Resilient Futures Podcast

Disasters in the US are becoming more frequent, severe, and costly, and the emergency management organizations that handle them are struggling. Could artificial intelligence help?

This month, host Alysha welcomes Ellen Futter, President of the Markle Foundation, and Jeremy Greenberg, former head of FEMA's National Response Coordination Center.

In a rapidly changing world, emergency managers face a complex landscape of new disasters, and new tools to prepare and withstand them. In this episode, we critically dig into some of the tools AI has the potential to provide resilient systems.

Ellen and Jeremy's Haiku:
Disasters test our plans
data shape the best next move
people lead the way

Links:
Summary report: https://www.aideinitiative.org/new-aide-report-charts-a-path-for-advancing-responsible-use-of-ai-across-the-emergency-management-community/

On this show, we usually focus on structural resilience- but what about the resilience of our personal wellbeing?

This year, the University of Georgia opened our brand new School of Medicine, and some of the experts joining the School's Office of Personalized Health and Well-being joined us to talk about resilience in a different light: stronger, more strategic medical education starting with better care for human wellbeing.

To medical educators, resilience is about understanding what wellbeing means on an individual level, and taking simple, science-backed steps to build lasting, positive behavior in new generations of doctors.

This episode, forget physical infrastructure- we're talking about building resilience in your brain, the science of looking on the bright side, and of course, why doctors should take improv classes.

Featuring:
Catherine (Cathy) Ann Snapp - Director of Behavioral Health, Associate Professor of Medicine at UGA SOM and Director of the Office of Personalized Health and Well-being
Janette Hill - Professor at the UGA SOM and the Department of Workforce Education and Instructional Technology at UGA, and Assistant Director of OPHW
Amy Baldwin - Professor of Medical Education and Director of Humanism in Medicine at UGA SOM, Associate Director of OPHW and adjunct professor for the Medical College of Georgia

Links:
Considerations for Co-Creating a Culture of Well-being at your Medical Institution: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40670-025-02559-6
Emotional Resilience Training to Support Care Partners of People Living with Dementia: A Pilot Study: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/23743735261461931

This month, we're welcoming the team from Shell to Shore, an Athens-based oyster shell recycling initiative that works with restaurants across the state of Georgia to rebuild shorelines.

Oysters -- the same kind you slurp down as an appetizer at that restaurant downtown -- have incredible potential for fighting sea level rise. In the wild, oysters build reefs together, with baby oysters settling on the old shells of bivalves past and offering a tough breakwater to stabilize shorelines and slow waves hitting the beach.

With the help of Shell to Shore, those restaurant oyster shells don't go in the trash -- instead, they get taken back to the coast to help restore coastal ecosystems. With a little help from their engineering friends, the Shell to Shore team is now developing restoration projects with community members at locations like Sapelo Island, Georgia.

This episode is all about lessons learned, how to scale up from starting at home, and of course, plenty of oyster fun facts.

Featuring:
Brock Woodson, co-director of IRIS and UGA professor of engineering
Tyler Leslie, Executive Director and co-founder of Shell to Shore
Nik Heynen, UGA professor of geography and Director of Education for Shell to Shore
Hunt Revell, environmental attorney and President and co-founder of Shell to Shore

Brock's Haiku:
Oysters depleted
once abundant, soon restored
protecting our shores

Learn more about S2S at https://www.shelltoshore.com/
Donate here: https://givebutter.com/S2Sdonate
Get in touch: https://www.shelltoshore.com/contact-us

The energy sector is continually complicated by aging power infrastructure, changing technology and competing needs from communities and industry. The Critical Infrastructure Resilience Group is here to help make sense of this complex landscape.

The CIRG, a unit of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, works on national research-based solutions for maintaining energy systems and national security. Thomaz Carvalhaes and Hillary Fishler, R&D Staff Scientists at Oak Ridge, join host Alysha to discuss how they combine interdisciplinary expertise to help communities by supporting infrastructure planning, interdependencies, partnerships and governance, and risk assessment.

Some of the topics in this episode include the group's Technical Assistance for States and Tribes Initiative: Grid Resilience Investment Decision-making (TASTI-GRID), the Outage Data Initiative Nationwide (ODIN), and the Enhancing Distribution Grid Anticipatory Resilience (EDGAR).

