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We’re busy retooling our podcast, and the new Rebuild:LA will premiere September 1st! In the meantime, another ENCORE EPISODE comes your way. Episode 52 originally aired on November 25, 2025. While that doesn’t seem that long ago, a lot has happened in the intervening seven and a half months - especially for our returning guest, Dr. Nicole Maccalla of Eaton Fire Residents United. She, her children, and her pets evacuated the Eaton Fire and were relieved to learn in the days after the January 2025 Firestorm that their house was still standing. But it took months for them to return home. While her house hadn’t been consumed by flames, it had been saturated with smoke and toxic debris. During the months of testing, cleaning, remodeling, and fighting insurance companies, she started Eaton Fire Residents United. The non-profit sources and publishes testing results from the fire and helps survivors understand the dangers of returning home before remediation. It is also proving that not all remediation is created equal. Have a relisten to Episode 052 and learn what the January 21025 Firestorms left behind.
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On the first of September, the new Rebuild:LA will premiere. We’re entering into the scary world of video and will be bringing you the next crop of leaders, visionaries, and doers who are helping to Rebuild LA.
Until then, we’re queuing up our most popular episodes and updating them where we can. So welcome to our first encore episode. The Hard Truth About Zone Zero first aired on May 30, 2025. The guest was Dr. Travis Longcore, an Adjunct Professor at UCLA and the co-chair of the Environmental Science and Engineering Program at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. He serves on the Los Angeles County Environmental Review Board and is a vocal critic of Zone Zero. In 2020, California passed Assembly Bill 3074, which established Zone Zero - an ember-resistant zone within five feet of homes in High and Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones. And since that Bill passed, Californians have been arguing about how to implement it. State Fire Officials say it’s necessary to help fight the state’s increasing wildfire risk. Dr. Longcore and thousands of others say Zone Zero is impossible to implement or regulate, and won’t do much to prevent wildfire.
Now we go back in time to May 30, 2025, and the fight over Zone Zero.
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California Board of Forestry & Fire Protection Draft RulesIs My Home in a High Fire Hazard Severity Zone?MySafe:LA's Take on Zone ZeroSupport the show
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TreePeople has been around for more than 50 years and has planted millions of trees. The non-profit dedicated to maintaining and growing our forests, parks, and even street tree populations, sees trees as not only integral but necessary parts of our infrastructure. And they’re trying to get the rebuilding effort in Los Angeles to recognize the importance of what they call green infrastructure and agree to plan the new Pacific Palisades, Altadena, and Malibu with trees playing a central role. Science proves them right. Trees provide cooling microclimates, combat climate change, capture and create moisture, slow erosion, and even serve as windbreaks and ember catchers during wildfires. This week, host Cameron Barrett talks to biologist and tree scientist Dr. Cassie Rauser. She is also the executive director of TreePeople. And she has a plan for rebuilding LA.
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TreePeopleTheodore Payne FoundationARLA (Accelerate Resilience LA)Resilient PalisadesA Living Memorial to Those Lost in the January 7th FireSupport the show
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There are state, county, regional, and city programs offering rebates, incentives, and planning assistance if you've been affected by the Los Angeles Wildfires and are considering building an electric home. We talk with three representatives from three different programs this week, in the second part of our two-part series on electrifying your home. Host Cameron Barrett welcomes our first guest, Patrice Hicks from RISE Homes. RISE Homes is short for Rebuilding Incentives for Sustainable Electric Homes - a state-wide program funded by the California Public Utilities Commission. Our second guest is Erin Keller, who is talking about her incentive programs at Cal EHP, or the California Electric Homes Program. Finally, our third guest, from LA DWP, is Enayet Miah, who presents the HOME LA program, short for High-performance, Optimized, Modern Electrification in Los Angeles. Each of our experts this week brings not only details on their programs and how to apply, but also their hopes for the future of Los Angeles as we rebuild.
