We're already 3 weeks into our new format and things are getting interesting! Eric and Rich had another thoughtful conversation chock full of insights about the strange times we live in. Highlights this week include:

Why are scientists so bad at communicating?

Plus, how Rich got the big idea that launched his foundation, and one big idea Eric came up with on the spot!

We're excited to present a new episode of the Child Safety Source, now with a new format! Joining our own Eric Lupton is Rich Specht of Cultivate Kindness: The ReesSpecht Life Foundation as our new co-host. We hope that you enjoy this pleasant and positive conversation as much as we did!

Check back for more episodes on Thurday afternoons.

 Mark Rauterkus of Pittsburgh, PA, USA, has coached swimming since 1976 when he started a team as a lifeguard. With 9 years at the college level, 10,000 swimmers have called him “Coach Mark.” He has worked for 52 athletic directors and 34 principals and his swimmers have set state records in four states. Mark published 100+ titles for cutting-edge sports participants including the first ebook in sports in 1989. His advocate site, CLOH.org, aims to Create Literate Olympians Here. 

Gordon Giesbrecht, Ph.D. is a professor of Thermophysiology and Associate Dean in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management, at the University of Manitoba. Gordon studies human responses to exercise/work in extreme environments and has been funded by NSERC since 1993. He has conducted hundreds of cold water immersion studies that have provided life-saving information about physiology and pre-hospital care for human hypothermia. He has also conducted over 100 vehicle submersions with people in them, to study survival and exit strategies in sinking vehicles. He has over 100 publications, and helped create instructional educational programs, such as Beyond Cold Water Boot Camp and written protocols used by Emergency Response Operators around the world. 

 On this Child Safety Source episode, we'll be talking to our first returning guest, Alissa Magrum!

 Scott is the Program Director - Safety Around Water for the Florida Alliance of YMCAs Foundation. He has been a YMCA leader for over 10 years in communications, membership, and aquatics at Florida YMCAs around the state. He has also served on state & national task forces around safety, aquatics, & advocacy. He currently serves as the facilitator of WaterSmart FL, the state drowning prevention task force. 

 Kathleen Wilson is founder and owner of SwimCalm, an innovative program that teaches adults with fear of water how to swim. This life altering program combines the mental and physical, proving to the student that the water is a friendly medium and it is well within their capacity to learn to be comfortable in any depth of water and swim. The program enjoys an extremely high rate of success among its graduates due to its premise of healing fear rather than simply managing fear. When not teaching a SwimCalm class, Kathleen Wilson is an internationally known and highly experienced marathon swimmer with a world class resume of swims. She teaches and coaches aquatics at the Medical University of South Carolina’s Student Wellness center. She is the creator and race director for the annual Swim Around Charleston, a 12 mile open water swim event held in early fall each year and several swims registered in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame as firsts. Kathleen was enshrined into the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame in May, 2018. When not in the water, Kathleen is a conservatory-trained professional harpist, holding a Bachelor of Music and Master of Music and has been principal harpist with the Charleston Symphony since 1987. She also holds an adjunct teaching positions at both the College of Charleston and Charleston Southern University while maintaining a busy schedule of providing music for special events. She also served the city of Charleston as a three term councilmember for the city of Charleston, representing District 12 and acting as Mayor Pro Tempore in 2008. She is a recipient of the Order of the Palmetto, the highest honor a citizen of South Carolina may receive and is a 2010 Liberty Fellow. 

 Kari Bahour became a water safety and drowning prevention advocate after her 16 month old son experienced a non-fatal drowning incident at a friend's pool 19 years ago. Despite the proper pool barriers and 3 adults in the home, her infant son managed to briefly escape adult supervision ending up in a cold pool floating face down and unconscious. Thankfully her son survived without complications but Kari was well aware her son's situation could have ended in tragedy. After doing her own research on swim programs, Kari enrolled her 16 month old son in a 6 week infant self-rescue swim program. Amazed at the aquatic problem solving skills her son learned, she passionately pursued becoming a survival swimming instructor to provide these essential lifesaving skills to more children.

Since 2000, she has had the privilege and honor of teaching aquatic self-rescue swimming skills to thousands of infants and young children. In 2008, Kari underwent additional extensive training to where she became qualified to train and mentor other instructors in the self-rescue methodology. Kari has trained instructors in Florida, Louisiana, Montana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Illinois, Texas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Drowning prevention and water safety became Kari's passion. She fiercely pursued many other avenues where she can make a difference and bring awareness to the pediatric drowning epidemic.

Unfortunately tragedy struck again and Kari realized her efforts were just not enough. On Mother's Day weekend in 2014, four pediatric drownings in a single weekend occurred in the Tampa Bay Area. To Kari, this was was unacceptable and she knew more had to be done to prevent these tragedies from occurring. In 2014, she founded Water Smart Tots.

Water Smart Tots, Inc. is a 501(C)3 nonprofit corporation dedicated to eliminating pediatric drowning in the Greater Tampa Bay Area by promoting awareness through water safety education and by providing scholarships for one-on-one survival swimming skills to children ages 12 months to 6 years who are financially underprivileged, or who have special needs. She wanted to give back to her community, and believed that every child deserves the opportunity to learn survival swimming skills regardless of financial hardship or special need.

A list of honors and awards for Water Smart Tots can be found here: http://www.watersmarttots.org/honors-aw…

To date, more than 2000 preschoolers have been educated about water safety through our complimentary preschool water safety presentations. More than 300 children have received specialized one-on-one survival swimming lessons in the Tampa Bay Area. 

 A lifelong swimmer and advocate for water safety, Nate Tschohl has been around water his entire life. The son of a retired United States Coast Guard Captain, he grew up with a keen sense of the importance of water safety while living near the Great Lakes, Atlantic Ocean, and the Gulf of Mexico. His passion for swimming and drowning prevention led him to volunteering for the Virginia Special Olympics, the Josh Project, and ultimately toward raising water safety awareness via International Water Safety Day (IWSD).

Tschohl has reached thousands in his quest to teach water safety education. Tschohl has led learn-to-swim projects in his local community and beyond. In 2014, he helped run a learn to swim program on the remote Maldivian island of Eydafushi which was captured and documented in Jon Bowermaster’s documentary, “Sink or Swim: Learning the Crawl in the Maldives”. The program has continued to this day.

A graduate of Old Dominion University where he was a two time Captain for their Division I varsity swim team. He went on to become Old Dominion’s Assistant Men’s and Women’s Swim Coach as well as the Senior Head Coach for Tidewater Aquatic Club for several years. Tschohl is currently the President & CEO of Swimnerd which builds Bluetooth programmable pace clocks for the swimming industry. He resides in Virginia Beach, Virginia with his wife Carly and their two beloved mutts, Tim & Fran.

 Annette Courtney and Christi Brown of the Judah Brown Project are our guests for this episode. The Judah Brown Project is a non-profit committed to reducing the number of drownings each year.