We Can Do Hard Things with Glennon Doyle - LA Fires: Jessica Yellin Reports From Glennon’s Home

Episode Date: January 14, 2025

376. LA Fires: Jessica Yellin Reports From Glennon’s Home Jessica Yellin was forced to evacuate the LA Fires, and is sheltering at Glennon and Abby’s home. She sits down with Glennon and Amanda to report what is really going on with the wildfires raging across Los Angeles.   -Why there wasn’t enough water to fight the Palisades Fire  -How to decide what to put in your “go bag” and how Jessica packed up her house to evacuate  -Misinformation and lapses of leadership and what LA needs right now from its leaders -The connection between the fire and climate change -Reputable places you can put your resources to help the people of Los Angeles Also, please email us to let us know whether you’d like us to do a recurring News Not Noise segment on the pod with Jessica. Write to us at [e-mail].  Ways to Help:  LA Fire Foundation: https://supportlafd.org/ Help Altadena Families: spreadsheet curated by @mspackyetti: HERE Jessica Yellin is the founder of News Not Noise, a pioneering Webby award-winning independent news brand. Over 1M+ subscribers and followers across Instagram and other digital media rely on Jessica and News Not Noise to understand what matters, which experts to trust, and to manage their “information overload.” She is the former chief White House correspondent for CNN and an Emmy and Gracie Award-winning political correspondent for ABC, MSNBC and CNN. Follow her on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @JessicaYellin. You can also find the News Not Noise Newsletter on Substack HERE. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey everybody, we're getting through, aren't we? That's what we're doing. One foot in front of the other, 2025 is looking like it might be a real doozy. And we are in it with you and we're here for you and with you. Recently our show was selected by Apple as one of their 10 shows we love. And they called it a comforting support system for braving the everyday. And that is what we hope.

We hope that we can help you brave the everyday. That's what you help us do. And so on Sundays, we are publishing an episode for you, one of our favorite episodes of the past four years that we've selected to be a comforting support system for all of us as we brave this new year. So in addition to our new Tuesday, Thursday episodes and the ones that we're posting on Wednesday as well,

please come on Sunday for some togetherness, some support, some soothing Sunday togetherness for 2025. Thank you. We will see you there. Welcome to We Can Do Hard Things. You are now hearing a special episode that we just decided to do last minute because although we asked 2025 to bring us more easy things, 2025 has thus had different ideas and we are in the middle of a very, very hard thing, which is the fires that have been just raging through Los Angeles. And we are reporting to you from outside of Los Angeles in a place where I live and Abby lives that is pretty much sheltered from the fires, but close. So the town that I live in has become,

all we've done all day, every day is watch and listen and field texts and calls from every friend we have, many of whom have lost their homes, many of whom don't know where to go. The outskirts of LA towns are filled with people like us who have been just trying to welcome people that need a place to stay. The streets are full of cars of people we don't know.

The homes are open, there's a lot of beauty, and there's a lot of terror. So my dear friend, Jessica Yellen, is sitting with me right now. We are in our home. We are in our office slash Chase's room slash now Jessica and Bruno's room. Thank you. Because Jessica is, well, can you explain, the Pod Squad knows Jessica Yellen. Okay, can you explain, the Pod Squad knows Jessica Yellen, okay? Jessica Yellen, let me just read your formal bio so we can get this down,

even though they already know you well. Jessica Yellen, our dear friend, is the founder of News Not Noise, a pioneering Webby award-winning independent news brand. Over one million subscribers and followers across IG and other digital media rely on Jessica and News Not Noise to understand what matters, which experts to trust, and to manage their information overload. She is the former chief White House correspondent for CNN and an Emmy

and Gracie award-winning political correspondent for ABC, MSNBC, and CNN. You can follow her on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook at Jessica Yellen. You can also find the News Not Noise newsletter on Substack. I can't believe that Bruno is- Now, could you do Bruno's bio really quick? I know, I can't. So everyone knows who Bruno is. I can't believe that Bruno is not in your bio.

That is, I'm not, you want me to, I'm not gonna- Yeah, what would you add? I would tell him. I mean, mother of, well, he happens to be, he's a multipoo. So he's like 0.5 pounds maybe, right? Gained a little bit of since this fire. Yes. Yes.

Yeah. Well, we've been stress eating. Yes. Exactly. He's completely attached to Jessica. When she stands up and leaves the room, he gets very stressed and starts circling. He is a beta, I would say, our French Bulldog Honey is an alpha and is being such a bitch and is not at all offering the welcoming and comforting environment that I am effing trying to provide refugees from Los Angeles.

It's like they walk in our house and we're like, welcome, and Honey's like, get the fuck out. It's really upsetting actually. Jessica had to kind of encourage me to calm down about it. Honey like wants to protect her place and y'all. I respect that. So rude. Anyway, OK. So Jessica, why don't we just start

with how we ended up together? Let's just take people back. Do you even remember? Like if it's been five days, it feels like it's been a month. I know it does. So, you know, what's interesting is I first became aware that we were in danger of a fire last Saturday,

like a week ago Saturday, because I was traveling home from my vacation and I got this weird alert on my phone from the county saying, um, extreme winds are headed to Los Angeles this Tuesday. And I can't remember if it said life threatening fire danger, but it had language like that. And I started looking around for other information and I couldn't find any. I was looking at the reports like, what these winds that are they said that where the winds what's the danger there was no more information after that until sometime late Tuesday morning when a fire broke out in the Palisades. So there was one morning where I just

started texting people because I knew okay our town's gonna be all right so just people that I one morning I texted you and said if you need to come, come. What day was that? I think it was Wednesday. Okay. So and then you said to me, no I'm good, we're okay. Uh-huh. And then six hours later I said, actually would it be okay if I came down? Yes. With Bruno. And I said absolutely and you're also gonna have my cousin, my cousin's husband, my cousin's three kids, my cousin's babysitter.

It was just like a house full of- Bruno's heaven. Yes. More dogs, more people, kids. He was in heaven. So at that point you came, you just got out fast. You did not bring much. Yeah, first I just wanna say such a deep and heartfelt

thank you to you and Abby. You've given me such an amazing welcome. I don't have enough want to say such a deep and heartfelt thank you to you and Abby. You've given me such an amazing welcome. I don't have enough gratitude to say, not just like a place to stay, but such a warm, safe, cozy environment. Thank you and loving. Makes me feel safe in a weird time. What happened is I have an uncle who has been running emergency rooms.

