Episode 0132 min
Alerting Is Not Incident Management
Why a notification system is the start of the response, not the response itself.
Mara Lin
Director of Emergency Management
A podcast
When Systems
Break
A practical podcast for healthcare, utilities, public safety, and infrastructure leaders responsible for continuity, emergency preparedness, safety, incident response, and operational resilience.
When fire threatens the system
Coordinated response when the perimeter, the people, and the plan are all under pressure.
What we explore
Ten topics. One question.
What does it actually take to plan for, respond to, and recover from disruption in the systems people depend on?
01Business Continuity
02Emergency Preparedness
03Incident Response
04Operational Resilience
05Utility Outages
06Healthcare Downtime
07Cyber Disruption
08Public Safety
09Field Safety
10After Action Reviews
Featured episodes
Conversations with the people
who answer the call.
Listen →
Episode 0232 min
What Hospitals Learn When the EHR Goes Down
Inside the workflows that keep care moving when the record stops.
Dr. Priya Shah
Chief Medical Information Officer
Episode 0332 min
What PG&E and CenterPoint Teach Us About Utility Resilience
Lessons from two of the most scrutinized utilities in the country.
Jordan Reyes
VP of Grid Operations
Episode 0432 min
How Water Utilities Prepare for Contamination Events
Detection, isolation, and the public conversation that follows.
Elena Marquez
Director of Water Quality
Episode 0532 min
SCADA, OT, and the Response Gap
Where operational technology and incident response still don't speak the same language.
Sam Okafor
OT Security Lead
Episode 0632 min
Why Continuity Plans Fail Under Pressure
The patterns behind plans that look good on paper and break in practice.
Chris Halvorsen
Continuity Program Director
Why this show exists
Real lessons from people responsible for real systems.
When Systems Break explores what happens before, during, and after disruption in mission critical organizations. The show focuses on the people, decisions, workflows, and lessons that shape resilience in the real world.
No vendor talking points. No theatre. Just the kind of practical conversation that usually only happens after the room clears, captured for the people doing this work next.
Who this is for
The leaders who own the outcome.
Healthcare
Hospital operations, clinical informatics, emergency management, and continuity leaders.
Utilities
Grid operations, water systems, distribution, and field operations leadership.
Public Safety
Emergency managers, 911 directors, fire chiefs, and interagency coordinators.
Infrastructure
Transportation, ports, telecom, and critical industrial environments.
Issue tracks
Four collections. The full arc of disruption.
Track 01
Before the Break
Planning, risk reduction, preparedness, training, and drills.
Track 02
During the Break
Incident response, communication, coordination, and escalation.
Track 03
After the Break
Recovery, after action reviews, corrective actions, and lessons learned.
Track 04
Systems Under Pressure
Cyber disruption, SCADA and OT, EHR downtime, outages, and public communication.
Guest invitation
Have you led through disruption?
I'm looking for practical conversations with leaders in healthcare, utilities, public safety, and infrastructure who have managed preparedness, response, recovery, safety, or resilience efforts.
Be a Guest
About the host
Allan Dubon
Host & Producer
Allan brings a background in healthcare operations, enterprise sales, and systems thinking.
When Systems Break was created to learn from the people responsible for continuity, preparedness, response, and resilience in mission critical environments.
The show is independent, listener supported, and produced for the operators who carry the work.
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