The Stacks, Ep. 407: "The Fires of the Future with Jacob Soboroff"

Host: Traci Thomas
Guest: Jacob Soboroff (Award-winning journalist & author)
Date: January 14, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode features a compelling conversation between host Traci Thomas and journalist Jacob Soboroff about his new book, "Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America's New Age of Disasters." The discussion delves into Soboroff's personal experience during the devastating Los Angeles fires in January 2025, the immediate and evolving aftermath, the political and social dynamics surrounding disaster response, and the emotional and communal toll of modern climate disasters. Soboroff's book, as discussed, blurs the lines between memoir and reportage, offering both fact-based analysis and raw personal narrative.

Main Topics & Key Insights

1. Genesis and Nature of "Firestorm"

• Personal Memoir Meets Journalism
  • Soboroff was covering the 2025 LA fires in real time, directly witnessing the destruction—including his childhood home in Pacific Palisades.
  • The book emerged both as a cathartic project for him and as a personal record of a city in crisis.
• Purpose and Process
  • He describes the book not as a deep dive into investigative reportage, but as “my version of the facts on the ground.”
  • Chose to write and release the book quickly to capture his authentic response and the immediacy of the crisis.

"It was impossible for me to process in real time... so the book for me has been and is a cathartic sort of opportunity and experience..."
– Jacob Soboroff [03:28]

2. Why Write—and Publish—So Quickly?

• Soboroff started writing almost immediately after experiencing the fire, motivated by a sense of urgency.
• He aimed to capture the rawness of the experience before time allowed for distance and detachment.

"I sort of knew right away, almost when I was in the fire, that what I was experiencing was something that I don’t think any human could wrap their head around."
– Jacob Soboroff [05:24]

3. Memoir as a Vehicle for Catastrophe

• The book stands out as memoir—a deeply personal account from a journalist who typically operates with clinical distance.
• Traci notes her surprise and appreciation for how much of Soboroff himself is in the book.

"I don’t feel comfortable pretending like I’m not in these places and having reactions and feelings that I do when I go to cover stuff..."
– Jacob Soboroff [08:50]

4. Community Trauma: Shared, Unique Experiences

• Both Traci and Soboroff relate their own evacuations and emotional turmoil, emphasizing how trauma and anxiety compounded across the city.
• Traci describes organizing relief events and the significance of community-driven recovery.

"This is what I'm saying. Everyone has one of these stories. Everybody has one of these stories..."
– Jacob Soboroff [14:00]

5. The 'New Age of Disaster'

• Defining the Moment
  • Factors: climate change, failing infrastructure, altered urban design, and political dysfunction.
  • Disasters are now more frequent, more costly, and more psychologically destabilizing.
• The Role of Real-Time Information and Social Media
  • Both amplify and complicate community responses and anxieties; misinformation and disinformation flourish.
• Scientific & Political Dynamics
  • Infrastructure inadequacies, outdated fire prevention, and policy decisions were all critical factors.

"We all experienced together the fire of the future. And to me, this felt like I had seen what our kids' lives are going to be like."
– Jacob Soboroff [17:00]

6. Politics, Blame, and Disaster Response

• Political Theater
  • Soboroff explores the performative, often self-serving dimension of political leaders’ disaster response.
  • Notably recounts Donald Trump and Gavin Newsom’s tarmac interaction (see timestamp below).
• Karen Bass Criticism
  • Discusses the “Fire Karen Bass” movement—Bass, LA’s mayor, was criticized for not being present at the onset of the fires.
  • Soboroff contextualizes the criticism as partly about visible leadership, partly about the need for communities to assign blame after catastrophe.
• Structural vs. Personal Failures
  • Emphasizes that no single politician could have prevented the disaster due to the scale and intensity of the event.

"Everywhere I go, people look for people to blame when they are in pain. And again, that’s why part of the reason I want to write the book is that... it’s about people in pain and grieving and what it's like to grieve in real time..."
– Jacob Soboroff [44:20]

Notable Moment: Trump & Newsom on the Tarmac

"How crazy is the story? ...towards the end of the book, I tell the story about how Donald Trump and Gavin Newsom have this weird interaction on the tarmac at LAX... it’s absurd."
– Jacob Soboroff [34:06]

7. Inequality, Privilege, and Recovery

• Highlights differing levels of attention, recovery, and impact between affluent areas like the Palisades and more diverse, working-class communities like Altadena.
• Points out systemic failures and how disasters expose “x-ray vision” of societal inequalities.

