Practical crisis readiness, from Arctic risk to high-rise fires.
Rob Burton, introduced as someone who creates chaos for a living, talks with specialists about what goes wrong in a crisis and what organizations can do before it does. The subjects range from Arctic infrastructure to cyber incidents to high-rise fires, but the talk keeps coming back to drills, decisions and communication.
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Crisis readiness is the entire beat of this interview show, and it covers a wide range of ground inside that beat. Rob Burton, introduced as someone who creates chaos for a living, talks with specialists in emergency response, security and crisis communication about what breaks under pressure and what an organization can put in place beforehand. A run of titles shows the spread: 'From Wildfires to Industrial Risk: Understanding Canada’s Regional Threat Landscape', 'Mind the Gap: Bridging Cybersecurity, Crisis Communications, and Reputation Risk' and 'Above the Skyline: Jack Murphy on High-Rise Preparedness and Modern Emergency Challenges'. The questions lean operational. In the high-rise conversation, Burton asks what building owners, property managers and corporate tenants can actually do, which drills make a difference and how anyone measures them. Jack Murphy describes the problem from the firefighter's side: in a tall building there are very few ways to attack a fire, and a commander in the lobby loses every sense except hearing. With Chris Lynch, the talk turns to exercise design: planning backward from the decisions an exercise is meant to test, a FEMA practice compared to Stephen Covey's 'begin with the end in mind', and getting the people who actually make decisions to the tabletop so nobody's time is wasted. Lynch also mentions a book he is working on, 'AI Ready Families', about raising children to be more ready for AI. Greg Pass, described on the show as an expert in law enforcement operations and active assailant preparedness, talks about leakage, the warning signs that often surface on social media. His example is a planned church attack in Prince William County, his old jurisdiction, that was stopped after an observer called police. Shauna Bruce, a crisis and emergency communications specialist in Canada, describes the Arctic as the place where climate, infrastructure, logistics and national security risks converge. She also describes ice fishing on a minus 27 day in Yellowknife, which she calls balmy by local standards. Scott Wilcox, who started out in the British military, is asked how real-time threat data can support fast decisions in a crisis without overwhelming a security team. The conversation with Anne-Marie, founder of Mind the Gap Cyber Public Relations, turns to reputation: past incidents come back to haunt a company, but calm, credible handling is remembered as well. One example raised is a company in Germany that posted regular updates after an incident in which people died, admitting its gaps and setting out the work ahead. Some episodes carry a promo for ICMC West, a one-day crisis management workshop in Vancouver. The material is grim but the delivery is warm. One guest arrives with hot tea and jokes that it is not whiskey, and the exchanges stay friendly. The sign-offs vary the same refrain: stay prepared, stay vigilant, stay ready, stay resilient. A listener comes away with specific cautions and working methods, each tied to a particular kind of emergency.
Made for: Suits a listener who is responsible for plans, drills or communications when something goes wrong at an organization, and who wants specifics rather than theory.
What sets it apart: The hazards it covers range widely, from Arctic infrastructure and travel risk to active assailants, cyber incidents and high-rise fires, yet the conversations keep returning to concrete practice: who belongs at a tabletop exercise, which drills matter, and how threat data becomes action.
Preparing Organizations for Managing Crises
A high-rise fire commander can hear but can't see; your evacuation plan deserves a harder look.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A grounded look at how geography, climate, infrastructure, and communication shape emergency preparedness in Canada.
PreparedX's conversation with Shauna Bruce frames Canadian risk as a problem of communication, infrastructure, and geography. Bruce brings more than four decades of crisis and emergency communications experience, with a background spanning military, industry, and emergency…
A grounded discussion of how verified threat signals become decisions in fast-moving security and crisis work.
PreparedX episode 164 frames crisis and security decision-making as judgment under pressure, tracing Scott Wilcox from 11 years with the Royal Marines and a return to Afghanistan as a shooter to his later work with Securo Group after moving to Dubai.
A clear look at why cyber response and public communication need to move together.
Cybersecurity incidents often become reputation tests when the technical response, legal caution, executive judgment, and public communication stop moving together.
Greg Pass ties social media warning signs, civilian vigilance, and practical preparation to active assailant readiness.
PreparedX looks at active assailant preparedness through a practical frame, with Rob Burton and Greg Pass using San Bernardino to ground the conversation in lessons learned and work still unfinished.
Jack Murphy frames high-rise preparedness as a concrete problem of stairwells, elevators, command, and advance knowledge.
High-rise preparedness comes through as a practical systems problem, shaped by stairwells, elevators, lobby command posts, and how well people can orient themselves under pressure.
["PreparedX Podcast episode 166 pairs Rob Burton with Shauna Bruce to map Canada\u2019s regional threat landscape, from British Columbia wildfires to east-coast hurricanes.", "Bruce says Canada\u2019s geography creates different hazards by region, and she points to Alberta industrial heartland, Niagara-region earthquake risk, and Yellowknife\u2019s Arctic logistics as examples.", "The conversation also centers on crisis communication: Bruce pushes the 'first, fast, factual and frequent' rule, warns that silence creates a vacuum, and says internal alignment between ops, comms, and leadership matters.", "Bruce closes by arguing that multinationals underestimate Canada\u2019s distance, remoteness, and transparency expectations, especially under Alberta directive 71 and community trust norms."]
On PreparedEx’s “Stress-Testing the Future,” Chris Lynch explains how to design exercises for AI-related disruptions and organizational readiness.
["Scott Wilcox says Securo Group grew from tracking convoys in Afghanistan to operating in 140 countries, after 11 years in the Royal Marines and a move to Dubai two days after Herrick 5.", "Rob Burton presses him on ISO 31030, and Wilcox says the standard only matters when companies align documentation, insurance, and operations instead of buying a policy or a subscription.", "He says security and risk teams are often left out of procurement, so companies duplicate services they already own and mistake vendor coverage for a real travel-risk program.", "Wilcox closes by separating actionable threat intelligence from news, citing Lebanon in 2024, and arguing that AI will favor fast LLM-built tools with an exceptional human in the loop."]
PreparedX Podcast episode 163 features Rob Burton and Anne-Marie, founder of Mind the Gap Cyber Public Relations, discussing how organizations coordinate cybersecurity response with public communication.
Greg Pass, a retired Prince William County lieutenant and director of training and research for First 30 Group, uses the 2015 San Bernardino attack to talk through active-assailant preparedness ten years later.
Rob Burton interviews Jack Murphy about high-rise preparedness, including fire dynamics, vertical evacuation, active-shooter response, and multi-agency coordination.
PreparedX host Rob Burton and Austin Cruz discuss how AI is changing crisis plans, training, and exercises, including assistants that answer questions across documents and languages.
John Iliffe says evacuation plans should include destination visas for hubs such as Dubai and Nairobi, reviewed every three months.
Host Rob Burton interviews cybersecurity expert Jake Paulson about tabletop exercises for crisis preparedness.
This episode introduces the PreparedX podcast, sponsored by Onsolve, focusing on crisis and emergency preparedness for organizations.
Host Rob Burton interviews Steve Kerr, founder of Kerr Group, about his career in crisis management and emergency response.
Rob Burton interviews crisis communications expert Piali Mandal about her career and insights into crisis management.
Host Rob Burton interviews Donna Speckhardt, senior risk and resilience lead at Fannie Mae, about her career in crisis management and business continuity.