Beyond Data Management Podcast

Caitlin Gappa is back, with health inspector confessions and questions from the community.  Including...

- An inspector walks in and finds the kitchen manager has filled floor holes with asphalt. Durable, non-slip, and impossible to clean. Not a smooth, easily cleanable surface. Caitlin would have congratulated the creativity and written the correction.

- A contractor brought in a strong caustic powdered cleaner. Someone emptied it into an unmarked container and set it at the bar. The person working the bar mistook it for sugar.
Source news link:  https://www.wbtv.com/2026/10/30/3-chilis-customers-burned-after-chemical-reportedly-mixed-into-drinks-north-carolina/

- SpiritualMUD5470 asks about the surge in unpermitted home-based food operations, AI promo graphics, and fear on the site visits. Caitlin on cottage food, Colorado’s tamale bill, California’s microenterprise kitchens, Wyoming, and the economic driver. 

- Jimmy Lomain inspected the wrong branch of a fast-food chain. Same layout, wrong address, manager never asked. Caitlin has done it too, including two places with the same name. 

- Gandalf asks about operators who make you wait until the rush clears before the exit interview. Caitlin calls it a power play in some cases. She does not wait. Email the report, offer to answer questions, signature is not required everywhere. You look weak if you sit in the corner.

- CheapDragonfly has an inspector two years in who still cannot see violations. Caitlin’s method: stop letting them inspect, watch her, and have her narrate every thread she is tracking while she takes a temperature. Stand in the kitchen and notice. However, some people are not wired for it. That conversation is hard and necessary.

They close on fantasy football. Caitlin beat Cameron by more than 50. Billy is the trade monger. 

For the EH community this conversation provides a grounded perspective on the everyday challenges of professional development. By focusing on accountability and clear communication, listeners can better manage stressful situations  We also touch on the importance of maintaining professional standards during difficult team interactions.

Beyond Data Management is powered by HS GovTech. Part two with Caitlin is next week.

Chapters
0:00 Cold open: caustic powder at the bar, asphalt in the floor

0:40 Welcome, Caitlin, and the three studios

2:10 Georgia: 159 counties in eight months

5:30 What made the speed possible

8:00 The asphalt floor patch

10:30 Illegal food vendors and the unpermitted surge

14:00 Matt Geller clip: stop enforcing

16:30 Jimmy Lomain inspected the wrong restaurant

19:30 Gandalf: operators who make you wait

22:30 Training an inspector who cannot see violations

26:00 Fantasy football and the Billy problem

28:30 Close and preview of part two

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Billy McKinnon spent a decade doing one of the most dangerous and unusual jobs on Earth: saturation diving. He worked hundreds of feet below the ocean surface, connected offshore oil pipelines, breathed mixtures containing as much as 98 percent helium and remained under pressure for weeks at a time.

Then COVID stopped the travel, Billy enrolled in a coding boot camp, learned from YouTube and reinvented himself as a software developer.
In Episode 62 of Beyond Data Management, Cameron Garrison sits down with Billy to unpack that remarkable career pivot. Billy explains what saturation divers actually do, how a diving bell connects to a pressurized living chamber, why decompression can take four days and what it is like to work where visibility can disappear completely.

The conversation then moves into Billy's current work supporting HS GovTech clients and building specialized scripts that extend HS CloudSuite for unique agency workflows. Cameron and Billy also tackle a timely question: as AI performs more of the coding, will the next generation of developers understand the systems they create?

Finally, Billy demonstrates Dynasty Degens, his AI-powered fantasy football platform for Sleeper leagues. Its JARVIS engine analyzes entire leagues, evaluates trades and waivers, optimizes lineups, runs playoff simulations and learns from each week's results using historical performance, coaching tendencies, injuries, game conditions and weather.

Your league mates are guessing. You don’t have to.
Meet Dynasty Degens, the AI-powered fantasy football platform built to give you an edge.

At the heart of it is JARVIS, your AI fantasy football engine. It brings together your Sleeper league’s settings and scoring with player usage, trends, matchups and historical data to help you make smarter decisions. Its weekly projections build on Sleeper’s baseline with adjustments for verified workload and opportunity.

With an archive of over 2 million historical player-value data points, Dynasty Degens gives you more context for trades, roster strategy, lineups, waivers and drafts, all tailored to your league.

Stop guessing. Start using AI.
Try Dynasty Degens: https://dynastydegens.com/

Guest: Billy McKinnon
Host: Cameron Garrison
Podcast: Beyond Data Management, powered by HS GovTech
Subscribe for more conversations about environmental health, government technology, software, AI and the people doing the work behind the scenes.
#SaturationDiving #SoftwareDeveloper #ArtificialIntelligence #FantasyFootball #govtech 

