A fireball recently lit up the sky over Boston, and while it made for a striking moment, it was also a reminder: Earth is constantly encountering objects from space. Most burn up harmlessly. But some don’t, and the consequences can cascade fast.
In the latest episode of Impact Analysis, Jerome Ryan and Mike Janko sit down to talk about meteors, near-Earth objects, and why low-probability, high-consequence risks deserve a real seat at the table for today’s leaders.
It might seem like an unusual topic for a resilience conversation, but the lessons translate directly. A larger atmospheric event or impact doesn’t just cause damage at the source. It can trigger power outages, communication breakdowns, transportation disruptions, and strain on emergency response, the kind of ripple effects that test an organization’s ability to function under pressure.
In the episode, Jerome and Mike dig into:
- How often meteors and near-Earth objects actually come close to Earth
- What the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor event taught us about cascading impact
- Why secondary consequences often outweigh the primary event
- How organizations can prepare for disruptions they didn’t see coming
- Why protecting employees, and supporting their families, has to come first
- Resilience lessons that apply across every industry, not just space-watchers
The bigger takeaway: resilience isn’t about predicting every possible threat. It’s about building an organization that can adapt, communicate clearly, protect its people, and keep critical operations running when the unexpected happens, whatever form it takes.
Watch the full episode for the complete discussion, and subscribe for more conversations on risk analysis and emerging topics.