Recovery Is Adaptation: Rebuilding After Wildfire

E261 - Recovery Is Adaptation: Rebuilding After Wildfire

Published: September 20, 2026

Duration: 1:32:56

In this special episode of America Adapts (261), host Doug Parsons explores an often-overlooked part of climate adaptation: what happens after disaster strikes. Through the recovery from the Los Angeles wildfires, Doug talks with disaster recovery experts, a community leader who survived the fires, and researchers examining remediation, rebuilding, worker safety, and the risks faced by immigrant workers involved in cleanup. The episode also looks to Christchurch, New Zealand, where more than fifteen years of earthquake recovery offers important lessons for the adaptation sector about recovery and renewal. The central argument: recovery is adaptation. How we clean up, protect people...