This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI Am six forty The Gary and Shannon Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Michael Monks is joining us from KFI News a special presentation coming up tomorrow night about our LA fires. Thanks for coming on, Yeah, good morning to you. What kind of stuff are we going to hear from? What kind of stuff are we going to hear tomorrow night? During the special, Yeah, we're.
Gonna basically do an exploration of what happened and what happens now. So it's a little bit of a reflection on the situation as it unfolded. We'll have a lot of the news coverage just as a reminder of just how intense it was. It feels like it was longer ago when it started than it really was. I guess the pace of time is a little off, but we'll hit that really hard, and we'll.
Also talk to some folks who lost.
Everything in this fire, and then we'll talk to some government officials about how we move forward. One of the key pieces to this though, was learning how this is going to impact us all. Obviously, it's taken a toll on us all emotionally, as Angelino's. But it's going to hit all of our pocketbooks in various ways.
And there's a.
Study out of UCLA that examines this, and I talked to one of the researchers about how that's going to impact us, whether it's the cost of housing that's expected to go up or your homeowner's insurance. You know, being a homeowner in California and the insurance that you have, this event may trigger an increase that you're going to pay. So this is going to have far reaching ramifications. We talked a bit about that too.
Yea.
You did a lot of work on this, Michael, in terms of getting the story from all angles. Like you mentioned, you talked to people who lost everything. You also talked about the people who were kind of the civic face of these disasters, and Lindsay Horrovath, you talk to the people that helped out that continue to help out with the Dream Center. I mean, you really took a three sixty view of everything that went into this and the people that were major players in this in real time exactly.
That's what we wanted to do with something all encompassing.
We don't have the story yet on how it started, why it started, that's going to come later. We are obviously still working this story every single day, and we'll be looking for that. This is a look at where are we right this moment, Where did we come from, and where are we right now. One of the interesting components that I found in the interviews I talked to two individuals, one that lost a house in Altadena and one that lost a house in the Palisades, and what
struck me was how similar their stories are. I mean, these two fires that claimed both those areas were thirty miles apart, right, and these communities are both lovely, but they're also quite different, the Palisades being that quintessential California vision, that postcard image, and Altadina being sort of a small town in the middle of Los Angeles with churches on
the corner and little old school business districts. But both of them were incredibly optimistic up into the last moment of the fires, for example, that, oh, we get these warnings, this happens, we've seen fires before, even but it's not going to be.
It's not coming for us. And then it did.
And both waited until the very end, also thinking that even as they were fleeing the flames that are house will still be there it wasn't. And then there are incredible similarities to the reaction afterward. Obviously devastation, but what is the government doing exactly? There are a lot of questions about what the rebuild and the recovery is going
to look like. So in spite of what we hear at these press conferences in the flowery language and all of that, the folks who are dealing with FEMA, who are dealing with their insurance agents, the folks who will be dealing with permitting, they are calling it a serious red tape blockage.
There seems to be something going around, not just at a local level, regional, national of the government should be doing X, Y or z, and it's not doing that. The government's supposed to be there to like we've talked about in the past, you know, water, roads, fire, police, right like, these basic things that the government is set up to do. And you can take this on any like I said, on any level you want to, and
they're not doing those main things. And I think that's part of the reason why, you know, the incoming in administration is so fed up with the federal government and the bloat, because why aren't you just doing the basic things. Instead, you've built yourselves up to be these big things and you're tackling all of these things and you're not doing
the very basic things. And I think that there was a frustration locally with these fires that shine like a light on that that hey, once you drilled down into the hole, well there wasn't enough water in the Palisades, and you drilled down, and we had fire officials on that said, hey, listen, we just ran out. There was water there, but the demand was so much at that period in time we ran out. The message that the government is giving to the people is not coming through.
Most people are not hearing the government talk to them and saying, hey, we just ran out. Yes, those reservoirs should have been up and running, and we'll make sure to do that in the future. But they're not communicating. And I think some of that frustration is the divide between La City Hall and these politicians that have their heads in the sand and how to talk to real people and in terms of delivering that message.
