EXPERTS ON EXPERT: Mayor Eric Garcetti

[0] Hello, hello.

[1] Welcome to armchair expert, experts on expert.

[2] I am your resident fake expert, Dak Shepard.

[3] I'm joined by a real life expert, Monica Pladman, Emmy nominated, genius, power hungry.

[4] Well, that's extreme and not true.

[5] Our guest today I fell in love with, as often happens on here.

[6] Yeah.

[7] I was really blown away with the calmness and the surefireness of his family.

[8] Yeah.

[9] He was not afraid to answer any question.

[10] For a politician, this is incredible.

[11] That's true.

[12] There was no zigzagging, sideways stepping.

[13] No, he ran straight into the fire every single time I asked him a question.

[14] His name is Eric Garcetti, and he is the mayor of Los Angeles, which will be pointed out in this episode, is the 17th largest economy in the world.

[15] He's got a lot under his purview.

[16] Oh, yeah.

[17] And he's just an incredibly smart, calm, articulate, thoughtful, patient man, a road scholar.

[18] He's the pride of Los Angeles.

[19] Pretty handsome as well.

[20] Very good looking.

[21] So add that in there.

[22] And kind of a kick -ass personality.

[23] Yeah.

[24] Yeah.

[25] He's a big, big, you know.

[26] He's a big catch.

[27] Yeah.

[28] So please enjoy Mayor Eric Garcetti.

[29] Wondry Plus subscribers can listen to armchair expert early and add free right now.

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[31] Or you can listen for free wherever you get.

[32] your podcasts.

[33] Mayor Garcetti, you wouldn't know this about me, but I am dressed to the nines right now.

[34] Appreciate you.

[35] I did it for Gwyneth Paltrow, and now basically you.

[36] And Julia Louis Dreyfus.

[37] And Julie Lui Dreyfus.

[38] So like, like, group in government.

[39] Yeah, yeah.

[40] Good.

[41] I dressed up for you, too.

[42] I wore my daughter socks.

[43] Well, you do have really cute socks on.

[44] Thank you.

[45] When we post these, we get a lot of comments about what people's socks are.

[46] Yeah, people seem to be pretty interested in it.

[47] There is so much that you and I could talk about.

[48] And I just want to say up front, I generally don't talk to politicians because I like everyone to be invited to this podcast.

[49] Everyone knows I'm a bleeding snowflake liberal, but I try to keep that in my back pocket most of the time.

[50] But the reason I was very open to having you and wanted you is because your life story is very fascinating outside of where you may land on the spectrum of left and right.

[51] Sure.

[52] First and foremost, have you read the Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert Carroll book?

[53] Yeah, absolutely.

[54] So I'm right in the middle of them.

[55] Immediately I was like, oh, obviously, you're much, much different people.

[56] But to grow up in a household of a politician is a very unique anomaly of a childhood.

[57] Yes.

[58] And he grew up that way.

[59] And then he obviously became an even younger congressman than his father.

[60] So I'm just kind of intrigued by having been raised by your father, Gil, was the district attorney of Los Angeles.

[61] You know, it's interesting.

[62] I think a lot of people thought I grew up with that.

[63] But it was the year I graduated from college that he got elected.

[64] It's funny.

[65] He was always a line deputy district attorney.

[66] So he was a prosecutor.

[67] Going up, I would go to court to watch him take down white collar criminals who were defrauding old ladies.

[68] And he stood up the first unit that went after corrupt cops and police brutality.

[69] He was not popular with police officers for a time when I was a teenager.

[70] But he had opportunities to run.

[71] But interestingly, he He and my mom, they were both against the Vietnam War and had worked on Eugene McCarthy's campaign, anti -war candidate.

[72] And he saw this guy who he really believed in, his family life fall apart.

[73] Oh.

[74] So he kind of said, I'm not going to do that to my kids.

[75] Yeah.

[76] So he made the conscious decision.

[77] My sister, I have one sister, she's two years older.

[78] She was out of college already for two years.

[79] It was the year I graduated from college when he was elected.

[80] So I did get the intimacy of watching somebody you love suddenly be thrust, not just in the public light by being elected, but then O .J., Michael Jackson, the Menendez brothers, like, those were all under his tenure?

[81] All them.

[82] And luckily, I was not living in L .A. for most of it.

[83] So I got the intensity of what that felt like without being a kid being like, hey, I don't want any part of this.

[84] And I've always thought, it's probably easier if you're born into it, or it happens when you're young or older like I was.

[85] But imagine being 10 to 18 years old and suddenly like, your parents are really famous.

[86] Yes.

[87] And not only that, in politics, which is so nasty, you know, what it would do to kids, I thought through that a lot when the Obama's got elected, too.

[88] So I was able to really see that up close.

[89] It was definitely a formative part of my adult life, but it wasn't something I grew up with around the table.

[90] Nobody knew who Gilgars said he was until 1992.

[91] He's that guy who goes after the bad guys.

[92] Mom works.

[93] You headed up a foundation that did kind of charitable work here.

[94] And so I had public service in my blood, but not necessarily politics.

[95] But even great -grandfather on dad's side, Mozamo from Italy, he was a judge in Mexico, yes?

[96] Massimo, yeah.

[97] We think he was a judge.

[98] All we know, according to my grandfather, who was born in Mexico, is that he was hanged in the revolution.

[99] Right.

[100] In the same town where Pancho Villa was assassinated when my grandfather was a one -year -old baby.

[101] Oh, wow.

[102] So you are a delicious stew of a lot of different ethnicities because you've got Italian from Mazamo.

[103] Can never say it.

[104] Even when I talk about the designer, it's real rough.

[105] for me. It's not getting easier either.

[106] But his nickname was Max, right?

[107] I can handle that.

[108] Max.

[109] Virtually my name.

[110] My vis -a -vuelo of Max.

[111] But you got some Italian in there, and then you have some Mexican in there, and then you have, on your mother's side, Russian -Jewish.

[112] Yeah, the easiest way is I'm half -Jewish, half -Mexican.

[113] In Mexico, there's people of lots of different backgrounds.

[114] My great -grandfather, a great -great -grandfather, was an Italian immigrant instead of a Spanish immigrant, for instance, too.

[115] Mexico, but I'm only 8 % Italian, and I embrace it, but people I was like, Paizan, when they'd see me. Sure.

[116] You know, but growing up, I'd hear the anti -Semitic jokes.

[117] I'd hear the Beener jokes, you know, like, there's nobody thought I was Mexican or Jewish.

[118] So I've always been able to kind of navigate this border of like insider outsider in a way that let me know how people think when they think I'm not there.

[119] Yes.