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LA DWP's HomeLALA DWP in the PalisadesLA DWP's Save ProgramsRISE HomesCalifornia's Electric Homes ProgramPassive House InstituteSupport the show
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Are you rebuilding? Renovating? Adding on? Rethinking your living space? Have you thought about going all-electric? That’s what we’re talking about this week and next with three experts - Patrice Hicks from RISE Homes, Erin Keller from the California Electric Homes Project, and Enayet Miah from Los Angeles’ Department of Water and Power. They have the expertise…and perhaps the money…to help you go electric. Host Cameron Barrett begins our two-episode conversation with our three subject matter experts this week, finding out why electric could be a better solution for you, and how to learn more. Next week she gets into the money offered by each organization, and how these programs could change the future of homebuilding in Pacific Palisades and Altadena.
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We're getting our next two-part episode ready for you. It will drop at 1:00 am Pacific Time on June 16 and is the first in a two-part series on electrifying the rebuild in the Palisades and Altadena. We'll have three experts who will outline the substantial incentives available to those interested in de-gasifying their new homes.
Don't miss it!
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The Palisades Fire created an ecological disaster as only a widespread urban conflagration can. But it also created a blank canvas and an opportunity, according to Sara Marti, the Communications Director of Resilient Palisades. The eco-centric non-profit began in 2019, offering free help in a wide array of environmentally friendly initiatives from clearing invasive species to electrifying your home. But when the Palisades Fire destroyed much of the region that Resilient Palisades had spent years trying to improve, the group had to pivot. And they did, releasing a plan for rebuilding the Palisades that would make it the environmental stronghold they had always believed it could be. This week, Sara Marti explains the initiatives Resilient Palisades is working on post-fire, and how you can leverage the group's expertise to make your home more environmentally resilient.
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Resilient PalisadesReimagining the PalisadesTree PeoplePalisades BeautifulElectrify the RebuildSupport the show
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$2 million dollars. That’s what the California Board of Insurance (CBI) fined State Farm after spending 11 months looking into its illegal practices after the Eaton and Palisades Fires. They only had to investigate a fraction of the complaints against the insurance giant to see a clear practice of illegal delay and denial of claims made by fire survivors. And while $2 million dollars might seem like a lot to someone trying to recover from a wildfire, it’s what State Farm makes EVERY HOUR from its massive investment portfolio. On this week’s show, Joy Chen, the founder of the Every Fire Survivors’ Network, and a champion for insurance reform in our state, joins host Cameron Barrett and lays out the work she and her fellow advocates have done in the last year.
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Every Fire Survivors’ NetworkRally for RecoverySupport EFSN's Insurance Reform BillsSupport the show
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The second part of our two-part series with investigative reporter Liam Dillon has us looking forward. Dillon’s stories in the Los Angeles Times and POLITICO have examined the devastation left by the last 8 years of mega-fires in California. Dillon has looked at the Tubbs Fire that laid waste to Santa Rosa, and the Camp Fire that destroyed the town of Paradise, among many others. He’s found that only 38% of the Californians who were burned out in the fires have rebuilt their homes. Now, he’s studying the twin disasters of the Palisades and Eaton Fires. And those numbers aren’t great…yet. Dillon outlines what his investigation has discovered, and whether the rebuilding of Pacific Palisades and Altadena will follow the fires before them, or break the pattern and be the robust recovery we all hope for.
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California leaders promised fire recovery in record time. Los Angeles isn’t seeing it.POLITICO22,500 homes lost. Over five years later, only 38% rebuilt: What California fire survivors face - Los Angeles TimesSupport the show
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38%. That’s the surprisingly small percentage of residents who have rebuilt after wildfires in California since 2017. Recent building permit requests and housing starts in Pacific Palisades and Altadena are even smaller in number. What many elected officials promised would be the fastest recovery on record after the January 2025 Firestorm has not materialized. Why? That’s what host Cameron Barrett asked journalist Liam Dillon this week on Rebuild:LA. He’s been writing on politics and policy in Los Angeles for the last 15 years. It was his article last fall in the Los Angeles Times that uncovered the 38% statistic, and another, more recent article of his in POLITICO specifically looks at the recovery in Palisades and Altadena. Why aren’t California wildfire victims rebuilding? Liam Dillon lays out his findings in this, the first episode in a two-part series.
