Unnatural Disasters: How the State Makes Wildfires Bigger and Deadlier
About this episode
Connor O'Keeffe discusses how government actions have exacerbated California's wildfire crisis.
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.
People in this episode
Guest: Connor O'Keeffe
Topics covered
- wildfires
- government failure
- climate change
- property rights
- insurance markets
Keywords
- wildfires
- California
- government failure
- insurance
- climate crisis
Mentioned in this episode
Places: California, San Diego, California
More episodes of Mises Media
- Where California Went Wrong
- Hobbes’s State: “Why Are You Hitting Yourself?”
- The Great Gerrymander War
- How to Change the World: Entrepreneurship versus Politics
- How Democratic Socialism Created California’s Housing Crisis
- What Happened to the University of California?
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Mises Media podcast page.