How to Disaster

Los Angeles County Public Works Director Mark Pestrella joins Jennifer Gray Thompson to talk about what disaster recovery looks like from inside one of the country’s largest and most complex public systems. 

Drawing from both his professional role and his own experience of being displaced by fire, Mark explains why rebuilding depends on far more than permits and infrastructure. They discuss trust, coordination, community voice, mental health, and the small signs of normalcy that can matter deeply after disaster. 

The conversation offers a closer look at how public servants can help create more certainty while still giving communities agency over what comes next.

Resources:

• How to Disaster
• Learn more about After the Fire USA
• After the Fire USA Resource Library
• Connect with Jennifer Gray Thompson on LinkedIn

Produced by NOVA

Paul Lowenthal has spent years responding to wildfire from both sides: as a fire service professional and as someone who lost his own home in the 2017 Tubbs Fire. 

In this conversation, he and Jennifer Gray Thompson look at what Santa Rosa learned while rebuilding, why experienced recovery leaders matter, and how those lessons have been carried into communities from Maui to Los Angeles. 

They also talk about the relationships behind effective mutual aid, the importance of preparing new leaders, and what it means to show up for another community with both technical knowledge and lived experience.

Resources:

• How to Disaster
• Learn more about After the Fire USA
• After the Fire USA Resource Library
• The City of Santa Rosa
• Connect with Jennifer Gray Thompson on LinkedIn

Produced by NOVA

Mayor Richard Bissen reflects on leading Maui through the immediate response and long recovery following the August 2023 fires. 

He shares why listening, community meetings, trusted local advisers, and careful preparation have shaped the county’s approach to rebuilding Lahaina. The conversation also explores the tension between urgency and safety, the importance of protecting communities from outside interests, and why recovery must restore people and culture, not only structures. 

In “Kim on the Street,” Lahaina Brewing Company founder Mary Anderson shares how cooperation and community support helped her business find a way forward after the fire.

Resources:

• How to Disaster
• Learn more about After the Fire USA
• After the Fire USA Resource Library
• County of Maui
• Connect with Jennifer Gray Thompson on LinkedIn

Produced by NOVA

In this episode of How to Disaster, Jennifer speaks with American singer and songwriter Aloe Blacc about the Eaton Fire, its impact on his family, and the community of Altadena that he has worked to support in its aftermath. He reflects on evacuating during extreme winds, seeing places his children knew and loved damaged by the fire, and carrying both personal grief and a growing responsibility to speak up for others.

They also explore the role of art in recovery, from music and songwriting gatherings to the ways creative expression can help people process loss and imagine a future together. Aloe shares what makes Altadena so special, why its history and relationships matter, and how staying rooted in community can offer hope during a long recovery.

Resources:

• How to Disaster
• Learn more about After the Fire USA
• After the Fire USA Resource Library
• Aloe Blacc’s Website
• Aloe Blacc Instagram 
• Connect with Jennifer Gray Thompson on LinkedIn

Produced by NOVA

In this episode of How to Disaster, Jennifer speaks with Renae Hanvin and Dr. Daniel P. Aldrich about why relationships are one of the strongest foundations of disaster resilience and recovery. Together, they explain social capital in plain language: the connections, trust, and cooperation that help communities prepare, respond, and rebuild. 

The conversation looks at how these ties can be measured, mapped, and supported before disaster strikes, not only after. It also offers a grounded reminder that recovery is not just about roads, buildings, or systems. It is also about the people, places, and everyday connections that help a community come back.

Resources:

• How to Disaster
• Learn more about After the Fire USA
• After the Fire USA Resource Library
• Resilient Ready
• Dr. Daniel P. Aldrich 
• Connect with Jennifer Gray Thompson on LinkedIn

Produced by NOVA

In this episode of How to Disaster, Jennifer Gray Thompson talks with Tennis Wick, former Permit Sonoma Building Department Director, about what local government becomes after a megafire. Drawing from Sonoma County’s 2017 fires, Tennis reflects on the early chaos, the emotional weight carried by public servants, and the responsibility of serving people who have lost nearly everything.