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California leaders promised fire recovery in record time. Los Angeles isn’t seeing it. POLITICO22,500 homes lost. Over five years later, only 38% rebuilt: What California fire survivors face - Los Angeles TimesSupport the show
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Last week on Rebuild:LA, host Cameron Barrett welcomed LA’s Deputy Mayor of Infrastructure and Climate Resilience, Randall Winston, to the show. The conversation was mostly about the first part of his title - infrastructure. What was LA doing to repair the Palisades and ensure it could withstand the ongoing threat from wildfires? This week, it’s about the second half of his title - Climate Resilience. Mayor Bass recently released her Climate Action Plan, and the Palisades Fire figures heavily in it. Winston lays out the mayor’s plan for not only a greener, more carbon-neutral city, but also a place tens of thousands of international visitors will want to flock to by summer 2028, when LA hosts the Olympic Games.
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Mayor Bass Climate RoadmapMayor Bass Climate Action PlanMayor Bass and Supervisor Barger with TrumpSupport the show
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On April 22, 2026, LA Mayor Karen Bass and LA County Supervisor Kathryn Barger traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Their purpose? To find out when long-promised federal disaster recovery funds would arrive to help Los Angeles rebuild. Without those dollars, LA can’t repair the roads in the Palisades, underground electrical power lines, fix infrastructure destroyed in the firefight, or continue to help Palisadians return to their homes. While both sides came away from the meeting saying the talks were “very positive,” were they productive? That’s what we asked the city’s Deputy Mayor of Infrastructure and Climate Resilience. Randall Winston came into the job with a clear path forward. But that path changed dramatically on January 6, 2025, with the Palisades Fire. In the first of two episodes with the Deputy Mayor, host Cameron Barrett finds out if those federal dollars are on the way, and what they’ll be used for if they arrive.
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Mayor Bass Climate RoadmapMayor Bass Climate Action PlanBass and Barger Meet with TrumpSupport the show
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Community. It’s a hard thing to define, and even harder to quantify. When the Palisades Fire swept through Los Angeles and Malibu, people didn’t just lose their homes, their schools, churches, and synagogues, their coffee shops, restaurants, and grocery stores. Perhaps most importantly, they lost each other - they lost community. Host Cameron Barrett speaks with Juliet Curry, the Director of the Palisades Community Renewal Center, about community this week. Curry and her dedicated team at PCRC offer a place where those affected by the fire can get mental health services, take part in family art classes, experience sound baths and yoga classes, all while sipping some really good coffee. In other words, they’re offering a chance to find community again.
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Palisades Community Renewal CenterMaple CounselingServices with Maple Counseling at the PCRCPicerne Family FoundationZentanglesSupport the show
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15 months after the Palisades Fire, the Los Angeles City Fire Department is still under a microscope regarding their response times, emergency notifications to residents, and pre-deployment decisions. But that's not stopping them from taking an active role in helping residents get permits and permissions to rebuild. The fire department is integral in the process, and with more than 6,000 structures lost to the fire, it was clear to the LAFD and city government as a whole that building red tape could be a nightmare if not streamlined. That's where LAFD Captain Dwayne Laurent comes in. Our guest this week is the new LAFD Ambassador to the Palisades, recently named by the new Fire Chief, Jaime Moore. Host Cameron Barrett asks him all about his new assignment and how the rebuilding process is shaping up in the Palisades.
LA City's Rebuild and ReturnPalisades Inspections and Permitting Support CenterLA Recovery ResourcesMySafe:LA Can Help With Wildfire Risk AssessmentsSupport the show
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In this day of increasing climate disasters, it might be time to start thinking outside the wood frame box when it comes to building homes in the Wildland Urban Interface. At least that’s what Gary Hendren from S.A.M. House is hoping people will do when they’re ready to rebuild their homes in Pacific Palisades, Altadena, and Malibu. On this week’s episode, host Cameron Barrett talks to Hendren about the new building material he’s invented that has passed rigorous wind and fire tests. And it’s fabricated right here in California. S.A.M. stands for Sustainable, Alternative, and Modular, three things Hendren wants Los Angeles residents to keep in mind when building for the future.
