Unnatural Disasters: How the State Makes Wildfires Bigger and Deadlier

Connor O’Keeffe argues that California’s wildfire crisis is not simply a climate story but a government failure story. The state has monopolized nearly all wilderness land, refused to manage it adequately, and then distorted insurance markets to push more people into high-risk fire zones, making fires both larger and more deadly than they would be under a private property regime with real liability.

Recorded in San Diego, California, on April 25, 2026.