The Risk Matrix

“Audit yourself before somebody else does, because some of these are really easy to fix.”

This week Dr. Logan F. Martin and James Junkin break down OSHA’s Top 10 most frequently cited violations for 2026 and discuss how safety professionals can use the list to prepare for inspections, identify compliance gaps, and reduce serious injury and fatality risks.

From fall protection and hazard communication to machine guarding, ladder safety, and lockout/tagout, they examine why the same violations keep appearing year after year and how organizations can use OSHA’s citation data to strengthen their safety management systems.

The bigger question: If we already know where the risks are, why do we keep getting cited for the same violations?

ABOUT THE RISK MATRIX PODCAST

Buckle up, safety pros! The Risk Matrix brings you a weekly podcast masterclass in risk management, hosted by two industry titans:

⁠⁠Dr. L.F. Martin⁠⁠: 32-year veteran, Board of Global EHS Credentialing Impact Award winner⁠⁠James Junkin⁠⁠: Trainer of 40,000+ safety pros, ASSP's 2024 Safety Professional of the Year

They're tackling the topics that keep safety managers up at night featuring guests from regulatory bodies to safety directors and everything in between.

Every Tuesday: The tough conversations safety managers need to have. Critical insights from safety experts. Real-world strategies. Actionable solutions.

The Risk Matrix Podcast is powered by Veriforce: Bringing workers home safe from high-hazard jobs.

“It’s better to disclose it than to get caught not disclosing it and it’s far even worse to manufacture evidence.”

This week Dr. Logan F. Martin and James Junkin welcome back Tom O’Connor, Director of the Gulf Coast Legal Technology Center, to discuss data mapping, electronic discovery, and what happens when safety records become evidence in litigation. Data mapping helps organizations identify what records exist, where they’re stored, and who can access them.

Missing photographs and altered documents can raise questions about credibility. And company records stored on employees’ personal devices can create challenges long after those employees leave.

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Tom O’Connor is Director of the Gulf Coast Legal Technology Center and co-founder of the Legal Technology Education Conference. A legal technology consultant with over four decades of experience in litigation support and e-discovery, Tom is the author of “E-Discovery for the Rest of Us” and “AI for the Rest of Us.”

RESOURCES

Tom O’Connor, Gulf Coast Legal Technology Center: https://gulfltc.org

E-Discovery Checklist Manifesto (free PDF): https://aceds.org/e-discovery-checklist-manifesto/

ABOUT THE RISK MATRIX PODCAST

Buckle up, safety pros! The Risk Matrix brings you a weekly podcast masterclass in risk management, hosted by two industry titans:

Dr. L.F. Martin: 32-year veteran, Board of Global EHS Credentialing Impact Award winner

James Junkin: Trainer of 40,000+ safety pros, ASSP’s 2024 Safety Professional of the Year

They’re tackling the topics that keep safety managers up at night featuring guests from regulatory bodies to safety directors and everything in between.

Every Tuesday: The tough conversations safety managers need to have. Critical insights from safety experts. Real-world strategies. Actionable solutions.

The Risk Matrix Podcast is powered by Veriforce: Bringing workers home safe from high-hazard jobs.

“Every shortcut they had became an engineering assumption.”

This week Dr. Logan F. Martin and James Junkin use the Boeing documentaries Downfall and Free Fall as a jumping-off point to examine what happens when cost-cutting and production pressure begin creating safety risks.

They discuss how decisions around training, outsourcing, contractor management, workforce experience, and quality control can compound over time, and why listening to the people raising concerns can be one of an organization’s most important early-warning systems.

The bigger question: When does a business decision become a safety decision?

ABOUT THE RISK MATRIX PODCAST

Buckle up, safety pros! The Risk Matrix brings you a weekly podcast masterclass in risk management, hosted by two industry titans:

⁠Dr. L.F. Martin⁠: 32-year veteran, Board of Global EHS Credentialing Impact Award winner⁠James Junkin⁠: Trainer of 40,000+ safety pros, ASSP's 2024 Safety Professional of the Year

They're tackling the topics that keep safety managers up at night featuring guests from regulatory bodies to safety directors and everything in between.

