The Brief

Southern California is getting scorched this summer, and we're not alone as high temperature records break across the U.S.

Climate researchers say life-threatening heat waves around the world this year would be "virtually impossible" without the influence of human-caused climate change.

To learn more about what life looks like on a warming planet and how heat affects human health, LAist interviewed author Jeff Goodell. His new book, The Heat Will Kill You First, Life and Death on a Scorched Planet, argues that we need to be taking extreme heat way more seriously.

This conversation with LAist 89.3's Julia Paskin has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Why this book now?

LAist: You've written so many books on this topic. Why did you decide to write this one in particular?

Jeff Goodell: Well, I've been writing about climate change for 10 or 15 years, and I still didn't really understand the sort of risks of heat and heat waves. Then I happened to be walking through downtown Phoenix on a 117 degree day, and I thought I wasn't going to make it to my destination.

My heart started pounding, I started feeling dizzy, and I thought, "Wow. I really didn't even understand how dangerous heat can be." And I realized this was a subject that was worth exploring.

Global warming may sound gentle, but it is not

LAist: You report that as people react to the climate crisis, they don't seem to be concerned especially about avoiding the places where it gets really, really hot. Why do you think that is and why is that a problem?

JG: Well, I think we're very confused about how we talk about heat. I'm a native Californian and I grew up in California. Warm days are nice. You go to the beach, you hang out. Even the phrase "global warming" just sounds like this sort of quiet, gentle thing.

And one of the things that I've come to understand about heat is that it is extremely dangerous, especially as we move into this hotter and hotter climate, which is making these extremes higher and higher. In 2021, in the summer here on the West Coast, there was a heat wave [and] British Columbia was 121 degrees and a town essentially spontaneously combusted.

We're moving into an era where we don't know how extreme it can get and how quickly. And the risk to you and me and to our loved ones and to everything that we know is really misunderstood.

What makes extreme heat so dangerous

LAist: I want to ask you a little bit more locally about some of our most vulnerable areas in Southern California. I'm thinking about predictions for areas like the Inland Empire that are further away from the cooling air of the coast where we're probably going to have a lot more days over 125 degrees for longer periods of time without relief. Can you talk about why that is particularly dangerous and what happens to the body? Why does heat kill you in those kinds of circumstances?

JG: I'm glad you brought this up, because the projections especially for the agricultural regions in the Central Valley really are extreme. And there's this notion that this is not a big deal, we all have air conditioning, just turn up the air conditioning [and] everything's going to be fine.

There's a lot of problems with that, but one of the problems is that people who are working in the fields and who are harvesting our food and growing our food do not have air conditioning. And there are billions of people on the planet who don't have air conditioning. And when it's hot out … Our body temperatures are around 98. And if your temperature goes up to 100, 101, something's wrong. And if it goes up to 105, you're in the emergency room.

LAist: You don't shy away from describing how frightening life on a warming planet is. Tell us a little bit more [about] why you take this more confrontational approach on how real the effects are going to be.

JG: I think that the conversation about climate change has been too gentle. I don't feel like I'm an alarmist at all, but I really think that we do not grasp the scope and scale of the changes that are coming our way, despite the fact that it's been in the news for decades, despite the fact that everybody is more or less familiar with it.

But I'm not talking about climate deniers and things like that. People who think that it's some kind of conspiracy thing run by the Chinese or Bill Gates or whatever. Even people who are relatively educated about the risks of climate change don't really get what's happening. And these extreme heat waves that we're seeing right now are one manifestation of that.

We're moving into a new climate era in which the rules of these extreme events are very unclear and it's getting worse fast and we need to understand that.

Tips and resources

President Donald Trump got more wins in Republican primaries on Tuesday, most notably in Kentucky.

There, Rep. Thomas Massie lost to a Trump-backed candidate after the president and his allies blitzed Massie with tens of millions in ads.

In fact, this was the most expensive House primary in history with $33 million total spent on TV ads and a lot of it aimed at Massie, according to NPR ad-tracking partner AdImpact.

While Trump continues to rack up victories on his vengeance tour, general election opponents are waiting in swing districts and swing states, and Trump is a double-edged sword — popular with the base but unpopular with more than half the country.

Can front-line Republican candidates navigate these choppy waters? And what comes next?

Here are four takeaways from Tuesday night's elections:

1. Trump flexes muscle (again) in Republican primaries 

Trump made it clear again that he's the alpha dog in Republican Party politics.

