Shamita Basu

He's rolling back certain building-related codes that have historically gummed up the process of getting building done faster and moving faster.

What has been the upshot of those kinds of moves?

Yeah.

Well, what are people talking about amongst themselves as you've spoken to residents, people who are considering their next move?

What do they talk about having lost in all of this?

What do they talk about wanting to preserve in all of this?

Yeah.

I mean, in some ways, this is a story about climate change, about the present realities of climate change, not just the future of climate change.

But there are so many other factors that you've brought up here just in our conversation today.

The politics, the population growth, the fact that these were really very populous areas, the way that disaster communication worked and didn't work for people.

Can you help me understand sort of all these different factors and where we are today in mitigating them?

Say more about that.

What are some of the positive developments that you've seen?

Yeah.

Tell me what you take away from all of this.

I mean, you didn't just approach this like it was your assignment for the day or the week or even a couple months.

You dug all the way in, as you do often with the topics that you take dear to heart.

Well, Jake, thank you so much for your time.

We'll include a link to Jacob Soboroff's book, Firestorm, on our show notes page.

And every weekend you can find new episodes of Apple News in Conversation in the Apple News app.