Brandon Lamar: Charity or Surrogacy? Seven Months After the Fire — The Politics of Disaster Relief

On this episode of "Conversation Live: Altadena Rising" with James Farr, seven months after the Eaton Canyon fire, who’s helping Altadena — and who’s just putting on a show? Pasadena NAACP President Brandon Lamar joins us to break it down. Neighbors are feeding and housing families with dignity, building systems that work.

Even in success, there are lessons. From Hollywood and political candidates showing up with groceries — charity or political theater? — to fire survivors cast as extras in a campaign commercial, to the slow grind of recovery, Brandon and I explore what sustains a community, what resilience looks like, and what keeps hope alive when the system fails.