March 11, 2025 • 12 mins
Season five wraps up with hosts Brian Johnson and Kim Swanson reflecting on the season and the ever-evolving podcast itself. This shorter season marked a shift from weekly to biweekly episodes, prompting honest conversations about the sustainability and future direction of AASHTO re:source Q&A podcast.
The hosts highlight memorable conversations with industry experts, including beloved guest Bryce Hanlon from Oklahoma DOT and Matt Lineman from North Dakota DOT, who shared valuable insights on committee participation and building positive professional relationships. Kim particularly enjoyed discussing the "four eyes of the corrective action process," diving into quality theory while maintaining their trademark touch of humor that makes complex concepts accessible.
Throughout the episode, Brian and Kim make a heartfelt plea for listener feedback—a resource more valuable than download metrics. They're particularly curious about their international audience, wondering about listeners from Ukraine and Kenya who've reached out in previous seasons. The mystery of who's listening and what content resonates most strongly echoes a common challenge in quality management: determining whether efforts truly address stakeholder needs. This transparency about their own continuous improvement journey mirrors the very processes they discuss with laboratories.
Looking ahead, Brian announces his participation in the upcoming Technical Exchange in Bellevue, Washington (March 17-20, 2025), where he'll lead panel discussions and possibly record content for future episodes. With season six on the horizon after this hiatus, the hosts invite you to explore their extensive back catalog of over 40 episodes per season from their first four seasons. Email podcast@aashtoresource.org with your thoughts, questions, or to simply let them know the juice is indeed worth the squeeze.
Have questions, comments, or want to be a guest on an upcoming episode? Email podcast@aashtoresource.org.
Related information on this and other episodes can be found at aashtoresource.org.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kim Swanson (00:03):
Welcome to AASHTO Resource Q&A.
We're taking time to discussconstruction materials, testing
and inspection with people inthe know.
From exploring testing problemsand solutions to laboratory
best practices and qualitymanagement, we're covering
topics important to you.
Brian Johnson (00:18):
Welcome to AASHTO Resource Q&A.
I'm Brian Johnson.
Kim Swanson (00:21):
And I'm Kim Swanson , and we are here with the
season five recap episode.
You've waited all season forthis.
I know you have.
Brian Johnson (00:29):
That's right.
We are going to, we're going towrap it up.
This is this is our season fivefinale, so it was our shortest
season.
If you remember, at thebeginning of the season, we
talked about what we're changing.
So we used to do it every week,yeah.
Then we switched every twoweeks and, honestly, that has
proven to be a lot to keep upwith as well, so I don't know
(00:51):
what's going to happen movingforward.
Kim Swanson (00:53):
Yeah, no, we may have to shake things up again.
Continual improvement is thename of the game, so we would
love your feedback.
Listeners, if you want to tellus what you liked about this
season or what you didn't, or ifyou've been a longtime listener
first-time caller situationdefinitely let us know what we
(01:13):
can do better or what you likedabout previous seasons that we
didn't do this season, and youcan email us at podcast at
ashtoresourceorg.
Still very underutilized emailaddress.
Could not.
Still very underutilized emailaddress.
Brian Johnson (01:26):
Could not be less underutilized, really, yeah,
although we did get one.
Kim Swanson (01:32):
We did and we appreciate that.
We do appreciate that.
Brian Johnson (01:35):
Thank you so much , so much we love hearing
anything about it.
Yes, I guess, before we go on,kim, where can people find the
old episodes?
Kim Swanson (01:44):
Oh, our old episodes are still out.
We don't hide that informationfrom anybody, so you can get
them on all your podcastdirectories.
They're there.
You can find it atpodcastashtoresourceorg or if
you go on our website,ashtoresourceorg, and under the
ReUniversity section, we havevideos and podcasts and articles
(02:08):
and documents and everythingthere under the re-university
section of our website and we'reon YouTube.
Sorry, that's right.
Brian Johnson (02:16):
If you want to see us with our exciting
background, you can find us onYouTube, and I did want to give
Kim a compliment.