I talked to Lindsay Horvath a bit about that, like the broken trust now that a lot of people feel, and how can you rebuild that so we do explore that topic directly. And one of the folks who lost their homes in the Palisades told me for the purpose of this special that what we saw was a lack of fight. Even in the firefighting at the early elements. We know that they could not do aerial fight because of the severity of the winds. Yeah, but they were watching houses.
It looked like a sense of urgency was missing.
And there may be an explanation for that, but it has not been conveyed well enough to folks. I mean, can you imagine running up to a firefighter and saying, my house is on fire right now, and they say, there's nothing we can do. We don't have any water, there's nothing that we can do, and the explanations have not been thorough enough yet. We've been promised a thorough
review once all of this dust settles. We don't know when that is because we've not only had the fires, we even had just today and yesterday the threat of the mudslides in these areas. So there's still the sense of urgency of addressing the catastrophe before they can get into any serious review. I've talked about this before. I
think to your point, Shannon, LA. Government, City and county government in particular, have done a lot to make themselves seem important for a lot of different reasons that go beyond those basic services that you noted, homelessness being a great example of that, and the amount of money that is spent on homelessness. And then those of us who live in the streets are not necessarily in the streets.
I mean, the homeless people live in the streets, but those of us who are walking, well, I live downtown, and you know, and I walk to those meetings sometimes and I think when I watch some of the conversation, I think, do you know how many piles of human feces I walked over to get to this building today? So do you mind if I clean my shoes while you do your land acknowledgment? Because we're not seeing the results that this high amount of money is supposedly delivering.
And I think this fire is going to cause a shift not just from the people who are paying attention a little bit more, but perhaps internally. That's what I'm waiting to see. And you're already starting to see a little bit of differences emerging from the elected officials as they get into more intense conversations with one another.
Will their priorities be shifted.
About a way? This, right, Michael Monks is an estellar job of keeping his eye on the things that we do not we are easily distracted people, and we cannot be because that's what happens. That's how government takes advantage of of of all of a sheep. And Michael does a really good job of finding out what's going on in at city Hall and Border County County Board of Supervisors and all of that for us. So we really appreciate that you're doing a great job. Michael.
Thanks talk to again La Fires and Path Forward Airs tomorrow night seven to nine. You're gonna hear it to get on Sunday afternoon as well. Thanks man, Now giving you see delightful? He smells good. Do you see see how much better it smells.
In here with him?
It's the sweat sweat, that's your sweat. Lose an essence of greatness. Wow, that's terrible.
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI.
I was just gonna say, did you hear about the guy that was swallowed by the whale?
Yeah? He said, I thought I was gonna die? He was inside the whale, yes for a moment.
And he had the thought when he was inside the whale.
Yeah, how am I going to get out of here? I hope I go back out the front door.
What would you think if you were swallowed by a whale?
I wouldn't think anything. I wouldn't be swallowed by a whale.
I would think, oh my god, I was just swallowed by a whale.
That's probably accurate.
Like is this real life? By in this whale?
We told you the story this week about right, Like that's crazy?
About why are you ignoring? Ryan?
Oh?
I'm sorry.
Ryan Honery is a multi award winning teenage inventor and entrepreneur actively putting his passion for people and environment into action for years, and that I'm reading straight from his website.
Ryan, thanks for joining us today.
Thank you for having me.
Did you see the story about the guy getting swallowed by the whale?
I think I saw it on TikTok.
Actually I guarante you saw it on TikTok So.
Ryan, you are quite accomplished, do you hear that? All the time?
Is thank you?
The technology that you were able to come up with, is that because of where you grew up. I mean, you grew up in Orange County. You probably no stranger to wildfires being in the news your whole life. Is that something where you saw a need and wanted to fill the gap there?