0:00 Show open
0:13 Meet Billy McKinnon
1:28 Running technical support at HS GovTech
1:50 An unconventional path into software
3:26 What saturation divers actually do
4:05 Breathing 98 percent helium at 500 feet
4:46 Saturation diving footage from the North Sea
6:22 Living under pressure for 28 days
8:21 Life inside the chamber
8:42 Ten years as a saturation diver
9:01 Underwater pipeline work and Hydratight bolts
9:52 Why COVID triggered a career change
10:34 Boot camp YouTube and learning to code
11:19 Will AI create developers who do not understand the code
12:08 Custom scripts inside HS CloudSuite
13:09 Four years at HS GovTech
13:37 Learning the environmental health world
15:02 Why every developer should ride along with an inspector
16:15 The people and culture behind HS GovTech
16:56 The 14 team HS GovTech fantasy league
20:35 How dynasty fantasy football works
22:27 The relentless Jaxon Smith-Njigba trade offers
25:00 NFL injuries teams and weekly chaos
32:14 Billy reveals Dynasty Degens
32:56 JARVIS lineup optimization and projections
35:08 Autopilot waivers trades and roster advice
36:29 The Dynasty Degens Chrome extension
38:14 The War Room exposes a bad trade
39:08 AI draft review and dynasty strategy
40:25 How to try Dynasty Degens
41:29 Playoff simulations and smarter projections
41:55 The 26 gigabyte local AI that learns every week
44:19 A fantasy league for podcast viewers
45:17 Building the platform with AI as the staff
54:08 The person behind HS GovTech support
55:26 Closing
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Food safety is being asked to operate in two eras at once: a meat-inspection framework rooted in 1906 and a fast-emerging world of AI, connected data and mobile tools.

Recorded at the 2026 WAFDO–CEHA–Rocky Mountain Food Safety Mega Conference in the Denver area, Cameron Garrison sits down with Steven Mandernach, Executive Director of the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO), for a wide-ranging look at the forces reshaping food regulation.

They unpack the Farm Bill, CBD and Delta-8, MAHA priorities, GRAS and ultra-processed foods, imported shrimp, meat-inspection modernization and the economics behind rising beef prices. Steve also explains why the summer Cyclospora outbreak was so difficult to trace, what public-health agencies learned from it and why prevention remains essential.
The conversation then turns to execution: root-cause analysis for repeat violations, AI-assisted qualitative analysis, FDA–state data exchange modernization, mobile-first inspection workflows and the shift from monolithic applications toward connected mini-apps. They close with the new 2026 FDA Food Code, the hidden food-safety work behind FIFA, the Olympics and national political events, and AFDO’s upcoming virtual Inspector Boot Camp.

0:00 Show open
0:16 Live from the WAFDO–CEHA Mega Conference
0:50 The conference circuit and Washington policy work
1:18 AFDO legislation clears the Senate HELP Committee
2:17 Why the Farm Bill remains stuck
3:55 CBD, Delta-8 and the cannabis loophole
5:49 MAHA, GRAS and ultra-processed foods
6:37 The one food bill that might move: imported shrimp
9:13 Beef policy and state meat-inspection programs
10:29 Rethinking an inspection system built in 1906
12:12 Cattle supply, processing capacity and food prices
14:19 The massive Cyclospora outbreak
16:39 Why Cyclospora is so difficult to trace
19:35 CDC turnover, FoodNet and lessons from the outbreak
20:52 Root-cause analysis and repeat violations
21:32 How AI is accelerating food-safety data work
23:31 FDA modernization, SFDX and better work planning
25:09 Human-centered tools for inspectors in the field
27:24 From monolithic systems to connected mini-apps
27:57 Conference momentum and regulator training
28:25 The 2026 FDA Food Code arrives early
29:36 Protecting food at FIFA, the Olympics and national events
31:50 Election turnover and food-policy uncertainty
32:57 State-level MAHA laws and the preemption question
35:06 What comes next for AFDO and HSGovTech
35:55 AFDO’s virtual Inspector Boot Camp
36:37 Closing

Guest: Steven Mandernach, Executive Director, Association of Food and Drug Officials

Host: Cameron Garrison

Recorded at: 2026 WAFDO–CEHA–Rocky Mountain Food Safety Mega Annual Education Conference
Subscribe for more conversations at the intersection of public health, regulation, data and technology.

#FoodSafety #PublicHealth #ArtificialIntelligence #FoodRegulation #AFDO
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Why do some states embrace “food freedom” while others stick with strict regulation? And why do red and blue states often end up facing the exact same food safety problems?

Doug Farquhar, JD, Director of Government Affairs for the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA), joins Cameron Garrison live from the WAFDO / CEHA / Rocky Mountain Food Safety Conference Mega Conference in Denver.
With more than 30 years working with state legislatures, Doug breaks down:

Why there’s no single federal environmental health law
How and why states adopt (or don’t adopt) the FDA Food Code
The rise of Food Freedom laws and unregulated food sales
MAHA-style legislation showing up in unexpected states
The difference between a cottage-food cupcake exemption and retail raw milk or unregulated meat
How state budgets and healthcare costs are quietly reshaping public health priorities

This is a clear-eyed look at the real policy landscape environmental health professionals, regulators, and industry are navigating right now.
Featured guest: Doug Farquhar, JD — NEHA