She spends a lot of timeworking on not just putting the
podcast edits together but alsoadding supplemental information.
That kind of helps to take youbeyond just the content of the
(02:41):
podcast and learn more aboutwhatever we're talking about.
So there will be on ourReUniversity page.
Under the episodes you can findother supporting documentation
that gives you more informationabout whatever the topic we are
covering is.
So, Kim, good job with that.
I think it really adds to theoverall presentation and can
(03:04):
really help people find moreinformation.
Kim Swanson (03:06):
Thank you.
And this year, this season, wealso did some companion articles
for most of the episodes thisyear.
They previously were only forthe common finding ones, but
this year we kind of had asupplemental article about what
the episode was about, if youwere a reader and not a listener
.
Brian Johnson (03:26):
Yeah, that's really good.
It probably helps people findthe episodes too, I would guess,
with the words on the internet.
So let's talk about some of thehighlights of the season.
So we started with a revamp butwe got into our strategic
roadmap discussion in the secondepisode strategic roadmap
discussion in the second episodeand then we kind of took it
(03:48):
from there and got into someindividual interviews with
people.
So we got one of our favoritefriends of AASHTO Resource,
benjamin Trujillo, who's been alongtime participant in the
AASHTO Resource TechnicalExchange, helped us out on
episode four.
And recently Bryce Hanlon onepisode 14 from the Oklahoma DOT
(04:10):
and we had Matt Lineman fromNorth Dakota DOT talking about
comp and being a volunteer amongthe DOT people to try to build
a positive working environmentwith the AASHTO committees and
really any kind of committeesyou might be involved with.
Kim Swanson (04:31):
I think I want to ask you what your favorite
memory or your favorite momentfrom the podcast season was this
year.
Brian Johnson (04:40):
And maybe this is just the that phenomenon where
the recent recency bias recencybias, yes, but.
But I think that ourconversation with Bryce was my
favorite episode of the season.
He's always great to talk toand it was just an easy
conversation and I always liketalking to him and, like we told
(05:02):
him, you know, we may everyyear have to have his
performance review on thepodcast and I think even if we
did even less episodes, we wouldprobably want to see what Bryce
is up to episode.
Kim Swanson (05:16):
I do like that.
That was a good one as well forme and this is a slightly
self-serving, but it's justmakes me laugh.
The four eyes of the correctiveaction process just makes me
chuckle every time I see it.
So that one kind of stood outto me for that episode when we
were talking about correctiveaction and the four eyes and
(05:39):
that was just it's humorous tome.
So that was one of my favoriteand not to diminish any of our
guests, because I do love allthe episodes with the guests,
but that one for me stuck out inmy head or stand out, stuck out
, I don't, I don't, stood out.
Stood out.
Yeah, that was weird.
Okay, stood out is the correctway for that one.
Brian Johnson (05:59):
I think so, and you were dipping your toe in a
bit of the quality theory pool.
Kim Swanson (06:06):
Yes.
Brian Johnson (06:06):
In that one.
So it was a little bit of adeparture from your normal.
Kim Swanson (06:10):
Yes.
Brian Johnson (06:11):
Specialties.
So, yeah, that was that was agood one, and, and I like
anytime we have external guests.
Those are usually some of myfavorite episodes, because I
love hearing about what otherpeople think about and their
challenges and their work.
It's kind of like a nice littlebreak from my own work, which
(06:34):
we cover a lot on the podcast.
I feel like one of the thingsthat I enjoy about the podcast
is it gives me a chance to getthings off my chest in a
semi-productive manner, uh, so II can get some information out
to people, uh, and hopefullythey'll listen to it, you know,
maybe even five minutes of itand maybe they'll get some
(06:56):
takeaway that can help them, uh,in their day.
Kim Swanson (07:01):
Yeah.
Brian Johnson (07:01):
But I don't know.
Kim Swanson (07:03):
I don't know either and we don't know unless you
tell us so.
Listeners, please email us.
