Coming up this week, a double episode looking at the eccentric, charismatic and opportunistic figure that was…. Grigori Rasputin. Born a peasant in the Siberian wilderness, Rasputin expertly grasped opportunity to become one of, if not the, most powerful man in Russia.

In this double episode, I’ll explore Rasputin’s life, how he rose to power and prominence by being in the right place at the right time, and how his life was cut short by those who feared that the master opportunist had gone one step too far and burned one bridge too many.

Part 1 will be released on Monday September 9. Part 2 will be released on Thursday September 12.

The Risktory Podcast is created, written and produced by Jacinthe A Galpin.

Soundtrack (sourced from www.freemusicarchive.org)
Podington Bear - Elephants on Parade
Alan Spiljak – Clouds
Alan Spiljak – Forgotten
Alan Spiljak – Light Blue
Alan Spiljak – Empty Days
Alan Spiljak – Stars Above
Alan Spiljak – Not the End
Alan Spiljak - Sun

Bibliography
https://www.biography.com/political-figure/rasputin
https://historycooperative.org/mad-monk-grigori-rasputin-story/
https://time.com/4606775/5-myths-rasputin/
https://www.totallytimelines.com/grigory-rasputin-1869-1916/
https://culturacolectiva.com/history/rasputin-khlysty-unorthodox-russian-religious-sect
https://allthatsinteresting.com/rasputin-history
https://ersjdamoo.wordpress.com/2014/09/13/iliodor-rasputin-and-world-war-i/
Former People: The Final Days of the Russian Aristocracy – Douglas Smith

Coming up on this week’s episode, an episode inspired by a recent vacation. I was in Charleston a few weeks ago with my sons, and we spent an afternoon at the Boone Plantation, located in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. While there, I learned about the 54th Regiment, an all African-American regiment formed – as part of the Union Army - to take on the Confederate states during the American Civil War.

The story of the 54th Regiment is incredibly inspiring from a human perspective. From a risk perspective, this is a story of opportunity grasped by a group of free men determined to see their African-American brothers and sisters released from the tyranny of slavery. A chance for them to see justice served, backed by the might of the Union Army.

The emergence and eventual prominence of the 54th Regiment, and their unassailable place in the history books, is what the discipline of risk management was invented for.

The Risktory Podcast is created, written and produced by Jacinthe A Galpin.

Soundtrack (sourced from www.freemusicarchive.org)
Podington Bear - Elephants on Parade
Alan Spiljak – Clouds
Alan Spiljak – Forgotten
Alan Spiljak – Light Blue
Alan Spiljak – Empty Days
Alan Spiljak – Stars Above
Alan Spiljak – Not the End
Alan Spiljak - Sun

Bibliography
http://www.masshist.org/online/54thregiment/index.php
https://www.nps.gov/articles/54th-massachusetts-regiment.htm
http://www.54thmass.org/
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/fort-wagner-and-54th-massachusetts-volunteer-infantry
http://acommonsense.org/learn-firsthand/54th-regiment/
https://www.historynet.com/americas-civil-war-54th-massachusetts-regiment.htm

On this Risktorian of the Month episode, I chat with an entrepreneurial juggernaut in Vanessa Vaughn Mathews, of Asfalis Advisors (https://www.asfalisadvisors.com/)

The Risktory Podcast is created, written and produced by Jacinthe A Galpin.

Soundtrack Credits (sourced from www.freemusicarchive.org).
Podington Bear - Elephants on Parade

Coming up on this week’s episode, an episode inspired by John Greaves, July’s Risktorian of the Month (link below to that episode). Next week, I will be exploring Operation Pastorious. Operation Pastorious was a Nazi plot to attack American economic targets – including critical infrastructure - during World War 2, as a means of disrupting and, ultimately, destroying the American war effort.