[120] And also be very close to the culture that I grew up in my Mexican grandparents, my Jewish side of the family, et cetera, and feel like that's very much a part of me, too.

[121] And you're early on becoming a code switcher, I would imagine, running in these different circles.

[122] I mean, I didn't know if I kind of switched to fit in, but I would not, you know, if somebody's telling you a joke, once in a while I'd say, hey, do you know I'm Jewish?

[123] Right.

[124] And they'd like stop in the tracks and then we wouldn't be friends anymore.

[125] But a lot of the time, it was a curiosity to me because for me, I realized at an early age, what people say to you to your face.

[126] And when they think that you're something that you're not, really gives you insight of who people are.

[127] are yes i feel like you could either walk away from that experience going oh everyone's just teasing everyone they don't even know what they're talking about or you could walk away going oh it's very malicious and calculated and there's raging and rampant anti -semitism and anti you know yeah i think i'm more of the former at first i mean there's certainly the use of things like race against people is about power and when that's in an organized way that's a different thing yeah but when talking to kids you realize, and I went to an elementary school that was a lab school at UCLA.

[128] It was a public school at a time.

[129] The only thing they did was they took an exact demographic representation of LA and threw them in the class together.

[130] So every income level, every ethnicity, kids with disabilities who might be four or five years older than you, but at your learning level.

[131] And I think if you imprint really early on with kids that you're all just together, you don't have to learn anti -racism.

[132] You just accept like, wait a second.

[133] But then when I went to junior high and high school, I went to a private junior high.

[134] high school here in Los Angeles and it was kind of much more quote unquote exclusive and I met for the first time people who were kind of blatantly absolutely prejudice so you get a chance to kind of say hey and push them on things yeah then that quickly separates the people who are like oh okay I might have just screwed this up and have some conscious versus the folks who are just double down you know yeah and using race to be a bully and it's power I mean at the end once you get to be an adult or you realize where this stuff comes from I mean it's the same thing too with all the times up me too stuff and you want to reduce it down.

[135] Of course there's sexual violence, there's harassment, but it's really about power.

[136] That's something that people don't think about.

[137] It's about economic power more than anything else.

[138] Most systems are set up.

[139] How do I keep what I have or my people?

[140] Or how do I get that?

[141] Can I find a group even lower than me so that I can go up the economic ladder?

[142] And that's tough because people think of racism and prejudice about a misunderstanding.

[143] And I think when you realize that it may be at first, but when it gets to a place of structural racism it usually was it gives them more at the expense of somebody having less right and probably designed to sustain their groups longevity in that hegemonic role there you go big words well I'm trying I'm going to try to impress you even though you taught at my um arch nemesis USC tried not to teach them much at USC okay but having your father who was making a DA salary yeah so I imagine going to Harvard Westlake you're at an incredible school You hadn't merged yet, so it was just Harvard, just boys only.

[144] Oh, okay.

[145] So I imagine within this really privileged education you received, you were probably socioeconomically much lower than everyone around you.

[146] Yeah, it was interesting because being in a school with like really rich people.

[147] Right.

[148] You kind of think of yourself almost as poor.

[149] I don't know if you've read this book, The Broken Ladder, about income inequality.

[150] It's fantastic.

[151] So much about it is to look at the metric is irrelevant, the standard of living.

[152] But really, it's how in proximity you are.

[153] to a much higher economic bracket.

[154] Feeling poor is more detrimental than being objectively poor.

[155] I absolutely won't be clear.

[156] I never felt poor.

[157] But, you know, we were comfortably middle class.

[158] Uh -huh.

[159] A dad's civil servant.

[160] Mom made a little bit of part -time money.

[161] Lived in an affordable house.

[162] In back then, it wasn't mega homes in Enino.

[163] It was kind of, you know, we're the flats of Enzino, not the hills.

[164] Right.

[165] So everything was relative.

[166] There was always the hills, so we were the flats.

[167] And in many ways, I'm glad I grew up with kind of an underdog feeling.

[168] Sure.

[169] Then later on when I realized what the kind of struggles people have, I didn't grow up not understanding that feeling.

[170] Well, it's natural for us to up compare all the time, right, as we're ascending to something or pursuing something.

[171] And it takes some perspective to start down comparing and going, oh, hold on, I've hit the lottery compared to a vast majority of the people in the city.

[172] It's hard when you're singular focus on accomplishing things to actually stop and go, oh, no, okay.

[173] Yeah.

[174] Yeah.

[175] I mean, for me, empathy and listening is the most important skill in life, not just in politics.

[176] It's national intern day soon, so I'm going to be out of town next week.

[177] So I had a lunch with all the interns in my office yesterday.

[178] It was about 50 -something interns.

[179] And I was teaching them kind of the rules I live by, because they had all the great questions.

[180] Like, what do you wish you knew when you're my age?

[181] Like, what's the best restaurant in L .A.?

[182] Yeah.

[183] You know, how do you keep positive, et cetera.

[184] And one of the things I said is really learning how to feel and live.

[185] listen is probably the most important skill.

[186] In politics, certainly, and a lot of professions, people want to teach you how to talk and how to make your speech.

[187] Nobody teaches you how to listen.

[188] Yeah, yeah.

[189] And I remember when I was a teacher at USC and in Occidental College, it was interesting, the first day of class, I'd be asking questions, nervous, new professor, and I love the folks in the front row who'd raise their hands and answer every question.

[190] But usually three or four classes in, there would be a student, usually a woman who in the back of the class would raise her hand finally to answer a question.

[191] Everybody would kind of turn around, forgotten that she was even there.

[192] And she would say something so powerful that it would change everybody's thinking, including mine.

[193] And it was a really stark lesson to me that here's somebody who, instead of just talking, as we're told to do, just give us your opinion right away on anything.

[194] You know, go put your comment on social media, answer the question, that's the skill you need.

[195] She was thinking.

[196] She was processing.

[197] She was listening.

[198] And then that allowed her to speak with power.

[199] And I think it's the same thing.

[200] She was maybe empathizing and understanding what those questions are as you're talking about.

[201] When you look down or you look around, if you don't have that skill, you're going to be stuck in your little narrow world forever.

[202] Also, rare that you'll take on an occupation, I don't know, singles tennis player, that you're not going to require the help of many people, right?

[203] Anyone that's succeeded on any level has generally found people that were as talented or more talented than themselves.

[204] Yeah, if you're always talking, it's really hard to actually suss out who.

[205] Who should you be entrusting this or that, too?

[206] That's, again, another biography, John D. Rockefeller, almost never spoke.

[207] He'd be in his boardroom.

[208] He'd lay on a couch.

[209] He'd take naps occasionally while they were talking.

[210] We'll talk about naps for a second after this?

[211] Yeah, I would love to, yeah.