He's a doctor for decades. And he lives in a wildfire zone up in Northern California. And he reached out to me after you'd texted, like, I don't know, a couple hours later. And he's like, can I call you? And we had a conversation and he said, you know, I've lived in this area for a long time. You don't want to be the person who waits

until they give an evacuation order to leave because then you get stuck in crazy traffic. You don't know if your car breaks down, if you don't get gas, something. You want to get out ahead of it. If you think you might be in one of those zones, what's the harm? What's the harm in just packing and going? And I looked at the map and I was like, and I started working over in my mind through the day. And I was like, I should be smart. Because at that point, it was just, it, and I started working over in my mind through the day and I was like, I should be smart. Because at that point it was just, it had gone from Tuesday morning,

this terrible fire is in the mountains of Palisades to Wednesday, tons of people I know had lost their homes, entire neighborhoods were flattened, no authority was in charge, the mayor wasn't even in town at that time. It just felt like there was chaos. So I was like, yeah, I should just do the smart thing.

Jessica, has your, where you live, received an evacuation order as of now, or is it still pending where you actually are? So there's two categories. There's evacuation warning, which means pack up, be ready. And if you're smart, just go. And then there's evacuation order, which means drop everything, leave your house now, your life is in danger immediately. And that's when the authorities knock on your door and you have to get out.

I am not at order, but my place is at warning. So it's in the red zone. Jessica, let's imagine that a lot of people listening have no clue how LA works or what is happening right now. Let's just do a very quick version of what's going on. LA is a humongous city made up of a million different parts and neighborhoods and zones. And how would you describe this fire for dummies? Yeah. So LA is so vast.

Think of it almost more like a small state, the size of like Rhode Island and Delaware together. And so you have different pieces that are, you know, completely different topography, but right now what you have is this one big fire people keep hearing about the Palisades fire, which is by the beach. And let's just be straight to the point.

It's a wealthy community. It's got a lot of resources, and huge parts of it have burned to the ground. That fire is raging. It feels like it's a little contained, but it feels out of control because it's threatening additional communities in that very sort of wealthy part of town,

moving into them. A lot of celebrities there, et cetera. On the other side of town, further east in inland, is Altadena and Pasadena. And that has a more mixed makeup, socioeconomically and racially and all of that, a little more urban, and it's also out of control fire. I say that, I mean, the feeling of it feels out of control because we don't know what's gonna happen. I think it might be a little bit contained technically.

Those are the two main ones. And then there are these other smaller fires that they have more control over, but you know, the main thing that's happening is these crazy Santa Ana winds are coming in and blowing at very high rates. And even a little fire can suddenly turn into a conflagration. So you have to keep your eye on all of these. coming in and blowing at very high rates, and even a little fire can suddenly turn

into a conflagration. So you have to keep your eye on all of these, and they're dotted all across the region. I'd love to say something about these two fires and why those two. And I'm sure we'll talk more about what's happening, why is this happening. Both those beachside fire and the in-town fire

I talked about started in mountains, in areas where people live in nature, and those mountains have dried up lately. And so they raged in these wildish areas where there's residential building, and it got so much fuel there, it sort of raced from those mountains into the flatlands towns that surround them. And that's why you're seeing these two locations because there's so much mountainous fuel for these fires. Oh okay and there's been no rain in these parts of LA for six to seven months. Yeah. So this is all climate related. It's also, I think we have to talk about

what is being perceived by many as a complete failure of leadership. Now, I wanna be careful, we've talked so much about how to talk about this outwardly because there are moments for just the survival and the getting together and the focusing on the heroes, which we will do. But it is real. It is also the challenges that have come up because of lack of leadership or organized

leadership has now been taken as talking points by MAGA and the right, which is tricky. But as you and I have both said, there's parts of it that are real. So let's talk about, first let's talk about the devastation and then let's talk about the second terror, which we all have all experienced, which is how did this happen? Why was there not more preparation? Where is the leadership and why is the rollout

in such fuckery? That's totally, totally. Okay, so first of all, let's talk about who has lost what, like what has the loss been? Okay, can I back up for two seconds just to get people us setting the scene? California is largely desert, parts of it, and LA is built surrounded by desert. We ship in water, We have deals to get water brought in here. For the longest time, we had plenty of rainfall too that made it very livable. But in the last 15 years or so, we've gone through periods of extreme drought. I mean,

years where it got dry so that it became normal in Los Angeles for the mountains to look brown and dry and everything to look like scrub brush. Then in 2022 and 2023, we got these huge rains that came in. And all of a sudden Los Angeles looked like what it used to look like when I was a little kid. The mountains were green. There were trees with foliage. It was like, oh, this is LA, I remember. There were trees with foliage. It was like, oh, this is LA, I remember. And so we had this like lulling into complacency that, you know, this drought period was over. This year, 2024, that changed and the drought came back. We haven't really had rainfall since April. And those mountains have turned brown again. But what changed is that for those two years with the rain, there was all this new growth. So you had all this baby vegetation growing that then got very, very dry this year

because of the drought. And all that dried out vegetation turned into fuel for this fire, tinder. And so it's covered all those mountains we talked about, all over the region. And the duty on the part of officials and homeowners is to clear that vegetation, make sure it's not in your hillside area so it doesn't fuel fire. That didn't happen. So LA is covered. I mean, there are spots where

some responsible homeowners did, but largely not. And so that is provided like made this a tinderbox I mean, there are spots where some responsible homeowners did, but largely not. And so that is provided like made this a tinderbox. On top of it, we get these unusual winds, Santa Ana, that blow in from the desert. And they're meaningful because they're very dry. They have no moisture in them. So they further dry out that vegetation. And on top of it, for whatever reason, it never happens. We got Santa Ana

is moving 50 to 100 miles an hour. That is faster than some hurricanes. So we got essentially a dry hurricane. And when I said at the beginning, I got this notice that we're going to have life threatening winds with fire danger. That's what they're talking about. We're getting a dry hurricane inside a drought situation in a kind of desert area where if someone lights a match, the things could all blow up, right? And it happened. So the questions now are like, who was responsible for not clearing that brush? Why was there not better preparation to acknowledge the kind of reality we're living in. So the first place where we had to go to your question now, the devastation was the Palisades.

