RISK FACTOR documentary and RISK NAVIGATOR app helps us better understand and assess situations

Thursday, July 27, 2017 at 1:36PM
Sonya Davidson in Documentary, Health, Lifestyle, Risk Factor, Risk Navigator, TVO, app news

Everything we do comes with an element of risk. From daily actitivities to travel to sports to what we eat and what we're exposed to these risks may or may not pose threats. RISK FACTOR is a thought-provoking documentary by the award winning filmmaker Robert Lang that is set to air on August 2nd on TVO. The documentary is part of the national RISK FACTOR initiative that promotes the ability to better identify, assess and respond to risk. The initiative also includes a free mobile app, RISK NAVIGATOR, that is available on iTunes and Google Play. 

The one-hour documentary directed, narrated, and produced by Robert Lang, and written by Lang and Allen Booth, takes a look at risk assessements and questions the outcomes of fake vs honest risk assessements. Lang aims to demystify risks both personal and social by speaking with several experts including a renowned statistician, extreme mountain adventure seeker, a physicist in a nuclear reactor and a security personnel at the the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Lang also talks about his life experiences from a drunken joyride, to a murder on his doorstep to a brush with nuclear radiation and about his family history to speak about his current fears. 

"Terrorism, war, climate change, nuclear meltdown, radiation, cancer, type 2 diabetes, heart disease. In the news, we're constantly be told what to worry about next," said Lang. "I suspect some risks are overblown...others worse than I imagine. Bad risk assessment leads to bad consequences for us all. We need better ways to assess risk for ourselves."

Whether you're a cautious person or someone who chooses to live more boldly, this documentary will, and should, make you think twice. Of course, not all risks are the same. Should you change your lifestyle? That's not really the question here. After all, we all have to live. But risk assessment means being more aware of possible outcomes, how an activity affects the quality of life and has us asking ourselves if  the risk is worth it? 

In the documentary is Will Gadd, an Alberta-based champion ice climber, paraglider, and lover of anything that has to do with mountains says, "I love the sport because it's so unlikely... If you don't take risks then life would be really boring."

But having lost more than 30 friends to the mountains he's learned to assess situations before taking them on. He explains that he looks at risks more objectively with more structure now.  By reviewing what he's done right and what he's done wrong he's better equiped. He also admits that sometimes you have to just understand that there are situations that you "can't". Gadd explains that he's failed many times but he'll go back and examine what he's done wrong as well as what he's done right before trying again. He calls it the ability to think negatively and understanding the consequences of your actions that will ultimately determine your success. 

RISK FACTOR also features renowned authorities on risk, including: Toronto MD and CBC medical advisor Dr. Peter Lin; Hamilton-based Fiona McNeil, radiation physicist and professor at McMaster University Radiation Sciences; and Grant Statham, Parks Canada Visitor Safety Specialist; Sir David Spiegelhalter, Cambridge University professor and one of the world’s foremost statisticians; Bruce Schneier, internationally renowned terrorism and cyber-security expert dubbed “security guru” by The Economist; and Dan Kahan, a high profile researcher at Yale Law School and the world’s foremost proponent of Cultural Cognition.

The recently launched RISK NAVIGATOR app is a personal risk assistant. The free mobile app is based on research pulled from data provided by top experts in the field. It computes risk and reward for hundreds of activities and demonstrates how life choices can impact longevity and our risk/reward balance. Everything from how many cups of coffee you drink each day to riding a bicycle to drug usage and even what the risk factor for being a couch potato. The list also includes interesting risks associated with being the US President, a journalist, giving birth in the US, bathing and eating bacon. There are currently over one hundred  risk situations (and keeps growing) to offer up interesting facts.

The documentary was developed by the award winning television production company Kensington Communications and co-produced by TVO and Canal D, in collaboration with Knowledge Network. 

The app was developed by Kensington in collaboration with the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University and Sir David Spiegelhalter, Director of The Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at University of Cambridge. The app is available through the App Store and GooglePlay. 

 

 

 

Article originally appeared on Reviews, News and Opinion with a Canadian Perspective (https://www.canadianreviewer.com/).