In this very short not-an-episode, Tony announces that the podcast will be taking a hiatus for 4–6 weeks while he moves across the country and adjusts to some new professional responsibilities. Listen in for Tony's explanation, along with a few more details. This isn't an end to the podcast—just a short break before new beginnings. Thank you all for tuning into the podcast and we plan to see you again sometime in October!

In some settings, just mentioning the phrase “professional ethics” makes the hairs on people’s arms stand up… but it shouldn’t. Part of the unease might stem from the fact that the term is often poorly defined or understood, leaving a nebulous gray area that makes people not only unsure of where they stand, but also where they should be standing. In this episode, Tony reviews a New York Post article on pilots who lied about medical conditions that would have disqualified them from flying and then demystifies the concept of professional ethics by offering some key metrics for standards of conduct in areas such as honesty, integrity, loyalty, and accountability, along with a set of definitions to identify those behaviors that meet or exceed the standard and those that don’t. Nobody’s perfect, but at least with clear definitions we can all shoot for a standard and know when we’re not meeting it. Even if—especially if—we’re the only ones measuring it or recognizing when we’ve fallen short.

In case you didn’t know, August 19th is National Aviation Day, when we honor the birthday of Orville Wright, whose name should be familiar to even the non-aviation listeners of the podcast. But for those less familiar with the history of aviation, Tony covers some of the historical milestones that showcase how the human spirit pushes through boundaries, breaking free of the limits of the past, shaping the possibilities of the present, and weaving the tapestry of our future. From that initial flight at Kitty Hawk through early transcontinental flights, military applications in both world wars, and eventually achieving spaceflight, we choose to celebrate the history of aviation because it remains the most potent example in the last century of ordinary human beings achieving truly extraordinary things.

Why are there so many books on “leadership” but almost none on “followership?” To answer that question, we first return to the cockpit recording from the midair helicopter collision over Reagan International this past spring. This scenario illustrates what can go wrong when people are unprepared for a reversal of the leader/follower roles they are used to. Tony uses this example to dive into the complex dynamics of these relationships and the critical skills that engaged followers should be learning from their leaders as they grow their team contribution and experience level. From big picture thinking to habit/routine creation to growing your relationship network, being an active follower builds all the foundational elements required to someday become a legendary leader.

Most of us face a certain amount of danger every single day, whether it’s while driving, walking our dog, stopping at the bank or the grocery store, or working on a home improvement project. Because the likelihood of catastrophe is so low, most of us will spend that time thinking about other things, maybe daydreaming or listening to an audiobook, a podcast, or some music. This tendency toward complacency in our routine tasks is where the danger—and potentially the death—hides. In this week’s episode, Tony draws lessons from four examples of pilots who were lulled into complacency as everything seemed completely routine—until it wasn’t. From missing checklist steps to weather alerts, sometimes thinking we know a process or environment inside and out can lead to critical errors and tragedy, a lesson that applies equally to even the most common activities.

In this episode on good leaders versus mere managers, Tony discusses three people whose leadership lessons made their mark on him and influenced his own path as a leader. These examples range from his time as a B-1 pilot to teaching military history at the US Air Force Academy and finally as the Director of Aviation for the US Forest Service, with a critical leader in each position leaving him with valuable lessons and insights into what makes a true leadership legacy. Tony shares what made these men great examples, what they taught him, and focuses on a few major points to improve both leadership and followership alike. 

The recent crash of Air India Flight 171—a tragedy that appears to have been caused by one of the pilots deliberately cutting fuel to the engines immediately after takeoff—reminds us once again of the importance of mental health support, not just for pilots but for all working professionals. Tony discusses a similar accident 10 years ago, when the pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 deliberately crashed the airplane into a mountainside during an ongoing mental health crisis. Based on the evidence collected from Flight 171 thus far, it is very likely the pilot responsible was also suffering from personal mental health issues. And while some positive steps were made after Flight 9525 to better identify struggling pilots and help—rather than punish—them, more work still needs to be done to address mental health struggles across professions and in society. Tony closes by offering his own insight into additional steps that could be taken to help prevent more of these incidents in the future.