Haiku:
Storms test the network
new systems reshape the grid
adapt and evolve

Links:
Learn more about the Lab: https://www.ornl.gov/group/critical-infrastructure-resilience

Get in touch with Thomaz: http://www.linkedin.com/in/tcarvalh

After a decade working across the Southeast, Jordan Youngmann is seeing his hometown in upstate New York through fresh eyes–and his work is just warming up.

Pre-European colonization, forests looked very different: while many people think of this world as a "pristine" landscape, forest systems across North American were highly regulated by Indigenous groups. Today, these systems are largely fragmented by urban and agricultural spaces, but historically, they were managed by harnessing a force of nature: fire.

Many forest species are not only tolerant of burning, they're built for it. If these systems go too long without a cleansing fire, substances like dry leaf litter can build up, providing fuel to a much bigger fire.

As a wildlife biologist with the New York State Department of Wildlife Conservation, Youngmann is working to reintroduce prescribed fire for these ecosystems, helping protect the species that inhabit them. It's not just a path to conservation–it's a way for us to have a direct relationship with the land that supports us.

Jordan's Haiku:
Fire healing the land
old ways leading us forward
reciprocity

Links:
Jordan's bio: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-youngmann-49727b8b/
Savage State painting, Thomas Cole, 1834: https://explorethomascole.org/project/the-savage-state/
NYDEC Sustainability and Green Infrastructure Grant Proposals: https://dec.ny.gov/get-involved/grant-applications/wqip-program

This podcast comes to you from the University of Georgia, a campus that has stretched across the hills of Athens, Georgia since 1785. UGA is situated between the Upper and Middle Oconee Rivers, with tributary creeks flowing all across campus- even right under our football stadium!

This month, hosts Alysha and Todd are joined by fellow UGA colleague Zak Ruehman, Director of Engineering Services here at the Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems. Zak's team recently wrapped up an exciting cross-campus collaboration: a flood risk assessment across UGA's campus that shows the places and buildings most at risk.

Keeping the Dawg Walk from becoming... a Doggie Paddle?

Zak's Haiku:
Preparation first
Absorb the punch gracefully
Ready to adapt

Links:

Learn more about the Institute for Resilient Infrastructure's work: https://iris.uga.edu/

Patrick Keyser knows the grass may not always be greener--but there's still a lot to learn from it.

Since long before European colonization, grasslands have a rich history as one of North America's most diverse, resilient, and iconic landscapes. These ecosystems are the epicenters of agriculture in the US, but native grass species are disappearing as introduced plants take over and land uses change. As a University of Tennessee professor and Director of the Center for Native Grasslands Management, Patrick spreads the gospel of grass.

This month, Patrick joins hosts Alysha and Todd to discuss the history of grasslands, explain the threats they're facing, and dispel some myths about whether you should add native grasses to your yard.

Links:
Patrick's book, Native Grass Forages for the Eastern US (get tips about implementing native grasses in your lawn!): https://nativegrasses.tennessee.edu/native-grass-forages/
Patrick's bio: https://utia.tennessee.edu/person/?id=6343
University of Tennessee Center for Native Grasslands Management: https://nativegrasses.tennessee.edu/

This month, Alysha Helmrich is our host and guest! This short episode discusses social-ecological-technological systems and sensemaking. She explores urban systems as SETS, positions SETS thinking for sensemaking, and identifies four modes of SETS to build requisite variety. To learn more, follow the links below!

Links:
Foundational reading on SETS: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2018EF000926
Main perspective discussed regarding SETS and sensemaking: https://www.nature.com/articles/s42949-023-00120-1
SETS in Phoenix, AZ: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s43065-023-00085-6

Alysha's Haiku:
City not alone
Small decisions ripple wide
For the next design

In the face of immense global and national change, the world’s oldest engineering society is staying flexible.

The American Society for Civil Engineers President, Marsha Bomar, joins our host Alysha Helmrich to speak to the power of diverse perspectives in building the future’s infrastructure and the need for interdisciplinary teams in solving great challenges.

Alysha and Marsha also discuss the workforce shortage in the field of engineering, and how bright minds from all walks of life should consider stepping up to fill the gap. Finally, they cover the history of the ASCE Infrastructure Report Card, a data-driven report that the society delivers to each state on an annual basis, grading the state’s infrastructure on its current condition, future needs, operation and maintenance, public safety and resilience and innovation.