Massie became the latest, high-profile political casualty Tuesday night. Trump said all he needed was a "warm body" to pluck the thorn-in-Trump's-side that Massie had become.

And in Ed Gallrein, who served in the Navy as a SEAL officer, Trump said he got that warm body — with "a big, beautiful brain." In the end, it wasn't a very close race, a 10-point margin.

Following Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy's primary loss in Louisiana on Saturday, this week has been a punctuation mark on Trump's strength with the party. In addition to Massie and Cassidy losing, another Trump foe, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, also did not advance to a runoff for Georgia governor Tuesday night.

Raffensperger was at the center of the 2020 presidential election controversy in the state when Trump pressured him to overturn the election results there that saw Democrat Joe Biden narrowly win the state. Raffensperger refused to go along and now joins a list of Republicans whose political careers were shortened because GOP voters punished them after their opposition to Trump.

2. Primaries aren't general elections, though. Georgia, in particular, is a good reminder of that

The Senate primaries in Georgia and Alabama were also all about candidates trying to out-MAGA each other. They hugged Trump as closely as possible to get through those contests.

Trump certainly showed his strength in these Republican primaries, but primaries aren't general elections, and Alabama and Georgia, while neighbors, have become very different states. They both have conservative primary electorates, but Alabama is a much more conservative general election state. Georgia is much more purple and has two Democratic senators. One of them, Jon Ossoff, is a top GOP target this fall.

It's worth remembering that, as the Republican primary heads to a runoff between the top two vote-getters on June 16, Trump may be popular with rank-and-file conservative voters, but he's equally, if not more, unpopular with swing voters, according to polls, focus groups and reports. His approval ratings are among the lowest of either of his terms as president, especially on the economy — the top issue for voters. This has been the Trump quandary for Republicans for as long as he's been the leader of the party. Republicans need him to turn out the base, but he's toxic with independents and now with lots of crossover voting groups, who cast ballots for him in 2024, like Latinos, according to polls.

In a general election in a place like Georgia, Republicans have to be careful not to look too extreme, if they want to have a chance of unseating Ossoff in November.

3. Pay attention to the economic messaging by GOP candidates in swing districts

One way to do that is to focus on kitchen-table issues. The economy and prices in particular continue to be voters' top concerns. Let's zoom in on a place where that economic swing-district messaging is going to be tested, one that always seems to be full of bellwethers — Pennsylvania.

There are three congressional races here, in fact, that the Cook Political Report rates as toss-ups. That includes the 7th Congressional District in the Lehigh Valley. It features freshman Republican Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, who will now face off against Democrat Bob Brooks, the state firefighters union president.

Mackenzie's focus has been on the economy — and how he believes he's helped working-class voters. In an ad with about $225,000 behind it, according to AdImpact, Mackenzie stresses that he "voted for working family tax cuts that mean higher wages and lower taxes for working families, no tax on tips and no tax on overtime." He mentions wanting to expand health savings accounts, as well, and keeps a hard line on immigration.

Is that a winning message? It will be tested, as Republicans in these kinds of districts are trudging uphill right now given the national political environment and as Democrats look to flip this district Trump won by 3 points in 2024 and narrowly lost four years earlier. Trump's economic approval ratings are in the 30s, and people are blaming him for higher prices, according to the polls.

Democrats, meanwhile, are promoting Brooks as "one of us" — "a firefighter, snowplow driver, and union leader" who will "stand up to corporate greed and a corrupt political system." It's a left-wing, working-class populist message that will also be tested — as will Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro's political strength in this key presidential state, as he eyes a potential run for higher office in 2028.

4. Trump looks to keep riding high in the saddle — in Texas

Trump looks to finish off a May sweep in the Lone Star State. On Tuesday, Trump made the surprise move of endorsing Ken Paxton, the controversial state attorney general, in the Republican primary runoff against Republican Sen. John Cornyn. Trump had pledged to endorse after Cornyn failed to reach the 50%-plus threshold to win the primary outright.

The smart money was on Trump to endorse Cornyn to avoid a messy, drawn-out primary — and to safely keep this Senate seat in Republican hands. Operatives close to Trump were working for Cornyn, and that seemed to be the way things were headed. But then Paxton came out strongly in support of the SAVE America Act, the voting law that Trump has championed that would require not just voter ID, but birth certificates or passports to register to vote.