How many leadership books do you own—or have actually read? If your shelves look anything like mine, you probably have dozens. But here’s the question: Are they helping, or just collecting dust? In today’s episode, Dr. Tony Kern dives into why so many leadership books miss the mark. He’ll challenge the assumptions behind popular leadership advice, explore what real-world leaders actually do differently, and ask if there’s anything truly worth keeping from the leadership shelf.

As Tony—along with the rest of our nation—mourns the loss of life resulting from the Medina River floods in Kirk County, Texas, he also takes a moment to reflect on emergency preparedness and the all-too-human tendency to become complacent when vigilance is required. As a rancher living in the area, Tony shares local history, insights, and information about the current tragedy, but also examples of people who had evacuation plans formed as well as practiced, trusted their judgment on when to leave, and saved the lives of their families/groups with their preparation and foresight.

Have you ever wondered how you'd respond in a true life-or-death moment? In today’s episode, Dr. Tony Kern explores that question by diving into real-world case studies where the stakes couldn’t have been higher. Through these intense scenarios, he’ll uncover what drives human performance under extreme pressure—and what we can learn to better prepare ourselves for the unexpected.

In this week’s episode of the podcast, Tony reflects on this weekend’s B-2 bomber mission that saw multiple stealth aircraft launch from a Missouri Air Force base, fly over to Iran to drop bombs, and then safely return to the same base. A mission of this length—likely 35–40 hours from pre-flight to post-flight duties—puts a heavy burden on the air crew executing the mission, with the perils of fatigue, risk management, and moment-to-moment decision making in a combat zone all requiring significant planning to handle. Tony performs a preliminary dissection on the considerations that go into planning missions like this, using his own experience on the B-1 and his dissertation on long-range missions as the starting point. Tony’s conclusion is that no matter how complex the operation is, the goal of the plan should be to make execution by the crew as simple as possible—and this is a philosophy that applies to all human performance, not just high-stakes military missions. So, achieve simplicity in your own performance by front-loading the complexity into the planning phase.

While crashing airplanes have been in the news a lot lately, there’s another major problem currently plaguing aviation: the precipitous increase in ground damage incidents, along with their associated costs. Ground damage events occur when the aircraft is not flying, during taxi, aircraft repositioning, loading/unloading, fueling, and maintenance tasks. Our news story and resulting discussion come from the article, “From the Hangar to the Tarmac: Rising Trends in Ground Incidents,” published in the 2025 issue of Jetstream from the insurer Global Aerospace. Special Guest Jermaine Cadogan is the Lead Instructor for a revolutionary training program called the “Aviation Maintenance Never Events,” which was developed by Convergent Performance to provide maintainers and other support personnel effective methods to prevent ground damage events like those described in the article. Tony and “Caddy” discuss the root causes behind this rise in ground damage, the ways rising costs will impact the industry and passengers, how the industry and regulators might try to tackle this critical issue, and why the “Never Events” program is the solution, garnering support from aviation professionals in both the public and private sectors in the decade since its inception.

Eighty years of aviation experience between them, Tony and special guest Dr. Petitt discuss the real challenges in aviation safety today, how we got here, and where we can go to improve. Dr. Karlene Petitt, an international airline pilot, author, pilot advocate, and aviation safety subject matter expert (visit her website here), discusses the current state of aviation and why passionate instructors are critical to hand down foundational knowledge. Tune in to hear why pilots are getting half the training hours they used to, problems from overreliance on automation, and more about some aviation safety issues that have recently gotten more public attention but are definitely not new.

This week’s conversation on professionalism begins with the news that retired four-star Navy Admiral Robert Burke was found guilty in a bribery scheme involving directing a government contract to a private company in exchange for a job after his military retirement. He is the most senior US military officer found guilty of a federal crime while serving on active duty. But while this conviction is unique, lapses in professionalism happen at all levels in every organization, aren’t always punished, and often aren’t even caught. Tony’s three decades of research into human behavior and his interest in history shaped his unique insights into the evolution of craftsmanship into professionalism and the descending trajectory of the latter in our modern world. Join us for the historical origins of professionalism, his assessment of its current state, and his recommendations for improving the situation, regardless of your rank, sector, or industry.

