California wildfires are dangerous, but they don’t have to be deadly. Don Butz, Lakeside Fire chief and San Diego Fire Safe Council president, says we can protect ourselves by following simple steps from American Red Cross’ Ready, Set, Go plan. We cover everything from managing gardens to assembling supply kits. This is a special fourth bonus episode to In Our Backyard E4: Fire is part of California’s natural landscape. We’ll always be waiting for the next, inevitable smoke out .

Native Californians used fire to fight fire for thousands of years, but European settlers banned it in the early 1900s. Since then, mismanagement, development, and now climate uchange have increased wildfires and the need for widespread evacuations. But host Warren Olney learns that state and federal governments are gradually reviving ancient practices.

Live in a heat island? Want to know more? This is a special third bonus episode to In Our Backyard: Heat is the deadliest aspect of climate change. It’s turning LA’s neediest neighborhoods red hot .

Redlining and other forms of discrimination have turned LA’s Black and Brown neighborhoods into “urban heat islands” that are especially vulnerable to climate change. Community activists tell Warren Olney they’re organizing to demand a seat at the table for tree planting and stopping a planned expansion of freeways in residential neighborhoods.

KCRW’s Warren Olney talks with Jane Coaston, host of the New York Times podcast “The Argument,” about politics and race.

Pollution blows. Here are some helpful ways to keep your lungs healthy. This is a special second bonus episode to In Our Backyard: Greenhouse emissions we can't see are often out of mind, causing pollution power lines

LA smog isn’t as visible as it used to be, but what’s out of sight can’t be out of mind. Air pollution is a major component of greenhouse emissions, as well as contributing to environmental injustice. In episode two of “In Our Backyard,”...

Sherman Indian High School was once part of systematic genocide against Native Americans. Now, it’s a place of healing. This is a special bonus episode to In Our Backyard: Warren Olney looks at the changing climate in Southern California

Southern California has a unique relationship with climate change. So what’s happening now? How did we get here? And what can we do? This first episode of my limited series "In Our Backyard" explores all that.

In Our Backyard is a six-part series that explores how Southern California is changing in the face of global warming, and how we can respond.

KCRW’s Warren Olney talks with Ben Ehrenreich about his recent New Republic article titled “We’re Hurtling Toward Global Suicide.” Ehrenreich is a freelance journalist and author of “ Desert Notebooks: A Roadmap for the End of Time .”

Warren Olney talks about the blackout during the Texas deep freeze with meteorologist John Morales and USC energy expert Kelly Sanders. Andrew Bacevich of the Quincy Institute has a warning about President Biden’s boast that “America is back.”

Warren Olney talks about the globalization of America’s right-wing extremists with ProPublica’s Sebastian Rotella and American University professor Carolyn Gallaher. Later on, Rachel Kyte, Dean of the Fletcher School at Tufts University , tells...

Warren Olney talks about the U.S. Capitol insurrection with presidential historian Tim Naftali and David French, an evangelical Christian and columnist for the Dispatch and Time magazine.

KCRW’s Warren Olney talks with Harvard law professor Jody Freeman and Princeton international affairs professor Michael Oppenheimer about Biden’s climate plans and what it means to reach “net zero” by 2050. Then Brown University politics...

Win or lose, Joe Biden has a personal story of tragedy and ultimate survival. KCRW’s Warren Olney talks with Evan Osnos, author of “ Joe Biden: The Life, the Run, and What Matters Now.” He also hears from John Dean, former White House Counsel...

President Trump denies climate change . But Joe Biden has laid out “the boldest plan of any candidate in history,” says UC Santa Barbara environmental scientist Leah Stokes. KCRW hears how climate change threads the political difference between...

The first debate of the 2020 presidential campaign was like no other. Forget Lincoln-Douglas, Kennedy-Nixon or Reagan-Carter. Can a hallowed democatic institution be restored before the November election?

The U.S. has a history of repressing people of color, but systemic racism doesn’t tell the whole story. Isabel Wilkerson traces it to the caste system in India, which had echoes in Hitler’s Germany. She describes an infrastructure that is not...

The Trump administration claims a COVID-19 vaccine could be available as early as November, just in time for the election. Also pro athletes are being more politically active — will their message resonate with African American men?

It’s been 75 years since two atom bombs destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the world learned that nuclear weapons could annihilate civilization. Today, America’s nuclear weapons policy makes that as likely as ever. What needs to be done to...

Scientific evidence shows that wearing a mask can protect both the wearer and the community around them from COVID-19. Yet some Americans, including President Trump, are still reluctant to put on a mask. Are there political implications for...

After killings and other violence recorded on camera, Black Lives Matter supporters are demanding police reform. Also an update on a potential travel ban from the European Union and the latest on the much anticipated June decisions from the Supreme...

Less than a month after the police killing of George Floyd, the protests around the country continue. Diverse Americans are expressing solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.  Is the country undergoing a transformation? Also: Ezekiel...

A four-part documentary series from KCRW. In the first episode of Samaritans, we meet Christine Curtiss, learn where she came from and what her everyday life is like on the street. She has a community of friends in Mid-City, LA who look out for her....