Yeah, So basically how the whole thing started was so I played competitive tennis, and a couple of years ago, I think it was like five six years ago, I was in Arizona in November of twenty eighteen, and I was actually there for a tennis tournament, and I was there with my dad, but my mom was still at home, and during like in between one of my matches, during one of my breaks, I saw on the TV there was like this raging wildfire and the hills and houses
that were burning looked just like the hills and houses around on where I live. So I called my mom to ask if she was okay, and she was, and I felt like a wave of relief, obviously, But then I felt like guilty. I felt like it was wrong that I could feel a wave of relief while other people were like evacuating and scared for their lives and
things like that. So I started to do some research and I found out that the reason wildfires were such a big problem is that because by the time they were detective, and by the time people even knew they were there, it had grown so far that it had already gotten out of hand. It's almost like wildfires are treated kind of like they should be treated, kind of like cancer. When you catch them in their early stages,
they're much easier to deal with. But when you catch them once they've already grown out of hand, it becasen's a much bigger problem.
That's a I don't think I've ever heard that analogy before. But the company that you have founded, Sensory AI, not only collaborating with the OC Fire Authority, but Irvine Ranch Conservancy has rewarded you a grant to do this. Give us a basic description of what it is in terms of how the sensors will detect wildfires super early so that they can do just like you said, jump on those fires and put them out quickly.
Yeah, for sure. So basically the idea is to have my network spread across locations that are high risk of wildfires, which are chosen by the Orange County Fire Authority or whatever authority fire authority is of the area, and then my network will be spread throughout there and my network doesn't need any infrastructure, so it doesn't have to be
plugged into power or need any whysie connectivity. And then it uses this idea of sensor fusion where it uses infrared sensors and gas sensors and also mixes with artificial intelligence that runs on my low cost, low power hardware to base increase the accuracy in decrease the false salons
of my system. And basically the way it would work is that if one of my detectors were to detect a fire, it would use mesh networking, which basically just means my whole network can communicate with each other, and it would send that information from detector to detector until it reached one of my detectors that had cellular connectivity, and then it would use that cellular connectivity to send push notification or text notification to the fire authorities, telling
them one the longitude and latitude of the detector that detected the fire, and two the direction in which the camera was pointing, so that they know exactly where the fire was.
What do you like doing when you're not creating new technology to save lives and homes and things?
What kid stuff do you like to do.
I think my most favorite hobbies would be surfing and snowboarding, but definitely surfing the most. Because I live like literally two minutes from the beach, I can go almost whatever lifetime.
Nice, nice, enjoy the tasty waves. Right. Yeah, well that's awesome.
We're going to keep an eye on the stuff that you're doing because this is not the end for you. Clearly, great, thank you, thanks for taking time for us. How come you're not in school?
School where we're going there is no school, So.
I do a choint. I do like a hybrid program where I do my STEM courses at Stanford Online High School, which is basically Stanford University. They have a high school. I take my STEM courses there and then I take my Humanity courses at Newport Harbor High School. And Stanford Online High School doesn't have class on Fridays, and usually the plan is that I do my Stanford courses in the morning and then my Harbor courses in the afternoon.
So today I have to be at school. I have to leave for school at eleven twenty five, which is why I'm able to be on the course.
Gary asked that question because he hates himself and he hates me and every other person who do nothing when they were sixteen, Ryan, thank you so much. It was it was a great pleasure to talk to you. And good luck in the future. You're you're gonna be fun to look out for.
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
You bet Ryan, you too, Ryan Honery. Okay, well, why'd you say that?
Now we feel stupid. Now we're just sitting here and they're stupid.
I'm glad that he put Stanford on hold for us this morning. Yeah, just hold on second, Stanford. If you've talked to two boneheads that.
Can't get over a being swallowed by a whale.
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI AM six forty.
We still have astronauts that are stuck in the International.
Space Station down. They thought they were going to be there for much longer after the initial well after the initial news that they were supposed to be there for eight days and would be there for a year and a half, they didn't know that they'd be coming home sooner rather than later.
After that is so ended an interview.
Anderson Cooper specifically did an interview with them last night, which actually.
Was gravity is really really tough. It was delightful. They seem in great spirits.