And it hit this part of the Palisades, which is there's this mountain bluff that overlooks the ocean, where it's just beautiful homes with views. But it has a lot of that dry vegetation. It raced through there so fast that people that I know were trapped at the top of the mountain with fire ringing the mountain at the bottom, they're up there with their kids and pets and couldn't get out of their houses. One road down, how do we get out? So that all caught on fire and entire blocks and blocks are gone. Then it raced down from there into the town.

There's a town down at the bottom, and just, it was old town, like little small businesses that had been there for my whole life. And just, it looks flattened, gone, power down. You know, you've seen pictures, it's wild looking. There were complaints that the fire hydrants stopped working and that they didn't have enough warning to get out. We can talk about why the fire hydrants stopped working and that they didn't have enough warning to get out. We can talk about why the fire hydrants stopped working. It's much more complicated than what they said it has to do with water pressure and urban fires don't usually burn for days because of those high, high winds, which are also pushing the fire real time, right? We couldn't put helicopters up in the sky because

it's not safe for the pilots. We couldn't put helicopters up in the sky because it's not safe for the pilots. We couldn't put planes up. And the firefighters say with a fire like this, you need aerial firefighting. You can't fight it by ground. So they were all doing their best, pulling all this water from the same sources. It pulled out so much water

that it didn't allow adequate water pressure to fill the hydrants back up. So they say it wasn't that the hydrants didn't allow adequate water pressure to fill the hydrants back up. So they say it wasn't that the hydrants didn't have the water, they didn't have the system that pushes the water up was too strained to do its job. So there's this whole fight about where the fire hydrants not working and it's not about that, it's about physics, right? And the question is like, maybe given climate change, we should not be relying on fire hydrants. Right. Get back to that. Then over and out to Dina, another fire breaks out. Well, now you have all these resources already deployed in the mountainous canyons of

palisades that can't get over to the other side of town. And the other side of town is burning up and on fire too. And it's just draining the resources from both sides. Similar thing, mountainous terrain, vegetation that's dry races into town. The difference is that's a much younger, more diverse community. Don't get me wrong, some beautiful homes and old, old restaurants and like just such an important part of LA also burns through the town and it's still raging now. What are people saying about the origins of these fires?

I know they're not all the same, but how are they starting to the best of your knowledge? So the Palisades fire, we don't know. There's all this talk that it was somebody doing something in their backyard. I don't have any knowledge. I do know that in some cases, embers can jump to a nearby location and start a fire, but the fires we're seeing are not close. Like I should also note that as of recording,

I think there are like five active fires, right? And then many, many little ones that they're putting out all the time. And there's a lot of talk and even, you know, some real evidence that there's arson. Yeah. And we don't know, is it just jerks or is there some sort of motivation behind it? But there's clearly the level of difficulty for Los Angeles's leadership. It's sort of a nightmare scenario where they're fighting fires. now there's looting going on. They have to keep people safe.

People are dressing as firefighters and going into homes to steal stuff. And there are arsons happening in crazy spots all over, like as far away as you can think. How do you fight all this at once? Yeah. God. Okay. So why, before we move on from the political stuff, why is everyone mad at Karen Bass? So I'm gonna say there's a couple things. I mean, who is Karen Bass? Oh, the mayor of LA.

And I'll say there was a very brutal, like very politically divisive mayoral race that happened not long ago between Rick Caruso, who's a very successful accomplished real estate developer in Los Angeles, who also owns the fanciest mall in the Pacific Palisades, the area that just burned. And it is one of the only structures that remains standing. And that is because he took extra efforts to protect the buildings, deploying fire retardant

systems. I don't know what, there's maybe other things. And so there's sort of combo respect that his stuff standing and questions like, if you could do that for your mall, how about everything else? There's a lot of back and forth. Karen Bass is a long time member of Congress,

served in the California legislature. Black woman was on the short list to be Biden's vice president when that was being decided. She won, but it was very again divisive in LA. And there were a lot of people who are still team Caruso. And so I told you I got that warning alert last Saturday, fires life threatening danger winds. That apparently LA was warned of that the Thursday prior to when I got the notice.

I got that notice on Saturday, it went out to the public. That Saturday, Bass, the mayor got on a plane and flew to Ghana in Africa for a ceremony for the new president of Ghana as part of an official delegation that the White House asked her to join. So she was out of town. The fire started Tuesday. They said she was flying back, but she did not get back. Remember I said the fire raced through Palisades, burned down the Palisades, raced through Altadena, burned down Altadena. She still was not back. Remember I said the fire raced through Palisades, burned down the Palisades, raced through Altadena, burned down Altadena. She still was not back. And she got back like Wednesday

afternoon or evening. Obviously like, yes, she's saying I can deal from afar, blah, blah, blah, and all those things. But what we lacked then, and I think still lack today, is sort of a commanding central voice doing, you know, a daily clear press conference telling us, here are the assets deployed, here are the regions burning, here is our plan to tackle it. They are doing press conferences. Yes, they are.

But I just like, am I allowed to say curse words here? Oh, it's encouraged. Okay, she's not working. No encouraged. Okay, she's not working. No. You know, it's not working. Like, I told you my thing is in the fire warning zone. I'm not getting, I signed up for every alert there is. I stopped getting official alerts from the city and county like 48 or 72 hours ago.

Yeah. And what we should tell the pod squad also is that not only is Jessica not getting what she needs to get, although she had to go back home to her house yesterday and take what she wanted to keep, which I want to get to that experience for you. But the emergency evacuation system continuously sends out false alarms. false alarms. So I'm sitting in my house with the kids having just, you know, spending most of my day explaining to them why it's not coming to us and why it's okay and why they're okay and telling them facts. And then our phones blow up with a sound that is even louder than like what you'd get on an Amber alert. It's so scary and jarring. And then a flash comes up that says, your, I'm paraphrasing, but it says, your area is in danger.

Get in the car and leave now. And it's from LA County. So the first- To your entire family. To my entire family. So Emma's at school. She's texting me, mommy, mommy, you said it was, are you leaving?

