1. Why We Relaunched How to Disaster, and What Survivors Need Most

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[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to the relaunch of how to disaster the official podcast of after the fire USA, which is the country's leading authority when it comes to helping communities navigate long-term disaster recovery.

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[SPEAKER_02]: This podcast was first launched in May of 2022 and we're certainly grateful for all our loyal listeners since then.

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[SPEAKER_02]: And lucky us, today, we're relaunching, and we get to talk to the founder of After the Fire, Jennifer Gray Thompson.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Jennifer's nationally recognized as an expert in wild fire.

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[SPEAKER_02]: We're covering, and she is absolutely impositively devised in these source, the media turned to after megafires.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Today, Jennifer is going to explain to us how and why behind after the fire and the reasons behind the relaunch of this podcast and what to expect in the weeks ahead.

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[SPEAKER_02]: My name is Kim Marshall.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I'm a survivor of the Palacades Fire.

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[SPEAKER_02]: of 2025, January 2025.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I'm a wellness communications expert, a veteran podcaster, and also the host of LA Rising, stories of healing, help, and hope.

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[SPEAKER_02]: And I'll be a regular contributor to how to disaster.

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[SPEAKER_02]: But now it's time to welcome our distinguished guests,

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[SPEAKER_02]: the heart forward and very informed host of How to Disaster, Jennifer Gray Thompson.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to your podcast, Jen.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much, Kim, for a special help thing to launch this, to coming back to being a contributor, and also this episode is going to explain the why of it, so let's just jump in.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, you know, a lot has happened to the world since the podcast was first launched.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Can you tell us now why is now such a good time for a rebrand and a relaunch of How to Disaster?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, the biggest thing is that we just keep experiencing these massive disasters and people don't know what to do.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's really important to give them a place to go that they can meet it on their own time, on their own terms.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Podcasts are obviously even more prevalent than they were in 2021 when I started recording one.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if we launched until 2022, but it's all a blur from there, but I was really concerned that there isn't another place really in the market or I'm not

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[SPEAKER_00]: seeing the same kind of information that we have learned through so many hard one lessons and we really want to share those so that people who could feel empowered so that they can feel resilient and that just leads to better outcomes for everybody.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah and you know what so much has happened let's face it and the past decade wildfires have increased I learned this from you more than

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[SPEAKER_02]: And I think I read over 240 billion in public funds has been sent to help spend to help communities recover.

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[SPEAKER_02]: So people need help, right?

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[SPEAKER_02]: And why is the podcast a way to give them that help?

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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we're big believers and you meet people where they're at and right now, that's where they're at.

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[SPEAKER_00]: They're in the podcast zone and people enjoy them on their way to work when they're taking walks and they are spending time with their families, you know, or whatever they're doing, cleaning their house gardening, that's the way that people want their information and, you know, we don't see people getting newspapers every day.

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[SPEAKER_00]: They're really reading them online and I think they want to break from the visual stimulation, even though this can also be accessed visually.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It just seems like the ideal medium really to meet people where they're at and that's really a big part of our philosophy at after the fire.

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[SPEAKER_02]: And really John, that's how you and I met because our dear friend at Team Palisades said he literally typed in how to disaster and found your podcast.

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[SPEAKER_02]: And listen to every episode and then what happened with Team Palisades?

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[SPEAKER_02]: What did they do?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, his name is Tony Hawking and he emailed me and you know in those early days of the fire I can tell you that we were working 12 to 14 hours a day answering every possible question everybody could need in doing a lot of interviews globally and nationally of course for LA.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, Tony emailed me and as is our, our, our, our habit, I actually called him back or or called him within about 17 minutes.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's what he said.

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[SPEAKER_00]: He was amazed by it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: He was just looking out there in the universe, but also I know exactly what it means to have your home town burned down and then I have absolutely no idea what to do.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I learned this because I was typing in how to disaster after our 2017 Megafires in Sonoma County.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So I very much relate to it and we don't want people to try to walk this alone.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We really, we know that they know their communities and that we know disaster.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We can make them feel less alone and help them plug into this big community full of people that we call the worst club with the best people.

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[SPEAKER_02]: that touch my heart when I read it, but let me ask you, for those of our listeners who might be joining for the first time, why don't we go back to the basics and tell them literally what your non-profit after the fire does?

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[SPEAKER_00]: So after the fire was born as a small regional non-profit after the 2017 North Bay fires, you know, we were devastated.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Um, you know, I grew up here where I live still today in snowm Valley and parts of many parts of the four counties, the region where I live were absolutely unrecognizable and nobody had ever seen this before.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But we thought we were going to be the only ones like there have been the, um, there have been a fire at Lake County to yours earlier that was really scary and other mega fire, but nobody had ever seen 8900 structures, um, absolutely destroyed in a short period of time.

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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I thought, well, um, you know, I was asked to give five years into the rebuilding of my home and I said absolutely I'd love to serve my community in that way, but 13 months later was the campfire and the Walsy fire so in paradise and in Malibu.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And at that time, I thought, oh, well, I don't want them to feel as lonely as I felt and we all felt the first year even though we were helping each other.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We didn't have a lot of outside help.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So I thought, I don't know very much.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Very humble, but I will just give them what little we do have.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And then maybe we can start to help each other walk this home.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I had no idea that this would turn into my life's work that I would continue to be so needed for so many years.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And now I, I'm here eight and a half years later, I've walked into about 20 counties over four states.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It's been a true education and every day.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I am still absolutely in a learning zone.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm always curious.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I never think I have it all down.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Our mission and after the fires to help communities navigate after megafires, we also do a lot of advocacy on Capitol Hill.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We've brought home, or we've helped to bring home over $6 billion worth of disaster relief in tax relief for disaster survivors.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And then we also act as subject matter experts for media, academics, you know, private industry, whoever needs it, so that we can really start to get us all on the same page.

