Life with Fire

By Amanda MontheiSociety & Culture Documentary Science History Nature

Life with Fire episodes

November 30, 2021 Four Decades of Fire, with Sue Husari (and Guest Host Zeke Lunder)
This episode's guest, Sue Husari, went from pounding dirt as the first woman to work for the Lassen Hotshots in 1976 to an eventual role as the Fire Management Officer for the Pacific West Region of the National Park Service, from which she retired in 2012. In between, she saw fundamental changes not only in how fires burn but in how we fight them. She provides some truly invaluable perspective in this episode, which is guest hosted by our friend Zeke Lunder from The Lookout, an online project that aims to contextualize wildfire information through storytelling and digital media.

For more information about (or donate to) Zeke's project at the Lookout, check out their website: www.the-lookout.org.
To read a little bit about Sue's time on the Lassen Hotshots, check out this story by Life with Fire host Amanda Monthei from summer 2020: https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/exploration-survival/first-women-hotshots-wildland-firefighters/
To support Life with Fire, check out our Patreon: www.patreon.com/lifewithfirepod
47 min
November 16, 2021 What The Infrastructure Bill Means for Wildland Firefighters with Riva Duncan
How will the infrastructure bill impact wildland firefighting and our overall fire resilience? We spoke with Riva Duncan—who is the executive secretary of the Grassroots Wildland Firefighter Coalition—about the bill and its implications for the wildland fire workforce. In addition to providing some greater understanding of the bill and its provisions, Riva also answers a few of the most common questions she's been getting about the legislation.
More information about the Grassroots Wildland Firefighter Coalition as well as how to help can be found on their website.
If you're digging these conversations, you can donate to Life with Fire through our Patreon.