At podcast at astro resourceorg, we have numbers saying people
are downloading and listening,but some personal feedback would
be amazing on that.
So thank you in advance.
I'm going to we're going to getflooded after this episode.
I know, that email address isjust going to be flooded.
Brian Johnson (07:25):
I hope so, because what we really need to
do is figure out if what we'redoing is useful to people, right
?
So, like I'll hearconversations from people at a
meeting hey, I love this episodeon whatever it is and I kind of
make a mental note of wherethat person is.
And then I go back and look atthe data and I'm like I don't
see anybody from that area thatdownloaded.
(07:46):
I only can see city and state.
So they might've been somewhereelse when it happened, but I'm
just like we're missingsomething in the data.
And if we could hear from peopleabout what they want to hear
about or what they've enjoyed orwhat was useful to them, that
would help us figure out what wewant to do for season six.
(08:06):
Uh.
So, like, if we could, ifyou're thinking about sending us
a message, fire away.
We, we love.
We love to get feedback atashtoreasource on all kinds of
things, and we do get a lot offeedback on our programmatic uh
items, but not so much on thepodcast.
So I'd love to hear more frompeople about it.
Kim Swanson (08:26):
Yeah, again, we want to.
It's a continual improvementfor us and for laboratories,
right.
So we want to make sure orspecifiers or the public or
whoever's listening.
It would be really interesting.
If you are not in theconstruction materials testing
industry and you're listening tothis podcast, please email me
because I want to have aconversation with you.
Brian Johnson (08:45):
I would love that .
Kim Swanson (08:48):
What are you doing with your life?
That this is what you'relistening to, and what market
are we reaching?
That's what I want to know, butI'm going to say.
Most of our listeners areprobably currently in the
industry or actually existingcustomers of ours.
Brian Johnson (09:07):
I think so, and I also wonder about our
international uh downloaders are.
Are those vpns or those people?
Kim Swanson (09:15):
uh, I don't know I know we have a couple of a
couple I've had.
I've had some conversations inpast seasons email conversations
, not actual conversations witha person from Ukraine and then
somewhere in the continent ofKenya.
Kenya.
Thank you, I couldn't rememberwhat country in Africa.
(09:35):
But yes, so we do.
I do know they exist, they'reout there oh, we'd love to hear
from them.
Brian Johnson (09:42):
Uh, so so drop us a line.
Helps us determine whetherwhether we should make more of
these or not.
Kim Swanson (09:48):
So is the juice worth the squeeze?
Brian Johnson (09:50):
so to speak.
Kim Swanson (09:51):
That's one of my favorite sayings um and yeah,
and we can't know that until wehear from you.
Brian Johnson (09:58):
That's right, because I like doing this.
Kim Swanson (10:00):
I have some data supporting that we should
continue to do it, but actualconversations with people are
going to be what's what helps us, I think.
Brian Johnson (10:08):
I think so too, so think about it.
We'd love to hear from you, andI hope you check out our, our
season five and even some of thepast seasons on our website or
youtube or some of the pastseasons go back all of them are
all of them all of them are aplus, maybe not a plus they're
(10:28):
all a plus.
Kim Swanson (10:29):
Um, you will notice if this, if your first season
is season five, we did like 40plus episodes per season for
seasons one, two, three and four.
So, um, yeah, so there's a lotmore information out there in
past seasons.
But again, thanks for joiningus for season five and hopefully
we hear from you and we know wecan start planning what to do
(10:52):
for season six.
Brian Johnson (10:54):
Yeah, and, and, if you want to see us in person
or see me in person, I will beat the Technical Exchange in
Bellevue, washington, in March.
Check out our events page onthe website.
What is it?
17th through the 20th 20th,I'll be having some panel
discussions, some presentations,and I'll just be around in
(11:14):
general and I'll probably berecording some stuff that we can
use on future episodes.
Kim Swanson (11:20):
Yes, I would love that.
Thank you to our listeners whomade it through season five with
us, and we are taking a hiatusdue to the technical exchange,
so we will hopefully be backafter that.
