#L.A.Rising

A year and a half after the Eaton and Palisades fires, host Kim Marshall takes listeners on a ground-level tour of the two fire zones — from the Altadena Rebuild Trade Show, where hope looks like soil science and a “Sears catalog” of home with a sense of place.  To the Palibu Rebuild Expo, where facing the reality of living in a warming world and saying no to fossil fuel products like astroturf, g...

Cecelia Girr is Director of Cultural Strategy at Backslash, the cultural intelligence unit of Omnicom Advertising, and the author of Ready Is the New Well, a landmark report for the Global Wellness Summit on preparedness as a cultural movement. In this special double-hosted episode, Cecelia joins our host, Kim Marshall ,and After the Fire CEO, Jennifer Gray Thompson, and Kim Marshall to talk about...

In this episode, our host, Kim Marshall, reunites with Councilwoman Traci Park—the leader she first met stranded on the roadside during the Palisades Fire. Together, they unpack what really happens after the cameras leave: the long-tail trauma that outlasts the smoke, the mental health crisis facing fire survivors, and the brutal maze of insurance, rebuilding, and bureaucracy.  Traci shares candid...

When disaster strikes, animals are often among the most vulnerable and least visible victims. In this deeply moving episode of LA Rising, Kim Marshall speaks with Dr. Leslie Irvine, Professor Emerita at the University of Colorado Boulder and author of Filling the Ark: Animal Welfare in Disasters, about how wildfires, hurricanes, floods, and toxic burn zones affect pets, livestock, and wildlife. Fr...

After wildfire strips a neighborhood bare, what helps people heal, and what helps a community breathe again? In this moving episode of LA Rising, host Kim Marshall explores the deep connection between recovery and the urban forest with sustainable landscape architect David Card of the Palisades Forestry Committee and biophilia expert Jennifer Walsh. Together, they reveal why trees are far more tha...

In this episode of L.A. Rising, host Kim Marshall sits down with NY1 Chief Meteorologist John Davitt to unpack life in the age of unprecedented weather events. Fresh off reporting from the front lines of NYC’s recent Nor’Easter and bomb cyclone, John explains the jarring shift in the frequency of billion-dollar weather disasters –from every three months in the 1980’s to every three weeks today. We...

What if the thing that saves us isn’t rebuilding a house, but rebuilding our story? In this deeply human episode of LA Rising, host Kim Marshall sits down with Kathleen Katims, founder of Saved by a Story, a nonprofit offering free writing workshops to wildfire survivors, foster youth, seniors, and others navigating life’s hardest seasons. After losing her own Pacific Palisades home in the 2025 fi...

We go live for this episode to literally the first address on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu – and one of a handful of oceanfront structures still standing post-fire along a seven-mile stretch of coastline – to commemorate the first anniversary of the 2025 L.A. Fires. Host and fire evacuee, Kim Marshall, moderates a panel of creatives – filmmakers, photographers, storytellers, a high school coach...

As a multi-peril podcast looking for rays of hope, it is fitting that we focus on the Caribbean island of Jamaica and how their advance resiliency planning is helping speed their recovery after being hit by the monster, Category 5 Hurricane Melissa in late October.  Hear first hand strategies implemented before and after the storm on the island from international resilience expert, Edmund Bartlett...

As our first year comes to a close, #L.A. Rising is sharing a special gift with our community of listeners, a conversation with six-time Emmy winning actor, musician and philanthropist, Hank Azaria.  Known for his television work in Friends, Tuesdays with Morrie, Brockmire or movies like The Birdcage, Along Came Polly and Night at the Museum , Hank is most famous for doing over 100 different voice...

When the fires ravage a community many are motivated to give and give quickly.  The role of philanthropy post disaster rightly sparks important questions about where donated money goes, how nonprofits make decisions, and what real support looks like for families trying to rebuild their lives. In this episode of LA Rising, host Kim Marshall talks with philanthropy expert Rick Peck—known as “The Phi...

In this vital episode, we sit down with Joy Chen , founder of the Eaton Fire Residents United network, an organization born from the immediate chaos of evacuation that swiftly pivoted into a powerful force for community support and system accountability. Joy shares the deeply personal origin story of the network—how a simple community chat became the strategic engine fighting major insurance compa...

