Nobody radios in "I'm not okay." You just push through the next call, and the one after that.

Gary Roberts has pushed through calls for more than twenty years, as an active firefighter and paramedic in Fort Lauderdale. He's also built an AI company on the side, between shifts, on no sleep, because he got tired of watching guys wait too long to say something.

His company is called Neurovus, and the AI agent is NAVI. It doesn't diagnose you. It doesn't talk to your chief. It watches what your wearable already tracks: sleep, heart rate variability, recovery, and tells you when you're drifting from your own baseline. Before you feel it. Before it becomes a problem with a name.

We got into it with Gary:

• Why "resilience" might be the wrong word, and what it's costing us
• How you sell an AI to a culture that doesn't trust apps, doesn't trust outsiders, and definitely doesn't trust anything that reports up the chain
• Where a wellness tool stops and a medical device starts, and why that line matters
• What winning actually looks like in five years, not in dollars

Neurovus is a wellness awareness tool. It is not therapy, a diagnosis, or a crisis service.

Gary Roberts: Helping fire departments spot burnout before it becomes a crisis | 20 Years, Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue | Founder & CEO, Neurovus | Built NAVI to track each firefighter’s drift from their own baseline

Subscribe for more conversations on first responder mental health, leadership, and culture.

Contact Gary Roberts:

Neurovus: neurovus.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GRoberts.Neurovus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/groberts_neurovus/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neurovus/

Contact Responder Resilience:
Phone: +1 844-344-6655
Email: info@respondertv.com
Our website with past episodes and more: https://www.respondertv.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ResponderResilience
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/responder-resilience-podcast/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/responder.tv/

★ Resources for Responder Wellness ★

• Fitness: FightCamp (code RESILIENCE for 10% off) http://joinfightcamp.com/rr

• Free App: CRACKYL http://crackyl.respondertv.com

• Book: Helping the Helpers https://a.co/d/dm0VS4Q

#FirefighterMentalHealth #ResponderResilience #FirstResponders #Neurovus #FirefighterWellness #FirstResponderWellness #AIinHealthcare #PublicSafety #Firefighter #WearableTech

This show is for educational purposes only and does not provide medical, psychological, or professional treatment. Views expressed are those of the individuals, not any affiliated agency or organization.

In an emergency, call 911. For mental health support, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline).

Assistant Chief Manny Almaguer draws a distinction most fire departments have never heard: cultural competency and cultural empathy are not the same thing. One checks a box. The other earns trust. In this conversation, he breaks down what that difference actually looks like on the ground.

Before he ever put on turnout gear, Almaguer spent years working in psychiatric institutions, and that background shapes everything about how he leads. In 26 years, he's held nearly every role in the Denver Fire Department and spent the last 15 as a national voice on first responder mental health, invited to speak at the White House, the Pentagon, and NATCON.

In this conversation, Chief Almaguer covers:

• Cultural competency vs. cultural empathy, and why the distinction changes how training actually lands
• His "kick the tires" audit: personally calling 988 and local recovery resources before recommending them to his crew
• His definition of psychological safety, and how to explain it to someone who's never heard the term
• How his years as a psychiatric nurse and technician transferred directly into fire service leadership and scene safety
• The story behind Denver Fire's 2013 mental health training program, and the 1,100+ members it reached
• What a battalion chief or company officer needs to know at minimum to catch something early

Subscribe for more conversations on first responder mental health, leadership, and culture.

Don’t miss EMS Fire Pro Expo. October 22 through 24. Mohegan Sun. Register today at https://emspro.org/

Contact Responder Resilience:
Phone: +1 844-344-6655
Email: info@respondertv.com
Our website with past episodes and more: https://www.respondertv.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ResponderResilience
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/responder-resilience-podcast/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/responder.tv/

This show is for educational purposes only and does not provide medical, psychological, or professional treatment. Views expressed are those of the individuals, not any affiliated agency or organization.

In an emergency, call 911. For mental health support, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline).

Twenty-five years after 9/11, more than 600 FDNY members have died from Ground Zero-related illness, nearly double the number lost in the collapse itself. Retired FDNY Deputy Chief Richard Alles arrived 20 minutes after the second tower fell and spent nine months on-site. Today, as Director of 9/11 Community Affairs for Barasch & McGarry, he works full-time helping first responders and survivors access the WTC Health Program and Victim Compensation Fund.

In this conversation, Chief Alles covers:

• What leadership looked like in the chaos of Ground Zero's first hours
• How detective James Zadroga's autopsy became the forensic evidence that passed the Zadroga Act
• The current FDNY and nationwide illness death toll, now surpassing 9,000 across all WTC-related illness
• Who qualifies for WTC Health Program and VCF benefits, and the exposure-hour requirements by date
• Why skin cancer, not respiratory illness, is the most common Ground Zero-linked condition
• His own two cancer diagnoses, and why he tells everyone with 9/11 exposure "it's not if you'll get sick, it's when"

Subscribe for more conversations on first responder mental health, leadership, and culture.

YouTube: Responder Resilience
Facebook: ResponderTV
LinkedIn, Apple Podcasts, Spotify: Responder Resilience
Full archive: ResponderTV.com

Contact Richard Alles:
Website: https://www.post911attorneys.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BaraschMcGarry/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baraschmcgarry/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/barasch-mcgarry/

Contact Responder Resilience:
Phone: +1 844-344-6655
Email: info@respondertv.com
Our website with past episodes and more: https://www.respondertv.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ResponderResilience
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/responder-resilience-podcast/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/responder.tv/

This show is for educational purposes only and does not provide medical, psychological, or professional treatment. Views expressed are those of the individuals, not any affiliated agency or organization.

In an emergency, call 911. For mental health support, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline).