@DrWendyWalsh is talking with Adam Wolfson, iHeartMedia (Personal story) Lost his home, businesses, and children’s schools.

Guest: Adam Wolfson, iHeartMedia (Personal story, Lost his home, businesses, and children’s schools. Guest: Dr. Joel Gator, Integrative Pediatrician, How to talk to your kids about wildfires.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Doctor Wendy Walsh and you're listening to KFI
AM six forty the Doctor Wendy wallsh Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app. Welcome to the Doctor Wendy Walls
Show on KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the
iHeartRadio App. I want you to stay close to KFI.
During the next two hours. We are going to be
talking a little bit about what's going on within the

(00:23):
aftermath of the fires. And I have a physician coming
on talking about if the air quality really is that
dangerous or not, and are we supposed to be wearing masks,
and how we should be talking to our kids about wildfires,
whether we're in the wildfire zone or not. And a

(00:43):
guest coming up who sadly lost a lot home businesses,
kids lost schools, et cetera, and yet he's staying positive
through this. A reminder, I have a PhD in clinical psychology.
I am a professor, not a therapist, but I've been
obsessed by the science of love. I've written three books

(01:04):
on relationships. So we will begin to get back into
our regular content of relationships. But don't worry, because when
we go to the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. We
will be keeping you abreast of everything that's happening in
the fires and news of the inauguration tomorrow. Speaking of which,
I heard that the CEO of TikTok has been invited

(01:28):
to actually sit on the dais. That's quite an honored
place at President Trump's inauguration. So what does this mean.
We'll have to find out tomorrow. A little bit of
relationship news. Simone Biles, the Olympic athlete, the gymnast. Her
husband says, finally that she's a better athlete in the relationship.

(01:51):
He's a football player, right, but not even like one
of the top top football players, he says, I'm not
doing any backflips. This is important for one reason that
he came out publicly to say this, that they say
that when she won her gold medals, he was wearing
the medals and showing off on social media, and the

(02:11):
internet was attacking him and saying he wasn't supporting her
enough and whatever. Anyway, they're still together, they're still happy,
they're still cute, and now he's coming out saying she's
a better athlete and he's not doing any bax flips.
If you've been following celebrity divorces. Jessica Alba and Cash
Warren's divorce is hot and heavy. What's at stake well,

(02:35):
honest company, that she owns, a big Beverly Hills mansion
and a lot more. But there's something else I think
that many people in Los Angeles may be dealing with
when it comes to their relationship in the months and
indeed years ahead, and that is those that have lost
things in the fire. It might it might trigger a

(02:59):
wave of divorces. Now stay with me here, I'm not
saying like they married each other for the money and
now that the stuff is not there, although there could
be a few relationships with that is a fact. But
it is the stress, right. If a relationship is an
exchange of care, that's all it is. It's an exchange
of care, and sometimes that can be financial care, or

(03:20):
sexual care or what have you. But in a time
of great trauma and stress, people's survival skills come out
big time. And if a relationship has been a little
bit rocky before, you know, in the back of the
brain one of the partners been doing the should I
stay or should I go? Thing, then this might be
the tipping point for them. And also how the couple

(03:45):
handles the stress soars ahead. It's almost unimaginable. And I
do caution everybody to not make any rash decisions. If
you're thinking that your relationship is failing you at this time.
Remember that people respond to stress and too for ways. Right,
some people shut down. Some people need to talk about

(04:05):
things all the time, and they feel like their partner's
shutting them out. But they're dealing with trauma in their
own way, right. So, but I want to remind everybody,
this is the second major crisis that we have seen
in this decade. The COVID nineteen twenty twenty one went
on and on epidemic. Pandemic that caused us to be quarantined.

(04:29):
Caused a lot of relationship stress as well. People who
were supposedly happily married when they actually had to spend
wall to wall time with their partner went, oh my goodness.
So imagine if you've lost your home and you're having
to spend wal to wall time with your partner and
kids and dogs and cats in a hotel room or something.

(04:50):
I heard a story this week. This is wild. Somebody
their ex wife because you know they share kids. Just
many years ago and they're amicable. So this friend of mine,
she's remarried, her ex husband is remarried, and the ex
husband calls her and says, our house burned down. Can
we come live with you? Because remember the kids are

(05:12):
in their early twenties. They kind of go between their
parents' houses anyway, So this would be like coming home
to where the kids are all fine, except that my
friend is a cat lover, and my friend are you
sitting down for this? Has four cats? I know, I know.
And then when her ex husband comes back, he brings
six cats. Okay, and the six new cats cannot go

(05:36):
outside because they don't know the neighborhood. They'll be eaten
by coyotesilla disappear. So we are talking about a house
full of cat peet. That's all I can say. Ten cats,
ten cats. You know, I just couldn't imagine it, could
not imagine it. But these are the kinds of stress
source that people are experiencing. And I don't mean to
make light of the real tragedy that people have been

(05:58):
experiencing here in Last Angelus, but sometimes it's something as
simple as that, living in a small space with ten
cats and your exes. People are doing enormous, amazing things. Anyway,
it'll be fun and interesting to see what happens in
the relationship landscape. All right, let us go to somebody

(06:19):
whose marriage is not suffering, people who have really bonded
together during this tragedy. I have a very special guest
joining us when we come back. You are listening to
the Doctor Wendy wallsh Show on KFI AM six forty.
We're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio App.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
You're listening to Doctor Wendy Walsh on demand from KFI
AM six forty.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
Welcome back to the Doctor Wendy Walls Show on KFI
AM six forty, Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio App. We
never stop talking about these fires, and we're not going
to until every Angelina is safe, until the new prop
problems that are surfacing because of the loss of people's homes,

(07:05):
because of the air quality, because of the schools damaged.
We are going to continue to stay on top of
this story, and for many people, this story isn't just
a spectator sport. This is personal. I would like to
welcome somebody who is in our very own iHeart family,

(07:28):
Adam Wilson. Adam, thank you for being with us.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
I invited you as a guest because your story is heartbreaking.
Your family has lost their home to the fires, you
have lost two separate businesses as I understand, and your
three children have lost their schools. First of all, how
are you doing?

Speaker 4 (07:52):
I'm doing. You know, if you see me in the
office and you ask me how I'm doing, I always
say the same thing. I say, I'm doing great. I'd
be lying to say I'm doing great, but we're doing
the best we can were you, and I just want
to I just want to make sure our house is
actually one of the very few that is standing.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
It is standing, But now we're hearing there are no
utilities and everything's covered exist.

Speaker 4 (08:17):
So they're saying nine months to a year their houses
around us are all desecrated across the streets. Even if
it was even if we go back in, there's I mean,
there's no reason to go there. There's no utilities, there's
nothing to say. It's a carcass of a town. So
it's like it's it's an you know, and I'm very
big on positivity and mental health. So if I have
to drive through that town every day to go to work,

(08:37):
I couldn't handle that. We did. We did lose two
of our yogurt shops that we own in town. And
that's another whole micro climate of an economy where all
these employees are now out of a job.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
Yeah, I think it's important that we understand. So I
have a twenty one year old daughter and she works
as a licensed esthetician. Well, of course the SPA closed immediately,
and then she was told this weekend she has no
hours because no one's booking SPA appointments in the middle
of alls. And so, yes, we're talking about lots of

(09:09):
hardworking people working for eighteen dollars minimum wage who are
trying her scrambling, trying to figure out how to survive.
So it's not just about the affluent people in houses,
it's this whole economy that happens as a result. How
many employees did you have at your two yogurt shops?

Speaker 4 (09:27):
So to break it down, we had four yogurt chops total,
two in Pacific Palisades, one in Brentwood, and one in
Santa Monica. The two inist of Palastaines had burned down,
and we share employees throughout all four locations. Our Brentwood
location which was a drop center for the Dream Center
that we've been promoting, was then evacuated because of the

(09:47):
fires in the canyon, and that one was also looted
and now there's no power to the shop for the
next thirty days, is what we're being told. And because
that one was looted and machines were broken and our
POS system was taken, we had to take everything from
our Santa Monica location, which is not as big of
a location, to put into our Brentwood location, which we

(10:08):
shouldn't have done because you know, Brentwood has no power anyway.
So our seventeen employees are now really unemployed, but I'm
still paying them out of my pocket for the next
I'm going to try and do sixty days as much
as I can afford. I just can't don't know how
much I can afford. So it's just it's a challenge
right now. And it's really sad my wife is now

(10:29):
because as most people now have one claim on their home,
we have the one claim on our house plus the
four claims on our shops. We have five claims Dons Insurance.

Speaker 5 (10:38):
Wow, and that is going to be a slow ride
trying to get those claims settled, and last week I
had a guest on who had lost her home in
the fire, and.

Speaker 1 (10:48):
She said, finding somewhere to live is like an episode
of the Hunger Games. Where are you guys living and
what's your plan for the next year.

Speaker 4 (10:57):
The plan I would say to you is what I
tell every else and is yes, we plan on living
where we don't know. So right now, my family is
in Ventura County because my family was in the fire
in Pasofic Palaces Highlands where it started, so they were

(11:18):
in a sheltered place because of the fires, so they
couldn't leave. And then down to the bottom of our
street is where the bulldozed cars were.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
If you remember.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
That, that was my favorite video. Sorry, I thought it
was pretty well.

Speaker 4 (11:31):
Yeah yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (11:32):
We're up up the street from there.

Speaker 4 (11:34):
So my family couldn't leave, and they finally got a twenty
minute window where they could leave. So I was in
my car with my youngest daughter picking her up from
school because they were being evacuated my older two kids,
who are sixteen and fourteen. We're still off from the
holiday break at Pally High right well, no, right high right,
right right right. Marquees Elementary has also gone so we
just went north to try to get away from the fires,

(11:55):
and we're sitting in Ventura now for the next thirty days,
so hopefully kind of wade out what happening because we
still need to be on the West side because of sports. Yeah,
so we're just waiting out what's happening with all of
those rentals. It's just it's insane. We don't We're taking
it literally hour by hour and day by day with
figuring out what our next step is. So I have

(12:18):
a very similar response of like, yes, where you're living,
what are you doing? How are you doing?

Speaker 1 (12:22):
And I just say, yes, yeah, we're managing day by day,
and you know, at least you know people say this,
but at least you guys have the resources to have
insurance policies to exactly the ability to form fill and
know what you're doing. There's so many people in Los
Angeles with no safety net, those families in Alta Dina.

(12:44):
I remember reading one report in the New York Times
about a woman who for some reason decided it was
a safety issue that she wanted to keep all her
savings in cash in her house. Oh God, and the
house was burned down. So that's why people contributing. I
do want to say that people have been very generous

(13:06):
as much as they possibly can around Los Angeles. I
think our did. I read in one of our corporate
emails that just our our dream center alone has been
donated six million dollars and there.

Speaker 4 (13:17):
Was a nice there was a nice amount.

Speaker 3 (13:19):
Yet yeah, nice.

Speaker 4 (13:20):
I don't know the exact number. I think the other
challenge is that we're consistently getting from friends, family, and
from all of these corporations around the country of opportunities
to help us out. And I think it gets very
by the way, amazingly, so it does get overwhelming. It's like,
what am I missing? And I get emails and texted

(13:41):
my friends. Have you looked into FEMA for this? Have
you looked into FEMA for that? Have you looked into
your internce for this? Have you looked to you in
terns for that? It's very, very overwhelming, and it's like
we're not versed in this right so hard. We're literally
taking on a new career out of nowhere, and I
kind of have that fear of missing out on what
am I not capitalizing on.

Speaker 3 (14:03):
So to speak? Because of this? But as a capitalize
I mean, like what.

Speaker 4 (14:08):
Assistance. Am I not thinking about or are going towards?

Speaker 1 (14:11):
Yeah, you're finding what your brain. Your neurotransmitters are exploding,
by the way, and your brain is growing. So Adam,
can you say for another segment, I want to talk
specifically about your kids and how you've talked to them
about this. Later in the show, we have an integrated
pediatric doctor coming on to talk to us about how
we should deal with kids. But I want to hear

(14:32):
the story of your children when we come back. My
guest is Adam Wilson. He is an executive here at iHeartMedia.
Sadly his home is unlivable, his businesses are gone, and
his three children have lost their schools. We will talk
more about this when we come back. You're listening to
the Doctor Wendy Wall Show on KFI AM six forty
Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
You're listening to Doctor Wendy Walsh on demand from KFI
AM six forty Welcome back to.

Speaker 1 (15:01):
The Doctor Wendy Welsh Show on KFI AM six forty
live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. My guest is Adam Wilson.
He is an executive here at iHeartMedia in the fires.
His home is completely unlivable, though standing. However, his three
children lost their schools, he lost businesses. He's trying to

(15:21):
keep his seventeen employees paid for as long as he can. Adam,
how old are your kids?

Speaker 4 (15:28):
My oldest is sixteen, My middle will be fifteen in
a week and a half. Already will be different.

Speaker 3 (15:36):
And we've had a start over.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
And say their names again, because we got caught off
a couple of times. Go ahead, how old are your children?

Speaker 4 (15:43):
My oldest, Casey, she is sixteen, My middle Jesse, he
is about to be fifteen next week. And my youngest,
Jamie is eight.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
Oh you got a little one. So two high schoolers
and one elementary?

Speaker 3 (15:58):
Is that right? Correct?

Speaker 4 (16:00):
The different Pali States high School and Marquez Elementary.

Speaker 1 (16:03):
Let's talk about the differences. First of all, the teenagers,
how are they faring and are they worried about TikTok leaving?

Speaker 2 (16:11):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (16:12):
Right, that's all coming into one month is a lot
for them. As you know, you could have six kids
and all six of them could be completely different. I
have three, and they are all very, very very different.
My oldest is more of your quiet type who internalizes,

(16:33):
and she is very very sad that her friends have
all decided to go to different schools, go to Manhattan Beach,
whereas we're not. We're having her do Zoom school right now,
and she's challenged by that. With the saving graces for
her is that she does volleyball at Santa Monica.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
Social Team social group there.

Speaker 4 (16:54):
Yes, but she has just been doing puzzles and she's
been hanging out with us, and she she is very,
very different. She's more of the emotional one, and you know,
it's not easy to get her feelings out of her.
But we're making sure that we're asking her what do
you need, how are you doing, and what can we
do to help? We are pushing her a little bit

(17:16):
in situations where she doesn't want to necessarily get out
of the house to go be with us because she's like,
she'd rather hang out with her friends. Of course, that's
the little bit.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
This is the age. So I'm a professor of developmental
psychology and in this teenage time, their peer group becomes
the stepping stone away from parents, right, And that's why
in teenage peer groups, they walk the same they wear
the same jeans, they wear the same shoes. They are
creating group affiliation and safety, and it's a stepping stone
of a secure base before they move on to adult

(17:47):
intimate relationships. Right, and so it is everything their teenager
they also have I should let you know, which you
probably know because your kids roll their eyes at you
all the time. They have a heightened sense of an
imaginary audience that everyone is looking and that yeah, dad,
you're so awkward. Oh don't say that, right, that's what

(18:09):
they say, because they're imagining that everyone's judging. Now, social
media only exacerbates that. Because social media is an audience,
they can actually see that, you know, hundreds of thousands
of people who liked or didn't like or commented, so
it makes it worse. I do think that the best
thing for her is to be able to find surrogate

(18:29):
ways to talk to her friends, and I'm sure she's
doing that with text and FaceTime and zooming with her friends.
But being able to inside her head still feel part
of her original peer group will actually be more healing
than parents going how you feeling today.

Speaker 4 (18:48):
I don't want to talk to you, Well, I'll give
you I'll give you a prime example. Her best friend
moved to Manhattan Beach, and my daughter said, oh, let
me come over Friday night, and she's, oh, I have
plans with we're some new friends.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
Oh yeah, because she's trying to make her new peer great.

Speaker 2 (19:04):
Right.

Speaker 4 (19:05):
How much of a punch on the gut is that?

Speaker 1 (19:07):
Yes? Oh my gosh, how's your fourteen year old boy doing.
Boys are so different, they usually try to get their
feelings out physically different.

