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HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons hosts the most downloaded sports podcast of all time, with a rotating crew of celebrities, athletes, and media staples, as well as mainstays like Cousin Sal, Joe House, and a slew of other friends and family members who always happen to be suspiciously available.
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A sailor on a dark deck, a torn letter, and a young corpsman learning to spot distress without a sound—that’s where our conversation begins. From that simple observation grew Stress First Aid, a peer-driven framework that replaces stigma with language people can use in real time: green, yellow, orange, red. We sit down with Dr. Richard Westfall to unpack how one napkin sketch—and a crucial shift from “disorder” to “injury”—reframed leadership, changed how teams support one another, and brought practical mental health tools into the flow of work.
We walk through the seven C’s of Stress First Aid—check, coordinate, cover, calm, connect, competence, confidence—and show how they function like ABCs for the mind. You’ll hear why safety and calming come first, how to use connection without turning into a therapist, and why “help me understand” is one of the most effective lines you can carry into any shift. We explore meaning versus mattering—how purpose draws us in, but feeling valued keeps us—and discuss what burnout teaches at different stages of a career. Novices need micro-burnouts to learn limits and recovery; veterans crash bigger because they ride the wave longer. Neither is failure. Both are predictable—and coachable.
Dr. Westfall shares field-tested ways to use the color continuum in emergency settings to de-escalate quickly, and we talk about building cultures where peers step toward distress instead of away from it. If you lead a unit, precept a new clinician, or simply want better support at work, you’ll leave with language and structure you can use today: focus on safety, calm the body, connect as trusted others, build capability for the next hour, and restore confidence by reminding people they matter.
If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a colleague who could use the Seven C’s, and leave a review with one takeaway you’ll try on your next shift. Your story might be the cue someone else needs to move from orange back to yellow.
Let’s Connect
Dr Dan Wesemann
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://nursing.uiowa.edu/academics/dnp-programs/psych-mental-health-nurse-practitioner
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-wesemann
Dr Kate Melino
Email: [email protected]
Dr Sean Convoy
Email: [email protected]
Dr Kendra Delany
Email: [email protected]
Dr Melissa Chapman
Email: [email protected]
Chapters
1. Welcome & Guest Introduction (00:00:00)
2. Navy origins and first mental health sparks (00:02:09)
3. Mail call, observation, and early interventions (00:06:16)
4. Training path and choosing psychiatry (00:10:35)
5. The napkin moment and stigma research (00:14:20)
6. From disorder to injury: paradigm shift (00:19:38)
7. Building Stress First Aid and the Seven C’s (00:24:05)
8. Meaning vs mattering at work (00:29:12)
9. Peplau, connection, and trusted others (00:32:22)
10. Practical peer support: “Help me understand” (00:36:10)
11. Burnout as a milestone, not an endpoint (00:40:06)
32 episodes
