Safety Labs by Safety Products Global Understanding Disasters to Enhance Workplace Safety with Edward Tenner
Mar 23, 2026
Edward Tenner, author and Princeton lecturer on technology, risk and unintended consequences. He walks through famous disasters to reveal hidden risks and how safety fixes can backfire. Multiple short stories explore expertise turning into blind spots, deferred 'gray rhino' risks, and why rehearsals and historical perspective matter.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Trusted Playbooks Can Become Liability
- Expertise becomes risky when practitioners rely on a successful playbook and miss subtle changes.
- Tenner cites the Yorkshire Ripper case where seasoned investigators pursued misleading leads and missed the real perpetrator.
Audit Safety Devices For Unintended Failure Modes
- Re-evaluate safety devices for unintended effects before crises occur.
- Example: World Trade Center elevator lockouts intended to prevent entrapment instead trapped people during the attacks.
Kafka's Safety Reports Show Guards Can Create Hazards
- Franz Kafka reported that sawmill blade guards caused injuries when workers cleared clogged chips without disengaging mechanisms.
- The guards clogged with debris, prompting workers to bypass safeguards and get hurt.
