The Wirecutter Show – "The True Cost of Recovering from the LA Wildfires, Part 1"

Date: January 7, 2026
Hosts: Christine Cyr Clisset, Caira Blackwell
Featured Guests: Michael Cohen, Gregory Hahn
Producers: Rosie Guerin, Abigail Keel

Episode Overview

This episode kicks off a three-part Wirecutter Show series diving into the true costs—emotional, financial, and practical—of recovering from the devastating LA wildfires of 2025. Hosts Christine Cyr Clisset and Rosie Guerin, alongside journalists Michael Cohen and Gregory Hahn, share deeply personal stories of loss, resilience, and hard-won advice. Their accounts illuminate how disaster preparedness, neighborly community, and unexpected life lessons intersect when catastrophe hits close to home. Though centered on the Eaton and Palisades fires in Altadena, California, their insights resonate for anyone facing the new reality of climate-driven disasters.

Main Themes

• The human and practical realities of recovering from wildfire disaster
• Lessons learned by fire survivors that extend far beyond product recommendations
• The crucial role of community in survival and recovery
• How Wirecutter’s ethos of rigorous, detail-focused advice becomes essential in emergencies
• Initial takeaways and actionable tips for personal and community disaster preparedness

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: Altadena's Transformation

• [00:31–04:30]
  • The hosts drive through post-fire Altadena, noting the stark differences between burned and untouched homes.
  • Michael Cohen reflects on returning to his old neighborhood:

    “I can't paint a picture of the negative space with my words well enough to describe. Like there's supposed to be houses and people and kids on bikes...Instead it is kind of this weird mishmash of a ghost town, a burned out shell, and then every once in a while, a stretch of houses.” (Michael Cohen, 03:55)

2. Why Focus on Disaster Recovery?

• [04:30–06:10]
  • With natural disasters becoming increasingly frequent and unpredictable, the Wirecutter team recognizes the need for deeper, experience-based advice.
  • The team’s guiding question: What practical steps and hard-won insights can they offer to help others prepare for the unpredictable?

3. Two Stories, One Neighborhood

• [07:15–13:42]

  • Gregory Hahn: A design writer who finally achieved his dream of homeownership in Altadena’s scenic, tree-filled “Meadows”—only for his new home to be polluted and unlivable for months after the fires.

  • Michael Cohen: A deals writer (and ex-New Yorker) who also found his first home in Altadena—a two-bedroom with flourishing fruit trees—only to lose it entirely to fire.

  • Both underscore what made Altadena special: diversity, enduring community, and an old-LA mix of people and ways of life.

    “The neighborhood that we found felt very much like the neighborhood I grew up in...the neighbors are immediately warm. The first month we were there, we were invited into people's backyard parties, birthday parties. We didn't know these people, but they were like, you're our neighbor now.” (Gregory Hahn, 18:58)

4. The Role of Community—Before, During, and After

• [13:54–19:41]
  • The sense of community is depicted as both a draw to Altadena and a lifeline during the crisis.
  • Michael and Gregory describe how neighborliness becomes a practical tool:

    “The silver linings that I remember are all the ways that different people in our community have shown up for each other...” (Michael Cohen, 32:00)

5. The Wildfires Erupt: Preparedness and Chaos

• [20:16–26:46]

  • The January 2025 wildfires unfold with horrifying speed, pushed by unpredictable, violent Santa Ana winds.

  • Proactive Evacuation:

    • Gregory, attuned to risk, leaves before official orders:

      “You know, everybody had asked, oh, did you leave because you were worried about fire? I was like, no, I was worried about wind.” (Gregory Hahn, 21:58)

    • His concern: one road out of his canyon neighborhood is easily blocked.

  • Communication Failures:

    • Mike and his wife, vacationing in Mexico, rely on community WhatsApp threads. Many residents, including them, do not receive formal evacuation alerts until hours after the danger.

      “If you think of disasters like a plane crash or when the subway gets stalled and they say...please wait for organized instructions from uniformed crew members—in a disaster, it’s probably happening so fast that there aren’t uniformed crew members with organized instructions. So you have to be in charge of your own survival.” (Michael Cohen, 30:29)

6. Devastating Loss and the Helplessness of Distance

• [27:01–29:43]

  • Mike and his wife watch from afar as their house burns, communicating through their doggy cam and doorbell camera with their friend and pet-sitter who escapes at the last minute.

