LAist Science Reporter Jacob Margolis puts the wildfires and the devastation throughout Southern California into context and explains the science of the fires. In this hour, Margolis speaks with several experts about what we know about current wildfires burning across region, their resulting air quality questions, how to make sense of fire updates, and hears from former firefighters.

 

Guests:

Derek Bart, retired LA County Fire Captain

Clare Frank, former Cal Fire chief of fire protection and author of the book Burnt: A Memoir of fighting fire

Mary Johnson, principal research scientist and manager of the Allergy, Climate, and Exposomics Lab at Harvard

Scott Stephens, professor of fire science at UC Berkeley

Jill Replogle, LAist Correspondent

LAist Science Reporter Jacob Margolis puts the wildfires and the devastation throughout Southern California into context and explains the science of the fires. In this hour, Margolis speaks with several experts about what we know about current wildfires burning across region,&nbsp;their resulting air quality questions, how to make sense of fire updates, and hears from former firefighters.
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Guests:
Derek Bart, retired LA County Fire Captain
Clare Frank, former Cal Fire chief of fire protection and author of the book Burnt: A Memoir of fighting fire
Mary Johnson, principal research scientist and manager of the Allergy, Climate, and Exposomics Lab at Harvard
Scott Stephens, professor of fire science at UC Berkeley
Jill Replogle, LAist Correspondent

It’s easy to feel like we’re in a dark timeline. Waking up to smoke and flames, staring down a future of burned homes, lost forests, and orange skies. Over the past decade, California has been hit by nine out of ten of its largest fires on record. And even if you don't live in the state, you’re likely impacted by the fire crisis. A combination of climate change and poor policy decisions got us here.

So, is there anything we can do about this new age of devastating wildfires? Science reporter Jacob Margolis goes on a journey to figure out how we got here, why we keep screwing things up, and what we can do to survive and even thrive while the world around us burns. From LAist Studios, the creators of The Big One, this next installment of The Big Disaster series will provide you with a wildfire survival guide that includes not just tangible safety tips — but hope for our future. 

Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live, the Strelow Family, and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

It’s easy to feel like we’re in a dark timeline. Waking up to smoke and flames, staring down a future of burned homes, lost forests, and orange skies. Over the past decade, California has been hit by nine out of ten of its largest fires on record. And even if you don't live in the state, you’re likely impacted by the fire crisis. A combination of climate change and poor policy decisions got us here.
So, is there anything we can do about this new age of devastating wildfires? Science reporter Jacob Margolis goes on a journey to figure out how we got here, why we keep screwing things up, and what we can do to survive and even thrive while the world around us burns. From LAist Studios, the creators of The Big One, this next installment of The Big Disaster series will provide you with a wildfire survival guide that includes not just tangible safety tips — but hope for our future. 
Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live, the Strelow Family, and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

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