They describe the uh, they describe what they are expecting when they come home, and Butch Wilmore actually laid out sort of the timeline that they expect. So actually coming up at eleven twenty, we're going to talk about that interview and how they have been dealing with the fact that they've been abandoned, although they've not been abandoned, but I'm just saying that it was not what they were planning.
They were planning the what was it, the eight day trip and it turns into Gilligan's Island in space.
Coming up next, we'll be talking about the whale swallowing the kayaker. I just watched the video. It looks so peaceful, doesn't it, the way the whale just swallows them. One fell swoop yep.
They never hear you scream when you get swallowed by a.
Way, very peaceful, serene waters, beautiful day to kayak.
Well, it was like, thankfully he didn't have enough time in the whale to build a fire.
And make him sneeze like Pinocchio did.
His friend is caught on camera or his dad sounding fine, just pretty matter of fact fine, Like when you hear the pilot that's going down and he's like, yeah, you do it better.
Oh, ladies. And Joel is captain speeding and you figure outside the right side you can actually see it on the left side of the cabin as well, that the ground is approaching it pretty high velocity.
They're so calm. This guy was just as calm watching his kid get swallowed by a whale.
You said the other day that you've spent eight bucks on eggs. Eight bucks on a dozen eggs, about seven seven bucks on a dozen eggs.
Why a correct?
Well, I just feel bad. Eight sounds like a bridge too far.
You'd never spend that much.
There is a new market that is opening up for people who want to, you know, have their own supply of eggs. A guy in Pennsylvania has a business that's called Rent the Chicken. Rent the Chicken. Sorry, it's not a guy, it's Jen Tompkins. She goes by Homestead and Jen she co founded the business with her husband Phil. What they say is they will partner with affiliate farmers across the United States and Canada to get chickens into
your yard. The rental cost varies, but it can start at about five hundred bucks for a six month contract that will include two egg laying hens. They are ready to lay eggs within two days arrival, because usually you got a wait a year. Two hens. They say, we'll give you about a dozen eggs a week. That's about an egg a day.
Hey, listen, I'll pay for this if we can use your backyard.
Why mine?
Because you have a backyard. I do not, and we need eggs and chickens.
I have fewer predatory animals that would eat the I mean we'd have coyotes, though, I think coyotes would come in, but.
We'll put them in a chicken coop.
The rental cost includes the portable coop. See it includes feed for the chicken. It includes food and water. You didn't say experts. If you have questions, you didn't say no. Well, I love fresh eggs, don't get me wrong.
Let's text the wife and see if we can get this ball rolling.
You have her number as well.
There are yeah, but I don't have sex with her, right, But I don't ask dumb questions of my wife.
I try not to. I end up doing it, but I try not to.
There are also packages to get four egg laying hens and supplies, which would be about two dozen eggs per week.
It just struck me what you said.
I'm ruining the day for so many reasons.
Somebody needs to prevent you from stings.
Caffeine suffee, I know that, I apologize.
Wow.
The biggest story of the day I saw it on TikTok the kayaker getting swallowed by the whale.
We'll talk about that we come back.
And how many other times in history have people been swallowed by whales and spit back out?
Oh, it's a thing Jonah in the Bible.
Oh, Pinocchio saved his dad when monstro the sperm whip Moby Dick.
Right, I don't know if he ever ate anybody.
Oh, but he was a whale. Right?
Also great, Yes, he was a whale. And Shamoo, Shamoo was a whale. Free Willy Willy was a whale.
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI AM six forty.
The first Shamou was a female orca captured in what year? Would you say, sixty four, sixty five?
I'm not a dummy. Here's that look again. There's that look again. You say something and you're like Addie is a baba. How do you even possibly know that that's a real place.
I think it's a human thing for us to think that other people think the way we think, even though I know other people do not think the way that I think. I hope not, but I still think that that is a reflex that we have, Like, wow, you knew that. I would not have guessed nineteen sixty five or four. I mean know exactly do you know when the first Shamood died? You have that year pulled up seventy eight, seventy one. Oh well, and you don't know everything, do you?
Bub bub.