33 min
November 15, 2021 Homes as Fuel with Zeke Lunder, Yana Valochovic and Eric Knapp
Our first guest-hosted (an in-person) episode is live! In this episode, Zeke Lunder of "The Lookout" cameos as host of Life with Fire, and sits down with fire researchers Yana Valochovic and Eric Knapp at his office in Chico, CA. They spoke about Valochovic and Knapp's research on the Camp Fire, which deeply impacted the town of Paradise, CA three years ago this week. Their research explores how homes are arranged and built, and how these factors can impact their susceptibility to ignition during wildfires. This is an essential conversation on home resilience, defensible space and what factors contribute to home ignitions in wildfires. Call it "Building in The WUI 101," if you will, but you won't want to miss the invaluable insight, tips and lessons learned from Knapp and Valochovic's extensive research and work in the aftermath of the Camp Fire.
To hear more from Zeke, check out Life with Fire Episode 14. More of his work with The Lookout can be found here: https://the-lookout.org/
The paper authored by Valochovic and Knapp and referenced throughout this episode can be found here: https://fireecology.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s42408-021-00117-0
Knapp and Valochovic are both members of the California Fire Science Consortium. More information on this organization can be found here.
To support Life with Fire podcast, consider donating to our Patreon, which can be found here: www.patreon.com/lifewithfirepod
39 min
November 08, 2021 All Things Cultural Burning with Karuk Tribal Member Bill Tripp
In this episode, we explore one of the topics that is most requested by Life with Fire listeners—cultural burning. We spoke with Karuk tribal member Bill Tripp about his early experiences of cultural burning, and how those experiences reflect in his current work as Director of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy for the Karuk Tribe. We spoke at length about California's Senate Bill 332 (which was signed into law by Gavin Newsom just after Bill and I spoke back in September) and how it would benefit cultural burning practices, as well as how the Karuk Tribe is engaging its youth to return to traditional tribal practices like burning.
Information about California Senate Bill 332 and what it means for cultural burners can be found here: https://www.siskiyoudaily.com/story/news/2021/09/16/these-two-new-california-bills-help-tribes-complete-prescribed-burn-projects/8363483002/
For those interested in donating to the podcast, the Life with Fire Patreon can be found here: https://www.patreon.com/lifewithfirepod
48 min
September 03, 2021 Building a Community of Land Stewards, With Sasha Berleman
In this episode we speak with Sasha Berleman, who has a whole lot of irons in the...prescribed fire?
Sasha has a doctorate from UC Berkeley, is the founder and director of the Fire Forward Program through Audubon Canyon Ranch, is a founding member of the Bay Area Prescribed Fire Council and much, much more. Oh, and a former hotshot. We've wanted to get Sasha on the show for a while now, and we were excited to talk about her community work and dedication of building up land stewards, regardless of their backgrounds.
You can see more about Sasha on her website, https://www.firepoppyconsulting.com/, or by following her on social media (@thefirepoppy).
27 min
August 23, 2021 Scientists Respond to the New "All Fires Out," Forest Service Directive, With Matt Hurteau
In this episode, we explore the new Forest Service directive requiring all new fire starts to be suppressed immediately. Fire scientist Matt Hurteau is our guide on this journey, as he discusses the directive itself, as well as the precedent it sets and its widespread criticism. He and dozens of other fire scientists voiced these criticisms in a letter to Forest Service Chief Randy Moore, which can be found here: http://www.hurteaulab.org/.../chief_moore_letter...
To follow Life with Fire, check out our Instagram (@lifewithfirepod) or our Twitter (@lwf_pod). To support our Patreon, please visit www.patreon.com/lifewithfirepod.
18 min
August 13, 2021 Exploring Fire Impacts on Wildlife with Kendall Calhoun
After a bit of a fire-season-chaos break, we're back with an episode on probably our most requested topic—how wildfires impact animals.
For this episode, we brought on Kendall Calhoun, who is pursuing a PhD at US Berkeley and does a majority of his research on how shifting fire regimes in California are impacting native wildlife species. Kendall studies how certain species like deer and coyotes have adapted to wildfire and how they continue to adapt to fires that burn more severely and more frequently than historical norms. His field work is done primarily in Northern California, and he has a particular love of/interest in the oak woodland ecosystems in the region. Above that, Kendall has a clear passion for this work which is reflected in his energy while talking about it.
Check out our social media channels for nerdy wildfire content as well as insights from fire practitioners, fire organizations and scientists in the wildfire space:
Life with Fire Twitter: https://twitter.com/lwf_pod
Life with Fire Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifewithfirepod/
To support Life with Fire, check out our Patreon and consider donating if you're able:
https://www.patreon.com/lifewithfirepod
Thanks as always for listening, sharing, subscribing and reviewing the podcast! We greatly appreciate your support.
30 min
July 21, 2021 Land Use Series Episode Two: Resilient and Sustainable Development, with Liz Foster and Molly McCabe
Liz Foster and Molly McCabe join us in this episode—the second of our Land Use and Resilience Series—to talk about fire-resilient communities and infrastructure, including the inherent inequities of disaster prevention, preparation, response and recovery.
Liz is the former senior manager of Urban Resilience at the Urban Land Institute, which explores the wildland urban interface resilience to disasters like wildfires. Molly McCabe is owner of HaydenTanner, where she works in real estate finance and property development with an eye to sustainability and disaster resilience.
This episode is chock full of great insights about hardening our communities to the threat of destructive wildfires, from two women who have been working in and thinking about disaster resilience for decades. This episode is a must-listen if you’re interested in learning more about the dynamic web of issues related to disaster-resilient communities, including wildfire insurance, adapting energy and transportation infrastructure for wildfires and the inequitable impacts of wildfires on vulnerable communities.
For more on this topic, the Firebreak Report that is referenced in this episode provides a well of information about community resilience. Check it out here: https://knowledge.uli.org/-/media/files/research-reports/2020/firebreak-final-jan-2021.pdf?rev=b8e2429cc49a41dea506741bb9914bf4&hash=F6E84C4932B984965C9F5192C2557E5F
1 hr 4 min
July 08, 2021 Land Use Mini-Series: Planning Developments for Fire Resilience with Molly Mowery
For the first episode of our mini-series on land use planning for fire resilience, we spoke with Molly Mowery about her background as a land use planner with a specific interest in preparing communities for wildfires, as well as about her work with the Community Planning Assistance for Wildfire program. Listen in for some perspectives on community wildfire resilience, and stay tuned for the rest of the mini series, which will include interviews with other planners, builders and architects.
As always, you can follow us on Twitter at @lwf_pod, or on Instagram at @lifewithfirepod. For those interested in supporting the podcast financially, our Patreon can be found at https://www.patreon.com/lifewithfirepod.
28 min
June 21, 2021 Wildfire Technology, Trauma and Other Tidbits, With Zeke Lunder
In this episode we spoke with Zeke Lunder, a pyrogeographer with a background in GIS and mapping on wildfires, and more recently with helping out on prescribed burns all over the West. We spoke about how the advancement of mapping and technology for use in fire suppression is misguided—and how those tech solutions would be better used as a way to get more prescribed fire on the ground. Zeke is from Chico, California, so we also spoke about the impacts of the Camp Fire and the North Complex/Bear Fire on his community, and how repetitive large fires re-traumatize communities like his.
You can check us out on Twitter at @lwf_pod, or on Instagram at @lifewithfirepod. And as promised in the episode, here is the link for our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lifewithfirepod.
Thanks for all of your continued support, shares, subscribes etc—every little bit of listener support helps us and our goal of educating folks about wildfires!
49 min