8. On Being a Journalist and Writing Process

• Soboroff describes the privilege and challenge of reporting as both a participant and observer.
• Cites his inspiration from local TV journalism and figures like Huell Howser.
• His writing process involved long weekend sessions, notes taken at all hours, and deep dives into interview transcripts.

"This is exactly where I want to be. This is the best job in the world..."
– Jacob Soboroff [49:33]

9. Mental Health & Personal Cost

• Soboroff openly discusses the personal toll of covering the fire and writing the book—emotional, mental, and physical, and how therapy and community helped him cope.

"I wasn’t, actually, is the truth... I had a downhill emotional mental slide for a while after the fires. And I was feeling really disconnected, even from my own family is the truth."
– Jacob Soboroff [55:29]

10. Book Recommendations & Audience

• Recommends “Fire Weather,” “The Big Burn,” works by Octavia Butler and Mike Davis’ “Ecology of Fear.”
• Suggests his earlier book “Separated” is thematically connected for those interested in disaster, trauma, and recovery.

Notable Quotes & Moments with Timestamps

• Soboroff on the Catastrophic Scale:
  "The magnitude of the fire that we experienced, what it was, what it felt like – we’re not the only ones to experience this. Talk to people in Lahaina or in Paradise… it’s not a secret that more and more of this kind of stuff is happening." (00:13, 17:00)

• Traci on Memoir Approach:
  "I think because you are a journalist... I was really fascinated by how much of you is in the book... I think that's what makes this book sort of special and worthy of time..." (07:29)

• On Immediate Reactions and Community Impact:
  "This is what I'm saying. Everyone has one of these stories. ...millions of people that knew what it was like to be on a text thread living what really was the disaster movie about Los Angeles." (14:00)

• On the New Information Environment:
  "Sort of the immediacy of the feeling of being there that all of us in some way experienced... we are living these things not just in real time, but almost second by second, minute by minute." (21:33)

• On the Mayor’s Criticism:
  "Could Karen Bass have personally stopped the explosion of the fire in the Palisades to result in no deaths, no devastation? That’s not what the firefighters say." (36:47, 39:16)

• Mental Health Aftermath:
  "I did eat a lot of crap also, but I would stop on the way here and like stack the stuff on my desk. ...There's a lot of trauma involved in all of this. And my trauma pales in comparison to the trauma of the people who lost loved ones..." (53:24, 55:29)

Key Timestamps

• [03:28] Jacob describes the origin and purpose behind writing "Firestorm"
• [07:29] Traci discusses the memoir aspect and impact on her own reading experience
• [14:00] Shared trauma of Angelenos—Traci’s evacuation story & book relief event
• [18:39] Defining the “new age of disaster”—multi-faceted crises
• [23:48] On criticism from fire survivors about Soboroff's book and his response
• [31:07] Politics and how much to include—Soboroff’s approach to reporting civic drama
• [34:06] Political theater: Trump, Newsom, and the absurdity of disaster optics
• [36:47] Water infrastructure, city response, and the criticism of LA Mayor Karen Bass
• [44:20] On scapegoating leaders and the purpose of writing about communal pain
• [49:33] Soboroff discusses his love of field correspondence and storytelling
• [55:29] Personal aftermath—mental health, trauma, and healing through writing

Suggested Further Reading

• Fire Weather by John Vaillant
• The Big Burn by Timothy Egan
• Ecology of Fear by Mike Davis
• Works by Octavia Butler (esp. on dystopia and disaster)
• Paradise: One Town's Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire by Lizzie Johnson
• Soboroff’s own Separated: Inside an American Tragedy

Closing Thoughts

Soboroff’s "Firestorm" offers a ground-level, deeply human account of the LA fires, embedding reporting within personal and community trauma. This episode is filled with honesty, vulnerability, and critical questioning about how we process, memorialize, and politicize disaster. Both host and guest share firsthand experiences and draw larger lessons about climate change, inequality, and the role of journalism in the new age of disaster.

For full details, book lists, and The Stacks Book Club picks, visit thestackspodcast.com.