Los Angeles Is On Fire
What A Day
What A Day
4.8 • 166 Ratings
🗓️ 9 January 2025
⏱️ 24 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Los Angeles area is battling massive fires. At least five people have died, and more than 2,000 structures have either been damaged or destroyed so far. Tens of thousands of people remain under evacuation orders, including parts of the region that aren’t usually at immediate risk for fire damage. Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources’s Fire Network, breaks down how the fires were able to spread so fast.Â
Later in the show, Bob Corn-Revere, an attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, talks about the group’s defense of Iowa pollster Ann Selzer in a suit brought by President-elect Donald Trump.
And in headlines: World leaders pushed back against Trump’s threats to take over Greenland and the Panama Canal, the Justice Department asked a federal appeals court for permission to release part of the special counsel’s report on Jan. 6, and Las Vegas police said the man who blew up a Tesla Cybertruck on New Years Day used AI to plan his attack.
Show Notes:
- Support victims of the fire – votesaveamerica.com/relief
- Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8
- What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast
- Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/
- For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | It's Thursday, January 9th. I'm Josie Duffy Rice in for Jane Koston, and this is What a Day, |
| 0:08.7 | the show that's thinking of all the firefighters and incarcerated people battling the fires |
| 0:13.1 | in Southern California. |
| 0:20.1 | On today's show, Biden says he could have won the 2024 election, and world leaders respond |
| 0:25.7 | to Trump's threats to purchase and maybe conquer their lands. Let's get to it. So a lot of you probably |
| 0:32.7 | know that Crooked is based in Los Angeles. I am in Atlanta, but most of the staff lives in or around L.A. |
| 0:39.3 | And right now, multiple major fires there have forced tens of thousands of people, including |
| 0:44.4 | some crooked staff, to evacuate their homes. One of those fires, the Pacific Palisades fire, |
| 0:49.9 | is already the most destructive in the city of Los Angeles' history. |
| 0:55.0 | Local station KTLA was on the ground. |
| 0:58.0 | This is Pacific Palisades and, you know, we're finally actually seeing what was burning |
| 1:07.0 | overnight. And it, you know, the term, the word war zone is such a cliche, but this does look |
| 1:15.1 | like an area that has been bombed. Further east, the Eaton fire has killed at least five people, |
| 1:21.6 | and in all, at least 2,000 structures have been destroyed or damaged. These fires have been fueled by hurricane force winds. |
| 1:29.6 | While strong winds are typical this time of year, these have been extreme, reaching 100 |
| 1:34.3 | miles per hour. |
| 1:35.8 | And usually by now, Southern California has seen enough rain to mitigate the risks that |
| 1:40.9 | those winds pose, but that did not happen this year. |
| 1:45.0 | During a press conference on Wednesday, LA County Fire Chief Anthony Maroney said that the fires have overwhelmed responders. |
| 1:52.0 | All 29 fire departments in our county are not prepared for this type of widespread disaster. |
| 2:00.0 | There are not enough firefighters in LA County |
| 2:02.9 | to address four separate fires of this magnitude. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from What A Day, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of What A Day and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.