Today people are not just rebuilding their homes but their lives. On top of the task of just figuring out whether to move back and rebuild a house or leave and start over someplace else, survivors have lives to live, jobs to carry out, children to raise, and marriages to hold together. The weight of it all can sometimes feel too heavy to bear. But there are ways to work through it and process the trauma.

To talk about this, Rebuilding L.A. host Kate Cagle talks with Dr. Bonnie Zucker. She’s a clinical psychologist, specializing in anxiety. She is also a Palisades fire survivor.

GUEST: Psychologist Bonnie Zucker

Bonnie Zucker's book Freedom from Panic: https://www.newharbinger.com/9781648487347/freedom-from-panic/?srsltid=AfmBOor2oaRy6Y-qmd37rDtvPRynSOrMfJRwT8Y--8K34Wcn6lPudWy8

Anxiety Matters podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/anxiety-matters/id1787949420

It turns out you can burn down a neighborhood and not destroy a community. The one great silver lining to these fires in Los Angeles is that survivors are transcending the physical ties. No matter how much has been destroyed or how far people have been scattered, relationships between neighbors have become deeper.

We’ve seen evidence of this all across L.A., in the Pacific Palisades, Malibu, and Altadena, and so we will head back to one neighborhood -- one street -- that’s a pretty good example of that bond: West Poppyfields Drive in Altadena.

GUESTS: Altadena residents Whitney Haggins, John Hall, Pat and Kate Gray, Sandra and Donald Estes, and Shelley Thai.

Eighteen months after the Eaton and Palisades Fires, it's not gotten any easier for survivors. But there are good things happening. People are rebuilding. Survivors are making plans to return to these burned out communities — and it's not just one person at a time, but neighbors are coming back and rebuilding together.

One street where that's happening is Poppyfields Drive in Altadena. Resident Whitney Haggins has been charging ahead on her rebuild since her home burned down in January 2025, and at least 6 of her neighbors are following in her footsteps. It may be not the typical but it is a story of optimism that these residents hope will rub off on more people throughout Altadena.

GUEST: Whitney Haggins, Eaton Fire Survivor