The FireTech Podcast

The FireTech Podcast Season 2 (2025) examines emerging dynamics of public-private-people partnerships (4Ps) in building wildfire resilience. Through conversations with community partners and technical leads, host Shefali Lakhina examines how diverse partners cultivate trust, accountability, and responsiveness to shared wildfire resilience goals on the frontlines. In this episode host Shefali Lakhi...

The FireTech Podcast Season 2 (2025) examines emerging dynamics of public-private-people partnerships (4Ps) in building wildfire resilience. Through conversations with community partners and technical leads, host Shefali Lakhina examines how diverse partners cultivate trust, accountability, and responsiveness to shared wildfire resilience goals on the frontlines. In this episode Shefali speaks wit...

The FireTech Podcast Season 2 (2025) examines emerging dynamics of public-private-people partnerships (4Ps) in building wildfire resilience. Through four conversations with community partners and technical leads, we examine how diverse partners cultivate trust, accountability, and responsiveness to shared wildfire resilience goals on the frontlines. In this episode we speak with Kai Hoffman-Krull...

The FireTech Podcast' Season 2 (2025) examines the emerging dynamics of public-private-people partnerships (4Ps) in building wildfire resilience. Through four conversations with community partners and technical leads, we examine how diverse partners cultivate trust, accountability, and responsiveness to shared wildfire resilience goals on the frontlines. We uncover what responsible innovation for...

In this episode, host Shefali Lakhina speaks with David Green, Principal Consultant at Green Resilience Insights, LLC. In this role David provides consulting for science and technology innovation, transition, and integration enabling foresight planning and strategy, risk management across weather, water, and climate-impacted sectors. David previously served as Program Manager for NOAA and NASA. As...

In this episode, host Shefali Lakhina speaks with retired Fire Chief Frank Frievalt, now Director of Cal Poly's Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fire Institute. Frank previously served as fire chief for the Mammoth Lakes Fire Protection District, division chief of operations for the Sparks Fire Department, among other leadership roles. In his current role at the WUI Fire Institute, Frank is focused...

In this episode, host Shefali Lakhina speaks with Neil Chapman, Wildland Fire Captain for the Flagstaff Fire Department and Summit Fire & Medical District, Arizona. We talk about Neil's wide ranging career in fire adapted land management over the years; how agencies are working together to catalyze systems innovations to modernize workforce capacities; and why it is important to democratize access...

In this episode, host Shefali Lakhina speaks with Josh Wilkins, a seasoned fire captain and wildfire technology consultant with over 27 years of dedicated service at the San Bernardino County Fire Department in Southern California. Josh has managed and responded to numerous wildfires across the western United States, demonstrating a profound commitment to public safety and emergency response. We l...

In this first episode, I set the stage for this mini podcast series by summarizing key trends and findings from the State of FireTech 2023 Survey and Annual Update. Download the 2023 report and summary here: https://www.wonder-labs.org/state-of-firetech.html and be sure to take the 2024 FireTech Survey before August 30, 2024 here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/firetech2024 In the next episode, yo...

This trailer introduces the aims of the Innovating on the Frontlines FireTech Podcast: a mini series that showcases how intrapreneurs within federal, state, and local agencies catalyze innovations. Join us on this learning journey!