In this episode, I'm delighted to share my conversation with Jessie Singer the author of the new book There Are No Accidents: The Deadly Rise of Injury and Disaster - Who Profits and Who Pays the Price. We examine how the word "accident" has morphed into meaning that nothing could have been done to prevent it, but when the events are examined, they are the inherently predictable and preventable results of a system and an environment. Tune in to learn more.

Watch the video version of this episode to get the full effect

We hear it all the time "a tragic accident occurred and x number of people were hurt or even, all too often killed", but was it really an accident or a result of a poorly designed and often complex, multivariable system.

Jessie felt compelled to explore the word "accident" and its nuanced, complicated, and even insidious history because tragedy struck close to home with the killing of her best friend one day while he was riding in a supposedly-safe "protected" bike lane. Eventually, she wrote and recently published There Are No Accidents: The Deadly Rise of Injury and Disaster - Who Profits and Who Pays the Price.

Our human nature pulls us in the direction of blaming someone, anyone, most likely the person directly involved in the incident because surely they must pay. Perhaps. But what if the real responsibility lies further up the chain of events at the system level? That's precisely what I explore with Jessie in the conversation and I hope you find it interesting and perhaps even thought-provoking enough to prompt looking at things more systematically with an eye toward truly preventing future traumatic events from happening.

Helpful Links (note that some may include affiliate links to help me support the channel):
- Jessie's website
- Book - There Are No Accidents
- Fortune's best-of book list

Four Easy Steps to Support My Efforts:

1. Become an Active Towns Ambassador by "Buying Me a Coffee" or by pledging as little as $1 per month on Patreon

2. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a "thumbs up," leave a review on Apple Podcasts, and share it with a friend.

3. Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred listening platform and the Active Towns YouTube Channel

4. Pick up some Active Towns #StreetsAreForPeople Merch at my store

Credits:

All video and audio production by John Simmerman

Music:

Various mixes also by John Simmerman

Resources used during the production of this episode:

- My awesome recording platform is Ecamm

- Adobe Creative Cloud Suite

For more information about my Active Towns effort or to follow along, please visit my links below:

- Website

- Twitter

- Newsletter

- Podcast landing pages

- Facebook

- Instagram

Background:

Hi Everyone, my name is John Simmerman.

I’m a health promotion professional with over 30 years of experience and my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization of how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.

In 2012 I launched the non-profit Advocates for Healthy Communities as an effort to help promote and create healthy, active places.

Since that time, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be, in order to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."

My Active Towns suite of channels feature my original video and audio content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.

Thanks for tuning in; I hope you have found this content helpful.

Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2022

Advocates for Healthy Communities, Inc. is a nonprofit 501c3 organization (EIN 45-3802508) dedicated to helping communities create a Culture of Activity. To donate, click here.