This Disaster Zone Podcast: Natural Hazards Center, University of Colorado, Boulder highlights the social science/people side of disasters. As practitioners who are responders or emergency managers there is much we still have to learn from social scientists. See the description of the podcast below.
All forms of science can be beneficial to people working in the emergency management and disaster related fields of endeavor. However, when it comes to working with people and their relationship and thoughts about all phases of disasters, it is the social sciences that can help us most understand and communicate with the people and populations we serve. Lori Peek, a professor in the Department of Sociology and director of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder is the guest for this podcast. We run through a gamut of questions about not only the center, but also why people behave like they do during disasters. She points to some of the excellent resources that the Natural Hazards Center has to offer. It is about time we start taking advantage of the research that has already been done!