Cover for the Shaping Ash Podcast showing what remained of Talent Mobile Estates one year after the Almeda Fire burned through(Ro Ruikis)

"Shaping Ash" is a podcast series about the Almeda wildfire in 2020 that started in Ashland and tore through Talent, Phoenix and parts of Medford in southern Oregon, leaving devastation in its wake.

Through narration and interviews with survivors, including their grandmother and mother who both lost their homes, podcast creator Ro Ruikis tells the story of the destruction of close-knit community of Talent Mobile Estates. It happened in a flash. They recount the events of that day in 2020 when the Almeda Fire came to town, and the aftermath of heartache, loss, and dislocation.

Five years after the devasting fire Ruikis joins the Exchange to talk about their experience, the Shaping Ash project, and moving forward.

Ro Ruikis poses in front of a Dragon sculpture on I-5 near Yreka with Mt. Shasta in the background.( Photo courtesy of Ro Ruikis)