Zone Zero
99% Invisible

Zone Zero

B2Upper-intermediateNovember 3, 202637 min
  • Documentary

Across the West, there's a contentious debate playing out over how to adapt homes and neighborhoods to this era of increasingly extreme wildfire risk. In Berkeley, California, it's become a particularly emotional fight because of a very specific architectural history that began all the way back in the 1890s. Emmett Fitzgerald reports on the new rules about what plants you can grow around your house. Check out our previous episode on defensible space: Built to Burn Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-free and a whole week early. <...

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A couple years back, 99PI producer Emmett Fitzgerald created a series called Not Built

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0:00

This is 99% Invisible. I'm Roman Mars. A couple years back, 99PI producer Emmett Fitzgerald created a series called Not Built for This. It was all about how the world we currently live in was not designed for the weather it's starting to experience. Emmett is back this week with an episode that has

0:21

a lot in common with that series, and it takes place very close to 99PI headquarters in Berkeley, California. I'll let Emma take it from here. Michel Thawadi had been dreaming

0:38

of California since childhood. As a little French kid, he was obsessed with cowboys and big mountains and the American West. And so when he finally arrived in Berkeley in 1984,

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