What's happening? Tish is freaking out. He chases out of the country. Like they're all, and thousands of people get in their car in LA or get in, you know, people run. They go. The roads are packed again. People's nervous systems are, and 25 minutes later, systems are, and 25 minutes later, there's something that says that was an accident. Now please understand that this has happened what, three or four times? Like it keeps happening. At least. And so, yes.

To you specifically? Yes. Or is this just around the nose? Yes. It's everyone. All these people are getting false leave notices, but people who are in the evacuation or like warning zones are not getting some notices. It's just food. Also, it's a classic cry wolf case. Like if you get for the fifth time,

you must evacuate now. You're going to be like, forget it. It's not anything. And like, how do you know when you really need to? And they keep having these press conferences where some poor guy who, I mean, as someone who can't even get my microwave to work, I do actually have a little bit of like sympathy about this because I can't freaking imagine sending like the first time I was like imagining this room with an intern where they're like, God damn it, Sheila, we told you to save it and track. Sheila, Jesus, we're not writing you a rec for Yale, Sheila.

But now I'm like, okay, no, like there has to be a button. Like, can you press off at least? Can you just press stop? And it's a mess. It's a mess. I mean, I wonder if they're being hacked because they did say it's an IT problem. Like it's not a person hitting a button.

Something in the system is doing it and they're trying to get to the bottom of it. But it's just, it's foobar. It's just like what- That means fucked up beyond all repair, by the bottom of it. But it's just, it's foobar. It's just like what? That means fucked up beyond all repair, by the way, folks. Yeah. And I will say, I just want to give a shout out to, I don't know who this person is,

but I've appreciated her very much in the press conferences because honestly, everyone feels a little, you want to get the feeling, even if it's fake, when you're scared for your entire city and everything's burning down, that someone has a plan and you want a sense of authority and you want a sense of like, truly, we all know that's all fake, but please give it to us. Give us the fake version of this. There's none of that. It's very, everyone in the meeting seemed

very disembodied and confused except for this one woman named Lindsay something. Lindsay Hargraf. Yes. Anyway, I don't know who she is, but shout out to Lindsay. I'm only watching you. You're amazing. I mean, we do. This is one of the reasons like Rick Caruso is talking about a minute ago is getting all this love because he's just going on air and talking and talking about like, here's what we need to do. Here's what should have happened, blah, blah, blah. It's very, you know, like he's a criticized the mayor and he's criticized, but he's projecting a sense of authority. And there's just this hunger for that, whether people like actually like the politics or not, they're just drawn to some sort of clear message.

That's why I feel like when New Orleans went through Katrina, they brought in, do you remember Russell Honore? He was this guy with this old drow, and he had been in the army for years, running the Army Corps of Engineers, which is all about getting stuff to the front lines of a war. And they brought him into New Orleans to get stuff to the front lines of hurricane response.

And I think we need somebody who's done response before to just take leadership here. Yeah. There are makeshift shelters and there are people. It's a tricky time right now. And I want to say that Jessica and I are being very intentional about not putting out ideas that are actually might end up hurting the city.

So this is going to be a very long process, months, years, and we will be telling people how and where to serve. But right now we're kind of in a careful, intentional holding pattern on that because some of the help ends up getting in the way of even when it's just donations right now, like food, clothes, we just have to be careful about where we're sending people's love. But it's the beauty of people showing up for each other and helping and opening up their homes and people in parking lots making breakfast burritos for hundreds and hundreds of people and people showing up with all of their

clothes from their closets and just feeding each other, letting strangers in their homes. It's just, there's a lot of, there's as much beauty as there is brutal happening right now in LA. And I, for the first time, have started to love LA. Oh, that makes me so happy. I mean, I was telling Chase on the phone the other night, like I just, sometimes I guess it's

when bad stuff happens that you start to feel like, oh no, this is my place. And even though the wild stuff, like I don't watch the news. And so I'm watching local news for the first time for days and days. And I told Jessica, y'all, LA is hilarious. Every person who gets stopped on the street, these people are evacuating their houses.

They are in the most traumatic moment of their life. And when that camera goes on, they are on message. They are eyes in the camera. They are in the most traumatic moment of their life. And when that camera goes on, they are on message. They are eyes in the camera. They are camera ready. It's like a casting call. They are pitching their podcast. Like LA is ready for the camera, no matter how much trauma you're in.

Secondly, I was listening to this woman who had just gone into a parking lot and started feeding people. So beautiful. I could not stop crying. She goes, and I just need everyone to know we have vegan options. And I thought... Gluten-free shelters. I thought we will be reduced to tears, but we will not be reduced to gluten.

No, not in LA. Doggy Prozac at our shelter. I know it's amazing. And the firefighters, I mean, that is a whole, they are day in, day out, just, I mean, if you've seen on the news, you can see what they're up against. I mean, shout out to, first of all, the local news, I think has been exceptional. We are in an information black hole. I have been very disappointed in the lack of communication from city and county officials. But the news has so stepped up, and it's just a reminder.

They are on 24-7, and local news isn't used to that. They have brought in reporters from across the country. There are Connecticut reporters here, and Telemundo reporters reporting in English and then going into Spanish. And it's just like, you see what a public service the news is. And then the firefighters, the thing we all forget, I've covered fires, is it's really hot.

Like, it seems so obvious, but when you're in a fire, it's really hot and hard to breathe. And you're wearing all this gear and your face is covered. And so in addition to like putting their lives on the line and working like around the clock, some of their own houses have burned down and they're out there and they haven't seen their families. Your body feels like it's failing for days on end. And they've just done the impossible. Like I can't imagine how scary it is. We've also gotten so many resources from Canada sent these water scooping planes in. Mexico sent firefighters in. They've come

from Oregon and across the country, Texas even. You know, California and Texas have this rivalry. Doesn't matter emergency, they're here for us. And it's just really beautiful when people who are in public service step up and we get to see the great work they're doing. And it's just like everybody pulling for one another. There's so much misinformation about it too. It really breaks my heart. But just know if you're seeing that online, nobody is being blocked from getting in because of environmental regulations. That's a full up, full lie. There's just, it is beautiful here and ignore the crazy stuff you're seeing online about that. Yeah. Oh great. What is the plan? If you were, if it is only last I saw it said like one

of the fires was 11% contained and the rest were like eight and under or zero. What changes that? Like how is it going to go down? How and when are these going to stop? Because I keep like looking at the map and being like, what's gonna prevent this from just eating up the rest of Southern California? That is right and a scary question.