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[SPEAKER_00]: forward.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The most important thing that we do those, we deploy into communities like yours, Kim, and we continue to stay with them for years on end until they really find their their footing.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And we also ask those people to come to the next fire with us in the

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[SPEAKER_00]: Last thing we do, which I'm really proud of is that we gather about 225 leaders a year together in Sonoma Valley and we share best practices, lessons, innovations and we really welcome them into this club and make sure they know each other, I don't need to be the center of their universe, I need them to

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[SPEAKER_00]: and build community all around this really terrifying, really, really difficult problem of megafires and really all perils.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We're doing multiple perils at once, and we certainly shouldn't be doing this alone.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Well, that reminds me of that's how we met Tony from Team Palisades told me, oh wait, Kim.

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[SPEAKER_02]: If you're looking for information for your podcast, do you know Jennifer Gray Thompson?

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[SPEAKER_02]: Well, everybody goes to her summit and he showed it to me on the computer.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I was like, wait, it's upcoming.

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[SPEAKER_02]: It reduced me.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Get me there.

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[SPEAKER_02]: And it was like somebody turned the lights on when I arrived.

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[SPEAKER_02]: But the one thing that I cannot forget, you don't see it often in this day and age.

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[SPEAKER_02]: But after the fire,

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[SPEAKER_02]: seems to me one of the defining descriptions is its human centric.

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[SPEAKER_02]: The tagline which is on this podcast, the worst club with the best people.

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[SPEAKER_02]: You know what, hugs are a plenty.

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[SPEAKER_02]: You have so many geniferisms.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Do you mind if I just remind you with you and you tell tell me what they mean?

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[SPEAKER_00]: I want to know how many people are going to roll their eyes while you do it, but do it anyway.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Because I'll look at you talk a lot about the river of humanity.

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[SPEAKER_02]: What does that mean to you?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, you know, um, before I underwent a disaster that I've been through earthquakes, I've been through some things, but when you lose so much in your town and when you are standing there and you're under going, and you know, make a fire's go on for days and, um,

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[SPEAKER_00]: What you see, and this is really normal in disaster, is that all of a sudden, these people in the community, they rise up, they come together, they leave their gripes behind.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody cares if you vote for, we don't care much money you have, and it turns to the very basic needs.

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[SPEAKER_00]: How do we keep each other safe, warm, and dry, fed?

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[SPEAKER_00]: How do we reevaluate every single day when the situation is really dynamic?

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[SPEAKER_00]: It could really, really scary.

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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, seeing we had multiple megafires all at once and where I live in Sonoma Valley was not the most famous fire.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The tubs fire was the nuns fire was about to come down and burn down where the we are the birthplace of California here it was so terrible.

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[SPEAKER_00]: physically, but it was really the most remarkable human experience of my life.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Like I in 2017, I needed like a big dose of humanity.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I saw that my community of Sonoma Valley, because we are sort of cut off from the rest of the rest of Sonoma County, we're off the freeway, that we came together so beautifully every single day.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I knew that I could count on my neighbors,

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[SPEAKER_00]: the people I grew up with I could watch them actually serve each other like people I'm serving you know immigrants who are afraid to come out of their house you know and and these you've got a farm boys and big trucks like tears streaming down their face because we were all trying to do the right thing and it was not anything that was a heavy lift in that way because we were all doing it together.

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[SPEAKER_00]: That is the river of humanity, and I see that every single place that I have ever been after a disaster, there's a book on this called a paradise built in hell by Rebecca Solnith.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Somebody introduced me to after our fires that turns out that remarkable communities arise after a disaster or during disasters.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And this is not part of the narrative that we are taught.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But it's really that I want to always amplify and tap into what is so good about the world and good about humanity, especially at a time and so many of us are hurting.

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[SPEAKER_02]: And also, it's divided.

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[SPEAKER_02]: So many people are divided.

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[SPEAKER_02]: But that I think that feeds into another quote you always say.

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[SPEAKER_02]: And I know, now I know who it's from, God is in the space between us.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's a huge one for me.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not particularly religious.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I've no, no, no, no shade anyone who is.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But I do firmly believe it's a Paul McCartney quote, actually that God is in the space between us.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I was at high school teacher for a decade.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I, and this is when I learned that quote, and I taught at a Catholic school, I wasn't Catholic, but I really did enjoy the basic tenants of our community was served in the way

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[SPEAKER_00]: That quote is actually sustained to me through so many things and I firmly believe that we have choices about how we fill up that space between us, we can do it negatively, we can try to harm, or we can fill it with love and care, and that may sound right to some people, but it's the most powerful thing in the world is to bring people hope to bring them love.

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[SPEAKER_00]: and to demonstrate it, especially their most vulnerable time.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And so God is in this space between us means a lot to me.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And it's how I try to walk through the world as to remember that, especially in the most challenging of times.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I have to tell you that for the most part, people haven't let me down.

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[SPEAKER_02]: And I can, I can vouch for that.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Watching you and action, tell me what collective impact means to you.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, well, you know, we can do so.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I know it's also, you're like, yeah, I've heard this for, but you see it in disaster, these concepts that were sort of like given to us in memes or whatever on Instagram.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The thing by disaster is actually shows those in action.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And collective impact is so important.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Like we are the ones we've been waiting for.