This is a cracking tale from the past that exemplifies a concept that, Christian Hunt, the May Risktorian of the Month (link below to that episode), calls human risk. The German plan was solid with multiple layers of defense that had been carefully curated to succeed even when compromised. The one variable the Germans had not countenanced, or planned for, was the behavior of humans. Not factoring human behavior into their planning proved to be an achilles heel.

This week’s episode will explore the idea that you can have the best risk processes, structures and systems in place, but if you ignore the behavior of humans when interacting with risk… don’t be surprised when it all turns to custard.

The Risktory Podcast is created, written and produced by Jacinthe A Galpin.

https://www.spreaker.com/user/jacintheagalpin/rotm-july-2019-john-greaves_1
https://www.spreaker.com/user/jacintheagalpin/rotm-may-2019-christian-hunt_1

Soundtrack (sourced from www.freemusicarchive.org)
Podington Bear - Elephants on Parade
Alan Spiljak – Clouds
Alan Spiljak – Forgotten
Alan Spiljak – Light Blue
Alan Spiljak – Empty Days
Alan Spiljak – Stars Above
Alan Spiljak – Not the End
Alan Spiljak - Sun

Bibliography
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/inside-story-how-nazi-plot-sabotage-us-war-effort-was-foiled-180959594/
https://www.historynet.com/world-war-ii-german-saboteurs-invade-america-in-1942.htm
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Operation-Pastorius
https://www.thoughtco.com/world-war-ii-operation-pastorius-2361251
https://www.damninteresting.com/operation-pastorius/

On this week’s episode, an exploration into the mind of an opportunist, John Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland. In July 1553, Northumberland took advantage of a risk vacuum to place Lady Jane Grey, his daughter in law, on the English throne, making her England’s first queen.

I often speak on the podcast about opportunists and disruptors but, while I’ve dedicated a number of episodes to the disruptors – Edison, Tesla, Apgar, Parks, Bonaparte – I’ve never dedicated an episode to the wily, devious and always entertaining chess masters that are the pure opportunists. Until now.

On this week’s episode, I explore how Dudley was able to position Lady Jane Grey to become Queen, how he was able to almost effortlessly master a political landscape more volatile than a south American dictatorship, and how he – eventually – came undone, and lost his head.

The Risktory Podcast is created, written and produced by Jacinthe A Galpin.

Soundtrack (sourced from www.freemusicarchive.org)
Podington Bear - Elephants on Parade
Alan Spiljak – Clouds
Alan Spiljak – Forgotten
Alan Spiljak – Light Blue
Alan Spiljak – Empty Days
Alan Spiljak – Stars Above
Alan Spiljak – Not the End
Alan Spiljak - Sun

Bibliography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dudley,_1st_Duke_of_Northumberland
https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Dudley-duke-of-Northumberland
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Lady-Jane-Grey/
https://www.geni.com/people/John-Dudley-1st-Duke-of-Northumberland-1st-Earl-of-Warwick/5234821020830118073
Reel Truth History – England’s Forgotten Queen (Documentary)

On this week’s double episode, I look at the 1993 Waco Siege.

The Waco Siege started with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (the ATF) attempting to serve a search warrant on a religious sect, the Branch Davidians (the ATF suspected the sect had been stockpiling illegal weapons), and it ended – 51 days later – with the deaths of 4 ATF agents and 82 Branch Davidians.

There’s a lot to unpack in the Waco Siege. I could probably do a whole month’s worth of episodes on the topic and still not get bored. In this week’s double episode, I’ll explore how the siege unfolded, the responses of both sides to risk (both threat and opportunity), and I’ll examine how risk misunderstood can end in absolute, preventable tragedy.

The Risktory Podcast is created, written and produced by Jacinthe A Galpin.