Speaker 4 (19:17):
He is very very similar to me. He is so funny.
He's like, hey, dad, we have insurance, so I can
buy anything. Right, it doesn't work like that, but so
he is more of the everlasting dreamer positive. He's very
very similar to me.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
But think about what that sentence really said. What he
was really saying is dead, You'll still be able to
take care of me. Right, I'm safe dead, right?

Speaker 4 (19:46):
You know I didn't even look into it like that.

Speaker 3 (19:47):
You're right.

Speaker 4 (19:48):
He just looks into the silver linings of things, just
like I do, whereas my wife internalizes things like my daughter,
my oldest daughter. And he has been coming to work
with me, yeah, because it's a long drive. And then
also but when it comes to work with me, his
friends are coming to Burbank. He's able to go to
uh see, take his girlfriend who now lives in Oceanside

(20:10):
because she's her house burned down, his best friend's house.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
They've really scattered, these teenagers.

Speaker 3 (20:14):
Haven't they have.

Speaker 4 (20:15):
We have friends in Seattle now, we have friends in
tow Now. It's everywhere, Doctor Walsh. It's literally there everywhere.
It's so crazy. But I sent him and his girlfriend
over to Universal the other day so they could just
get out of Yeah, just to get out of.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
You know, once my kids aged out of me, needing
to overlook them, look over them. I used to drop
them off at Universal for the day all the time,
and I go to one of the hotels there and
work on my computer all day. Right, right, So let's
talk about your baby before we go. You've got an
eight year old. What's that you're going through?

Speaker 4 (20:48):
I just want to make one coment. It's two older
ones like to them, this is so reminiscent of COVID
for them. Yes, they've been here before where it's like, oh, okay,
I'm going to Zoom school. I'm not gonna see my
friends every single day. So they're like, oh, this is
this is this is actually light. This happened since this
has happened now twice in their lives and they're only fifteen, sixteen,

(21:10):
and fourteen, so this is life for them. My eight
year old, who is you know, three at the time,
doesn't remember COVID. She is. Two of her friends happen
to be here, so she's seeing them. There's a school
down the street that we're like, can we just enroll you?
And she's a really really avid soccer player. She's really
really great, so they're gonna put her on a team
out here. We're trying to roll her in a school here,
and she's digging your fills and she's more like my

(21:32):
son and I, who's the everlasting optimist. But she's also
a lot more stubborn than my son and I. She's like,
I'm not going to still, no, not happening. So we're again,
we're trying to figure it out. But you know, we're
just we're trying to get listen. We always try to
give our kids love, and we all have. We always
have to give our kids love in different ways. Different
kids experience emotions and need and receive love in different ways,

(21:55):
and we do that. We just have to intensify it
that much more now while trying and by the way,
give each other. My wife and I we're trying to
give each other love and not get at each other's
throats because you know, there's so many emotions happening. And
when you're in your regular home and you have emotions happening,
you can go for a walk and talk to your friends.

(22:15):
You can't do that right now. I mean you could,
you could talk to them over the phone, but it's
hard to talk to them about your emotions when they're
dealing with the same thing exactly.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
And the kids come first. So I do want to
say my only parting words would be and I know
how difficult it do is because you're not in your home,
but to try to creep as much structure as possible
because it's so reassuring, like this is school time. Now
you go on zoom, this is meal time, this is playtime,
even for adults. When I during COVID, I did a
presentation to some of the iHeart employees on productivity and

(22:47):
things like don't drag if anyone's working from home remotely listen,
don't drag your computer around the house. Have one space
where your body knows this is the work space, even
if it's one share in the dining room. And when
you eat, move to a different share. So keep structure
and keep place for each activity will help the brain
make sense of things. Adam, I'm so sorry that your

(23:09):
family is going through this. You know you're not alone
and luckily you're part of the iHeart family and hopefully
you will get the care from your employers as well.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for being on the show.
I really appreciate it, my pleasure. You're listening to the
Doctor Wendy Walls Show on KFI AM six forty live
everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
You're listening to Doctor Wendy Walsh on demand from KFI
AM six forty Welcome back.

