Punk Rock Safety

About Punk Rock Safety

This podcast isn't meant to make you feel better about your ideas on safety. A lot of them are probably wrong. We're not saying you aren’t smart or that we are, but probability isn't in our favor. It’s just a recognition that there are a lot of shitty ideas about safety out there, and pure chance suggests we all share some of them. This podcast is here to fight safety bullshit. The three of us – Ben, Dave, and Ron – are here to talk about organizational safety, resilience, and human performance, but with a different perspective on things than you might be used to. Punk rock is about abandoning ideas that aren’t useful, being unafraid to push boundaries and sometimes fail, and doing it yourself when the things you need don’t exist. Here’s what Greg Graffin from Bad Religion says: “Punk is a process of questioning and commitment to understanding that results in self-progress, and by extrapolation, could lead to social progress. Punk is a belief that this world is what we make of it. Truth comes from our understanding of the way things are, not from the blind adherence to prescriptions about the way things should be.” Sounds good to us. Question everything. Do cool shit that works. Merch at www.punkrocksafetymerch.com

Publisher

Ben Goodheart, David Provan, Ron Gantt

Category

business · education · science

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

25 Mar 2024

Latest episode

4 Mar 2026

Latest episodes

9 of 52 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   4 Mar 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Ep. 50: Skinny Mike (w/ Mike Rayo)

   Host Ron Gantt interviews Professor Mike Rayo about modern safety, AI's role in socio-technical systems, and the critical importance of adaptive capacity in safety investments.

2. 

   11 Feb 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Ep. 49: Jeff (Todd) Wears Birkenstocks

   Todd Conklin discusses safety's obsession with innovation, the importance of pushing new ideas, and designing work around how it actually happens in this interview episode.

3. 

   14 Jan 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Ep. 48: How Did The Cat Get So Fat?

   The boys are back (and they're looking for trouble - see if you can sort out that lyric) for Episode 48, kicking off 2026 with the standard blend of profanity, punk rock references, and sometimes solid safety insights. And it's another NOFX reference for an episode title. This episode tackles the problem of bloated safety stuff; those processes, procedures, and bureaucratic bullshit that organizations accumulate without ever stopping to ask "why the fuck are we doing this?" Inspired by a LinkedIn comment about Episode 45 with Perry, one of the six PRS listeners, the crew dives into the critical distinction between safety work that actually matters and compliance checkbox theater that wastes everyone's time. Before a focus on safety, though, there's some discussion about HR and accounting sometimes trying to 'wag the dog' of operations. This isn't an HR podcast, though. There is some cross-purpose, though, and there might be folks conflating goals. The conversation gets real about how safety professionals need to approach experienced workers with curiosity rather than authority. The guys emphasize starting from a place of "they probably know something I don't" - asking questions, understanding context, and actually giving a shit about people's perspectives before imposing solutions. They propose a practical exercise: list everything your safety program does, get brutally honest about why you're doing each thing, then talk to workers about better ways to achieve those outcomes. The goal isn't to eliminate safety. It's to separate genuine risk management from lazy compliance work. Throughout the episode, there's the normal chaos: discussions of armed guards, activist emails, construction security, cricket matches lasting five days, and Ron's ongoing journey to the pinnacle of safety as an OSHA 30-hour certified trainer. The episode wraps with talk of upcoming guests and connections across the industry, proving once again that safety done right is about relationships, real conversations, and not being afraid to call bullshit when you see it. By the way, if you're one of the six folks listening and you have suggestions for guests, drop us a line. Bonus points if they know things about safety and punk.

Inside a recent episode

Ep. 50: Skinny Mike (w/ Mike Rayo)

Published 4 Mar 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] So, so I think there are two pieces, two big pieces, one and, and the resilience engineering community is, is I think, you know, we're still wrapping our heads around this as well. This, the first thing is, it's really hard to measure in, you know, day to day measure adaptation. So a lot of us have been talking about adaptive capacity. So what are the qualities of the system that should, that should be able to come together so that you can adapt? And, and they're things like, you know, and then and theory graceful gets sensibility basically lays them out one after another. You know, some of them, you know, have to do with the ability to, you'll reach out and, and recruit and help across boundaries. […]

Who has been a guest on Punk Rock Safety

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Mike Rayo
• Michael Bathgate
• Taylor Hewlett
• David Strano

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

3,586

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

12 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

16 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 51 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

43

Social presence

0

YouTube

74

Engagement

71

Contact Punk Rock Safety

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.