
#464 — The Politics of Pragmatism and the Future of California
From Making Sense with Sam Harris by Sam Harris
March 16, 2026 · 1h 22m
About this episode
Sam Harris speaks with Matt Mahan about governance, pragmatism, and California's policy failures.
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 .
People in this episode
Host: Sam Harris
Guest: Matt Mahan
Topics covered
- governance
- pragmatism
- California policy
- homelessness crisis
- progressive governance
- housing affordability
- special interests
Keywords
- California
- governance
- homelessness
- wealth tax
- housing
- rent control
- psychiatric holds
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: San Jose, California, Sacramento
More episodes of Making Sense with Sam Harris
- #480 — The Economics of Everything · June 12, 2026 · 25 min
- #479 — When Robots Take Over · June 4, 2026 · 15 min
- #478 — The Psychedelic Mind · May 29, 2026 · 30 min
- #477 — More From Sam: Iran's Unraveling, The Gaza Information War, AI-Generated Music, and More · May 26, 2026 · 22 min
- #476 — The Bittersweet Age · May 20, 2026 · 23 min
- #475 — The Hard Problem of Consciousness · May 12, 2026 · 26 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Making Sense with Sam Harris podcast page.