[212] Are you pro -nap?

[213] I'm so pro -nap.

[214] Oh, good for you.

[215] I can't do it.

[216] Tell me. Do you have one scheduled?

[217] Because he was religious about it.

[218] Yeah, about halfway through this interview.

[219] I'm just going to take a five -minute one if you were like.

[220] That's great.

[221] No, I think my mom trained me, literally.

[222] She was a big pro -nap person.

[223] So my day is like a jewel box, right?

[224] It's 3 o 'clock and I've forgotten to go to the bathroom.

[225] I will not have time to look at the text, let alone respond to it, because it's the moment one appointment ends, the next one is coming in, and it will be that every day, seven days a week, sometimes for weeks at a time.

[226] So when I get drive time in between, and to be clear, I'm not driving, so don't worry, I'm not napping while doing it, but I will immediately zonk out.

[227] I can gunk out for two minutes, for two hours.

[228] Whatever people give me, I can sleep.

[229] And to me, I'm the most pro -nap elected official in America.

[230] So you went, as you said, you went to Harvard Westlake, and then you went to Columbia, and you got to...

[231] Hold on.

[232] We should clarify to people who don't live in California.

[233] Harvard Westlake is...

[234] Has nothing to do with Harvard.

[235] Yeah, and it's a high school.

[236] It's a high school.

[237] Yes, exactly.

[238] And it was all boys, as I mentioned, so I did a lot of theater so I could meet girls of what was then Westlake.

[239] Oh, right, because that got you a pass into their domain.

[240] Exactly.

[241] We had a lot of girls on who've been to all girls schools, but not very many all -boy schools.

[242] Now, just a couple Jesuit kids.

[243] And most people are generally that have had the experience are kind of pro -separated sex.

[244] I'm pro for girls.

[245] I think it makes really strong girls.

[246] I'm not pro for boys.

[247] That's what I said.

[248] Which makes it mathematically impossible because, you know, they have these schools with twice as many.

[249] No, we can have, like, the professional juror proposition.

[250] It could be professional female students.

[251] They just keep repeating the grade over and over.

[252] Well, just like 18 to 24 -year -old.

[253] Why are you 47 and still in 10th grade?

[254] Because it would be actually helpful that the women they were with were women.

[255] Yeah.

[256] Yeah, who could smack the shit out of us and teaches a thing or two.

[257] I think there's a school coming out of this podcast.

[258] The Nax Shepherd Institute of Older Women, reining in young male toxicity.

[259] So you go to Columbia, you get a BA in Polysci and then also planning.

[260] I studied urban planning there, but my major was political science.

[261] But I looked at the New York City Planning Department when New York became a minority -majority city, which is almost a dated term, but more people of color than white folks.

[262] Oh, okay.

[263] I was there when white New Yorkers dipped under 50%, but I was looking at the planning department, which was still like 80, 90 % white.

[264] Right.

[265] Now, had L .A. not already gone through that transformation?

[266] We earlier had become, yeah, quote -unquote minority majority.

[267] I don't know what year it is, but I think it was before New York.

[268] I'm almost certain.

[269] Right.

[270] When you were in college, did you have a singular goal of becoming an attorney or did you want to go into politics?

[271] No, my dad very strongly recommended against law.

[272] He said, I love law, but most of my classmates don't.

[273] They love.

[274] like the money, but they're stuck in work they genuinely don't like.

[275] I have never met more people from one occupation than lawyers who say they hate the job.

[276] It's just kind of universally they hate the job.

[277] Unless you're passionate about contracts or, you know, different aspects.

[278] So, no, I wanted to be, I think, a human rights worker or a musician, a composer.

[279] Because you play the piano quite well, I'm told.

[280] Okay, you know, it's a little rusty chops these days.

[281] By the way, we always make musicians play a song in here and pissed off we didn't get a keyboard in here.

[282] Yeah, I was looking around right now.

[283] You love jazz.

[284] I love jazz.

[285] I wrote musicals, kind of singer -songwriter stuff.

[286] Who's your North Star in jazz?

[287] Keith Jarrett.

[288] Keith Jarrett.

[289] I'm embarrassed to say I don't know who Keith Jarrett is.

[290] The Coln concert, you've definitely heard.

[291] Keith Jarrett was the first person in the 70s, and he's still been playing, who just kind of sat down, no song in mind, and did improvisations.

[292] Wait, did this guy put on a show in Austria, in the piano sucked, and he wasn't going to play, but then he played and it became the best -selling jazz album of his career?

[293] I don't know about Austria one.

[294] He might have because he's very particular.

[295] Like he will stop in the middle of songs if somebody's like coughing too much.

[296] Well, not quite yell at them, but like tell them that it's really rude.

[297] Sure, and distracting.

[298] But he's amazing.

[299] I'm going to try to see if I can find the song.

[300] I'll put it up to the microphone.

[301] But I think the Kohn concert is...

[302] Oh, oh, yeah, Germany.

[303] Yeah, in Germany.

[304] Yes, this is exactly.

[305] I just heard a podcast about the fact that he got to the theater.

[306] A young girl had petitioned him to come to Cologne, right, and do a show.

[307] And then when he got there, no one looked at the piano.

[308] And the piano was like a quarter -sized piano.

[309] He wanted a grand piano.

[310] The top keys were kind of worn out.

[311] They were tinny.

[312] He was not going to do it.

[313] And then at the last minute, decided to do it.

[314] And it was totally improvised performance.

[315] And it became his best -selling album.

[316] Yeah, yeah.

[317] Go for it.

[318] I can get him.

[319] It's sweet.

[320] And, you know, that's his most famous probably lick, but then it just evolves and he grunts and he groans and it gets intense and he repeats things and never comes back to it.

[321] It's the creative process and the most primal form.

[322] This podcast was saying that adversity and obstacles become a great catalyst for creativity because this is a situation he didn't want to be in and it became his best thing, ironically.

[323] And improvisation for me, you know, which is the scariest thing you've done, comedy improv.

[324] I do some comedy improv too.

[325] I improvise on the piano, but it has been the best training for life.

[326] I was asked by those interns yesterday.

[327] The best question I was asked is, have you ever had a meeting with a really important dignitary?

[328] And you suddenly realized you were totally unprepared for it.

[329] And I'm like, have I ever?

[330] Sure.

[331] But what I said is if you can learn to be comfortable with what the moment is and try to connect with another person or connect with the music or in improvisation when you're acting, you have to listen, right?

[332] Right.

[333] All the cliched rules, people know yes and instead of saying, no, you don't cut people off.

[334] You have to be in that moment.

[335] It's the best way to be able to feel comfortable jumping off cliffs.

[336] And life is a succession of jumping off cliffs without a parachute a lot.

