Recent Podcast Appearance: Risk Revolution

I’m excited to share that I recently had the opportunity to appear on the Risk Revolution podcast, joining host Valerie Mulholland for what turned out to be a provocative and deeply engaging conversation about the future of pharmaceutical quality management.

The episode, titled “Quality Theatre to Quality Science – Jeremiah Genest’s Playbook,” aired on September 28, 2025, and dives into one of my core arguments: that quality systems should be designed to fail predictably so we can learn purposefully. This isn’t about celebrating failure—it’s about building systems intelligent enough to fail in ways that generate learning rather than hiding in the shadows until catastrophic breakdown occurs.

Why This Conversation Matters

Valerie and I spent over an hour exploring what I call “intelligent failure”—a concept that challenges the feel-good metrics that dominate our industry dashboards. You know the ones I’m talking about: those green lights celebrating zero deviations that make everyone feel accomplished while potentially masking the unknowns lurking beneath the surface. As I argued in the episode, these metrics can hide systemic problems rather than prove actual control.

This discussion connects directly to themes I’ve been developing here on Investigations of a Dog, particularly my thoughts on the effectiveness paradox and the dangerous comfort of “nothing bad happened” thinking. The podcast gave me a chance to explore how zemblanity—the patterned recurrence of unfortunate events that we should have anticipated—manifests in quality systems that prioritize the appearance of control over genuine understanding.

The Perfect Platform for These Ideas

Risk Revolution proved to be the ideal venue for this conversation. Valerie brings over 25 years of hands-on experience across biopharmaceutical, pharmaceutical, medical device, and blood transfusion industries, but what sets her apart is her unique combination of practical expertise and cutting-edge research.

The podcast’s monthly format allows for the kind of deep, nuanced discussions that advance risk management maturity rather than recycling conference presentations. When I wrote about Valerie’s writing on the GI Joe Bias, I noted how her emphasis on systematic interventions rather than individual awareness represents exactly the kind of sophisticated thinking our industry needs. This podcast appearance let us explore these concepts in real-time conversation.

What made the discussion particularly engaging was Valerie’s ability to challenge my thinking while building on it. Her research-backed insights into cognitive bias management created a perfect complement to my practical experience with system failures and investigation patterns. We explored how quality professionals—precisely because of our expertise—become vulnerable to specific blind spots that systematic design can address.

Looking Forward

This Risk Revolution appearance represents more than just a podcast interview—it’s part of a broader conversation about advancing pharmaceutical quality management beyond surface-level compliance toward genuine excellence. The episode includes references to my blog work, the Deming philosophy, and upcoming industry conferences where these ideas will continue to evolve.

If you’re interested in how quality systems can be designed for intelligent learning rather than elegant hiding, this conversation offers both provocative challenges and practical frameworks. Fair warning: you might never look at a green dashboard the same way again.

The episode is available now, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on how we might move from quality theatre toward quality science in your own organization.

Management’s Job

In episode 48 of the Deming Len’s podcast, the host refers back to Deming’s last interview, “Dr. Deming: ‘Management Today Does Not Know What Its Job Is‘”

I’ve written recently about driving fear out of the organization. Without a doubt I think this is the number one task for us. True North for the quality profession.

The source of innovation is freedom. All we have—new knowledge, invention—comes from freedom. Somebody responsible only to himself has the heaviest responsibility. “You cannot plan to make a discovery,” Irving Langmuir said. Discoveries and new knowledge come from freedom. When somebody is responsible only to himself, [has] only himself to satisfy, then you’ll have invention, new thought, now product, new design, new ideas.
Dr. W. Edwards Deming

Embracing Differences interview with Amy Edmondson

Why don’t workers speak up? A conversation with Amy Edmondson

Great interview with Professor Edmondson on Embracing Differences on psychological safety.

“There’s a tension because especially in very hierarchical systems they’re quite worried about being and looking competent and at the same time their real performance, their real safety, their longer-term survivability is based on the ability to keep getting better and to be almost unnaturally observant and attentive to failures, little mishaps in processes a weakness. So, for high-risk organizations, they need to be just unnaturally attentive to the things that go wrong but that can feel very much at odds with looking good and with looking like performance. So, one could actually say that the real tensions between the appearance of performance and learning that real performance and particularly overtime, is in fact dependent on about learning.“

Can we be too much a problem solver?

Interesting perspective on adapting what makes us successful as problem solvers as we move into more senior leadership positions. Resonates very well with some of my own challenges, so I stronly recommend listening to this episode.

The Dream Podcast on Supplements

The dietary supplement industry is, frankly, a scary mess that has continued to succeed in getting themselves exempted from regulatory oversight for 5 decades now. Dog food is probably safer.

This week’s episode of “The Dream” is spot on and should be required listening by anyone who takes a vitamin or supplement.