Tbd on when we will be back,just because schedules are rough
and it's hard to coordinate.
So, uh, be on the lookout forseason six at some point and
(11:41):
again, hopefully you can see usat the technical exchange march
17th through the 20th in 2025 inbellevue, washington.
You can go to ashtoresourceorgslash events for more
information.
Brian Johnson (11:55):
All right, bye everybody, and Kim, I'll see you
in several months when we canmeet again, since we never talk
to each other outside of thepodcast.
Kim Swanson (12:05):
Pretty much, pretty much.
I'll see you on the flip side.
Thanks for listening to AASHTOResource Q&A.
If you'd like to be a guest orjust submit a question, send us
an email at podcast atAASHTOResourceorg, or call Brian
at 240-436-4820.
(12:26):
For other news and relatedcontent, check out AASHTO
Resources social media accountsor go to AASHTOResourceorg.
Welcome to AASHTO Resource Q&A.
We're taking time to discussconstruction materials, testing
and inspection with people inthe know.
From exploring testing problemsand solutions to laboratory
best practices and qualitymanagement, we're covering
topics important to you.
Brian Johnson (00:18):
Welcome to AASHTO Resource Q&A.
I'm Brian Johnson.
Kim Swanson (00:21):
And I'm Kim Swanson , and we are here with the
season five recap episode.
You've waited all season forthis.
I know you have.
Brian Johnson (00:29):
That's right.
We are going to, we're going towrap it up.
This is this is our season fivefinale, so it was our shortest
season.
If you remember, at thebeginning of the season, we
talked about what we're changing.
So we used to do it every week,yeah.
Then we switched every twoweeks and, honestly, that has
proven to be a lot to keep upwith as well, so I don't know
(00:51):
what's going to happen movingforward.
Kim Swanson (00:53):
Yeah, no, we may have to shake things up again.
Continual improvement is thename of the game, so we would
love your feedback.
Listeners, if you want to tellus what you liked about this
season or what you didn't, or ifyou've been a longtime listener
first-time caller situationdefinitely let us know what we
(01:13):
can do better or what you likedabout previous seasons that we
didn't do this season, and youcan email us at podcast at
ashtoresourceorg.
Still very underutilized emailaddress.
Could not.
Still very underutilized emailaddress.
Brian Johnson (01:26):
Could not be less underutilized, really, yeah,
although we did get one.
Kim Swanson (01:32):
We did and we appreciate that.
We do appreciate that.
Brian Johnson (01:35):
Thank you so much , so much we love hearing
anything about it.
Yes, I guess, before we go on,kim, where can people find the
old episodes?
Kim Swanson (01:44):
Oh, our old episodes are still out.
We don't hide that informationfrom anybody, so you can get
them on all your podcastdirectories.
They're there.
You can find it atpodcastashtoresourceorg or if
you go on our website,ashtoresourceorg, and under the
ReUniversity section, we havevideos and podcasts and articles
(02:08):
and documents and everythingthere under the re-university
section of our website and we'reon YouTube.
Sorry, that's right.
Brian Johnson (02:16):
If you want to see us with our exciting
background, you can find us onYouTube, and I did want to give
Kim a compliment.
She spends a lot of timeworking on not just putting the
podcast edits together but alsoadding supplemental information.
That kind of helps to take youbeyond just the content of the
(02:41):
podcast and learn more aboutwhatever we're talking about.
So there will be on ourReUniversity page.
Under the episodes you can findother supporting documentation
that gives you more informationabout whatever the topic we are
covering is.
So, Kim, good job with that.
I think it really adds to theoverall presentation and can
(03:04):
really help people find moreinformation.
Kim Swanson (03:06):
Thank you.
And this year, this season, wealso did some companion articles
for most of the episodes thisyear.
They previously were only forthe common finding ones, but
this year we kind of had asupplemental article about what
the episode was about, if youwere a reader and not a listener
.
Brian Johnson (03:26):
Yeah, that's really good.
It probably helps people findthe episodes too, I would guess,
with the words on the internet.