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[SPEAKER_00]: That's a June Jordan quote.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have more of these just so that you know, I do stop at a certain point.

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[SPEAKER_00]: but it's really the idea that like we can do so much more together and studies have shown that we recover faster together, we rebuild faster together and so when people sort of leave their individualism behind not only do they do better emotionally,

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[SPEAKER_00]: mentally, physically, they actually get home far faster.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's a big part of what we actually bring to communities is let us help you with some tools that you can adapt so that you can really expand your collective impact.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I also like to say to people, like, I love that for us.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Like what an honor and an opportunity to work beside your neighbors and your family and your friends in order to get people home.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Like that is an honor of a lifetime.

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[SPEAKER_02]: It certainly is.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I will tell you, you know, in this work and what I've observed in the past year and some months is that there are people vying for attention, everybody wants the nonprofit dollars, there's a lot of nonprofits that pop up and you kind of go, who's the real people who's really making a difference?

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[SPEAKER_02]: What do you mean when you say fewer elbows more hands?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Maui has one love language and the the entire the mark for them of success is did they get their entire Ohana home?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Do they get their families home?

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[SPEAKER_00]: It will do anything that will come first every single time for Los Angeles really the palaces and the eaten fire in El Titina and also Pasadena and some parts of San Gabriel Valley.

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[SPEAKER_00]: They have certain love languages, but they're actually not that different.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Both have really wonderful storied histories where people could be safe in Altsadina, the case was that it was really an impressive place for the black community.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It was a very high home ownership, really impressive social justice.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Also Olivia Butler, love that for them.

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[SPEAKER_00]: In the palaces, it was a really safe on clay, especially for the Jewish community to go into live.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And it created sort of a bucolic lifestyle for people.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's not just about money or no money.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't that at all.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It was really those were the leveling, which isn't things that people wanted back.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Having said that, LA absolutely has another leveling, which is in fact attention.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And you see most valuable commodity there.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And so one of the things that you have to be good at when you're working in a list that I can or in my team cannot become attached to the attention right that's really important we've certainly gotten a lot of attention, but we're really careful about not becoming attached to it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: In LA, I've never seen like an LTRG have a press conference or I've never seen LTRG.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, sorry.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It's a long-term recovery group.

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[SPEAKER_00]: That's another thing we do is we come in sort of teach you the whole language of disaster.

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[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of press conferences there and there's a lot of competition and especially on Instagram, like I remember early days, I would

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[SPEAKER_00]: screenshot all the different names for all the ones that had popped up.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And no shade to the ones who pound a pop-up.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It was just pretty hard to navigate to figure out where do we put our attention, where do we put our attention, and our resources, and to really make sure that we are finding people who have the highest emotional intelligence that we think can pivot really well.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And we don't always know, initially.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So we've got to spend a lot of timely vetting all of the people and figuring out,

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[SPEAKER_00]: where can we be helpful, who can be there in the second year because in the case of LA, especially we're often, we do funders briefings for about 60 of the top funders and not just non-profit, I mean funders for philanthropy and they want to know too, like, where should we lean in?

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[SPEAKER_00]: So LA has definitely a love language of attention and so we've had to be very mindful of that as we go.

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[SPEAKER_02]: You were able to still push out of the way so you get the center of the other direction of the camera.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I can't have missed all that.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's the attention, the because commodity is because um, attention is the highest commodity there.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It, there is a natural tendency to want to elbow your way through the next time because a lot of people in LA got the air is successful because they're competitive and they're competent and they get to a certain place because they've exercised these skills so hard.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The thing about disaster is that it doesn't actually work for

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[SPEAKER_00]: So if you are competing with everyone around you, you actually slow the progress, but if you can work together, more hands, you will actually go much faster together.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So yes.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I have seen that to be true.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Now, what do you think, Jen, that people start to believe you?

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[SPEAKER_02]: You know, like I interviewed for LA Rising, the Mayor of Maui.

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[SPEAKER_02]: And Hawaiians are a little bit because of their history,

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[SPEAKER_02]: Controlled the wrong way in their history.

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[SPEAKER_02]: So now they take their time and one of the questions I ask him is why did you trust Jennifer and after the fire?

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[SPEAKER_02]: What have you found?

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[SPEAKER_02]: What are people telling you?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I just want to say that the trust of Mayor Bison and the community in Maui is just something that is profound for us and was an affirmation of the way that we do work, but also something very precious to us, trust after it is asked or so important because this horrible thing has just been done to you and we are there to do things for you.

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[SPEAKER_00]: and to walk alongside of you and not to step in front of you and these are what people need after disaster and I think that what informs it is because we've lived it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I didn't lose my home in 2017, but I saw my hometown burn.

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[SPEAKER_00]: and what I didn't want was people coming in and making me into content.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I really didn't like that.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I didn't, and it felt both personal and impersonal all at once.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Like we were all over the news, but at the same time, like we were grieving individually, so we needed in privacy.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So when we walk into a community, we read the room, you know, is this the right time?

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[SPEAKER_00]: How can we be of service?

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[SPEAKER_00]: And if they want to light touch, then they get a light touch.

19:47.229 --> 19:51.775
[SPEAKER_00]: If they want heavy immersion, like they do in Los Angeles, they're going to get the heavy immersion.

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[SPEAKER_00]: In Maui, we didn't walk in for four months because we knew it's an island.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And they, we knew that they were really stretched for resources.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I needed to see like, when could we be the most useful?

