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Innovating on the Frontlines: The FireTech Podcast

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by Shefali J Lakhina

10 episodes

Updated Weekly

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Podcast Overview

Welcome to the FireTech Podcast! Season 1: Innovating on the Frontlines (2024), delivers insights from innovators on the frontlines of the wildfire crisis in America. Host Shefali J Lakhina asks how innovation unfolds in public agencies tasked with wildfire preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery. We speak with fire captains and operators from across the country to understand innovation cycles and early adopter perspectives on FireTech. The four episodes offer a deep dive into agency and user experiences with co-developing and deploying technology on the frontlines. We aim to spotlight what the innovation cycle looks like for boots on the ground and what kind of FireTech is useful, usable, and actually used on the frontlines of the wildfire crisis in America right now. Season 2: Partnerships on the Frontlines (2025), examines the emerging dynamics of public-private-people partnerships (4Ps) in building wildfire resilience. Through four conversations with community partners and technical leads, we examine how diverse partners cultivate trust, accountability, and responsiveness to shared wildfire resilience goals on the frontlines. We uncover what responsible innovation for wildfire resilience entails, particularly as it relates to co-developing useful and usable innovations that can amplify capacities on the ground.

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Publishing Since

4/26/2024

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Recent Episodes

December 10, 2025

Partnerships on the Frontlines: Grand County and Flash Forest

The FireTech Podcast Season 2 (2025) examines emerging dynamics of public-private-people partnerships (4Ps) in building wildfire resilience. Through conversations with community partners and technical leads, host Shefali Lakhina examines how diverse partners cultivate trust, accountability, and responsiveness to shared wildfire resilience goals on the frontlines. In this episode host Shefali Lakhina speaks with Jessica Rahn, Executive Director of Grand County Wildfire Council, Colorado, and Marc Apduhan, Innovation and Business Development Manager with Flash Forest, a regenerative startup based in Canada. Matched as part of Conservation X Labs’ Fire Grand Challenge (2025), Jessica and Marc have been working to replant landscapes impacted by the East Troublesome Fire in 2020. Flash Forest is helping Grand County explore how drones guided by AI can distribute seed pods for replanting. Jessica has a background in Human Resources Management with a Masters in Organizational Leadership from Regis University. She became interested in wildfire mitigation, education, and prevention after losing her home in the East Troublesome Fire in 2020, joining the Wildfire Council's Education Committee as a volunteer in April of 2023. Jessica is honored to be a part of moving this important work forward for the community. Grand County Wildfire Council (GCWC) is a non-profit, community-based wildfire education and mitigation program for the residents and visitors of Grand County, Colorado. https://bewildfireready.org/ Marc has over thirteen years in the environmental space, where he has worked in water and wastewater treatment, contaminated site remediation, and post-fire drone reforestation. He is currently the Innovation and Business Development Manager for Flash Forest, where his focus is on inter-organizational projects to enhance technologies in site suitability software, seedpod biotechnology, and drone/land hardware deployment systems to improve post-fire restoration efforts. His background is in Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of British Columbia. Flash Forest’s advanced reforestation automation technology merges UAV, AI, GIS, engineering, silviculture and plant science to scale reforestation to meet the growing demands of private and public partners across North America. https://www.flashforest.com/our-tech

October 26, 2025

Partnerships on the Frontlines: COCO and Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition

The FireTech Podcast Season 2 (2025) examines emerging dynamics of public-private-people partnerships (4Ps) in building wildfire resilience. Through conversations with community partners and technical leads, host Shefali Lakhina examines how diverse partners cultivate trust, accountability, and responsiveness to shared wildfire resilience goals on the frontlines. In this episode Shefali speaks with Jeff Ravage from Coalitions and Collaboratives (COCO) and Anissa Watson from the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition. They’re working on the Cold Fire Project, a fungi-powered solution to the wildfire crisis. Jeff is the Chief Technology and Science Officer for Coalitions and Collaboratives, a Colorado-based NGO focusing on all aspects of fire, WUI communities, and ecological restoration. He is a researcher in forest mycology and works closely with the Denver Botanic Gardens Sam Mitchell Herbarium of Fungi. Jeff is actively involved in work on carbon offset protocols and consults on biomass utilization and carbon policy for municipalities and agencies. He has lectured and presented papers all around the U.S.A. on fungal techniques for ecological restoration. He actively promotes novel methods of forest mitigation and restoration to achieve the goals of forest health and longevity; much of which is outlined in his book: “The Green Evolution”. He’s always willing to sit down over a frothy drink and discuss forest ecology, lignicolous saprophytes, or aposematic anurans. Anissa is the Director of Program Execution at the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition in British Columbia, Canada. Anissa brought her children to Gitxsan Lax Y’ip in 2006 and set down deep roots. Along with being a mom of four incredible humans, Anissa is a community organizer at heart. Connecting with people and seeking local solutions to big and small issues is a driving force in her work. As an active community member herself, Anissa is a volunteer firefighter, a women’s self defense instructor, a small time farmer, a soil nerd, river guide, and solo adventurer.

September 22, 2025

Partnerships on the Frontlines: San Juan Islands Conservation District and Envisioning Labs

The FireTech Podcast Season 2 (2025) examines emerging dynamics of public-private-people partnerships (4Ps) in building wildfire resilience. Through four conversations with community partners and technical leads, we examine how diverse partners cultivate trust, accountability, and responsiveness to shared wildfire resilience goals on the frontlines. In this episode we speak with Kai Hoffman-Krull from the San Juan Islands Conservation District, and Jayden Alp from Envisioning Labs. Together, they’re working to pilot FireLance––a multifaceted sensor technology that provides real-time, continuous monitoring of prescribed fires to detect and prevent lingering hotspots and re-ignitions. Kai is a certified NRCS Natural Resource Planner and has founded and managed the field restoration program, the Islands Conservation Corps, since 2019. Kai studied forestry and literature at Yale University, where he also received a certificate in Business Plan Development from the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute. He serves as an adjunct faculty member at the Western Washington University College of the Environment, and has coordinated research projects in forestry with the University of Washington, University of Montana, and Oregon State University since 2014. He has co-authored peer-reviewed articles in Biogeochemistry and Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Environment, and has written extensively for publications such as Growing for Market, Civil Eats, New Society Publishing, The Sound Consumer, Rodale Institute, and Stone Pier Press. Kai is also a Washington State Certified Burner and a US Forest Service C-Level Sawyer, and holds on foundational interest in integrating academic, cultural, and field based knowledge. Jayden Alp is the Communications and Engagement Manager at Envisioning Labs, a Vancouver-based climate innovation and R&D firm. She is the Project Lead for Firelance, the company’s wildfire technology initiative and a finalist in Conservation X Labs’ Fire Grand Challenge. With a background in sustainability and community engagement, Jayden is based in Vernon, BC. Get in touch at info@envisioninglabs.com.

10 total episodes available with 5 transcripts

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What is Innovating on the Frontlines: The FireTech Podcast?: Welcome to the FireTech Podcast!

Season 1: Innovating on the Frontlines (2024), delivers insights from innovators on the frontlines of the wildfire crisis in America. Host Shefali J Lakhina asks how innovation unfolds in public agencies tasked with wildfire preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery. We speak with fire captains and operators from across the country to understand innovation cycles and early adopter perspectives on FireTech. The four episodes offer a deep dive into agency and user experiences with co-developing and deploying technology on the frontlines. We aim to spotlight what the innovation cycle looks like for boots on the ground and what kind of FireTech is useful, usable, and actually used on the frontlines of the wildfire crisis in America right now.

Season 2: Partnerships on the Frontlines (2025), examines the emerging dynamics of public-private-people partnerships (4Ps) in building wildfire resilience. Through four conversations with community partners and technical leads, we examine how diverse partners cultivate trust, accountability, and responsiveness to shared wildfire resilience goals on the frontlines. We uncover what responsible innovation for wildfire resilience entails, particularly as it relates to co-developing useful and usable innovations that can amplify capacities on the ground.
How often does this podcast release new episodes?: This podcast updates weekly.
Where can I listen to this podcast?: This podcast is available on 6 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
Does this podcast accept guests?: Information about guest appearances is not available.

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