This week we interview two people involved in organizing a medical mission to help Ukrainian refugees in Poland and across the border in Ukraine itself. Our guests include Dr. Kasia Hampton and Paramedic Tim Conley. Hampton studied medical school in Belgium before moving to the U.S. for her medical training in emergency medicine and pediatric medicine.

We return this week to cover a topic we hit every year at this time. Ski Patroler and meteorologist Kyle Nelson joins us to talk about the behind-the-scenes event planning for the Winter XGames in Aspen, Colorado. Kyle is part of the medical response and planning team on the hill where both the athletes and spectators are watched for injuries or illness.

We add another clinical topic to our podcast episode this week. Dr. Joe Holley joins us to talk about smoke inhalation injuries. He points out that these sorts of injuries increase during the winter months as more people use combustion sources to heat their homes and apartments.

As responders are deployed for disasters near and far, how do their families react and manage the departure of their loved ones? We dig into the effects of disasters on the families of first responders. What does family preparedness for deployment look like and what is the family's role in helping manage the aftermath of stress on responders.

In this episode of the Disaster Podcast we look at the clinical issue of altitude illness. To cover this we have Dr. Joe Holley and mountain rescue and ski patrol specialist, Kyle Nelson. We look at the various signs and symptoms, potential for long term effects, treatments and more.

Dr. Joe Holley from Paragon Medical Education Group is featured in today's episode. He talks about his recent trip to the NAEMSP (National Association of EMS Physicians) conference in southern California. During the conference they focused on building more understanding between prehospital and hospital medical professionals. What do people in the hospital need to know about how first responders do their jobs and manage disaster situations.

Dan and Becky DePodwin drop by to share their meteorological expertise with the Disaster Podcast team. Becky talks about the recent wildfire in Colorado that devastated multiple communities and destroyed over 1,000 homes. Dan looks at the multiple winter storms that swept across the country and ended up stranding thousands of motorists on a major highway for over 24 hours.

Dr. Joe Holley and meteorologist Kyle Nelson join our regular co-hosts, Sam Bradley and Jamie Davis on today end-of-the-year episode. We take some time to look back at our favorite episodes and guests from the previous year. We also look forward to 2022 and what we want to cover more in the new year.

Recent storms and tornadoes struck five states with loss of life and severe structural and infrastructure damage. Our Disaster Podcast team discussed it in our weather predictions for the coming week in the episode previous to this one.

Dan Zehner from NHERI (Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure) comes on the show with a fascinating update of what these eleven institutions are up to with disaster infrastructure studies. We also had Dan DePodwin and Becky DePodwin join us to chat about weather impacts in the coming week here in the U.S. including winter storms and severe weather warnings.