Every Tuesday: The tough conversations safety managers need to have. Critical insights from safety experts. Real-world strategies. Actionable solutions.

The Risk Matrix Podcast is powered by Veriforce: Bringing workers home safe from high-hazard jobs.

"The duty to preserve arises when you have a reasonable likelihood of litigation. A lot of people think it only arises when I'm sued. Not true. The onus is on the people who own the data to preserve it when they think there's a reasonable likelihood they might get sued."

This week Dr. Logan F. Martin and James Junkin welcome Tom O'Connor, Director of the Gulf Coast Legal Technology Center, to discuss what safety professionals need to know about electronically stored information, data preservation, and attorney client privilege after a workplace incident. Deleted data eight times out of ten is not really deleted. Your duty to preserve arises before anyone sues you. And CC'ing an attorney on an email does not make it privileged.

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Tom O'Connor is Director of the Gulf Coast Legal Technology Center and co-founder of the Legal Technology Education Conference. A legal technology consultant with over four decades of experience in litigation support and e-discovery,

Tom is the author of "E-Discovery for the Rest of Us" and "AI for the Rest of Us."

RESOURCESTom O'Connor, Gulf Coast Legal Technology Center: https://gulfltc.org
E-Discovery Checklist Manifesto (free PDF): https://aceds.org/e-discovery-checklist-manifesto/

ABOUT THE RISK MATRIX PODCAST

Buckle up, safety pros! The Risk Matrix brings you a weekly podcast masterclass in risk management, hosted by two industry titans:

Dr. L.F. Martin: 32-year veteran, Board of Global EHS Credentialing Impact Award winner

James Junkin: Trainer of 40,000+ safety pros, ASSP's 2024 Safety Professional of the Year

They're tackling the topics that keep safety managers up at night featuring guests from regulatory bodies to safety directors and everything in between.

Every Tuesday: The tough conversations safety managers need to have. Critical insights from safety experts. Real-world strategies. Actionable solutions.

The Risk Matrix Podcast is powered by Veriforce: Bringing workers home safe from high-hazard jobs.

"We got a standard, we may be quote unquote compliant with the standard, but does that mean that risk stays controlled?"

This week Dr. Logan F. Martin and James Junkin discuss a NIOSH study published in August 2026 showing black lung disease among Appalachian coal miners has returned to levels not seen since the 1970s. One in three underground coal miners with 25 or more years of experience have the disease. The hazard was known. The controls were known. The question is whether compliance was ever enough.

RESOURCES

• Black Lung Rates in Appalachia Are Highest in Nearly 50 Years
• OSHA Silica Standard

• Federal Black Lung Trust Fund

ABOUT THE RISK MATRIX PODCAST

Buckle up, safety pros! The Risk Matrix brings you a weekly podcast masterclass in risk management, hosted by two industry titans:

Dr. L.F. Martin: 32-year veteran, Board of Global EHS Credentialing Impact Award winner
James Junkin: Trainer of 40,000+ safety pros, ASSP's 2024 Safety Professional of the Year

They're tackling the topics that keep safety managers up at night featuring guests from regulatory bodies to safety directors and everything in between.

Every Tuesday: The tough conversations safety managers need to have. Critical insights from safety experts. Real-world strategies. Actionable solutions.

The Risk Matrix Podcast is powered by Veriforce: Bringing workers home safe from high-hazard jobs.

“Check your ladder, check the scaffold, check on your people.”

This week Dr. Logan F. Martin and James Junkin discuss suicide prevention in construction and what safety professionals can actually do when they recognize that a worker may be struggling.

