Hey, everyone, it's Rachel. We wanted to share a show from our colleagues over at Wirecutter

today from their podcast. It's part of a three-part series that they've made, and it's time to the

anniversary of the devastating fires in Los Angeles a year ago. But it covers things that are relevant

to everyone, because with climate change, severe weather, disasters, they're of course becoming worse and more frequent everywhere.

This series, it focuses on two of Wirecutters writers who are affected by the fires, and it looks at these kinds of disasters in all sorts of really specific and important ways.

How to be prepared, what you should keep in your house,

all sorts of lessons you only learn when you personally live through a tragedy like that.

Again, this show is part of a three-part series,

and for the other shows,

look for the Wirecutter podcast wherever you listen.

Okay, here's their episode.

So we're coming up kind of the west side of the burn scar now but you can also still see the difference between the mountains that are green

and the mountains that are burned this is my colleague michael cohen my name is michael

bradley cohen i am a deals writer at Wirecutter for all of those who follow along over Black Friday.

Michael goes by Mike, and he used to live in the neighborhood we're driving through right now,

Altadina, just outside of L.A.

Exactly a year ago, on January 7, 2025, the Palisades and Eaton fires erupted.

They would ultimately become among the most destructive in California's history,

eventually burning down more than 16,000 structures, including nearly 6,000 homes in Altadena.

Mike's home was one of them.

I lived in Altadena, and it was the first home we ever bought.

It has gotten so much better already, And even driving up Lincoln, like all of this was covered in ash and debris and everything.

...