Soundtrack (sourced from www.freemusicarchive.org)
Podington Bear - Elephants on Parade
Alan Spiljak – Clouds
Alan Spiljak – Forgotten
Alan Spiljak – Light Blue
Alan Spiljak – Empty Days
Alan Spiljak – Stars Above
Alan Spiljak – Not the End
Alan Spiljak - Sun

Bibliography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege
https://www.justice.gov/archives/publications/waco/report-deputy-attorney-general-events-waco-texas
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/texas/2018/02/27/51-days-siege-timeline-branch-davidian-standoff
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/waco/
https://www.firstthings.com/article/1995/05/waco-a-massacre-and-its-aftermath
https://time.com/5115201/waco-siege-standoff-fbi-david-koresh/
https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/1999-11-12/74647/
http://www.jaedworks.com/shoebox/waco.html

On this week’s double episode, I look at the 1993 Waco Siege.

The Waco Siege started with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (the ATF) attempting to serve a search warrant on a religious sect, the Branch Davidians (the ATF suspected the sect had been stockpiling illegal weapons), and it ended – 51 days later – with the deaths of 4 ATF agents and 82 Branch Davidians.

There’s a lot to unpack in the Waco Siege. I could probably do a whole month’s worth of episodes on the topic and still not get bored. In this week’s double episode, I’ll explore how the siege unfolded, the responses of both sides to risk (both threat and opportunity), and I’ll examine how risk misunderstood can end in absolute, preventable tragedy.

The Risktory Podcast is created, written and produced by Jacinthe A Galpin.

Soundtrack (sourced from www.freemusicarchive.org)
Podington Bear - Elephants on Parade
Alan Spiljak – Clouds
Alan Spiljak – Forgotten
Alan Spiljak – Light Blue
Alan Spiljak – Empty Days
Alan Spiljak – Stars Above
Alan Spiljak – Not the End
Alan Spiljak - Sun

Bibliography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege
https://www.justice.gov/archives/publications/waco/report-deputy-attorney-general-events-waco-texas
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/texas/2018/02/27/51-days-siege-timeline-branch-davidian-standoff
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/waco/
https://www.firstthings.com/article/1995/05/waco-a-massacre-and-its-aftermath
https://time.com/5115201/waco-siege-standoff-fbi-david-koresh/
https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/1999-11-12/74647/
http://www.jaedworks.com/shoebox/waco.html

On this week’s episode, I look at the 1995 Chicago Heatwave and the impacts of mass realization of mass critical risk. This is an episode that mixes history and technical risk expertise.

The Risktory Podcast is created, written and produced by Jacinthe A Galpin.

Soundtrack for this week's episode (sourced from www.freemusicarchive.org)
Podington Bear - Elephants on Parade
Alan Spiljak – Clouds
Alan Spiljak – Forgotten
Alan Spiljak – Light Blue
Alan Spiljak – Empty Days
Alan Spiljak – Stars Above
Alan Spiljak – Not the End
Alan Spiljak - Sun

Sources for this week’s episode
https://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/July-2015/1995-Chicago-heat-wave/
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-chicago-heat-wave-20-years-later-met-20150715-story.html
https://www.adaptny.org/2016/07/21/case-study-deadly-chicago-heat-wave-of-1995/
Heat Wave - A social autopsy of disaster in Chicago – Eric Klinenberg
Cooked: Survival by Zip Code – Judith Helfand
Cook County Medical Examiner Archives

On this Risktorian of the Month episode, I chat with THE man for infrastructure risk, John Greaves.

The Risktory Podcast is created, written and produced by Jacinthe A Galpin.

Soundtrack Credits (sourced from www.freemusicarchive.org).
Podington Bear - Elephants on Parade

Welcome to the Jungle used under Fair Use Provisions.

On this week's episode, it's an examination of infrastructure risk, courtesy of the 1998 Longford Gas Explosion.

The Risktory Podcast is created, written and produced by Jacinthe A Galpin.

Soundtrack Credits (sourced from www.freemusicarchive.org).
Podington Bear - Elephants on Parade
Alan Spiljak - Sun
Alan Spiljak - Not the end
Alan Spiljak - Flying Away
Alan Spiljak - Stars Above
Alan Spiljak - Forgotten