The Leading in a Crisis Podcast

Episoade

• 
  EP92 Persuasion basics and storytelling with persuasion expert Josh Bandoch 30.09.2026 30min

  Send us Fan Mail Your smartest plan can still fail if people don’t feel seen first. We sit down with persuasion expert and author Josh Bandoch to unpack what actually moves human beings to action, especially when emotions are running hot and the pressure is real. If you lead teams, handle crisis management, or communicate for a living, this conversation connects the dots between neuroscience, psychology, and practical leadership communication. We get into why great persuaders lead with emoti...
• 
  EP91 Stranded in Antarctica Part 2 - a medevac crisis, reintegration frustrations 23.09.2026 25min

  Send us Fan Mail A doctor walks into the station leader’s office in Antarctica and asks a question no one wants to answer during a pandemic: “How would we evacuate someone right now?” With flights effectively off the table, scarce ships in the region, and weather as the ultimate gatekeeper, David Knoff faces a leadership test that turns crisis theory into cold, hard logistics. We talk through the Christmas Eve 2020 medevac that required international coordination from China, the USA, and Aus...
• 
  EP90 Stranded in Antarctica - a leadership test, with David Knoff 23.09.2026 29min

  Send us Fan Mail When COVID hit, David Knoff was leading Australia’s Davis Station in Antarctica, expecting a one-year rotation with a predictable route home. What he got instead was a blunt message from headquarters: the mission is extended, the logistics are collapsing, and no one can promise a firm extraction date. If you’ve ever had to lead through uncertainty, this story lands hard because it strips crisis leadership down to the essentials. We talk about the leadership and coping challe...
• 
  EP89 Feeding the political and media machines during a crisis, with Chief Craig Covey 22.07.2026 23min

  Send us Fan Mail When 50,000 people are evacuated, the emergency is only half the fight, the other half is the information. We pick up our conversation with Orange County Fire Authority Division Chief Craig Covey, a veteran incident commander, to unpack what really happens when a major response collides with nonstop public demand, intense media pressure, and elected officials who want to lead the narrative for their communities. The result can be a messy communications environment where accur...
• 
  EP88 Leadership, humility and tough decision making in a crisis, with Chief Craig Covey 21.07.2026 27min

  Send us Fan Mail One call can reshape an entire weekend, a city’s sense of safety, and the credibility of the people in charge. I’m joined by Orange County Fire Authority Division 1 Chief Craig Covey, a veteran incident commander with 32 years in the fire service, to talk through what it really feels like to make an evacuation decision when the stakes are massive and the information is still developing. We walk through the Garden Grove GKN chemical release and the real-world pressures behind...
• 
  EP87 Prioritizing video and social media - Orange County incident comms, Part 3 21.06.2026 30min

  Send us Fan Mail When tens of thousands of people have to leave home over a chemical incident, the hardest part isn’t just operations, it’s keeping the public confidently informed while the story explodes across the news. We pick up our conversation with Greg Barta, Public Information Officer for Orange County Fire Authority, on what actually works when the phones won’t stop ringing and every word can move a community. We dig into OCFA’s crisis communication strategy on X, why it remai...
• 
  EP86 Orange County black swan incident with PIO Greg Barta, Part 2 21.06.2026 18min

  Send us Fan Mail When a chemical incident triggers the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents, communications stops being a “nice to have” and becomes operational. We’re back with Greg Barta, Public Information Officer for the Orange County Fire Authority, to dig into the nuts and bolts of crisis communication that most people never see: where to stage a press conference, how to set the tone, and the subtle skill of knowing when it’s time to end Q&A before it turns into a loop of re...
• 
  EP85 Orange County Fire PIO shares stories from mass evacuation incident, Part 1 21.06.2026 21min

  Send us Fan Mail Imagine being PIO for an incident that includes the evacuation of 50,000 local residents and and a real threat of major explosion or chemical release that could cause massive damage to homes and businesses. That' black swan scenario is what PIO Greg Barta was facing with his team at Orange County Fire Authority this past Memorial Day weekend when a runaway chemical reaction threatened their community. Greg serves as lead Public Information Officer (PIO) for the Orange County ...
• 
  EP84 Using AI to prepare for crisis, with Clearline Crisis 14.06.2026 32min

  Send us Fan Mail Most companies don’t fail a crisis because they lack smart people. They fail because the “plan” is a dusty document, the spokesperson is untested, and the first real coordination happens at 11:30 on a Sunday night. We sit down with Mitch Cohen, founder of ClearLine Crisis and a 25-year crisis communications veteran, to talk about what it takes to build real readiness before reputational risk turns into an enterprise-threatening event. We get specific about AI in crisis manag...
• 
  EP83 Volunteer Turns Chaos Into Clarity With A Community Crisis Website 07.06.2026 18min

  Send us Fan Mail Fifty thousand people evacuate, rumors fly, and the search for the latest information becomes frantic. During the Memorial Day weekend chemical incident in Orange County, California, residents in Garden Grove and Anaheim needed more than breaking news; they needed clear, trusted, practical directions they could use immediately. Enter Victor Tran, a 27-year-old web designer and software engineer who voluntarily created a crisis website to aggregate emergency information and up...
• 
  EP82 A Journalist's View - high stakes chemical leak and evacuation in Orange County, CA 02.06.2026 30min