There is a video that's been going around about a humpback whale that swallowed a kayaker off of Chilean Patagonia before quickly going.
What was that and spitting them right back the whole kayak.
The kayak, the kayaker, the whole kayak is just swallowed.
It's the most appeared.
It's a peaceful video. The kayaker is there. The waves, it's not silk. They're a little choppy, but not too bad. And it's just shot at like water level, like another kayaker is maybe six yards away from this kayaker, and the whale just comes up and silently swallows the entire thing and then spits them back out quietly. You don't even see it, and he just bobs up above the water.
Adrian Simonkis was kayaking with his father Dell, near the Sandy Seagra Lighthouse and the Strait of Magel and when a humpback whale surfaced, it engulfed Adrian and his yellow kayak before for a few seconds. Dell, the dad, captures the whole thing on video while very calmly encouraging his son to stay just as calm, Adrian said, I thought I was dead. I thought it had eaten me, that
it had swallowed me. He was afraid that the huge animal was gonna then hurt his father, or that he was going to die out there in the cold water. Dell remained focused, literally filming and reassuring his son while trying to figure out what was about to happen to the boat.
So the camera, I will say, this is mounted on the dad's kayak, so he's not holding it. It just so happens that it is mounted on their in case they I don't know.
See a whale out there.
I guess probably doing some whale watching, but that did trouble me that the dad was still filming, like what are you doing? But that's not the case. It's that it was a mounted phone or camera.
In Jonah two to one, we hear the story big. Biblical scholars have suggested the size and the habits of a great white shark correspond better to the representations of what happened to Jonah. Normally, an adult human would be too large to be swallowed whole.
It's not physically possible for a whale to swallow a human. They can put you in their mouth.
But not but they're not. That's where it ends. Geppetto got stuck in Monstro. He was a giant sperm whale. And Pinocchio had the idea to start a fire to make them sneeze.
If you chair, look the.
Chair, we'll make them.
And then they get on the little boat and the monstro sneezes.
And they didn't that sound painful for that whale in that story.
That he had a fire in his belly, yeah, and the wood and the wood well, I mean they had he had an entire ship in there.
Remember he got swallowed. It was a very big whale.
So whales, they say have huge mouths, but a whale's throat is a lot smaller than you would expect, essentially the size of a human fist.
In fact, that's it.
Yeah, So if you get hey, this is a good story, this is news you can use, folks. You get eaten by a whale, you ain't going anywhere. You're just gonna hang out there until he's done. I still would feel like that uncomfortable place. It would be uncomfortable, but you're not going to be eaten. I guess, well, you're not gonna be swallowed, right, I guess you could be chomp, chomp, chomped.
Be not all of those whales, like a humpback whale doesn't eat. What kind of tea theory working with? I think it's one of those what do they call the screen where they filter through and get the plankton and stuff bleen?
Is that what it's called? Yes, I believe it is.
Uh.
I think a humpback whale in fact eats that way. They don't like how do you spell baileen?
Be?
Still has no substance, no substance, but I don't think I think probably the tone shaped see it is a bileen whale.
Cone shaped teeth whales.
I don't know. I just don't know. We've lost it.
We'll come back and we'll do some swamp watch and then the Abandoned Astronauts they say they're not abandoned, and in fact they have some plans and they have some really great senses of humor. And we'll talk about the interview that they did, which was very pleasant actually to watch last night. Yeah, and if you use any part of this absolutely substanceless show, you can always go back and listen to the podcast. Anywhere you find your favorite podcast, just type in Gary and Shannon.
Wait, so what's the difference between balleen and.
Teeth that I don't I can't describe it quickly. But teeth are for teeth, teeth are for chewing stuff up. Billan is just like a filter that catches all of the little plankton and stuff.
Like a filter, Like it looks like an air filter. Yes, yeah, now I see what you're talking about.
It's more likely just back whale goes fascinating that in my mouth?
Isn't that fascinating?
No, you've been listening to the Gary and Shannon Show.
You can always hear us live on KFI Am six forty nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday, and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.