[337] Yeah.

[338] And figuring out a way to kind of navigate your way down.

[339] But life isn't a church service.

[340] Life is the chaos.

[341] It's not pre -written, not orchestrated.

[342] Yeah, and the stakes of something improvd are implicitly high.

[343] Right?

[344] So just knowing the threat at the back door that this could go horribly awry is very exhilarating.

[345] Now, I think you might be the first Rhodes Scholar we've interviewed.

[346] And in full disclosure, I wasn't even positive what Rhodes Scholar meant until I read a little bit about your journey.

[347] But can you, Monica, just say off the top of your head, what do that actually means to be a road scholar?

[348] A very esteemed category of people.

[349] in higher education.

[350] Yeah, great.

[351] Those are true statements.

[352] It's a scholarship.

[353] It's a scholarship to go specifically to Oxford, which I didn't know.

[354] Right.

[355] It started by a guy named Rhodes to bring, originally, just English -speaking Commonwealth people together, right, to help dominate.

[356] I mean, this is a guy who rode Dejo was named after he started to beers.

[357] He was the diamond guy, a closeted man who kind of took over Southern Africa, exploited people.

[358] But strangely enough was this idealist and gave, I think, six million pounds or something in the early 1900s to endow free scholarships because he wanted people who wouldn't have the opportunity to come to what was, quote unquote, the greatest university in the world, Oxford.

[359] He would roll over in his grave now to know that that was extended to other parts of the Commonwealth, India, Kenya, to not just whites in those areas, to people of color.

[360] And it was only men.

[361] It had to actually take an act of parliament to amend it to allow women in the 70s.

[362] It's never been the same sense.

[363] No, it just has gone straight down hills.

[364] It's really never been as bad since.

[365] My wife and I, we met, she was in my Rhodes class there in Oxford.

[366] Really quick.

[367] What state had she come out of?

[368] She's a foreigner.

[369] She's from Indiana.

[370] Oh, she's from here?

[371] Okay.

[372] Well, as someone who detasseled corn in Indiana, I can attest to their foreignness.

[373] Yes, white pigeon.

[374] Oh, really?

[375] A lot.

[376] Every young kid did it.

[377] And in fact, if I'm fully honest, I got lucky, and I was actually a D. Roger and not a detassler.

[378] So I had to cut down that either taller or shorter stock to get that bad seed out of there.

[379] Much easier, job.

[380] Funny story.

[381] When Amy and I were first dating, I go to her grandfather's farm.

[382] It's in a small town called Argus, maybe two hours, an hour and a half south east of Chicago.

[383] So, you know, he's like, who's this city slicker who my granddaughter is dating.

[384] And he had a huge cornfield.

[385] Who's this Jewish Mexican guy?

[386] My daughter brought home.

[387] This Italian.

[388] This Italian guy.

[389] All the ones, yeah, all the Protestant fears.

[390] and wrapped into one.

[391] So I get into the combine with him, you know, the big tractor, and we're cutting down the old stocks and creating the hay bales.

[392] And he's like, all right, you know, he's willing to hang out with me. But after we were done with it, I said, well, what are you going to do with all this hay?

[393] And he's like, well, we have to stack it next, you know, a couple days.

[394] And I said, you know, let me do it.

[395] And worked a good, you know, five -hour shift just stacking his barn, all the corn stock that had been turned into straw.

[396] And later on, after I had left, he, he was.

[397] went up to Amy.

[398] He's like, this guy's okay.

[399] Oh, that's great.

[400] If the slipper could do that and it was okay.

[401] And you were hating life the next day, right?

[402] Your lower back killed.

[403] If I did that today, I'd be not walking.

[404] You'd be out for the week.

[405] Yeah, yeah.

[406] It's like remote control throws my back out.

[407] Yeah.

[408] Anyway, so we are both there together in Oxford and we were very active with something called the Road Scholars against apartheid because we were there as apartheid was ending.

[409] So a lot of the Rhodes Scholars, specifically because of the legacy of Rhodes and the system of apartheid and stuff, which he hadn't personally set up, but obviously it was a continuation of things he believed in.

[410] We went down and worked with a lot of groups like ANC and others who were resisting the apartheid system and helping overthrow it and then rebuilding the new South Africa.

[411] So in the summertime, my wife worked down in Zimbabwe one summer to work on kind of the rebuilding of Southern Africa.

[412] Where do you think you got this civic or philanthropic motivation?

[413] Were you trying to impress a girl?

[414] You're just innately this benevolent.

[415] What do you think was the motivator?

[416] I've thought about over the years.

[417] I think it's probably two things.

[418] I think it is definitely my parents and my family and the values I was raised with.

[419] And then there's just something that's inside you.

[420] I mean, I was talking to those interns yesterday.

[421] I said all you guys decided to do this internship instead of working at the investment bank.

[422] So there must be something inside you, I think, that just sparks wanting to help others.

[423] And I think that you can't really explain that.

[424] So it's not that complex of like making mom and dad.

[425] No, no. You know, I think it was seeing that my dad made a decision to serve as a public lawyer, that my mom ran a foundation that her father, who is a businessman, had set up that was all about giving back.

[426] Like, he essentially took whatever fortune he made and put it into a foundation.

[427] So he was the son of immigrants from Poland and Russia.

[428] His father was a tailor here in town.

[429] He wanted to become a pianist.

[430] And he and my grandmother actually met at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.

[431] They both grew up in L .A. didn't know each other.

[432] Two Jewish kids who were studying piano.

[433] And my grandfather used to play at the silent movie theater, like Oregon, but it was the Depression, and there's no money in that.

[434] So he took up his dad's trade as a tailor and built up a clothing company that he named after his father, Louis Rothclothes.

[435] It became one of the best suits in America.

[436] Wow.

[437] And it comes back to LBJ because one of his clients here was a guy named Jack Valenti, the George Stephanopoulos of his day when Kennedy was assassinated and Johnson made him his special assistant.

[438] And he said, look, you know, president, you look like a schlo.

[439] I know this guy who makes a really nice suit in L .A. And my grandfather became Taylor to President Johnson.

[440] No shit.

[441] Now it comes back to your earlier question, though, because so that was an amazing honor.

[442] The son of immigrants grew up poor, suddenly is making suits, some of the best suits in America and for the president of the United States.

[443] But then he was totally opposed to the Vietnam War.

[444] And he had to make this decision when people were trying to encourage not only the war to be over, but maybe Johnson not to run.

[445] Yeah.

[446] He could have spoken out and lost his most prestigious client or just stay quiet and keep him.

[447] And so he made the decision to take out a full page ad in the New York Times saying, as your tailor, President Johnson, you should not run for re -election, withdraw from Vietnam.

[448] And my wife and I are happy to contribute.

[449] I forget, like $5 ,000 to your retirement.

[450] Oh, wow.

[451] And it made national news that even the president's Taylor was against this.

[452] Oh, wow.

[453] And I grew up with that.

[454] So this was a businessman here who his business almost failed a couple times.

[455] He had a union shop.

[456] All his tailors were unionized, which is not the cheapest way to do it.

[457] And a grandfather on the other side, who was essentially a dreamer who didn't get his citizenship for the first 30 years of his life here, even though he was an American.

[458] He was a one -year -old until he fought in World War II.

[459] And I think those things imprinted on me how important it was to stand up for what you believe in, to fight for the underdog, to look at who's not at the table, and to make.

[460] sure that they're there, what voices aren't being heard.

[461] So I think all of that was the brew that led you to apartheid Africa.

[462] Exactly.

[463] Yeah.

[464] So then you return and then you start teaching at USC.

[465] Now at that point, did you think, oh, I'll be a professor?

[466] I don't think I was going to do teaching, but I was interested in human rights.

[467] I thought maybe teaching I'd do on the side, but I wanted to do either international development work or human rights work.

[468] I had been on and off living in Africa to do my research, so I'd lived in Eritrea, which had just broken off from Ethiopia a few years before, and I was looking at the birth of a new country.

[469] And in that country, how ethnicity worked, because there's eight major ethnic groups.

[470] Right.

[471] And they had like all fought against the Ethiopians, even though some of them are closer to the Ethiopians.

[472] And then the case of Rwanda, right, it is a colonial definition calling them Tutsi and Hutu and then elevating one of their status that creates the true ethnic divide, right?

[473] Which to me is, that's the central lesson, is that most people think that ethnicity is ages old.

[474] Like the Croats have always hated the Serbs.

[475] So we can't stop them from killing each other.

[476] When in reality, they used to intermarry and those groups were not as discreet as we think they are.

[477] Yeah.

[478] Same thing in Rwanda.

[479] And Eritrea didn't even exist as a country in history until the Italians late to the colonial game said, hey, we're supposed to get some colonies.

[480] Most of Africa had already been gobbled up.

[481] So they got Eritrea, Somalia, and Libya.

[482] All money losers.

[483] They didn't understand that colonies for most countries were money gainers.

[484] And so they spent lavishly.

[485] But just, that short period of a few decades gave Eritreans who were totally religiously and racially and ethnically diverse an identity that, oh, we're something to the point where they fought the longest war in Africa against the biggest army in Africa, Ethiopia.

[486] So like when people think that identity is ages old, I think that it's something that can change in a generation.

[487] Yeah.

[488] Particularly if resources are limited and one group's getting better access to those resources.

[489] It's going to breed a lot of contempt.

[490] That's exactly right.

[491] So, you're such an overachiever.

[492] I mean, what a fucking overachiever.

[493] You go to all these great colleges.

[494] You're a road scholar.

[495] You get your master's.

[496] Did you get your PhD?

[497] No, I never did.

[498] I was working on it.

[499] Okay.

[500] Still.

[501] But I'm 80.

[502] You fell in love.

[503] These are a lot of time consuming things.

[504] Did you have a great time management strategy?

[505] I just got to know that before we get to city council.

[506] So the nice thing about a road scholarship, even though the roads folks would be upset.

[507] with me for saying this is it's for folks who have really driven hard and some of them will go and do the next step in their academic career i think most rose scholars more than any other profession become academics but for me it was just a moment to breathe if i got into degree that would be great i felt like i contributed you know i published some chapters from my dissertation in books but that wasn't my goal my goal was to kind of just have a moment to stop this run -on sentence of life yeah have some punctuation yeah most people do that as a gap year but you did it of roads.

[508] So I was very lucky to have the scholarship, which pays for your time there, to meet people, to form ideas, to think about the future, to be an activist, to see the world, and to kind of form who you are.

[509] It's something that I miss a lot these days because I'm back on the run -on -sentence life, where I think you have to really carve time out to grow as a person.

[510] You can't wait for it to appear.

[511] You have to stake a flag in the ground, right?

[512] Yeah.

[513] I mean, what I've given as mayor, and anybody who's ever considering public service, I always say it's kind of like acting.

[514] Only do it if you can't not.

[515] Right?

[516] Well, my saying is different.

[517] I would not advise you to take it on, which is it had better be something you'd be happier failing at than succeeding at something you don't like.

[518] But I don't think a mayor should fail in his occupier.

[519] But in politics, usually at some point you're going to lose too.

[520] Oh, sure.

[521] In a public and electoral way.

[522] Yeah.

[523] You know, my dad told me, in 1990, sorry, 2000, he goes up for a third term, right?

[524] He made it through OJ, got reelected, all that kind of stuff.

[525] He went for a third term and got rejected almost two to one.

[526] Oh, boy.

[527] I had decided to run for city council a few months before.

[528] I wasn't running on his name, but I didn't want to lose on having the same last name.

[529] I'm like, what was I even thinking?

[530] Yeah.

[531] And I sat down with a friend who I was doing a fellowship with through the Rockefeller Foundation of kind of people of color looking at changing power in America.

[532] and she said, hey, my boss is the city council member.

[533] She's just been elected the state legislature.

[534] You should run.

[535] And I'm sure she said it to 20 people.

[536] Wasn't like you're the only one of the chosen one.

[537] But I couldn't get the idea out of my head.

[538] And I thought about international relations, you know, is Los Angeles.

[539] Have you walked on the streets of L .A.?

[540] Yes.

[541] You know, Eleanor Roosevelt once said, human rights, I'm paraphrasing, in distant lands mean nothing if they don't mean something in your own backyard.

[542] Mm -hmm.

[543] And so if I want to do human rights and I'm interested in these issues, of refugees and ethnic conflict and stuff.

[544] Like, L .A. is the place.

[545] Oh, absolutely.

[546] Of any city, probably.

[547] It was kind of a clear path, and I knew I wouldn't win.

[548] I was kind of like the young punk in the race.

[549] I was 29 years old.

[550] There were some really established names and people.

[551] But to my earlier point, I was like, oh, I'm going to lose because of my dad.

[552] Right.

[553] Just having the same last name.

[554] Yeah.

[555] And it was amazing when I went door to door, some people said, I loved your dad, but why should I vote for you?

[556] And others were like, I freaking hate your dad.

[557] But tell me about you, you know?

[558] Uh -huh.

[559] And so people were very fair about that.

[560] And when I got elected, my father said, you've got to know who you are going in because it's who you're going to be the day you go out.

[561] And hopefully it's on your own terms.

[562] But as you just saw it with me, it might not be.

