About this episode
I lived in California for four years. In that time, I left San Francisco because of wildfire smoke twice, helped plant trees in burn scars three times, and got a taste of the constant concerns over the pressure of cataclysm that native Californians have gotten used to. I say all that not to establish myself as an expert in California and its issues, just to say that when the Los Angeles wildfires broke out earlier this year, I saw the continuing of a story that had been underway for decades, if not millennia. One of the chapters in that story is housing. It’s no secret that constrained housing has been an issue plaguing U.S. cities, especially on the West Coast. That issue has bubbled up in public discourse several times in the past year, with a case on homeless encampments making it to the Supreme Court and narratives of immigrants squeezing housing supply influencing the 2024 election. However, fewer people were connecting issues in the housing market to the California wildfires. One of the people making the case that the two were closely intertwined was Jack Nicastro, who wrote a piece in Reason Magazine about how California’s policy exacerbated the effects of the wildfires. The piece gave a very cogent argument, and I knew I had to talk to him about it. Like me, Jack is not a California native. The two of us aren’t authorities on Los Angeles. However, we’re both very interested in housing policy, the wild-urban interface, and perverse incentives of government regulation. I sat down to talk to Jack for 25 minutes about his article, and that conversation turned into a 45-minute nerd-fest over libertarian theory and the residential insurance markets. I really enjoyed getting the chance to talk with Jack Nicastro for the Tangle podcast, and I’m really glad we get to present the whole conversation to you in full. Ari & the Tangle team By the way: If you are not yet a podcast member, and you want to upgrade your newsletter subscription plan to include a podcast membership (which gets you ad-free podcasts, Friday editions, The Sunday podcast, bonus content), you can do that here . That page is a good resource for managing your Tangle subscription (just make sure you are logged in on the website!) Ad-free podcasts are here! Many listeners have been asking for an ad-free version of this podcast that they could subscribe to — and we finally launched it. You can go to ReadTangle.com to sign up! You can also give the gift of a Tangle podcast subscription by clicking here . You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here. Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall. This podcast was hosted by Ari Weitzman and Isaac Saul and edited and engineered by Jon Lall. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75 and Jon Lall. Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Senior Editor Will Kaback, Hunter Casperson, Kendall White, Bailey Saul, and Audrey Moorehead. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.