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[SPEAKER_00]: And it turns out,

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[SPEAKER_00]: that's and we could be the most useful.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We were having conversations ahead of time, you know, two days in was the first time I was contacted by Senator Herono's office to start to help, but we will not impose ourselves on people.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We want them to feel, um, somebody just described it to us when we were in Maui a few weeks ago.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We had like this circle of care, um, it was

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[SPEAKER_00]: But then I didn't expect it to turn into something where the community reflected back on to after the fire, what meant so much to them.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We all ended up crying in really good ways.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But it was so much about we were gentle.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And we believe in that terrible moment of your life to be gentle and to listen, we don't need to be the smartest people in the room.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We don't need to be your heroes, we don't believe in heroes or saviors.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The hero and the saviors, the community and our job, is to help them lead.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So that's really, there is no trick to it other than we leave our egos at the door.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And we come in and we will listen and really serve the people in front of us.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to the very first kill in the street segment for the newly relaunched How to Disaster Podcast.

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[SPEAKER_02]: As an aim implies, this segment is designed to share on the ground reporting from disaster-affected communities around the country.

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[SPEAKER_02]: And in the weeks and months to come, we'll feature survivor stories, special events, and local recovery efforts by community leaders and inspired citizens.

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[SPEAKER_02]: As an evacuated myself from the Palacades fires of January, 2025, and the host of the hope and wellness theme podcast LA Rising.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I've been so privileged to get first-hand accounts of all that's entailed in building back from the eaten and Palacades fires, and to meet survivors from a range of other wildfires and natural disasters.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I really love that after the fire calls this community,

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[SPEAKER_02]: The worst club with the best people and today you're going to hear from just the sampling of these best people folks That I've gotten to talk to in the past year from across the generations We'll start with two unforgettable young women from all to Dina both finding ways to help people deal with loss first There's odd a who is raised in all to Dina and who's such an expert in the area that her friends call her odd a Dina

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[SPEAKER_02]: And then we'll speak to Maggie, a touching young woman who lost her home in the fires, and who now volunteers at the Eaton Fire Collaboratory, a resource center for fire victims.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Next, we'll talk to a young man in the palisades named Izzy, who's doing the turkey trot, the first one after the fires on Thanksgiving Day in the palisades, and it's the first time he'll be seeing his family's home since the day of the fire.

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[SPEAKER_02]: You know what?

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[SPEAKER_02]: We think you're going to be as touched as I was meeting these folks and we look forward to sharing many more real stories about real people in the months and weeks ahead as our journey on how to disaster continues.

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[SPEAKER_02]: But you told me something he said when you drove home from work recently, what was it that he said to you?

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[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, so I asked, I said, Dad, you know, has it been hard on you lately, and he says, well, honey, the other day, as soon as I ended work, I was driving to Altadina.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And he says, I've done that twice now.

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[SPEAKER_03]: Every time I do that, as soon as I turn around, it makes me break them.

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[SPEAKER_03]: It's so hard to see your dad who's tough, and, you know, who's been there for you, and I've never seen him cry.

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[SPEAKER_03]: to see that, you know, you just don't know what to do other than just hug them and tell him dad, you may not have a home, but we're home.

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[SPEAKER_03]: So you're safe.

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[SPEAKER_03]: You're okay.

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[SPEAKER_02]: You told me, you told me he said, honey, I pulled up to the house and I forgot we don't have a house.

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[SPEAKER_02]: We're homeless.

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[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, he did.

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[SPEAKER_03]: He says, we're homeless and they said, no, Dad, you're not homeless.

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[SPEAKER_03]: You have us where you're home.

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[SPEAKER_02]: So Maggie, you're here most days, right?

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[SPEAKER_02]: What are some of the things that I've really touched to you about working here?

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[SPEAKER_04]: I think what touches me the most is that I'm able to connect with my community on a deeper level.

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[SPEAKER_04]: I get to experience not only helping people who've been in the same situation as myself, but just being with my community.

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[SPEAKER_04]: I think above all, I just love the feeling of being with people that I know are in pain and I just want to help.

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[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, a lot of people would say, hey, the fire was 10 months ago.

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[SPEAKER_02]: What do you still have is for?

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[SPEAKER_02]: People still need you or they just take an advantage of you.

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[SPEAKER_02]: How would you answer that?

24:58.717 --> 25:08.747
[SPEAKER_04]: I think if people the far was 10 months ago, yes, and I think if people are coming in, I mean, you obviously need helping somewhere and I'm glad to give it to you, whatever you need.

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[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, even though it might be...

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[SPEAKER_04]: considered like hurtful.

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[SPEAKER_04]: I think that if you come in here looking for help all I want to do is give it to you.

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[SPEAKER_02]: And what message would you tell someone out there that might be like living in their car or not knowing what to do next and missing their, you know, face cream and their pillow cases.

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[SPEAKER_02]: What would you tell them?

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[SPEAKER_04]: There are resources.

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[SPEAKER_04]: There's people out there.

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[SPEAKER_04]: We be care.

25:36.155 --> 25:37.437
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean you're a part of, I'm sorry.

25:37.457 --> 25:38.038
[SPEAKER_04]: That's

25:38.913 --> 25:44.981
[SPEAKER_04]: It's hard, I mean, you've been picturing that I can't even imagine and it's my own community out there.

25:45.421 --> 25:46.503
[SPEAKER_01]: And you're doing something.

25:47.003 --> 25:50.828
[SPEAKER_01]: So you're an awesome person, because helping other people helps us.

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[SPEAKER_04]: It does.

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[SPEAKER_04]: It really does.