When megafires tear through a community, so many are left angry, exhausted, and desperate to know who to blame—but what if instead the focus was on the realities of today’s climate and proven ways to prevent future megafire disasters? In this episode of #L.A. Rising, host, Kim Marshall, sits down with Jennifer Gray Thompson, megafire survivor and the founder of After the Fire USA a nonprofit whose...

Ten months post-fire, a community gathers again across The Longest Table, sharing stories of survival, surprise, sadness, and renewal. We join the grassroots non-profit, Team Palisades – that’s all about neighbors helping neighbors – as they host a 500-seat open air potluck lunch event for the entire community. We’re on the ground, talking to eleven different residents, sharing stories and lessons...

When the winds roared and the lights went out, Maui turned to its oldest strength: each other. In this two-part episode, Maui County Mayor Richard T. Bissen, Jr. and First Lady Isabella Kaʻihi Bissen take us back to August 2023—how the Kula Fire ignited, why Lahaina (Lāhainā) was cut off so quickly, and the neighbor-to-neighbor lifesaving that followed. We dig into the hard numbers and the hopeful...

What do you do in the aftermath of a natural disaster when no government agency or insurance company has the data to prove it’s truly safe to return home? You band together with your neighbors and gather the data yourself. As unbelievable as it sounds, that’s exactly what our guests in this episode did.  Hear the remarkable story of Jane Lawton Potelle and Dr. Nicole Maccalla, who came together to...

Wildfires can destroy homes in hours—but the insurance battle that follows can last for years. In this powerful episode of LA Rising, we bring you expert guidance from Matthew Blumkin, President of the National Association of Public Insurance Adjusters and Managing Partner of The Greenspan Company, on how to navigate your insurance claim after disaster strikes. From understanding the three types o...

Six months after the catastrophic wildfires that ravaged Los Angeles, we sit down with Colonel Eric Swenson, the Army Corps of Engineers leader who spearheaded the fastest disaster cleanup in California’s history. Swenson shares the rarely heard, deeply human side of disaster recovery: building trust with survivors, walking with them through their darkest hours, and leading teams that not only cle...

Two female firebrands from Malibu explain how the devastating Palisades fire actually left a nearly seven-mile path of destruction along one of the most iconic coastal routes in America. In this deeply personal episode of #L.A. Rising, we meet noted author and activist Kathy Eldon and Equinox co-founder and fitness maven Lavinia Errico, who both embody hope and resilience in the wake of devastatio...

When disaster strikes, how do you rebuild—not just structures, but hope itself? In this powerful episode of LA Rising, we hear directly from the leaders at the heart of LA’s wildfire recovery. Supervisor Lindsay Horvath shares the inside story of the fastest fire debris removal in the nation’s history, to finding appropriate spaces for students whose schools burned down, to quickly distributing sm...

What do trees, tortoises, and high-tech spa treatments have in common? They're all part of the hidden story of wildfire recovery in Los Angeles. In this episode, we meet three unsung heroes working to heal the city in ways you might not expect. Master arborist Carl Mellinger takes us into the heart of LA’s urban forest—fighting to save surviving trees misidentified for removal and educating ho...

How do you fight back an inferno?  How do you build back a badly burned but much-loved community? In this poignant episode, we talk to a civic leader and a poet to dive deep into stories of survival, resilience, and artistic healing following the devastating Los Angeles wildfires. Join us as we speak with the dynamic L.A. Rams stadium announcer and Pacific Palisades native,  Sam Lagana, whose quic...

The fires that tore through Los Angeles left devastation in their wake, but in their aftermath, a powerful movement emerged—one rooted in science, resilience, and community action. In this episode, we sit down with Tracy Quinn, CEO of Heal the Bay, and Thierry Malleret, an economist and global thought leader, to explore how communities are navigating the intersection of environmental recovery, pol...

After the fires, the community of Los Angeles is still standing—together. In this powerful episode, you’ll hear the emotional highs and lows of post-fire life, welcoming Rabbi Amy Bernstein, Senior Rabbi of Kehillat Israel Congregation who leads a congregation of 900 families in the Pacific Palisades region.  Rabbi Amy discusses resilience, faith, and the strength found in community. Having lost h...

Loss and devastation struck Altadena as the wildfires consumed homes, history, and entire communities. But in the ashes, stories of resilience and hope emerged. This episode of LA Rising brings you the voices of Ada Okimura and Lori Corral—two women deeply connected to the cultural and artistic heat of Altadena. Ada, whose family home for decades was lost just after it was paid off, reflects on th...