#399 — The Politics of Catastrophe

Making Sense with Sam Harris

Waking Up with Sam Harris

Samharris, Currentevents, Politics, Ethics, Religion, Neuroscience, Science, Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.6 • 29.1K Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2025

⏱️ 76 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sam Harris speaks with Rick Caruso about the Los Angeles fires. They discuss how mismanagement may have contributed to the severity of the fires, who’s to blame, the practice of private firefighting, rebuilding and the future of L.A., how DEI fueled public cynicism toward government, the ethics of having immense wealth, philanthropy, and other topics.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Rick Aruso, thanks for coming.
0:23.9	Thank you, Sam.
0:25.1	Thanks for having me.
0:26.1	Anything happened in the last two weeks that you want to talk about?
0:29.4	Only a couple of things.
0:30.4	Man.
0:31.4	Been a tough couple of weeks.
0:32.4	Well, so obviously we're going to talk about the LA fires, and I think we'll probably
0:37.3	also talk about California politics and maybe politics in general.
0:41.9	Before we jump in, can you summarize your background as a businessman and as a political figure?
0:48.8	How do you come to have any opinions about what we're going to talk about here?
0:52.4	Well, I've been really fortunate, Sam, in my life because I've been able to lead a life that is in business, started my own
1:01.0	business a number of years ago. I practiced law before that. Wasn't a particularly good lawyer,
1:05.9	but it was great training. And I was with a big law firm out of New York.
1:11.2	And I say that because the big law firm out of New York after about six years imploded, it went bankrupt.
1:17.1	And it forced me to make a decision about starting a business.
1:20.1	And so from that standpoint, it was really fortunate and a blessing.
1:24.5	And so I started my company and, you know, one by one built it up in real estate.
1:29.0	And we've done some really incredible things because I've got an amazing team of people that
1:35.7	are creative and innovative and imagine. And we like breaking a lot of the sort of the normal
1:40.8	boundaries and rules. And then at the same time, I was asked when I was
1:46.4	26 to be a commissioner when Tom Bradley was mayor. I had no idea what that meant, but I had a good
	...

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