I mean, there's, I'm just gonna say the scary thing. So we have like a frame, which is people are saying, is this just gonna burn all of LA? Like LA proper, not where we are. You can reassure your kids we're not in LA. That's all Jessica's been doing is reassuring my particular children. But they've held the line and that's just the fear, right?

What we have to watch for, we're recording this, should I say Sunday, so things will change. For the last 12 or so hours prior to recording this, we had a break in the winds and they were able to build fire lines, which are these, they create a separate fire and then when they control that, it's usually can work to stop, hold the fire back. It doesn't go further than that line. And because of the break in the winds, they were able to defend multiple communities. And that's when they, I mean, you just saw how the excellence of these fire teams. Also, the break in the winds means you can put the planes in the air. So, we've seen nothing but all. You see Chinook helicopters, you see firefighting planes, like everything. So, that allowed them to

really get a hold on it. And while it's weird, they say it's not contained, but we are holding the line. I'm not a fire expert. I need to learn. So, there's something in between, quote, containment and actually being able to sort of manage where it's going. The winds have picked up and they're forecasted to pick up again today into tomorrow and then Tuesday into Wednesday and then blah, blah, blah. So, what we need is for these Santa Annas to stop and for the universe to smile on us and bring us some rain. But to answer your question, that is the question.

Like everyone is scared about that. And to be relying on the wind is a terrifying, confusing place to be. And then there's further back questions too, bigger questions of like, everyone's saying, how will we rebuild? But there's people saying, should we be rebuilding? The earth is telling us this is not habitable.

There's big questions. Very big questions. Existential, like land, planet questions here, which is important to ask. It is also important, I know for me personally, to not only live in our heads about this, but to like witness the pain and the fear and the loss of these families. There's the macro and there's the micro happening

to thousands and thousands of children, parents, you know, families that have, and I was just watching a lot about Altadena and families who bought their houses 30 years ago, black families who moved to Altadena because of zoning, because of redlining, because that was the only place they were allowed to have homes and who built homes with the purpose of creating generational wealth

for their families there and have raised generations there. And now likely, I mean, I'm not a real estate expert, but I know enough to know how are they going to rebuy there? Like how? They're going to be priced out. Like everything's going to get scarce. And so it's utterly devastating what has happened. There's also, you still have to pay your mortgage on your burned down house. What? And taxes on your burned down house. Now they'll reassess the value,

but so those homeowners still have to pay for the home while also paying for their new living situation and remediation. So you are gonna get foreclosed on your burned down home. Yes, and people have to know, keep paying your mortgage if you can afford to or contact your bank so that doesn't happen. I'm sorry to say.

It's true. And when you're also, when you're seeing the news, a lot of these neighborhoods are very wealthy people. Far from all. Every socioeconomic group has been hit by this fire. So let us please, I mean, look, we shouldn't be dismissive of rich people either, but let's not be dismissive in general. Like this is all kinds of people.

There's also beach vibe in the Palisades where yeah, there's like beautiful new homes, but there's like surfer dudes and folks who've lived there also for 30, 40 years and they can't afford to rebuild. I have a friend who had to end up as a renter and is like, she has a GoFundMe now. You know, and she looks like the profile of somebody who wouldn't need that. So you don't know people's situation and this really, it's just, and I'll say, I also have covered so many kinds of disasters, floods and hurricanes and whatever.

There's something about a fire that's so unusual because it's like, there's this place that stood for comfort and security and your personal history is just ash. It's like in a flood, you can see what happened to your, you can see the devastation. But here it's a cognitive challenge. It's just gone. It's like there is no body.

It's like you're mourning the thing that doesn't exist anymore. Exactly. Thank you, S.Lawson. From all people, this is an unlikely source, but I thought John Mayer put out a beautiful thing. And we were like, I was like, listen to it. John Mayer said, I'm like, what? This is a weird time. Words I never thought I'd put out a beautiful thing. And we were like, I was like, listen to what John Mayer said.

I'm like, what? This is a weird time. Words I never thought I'd hear. Listen to what John Mayer said. Yeah, but I mean, no offense to John Mayer, but you know, we've heard some things, okay? Anyway, he wrote this beautiful thing about how everyone's saying, it's just things,

it's just things. But he was saying, it's the loss of life that's devastating us, but it's also the proof of life. The eyeglasses, the greeting, like all the things that you keep to prove that people you loved existed, and it's just gone. So, you know, it's not just things, it's hearts and memories and love

and pasts just disintegrated. It's your tethering to the world. Yeah. Like I was trying to think about, oh my dear God, if my house burned down and everything that I've built and everything that I've loved and every little treasure and trinket and memory, that is one catastrophic, unimaginable thing.

And then I was trying to think of that, plus my neighbor's houses, my community center, my kid's school, my church, my place we play basketball, my place where we go on the swings. Like there isn't even your entire attachment to the earth is gone. And there's not a like, oh, I can rebuild my house, even if you're lucky enough to, which we should talk about the myth of the insurance payment that's coming to you. It's like, what am I even rebuilding in?

I'm not rebuilding in my community. My community is gone. I know. Who knows who's gonna come back? Yeah, and it's also like the idea of usually the way community works is everyone's not in crisis at the same time. So your neighbor loses something, has a loss,

you all come together and then you take turns. But when the entire community is decimated, that is a whole different paradigm. I will say on a hopeful note, I spoke to somebody who is in this exact situation and every neighbor of hers has lost their house and her community's burned down, schools, church, everything. She said, and they're all on a WhatsApp group

and they're all in touch all day and night. Who needs a thing? I have a thing. Where are you? And they've some are out of state, some are out of the region and they've stayed connected as a community. And so I'm hearing all sorts of stories like that. We're seeing wildlife.

