In this episode of How to Disaster, Jennifer Gray Thompson speaks with cartoonist and author Brian Fies about A Fire Story, his graphic memoir about losing his home in the 2017 Tubbs Fire. Brian shares how the book began in the first days after the fire, when he was still trying to understand what had happened while also documenting it with the eyes of a storyteller.

Their conversation moves through the realities of disaster recovery: walking through a destroyed neighborhood, navigating insurance, rebuilding, accepting help, and learning what people actually need in the aftermath. Brian also reflects on the role of block captains, neighbors, local leadership, and the quiet ways communities begin to organize when everything familiar has been disrupted.

Jennifer and Brian also talk about memory, art, humor, grief, and the strange mix of loss and connection that can follow disaster. This episode offers a grounded look at what it means to survive, rebuild, and carry both the old life and the new one forward.

Resources:

• How to Disaster
• Learn more about After the Fire USA
• After the Fire USA Resource Library
• LA Rising Podcast with Kim Marshall
• Watch Duty App
• A Fire Story by Brian Fies
• Community Brigade Malibu
• Connect with Jennifer Gray Thompson on LinkedIn

Produced by NOVA: https://novapodcasting.com

A home can be rebuilt after wildfire and still be hard to keep if insurance becomes unaffordable or unavailable. Jennifer Gray Thompson talks with Jen Goodlin of Rebuild Paradise Foundation and Valerie Brown, an insurance and disaster recovery expert, about the long, complicated work of helping people get all the way home.

Together, they look at one of the biggest barriers in recovery: insurance, including why prepared homes are not always recognized by insurers and how communities can create practical pathways toward safer, more affordable rebuilding. Jen shares what Paradise has learned since the Camp Fire, from defensible space grants to rebuilding an entire town with a different understanding of risk. Valerie brings nearly two decades of disaster recovery experience, offering a clear view of how insurance, preparedness, and local leadership shape what recovery actually looks like on the ground.

The conversation also challenges the way recovery is often measured. Instead of reducing communities to housing percentages or comparisons between disasters, Jen and Valerie ask what it means to come back safer, more resilient, and more connected to the people and places being rebuilt.

Resources:

• How to Disaster
• Learn more about After the Fire USA
• After the Fire USA Resource Library
• LA Rising Podcast with Kim Marshall
• Watch Duty App
• Community Brigade Malibu
• Connect with Jennifer Gray Thompson on LinkedIn

Produced by NOVA

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 Institute on preparedness as a cultural movement. Kim Marshall is the host of LA Rising: Stories of Healing, Help, and Hope, a podcast born from the LA fires.

In this special double-hosted episode, Cecelia joins Jennifer Gray Thompson and Kim Marshall to talk about what the data actually shows: why extreme weather is no longer extreme, why the 2030s will be defined by resilience, and how preparedness has moved from the fringes of doomsday prepper culture into the mainstream.

They cover fear-based messaging and why it drives paralysis rather than action, Yale research showing that small acts of preparedness reduce anxiety and depression, the role of technology in democratising disaster readiness, the rise of disaster-literate social media creators and brands designing for emergencies, and why social connection turns out to be the strongest predictor of survival after a disaster. Jennifer also talks about the Watch Duty app, block captains, and the third way between paralysis and denial.

This is a conversation about culture, data, and what it actually looks like when a society decides to get ready.

Resources:

• How to Disaster
• Learn more about After the Fire USA
• After the Fire USA Resource Library
• Ready Is the New Well - Global Wellness Institute
• Backslash at Omnicom Advertising
• LA Rising Podcast with Kim Marshall
• Watch Duty App
• Community Brigade Malibu
• Connect with Jennifer Gray Thompson on LinkedIn

Produced by NOVA