Together, Jennifer and Tennis discuss why disaster recovery cannot be measured only by permits, dashboards, or houses rebuilt. They explore the importance of compassion inside bureaucratic systems, from creating separate spaces for fire survivors to helping people move through permitting with dignity, patience, and care.

The conversation also looks at leadership across Sonoma County, Maui, and Los Angeles, including the role of elected officials, block captains, mutual aid, and community trust. Tennis offers a grounded view of what recovery asks of local government: honesty, humility, creativity, and a willingness to solve problems instead of only naming barriers.

Resources:

• How to Disaster
• Learn more about After the Fire USA
• After the Fire USA Resource Library
• Connect with Jennifer Gray Thompson on LinkedIn

Produced by NOVA

In this episode of How to Disaster, Jennifer speaks with Alex Athenson of the Foothill Catalog Foundation and Chris Corbett of Altadena Collective about rebuilding after the Eaton Fire. 

Both guests bring an architectural lens to recovery, but their work begins with survivors, community identity, and the emotional weight of coming home. Together, they explore how thoughtful design, pre-approved plans, community listening, and practical support can make rebuilding more affordable, more humane, and less overwhelming. 

This conversation offers a grounded look at what it takes to rebuild not just houses, but trust, belonging, and hope.

Resources:

• How to Disaster
• Learn more about After the Fire USA
• After the Fire USA Resource Library
• Foothill Catalog Foundation
• Altadena Collective
• Connect with Jennifer Gray Thompson on LinkedIn

Produced by NOVA

Ash Level is AN ATLADENA NATIVE AND the founder of Altadena Rising, an organisation born from the Eaton Fire that is focused on empowering survivors and filling the gaps that outside institutions consistently miss. Nicole Huguenin is part of Maui Rapid Response, a hub within a wider network of organisations that has been doing care at scale since the Lahaina fire and through four major storms since.

Both of them stepped into leadership not because they wanted to, but because their communities needed someone who actually knew them to stand up. Both are still going, long after the cameras moved on.

In this episode, Ash and Nicole join Jennifer Gray Thompson to talk about what emergent community-led recovery actually looks like from the inside: the historical distrust that shapes how their communities receive outside help, why institutional systems consistently fail the most vulnerable, how they navigate funders who want KPIs for work that cannot always be quantified, and what it costs personally to show up every day for people in the worst moments of their lives.

They also talk about Kuleana, the Hawaiian concept of collective responsibility to care for the land, family, and community, what it means to triage by trauma, why being a reliable narrator is the foundation of staying power, and what it looked like for Nicole to visit Altadena and finally begin processing grief she had been carrying since Lahaina.

This is a conversation about care, community, and what real recovery requires of the people who refuse to walk away.

Resources:

• How to Disaster
• Learn more about After the Fire USA
• After the Fire USA Resource Library
• Altadena Rising on Instagram
• Maui Rapid Response
• Cultural Fire Management Council
• Connect with Jennifer Gray Thompson on LinkedIn

Produced by NOVA

In this episode, Jennifer Gray Thompson speaks with Tyler Freres about what it can mean to rebuild with wood after a megafire. Tyler shares the story of his family’s long-standing timber business in Oregon’s Santiam Canyon, how the Beachie Creek Fire affected both the community and their forestland, and why the recovery of burned timber matters for local economies, land restoration, and future resilience.

The conversation also looks at mass timber and mass plywood panels, including how engineered wood can perform in fire, earthquakes, high wind events, and other hazards when it is designed thoughtfully. Tyler explains why many assumptions about wood, steel, concrete, and fire resistance are more complicated than they first appear, and how prefabricated wood systems can help buildings go up more efficiently.

Throughout the episode, Jennifer and Tyler return to a larger question: how do we care for forests, communities, and rebuilding in ways that are practical, ecologically responsible, and hopeful? Listeners will come away with a clearer understanding of forest management, fire-safe construction, and the possibility that beauty and resilience do not have to be treated as opposites.

Resources:

• How to Disaster
• Learn more about After the Fire USA
• After the Fire USA Resource Library
• Freres Engineered Wood
• Connect with Jennifer Gray Thompson on LinkedIn

Produced by NOVA

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