In this special guest episode of Getting Through It, Dr. Lucy Jones sits down with Emiliano Rodríguez Nuesch, a specialist in creative risk communication and the director of the risk communications agency Pacífico. In the wake of tropical storm Hilary in Los Angeles and reflecting on Emiliano’s hurricane preparedness work in the Caribbean, they discuss how to manage the risks we face as climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of hurricanes. They then highlight innovative approaches to effective risk communication as it relates to hurricanes. 

The devastating magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Turkey on February 6, 2023 and its aftershocks have many people wondering if the same impacts and damage could happen in Southern California. In this episode, Dr. Jones lays out how to get from good codes to good buildings. She reminds us that buildings are only as good as the building code that was in place at the time it was constructed and the degree to which that code was enforced.

In this special guest episode of Getting Through It, Dr. Lucy Jones sits down with Keith Porter, chief engineer of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction and of the original ARkStorm scenario, to discuss the impact of the atmospheric river and subsequent flooding on the entire state of California in January 2023. They think back on what they modeled in the ARkStorm scenario and what it takes to go from where the damages are now to the worst phase as modeled in the scenario. Then, they talk through how to confront this extreme weather as an ongoing feature of weather in California. 

Whenever there is a big earthquake near the coast, people often worry about tsunamis and liquefaction. We know tsunamis happen when the shape of the sea floor changes and moves the water, but liquefaction is not quite as simple. In this episode, Dr Jones explains what liquefaction is, when it occurs, and how to know if you are at risk . 

Dr. Jones and John often discuss what it is that the listeners of this podcast can do to manage the risks you face. In this episode, they discuss what civic leaders can do to protect people with good policy. They review a new report released by the Dr. Jones Center with research from Dr. Keith Porter of the The Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction and they look back on the impact of the ShakeOut Scenario with the City of Los Angeles. 

Recorded during a Southern California heatwave, this episode explores the increase in the extremes of disasters due to climate change.

For the past year and a half, the Dr. Jones Center has been working on a unique project. Tempo is an international collaboration that brings together climate scientists and engineers, social scientists, and musicians to explore the ways in which music can be used to change the emotional climate about climate change. This episode goes over how this project came about, why we need to focus on evoking specific emotions, and how those who are interested in participating in the Tempo Project can be part of the solution.

As Dr. Jones says, when you have a lot of earthquakes, you have a lot of earthquakes. This means that there are many more small earthquakes than large ones; it's a well defined distribution. Not only are there a lot of earthquakes, but scientists can tell you how many there will be by using an equation. In this episode, Dr. Jones gets nerdy and details the equation that fits this distribution to predict the data.

One of people’s biggest fears about an earthquake is that they will be crushed by a building. While most buildings in California will not collapse, because most are single family, wood construction homes, what is of more concern is the buildings that are less prolific but have an impact in all of our lives: public buildings. In this episode, Dr. Jones examines the Field Act, its limitations, and why continuous building inspections are so important.

The San Andreas is a complicated fault. It has the potential to have the biggest earthquakes in Southern California, yet in the last half century, there has only been one earthquake on it that no one really remembers. In this episode, Dr. Jones explains what makes a weak fault and why this legendary fault fits in that category.

In this episode, we look at the Afghanistan earthquake of June 2022 that killed more than 1,000 people, how we know what we know, and how Dr. Jones' work in the country in the 1970s shapes our understanding of the seismology there.

Disaster hazards being faced by societies around the globe are monumental. The work each nation has undertaken has been notable, but it’s especially apparent in New Zealand, with just five million people and a third smaller than the state of California. After spending the week in New Zealand as part of a science advisory board, Dr. Jones discusses how the same science within a different framework can have dramatic outcomes.

One of the most common beliefs about earthquake prediction is that animals know before the earthquake comes. In this episode, telling the story of her experience researching this question, Dr. Jones cuts to the chase: we want it to be true, but there is no evidence animals can predict earthquakes. 

Whenever there is a significant geological event along the Pacific Rim, people take to social and conventional media to conjure the mythical impacts of the “Ring of Fire”! Once again, people look for a pattern when one doesn’t exist. With plate tectonics, subduction zones, and volcanoes, Dr. Jones explains in this episode how the “Ring of Fire” has no geologic significance and naming the complexity of the region with one simple term is a dangerous approach to manage the geological risk.

From normalizing risk to making patterns, people have dealt with the uncertainty of the pandemic in many ways. In this final episode of our three part series on randomness, Dr. Jones discusses our current relationship with randomness as we enter the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

From the early humans to the modern humans of today, we are wired to enjoy theorizing and finding patterns. In this second episode of our three part series on randomness, we go back in time to these early civilizations to explore the multi-thousand year relationship humans of all cultures have had with what will happen… and why!

Earthquakes are currently not predictable…and may never be! This episode is the first in a three part series on randomness, starting first with earthquakes. Dr. Jones builds the foundation for what randomness is and explains why we might have to accept the fact that earthquake distribution is random.

We have spent every week since the beginning of the podcast talking remotely at home about how to get through earthquakes, risks, natural disasters through the perspective of science. In this special episode celebrating 100 episodes of Getting Through It, join John and Dr. Jones in the field as they visit a fault and see this feature through the eyes of a geologist.

Plate tectonics controls things you didn’t know about! It impacts the formation of our atmosphere, our oceans, our continents, and our local geology. So natural hazards, including tornadoes and earthquakes, are connected to plate tectonics. In this episode, Dr. Jones explains why plate tectonics matters to you.

As we experience increased intensity, frequency, and geographic occurrence of natural disasters, the climate crisis can feel overwhelming, with dire headlines leading to further despair and inaction. While the answers aren’t black and white, Dr. Jones reacts to the latest calls for action, UN reports, and what it means to each of us.