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[SPEAKER_04]: I love my community so much.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Well, no wonder.

25:55.134 --> 25:56.395
[SPEAKER_01]: They love your right back, I'm sure.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So you're telling your name?

25:58.057 --> 25:58.298
[SPEAKER_01]: Izzy.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Izzy, that's a great name, dude.

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[SPEAKER_01]: What do you know about the politics?

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[SPEAKER_01]: What does it mean to you?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Um, it means a lot.

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[SPEAKER_05]: I grew up here, so everything I know is here.

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[SPEAKER_05]: Uh, uh,

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[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, all my young childhood memories, sports, family, everything to you.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Mark, how does did you go to?

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[SPEAKER_05]: Uh, no, I went to school with Halbassas, but... Oh, that's okay, you grew up here.

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[SPEAKER_01]: We can keep walking.

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[SPEAKER_01]: What was the craziest thing about this truck this morning to you?

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[SPEAKER_05]: Um, for me, this is my first time back here since the virus.

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[SPEAKER_05]: You're kidding, so, getting to see the, what, was my house?

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[SPEAKER_05]: She's a little crazy to see you.

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[SPEAKER_05]: Shocking.

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[SPEAKER_05]: kind of fly up and it's nothing air, you know.

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[SPEAKER_05]: Where were you when the fire broke out?

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[SPEAKER_05]: I was at school, so I left my school that morning and I just never went home.

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[SPEAKER_01]: What school was it?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Your point.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And is your family rebuilding or what are they doing?

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[SPEAKER_01]: I was up now, I don't really know.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I was still deciding.

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[SPEAKER_05]: But I mean, I hope you're fine, so it's always about a sense of... What was so special about it to you?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Growing up here.

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[SPEAKER_05]: and all our foces, crimes, and I've lived within them.

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[SPEAKER_05]: Vile of us.

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[SPEAKER_05]: So every all day, you're just with Thanksgiving to all school together.

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[SPEAKER_05]: Now we're kind of dispersed.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So you're a college kid.

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[SPEAKER_01]: What does this disaster cheat you about the future planning, realities of time and change with the teacher?

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[SPEAKER_05]: Help me a lot with preparing to be on my own because that first separation of five parents in the middle of getting my fires.

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[SPEAKER_05]: When I just think here for school and they couldn't kind of prepare me for going off the college.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Right?

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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, fire in here can't expect of it.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Um...

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[SPEAKER_05]: It's a great thing.

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[SPEAKER_05]: It shows that you never really know what's going to happen.

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[SPEAKER_05]: You always have to be prepared.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Black could change on a dime, right?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Would encourage you about your community that you know of.

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[SPEAKER_05]: Um... You know, maybe realize that it's not about that same place.

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[SPEAKER_05]: And about people that just stick together.

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[SPEAKER_01]: That's right.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It's so nice to talk to you as they can.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for your good thought.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I always sell the story, but I have to, you know, because it's so indicative of who you are.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I use my tiny, you know, what do you call non-profit dollars to come up for only one day of the summit?

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[SPEAKER_02]: And I thought, why am I doing this?

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[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know anyone.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I can't even smooth enough to meet everybody.

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[SPEAKER_02]: And I think you noticed that I was sincerely trying to be a part of it and you were kind enough.

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[SPEAKER_02]: to say, you're running ahead on the schedule, come on up and describe the podcast, which changed everything.

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[SPEAKER_02]: It was so amazing.

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[SPEAKER_02]: But the most moving thing of that day, it was the final day, and Mayor Bison gave the last presentation, and he started to cry, and then you awarded him with a ukulele, which he began to tune and play, and his wife did the who-law instead.

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[SPEAKER_02]: and there wasn't a dry end the place.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Oh my god.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This beautiful and I have to say like in our summit isn't just about information and networking.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It's really about the emotional side and the emotional recovery especially for leaders is really important.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And if people don't have the right attitude, like I literally will not let them come or will not let them come back.

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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like you have to, you're not there to sell.

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[SPEAKER_00]: You're there to convene with others to make new relationships.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We have a very intentional vibe that we set.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And we want people to spend time together and to heal in a very safe space.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, they're also learning really cool things and meeting really wonderful people.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and the new club.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Another thing, another one of your superpowers, Tony Hawk, and we keep talking about it in team pal says, there's a lot of scary things that come up.

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[SPEAKER_02]: There's things you've never been through.

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[SPEAKER_02]: It's like, we don't know how to disaster and here we are.

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[SPEAKER_02]: And he said that,

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[SPEAKER_02]: Jennifer has this ability like in the Harry Potter books, the ridiculous spell.

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[SPEAKER_02]: It's a charm that helps scary things assume a humorous, less threatening form, which is then destroyed by laughter.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I think you have to actually have a lot of love for people to do this work and what will renew that for so many people is actually going through a disaster and this is my life's work.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I really love it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I feel so honored to sit in those rooms and in that spaces and to translate what is really scary.

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[SPEAKER_00]: into a place where they can manage it and bite size pieces.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It's not toxic positivity and it's also like a, you know, we're consistent.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So we say we're going to do, we always do it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Anybody who can't do that can't work for me, like if you must be a person of your word, you must show up consistently.

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[SPEAKER_00]: and you cannot be attached to whether or not they take your opinion, it has to be up to the people in front of you.

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[SPEAKER_00]: People are grown.

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[SPEAKER_00]: They are not children just because they went through a disaster.

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[SPEAKER_00]: They do have a lot of intelligence but what they need and want.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So we are good with that but are we funny?