In this week’s episode, Tony follows up on last week’s conversation with Sara Hammel by delving deeper into one of the topics they touched on: the dangerous rogue operators. The clinical term for this type of person is maladaptive sociopath, and Tony’s research into one example—the pilot Bud Holland, who crashed a B-52 during a Fairchild Air Force Base airshow in 1994—uncovered some common characteristics of these rogues that he described in the book, Darker Shades of Blue. While these traits often become obvious after an accident investigation, they are also tendencies all of us can struggle with from time to time. Join us for this examination of the 12 things we must look out for to recognize and avoid trouble with those who believe themselves to be “minor gods.”

A majority of those working in aviation are ethical professionals, but it’s also an industry that developed in the “Mad Men” era of predatory male-dominated power imbalances. Many of the resulting challenges and hierarchies remain to this day—and are sometimes still exploited. Award-winning investigative journalist and bestselling author Sara Hammel (follow her on Substack) joins us on the podcast to expose this dark side of the aviation industry, people who lead double lives, and the kinds of improvements that must be made. While preventing sexual harassment, assault, and retaliation is a critical goal itself, this issue also has major implications on safety and “just culture” within the industry.

The struggle with complacency is an ancient one rooted in human biology and our desire to find and follow the path of least resistance, likely developed as a means to conserve energy between meals. But just because there is an innate biological basis for complacency does not mean we must be slaves to it, nor to the “baddies” who manipulate and encourage complacency for their own reasons. Whether it be saving time or resources by not performing adequate safety checks on a factory floor or pushing convenient cures and fast fixes, there are many sources of complacency in our modern world that we all fall victim to at times. Fortunately, the antidote is just as accessible, and it starts with asking questions and sometimes choosing to do things the old fashioned, less convenient way—cook a steak instead of a TV dinner, read a real book instead of scrolling on the phone, or have a face-to-face conversation with someone.

We are confronted on an almost daily basis with a new report about so-called leaders who are removed from their positions for poor performance, scandalous behavior, or the ubiquitous “loss of confidence.” These stories occur so often it makes us wonder if the label “good leader” is an oxymoron, if the art of leadership is dead and gone, and perhaps most importantly, what the future looks like if this is the case. Today’s podcast guest is Tom Casey, a leadership expert, advisor, and author whose latest book on the topic is called “Leadership’s Future—Confronting Not Condoning!” Tom and Tony discuss the traits that expose poor leaders, the qualities that elevate good ones—many of which are unfortunately lacking in today’s corporate, military, and political leadership—and finally, share their expertise on shaping future leaders to be curious, empathetic, and accountable.

In this week’s episode, Tony and his guest—Max Trescott, host of the Aviation News Talk podcast—discuss prioritizing safety and the tensions between safety and production as seen in the fallout from a fatal Hudson River crash of a New York Helicopter tour on April 10. Following the accident, the Director of Operations prioritized safety by suspending flights, but was immediately fired by the CEO who resumed operations, but the FAA then mandated they stop again. The two also review the situational awareness and security response of elephants at the San Diego Zoo during last week’s earthquake, before moving on to discuss the importance of safety amidst the ongoing generational handoff occurring in aviation (and many other industries), and how best to make people care enough to prioritize that often unglamorous but always critical topic. 

In this week’s episode of Only Human, Dr. Kern covers a couple of stories involving basic OSHA required safety precautions that were ignored in three incidents. The first involves a worker who fatally fell from a scaffold in Madison, WI, the second a hazardous chemical spill at a plant in Toledo, OH, and the last a grain elevator explosion in Nebraska. He also covers worker issues involving companies disguising the efforts of exploited call center workers in the Philippines as “AI” and arguments on both sides of the issue of Universal Basic Income (UBI) as a potential solution to raise people above the “basic survival” level of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to improve personal performance, self-actualization, and better contribute to society. Finally, he muses on the necessity of modern “technology detox” retreats versus building better daily habits which include breaks from technology to improve our focus and mental health.