I didn't even process as in LA running into the city and people are finding ways to take them to shelters and get them back and so there's into their habitats or get them to safety. There's this video going around of all these wild goats that are. Oh, yeah, I've seen the goats. So all these things we've talked about, how we need to reconnect with one another, we need to reconnect with the land. You see small ways where people are doing that in this moment. And so I think there's this counter energy that's also

happening where people are saying, I'm going to show up for you. We're going to get through this. But we are still in the shock phase. Like there's a numbing quality. You said people are dissociated in the pressers. That's how it feels. Everyone's dissociated. Like they're reading things they're they're not. Yes, it feels terror has dissociated in the leaders. I feel like it's worth saying, like when you're in here watching local news as we've been doing and we see these images, you see this fire marching across these mountains in like, it feels it looks biblical to me. I don't know what else to say.

And you're like football fields per second. Just like, shoo, shoo, shoo. And it's this orange fire moving in across the mountains that you've like watched and the, you know, that you live in, your kids have played soccer there, you've gone for hikes. And they're like, we don't know if it's gonna turn left into the Brentwood area, we don't know if it's gonna go up into San Fernando and everybody. And so it's this constant re-trauma

and you're riveted to watch it. And then you're like, is it gonna be me? Is it gonna be my friend? Is it going to be... I don't know how else to convey the sense of terror and panic and anxiety people are living with. A friend of mine said to me, because we keep checking in, like how you doing, how you doing? She's like, just reach out if things get weird. And I'm like, did they get weirder? I think we're past that, ma'am. I feel like things are weird. Things get weird. And I'm like, could they get weirder? I think we're past that, ma'am. I feel like things are weird. Things are weird.

I was thinking about my friend Adrienne Marie Brown, who does beautiful social justice work and her lens is very environmental and like Octavia Butler vibes. And she like a year ago was talking about climate change and all that's coming and preparedness for that. And she was talking to me about like the importance of building scrappy, real, we've got each other community and the importance of always being ready. Like ready with your bag, ready with your go stuff. That those things will become essential as the climate changes and these things continue to happen.

And I do remember, I trust everything Adrienne says, but even I at the moment was like, okay. You mean like metaphorically, right? Yeah, like I'm making my heart, my bag in my heart. I am telling you that I understand if you're not living in LA or you haven't, that this might sound alarmist. I am now experiencing it. People have nowhere to go. People only have somewhere to go if they have family, community, friends, people who are

like, come to my house now. Yeah. Jessica yesterday had to go to her house. There was a break in winds. So she drove back to her home to get out what she could get out. And we were standing in the kitchen before she left, just looking at each other like, what do you get? What do you leave? Isn't this something we should know intuitively?

Like, why are we so confused? What memories do you take? Can you talk to us a little bit about what that experience was like going back to your house and how you made decisions about what to take? Yeah, it's weird. You go into this like mindset where you're kind of, feel like your mind's not fully connected. It wasn't exactly dissociated. It was like, I'm having a hard time focusing feeling. And there were some things I just knew. It's kind of amazing in that moment when you're like,

why do I have all this stuff? I don't care about that. I don't care about that. I don't care about what is all this stuff feeling. I should just, if I survive, I'm going to dump all this stuff. And then you're like, these things I know I want. Objects, or my dad died 20 plus years ago and I was like handwriting from him.

But then there are things where you're like, I couldn't decide. or my dad died 20 plus years ago and I was like handwriting from him. But then there are things where you're like, I couldn't decide and you know, something my dad gave me but it's not that special to me or clothing, like what clothing, I don't remember what clothing I need. And then especially documents and valuable, like they say, take your important documents.

I'm like, what are my important documents? Yes, everything's digital, right? No. Yes. What do I need? Like, you know, and then I'm like, whatever I don't get is going to be the thing I needed. I told you I have these two lamps that have been by my bed that I think of as my sentries that protect me. And I'm like, I can't take them. There's no room in the car. And that was really like, am I unprotected if I leave them? And then I had this very, one moment where I was like, okay, I decided, I said in advance, I'm going to pack everything. I'm going to do it in stages, one room at a time, only the things that are essential.

And when I'm done with that room, I'm not going back. And I'm only going to pack and I'm not going to move anything till it's packed. So I know how to do things. And so I was like, everything's packed and now I'm going to take it to the car and then I couldn't find my keys. And I was like, where's my key? And I searched and I, you know that thing where you've looked everywhere four times and you're like, it's in a bag somewhere. I'm going to have to go through every bag. Oh my God, what if a fire is coming? I'm not getting alerts. I can't, the TV, what? And I started freaking out and I really got a panic. And that was when I like kind of lost it for a minute. Fortunately, I was, you know, on CNN for years. I have a producer from CNN I worked with who was like my human

chill pill. And I called her and I was like, I lost my keys. The bags are packed. I don't know where they are. And she's like, dude, there's no fire threat. It could take you hours. You're fine. Let's sit on a couch and breathe. And I want you to start looking really slowly, like go much like yoga breaths. Let's go much more slowly than you need to. And within five minutes I found them. They were under a jacket on my bed.

Oh, bless her. I know. Carrie's the best. Oh, Carrie. Can Carrie do the press conferences? By the way, Carrie does communications now and she keeps saying, I just want somebody to get to Karen Bass with exactly what she needs to do. Carrie does want to do the press conferences.

Maybe we could have our own and just have Carrie do them. Oh my God. Okay, so Jessica and also we are recording this on Sunday and you guys are getting this on Tuesday. So we're just going to say we're expecting the winds to change on Monday. Things might be very different by the time that you get this. But right now, how would you describe where we are right now? It feels like we've had a reprieve and we don't know if it's the quiet before another big fire storm. Now I want to acknowledge that it's not a reprieve for thousands of people who are still in fire zones and the Eaton Palisades fire burning and people have lost so much. Whether

the rest of the city or where it's gonna burn is on hold right now. But I know people who have been warned that they're no longer able to access their homes in evacuation zones before police were escorting them in to get prescriptions they may have left are vitals. And they have police have said no more. It's not safe. And so they are anticipating with these winds coming back another increased risk. So we're kind of at the edge of our seats to see which way this thing's going to go next. Yes. Okay. We have been talking a lot, Jessica and I, first of all, I want to let the pod squad know that we will let you know as reliable information comes in about where to give.

