The Southwest’s Lessons for Our Dry Future

Earlier this week, I spoke with journalist and critic Kyle Paoletta about the history of major cities in the Southwest. In his new book, American Oasis: Finding the Future in the Cities of the Southwest, he writes, “To see where America is going we have to look at where the Southwest has already been.” So we traced where the Southwest has been, from hundreds of years ago to the present day, before I asked Kyle about the future of our relationship to fire and water—a conversation that felt way, way too topical amid the devastation in L.A. I also got really hung up on Phoenix almost having a different, far superior name.