That seemed to put a pause on Trump's endorsement of anyone — until Tuesday when Trump flipped the script and went with the uber-MAGA Paxton. Make no mistake: this puts Texas on the map. Texas was seen as a likely much easier win for Republicans in November with Cornyn as the GOP nominee than if it's Paxton.

Paxton will still likely be the slight favorite over the Democratic nominee, state Rep. James Talarico. This is Texas, after all, and no Democrat has won statewide since 1994. But Republicans now are going to have to back up the money truck to try to save this seat — and it will be super expensive. Look for Trump's political action committee, MAGA Inc., with its deep war chest and now Trump's endorsement, to play heavily to try to keep this seat red.
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The rate of high school seniors completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid has hit an all-time high with the class of 2026, according to data from the National College Attainment Network.

But among U.S. citizens in mixed-status families — those where at least one parent is an undocumented immigrant — FAFSA completion in California has dropped. So has their completion of the California Dream Act Application, which provides access to state-based financial aid.

That difference is even more pronounced because California is otherwise a leader in how many students complete FAFSA, which gives them access to federal student loans, work study programs and grants.

According to the California Student Aid Commission, FAFSA completion among first-time applicants from mixed-status families dropped by over 3,000 students this past year. CADAA completion by students in mixed-status families fell by 910.

“That is not a small fluctuation,” said Nicole Kangas, a CSAC spokesperson, at a recent media roundtable. “That is a sharp and significant withdrawal from financial aid and higher education systems. Each one of these numbers represents a student who is a U.S. citizen and is eligible for federal aid, as well as state aid. And we should be concerned by any signs of application declines among this vulnerable group.”

How does financial aid work?

The U.S. Department of Education uses FAFSA data to provide federal financial aid. Colleges also use this information to calculate how much students will pay to go to their campus. Schools then make offers to prospective students, which can be composed of grants, loans, scholarships and work-study. For many students, these packages determine where—and even if—students will go to college.

Traditionally, undocumented students, DACA recipients, U Visa holders and students with Temporary Protected Status have completed the California Dream Act Application to access state-based financial aid. In 2024, the California Student Aid Commission began encouraging U.S. citizens in mixed-status families to consider CADAA as an option after learning that these students were encountering glitches and delays when trying to complete FAFSA.

CADAA completion among undocumented students and students with temporary immigration relief picked up a bit last year. But, generally, completion rates for this group are on a downward trend, which immigrant advocates tie to the wind-down of DACA in 2017, during President Trump's first term.

“ California has spent years telling students that college is the pathway to opportunity. But for many immigrant students and [U.S. citizens in] mixed-status families, that message now collides with another reality: fear,” Kangas said. “Fear that applying for aid could expose a loved one to harm, and fear that the systems designed to support them may not be able to protect them. That fear is reshaping college-going behavior in California in real time, and if we do not respond with urgency, we risk losing an entire generation of students.”

What’s driving the decline?

“What we're hearing consistently is that students aren't opting out because they don't value college,” said Justin Hurst, government relations and advocacy manager at CSAC. “They're opting out because they're worried that applying could expose them or a loved one to immigration enforcement, or that their information could then be accessed or misused.”

For students who fear completing the FAFSA for the first time, CSAC has instructed counselors across the state to underscore that state-based aid through CADAA is still an option — and that the latter includes legal protections to safeguard student data under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, SB 54 and AB 21.

“Even when strong privacy protections do exist, confusion will often spread faster than any reassurance that can be provided, especially through social media, peer networks, rumors. So not applying often feels like the safest choice,” Hurst said.

Marcos Montes, policy director at SoCal CAN, a coalition made up of over 120 educational nonprofits, provided an example: Recently, he heard about a U.S. citizen who was inaccurately advised that if she submitted the CADAA, she would be considered for federal aid. The student, he added, was later confused about why her financial aid package didn’t include a federal Pell Grant, which provides up to $7,395 a year for low-income families.

What about demographic changes?

Montes also noted that some college access advocates have wondered if CADAA completion declines among undocumented students are due to California’s population plateau. “But the best estimates available demonstrate that, every year, about 10,000 undocumented students graduate from California's high schools,” he said. Last year, 4,570 undocumented students completed the application, down from 8,833 in 2019.

“ The fact that we are also living in a post-DACA environment complicates things,” Montes added. “All of the students graduating from high school today are not eligible for DACA, and many wonder if pursuing higher education is even worth it if they would have very limited work opportunities during and after college.”