Tune in to learn more about ASCE’s bright, resilient future and ways to get involved!

Marsha's Haiku:
Trains race on steel tracks
Tires trace the open road
Water flows for life

Learn more about ASCE: https://www.asce.org/
Check out all the ways you can be a part of ASCE: https://www.asce.org/membership
Check out Cities of the Future in IMAX: https://www.asce.org/publications-and-news/civil-engineering-source/article/2024/02/16/a-cities-of-the-future-primer-everything-you-need-to-know-about-asces-new-movie
ASCE 2027: https://experience.asce.org/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23353598541&gbraid=0AAAAADhKo5K2trfb3rawiirtIdOXU3Pe4

Disasters are affecting more people and property than ever before. Since 1980, the U.S. has experienced 400+ weather-related "billion dollar" disasters, $3 trillion in economic impacts, and thousands of lives and livelihoods. In the effort to build our disaster resilience as a society, what's the role of insurance?

In this episode, our hosts are joined by Carolyn Kousky, Insurance for Good, and Marc Ragin, University of Georgia Terry College of Business. This month's guests discuss a question at the heart of disaster insurance: what's the best way to incentivize risk reduction for both insurance companies and customers?

If you're curious about how disaster insurance works, options for making insurance better suited for new risks, or why premiums are getting so darn high, this is the episode for you.

Marc's Haiku:
High insurance rates
We need collective action
Take your vitamins

Carolyn's Haiku, written by Matsuo Bashō (translated from Japanese):
As they begin to rise again
Chrysanthemums faintly smell
after the flooding rain

Learn more about UGA and Duke's CIRCAD partnership: https://circad.org/

Carolyn's book: https://islandpress.org/books/understanding-disaster-insurance#desc

Carolyn's nonprofit, Insurance for Good: https://www.insuranceforgood.org/

What did you do during the COVID-19 social distancing era? Some of us learned to make sourdough, some of us perfected a viral whipped coffee, plenty of us did a whole lot of nothing- but this NYC subculture was busy taking notes.

Anna Bounds, a Professor of Sociology at Queens College, has felt called to teach, write, and tell stories for a long time. She's particularly passionate about urban policies that make cities better, stronger and more vibrant.

As a sociologist–but also as a New Yorker–she began attending meetings of NYC's "prepper" community: a group of people dedicated to preparing for disasters the government may not be equipped to help with, whether it's a pandemic, terrorist attack or natural disaster.

Anna clarifies: they aren't preparing for the end of the world- just whatever kind of day tomorrow might be. She's spent years (including before the pandemic) researching these groups while also learning countless skills for emergency preparation and response.

"All sorts of interesting people [were] coming together to figure out how to help each other in crisis- and it paid off."

So forget viral food trends! This episode pairs best with assembling your emergency kit (and yes, Anna has suggestions for it).

Anna's Haiku* ("A Love Letter to the City"):
Smoke clings to the sky
Hands meet through sirens and headlines
Love that doesn't flinch

(*With special thanks to Anna's 7th grade teacher)

Links:
Anna's book, Urban Preppers and the Pandemic in New York City: Class, Resilience, and Sheltering in Place: https://www.annamariabounds.org/urban-preppers
Anna's first book, Bracing for the Apocalypse: An Ethnographic Study of New York City's Urban Prepper Subculture: https://www.annamariabounds.org/book/apocalypse

California relies on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta as a hub for water, biodiversity, agriculture, recreation, and more. How can we make sure that management actions are working as intended?

Returning guest Stephen Elser is a Senior Environmental Scientist with the Delta Stewardship Council, which works to advance California's coequal goals: a more reliable water supply and a resilient Delta ecosystem. Broadly, Stephen's team is tasked with supporting the use of adaptive management to enhance conservation and sustainable use of the Delta.

Adaptive management is a flexible approach to managing natural resources that allows for continuous learning, resulting in management decisions based on what was learned rather than simply implementing without regard for scientific feedback or monitoring. Management actions can be viewed as hypotheses to be tested, with the goal of continuous improvement while reducing uncertainty.

Stephen explains the process of adaptive management, and why it's so important in complex ecosystems like the Delta.

Stephen's Haiku:

Uncertain futures

But we know a lot, let's act

Learning as we go

-Read more about the Delta Stewardship Council at their website.

