Better Every Shift

What ‘Never Forget’ means 25 years later

  As mark the 25-year remembrance of 9/11, FDNY Chief of Department John Esposito joins podcast hosts Lt. Aaron Zamzow, Jim Dudley and Rob Lawrence for a deeply personal

Create your resilience protocol

The worst time to figure out how you’ll respond to trauma is after it happens. Resilience has to be built beforehand — through sleep, relationships, fitness, trusted peer

Inside a leadership think tank

“Call the meeting. Get them in the same room.” That simple advice helped spark a leadership think tank that has spent more than a decade connecting fire service leaders a

Learning to lead differently

There’s no single leadership style that works for every person, problem or moment — and Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipski learned that through plenty of trial and error.

How EV weight impacts your tactics

The battery fire may get the attention, but the vehicle’s weight could create the next problem. Deputy Chief Vince Bettinazzi returns with a broader look at electric vehi

How to build company drills from NIOSH reports

You’ve probably read — or at least skimmed — a NIOSH firefighter fatality report, but do you know what to do with it? Or how it came to be? Wesley Attwood, a senior inves

Your tone is your leadership

You can be absolutely right and still lose the room — all because of your tone. Drawing from personal experience, Zam shares four practical lessons for saying what you me

Today's fires demand a hazmat mindset

The next hazmat challenge probably isn't coming — it's already in your first-due. Mesa Fire and Medical Department Captain Jim Barnhart has spent years studying lithium-i

Inside the new U.S. Wildland Fire Service with Chief Fennessy

“Why do we have all of these fire agencies?” It’s a question many in the wildland world have asked for years — and Chief Brian Fennessy is now in position to do something

Cold storage close call

One routine smoke investigation. Ten minutes later, a cold storage building erupted around Firefighter Andrew Klein. This week, we’re revisiting the harrowing close call

Your post-call reset starts here

“Pain sucks,” as Zam puts it — and ignoring it doesn’t make it go away. Dr. Bita Shahidi, a physical therapist who has worked with firefighters and professional athletes,

NERIS: Everybody calm down already

“Everybody just calm down about NERIS.” That’s Zam’s charge to Misfit Nation this week as he speaks with NERIS lead developer Craig Weinschenk. The conversation goes beyo

The grant clock is ticking

AFG, SAFER, and Fire Prevention and Safety grants are open — and the clock is already ticking toward the June 22 deadline. For Lexipol grant specialist Jane Prescott, it'

Schaeffer: The fire service can’t afford CAVE leadership

Nobody tells you that becoming chief means owning problems you can’t fully control, absorbing pressure that doesn’t clock out and still leading like the weight isn’t show

Safety Stand Down 2026 goes all-in on fitness

Fitness is so much more than hitting the gym from time to time in order to pass an annual exam. It’s about whether you can get the job done today AND 20 years from now, n

Zam’s formula for better health and performance

For years, Zam was known as “the fitness guy” in the fire service, preaching workouts and functional training. But his perspective has evolved to recognize that firefight

Dena Ali returns: Mental health starts with leadership

“We have to rethink it.” That’s the challenge Battalion Chief Dena Ali brings to our latest conversation on firefighter mental health, not because the fire service hasn’t

Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell’s mission to elevate the fire service

Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell is working to elevate the fire service. She prioritized this mission during her tenure as U.S. fire administrator and continues the push in her new

Develop TIC discipline

Chief Andy Starnes, our resident thermal imaging expert, is back for a thermal imaging 101 crash course: how to check the TIC every shift, how to clean it, where to attac

Stress changes everything: Gasaway talks fireground decision-making

How could they not see it coming? It’s a common knee-jerk reaction to news or incident reports about calls that went south. But Dr. Rich Gasaway — a former fire chief and