31:12.273 --> 31:13.314
[SPEAKER_00]: We are funny.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes darkly so.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Well, your travels, if anybody follows you on social media, I think it's after the Fire U.S. Day on Instagram and your name, Jennifer Gray Thompson on LinkedIn, you would see that you're everywhere.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you're not in cinema all the time, LA Paradise, Maui, DC, Chicago, how do you look at your month and prioritize where you should be on any given week?

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[SPEAKER_02]: Given the fact that there's so many disasters,

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[SPEAKER_00]: I don't do a very good job.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to just tell you now.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I really don't.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I just was looking at my schedule this week, and I had been gone for six days, and I do love my husband and my son, and my family and my friend.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And your house, yeah.

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[SPEAKER_00]: My house, and I love my bed, I love my dogs, and I love my cat.

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[SPEAKER_00]: No, he bites me, he's down here judging me right now.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It depends on the time you know that so much of this work is about showing up and when people need you and I've got this you know when I had little tiny kids I could not have done this in the same way or what I didn't have a partner like my husband there's no way I could do this so I I.

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[SPEAKER_00]: look for what's the highest and best use of my time, and then I make some errors of judgment for sure, but I know that I can do it, and I know that I can show it for people, and that is my love language.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I like to show up for people, and I like for them to walk away, feeling better for what we have brought to the table.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The people I surround myself with who are part of my team are much the same, so when I'm able to go and show up for fire survivors or make something,

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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, slightly easier for another group I do, but that also, you know, there's a price that I pay on the other side of that for my personal life.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm telling you, I'm just being very human, like I don't always get it right, like this week I'm a little tired and I have like six, seven, eight flights in the next seven weeks.

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[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah.

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[SPEAKER_02]: So it isn't easy, but there are such important things.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I read on a recent trip to LA, you visited the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, and you think, well, why?

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[SPEAKER_02]: Tell us why, Jen.

33:22.378 --> 33:32.127
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, well, you know, JPL is right in Eltsadena, and they contacted us early on, probably in the first two weeks.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We were contacted by like a synagogue, KIT, Israel, by Snapchat, by

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[SPEAKER_00]: Private, well, these private firms to ask like how do we even do this?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it turns out the JPL about 220 of their families lost their homes.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And at the same time, they're undergoing this really uncertain landscape that hadn't quite

33:53.587 --> 33:58.595
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, quite revealed itself yet, but did prove to be stressful over the last year.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So when we find that there are that many people in one organization, it's really very efficient for us to to show up for them, to listen to them, to figure out what they need.

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[SPEAKER_00]: These people are literally

34:14.579 --> 34:39.051
[SPEAKER_00]: I need people to hear this like these people are the smartest people they deserve so much care they're doing a lot to keep us safe to keep us energized to keep us you know exploring the world but even they don't know how to disaster and so we do so we it was an it's been an honor to serve them we've actually been to JPL many times now we've done a lot of webinars for them

34:39.031 --> 34:56.989
[SPEAKER_00]: They call, we come to them because we so appreciate their service and we also, it's probably a good lesson for people who are out there to think you can literally be a rocket scientist and not know how to disaster and that that's okay and there are people like me who will be there for you.

34:56.969 --> 35:01.757
[SPEAKER_02]: Well speaking of being there, you say that after the fires in there for the long haul.

35:02.238 --> 35:06.425
[SPEAKER_02]: And because it's happening to me right now, I am selfishly asking you.

35:06.846 --> 35:11.815
[SPEAKER_02]: What is the difference between the attitude of the victim of a fire victim?

35:12.476 --> 35:17.104
[SPEAKER_02]: The first year, second year, fifth year, can you sort of differentiate it for us?

35:17.084 --> 35:18.707
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it really depends on the recovery.

35:18.767 --> 35:20.731
[SPEAKER_00]: And we actually call them survivors.

35:21.312 --> 35:40.307
[SPEAKER_00]: You have survived something that was really terrible and really scary and really hard like dealing with smoked damage like you've had to do in your house and dealing with total obliteration of your neighborhood and where you brought your babies home and where you got married and all the things that you've mentioned before is just um

35:40.287 --> 35:59.713
[SPEAKER_00]: incredibly challenging, and there are certain communities like there's one that's in a very rural frontier community that they wanted a lighter touch, they were very suspicious of outsiders and even though I did buy a truck because they were not, they turns out rural America didn't love my Volvo.

35:59.693 --> 36:22.748
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I was like fine if that's a barrier to service and I'm going to drive a giant ram truck and that does actually seem to work, but they wanted a different style of service, but I still serve them and when they call me I come, I am still working with paradise all the time we bring Jen goodland to Los Angeles and how long has it been since the paradise far.

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[SPEAKER_00]: five seven and a half years.

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[SPEAKER_02]: See and what is the difference now?

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[SPEAKER_02]: What would you say is the mental difference between a paradise resident that's still there or that came back?

36:33.257 --> 36:36.146
[SPEAKER_02]: The year first year of the fire and now seven and a half years.

36:36.166 --> 36:37.108
[SPEAKER_02]: What's the difference?

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[SPEAKER_00]: The first year.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We call a firebrain.

36:39.311 --> 36:40.533
[SPEAKER_00]: It's really hard.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Like people can't keep all the stuff and they're trying to learn this skill that somebody recently described is like the learning curve is actually like inverts because it's so hard.

36:49.761 --> 36:53.144
[SPEAKER_00]: It's way harder than when should it actually it should be in our mind.