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S.A.M. HouseOnly 38% of Fire Survivors RebuildSupport the show
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It was more than a year ago (Episodes 019 and 020) when we first met Jon Brown and heard his story of escape and survival. Jon and his wife built their dream home in the Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Estates, better known as the Palisades Bowl, and were living their dream. They were just steps from the Pacific Ocean, their young children attended the perfect elementary school, and they were surrounded by their friends and the community they loved. But the Palisades Fire ended all that in a matter of hours. That was, obviously, devastating. But what happened in the weeks and months that followed made the fire look like only the first battle in a long, drawn-out war.
Owners of the Palisades Bowl were forced to finally clean the property more than 14 months after the fires. And they have remained uncommunicative as their 400+ residents have tried to determine a plan for rebuilding. The property has now been put up for sale. But Jon Brown and his neighbors are not giving up. In this episode, he tells host Cameron Barrett about his year of struggles and what's next in his fight to return home.
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Palisades Bowl Community GroupPalisades Community Resource CenterCalifornia Senate Bill 749California Senate Bill 1092California Senate Bill 1093Palisades Bowl Aerial Footage of CleanupExtreme Weather SurvivorsSupport the show
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On this week’s episode, host Cameron Barrett talks to the award-winning actress and tireless neighborhood leader, Kelly Lynch. She’s been working since not long after the January 2025 firestorms to make her neighborhood an NFPA Firewise USA site. She’s the president of The Oaks Neighborhood Association in the Hollywood Hills, which is spread out along narrow, twisty roads, filled with many older homes, and lots, and LOTS of vegetation. Through her tireless work alongside her neighborhood Board of Directors and MySafe:LA’s trained risk assessors and wildfire experts, the Oaks recently received their Firewise certification and can now take advantage of the benefits, such as better insurance deals. Kelly says the process is “not for sissies” but worth the effort. And she has some advice for those who are interested in doing the same.
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The Oaks Neighborhood AssociationKelly’s Recent Docuseries - California RoadtripNFPA Firewise USASupport the show
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In the second episode exploring MySafe:LA's collaboration with the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus, we continue our conversation with MySafe:LA Executive Director David Barrett about the power of music to strengthen a community and help its people heal. We also finish up our interview with Lennon Bus co-creator Brian Rothschild. Turns out the Lennon Bus isn't new at helping kids experiencing the trauma and challenges left in the wake of natural disasters. Plus, we hear the terrific song, "Same City: Resilience After the Fire", written and performed by students from Pacific Palisades Charter High School.
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John Lennon Educational Tour BusMySafe:LA's Lennon Bus Collab"Same City: Resilience After the Fire" by students from Pacific Palisades Charter High SchoolMusic Impact CoalitionSupport the show
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This week is the first in a two-part episode on our new collaboration with the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus. In our work to help the communities impacted by the Palisades and Eaton Fires recover and rebuild, we reached out to the Lennon Bus nonprofit because of their past work with kids affected by disasters. We wanted to create an initiative to help children affected by the fires tell their stories and connect with one another over their shared hardships as their schools, communities, and families have struggled to recover. The Lennon Bus offers just such a program by bringing students together through music-making and storytelling. In this first episode, we hear from the bus's co-creator, Brian Rothschild, MySafe:LA Executive Director, David Barrett, and the kids of Altadena and Pasadena through their original songs.
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John Lennon Educational Tour BusMySafe:LA's Lennon Bus Collab"Hiraeth" by students from Altadena"Mr. Change" by students from Blair High School in PasadenaMusic Impact CoalitionSupport the show
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On this week's Rebuild:LA, host Cameron Barrett discusses the state of mental health among fire survivors with Shari Sinwelski, the Vice President of Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services. 14 months after the January Firestorms, as many as 8 out of 10 fire survivors are reporting struggling with their mental health. How can you do a mental health check in? Is it time for you to take advantage of the six free counseling session Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services offers to all fire survivors? Find out in the latest episode of Rebuild:LA.
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Didi Hirsch Wildfire Recovery ResourcesMental Health Issues for Fire SurvivorsCalifornia Wildfire Survivors’ Mental Health ChallengesSupport the show
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