Marking its first year of providing a “living history” of the double disaster of L.A.’s January 2025 Palisades and Eaton Fires, the non-profit podcast #L.A. Rising — Stories of Healing, Help & Hope concludes 2025 with a landmark episode featuring six-time Emmy-winning actor and philanthropist, Hank Azaria.
Podcast and wellness industry veteran, Kim Marshall, shepherds a heartfelt discussion with Azaria about addiction recovery, social justice and the resilience required to move forward after life-altering events. The actor is refreshingly honest about his recovery journey and his relationship with Matthew Perry. Also, in this episode, Stanford’s Dr. Adrianne Heinz, a disaster mental health specialist, discusses tips and tools for coping with the unique stresses of the first holiday season after the fires in the platform’s regular Wellness Lift segment.
"Having a voice like Hank’s be part of our post-fire storytelling platform underscores that while the challenges we each face are unique, the tools for healing are universal,” explained Marshall, “and often they include finding ways to turn your pain into purpose.”
Born from host Kim Marshall’s harrowing escape on foot from the Palisades Fire—with two dogs and a suitcase in tow —the non-profit podcast has created a living history of know-how, courage and community that has been well documented in the media. (Women’s World; Spectrum News 1; Palisadian Post, etc.)
In launching the platform two weeks after the fires, Marshall’s goal was also to showcase models of proactive resilience with a goal of encouraging other communities around the world who have or will suffer from climate disasters.
Episode #12 featured an interview with Maui’s Mayor Richard Bissen and First Lady Isabella Bissen discussing lessons learned from 2023’s catastrophic Lahaina Fire.Episode #4 includes a conversation with economist and author Thierry Malleret, founder of the Global Risk Network at the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland -- on the broader economic and global implications of climate change and the crucial importance of planet-first policy decisions.
Under Marshall’s leadership, #L.A. Rising has bridged the gap between disaster recovery and the wellness industry. The show’s signature Wellness Lifts offers survivors expert-backed tools, including:
Somatic Therapies: Techniques to calm anxiety and regulate the nervous system.Breathwork & Gratitude: Practical applications for healing from grief and melancholy.Physical Recovery: Addressing the benefits of saunas for wildfire-affected lungs and contrast bathing for a nervous system reset.
In its inaugural year, the podcast has hosted a wide range of voices, from local leaders like L.A. Supervisor Lindsay Horvath and Colonel Eric Swenson of the Army Corps of Engineers, to the founders of Eaton Fire Residents United, Team Palisades, Eaton Fire Survivors Network and After the Fire USA. Besides climate change experts and green architects, #L.A. Rising has also featured heart wrenching fire survivor stories like Rabbi Amy Bernstein of Palisades Kehillat Israel whose lessons from the Biblical story of Moses & the Burning Bush were especially relevant since her own house burned down but the temple for her 900 congregants survived. Another unforgettable moment? Altadena Poet Laureate Lester Graves Lennon reading his poem born from the ruins of the fires, “The Proud Chimneys of Altadena.”
As #L.A. Rising expands its focus to "multi-peril" events -- including floods, hurricanes, and droughts linked to a warming planet -- the first episode of 2026 will feature, tourism resiliency expert, The Honorable Edmund Bartlett, Minister of Tourism for Jamaica. After the Category 5 Hurricane Melissa decimated nearly a third of the island in late October, the Minister will explain how they orchestrated a full tourism restart less than two months later.
Marshall, a member of what her mentor and After the Fire USA Founder, Jennifer Gray Thompson, calls “The Worst Club with the Best People,” explains why the last episode of the podcast’s first year is so fitting.
About #L.A. Rising: In a fiscal partnership with the Creative Visions Foundation, #L.A. Rising is a non-profit podcast dedicated to providing tools, stories, and expert advice for individuals and communities affected by natural disasters resulting from a warming planet. @larisingpodcast hello@larisingpodcast.org
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For more information about L.A. Rising Podcast, contact the company here:
L.A. Rising Podcast
Kim Marshall
hello@larisingpodcast.org