CHAPTERS
0:00  Cold Open: Red States, Blue States, Same Problems
0:34  Podcast Opening
0:46  Live from the Denver Mega Conference
1:24  Why Environmental Health Organizations Need to Collaborate
2:53  Finding Common Ground Across a Fragmented Field
4:19  Doug Farquhar’s Path into Environmental Health Policy
5:24  How Environmental Health Became Its Own Field
5:45  AFDO Midroll: Free E-News and Quick Bites
7:13  The Patchwork of Federal Environmental Health Authority
8:00  Why States Do Not Use the Same Food Code
9:02  Political Support, Budgets, and Delayed Adoption
9:52  How State Political Systems Shape Public Health Law
11:01  Mississippi and Iowa Lead on the EPA Lead Rule
11:49  Why the Real Policy Action Happens in the States
12:30  MAHA Laws, Food Dyes, and Nutrition Training
14:33  Red and Blue States Confront the Same Health Problems
15:03  Mississippi Tackles Childhood Obesity
15:54  How Health Costs Changed State Priorities
17:11  Michelle Obama, RFK Jr., and Overlapping Messages
18:32  Why New York Still Uses the 2001 Food Code
19:27  The State Backlash to FSMA
21:15  Federal Funding as a Policy Lever
22:15  Adoption of the 2026 Food Code
23:30  Food Freedom and the Growth of Unregulated Sales
24:17  The Michigan Cupcake Bill
24:50  Raw Milk and Unregulated Meat in Retail Stores
26:04  Food Sovereignty and Political Role Reversals in Maine
27:23  Why Political Alliances Shift by Issue
28:01  Closing and Doug’s Second Keynote of the Day

Learn more about NEHA: https://www.neha.org

AFDO E-News & Quick Bites: https://www.afdo.org

Beyond Data Management Podcast: https://www.hsgovtech.com/bdmpodcast

Got a story or episode idea? Beyond@HSCloudSuite.com
Subscribe for conversations with the people on the front lines of environmental health, food safety, and public health policy.
#EnvironmentalHealth #FoodSafety #FoodFreedom #PublicHealth #MAHA #FoodCode #NEHA #AFDO #BeyondDataManagement
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Please remember to like and subscribe - and reach out to us with your stories and show ideas Beyond@hscloudsuite.com

Special Friday drop and the first full check flight from the new permanent studio. Cameron sits down with Adam Smith of HS GovTech for a look at the show heading into 2027, the rebuilt HSGovTech site, and why environmental health is set up to lead the next wave of regulatory tech.

They open on three studios in two years, the road sets from NEHA Phoenix and Kansas City, and the elevator moment in Denver with Rebecca from Garfield County. The show is past 8,000 subscribers. Adam walks through the new story form so inspectors can submit what they have seen, on camera or anonymous. The example that still sticks: a mouse baked into a loaf of bread, then sliced. The fingertip in the salad is the runner-up.

Then the site. Adam quarterbacked a rebuild that is a resource, not a sales wall. The catalog shows more than 170 regulatory program areas on HS Cloud Suite, each clickable. Cameron on why EH workflows are more complex than building and planning, and how Maine’s agriculture work led the Gaming Commission to the same platform. Implementation lessons from neighboring agencies. More than 1,100 agencies on the suite. Coming on the blog: a plain-English guide to the new FDA Food Code and the NEHA Retail Flexible Funding Model grants.
They close on AI. The site was built in six weeks instead of three to six months. AI-assisted mobile inspections are in flight. Adam’s daughter Theo just turned one. His first appearance on the show never aired.

Beyond Data Management is powered by HS GovTech. Recorded in the new studio.

Links
HSGovTech resources: https://www.hsgovtech.com/resources

Beyond Data Management: https://www.hsgovtech.com/bdmpodcast

Submit a story: Beyond@HSCloudSuite.com

Chapters
0:00 A special Friday episode from the new studio

1:04 Meet Adam Smith

2:20 Three studios in two years

4:13 Conspiracies, road shows, and taking the podcast on tour

6:33 Meeting the environmental health community

7:39 8,000 subscribers and what is coming in 2027

8:25 How to submit your environmental health story

9:08 Why the public needs to hear inspector stories

10:36 The mouse baked into sliced bread

12:15 Why HSGovTech rebuilt its website

13:56 Why environmental health is more complex than it looks

15:13 How EH workflows expanded into gaming

16:36 More than 170 supported regulatory programs

18:28 A searchable catalog of real agency use cases

19:31 Transparent resources instead of a sales wall

20:32 Podcasts, webinars, blogs, and customer stories

21:31 Implementation lessons from neighboring agencies

22:37 More than 1,100 agencies on HS Cloud Suite

23:33 FDA Food Code and Retail Flexible Funding Model resources

24:33 Making grant funding easier to use

26:56 AI at HSGovTech and a website built in six weeks

28:00 AI-assisted mobile inspections

28:31 Parenthood, sleep, and travel gifts

30:44 Adam’s unreleased first appearance

32:21 Closing and a preview of season three
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Please remember to like and subscribe - and reach out to us with your stories and show ideas Beyond@hscloudsuite.com