From chronic overload and understaffing to physical demands and personal stress, workers can carry pressures that compound over time. Dr. Martin and James discuss warning signs safety professionals should recognize and why their role is not to diagnose or counsel, but to ask, listen, connect workers with qualified resources, and follow up.

This episode covers workplace stressors, Mental Health First Aid, EAPs, leadership vulnerability, and practical steps employers and safety professionals can take to better support workers and help break the silence around suicide in construction.

RESOURCES

• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline

• Construction Suicide Prevention Week

• OSHA Preventing Suicides

ABOUT THE RISK MATRIX PODCAST

Buckle up, safety pros! The Risk Matrix brings you a weekly podcast masterclass in risk management, hosted by two industry titans:

⁠⁠⁠Dr. L.F. Martin⁠⁠⁠: 32-year veteran, Board of Global EHS Credentialing Impact Award winner

⁠⁠⁠James Junkin⁠⁠⁠: Trainer of 40,000+ safety pros, ASSP's 2024 Safety Professional of the Year

They're tackling the topics that keep safety managers up at night featuring guests from regulatory bodies to safety directors and everything in between.

Every Tuesday: The tough conversations safety managers need to have. Critical insights from safety experts. Real-world strategies. Actionable solutions.

The Risk Matrix Podcast is powered by ⁠⁠⁠⁠Veriforce⁠⁠⁠⁠: Bringing workers home safe from high-hazard jobs.

"Titles have nothing to do with safety. Titles mean nothing. I'm just a guy trying to help people get home safe."

This week Dr. Logan F. Martin and James Junkin welcome Paul Espenan, SVP of Environmental Health Safety and Regulatory at Diversified Energy and author of "The Heart and Soul of Safety: Leading Safety Performance from the Heart," for a conversation about what safety leadership looks like when it comes from the heart. Paul has been delivering weekly safety leadership stories on operations calls at Diversified Energy for six years. No reruns. His book collects 55 of them.

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Paul Espenan is Senior Vice President of Environmental, Health, Safety and Regulatory at Diversified Energy Company, where he has led a greater than 56% reduction in methane emissions and attained OGMP Gold Compliance status. A Certified Safety Professional with nearly four decades of experience, Paul is a two-time author and storyteller whose first book "The Heart and Soul of Safety: Leading Safety Performance from the Heart" contains 55 safety leadership moments. His second book "Owning the Heart and Soul of Safety: Leading Safety Culture From the Inside Out" releases this October.

RESOURCES

• The Heart and Soul of Safety by Paul Espenan

ABOUT THE RISK MATRIX PODCAST

Buckle up, safety pros! The Risk Matrix brings you a weekly podcast masterclass in risk management, hosted by two industry titans:

⁠⁠⁠Dr. L.F. Martin⁠⁠⁠: 32-year veteran, Board of Global EHS Credentialing Impact Award winner

⁠⁠⁠James Junkin⁠⁠⁠: Trainer of 40,000+ safety pros, ASSP's 2024 Safety Professional of the Year

They're tackling the topics that keep safety managers up at night featuring guests from regulatory bodies to safety directors and everything in between.

Every Tuesday: The tough conversations safety managers need to have. Critical insights from safety experts. Real-world strategies. Actionable solutions.

The Risk Matrix Podcast is powered by ⁠⁠⁠⁠Veriforce⁠⁠⁠⁠: Bringing workers home safe from high-hazard jobs.

"This is not an incident primarily about a hose being left on at night. It's bigger than that."

This week Dr. Logan F. Martin and James Junkin walk through the Watson Grinding explosion in Houston, Texas, the Chemical Safety Board investigation, and the Harris County jury verdict that awarded $61.5 million against the defendants.

When a propylene hose disconnected overnight in January 2020, employees arrived the next morning, smelled gas, communicated their concerns to management, and were never evacuated. The building exploded.

This episode covers what the verdict means for process safety management, contractor liability, and what every safety professional needs to understand about civil litigation beyond OSHA.

RESOURCES

• Watson Grinding Explosion, CSB Final Report
• $61.5 Million Verdict Coverage

ABOUT THE RISK MATRIX PODCAST

Buckle up, safety pros! The Risk Matrix brings you a weekly podcast masterclass in risk management, hosted by two industry titans:

⁠⁠Dr. L.F. Martin⁠⁠: 32-year veteran, Board of Global EHS Credentialing Impact Award winner

⁠⁠James Junkin⁠⁠: Trainer of 40,000+ safety pros, ASSP's 2024 Safety Professional of the Year

They're tackling the topics that keep safety managers up at night featuring guests from regulatory bodies to safety directors and everything in between.

Every Tuesday: The tough conversations safety managers need to have. Critical insights from safety experts. Real-world strategies. Actionable solutions.

The Risk Matrix Podcast is powered by ⁠⁠⁠Veriforce⁠⁠⁠: Bringing workers home safe from high-hazard jobs.

"Guard your signature. Guard your reputation. Because safety, even though there's a good many of us, it's a small world indeed."

This week Dr. Logan F. Martin and James Junkin welcome Corey Silverman, Safety Specialist at Highwire, a Veriforce company, to discuss what the construction industry gets wrong about worker readiness.

Pre-qualification tells you what a company submitted. Work readiness tells you whether the worker showing up at your gate that day can actually do the job safely.

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Corey Silverman is a Safety Specialist at Highwire, a Veriforce company. A Keene State College safety program graduate, Corey began his career at Amazon before moving into construction safety at Holder Construction. He later joined Autus, a construction safety technology company, before landing at Highwire where he works at the intersection of contractor management, worker readiness, and safety technology.

RESOURCESOSHA Comment Period for 13 Proposed Carcinogen Rules (deadline August 21)

ABOUT THE RISK MATRIX PODCAST

Buckle up, safety pros! The Risk Matrix brings you a weekly podcast masterclass in risk management, hosted by two industry titans:

⁠Dr. L.F. Martin⁠: 32-year veteran, Board of Global EHS Credentialing Impact Award winner

⁠James Junkin⁠: Trainer of 40,000+ safety pros, ASSP's 2024 Safety Professional of the Year

They're tackling the topics that keep safety managers up at night featuring guests from regulatory bodies to safety directors and everything in between.

Every Tuesday: The tough conversations safety managers need to have. Critical insights from safety experts. Real-world strategies. Actionable solutions.

The Risk Matrix Podcast is powered by ⁠⁠Veriforce⁠⁠: Bringing workers home safe from high-hazard jobs.

"If nobody can name the last stop that cost real money, you do not have stop work authority. You have a slogan."

This week Dr. Logan F. Martin and James Junkin mark Episode 150 by going back to where it all started. Episode 1 of The Risk Matrix was called Paper Safety Is Not Real Safety. One hundred and fifty episodes later, that thesis is still unfinished business. They tackle stop work authority and what separates a program that lives on paper from one that actually works.

RESOURCES

• Stop Work Authority: Policy or Permission by Dr. Logan F. Martin
  

• 
  The Contractor Liability Myth by James Junkin
  

• 
  The Record Decides by Dr. Logan F. Martin

ABOUT THE RISK MATRIX PODCAST

Buckle up, safety pros! The Risk Matrix brings you a weekly podcast masterclass in risk management, hosted by two industry titans:

⁠Dr. L.F. Martin⁠: 32-year veteran, Board of Global EHS Credentialing Impact Award winner

⁠James Junkin⁠: Trainer of 40,000+ safety pros, ASSP's 2024 Safety Professional of the Year

They're tackling the topics that keep safety managers up at night featuring guests from regulatory bodies to safety directors and everything in between.

Every Tuesday: The tough conversations safety managers need to have. Critical insights from safety experts. Real-world strategies. Actionable solutions.

The Risk Matrix Podcast is powered by ⁠⁠Veriforce⁠⁠: Bringing workers home safe from high-hazard jobs.