In 2024, around 44,000 people died of gun-related injuries in the United States, which includes both homicides and suicides. Spencer Cantrell, JD, co-lead of the National ERPO Resource Center at the Center for Gun Violence Solutions within Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, is working to reduce that number.
In this Ready Living Podcast episode, she explains how extreme risk protection orders (ERPOs), often called red flag laws, are civil legal tools that can help protect people from gun violence by intervening before tragedy occurs.
ERPOs enable a petitioner to ask a court to temporarily remove firearms from someone who is making threats or engaging in threatening behavior, and to bar that person from legally obtaining firearms for the duration of the order.
Twenty-two states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands currently have ERPO laws on the books, covering more than half of the country’s population.
Spencer walks through the ERPO process, from the initial filing to the final hearing where all parties have the opportunity to present evidence. She addresses how due process is included at every stage and the factors courts consider when deciding whether to grant or deny an ERPO.
She also explains how ERPOs can work in conjunction with traditional domestic violence protection orders. ERPOs focus solely on firearms, while domestic violence protection orders carry broader relief. Knowing what each tool does and when to use them can make a critical difference for survivors seeking safety.
This episode is essential listening for survivors, advocates, attorneys, and anyone who wants to understand how the law can step in to protect people at risk. The interview is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
What if your next vacation isn’t just a source of adventure or relaxation, but an opportunity to truly impact others’ lives as well? Christopher Hill, founder of Hands Up Holidays and Impact Destinations, aims to help his guests do just that.
In this Ready Living Podcast episode, he shares how a trip to South Africa over twenty years ago changed the trajectory of his life from working as a successful London investment banker to becoming an entrepreneur pioneering luxury travel with purpose.
Rolling up his sleeves alongside local residents to help build a home for a family in a Cape Town township opened his eyes to the possibility of blending philanthropy with leisure. This sparked his desire to empower others to give back in impactful, authentic ways while simultaneously enjoying the beauty of luxury travel.
His philanthropy volunteering model ensures each trip is fully personalized, designed to match travelers’ interests, ages, and philanthropic goals. Guests can engage in a variety of activities such as helping build eco-friendly stoves that protect people from burns and respiratory illness, participating in rhinoceros relocations, teaching in classrooms, and supporting coral reef restoration.
Families in particular have embraced these vacations, finding them powerful ways to instill values such as gratitude, empathy, and humility in their children. As he explains, children who help release baby turtles in Mexico or assist in building accessible bathrooms in Bali return home with life lessons that textbooks can’t teach.
Looking ahead, he sees growing demand for sustainable and meaningful travel experiences, arguing that luxury is not at odds with giving back. He envisions a future where luxury travel empowers guests to become part of something bigger than themselves.
What drives someone to pursue a Ph.D. in public health? For Kevin Cevasco, it all began with a story about a high schooler nearly dropping out to help pay his family’s rent during his mother’s medical treatment.
In this Ready Living Podcast episode, Kevin recounts fascinating parallels from past outbreaks—like the Black Death in fourteenth century Europe and smallpox in the 1800s—to help us understand the various ways humans react to public health crises.
He looks at why people cling to misinformation in the face of evidence, why prevention efforts sometimes struggle to gain political support despite saving countless lives, and the important role cultural and religious leaders can play in advancing community health.
He also explains how public health efforts, from vaccination campaigns to better infrastructure, rely on proactive policies, adequate funding, and the trust of the communities they serve.
Kevin shares why studying patterns of disease isn’t just about medical data— it’s about people and their capacity to work together for the common good. He highlights the ways we can all contribute to a healthier and stronger society.
This episode will leave you with a deeper understanding of why public health matters and help see it as a shared responsibility.
The May 2006 issue of Harvard Business Review has a special report containing thirteen articles about Preparing for a Pandemic that focus on different areas such as the science behind H5N1, the role of leaders, the importance of communication, and modeling, among others.
However, the article on organizations, Survival of the Adaptive by Nitin Nohria, the Richard P. Chapman Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, is particularly enlightening for PR and and other related professionals counseling clients on crisis management. Nohria writes:
“In the complex and uncertain environment of a sustained, evolving crisis, the most robust organizations will not be those that simply have plans in place but those that have continuous sensing and response capabilities…
We know from complexity theory that following a few basic crisis-response principles is more effective than having a detailed a priori plan in place….
The goal is not to create specific rules for responding to specific threats but to practice new ways of problem solving in an unpredictable and fast-changing environment.”
Nohria recommends that organizations have a global network of people in place that can help out as needed if internal communications systems break down, or as either human or physical resources are compromised.
He also compares the characteristics of organizations that will be less, and those that will be more, successful in surviving an outbreak:
Hierarchical vs. networked
Centralized leadership vs. distributed leadership
Tightly (greater interdependence among parts) vs. loosely coupled (less interdependence)
Concentrated workforce vs. dispersed workforce
Specialists vs. cross-trained generalists
Policy and procedure driven vs. guided by simple yet flexible rules
