Water quality expert Cydian Kauffman explains what happens to the toxic runoff from wildfires and structure fires and how those contaminants find their way into our drinking water. Learn the crucial difference between the legal and health standards for municipal water, why your body may be the filter for dangerous chemicals, and the best ways to protect yourself from everything from heavy metals to the little-known class of chemicals known as PFAS.

In this episode, you'll learn about:

• The Hydrologic Cycle of Fire: How contaminated runoff ends up in our reservoirs and aquifers.

• Legal vs. Health Standards: The shocking truth about why your municipal water may be as dirty as it's legally allowed to be.

• The Problem with PFAS: Why the true danger of these "forever chemicals" is still unknown and what you can do about them.

• Testing Don't Guess: Why testing your water is the first step to finding a customized home filtration solution.

• RO, Carbon & UV: A deep dive into the pros and cons of different filtration technologies.

• Water Safety for Firefighters: The unique dangers first responders face from drinking and being exposed to untested water sources on the job.

• Smoldering Science: A discussion on why smoldering fires are often the biggest and most destructive fires on Earth, even without a flame.

Adam specializes in comprehensive all-hazards preparedness, planning, response, mitigation, and risk management. His expertise extends to severe weather and climate change risk, the strategic use of GIS in emergency management, urban search and rescue, and homeland security. He has a strong focus on climate change, black sky consequence management, CBRNE planning, bio and agroterrorism, viral hemorrhagic fevers, maximum containment laboratory emergencies, and disruptions to electric transmission and distribution utilities.

UC Cooperative Extension fire ecologist Barb Satink Wolfson provides a masterclass in the science and culture of "good fire," explaining why we need to empower more people to use it and how community events can build trust and acceptance. Discover the ecological impacts of high-severity re-burns, the critical importance of social science in wildfire preparedness, and why the future of safety lies in entire communities taking collective responsibility.

In this episode, you'll learn about:

• The Problem with "Acres Destroyed": Why this common media metric is misleading and what we should focus on instead.

• High-Severity Re-burns: The ecological danger of fires re-burning areas too frequently.

• Putting Fire in More Hands: The importance of state-level "Burn Boss" certifications and liability protection for private landowners.

• The "Good Fire Fair": How to create fun, engaging community events that teach the benefits of prescribed fire.

• Cultural Burning: The history and significance of Indigenous burning practices.

• The Power of Social Science: Why understanding community perception is as important as understanding fire behavior.

• Collective Responsibility: Why house-by-house mitigation isn't enough and entire neighborhoods must work together.

• Learning from Europe: A look at how different building materials and firefighting tactics shape the WUI problem overseas.