We’ve talked a lot on the show recently about the wildfires raging in the western U.S. and darkening skies all over the country. We’ve talked about climate change and fire prevention, but we haven’t talked about another big factor: housing. Where and how we build our homes is one of the reasons wildfires have gotten bigger, more damaging and more deadly over time. Here to talk us through it is Kimiko Barrett. She’s a wildfire researcher at the nonprofit Headwaters Economics.

As always, you can find a list of everything we talked about today on the episode page at makemesmart.org.