-Follow this link to learn more about the Council's adaptive management work, and to find resources on developing adaptive management plans.

-The 2025 Adaptive Management Forum will be held on October 14-15! Follow this link to learn more about this free event and to register to attend either in-person or online.

Have you ever asked your garbage truck where it's going?

Sybil Derrible is a professor of civil engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago, focusing on urban engineering- studying large systems of power and movement inspired by the tiny island he calls his hometown. Living in a tight community (and with parents that owned a hardware store), Sybil grew up knowing where his water and energy came from- and now, he wants you to learn about yours too.

In this episode, Sybil joins us to discuss his new book, aptly titled The Infrastructure Book. He chose to write this book because he felt that his work needed to be communicated to the public. He feels that people need to understand how their infrastructure works: not just roads and bridges, but the energy systems, water distribution, telecommunications, waste disposal and more that happen behind the scenes.

Sybil's Haiku:
It breathes not, but lives
It makes it all possible
Infrastructure rocks!

Links:
Check out The Infrastructure Book here: https://csun.uic.edu/the-infrastructure-book/
Learn more about Sybil's work: https://sybilderrible.com/

This month, we’re proud to introduce an in-house effort at the Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems: the Georgia Statewide Resilience Assessment.

Commissioned by The Pew Charitable Trusts and conducted by the Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems at UGA, this report brings together insight from across the sectors, stakeholders and systems of Georgia. The outcome: a review of our hazards and challenges, as well as some opportunities, exemplary projects, and recommendations for creating a more resilient Georgia.

The research process for this report involved holding in-person and virtual discussions across the state to gain a wide array of perspectives. In this episode, we bring you a few of the people who were present at some of those meetings to discuss the project and state resilience planning as a whole.

Featuring:
Kristiane Huber, Officer, US Conservation, The Pew Charitable Trusts
Lynn Abdouni, Associate Research Scientist, Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems
Summer Modelfino, Deputy Chief Resilience Officer, Maryland Office of Resilience
Alan Robertson, AWR Strategic Consulting, Tybee Island, Georgia

And yes, Alan brought a haiku!
Recover, adapt
Always planning for a more
Resilient future

Links:
Read the report here: https://iris.uga.edu/resilience-planning-for-the-state-of-georgia/
Watch the webinar on state resilience planning here: https://iris.uga.edu/resilience-planning-for-the-state-of-georgia/
Learn more about the Maryland Office of Resilience: https://resilientmaryland.com/
Learn more about resilience efforts in Tybee Island: https://resilienttybee.com/

Cynthia Kierner, historian, self-declared "non-21st century person," and Mets fan, is deeply interested in the role of disturbances across American history- hurricanes, earthquakes, and disease, oh my. In her book, Inventing Disaster: The Culture of Calamity from the Jamestown Colony to the Johnstown Flood, she reviews the history of natural disasters and how we respond to them across time and space in the United States.

Hosts Alysha and Todd join their guest in asking colossal questions on cataclysms: How do governments simultaneously prepare for risks at local, regional and national levels? What role do community outsiders play in disaster prevention and recovery? Can the government make you wear a seatbelt?

From Philadelphia's yellow fever epidemic of 1793 to the worldwide shutdown of COVID-19, disturbances shape communities in a major way. In this episode, we review the life cycle of natural disasters and how they impact communities today... and tomorrow.

Cynthia's Haiku (An Ode to Jersey City):
Superstorm Sandy
Rollercoaster in the sea
Inspiring disaster

Links:
Inventing Disaster: The Culture of Calamity from the Jamestown Colony to the Johnstown Flood: https://uncpress.org/book/9781469652528/inventing-disaster/

Rethinking American Disasters (NEW): https://lsupress.org/9780807179932/rethinking-american-disasters/

Bio: https://historyarthistory.gmu.edu/people/ckierner

We know that green spaces are good for you. They provide benefits to air quality, biodiversity, and even your mental health... but why?

Returning guest Joeri Morpurgo, a postdoctoral fellow at Universiteit Leiden in the Netherlands, set out with his team to answer this question. They found an important distinction: not all green spaces are created equal.

The team also investigated the various benefits of green space, and found natural variables to attribute them to: lower air temperatures were directly related to tree heights, soil quality promotes water storage, and so on. Every green space has unique characteristics that give it unique, nuanced benefits. In this episode, Joeri joins hosts Alysha and Todd to talk about why distinction between outdoor spaces is so important.