So let's talk about some of thehighlights of the season.
So we started with a revamp butwe got into our strategic
roadmap discussion in the secondepisode strategic roadmap
discussion in the second episodeand then we kind of took it
(03:48):
from there and got into someindividual interviews with
people.
So we got one of our favoritefriends of AASHTO Resource,
benjamin Trujillo, who's been alongtime participant in the
AASHTO Resource TechnicalExchange, helped us out on
episode four.
And recently Bryce Hanlon onepisode 14 from the Oklahoma DOT
(04:10):
and we had Matt Lineman fromNorth Dakota DOT talking about
comp and being a volunteer amongthe DOT people to try to build
a positive working environmentwith the AASHTO committees and
really any kind of committeesyou might be involved with.
Kim Swanson (04:31):
I think I want to ask you what your favorite
memory or your favorite momentfrom the podcast season was this
year.
Brian Johnson (04:40):
And maybe this is just the that phenomenon where
the recent recency bias recencybias, yes, but.
But I think that ourconversation with Bryce was my
favorite episode of the season.
He's always great to talk toand it was just an easy
conversation and I always liketalking to him and, like we told
(05:02):
him, you know, we may everyyear have to have his
performance review on thepodcast and I think even if we
did even less episodes, we wouldprobably want to see what Bryce
is up to episode.
Kim Swanson (05:16):
I do like that.
That was a good one as well forme and this is a slightly
self-serving, but it's justmakes me laugh.
The four eyes of the correctiveaction process just makes me
chuckle every time I see it.
So that one kind of stood outto me for that episode when we
were talking about correctiveaction and the four eyes and
(05:39):
that was just it's humorous tome.
So that was one of my favoriteand not to diminish any of our
guests, because I do love allthe episodes with the guests,
but that one for me stuck out inmy head or stand out, stuck out
, I don't, I don't, stood out.
Stood out.
Yeah, that was weird.
Okay, stood out is the correctway for that one.
Brian Johnson (05:59):
I think so, and you were dipping your toe in a
bit of the quality theory pool.
Kim Swanson (06:06):
Yes.
Brian Johnson (06:06):
In that one.
So it was a little bit of adeparture from your normal.
Kim Swanson (06:10):
Yes.
Brian Johnson (06:11):
Specialties.
So, yeah, that was that was agood one, and, and I like
anytime we have external guests.
Those are usually some of myfavorite episodes, because I
love hearing about what otherpeople think about and their
challenges and their work.
It's kind of like a nice littlebreak from my own work, which
(06:34):
we cover a lot on the podcast.
I feel like one of the thingsthat I enjoy about the podcast
is it gives me a chance to getthings off my chest in a
semi-productive manner, uh, so II can get some information out
to people, uh, and hopefullythey'll listen to it, you know,
maybe even five minutes of itand maybe they'll get some
(06:56):
takeaway that can help them, uh,in their day.
Kim Swanson (07:01):
Yeah.
Brian Johnson (07:01):
But I don't know.
Kim Swanson (07:03):
I don't know either and we don't know unless you
tell us so.
Listeners, please email us.
At podcast at astro resourceorg, we have numbers saying people
are downloading and listening,but some personal feedback would
be amazing on that.
So thank you in advance.
I'm going to we're going to getflooded after this episode.
I know, that email address isjust going to be flooded.
Brian Johnson (07:25):
I hope so, because what we really need to
do is figure out if what we'redoing is useful to people, right
?
So, like I'll hearconversations from people at a
meeting hey, I love this episodeon whatever it is and I kind of
make a mental note of wherethat person is.
And then I go back and look atthe data and I'm like I don't
see anybody from that area thatdownloaded.
(07:46):
I only can see city and state.
So they might've been somewhereelse when it happened, but I'm
just like we're missingsomething in the data.
And if we could hear from peopleabout what they want to hear
about or what they've enjoyed orwhat was useful to them, that
would help us figure out what wewant to do for season six.
(08:06):
Uh.
