4. We Threw Away Our Political Identities. Then We Started Getting Things Done. | Joel Pollak
Joel Pollak is a journalist, opinion editor at the California Post, and a Palisades Fire survivor, devoted husband and father of four whose home survived the fire but was badly smoke-damaged, and with four children, he and his wife had to fight the insurance company. They are still not home.
In this episode, Joel joins Jennifer Gray Thompson to talk about what it actually means to have a standing smoke damaged home, why it is in many ways harder to navigate than a total loss, and what the past year of fighting his insurance company has looked like from the inside.
They cover the moment Joel drove back into the fire zone with a press pass and found his house still standing, the neighbor he never identified who stretched the hose across his lawn and tried to save it on his behalf, the insurance company’s opening offer of $5,000 for the contents of a family home, the public adjuster who changed everything, the lead and arsenic in the soil that had to be trucked to Arizona, and the 35 day threat that nearly forced him to sell.
They also talk about what it took to bridge a significant political divide, why disaster recovery needs people from every side of the aisle, and what Joel saw when he visited Coffee Park in Santa Rosa and felt, for the first time, something like hope.
Resources:
- How to Disaster
- Learn more about After the Fire USA
- After the Fire USA Resource Library
- Eaton Fire Survivors Network
- Three Homeless Guys Podcast
- Connect with Jennifer Gray Thompson on LinkedIn
Produced by NOVA