes the workplace safer by connecting qualified professionals with safet...

YellowBird CEO Michael Zalle and YellowBird President Michelle Tinsley give insight into what you can expect to hear on Canary in a Coal Mine, the new podcast highlighting stories in the safety and risk management industries. Canary in a Coal Mine is a YellowBird podcast. YellowBird is a comprehensive EHS and Risk Management platform that makes the workplace safer by connecting qualified professio...