Speaker 1 (23:37):
To the Doctor Wendy Walls Show on KFI AM six
forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. My next guest,
Doctor Joel Walsh, is a Board certified pediatrician in LA.
He specializes in parenting, wellness, and integrative medicine. I gotta
tell you he's also a Canadian like I am, and
he's got degrees in some interesting things kinesiologies, collegey, epidemiology,

(24:01):
and then he went on to medical school. Hi, doctor Walsh,
how are you.

Speaker 3 (24:05):
I'm great, I'm great. Thank you for having me on.

Speaker 1 (24:08):
I noticed when I was reading your bio that a
few months ago we had your wife, Sarah Intelligator, that's
really her name in Delligator, and she's believes in holistic divorce.
She's a divorce attorney and talked about how to prevent divorce.
And at the time that she was on our show,
she was pregnant. I didn't know she was married to

(24:28):
a pediatrician. That's convenient. Congratulations on your baby, Thank.

Speaker 3 (24:33):
You, thank you so much. And yes, that is her
real name. We get that all the time. And that's
actually where I got my nickname doctor Gator from. It's
actually from her people, and you know, it's kind of
funny and it's more memorable.

Speaker 1 (24:43):
So doctor Gator, Doctor Joel Gator, I love it. Let's
talk a little bit about the trauma going on in
our city right now. I see a lot of people
wearing masks. I drove to iHeart Studios and the the
sky was blue all the way up the four h five.

(25:03):
I'm gonna admit I have not been wearing a mask.
If the air looks clean, do we need to wear
a mask?

Speaker 3 (25:11):
So it's a great question, and a lot of people
are debating and discussing this right now. I've certainly had
a ton of questions from parents, a lot of concerned
conversations in the office, and I think it does come
down a little bit to your personal beliefs on this.
I think that well, first of all, I live in
Los Angeles too. I'm more on the east side. I

(25:32):
was closer to the eating fire. I'm just in the
Fridge area, and so we had to evacuate. Luckily, it
didn't quite make it open to our area, but we
did have to evacuate for that first weekend, and we
went down south for a little bit just to get
some cleaner air. When I was in the area on Friday,
the air was pretty black. It was the air quality

(25:52):
was pretty rough, and so we decided to get out.
Then the air quality has improved significantly, and for most
of Los Angeles if you look at the air Qualt,
the index is actually pretty good, mostly in the green,
So I mean that part is good. The question really
is around the air that the air quality that we're
not measuring. So there are very specific things that the

(26:13):
air quality Index measures, but it does not look at
some of the things that are burnt in buildings or cars,
like lead or and that's really where where the concern is.
So obviously it's better if you know you're driving down,
you're looking outside and it's blue in the sky. That's
a good thing. But there are potentially some things in
the air, So that's where the debate is around. But

(26:36):
how concerned do you need to be and how much
of an effect will this have on you? And then
for how long? Which is done exact answer, but we
can certainly talk about the discussion if you wanted to
go into it a little bit more so?

Speaker 1 (26:48):
Am I hearing there are invisible things in the air
and maybe I should be wearing an N ninety five
when I'm outside? What would your recommendation be, doctor, I'm.

Speaker 3 (26:58):
Not personally wearing a nty five where I am. I
think it depends on where you are and what you
feel comfortable doing. There are certainly some individuals in public
health that are recommending it. It does work, I mean,
certainly does help to decrease the particulates that you're breathing.
The question really is if you need to or not.

(27:19):
I would say, you know, as like a fireman, if
you're going into fires all day, you're right in the zone,
then yes, that you want to be wearing something that
that filters that out. If you are miles away from
any fire, it's been a week since any fire has
been burning, and buildings near you, probably your risk is
quite low. At this point. A lot of the particular
matter will hit the ground. It doesn't necessarily all travel

(27:40):
that far, and if it's traveling very far, then it's
diffusing into the area. So you're only breathing in a
little bit, and you have to weigh that against breathing
in a mask all day, which has its own chemicals
in it too. So that's where some people. Right, some
people are to wear a mask, and I think that's
fine if you want to a masks in a couple
of days, if you are very sensitive, you know that
might be somebody is more reasonable for them to wear

(28:02):
a mask asthma or you know you have breathing issues
and that that could be reasonable. Or you could just choose,
if you can, if that's available to you, to go away,
you know, for the week, until things even calm down more,
which is what some people did if that's an option
for them. So again, I think I think it comes
down to two personal trends. I don't think we have
to be extremely worried if we're miles away from any
active fire most burning now or in the forest, so

(28:27):
it's not the same risk level as it would be
for a building burning down. So I think, I think
we're at a better place right now, but it's still
good to be cautious. Uh.