So, like, if we could, ifyou're thinking about sending us
a message, fire away.
We, we love.
We love to get feedback atashtoreasource on all kinds of
things, and we do get a lot offeedback on our programmatic uh
items, but not so much on thepodcast.
So I'd love to hear more frompeople about it.
Kim Swanson (08:26):
Yeah, again, we want to.
It's a continual improvementfor us and for laboratories,
right.
So we want to make sure orspecifiers or the public or
whoever's listening.
It would be really interesting.
If you are not in theconstruction materials testing
industry and you're listening tothis podcast, please email me
because I want to have aconversation with you.
Brian Johnson (08:45):
I would love that .
Kim Swanson (08:48):
What are you doing with your life?
That this is what you'relistening to, and what market
are we reaching?
That's what I want to know, butI'm going to say.
Most of our listeners areprobably currently in the
industry or actually existingcustomers of ours.
Brian Johnson (09:07):
I think so, and I also wonder about our
international uh downloaders are.
Are those vpns or those people?
Kim Swanson (09:15):
uh, I don't know I know we have a couple of a
couple I've had.
I've had some conversations inpast seasons email conversations
, not actual conversations witha person from Ukraine and then
somewhere in the continent ofKenya.
Kenya.
Thank you, I couldn't rememberwhat country in Africa.
(09:35):
But yes, so we do.
I do know they exist, they'reout there oh, we'd love to hear
from them.
Brian Johnson (09:42):
Uh, so so drop us a line.
Helps us determine whetherwhether we should make more of
these or not.
Kim Swanson (09:48):
So is the juice worth the squeeze?
Brian Johnson (09:50):
so to speak.
Kim Swanson (09:51):
That's one of my favorite sayings um and yeah,
and we can't know that until wehear from you.
Brian Johnson (09:58):
That's right, because I like doing this.
Kim Swanson (10:00):
I have some data supporting that we should
continue to do it, but actualconversations with people are
going to be what's what helps us, I think.
Brian Johnson (10:08):
I think so too, so think about it.
We'd love to hear from you, andI hope you check out our, our
season five and even some of thepast seasons on our website or
youtube or some of the pastseasons go back all of them are
all of them all of them are aplus, maybe not a plus they're
(10:28):
all a plus.
Kim Swanson (10:29):
Um, you will notice if this, if your first season
is season five, we did like 40plus episodes per season for
seasons one, two, three and four.
So, um, yeah, so there's a lotmore information out there in
past seasons.
But again, thanks for joiningus for season five and hopefully
we hear from you and we know wecan start planning what to do
(10:52):
for season six.
Brian Johnson (10:54):
Yeah, and, and, if you want to see us in person
or see me in person, I will beat the Technical Exchange in
Bellevue, washington, in March.
Check out our events page onthe website.
What is it?
17th through the 20th 20th,I'll be having some panel
discussions, some presentations,and I'll just be around in
(11:14):
general and I'll probably berecording some stuff that we can
use on future episodes.
Kim Swanson (11:20):
Yes, I would love that.
Thank you to our listeners whomade it through season five with
us, and we are taking a hiatusdue to the technical exchange,
so we will hopefully be backafter that.
Tbd on when we will be back,just because schedules are rough
and it's hard to coordinate.
So, uh, be on the lookout forseason six at some point and
(11:41):
again, hopefully you can see usat the technical exchange march
17th through the 20th in 2025 inbellevue, washington.
You can go to ashtoresourceorgslash events for more
information.
Brian Johnson (11:55):
All right, bye everybody, and Kim, I'll see you
in several months when we canmeet again, since we never talk
to each other outside of thepodcast.
Kim Swanson (12:05):
Pretty much, pretty much.
I'll see you on the flip side.
Thanks for listening to AASHTOResource Q&A.
If you'd like to be a guest orjust submit a question, send us
an email at podcast atAASHTOResourceorg, or call Brian
at 240-436-4820.
(12:26):
For other news and relatedcontent, check out AASHTO
Resources social media accountsor go to AASHTOResourceorg.
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