DACA, or the Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals program, grants work permits for undocumented people who were brought to the U.S. as children. It’s also meant to provide temporary deportation relief. But, under the second Trump administration, at least 270 DACA recipients have been arrested — including one Californian who was detained and deported within 24 hours.

What might change?

The role of advocates, Montes said, is to “empower students and families to make the best choice for them.” If students have older siblings who are in college, or if they’re renewing their financial aid applications, the federal government likely already has their family’s information, he said — this is also true for undocumented parents who pay federal taxes.

For some, completing a FAFSA might make the most sense. But “for a student who's just really afraid” of how the federal government might use their data, he said sticking to the state-based CADAA might be the best fit.

State senator Sasha Renée Pérez has introduced a bill to formally establish CADAA as an alternative to FAFSA.

According CSAC's Hurst, the bill is “ currently parked in appropriations." And “in the absence of any information on it being able to advance in its current form,” he added, the commission is advocating to have similar language included in a trailer bill to be passed as part of the state's budgeting process.

Several fires are burning across Southern California, with some destroying structures, threatening homes and charring pristine landscapes.

Warm weather and Santa Ana wind conditions have hampered firefighting efforts and are expected to continue through Wednesday this week. The National Weather Service forecasts cooler weather and "May gray" through the weekend.

Here's a roundup of some of the fires burning now.

Santa Rosa Island Fire (Santa Barbara County)

• CalFire incident page
• Channel Islands National Park on social media
• Acreage: About 17,000 as of 6: 15 p.m. Tuesday, May 19
• Containment: 26% as of 5 p.m.
• Cause: Human. KTLA and other outlets have reported a man whose boat shipwrecked fired a rescue flare that sparked the fire.

The fire is burning in Channel Island National Park territory. Firefighters traveled by boat with their equipment to get to the island, according to news reports. The island is home to rare and endangered plants and animals.

Sandy Fire (Ventura County)

• CalFire incident page
• Ventura County emergency website (includes evacuation information)
• Acreage: About 1,700
• Containment: 15% as of 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, May 20
• Cause: Under investigation

CalFire reported about 2:40 p.m. Tuesday that lessening winds allowed "firefighters to take full advantage of improved weather to strengthen containment lines and continue aggressive suppression efforts. Crews remain actively engaged both on the ground and in the air to gain additional containment and keep the fire within its current perimeter."

The fire started Monday in the southern part of Simi Valley. It eventually spread eastward toward L.A. County communities in the San Fernando Valley, but overnight conditions were favorable to firefighters, CalFire said. Several communities were under evacuation orders and warnings, and schools in the area were closed.

Bain Fire (Riverside County)

• CalFire incident page (includes evacuation information)
• Social media updates
• Acreage: About 1,375
• Containment: 10% as of 1:35 a.m. Wednesday, May 20
• Cause: Under investigation

The fire was first reported around noon Tuesday, according to CalFire, near Jurupa Valley (east of the 15 Freeway and south of the 60). CBS News Los Angeles reported that four people have been injured. Evacuation orders and warnings were expanded overnight.

Verona Fire (Riverside County)

• CalFire incident page (includes evacuation information)
• Social media updates
• Acreage: About 440 as of 1 a.m. Wednesday, May 20
• Containment: 0%
• Cause: Under investigation

Burro Fire (Angeles National Forest)

• CalFire incident page
• Social media updates
• Acreage: 30
• Containment: 70% as of about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 19
• Cause: Under investigation

The fire started Monday in a mountainous area north of the San Gabriel Reservoir.

Listen to our Big Burn podcast

Fire resources and tips

Check out LAist's wildfire recovery guide.

Prepare for the next disaster:

• Fire season is here. Make sure you're signed up for these alerts
• Every day is now fire season. Let's get you ready for the next wildfire
• Yes, wildfires are getting worse. The history that got us to this moment

If you have to evacuate:

• Why fire officials don't want you to stay and defend your home
• How to get packed up
• How to leave your house
• What evacuation terms mean and how to sign up for alerts

Navigating fire conditions:

• How to drive in high winds and fire danger
• How to prep for power outages
• How to navigate poor air quality

How to help yourself and others:

• Resources for fire victims, evacuees and first responders
• If you want to help fire victims, resist the urge to volunteer
• How to help find lost pets

How to start the recovery process:

• What to do — and not do — when you get home after a wildfire
• How to make an insurance claim
• How to safely clean up wildfire ash

What to do for your kids:

• How to talk to children about wildfires and losing a home
• What parents should know about wildfire air quality