    “We just watched until the whole screen just filled with smoke and black and flashes of flames...and then eventually the feed cut out.” (Michael Cohen, 29:29)

7. Essential Lessons: What Every Survivor Wishes They’d Known

• [30:29–32:52]
  • Top Lessons:
    • Expect that in a disaster, you may need to rely on yourself and your neighbors, rather than official help.
    • Prepare to act decisively even in the absence of guidance or instructions.
    • Knowing your neighbors and having a way to communicate is crucial; informal networks often prove more reliable than official channels.
    • The act of preparing/apprenticing yourself to “prepper” mentality is invaluable, but community ties mean even more.

      “There’s a level investment that you need to make within your own immediate community...that will become very, very valuable almost immediately in regards to knowing information because information gets cut off so quickly in a disaster.” (Gregory Hahn, 32:52)

8. Practical Takeaways for Listeners

• [34:07–35:11]
  • Start or join a group chat with your neighbors (WhatsApp, GroupMe, etc.).
  • Join local volunteer or preparedness organizations—these connections pay off in disasters.
  • Be prepared to help and lean on others; invest in relationships, not just kits or gadgets.

9. Preview: The Next Phase—The Strain of Recovery

• The episode concludes by setting up Part 2, which will cover the overwhelming challenges of rebuilding—in particular, the mind-boggling task of itemizing every possession for insurance claims.

  “They will ask you for the list. This is the list of every single thing in your home. If you were to take your home and dump it out...Most people can’t tell you everything that’s in their backpack...imagine having to do that with every single drawer in your entire home.”
  (Michael Cohen, 35:11)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the surreal loss of place:

  “There’s supposed to be houses and people and kids on bikes and people walking dogs... and instead it is kind of this weird mishmash of a ghost town, a burned out shell, and then every once in a while, a stretch of houses.” (Michael Cohen, 03:55)

• On the emotional impact of disaster:

  "We just watched until the whole screen just filled with smoke and black and flashes of flames. And then eventually the feed cut out." (Michael Cohen, 29:29)

• On the importance of community:

  "We look out for each other or we're trying because nobody else is going to do it for us. So that's really been the silver lining." (Michael Cohen, 32:00)

• On practical advice for listeners:

  "Create an easy way to communicate with your neighbors. This could be a text chain or a group chat... After the fires, Gregory joined a group to do brush cleanup. Working alongside his neighbors for hours at a time has helped deepen his connection with the people who live close to him." (Christine Cyr Clisset, 34:07)

Important Timestamps by Segment

| Timestamp | Segment / Subject | |-------------|------------------------------------------------------| | 00:31–01:24 | Overview of Altadena post-fire destruction | | 04:30–06:10 | Introduction to the series’ aim and scope | | 07:15–13:42 | Backstories: Mike and Gregory’s journey to Altadena | | 16:38–19:41 | Community life in Altadena pre-fire | | 20:16–22:30 | Santa Ana winds and evacuation decisions | | 24:22–26:46 | Communication breakdowns and lack of alerts | | 27:01–29:43 | Watching the home burn via camera, escape story | | 30:29–32:52 | Biggest lessons & advice for disaster preparedness | | 34:07–35:11 | Practical steps: network and volunteer locally | | 35:11–35:42 | Preview: The overwhelming “insurance list” |

Summary & Closing

Tone: Candid, reflective, warm, and rueful—with practical urgency.

This first episode in the series provides a raw, on-the-ground view of disaster’s unpredictable path and the aftermath many never see: displacement, loss, bureaucratic obstacles, and the quiet heroics of neighbors. The lived experiences and advice of Michael and Gregory leave listeners not with fear, but with a call to invest in practical preparedness and, most of all, in the resilience of community ties. The concluding note: disaster can happen to anyone, anywhere, and the best preparation may be the relationships you build before the emergency ever comes.

Find Part 2 of this series ("The True Cost of Recovering from the LA Wildfires") in your podcast feed on Friday.