But we do have two ideas right now. Do you want to tell them what your idea is? Sure. There's the LA Fire Foundation, which gets necessary equipment and resources to the fire department outside the city budget, which is an issue we didn't discuss, but there were cuts to the fire department budget that's become also a big scandal and controversy here. They need stuff and that helps them get them the stuff. And the vibe here is this is not Jessica condoned. I'm just going to say what I have been feeling

and seeing on people's faces is it feels like there's a rift between Karen Bass and the chief of fire, the chief of the fire department. The fire chief, yeah. That the fire chief actually said in a interview a couple of days ago that there has been a failure of leadership from Bass. And then there was like a rift and then there was like another press conference

right afterwards where it felt like they were trying to present a united front. But they both looked like, uh, unpleased. Yeah. I mean, united under duress. Yeah. Like I kept saying to Abby, do you think one of them is going to blink twice? Like it feels like they're not under their own free will in this conversation.

So something's going on. And some firefighters have said that they were asked to, like, prior to the fire, clear brush in their free time because there's no money for overtime. Like, stuff like that is getting around, and it's pretty, yeah, backed up. So it's, yeah, a problem. The autopsy will be interesting to see,

like, what has happened and why. There's also this creepy reality where a bunch of wealthy people are hiring their own private firefighting force. And yeah, that's going to be a huge thing. What do you think about that? It's just, it's weird. It's like, why aren't we paying that into the city budget to have everybody have the firefighting force? Like, it's just we need to rethink how these people are buying

into these territories that are like, you know, climate change is saying maybe we should be rethinking how we're where we're living and how we're building. And instead of doing that, you fight, how are your own firefighting force to protect your property but not the neighbors? Like it's, that's fucked up. Yeah, yeah, it really is. Oh God, it's like, well, it is, it's what you see in dystopian novels. It's like suddenly when the infrastructure feels

like it's breaking down, instead of all pitching in together, the people with the resources just protect themselves and themselves and themselves until it's just them left. It's upsetting. We also do hear stories of people who stayed to fight the fire on their own house and protected their neighbors. And the bright side, the death toll has been

unbelievably low so far. Shockingly. I mean, maybe we're gonna see that rise as they go in, but that is really underplayed. Only 16 people so far, like each of those is a life. But you'd imagine in conflagration like this, it would be higher. Yeah. You would think it would be hundreds at this point.

Like it's wild. That whole like private firefighter thing reminds me of that Native American proverb that only when the last tree has been cut down and the last fish has been caught and the last stream poisoned will we realize we cannot eat money. Yeah. It's like the idea we can continue to buy our own protection, buy our own protection, buy our own protection until it's like the whole moral of this is that we can't buy our own protection. We need to fix this. I know. That's one of the most frustrating things to me is for the people who are upset about this

and they're blaming only city leadership without understanding like, this is a climate crisis too. And we have to rethink our systems. And we need to exercise imagination and creativity about how we use water, our relationship to the land, et cetera. Even if the mayor had been here the whole time and all the alerts were working, that wasn't going to stop this from being devastating.

Yeah, and it really does seem like a call of like, will we step up together or not. Like it feels like the human race would, the whole project could explode and burn down literally while we're just pointing at each other. Like that is the vibe. I've been confused a lot over the last five days in terms of responding to how other people are responding and I feel and understand the anger. Absolutely. I don't even, I feel angry at people who aren't angry. So I get that, but there is a vibe of just immediate nastiness blame or like almost, it feels like profiteering,

like taking a moment and making your agenda. There's an ugliness that doesn't feel like righteous fury and doesn't feel like righteous rage. It feels like uncreative. Opportunistic. Yes, exactly. Whereas it really, I think the question is, this is an unprecedented moment of what are we gonna do

and not working together isn't working. So like we can either win or we can survive. I want to end by talking about something that Jessica and I have been. Well, well, well, first of all, I want to tell you that if Jessica gave you a resource to give to the firefighters, I also have been following my dear friend to give to the firefighters. I also have been following my dear friend who I trust with my life, Brittany Packnett Cunningham, and she has on her feeds been putting out a beautiful, well-curated collection of GoFundMe's from families from Altadena, which is that historically black neighborhood that we were discussing earlier. If that is interesting to you, go check out Brittany's feed. Her information can be trusted. And I love the

idea of getting funds directly to these families because the red tape after this situation with insurance and it is going to be a second wave of nightmare for all of these people. So do check that out too, if that's interesting to you. And Jessica and I have been spending hours and hours, not only just these last five days, but, or two days or 30 days. I don't know. Yeah, maybe. What is this?

Unclear. Unclear. But before that, you know, Jessica's, I don't, it's not job with you, it feels and looks like, it's just like a calling. It's a, how do you think, how do you describe what you do with the news? Like my work?

Yeah. I try to make it accessible to people who are either overwhelmed or panicked or don't have the time and curate what matters, put it in context and make it relatable to you. I think the news is, as I said, a public service, and it's essential to understand our world, especially as we're all, I mean, this proves it.

We're all impacted by our environments, what's outside our door. We have to be informed. And so how do we do that in a way that's less traumatizing than what legacy media has been doing that doesn't give you a panic attack every time? They compete for your anxiety. They focus on the negative.

They build up the conflict. And as we've been doing right here, we're not avoiding the negative stuff. We are very clear about what's difficult, but there's also empathy. There's also the human beautiful stories. And there's the bigger idea that we're within this climate idea.

What is that? How do you break it down? How do you make that understandable? Those are all part of what the news should be doing, and I often think legacy news fails at that. And so I'm trying to kind of innovate into that. How do we talk about the difficult stuff in ways that don't give you panic?

How do we talk about the big ideas in ways that are relatable to you so you can act within them and make decisions in your life? Yeah. And I guess for me, it feels like sometimes people have these callings that they are loyal to for years and years, and then they hone their craft. And even when people are telling them no,

and then there comes a moment where it is very clear why they've been preparing, why they've been relentless. Like there becomes a moment where it all makes sense and all the, I'm gonna probably start crying, but where I feel like you, fuck I miss my Alexa so much. Okay, so what I'm trying to say is that I have watched you for so long be so true to your calling even when it would have been easier

for you to stop, like because people have told you no, and you have still stayed true to the idea that no, it is very important that people get the news and it doesn't have to be done the way it's being done. It doesn't have to be an opportunity to sell shit. It doesn't have to be just an opportunity to get people fearful enough to become addicted and keep their attention, that there is a beauty to it and you've stayed true to it. And now it feels like Jessica, you know, right after this last election.

