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Making Sense with Sam Harris

#464 — The Politics of Pragmatism and the Future of California

3/16/20261 hr 22 min

Sam Harris speaks with Matt Mahan, mayor of San Jose and Democratic candidate for governor of California, about governance, pragmatism, and California's policy failures. They discuss the dysfunction of progressive governance, the homelessness crisis and what San Jose has done to reduce it, the proposed wealth tax and its likely backfire, why California can't build housing affordably, rent control, mandatory psychiatric holds, the influence of special interests in Sacramento, and other topics.

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Clips

Showing 10 of 17
A Pragmatic Homelessness Playbook
Why A Wealth Tax Backfires
Capital Flight And Revenue Risk
The Borrow-Against-Wealth Loophole
The Basics We’re Failing At
Why California’s Streets Suffer
Compassion Isn’t Leaving People Outside
Overcorrecting On Civil Liberties
Fund Prop 36, Mandate Treatment
75% More Spending, Worse Results

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

  1. Sam Harris· Host0:00

    I am here with Matt Mahan. Matt, thanks for joining me.

  2. Matt Mahan· Guest0:24

    Thanks for having me, Sam.

  3. Sam Harris· Host0:26

    So you are the current mayor of San Jose and, uh, running for governor of California as a Democrat. And you're, you are, uh, much celebrated, uh, y- privately. I w-- It should, uh, happen much more publicly, and I'm hoping to put my shoulder to the wheel on that front for being someone who's just pragmatic and not crazy, uh, in the Democratic Party, and that is, that has been all too rare in recent years. So, um, welcome to the podcast. Great to have you.

  4. Matt Mahan· Guest0:52

    Thank you. I'm looking forward to our conversation.

  5. Sam Harris· Host0:54

    So, uh, l-let's just talk about the beginning here. How did you get into politics, and, and how did you, um, decide to be mayor of San Jose?

  6. Matt Mahan· Guest1:02

    You know, I think it really goes back to being a kid. I, I grew up in Watsonville, which is a little farming town, and we had a lot of challenges in our town. We had high unemployment, a lot of crime. Uh, when it was time for high school, our local high school had a higher dropout rate than graduation rate.

  7. Sam Harris· Host1:18

    Hmm.

  8. Matt Mahan· Guest1:18

    And my mom, who was a teacher, really, you know, cared deeply about my sisters and me getting a good education, encouraged me to look farther afield, and I applied to this all-boys Catholic prep school in San Jose

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