36:53.164 --> 37:05.155
[SPEAKER_00]: So the first year is really the shock and the trauma and the anger and the grief and they all end at the same time or so see somehow be competent and talk to your insurance company, which is not playing nicely too often.

37:05.135 --> 37:12.965
[SPEAKER_00]: And to deal with debris removal and all of this new information, this shared grief personal grief, all these issues.

37:13.025 --> 37:20.235
[SPEAKER_00]: And so fire rain can last a couple of years, but it's very acute in the first year because you cannot believe this just happens, right?

37:20.295 --> 37:23.018
[SPEAKER_00]: Doesn't matter if you're seeing it on TV, that's fine.

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[SPEAKER_00]: In the second year, I can get a little crunchy.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Because people are kind of tired.

37:27.324 --> 37:30.548
[SPEAKER_00]: They rounded the bend of all the universities and Christmases and holidays.

37:30.588 --> 37:34.633
[SPEAKER_00]: They've reached for their decorations, which are no longer there for all of these things.

37:35.173 --> 37:37.076
[SPEAKER_02]: They mourned their pets, John, right?

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[SPEAKER_00]: They've mourned the pets that they have maybe lost because they don't want the parrot.

37:41.781 --> 37:47.748
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the one thing most people will not talk about is the pets that they left behind thinking that they were coming home.

37:48.029 --> 37:51.713
[SPEAKER_00]: It's really one of the most painful things that in family heirlooms.

37:51.693 --> 38:01.594
[SPEAKER_00]: They feel guilty because they didn't take those and I and you know, I say, well, if you knew you would have right and they're like, well, yeah, I'm like, you just didn't know.

38:01.634 --> 38:07.947
[SPEAKER_00]: So you did the best that you could and I think that's an important lesson, though, you did the best you could.

38:07.927 --> 38:36.972
[SPEAKER_00]: Second year, it just depends on who you are, but there's still a lot of trauma in the community, and we see, and you know, people are really starting to feel the acute financial effects to, it's very much, it's incredibly difficult no matter how much you have or don't have it is obviously harder, the less amount that you have, especially if you're a renter, please, please, please get renter insurance.

38:36.952 --> 38:42.056
[SPEAKER_00]: and renters and it's agonizing because there isn't a lot there for you, no one's going to make you whole.

38:42.076 --> 39:06.958
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the second year, many people have not even decided whether or not they're going to come back or what they want to do or some people want to come back, they haven't figured it out financially and there may be still fighting with their insurance companies but a lot of people lean into community over those first two years and they really find their bedrock in each other

39:06.938 --> 39:11.644
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, about by the third year, they sort of start to hit their strides.

39:11.784 --> 39:16.249
[SPEAKER_00]: So we count year three is the closing of year two, and then it opens into year three.

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[SPEAKER_00]: People think it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

39:18.231 --> 39:19.032
[SPEAKER_00]: They're illite.

39:19.072 --> 39:20.354
[SPEAKER_00]: They're loss of use.

39:20.434 --> 39:22.136
[SPEAKER_00]: They're rental reimbursements.

39:22.176 --> 39:22.657
[SPEAKER_00]: All of that.

39:22.757 --> 39:25.019
[SPEAKER_00]: That's usually goes away at that time.

39:25.120 --> 39:26.541
[SPEAKER_00]: People have to make a decision.

39:26.601 --> 39:28.624
[SPEAKER_00]: They're still dealing with some trauma.

39:28.644 --> 39:34.130
[SPEAKER_00]: And then they sort of, that's when we see a lot of their rebuilds actually really accelerate.

39:34.330 --> 39:35.832
[SPEAKER_00]: LA is way ahead of schedule.

39:35.872 --> 39:36.473
[SPEAKER_00]: I know they don't.

39:36.453 --> 39:42.262
[SPEAKER_00]: feel like if there's a lot of anger to that comes through, especially the first two years.

39:43.103 --> 39:51.115
[SPEAKER_00]: I know that I didn't even lose my home and I can tell you that it took me five years before I turned around and I was like, you know, I think I'm okay.

39:51.155 --> 39:56.563
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I'm never going to be exactly the same again, but I don't feel like I'm living in a traumatized space.

39:56.603 --> 39:57.905
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's different for other people.

39:57.985 --> 40:01.650
[SPEAKER_00]: I think there's ways to interrupt that to shorten that cycle too.

40:01.867 --> 40:09.242
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you always say that recovery is a layered process so that we should sort of forgive ourselves and be kind to ourselves, right?

40:09.844 --> 40:12.449
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, please, please, please be kind to yourselves.

40:12.489 --> 40:17.520
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you know, watch out for each other, but be kind to yourself.

40:17.960 --> 40:23.031
[SPEAKER_00]: Is this, it really does change your life dramatically?

40:23.011 --> 40:28.762
[SPEAKER_00]: especially if you've lost a loved one, especially if you've lost your home or had your home damage.

40:29.363 --> 40:39.863
[SPEAKER_00]: But really it's the massive power of seeing what a megafire can do or a flood or whatever disasters you are seeing and a lot of us went through that globally together during the pandemic.

40:39.923 --> 40:44.412
[SPEAKER_00]: There was the day before they shut everything down and then there was the day after.

40:44.392 --> 41:10.146
[SPEAKER_00]: And we went through years of, you know, dealing with the what would come out of that or what happened from it and disasters and communities aren't really any different and our job is to really walk alongside of you and hopefully light in your light in your pain load and make sure that people do not feel alone because that is a huge danger in disaster is feeling very lonely and that's the one thing you can do is minimize that.

41:10.126 --> 41:26.644
[SPEAKER_02]: And so for our listeners, I had a friend who lived in a nice little town New Jersey racist kids there, they're grown now and he was wearing a ski trip and his teenage son just happened to be home and the house burned down from an electrical thing and called his parents and said they're smoke in the house.

41:27.104 --> 41:31.188
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, get out and he went back in to get the cat and the cat was nowhere to be found.

41:31.669 --> 41:39.357
[SPEAKER_02]: But the first thing I said to him is go to after the fire USA.org and look it up

41:39.337 --> 41:42.444
[SPEAKER_02]: We can't go on further ever, although we could.

41:42.885 --> 41:47.935
[SPEAKER_02]: But I want to wet the appetite of our listeners with what they can expect in the week's ahead.

41:48.336 --> 41:52.084
[SPEAKER_02]: You're going to do weekly podcast, they're going to be rich with information.

41:52.505 --> 41:55.692
[SPEAKER_02]: What are some of the topics that we're going to be covering in the week's ahead?

41:55.739 --> 42:09.215
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, you know, you're going to see things, you're going to see like we're not really like we're not firefighters, but we certainly are going to talk to firefighters and we're going to talk to people who have developed systems like the black captain system.

42:09.255 --> 42:18.085
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to talk to people about mental health for going to talk to people about the practical side of insurance like what do you do and.

42:18.065 --> 42:22.791
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, we're going to give you tips like you need to video tape your home every year, things like that.

42:23.151 --> 42:35.826
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to talk to really cool people who are doing great things to make this entire space much better, and even for people who've never been through a disaster, and this is just should not feel like homework at all.

42:35.866 --> 42:39.550
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to do it from a very human

42:39.530 --> 42:51.054
[SPEAKER_00]: And ways that are incredibly accessible, including the language, which is like when you remind me not to say LTRG, we're going to do a lot of that too, so that it doesn't feel like it's way over there on a doily for other people.

42:51.074 --> 42:58.129
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, this is for you, and one of the things we can all do is become more resilient together.

42:58.109 --> 43:10.400
[SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately, you know, perils are coming for all of us at some point and there is a way to actually be prepared for that to be resilient and knowledge is a superpower.

43:10.440 --> 43:13.047
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's a lot of what we'll be doing.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I can't wait to hear the innovations that make postfire innovations, how to build back smart.

43:19.618 --> 43:25.888
[SPEAKER_00]: And now one of them is called postfire because they have a great platform that we love.

43:25.948 --> 43:39.087
[SPEAKER_00]: So we are going to platform innovators and people who are emergent leaders, I love an emergent leader to community person that did not have a role before the fire, but they knew their community, they saw what was needed and they moved towards action.

43:39.568 --> 43:40.730
[SPEAKER_00]: So we love that too.

43:40.750 --> 43:42.392
[SPEAKER_00]: So thank you for reminding me of that.

43:42.524 --> 43:50.739
[SPEAKER_02]: Also, I know an upcoming one is proving that the next generation, the young people, research shows one of the disaster ready.

43:51.019 --> 43:54.185
[SPEAKER_02]: They want to put their minds at ease that you can't really be healthy.

43:54.485 --> 43:58.773
[SPEAKER_02]: You can't really be joyful or whole unless you face it and you prep for it.

43:58.853 --> 44:00.516
[SPEAKER_02]: Then you're empowered, right?

44:00.496 --> 44:03.360
[SPEAKER_02]: So Jen, we have so much to look forward to.

44:03.380 --> 44:07.206
[SPEAKER_02]: We haven't even scratched the surface of DC and so many things we could talk about.

44:07.266 --> 44:09.669
[SPEAKER_02]: So do not miss how to disaster.

44:09.689 --> 44:10.871
[SPEAKER_02]: You can watch it on YouTube.

44:11.251 --> 44:15.357
[SPEAKER_02]: You're gonna be putting updates in real time on social media, right?

44:15.417 --> 44:20.124
[SPEAKER_02]: For legal issues and things like that that are popping up all the time in the recovery.

44:20.685 --> 44:22.808
[SPEAKER_02]: What would you like to tell our listeners for the future?

44:23.007 --> 44:31.397
[SPEAKER_00]: I just want to say thank you in advance for all the time that you might spend with us and I know our goal is to always make it really worth your time.

44:31.417 --> 44:33.400
[SPEAKER_00]: It's also part of our approach and our work.

44:33.420 --> 44:45.555
[SPEAKER_00]: We are not here to preach to you we're here to really satisfy your curiosity and if there are things that we haven't covered then drop the comments below in our YouTube and we will take a look at all of those.

44:45.535 --> 44:46.456
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll talk about it.

44:46.476 --> 44:52.526
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll talk about conspiracy theories, or why that why disinformation and politics don't belong in disaster.

44:52.586 --> 45:07.088
[SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully you'll walk away from this feeling inspired, feeling hopeful, and feeling empowered that you can actually make it through this era of disasters and climate change, and you know, man-made and otherwise, like you can do it.

45:07.469 --> 45:13.618
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and you can be part as a supporter, or someone that's been through it of the best club,

45:13.598 --> 45:18.147
[SPEAKER_02]: the worst club with the best people of the worst club with the best people.

45:18.348 --> 45:18.929
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a hard one.

45:19.230 --> 45:20.733
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's a hard one.

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[SPEAKER_02]: But it's worth the effort.

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[SPEAKER_02]: So thanks for listening.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks for tuning in and stay tuned for the weeks ahead.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, thank you so much, Kim.