  Send us Fan Mail On this episode, we continue our review of the high-stakes incident and evacuation in Orange County, CA over the Memorial Day holiday weekend. Some 50,000 residents were forced to flee their homes as a runaway thermal reaction built pressure and risk inside a local manufacturing facility. We're joined by journalist Alexandra Datig, who covers news issues in Southern California, and also runs her own news site, FrontPageIndex.com. Alex was on the scene as emergency responders ...
• 
  EP81 Hot take: Orange County chemical incident - crisis communications review 30.05.2026 28min

  Send us Fan Mail A storage tank starts heating up, pressure builds, and suddenly Orange County is staring down a worst-case scenario: a thermal runaway that could end in a catastrophic explosion or a dangerous vapor release. Over Memorial Day weekend, that risk forces rapidly changing evacuation decisions, including a massive evacuation affecting about 50,000 people in Garden Grove and Anaheim. We dig into the pieces that worked: frequent, casually shot video updates from incident comm...
• 
  EP80 Dude! Where's my stuff? Managing Iran war supply chain disruptions 23.05.2026 40min

  Send us Fan Mail As impacts from the war with Iran become more evident around the world, and more serious, we dive into how one highly experienced supply chain manager is managing the disruption. Hint, planning is key, but existing relationships (or lack thereof) with suppliers can play a significant role in your response. Jeff Zudock, a veteran of ExxonMobil and an expert in supply chain management and troubleshooting, shares his insight into how companies are handling this emerging crisis. ...
• 
  Supply chain disruption: leadership insights from XOM alum Jeff Zudock 14.05.2026 32min

  Send us Fan Mail Supply chain disruptions, like those we're seeing now around energy supplies from the Persian Gulf, can cause long-term business and profitability impacts. Leadership skills in those tense situations can make or break a company's response to these unforeseen events. Jeff Zudock, a 35-year veteran of ExxonMobil and an expert in commercial and supply chain management, joins us to share his insights around managing a major supply disruption. Jeff shares with us details of a majo...
• 
  EP79 The Great Kitkat Heist - using memes in a crisis, with Natalee Gibson 02.05.2026 34min

  Send us Fan Mail Twelve tons of Kit Kat bars get stolen, and suddenly the internet is doing what it does best: turning a real-world incident into a meme factory. We dig into why that kind of viral corporate humor can be a smart PR play in the right context, and why it can also become reputation roulette when the facts change. I’m joined by Natalie Gibson, founder and CEO of Songue PR, to talk about where the “fun” ends, how to think about risk, and what crisis communication looks like when ev...
• 
  EP78 Crisis Comms at NASA, part 4: Crisis Exercises, the media landscape and deepfakes 28.04.2026 27min

  Send us Fan Mail A deepfake can hit your audience before your first internal briefing ends and the most “engaging” version of events is often the least true. That’s the reality we dig into with James Hartsfield, former director of communications at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, as we unpack what it takes to lead crisis communications in a changing media environment. We start with the foundation: practice. James explains why crisis exercises work best when communicators learn the system itself...
• 
  EP77 Crisis Comms at NASA, part 3: The Columbia response and investigation 22.04.2026 24min

  Send us Fan Mail A shuttle breaks apart on re-entry, the world demands answers, and the people closest to the story have to decide what transparency actually looks like when an investigation is just getting started. We pick back up with James Hartsfield, former director of communications for NASA’s Johnson Space Center, to talk through what happened after Columbia’s first, intense week of press briefings and why it was essential for the Columbia Accident Investigation Board to take the commun...
• 
  EP76 Crisis comms at NASA, part 2: Challenger vs. Columbia crisis responses 18.04.2026 20min

  Send us Fan Mail Columbia didn’t arrive when it was supposed to, and the whole world felt the silence. We sit down again with James Hartsfield, recently retired as director of communications at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, to walk through the most difficult minutes and hours after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster and what crisis leadership looks like when every word carries consequence. He also looked back at the space shuttle Challenger response, and shares his thoughts on how differentl...
• 
  EP75 When things go wrong in space - crisis comms at NASA, part 1 13.04.2026 31min

  Send us Fan Mail The most frightening part of a space flight crisis is how fast it rewrites reality. One minute the plan is a routine landing and a little live education for viewers. The next, you’re choosing words that millions will remember forever. We sit down with James Hartsfield, a veteran NASA communications leader from Johnson Space Center, to talk about what it really means to be the voice of Mission Control during space flights. With Artemis II fresh in everyone’s mind, James expla...
• 
  From the archive: Bombing at the Ariana Grande concert in England - lessons learned from the police response 10.04.2026 26min

  Send us Fan Mail On today's episode we're revisiting the story of the terrorist bombing at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England in 2017. A suicide bomber detonated a backpack bomb loaded with nails just after the concert ended, killing 22 concertgoers and injuring hundreds more. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack. Our guest today, Amanda Coleman, served as the lead press officer for the Greater Manchester Police during that incident. That agency m...