[563] So you're saying that you've got to be willing to fail.

[564] Yeah.

[565] Stay tuned for more armchair experts, if you dare.

[566] What's up, guys?

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[585] Monica and I listened to this great episode of Sam Harris, where he had an organizational psychologist on.

[586] And his conclusion was, power doesn't corrupt.

[587] It exposes your true nature, which I found comforting.

[588] I was like, okay, I'm a little happier with that.

[589] You know, the great Abe Lincoln quote, right, is like, if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

[590] Yep.

[591] When you took the role, what kind of talk did you have with yourself?

[592] Because I would imagine, as any profession, you're not getting into it to just maintain the status quo.

[593] You have a vision.

[594] So what kind of theory did you have that you thought would be disruptive in a positive way?

[595] What made you think you were going to be different from every politician you had grown up watching?

[596] Well, while I was running, I thought it was a problem.

[597] to bring youth to the discussion, and that was the youngest by 10, 15 years.

[598] And I think that's an important lesson for us as we get older.

[599] And we watch, I've tried to manifest that by following young people like David Hogg, March for Our Lives, came to L .A. and said, will you organize the first mayor's youth council on gun violence in America?

[600] And I did.

[601] And I take their advice instead of telling them what to do.

[602] Right.

[603] You have a respect for that youth point of view.

[604] You know, you get older and you really do think you're much wiser and that everybody's naive.

[605] And remembering what I was like at that age.

[606] I was like, no, I've got energy and different perspective, and I can see where those older people are wrong.

[607] I have to challenge myself hourly not to be an old man. And I'm going to bring up one of those issues before you go that I know I'm an old man on.

[608] The listeners can't see you, but you look at least 10 years younger than your age.

[609] Thank you.

[610] Someone in Minneapolis last week thought I was 35, and I almost did a backflip.

[611] Okay, so you went into it with that.

[612] Now, California is what the 10th biggest economy in the world, I believe.

[613] It's fifth now.

[614] With Brexit, we passed Britain.

[615] Oh, my God.

[616] Yeah.

[617] Wow.

[618] And then obviously within California, I would imagine L .A. as a standalone sovereign nation would be what?

[619] It would rank, wouldn't it?

[620] The 17th in the metro area, if we're an independent country.

[621] But better statistic, we're the third largest metropolitan economy in the world.

[622] Tokyo is number one, about two trillion.

[623] New York's a little over a trillion, and we've just passed a trillion.

[624] So we're the third biggest, truly organic economy because countries are kind of accidental borders, even states are artificial.

[625] A city is where people organically move to.

[626] So think about it that way.

[627] LA is now the third biggest economy in the world.

[628] That is mind -blowing.

[629] So it's interesting when I was thinking about your position as a mayor, I was like, in many ways, you have a much more on your plate than most governors.

[630] And this is not to brag.

[631] I'm just talking population.

[632] I think the L .A. County is bigger than every state but five or six.

[633] Yeah.

[634] And your budget has to be bigger than probably 40 of the states out there.

[635] A lot of, yeah, yeah.

[636] Yeah, so it is a really Herculean undertaking to run Los Angeles, as it is Manhattan or any one of these things.

[637] So, you know, not to tip that I think you should be the president one day, but I will say when you're talking about someone having experience running something that is complex and cumbersome, certainly L .A. is a great place to start.

[638] Absolutely.

[639] And now this city is wonderful and it's flawed in all these different ways.

[640] I'm an outsider.

[641] I emigrated here.

[642] I've come to love it immensely.

[643] I also have a great appreciation for what people think about it when they're critical of it.

[644] I remember feeling that way about it.

[645] So it's a very interesting place.

[646] I just want to talk about a couple of the things that I love about LA.

[647] I took a great LA geography class at UCLA.

[648] Awesome.

[649] And I was really taught what the Mexican -American experiences in Los Angeles in this class.

[650] And one of the statistics I remember, mind you, this was in 1999.

[651] But at that time, 50 % of all second generation Mexicans who were middle class.

[652] At that time, I don't know if it's even cool to say this anymore, but in 99 when it was taught to me, they said, well, Mexicans are the Italians of this era.

[653] Like they're coming here, they're succeeding, their kids are reaching educational achievements.

[654] It's really working.

[655] Is L .A. unique in that, do you think?

[656] Or is that something that's happening for Latinos nationally?

[657] You know, the Latino community is very varied.

[658] I mean, the Puerto Rican experience in New York is very different than the Chicano second generation.

[659] And I just want to be clear, these were specifically Mexican, American.

[660] It wasn't just broadly Latino.

[661] It's complicated because, you know, you go to places like Texas and quote unquote Mexican Americans may be Tejanos, whose family go back seven generation in what was Mexico and the United States.

[662] Yeah.

[663] In New Mexico, there's some folks who were never Mexican.

[664] They kind of called themselves still Spaniards because they were essentially there from the original Spanish settlers and of course the native blood that everybody has but yes and no there's still impediments in our community to you know latinas for instance or the biggest gap between white men and a group of men and or women of any ethnicity in terms of the wage gap oh there that's a very one sense to the dollar or something like that oh wow so on one hand yes there's been tremendous growth of the middle class you see in a city that's now 50 % Latino you cannot stereotype the community is just working poor, even though the working poor are disproportionately both black and brown in the city.

[665] But you see real leadership.

[666] I mean, I remember when it was back in the day a few folks in the state legislature, and now it's been speaker after speaker after President Pro Tem of the Senate.

[667] And you're the second consecutive after the river goes over.

[668] Yeah.

[669] And so, you know, it's a return to what existed, obviously, in the roots of the city when it was a Spanish and Mexican city.

[670] But there's also a greater integration.

[671] I mean, like Jews, I mean, an interesting case studied Jews outmarry a lot and so do Latinos.

[672] And in my case, they found each other.

[673] Right.

[674] Yeah.

[675] You do have folks that are somewhat socially mobile, but I think we have to look at entrenched poverty too, especially in immigrant communities where the more we close off national policies and don't have opportunities for people to become full citizens, I worry about whether that success you heard about in 1999 will continue.

[676] Right.

[677] And part of that was the result of the amnesty bill that Reagan and the Democrats put together, because it just makes common sense.

[678] sense.

[679] I know a lot of people, like myself and probably everybody in this room, believe in it for moral reasons.

[680] Yeah.

[681] I love being a mayor because you have to always find the practical answer.

[682] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[683] And even if I was a conservative Republican, like many of my conservative Republican mayor colleagues, they're pro -legalization, pro -integration, pro -citizen.

[684] I get frustrated, again, I'm on the left, but I get frustrated when we are only framing our debates in ways that will never be appreciated by the right.

[685] But there is an, economic imperative to our economy that we have to have labor and growth.

[686] And even if you're a conservative fiscally, you should recognize the enormous gift and the net positive gain for GDP and everything that is provided.

[687] It's not a net loss by any measure, is it?

[688] You know, my grandfather Salvador, so he came here one year old in his mother's arms.

[689] First of all, if there's a family separation policy at the border, I wouldn't be here because he might have been separated from his mom.

[690] And he crossed in El Paso where we're seeing all those kids today.

[691] Second, he stayed with it, was able to become a citizen, as I mentioned, when he fought in World War II.

[692] What's the first thing he did?

[693] He saved up with my grandmother enough money to start a business.

[694] He was a barber.

[695] And 63 % of the businesses on the main streets of L .A. are opened by immigrants.

[696] Right.

[697] Some undocumented, some documented.

[698] So don't we want more entrepreneurship?

[699] Aren't we pro -family?

[700] Like, think about these Republican themes.

[701] And pro -family.

[702] Well, then keep them together.

[703] and pro the business entrepreneur.

[704] Well, let's give people opportunities the next generation of Americans or the number of immigrants who run Fortune 500 companies who have started great tech firms and public safety too.

[705] We had a cop that was shot two Christmases ago.

[706] She herself was an immigrant from South Korea.

[707] I always wanted to become a police officer and joined LAPD.

[708] And somebody got out of a window in the West Lake MacArthur Park area of L .A. and shot at these cops who were at a traffic stop with somebody else.

[709] And she got hit in the leg.

[710] And as her partner is trying to save her life and stem the bleeding, a lot of officers come.

[711] And it's a very immigrant community, probably the most of it anywhere.

[712] Around there.

[713] Yeah, for sure.

[714] And a lot of people undocumented.

[715] And because our police department, after decades of building this trust, are so trusted by them not to be immigration officials, et cetera, they were able to immediately talk to neighbors who said, oh, yeah, we think it's a guy over there, go over there.

[716] And within a half hour, they had caught this would be cop killer.

[717] Yeah.

[718] And so it came out of that, I thought, we protect immigrants because immigrants protect us.

[719] Yes.

[720] And so if you're pro safety, public safety, if you're pro cop, if you're pro economy, if you're pro family, this shouldn't be ideological.

[721] It should be just figure out a way to deal with what is no doubt a crisis out there on the border and in our cities.

[722] And we know it works.

[723] Yeah, it is.

[724] It's really hard to encourage people to do like a three -step thought process because I understand the initial thought is just, no, no, no, this is a drain, blah, blah, blah, that's the obvious first knee -jerk reaction.

[725] But then, yeah, step two is really evaluate what's being contributed to the economy.

[726] Oh, okay, that's interesting.

[727] And then to your point, yes, when you alienate a community so severely, like the black community has been alienated by law enforcement, they don't want to talk to cops.

[728] And they're not going to turn anyone in, understandably, you know, because there's been a lot of bullshit, convictions and I get it.

[729] So it ultimately, it all downriver helps us to have all that.

[730] I went through the police graduation, I tried to go to every one of them.

[731] We have one a month.

[732] And I do an inspection with the police chief.

[733] I used to be in the Navy.

[734] So I like to, you know, make sure their shoes are polished and they don't have any fluff on their uniform and all that.

[735] But I get a chance to talk to them and really engaged with them.

[736] You know, we had a woman who was the head of the class a year and a half ago and she was Indian.

[737] And she came from India, wanted to become a Los Angeles police officer came here and was the head of the class.

[738] There's always somebody who's been born in Korea, and I think in this last class, somebody from El Salvador, it's somebody from Mexico.

[739] I mean, it's a wonderful thing to see that people still love America and want to be Americans.

[740] And I think we should embrace that as something that's a compliment to us, not a threat.

[741] Well, we should also be honest and say all third generation people are lazy and piles of shit.

[742] And all Americans, it goes right out the window.

[743] I'm third and fourth, So I'm like half, okay.

[744] You're an anomaly.

[745] Yeah, I'm like seventh, and I, you know, I had no aspiration.

[746] Where are you people from?

[747] Well, I thought one thing, and then I did 23 in me, and I was like, wait a minute.

[748] Do you know.

[749] Well, I don't know why.

[750] My grandpa, who I look identical to, from Kentucky, orphaned, got his brothers and sisters, raised them at Wonderbed Bakery.

[751] To me, he appeared very German, very robust, big forearms.

[752] So when I go to Germany, I'm like, oh, everyone's my grandpa.

[753] That's awkward when you're in German.

[754] Yeah, I'm just shaking everyone's hand.

[755] Hey, I think we're related.

[756] No, I'm mostly English and Irish and all that.

[757] 50 shades of white.

[758] Exactly, 50 shades of white.

[759] So I was a little disappointed.

[760] I really was hoping to have some Indian in me because I would keep telling.

[761] I really want to connect with Monica.

[762] It didn't happen.

[763] Don't you think that maybe part of the issue is that there's a fear that there's a finite amount of opportunity.

[764] So they think like, yeah, we want entrepreneurship, but not at the cost of my entrepreneurship or people in my community, which, is not true, but don't you think that's what's happening with people?

[765] I do.

[766] And ironically, it's not happening in the places where the most immigration occurs.

[767] Not to say that in Los Angeles, there aren't people with that view.

[768] But it's funny in the places that have the most immigration, we have the most open attitudes to immigration.

[769] So I never dismiss people's fears.

[770] And I think in a lot of communities where immigrants hadn't come to, they're going through what probably L .A. did go through in the 50s or 60s.

[771] You know, I was looking at research that showed who flipped from voting for Obama to Trump in places like Michigan, and it was those counties that had the most Asian and Latino immigration.

[772] And it was the language thing.

[773] Like they had these interviews with folks saying, like, they don't even try to speak English.

[774] And I'm sure it was said about the Italians and it was said about, you know, the Greeks when they came.

[775] And I think that is a generation of towns then finally like rehumanizing that these are human beings who do want to become Americans are hardworking.

[776] Well, you need to meet people.

[777] They say one of the biggest leaps forward for black -white relationships was Vietnam because all the troops were co -mingled and they actually had to bunk next to somebody and really get to know them and recognize, oh, this is just just like me. You could put a real person to the idea.

[778] Yeah, I was going to say, and I didn't finish my thing about Latinos, which was in Michigan, my only experience with Latinos was when I was detasseling corn.

[779] And that was just starting to be the first waves of the farm workers.

[780] Yeah, the farm workers.

[781] And so I saw that.

[782] And so that's a very skewed perspective to get when you see 30 people get out of a pickup truck.

[783] You know, it's us, them.

[784] It feels very clear.

[785] And then I was neighbors in Santa Monica, the family that lived below me. It was like seven folks in the same one -bedroom apartment I was in.

[786] They invited me to birthday parties, came to love them, came to really get to know them.

[787] And I remember my grandma, they started to get a pretty big influx of Mexicans in Sturgis, this border town, because she was getting real nervous.

[788] And I had to go, Grandma, I live among all Latinos in L .A. And they're my favorite neighbors I've ever had.

[789] I mean, I had to really talk to her about it.

[790] Yeah, and that's human nature to...

[791] Beer the other.

[792] Barbarian, you know the word barbarian?

[793] The root of it is Barbar.

[794] When I was studying about ethnicity, I asked my professor, what does that mean in Greek?

[795] And he's like, that's the equivalent of blah, blah.

[796] So for the Greeks, anybody who spoke a different language was like a blah -blayan.

[797] Ah.

[798] So even like Barbarian, which now we think is like these evil, like, savages, really just came from, oh, I don't understand what they're saying.

[799] So they must be some threat to me. And you can't dismiss people's fears, whether it's, you know, an issue of people not wanting a homeless shelter in their community or they're not sure what that group of people's like.

[800] I never dismiss people's fears, but you do have to understand and confront them in order to transform it.

[801] And if you just tell people, oh, you're wrong.

[802] Yes.

[803] That's one of my big complaints about both sides, basically, is when someone's giving you a position and you can isolate what fear is driving that, I think you're much better off addressing that fear than arguing the technicalities of their point.

[804] There is this whole experience that is human is like 50 % just emotions and 50 % logic.

[805] Yes.

[806] And on that point, what I like about you is that you've been criticized by both liberals and conservatives, which is right up my alley.

[807] Yes.

[808] I am of the opinion that we have this Constitution.

[809] And in the Constitution, we declare two virtues we're going to pursue equality and liberty.

[810] And those things are often mutually exclusive or antithetical.

[811] And so I approach this mentally as at best this will be a compromise that makes the most amount of people happy because it'll never be all liberty and it'll never be all equality and it's going to be this little thing on a spectrum we're sliding left and right and hoping to please the most amount of people.

[812] I have a deep respect for everyone on the right because their job is to remind me of liberty.

[813] I want to make everyone happy and I think the greater good is worth the individuals thing.

[814] but I don't agree, but I respect the challenge.

[815] And I think that both sides need to be challenged endlessly, as happens in academia with debate and discourse.

[816] And so I don't agree with it, and yet I respect it and value the contribution.

[817] And one of the things I love about being mayor is it forces you to look at things first before you kind of pull out the book of ideology.

[818] Right, right.

[819] So, like, I came in as a council member thinking, raising taxes on business isn't a bad thing.

[820] they have to pay their fair share, and we use that to redistribute it and help people out.

[821] I saw how companies didn't locate in Los Angeles, or that we lost because our city's business tax doesn't tax your profits.

[822] It taxes your gross receipts.

[823] Who wants to start up a business?

[824] The first few years, you're losing money, and on top of it, you get $10 million through your business, and you're losing a million, and we're going to tax you on the $10 million.

[825] Yes.

[826] Well, and again, this is a part where I think the left sometimes doesn't want to live in reality, which is sometimes you have to play a quantity game, not a quality game.

[827] Absolutely.

[828] So if I have a thousand businesses that I'm only getting 10 % of, that beats the shit out of pulling 90 % out of 18 businesses.

[829] And so, you know, I came to a point where I was pro lowering the city's business tax, which I did as a council member, and I've done as mayor.

[830] Now, I also looked at research and realized that our minimum wage hadn't kept up with inflation.

[831] And if restaurants and other things had been in business in the 70s and 60s, if we adjusted, yes, would there be some displacement of people?

[832] No question.

[833] But overall, more people with more money in their pockets to spend on Main Street was a great multiple.

[834] to help our local economy and poor people aren't going to save that money.

[835] They're going to spend it.

[836] It's going to help us all and help their quality of life.

[837] 60 % of them are women who are earning the minimum wage.

[838] And so we raise the minimum wage.

[839] Now, those two things together in Washington, I would have to choose one or the other.

[840] That's right.

[841] If you're Republican, you lower taxes and keep the minimum wage down.

[842] If you're a Democrat, you have to raise corporate taxes and raise the minimum wage.

[843] But here I am as a mayor, like just trying to be honest of what I looked at and the proofs in the pudding.

[844] Well, your ideology is pragmatic first.

[845] almost, which I, yes, which I like.

[846] I like that so much.

[847] Well, you should run for mayor, man, 2023.

[848] You're in this rare situation where you're going to have a five and a half year term.

[849] Yeah, I've got the Frankenstein term because we're changing the election date.

[850] So they either had to take away 18 months, which they can't do or at 18 months.

[851] Right.

[852] So that you're voting once for all the state stuff.

[853] Yeah, lined it up with the state elections instead of we used to have in the spring of odd years, which is that good news or bad news for you.

[854] It was fine for me because I'm not going to ever have to run on that schedule.

[855] But it was good news to get 18 extra months because to me, I think 10 years about the sweet spot of how long you can make an impact.

[856] And then you need to be able to pass it on to somebody who's bringing in the new fresh ideas, youth, whatever it is.

[857] Right.

[858] But if you look at the time that I have left, you know, in those three and a half years, I'll tell you a quick story.

[859] I hosted a bunch of mayors in Boston at our mayor's meeting from the big cities.

[860] And the mayor, I think of Cincinnati, John Cranley, and Mayor Suarez of Miami sat next to each other.

[861] And they talked all night next to me and they're talking about immigration and the environment.

[862] And at the end, the mayor from Cincinnati said, you're a Democrat, right?

[863] And the mayor of Miami said, no, I'm actually a Republican.

[864] And the mayor of Miami said, but you're a Republican too.

[865] And mayor of Cincinnati said, no, I'm a Democrat.

[866] And it was like, usually Americans are like, tell me what you are first.

[867] Then I'll decide whether I can talk to you.

[868] And they were two practical leaders talking about, of course, in Miami, we're concerned about the climate change because we're losing our coastline and we might be underwater.

[869] And in Cincinnati, it's like, yeah, of course, I want to keep jobs here in business.

[870] Well, and can I argue what's happening there is one defining characteristic of their identity ascended above their identity as a left or right, which is what they see in one another is like, oh, fuck, we've been tasked with running city.

[871] That's paramount.

[872] That's number one.

[873] And then the other thing, you know, where I'm at politically or what party I'm in really now becomes a secondary identity for somebody.

[874] Anybody who enters politics is like, just punch back in a partisan way and get the most likes you can on your social media.

[875] