With Access Interrupted, How Do We Rebuild?

When disaster strikes, how do we rebuild...and do we do it differently? The answer might start with something simpler than we think: listening to the people already living with risk.

In this episode, we chat with Ben Raschnock, Assistant Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at North Carolina State University, whose work sits at the intersection of civil engineering, operations research, and real-world decision-making.

Ben studies how disasters don't just destroy things. They cut people off from what they need most. Floodwaters block roads. Power outages shutter grocery stores. A preferred doctor becomes unreachable. His research reframes community resilience through one powerful lens: access to essential services.

We also dive into the bigger picture of aging infrastructure, climate surprises that break models, and why the most valuable data in disaster research might already exist in the community conversations.