Speaker 1 (28:36):
You know, a couple of years ago, I had a
small kitchen fire, but the firefighters came in and they
sprayed this stuff, this gunk over every inch of my apartment.
I was cleaning for days and days and days, and
I felt like a metal taste in my mouth and
something in the back of my throat, and it felt
like it was from the chemicals they put in the thing.
So we should maybe warn people if they are going

(28:59):
back to visit their burned house out house to get things,
should they wear a mask?

Speaker 3 (29:04):
I would say in that case, you probably should, at
least for the beginning. There are absolutely a lot of
you know, dust and chemicals that are sitting on everything,
so it's reasonable to go in and clean it. As
you're cleaning, going to be breathing in a lot more
so that would be likely where your highest risk would be.
So I do think that's reasonable, especially if you're very
close to the fire or your house did have a fire,
then when you're going back, you're right in the zone

(29:26):
where a lot of those particles are going to be
kicked up. So that is reasonable to me to wear
a mask for that period of time. But that, to me,
is very different than somebody who's living five miles away
from any fire that hasn't been going for even you know,
three or four or five days at this point. For you,
that's a different risk than actually being right in the
area that has those particles.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
Understood, So, doctor Joel, you are a pediatrician, but you
specialize in integrative health, which I love. I'm a professor
of health psychology. So we talk about the interaction of
our mental health and our physical health a lot. And
what would you say are the other dangers to physical

(30:06):
health based on maybe the anxiety and fear from the fires?

Speaker 3 (30:13):
Another great question. So that is an absolutely very intelligent
place to come from when we're talking with this, because
also the stress is very bad for you. The likelihood
that breathing in a few chemicals miles away from a
fire that's going to cause any long term issues is
probably pretty small. Given we're breathing in all sorts of
stuff all the time. But if you are extraordinarily stressed

(30:36):
out all day, every day for the next couple of weeks,
that will also have significant impacts on your body as well.
You're probably more likely to get sick, you can have
stomach aches, you don't feel good. Being stressful the time
is not good for you. So I would say that
we need to balance those two things. It's reasonable to
be mindful about what's going on, but if it's making
you overly stressed out, that's not a great thing either.

(30:57):
And I've had parents that are coming in that are
having babies that are breastfeeding that are really really stressed
out about their baby, which is reasonable, but that's going
to have effects on them. It's going to affect their
breast milk, it's going to affect their stress levels, their hormones.
So I do think we need to balance those things
and put into perspective the risk level here, which is
pretty low, especially if you're far away from the fires

(31:17):
at this point, and I would be more concerned about
ongoing stress. And again I go back to if you're
extraordinarily stressed about the air and you have that option,
then you can go away for a couple of days,
come back when the air is a little bit better.
But at least at this point, from where I'm sitting
right now, the air is much much better. I don't
smell anything anymore. I don't even smell the smoke, So

(31:38):
I would say that's by and large, the air is
pretty good. Unless you're really close to the fires.

Speaker 1 (31:43):
That's good news. I do want to talk because you're
a pediatrician. A lot of parents are wondering about how
to talk to their children about wildfires or natural disasters
in general. Can you hang with us through the break
because I want to specifically talk about this subject and
how to deal particularly with small children. My guest is

(32:04):
doctor Joel gaiteror is his nickname, Doctor Gold Joel Gator
Walsh WRSH, and he's a Board certified pediatrician here in
Los Angeles. You're listening to the Doctor Wendy Walls Show
on KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
You've been listening to Doctor Wendy Walsh. You can always

(32:24):
hear us live on KFI AM six forty from seven
to nine pm on Sunday and anytime on demand on
the iHeartRadio app,