Inside School Shootings: 50 experts share insights on prevention and solutions
New sortable spreadsheet makes it easy to search for specific experts and topics on the 'Back to School Shootings' podcast.
A problem with podcast apps is they are difficult to search and the newest episodes are usually at the top of the list. This ends up burying some valuable content from the early episodes of shows.
On the Back to School Shootings podcast, each of the first 50 episodes features a candid conversation with an expert (mostly PhD researchers) about the people, systems, policies, and failures that happen before, during, and after school shootings. Each guest also shares unique insights about what we can do to prevent gun violence. Unlike sports, news, or politics podcasts, most of the episodes are not about a specific incident or time-sensitive topic. There is information in my first episodes that’s still as relevant as the newest ones.
From forensic psychologists analyzing shooter manifestos to psychologists identifying early warning signs, each guest brings a unique perspective on topics like emergency response, threat assessment, school security, mental health, and the broader cultural context of gun violence. Whether it’s a convicted school shooter reflecting on his past, a researcher testing AI's role in prevention, or a police officer defining what school safety really means, these episodes offer real stories and research-backed insights that challenge assumptions and push the conversation forward.
This spreadsheet includes each episode with the guest(s), summary, and topic so you can explore the series in full or find the ones most relevant to your work or research interests.
Link to live version updated with each new episode.
Example: Trauma Surgeon’s Advice for Treating a Gunshot Wound at a School
Back to School Shootings Ep 50. Trauma surgeon's priority treating gunshot wounds
Guest: Sarabeth Spitzer, MD, MPH, SAFE Co-Founder, General Surgery Resident, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA.
Question: What's the most important item to treat a gunshot wound at a school?
Dr. Spitzer: Cellphone so that you can call 911 and get the child to a hospital as quickly as possible.
When a child is shot, the top priority is getting the kid to a hospital--ideally in the first 10 minutes--even if the school is on lockdown.
During the immediate chaos of a shooting on campus, if school staff see a wounded student who is acting very aggressively, they might lockdown and wait for police to arrive before approaching the kid. This is a huge mistake.
"One of the physiologic responses when you're in shock--which is when you have a loss of blood or your septic from a hole in your intestine--young folks get this very notably, is that you can become agitated and angry appearing.
And there is occasionally a bias in the patients that we see when they are brought into the hospital. They're thrashing, they're screaming, they're angry, they're inconsolable. and they're being held down. There is a kind of security concern initially, when really it's not a security concern.
It's a physiologic reaction that you know something deep down is going very wrong. And the flailing, the kind of aggressive behavior is actually a symptom more so than something that needs to be stopped. And so even when you see folks that are screaming, yelling, whatever it is, just try to remember that it's not that they're being aggressive."
Example: Constitutional law professor analyzes school policing
Unarresting School Safety: American public schools continue to utilize and expand harsh policing policies and practices despite experts’ serious concerns that the costs outweigh the benefits.
Guest: Maryam Ahranjani, professor of law at the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where she teaches and writes in the areas of criminal law and procedure and constitutional law.
Every Episode is Free!!!
The Back to School Shootings podcast is free and available on Substack or apps such as Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube. There are no sponsors or ad breaks so you can listen to authentic and unbiased conversations with the real experts on this topic.
David Riedman is the creator of the K-12 School Shooting Database, Chief Data Officer at a global risk management firm, and a tenure-track professor. Listen to my weekly podcast—Back to School Shootings—or my recent interviews on Freakonomics Radio, New England Journal of Medicine, and my article on CNN about AI and school security.