Joeri's Haiku:
Lush green fill the streets
Yet life and function diverge
Features shape what they give

Links:
Joeri's Bio: https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staffmembers/joeri-morpurgo#tab-1
Joeri's Publications: https://scholar.google.nl/citations?user=PHxx0pIAAAAJ&hl=nl

Pre-print of Joeri's newest pub: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5841194/v1

The Mississippi River Basin covers over a million square miles across the southeast and midwest US. Despite growing up far away in the northeast US, Boyce Upholt thinks about the nation's largest waterway more than most: he's the author of "The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi." The book began nearly eight years earlier with a paddling trip, a sunken steamboat, and love-at-first-sight for the iconic southern river.

Upholt speaks to our hosts Alysha and Todd about his intertwining passions for history and nature, and why this work centers on "the Great River." The book covers how humans have thought about, related to, and altered the region over centuries, and how the river changes to meet us in new ways.

"We know it's out there, this sort of heart beating in the middle of America, but most Americans don't know what it looks like."

Boyce's Haiku (The Edgelands Wander Haiku):
Shopping cart half-sunk
Into the crust-dried batture mud
Nothing lasts too long

Links:
Check out the book: https://www.boyceupholt.com/
Southlands Magazine, a new project by Boyce Upholt, is launching later this year: https://www.boyceupholt.com/southlands

Emmanuel Stone was raised to love good food: his mother, a restaurant owner, inspired him to teach culinary arts, learn about agriculture, and emphasize the importance of whole foods. This led him to Athens Land Trust: an organization that simultaneously encourages conservation and community in Athens, GA where UGA is located.

Stone serves as the Strategic Partnerships Director for ALT. From his office at Williams Farm, a space where ALT houses their offices as well as a community garden, sustainable farming classes for both youth and adults, and counseling for homebuyers, he explained the model ALT uses to simultaneously provide affordable housing, educational resources, and whole foods to the Athens community.

"We see these things all as connected," he said. "The Trust tries to do many things, but the main thread connecting all these areas of work is that we see how community development takes many shapes."

Whether you're interested in sustainable communities, agriculture, buying a house, or just hearing us chat about food- this episode is for you!

Links:

Learn more about Athens Land Trust here: https://athenslandtrust.org/
Emmanuel Stone Bio: https://athenslandtrust.org/staff_member/emmanuel-stone/
ALT Workshops and Classes: https://athenslandtrust.org/classes-events/
Upcountry Oyster Roast: https://athenslandtrust.org/classes-events/oyster-roast/

This month's guest is someone close to home for our team- meet Alysha's PhD student, Negin Shamsi! Negin gives an overview of her first first-author publication, titled, "Interdependency classification: a framework for infrastructure resilience."

Shamsi's research focus is infrastructure and urban resilience. Infrastructure managers collaborate across engineering, urban planning, emergency response, policy making and more. The goal of Shamsi's research, including the new paper, is to better prepare all of these fields for disturbances from hurricanes to cyber attacks.

"These systems do not function in isolation, they are interdependent and if one system fails, it will have effects on other systems as well," she said. "When we talk about interdependencies, especially in the past, people think about vulnerabilities, cascading failures- something negative. But recently, there has been a changing perspective: we can look at them as an opportunity for collaboration and innovation."

Check out the new paper here: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2634-4505/adac89/pdf

Negin's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/negin-shamsi-b6736b160/

How big does an urban garden need to be to support pollinators and other important insects? What kinds of plants lead to the most biodiverse space? How should homeowners manage their gardens to support the natural world?

Get the full garden scoop with PhD researcher Joeri Morpurgo, from University Leiden in the Netherlands! Morpurgo and his colleagues visited urban gardens throughout Amsterdam and counted all the different plant and insect species they could find.

Some key findings? Gardens can be small but mighty--as long as there's dense foliage and a plethora of plant species, they supported a variety of insect species. And one controversial finding: native vs. non-native plant species didn't seem to make a difference to insect diversity.

Hear Morpurgo's take on his findings, and his urban garden management recommendations on the podcast!

Related links:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1618866724003297

https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2024/07/pavement-gardens-are-crucial-to-urban-biodiversity