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

EPISODE · Mar 16, 2026 · 1H 22M

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

from Making Sense with Sam Harris

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 SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all full-length episodes at samharris.org/subscribe.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Mar 16, 2026

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

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