SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America KQED

Climate change is intensifying wet periods across California - untaming waterways humans corralled with dirt and concrete.  When the river comes for your town, what do you do, how do you adapt? Is abandoning life in the floodplain the only real option? We follow the Escutia family, starting on the night that a flood swallowed their hometown, and for months afterward, as they searched for an affordable home on higher ground.

Whether it’s severe heat, fires, or floods, people experiencing homelessness are on the bleeding edge of the climate emergency. We follow the story of one woman who is trying to keep herself and her adult son alive on the blistering streets of Fresno, California. We hear from advocates pushing lawmakers to find solutions, and creating their own. And ask, how is climate change forcing us to rethink our response to homelessness?

A quarter of California’s carbon emissions come from homes and buildings -- from the appliances we use to keep ourselves warm and our families fed. Replacing gas powered appliances with electric ones is one way to make a big impact, but the process is slow and expensive. We head to a neighborhood in Oakland that is taking a revolutionary approach to reducing their emissions: by electrifying together, all at once. We talk to the gung ho enthusiasts and the holdouts and explore the roadblocks to success.

What if there was a way that California could build the housing it needs and drastically cut carbon emissions at the same time? City planners and environmentalists say this unicorn does exist: transit-oriented housing. It sounds great in theory, but in practice, it’s more complicated. This episode explores how one California city, built around cars, is trying to create a different future. We’ll examine how the perfect solution for climate change forces us to rethink the American dream of the detached single family home and the SUV.

When a flood or fire swallows someone’s home, insurance can provide some stability, and prevent a plunge into poverty. But as insurance companies pull out of California that promise is melting away. In this episode we discover what happens to home insurance as wildfires get worse and what we can do to improve the outlook. And we meet two families living with the consequences of this uncertain future.

Growing up in California's Sierra Nevada foothills, wildfire has always been part of Sold Out host Erin Baldassari’s consciousness. Her earliest memory is fleeing a fire as it bore down on her childhood home. At the time, it was the state’s third largest wildfire, but now it doesn’t even rank in the top 20. As she considers moving back, she explores what it means to live in an area with known and pronounced climate risk. The question for all of us on the frontlines of climate change is: how do we adapt when our memories of a place are constantly clashing with new realities?