Fire is many things; wild, controlled, rejuvenating, destructive, cultural, ecological, and most obviously, dangerous. Science writer Jacob Margolis lives in California where fire has become a constant worry. As a result, he plunged headfirst into the world of fire and came out with one of the best podcast series on fire that is available today. The Big Burn starts from the beginning and allows listeners to make sense of fire and to help them better understand, and therefore better cope with, the reality of fire.

Resources

The Big Burn podcast

Jacob Margolis

Sponsors

West Fraser

GreenLink Forestry Inc.

Quotes

28.40 - 28.50: “We clearly need a complete overhaul of how we handle fire and… forested ecosystems, especially here in the State of California.”

Takeaways

Knowledge is power (05.08)

Jacob loves being a science journalist because he gets to dive deep into things that interest him. Since 2017, he has covered fire to help people understand it and make it “a little less scary”.

Playing with fire (08.48)

Before starting his podcast, The Big Burn, Jacob felt scared and upset with fires. He has now spent time weatherizing his home by buying air purifiers. The podcast helps him understand how to approach the problem of fire.

Fire season (13.46)

Jacob states that the fire season in California comes around late August, and stays till early December. The Santa Ana winds start in September - October, and they wait till the winds come to an end in April or they get rain.

Tell me a story (16.21)

Jacob’s journey of creating a podcast on fire was to find an angle that would appeal to the listeners, going from the threat of the loss of the giant sequoias to finding a middle ground with people who don’t like trees.

“Fire is not binary” (21.30)

The episode on doing a prescribed burn was the easiest for Jacob to write because of the action and how relatable it was due to the explanations in the episode.

Fire exclusion and suppression (23.56)

Jacob highlights that tree ring records show that fuel buildup in the forests began in the mid-1800s. This is when the gold rush took place, which devastated Indigenous communities who had been actively managing the landscape.

How wildfires change ecosystems (26.05)

With climate change came high-intensity fires. The chaparral ecosystem of California used to recover with longer fire intervals, but with more frequent fires, the ecosystem was replaced by grass.

Indigenous land management (29.44)

Jacob explains that Native Americans had a different perspective on and relationship with the land. He believes present-day land use and management policies are worth examining against the Indigenous framework.

Managing prescribed fires (36.15)

Jacob laments that there isn’t a robust enough system to handle a prescribed fire going awry, on the rare occasion that it does. There also isn’t much incentive for firefighters to be around prescribed burns.

The good fire angle (49.48)

By introducing the high stakes of not doing prescribed burning, you can get buy-in and start to shift the conversation. If people could attend a prescribed burn, it would make it more relatable. 

Change is needed (1.00.40)

Jacob is of the opinion that “how we treat our world is not working, especially when it comes to climate change”.