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

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. If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you can

You can listen to #464 — The Politics of Pragmatism and the Future of California online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

#464 — The Politics of Pragmatism and the Future of California is an episode from Waking Up with Sam Harris by Waking Up with Sam Harris.

This episode is 01:22:08 long.

This episode was published on Mar 16, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Waking Up with Sam Harris when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.