I don't think it's like admirable or valorous, like not something I like to talk about a lot, but I was like, fuck it, I'm out. Truly, to the news, to following things, I decided that for my own one wild and precious life, that I could not give my nervous system over to this system anymore every day. And so I just stopped because there is no safe place. And look, I felt I have tried to find it. I have tried to arrange things that maybe

if I just expose myself to this, to this, I have started to feel like I used to in my drinking days where I was like, okay, I'll just try a beer after five. Okay, I'll just have clear liquids. Okay, I'll just, you know, like. So I do think that a lot of us did that after the election. And I also think that there's this coming together

of what you do and exactly what is needed in this moment for so many of us, which is we don't wanna be checked out. We do wanna know what's going on with our world. We know we have to because of what we've talked about today, because we have families that we need to prepare for this world, because being completely clueless is a privilege that we shouldn't take, but we need someone that we can trust that is not

using us for their own means. And so here's what we're wondering, Pod Squad, this is what Jessica and I have been talking about the last 48 hours, and then I talked to sister about it yesterday, and we just all got excited about the possibility, like what if we just trust Jessica with this, like what if we don't like sorry but no to the cable like no to whatever is it we call it cable anymore what is the things

that we turn on our TV? The chaos rage circus. Yes. The people that you feel rage and chaos because that is the point because the more you feel like that the more you feel like the answer to that is there. That whole vibe. Yeah. So we're like, what if we just have, we beg Jessica to come to us on the, we can do hard things feed and give us the news that we need. Not in a ragey nervous system hijacking way, but in a way that makes us feel connected to others and that keeps us informed on this planet that we live in in a new fresh way.

And so we wanna know if you want that Pod Squad, because this isn't easy. Look, it sounds like we're just getting on and talking, but it actually is a lot of fricking work doing this podcast. So we only want to do it if you want it, right? Yes, yes. I'm so honored and flattered. That is the kindest. I can't, I'm sort of out of body as you're saying this. Thank you for your level of trust. I feel like deeply gratified. Like, I don't know what the right words are.

Well, I've seen it up close. It's not something I've experienced with you as a friend and watched how much you care and how devoted you are and how it's been in your mind and body for years and years. Like, people are just starting to talk about this now, like the news exodus, and now everybody and their mother has like this sort of vibe, but you were the first one to do it. And like, listen to me, pod squad. I have watched so many people kind of take your idea and switch it up, but you are the original and you are the one that should be pioneering this because you have been for so long. I get the tendency to be like, fuck it, it doesn't matter anyway.

We tried, blah, blah, blah. I'm not going to pay attention to that. But there really is a civic responsibility. You have responsibility to yourself as a person in this country with people you care about in this country to pay attention to what you need to pay attention to because that's your only chance to influence and be aware. And you also have a responsibility to yourself and to your mental health to take care

of that first responsibility in a way that is not taking years off your life. That's right. So this model that you're suggesting here, Glennon, is a very sane, responsible, self-respecting way to deal with that kind of dual responsibility. And I love it. Yeah.

So we'll see, you guys let us know. Write to us or, I don't know, how should they tell us? I really don't know how we should do this. You guys let us know. Write to us or I don't know how should they tell us. I really don't know how we should do this. This is all very... Tell us on social or email or call in. Do you have an appetite for this? Is this something that you would like? I mean, we're talking like, what just, what do I need to know this week? What actually happened? Because everyone's screaming at me and I don't actually know what happened. And my aunt Betty keeps posting about it. And I don't actually know what happened and my Aunt Betty keeps posting about it and I know that's not what happened.

747-205-307, 747-205-307 or WCDHT, that's the words where we can do our things, pod at gmail.com. All right. I would love it. Me too. So feel like I could, because I do feel, yes, that we have a responsibility, but people take that responsibility and then they switch it into their own, because truly the news is only rage-baity because they're selling shit. It's all just another, it's just about selling stuff. So it's like the need for faith. Like we want faith, but then we go to these places and then

they take it and then they use it to make money or whatever. So it's, it's the same old, same old. And I think it would be cool to do it in a new fresh way so we can get what we need and deserve and love in a way that is not opportunistic and taking advantage of us and ruining our lives. We also cover news that doesn't suck, which is news that inspires curiosity, creativity, hope, optimism, not fake happy stuff, but like scientific breakthroughs, medical breakthroughs, reminders that there's progress in our world still.

Good things. So I can promise some of that. That's part of survival right now. Like we cannot become shells of ourselves. We cannot allow it. Like we need all of the creativity and energy and love and life. We need it to make community, to solve problems. We don't get to give it all away every day by doing the same old things, by turning on the same shows, by giving our attention to the same old people. We have to be more intentional than that,

protect ourselves and each other. So anyway, let us know and we're gonna go, and we love you so much. We're gonna go get Bruno and Honey and Abby's upstairs having peace talks between them. Petting each of them on her separate sides. It's so cute. She's also a dog whisperer.

She is a dog whisperer. I did not know that. That was very impressive. She's an everything whisperer, that one. I can see that. Oh, God. Okay, we love you, Pod Squad. Please take care of each other.

We can do hard things. Yeah. Bye. Bye. We can do hard things. If this podcast means something to you, it would mean so much to us. If you'd be willing to take 30 seconds to do these three things. First, can you please follow or subscribe to We Can Do Hard Things? Following the pod helps you because you'll never miss an episode and pod helps you because you'll never miss an episode and it helps us because you'll never miss an episode.

To do this, just go to the We Can Do Hard Things show page on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Odyssey, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And then just tap the plus sign in the upper right-hand corner or click on follow. This is the most important thing for the pod. While you're there, if you'd be willing to give us a five star rating and review and share an episode you loved with a friend, we would be so grateful. We appreciate you very much.

We Can Do Hard Things is created and hosted by Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, and Amanda Doyle in partnership with Odyssey. Our executive producer is Jenna Wise Berman and the show is produced by Lauren LaGrasso, Alison Schott, Dina Kleiner and Bill Schultz.