The Big Burn podcast explores the history and state of wildfire management today

CHANG: That's right because even though there is more awareness today of good fire and traditional Native American management practices, there is still largely a culture of fire suppression which guides how the state manages fire and all the expectations of people who live here in California. A lot of them want to see fires go away. How do you unwind all of that, especially in an era where wildfires are getting larger and more destructive?

MARGOLIS: Yeah. I just think we've lived in an unrealistic place with fire for so long that we're being, like, forced to reckon with the reality we need to accept. We're not going to suppress our way out of it. We need to stop thinking of fire as only as the enemy. We need to let some fires burn instead of putting them out right away. And we need to do more prescribed burns. And in turn, people have to be OK with smoke throughout more of the year, with the additional risk that prescribed burns bring because though they rarely escape, it does happen. So ultimately, at the end of the day, we do need a radical rethinking of fire. It is starting to happen. But my feeling, to be honest, is that it's not happening fast enough.