From Outside magazine and PRX, this is the science of survival.

We're getting to that point in the summer,

when if you're paying attention,

every story on the news about wildfires starts to sound the same.

I'm not going to do one of those news clip montages here because I know you already know what

I'm talking about.

And there's another news clip montage coming up real soon.

Anyway, the news like superlatives and 2018 has had superlatives. Biggest, dryest, burniest.

The Ranch Fire is currently the largest fire in California history.

The Mendocino Fire is the second largest.

We had fires this year in the Arctic Circle, fires in Russia. In British Columbia,

2018 is in second place all time for most acres burned. And we all kind of know this stuff. Fires are bad and getting worse. And it has

something to do with climate change and beetles and drought. And that's kind of

where the conversation stops. and that

and that's kind of where the conversation stops. So, over the next two episodes,

we decided to try and fill in a lot of the missing details in that conversation.

This week, we're going to zoom way in on what happens inside a fire, what it is and what it does, and how within each fire is a recipe for ending wildfires.

Then we're going to zoom way out and ask,

what are the chances that we actually put that fire ending plan into place?

Will we ever do it?

Could we do it if we wanted to?

Or will we all just eventually burn up?

...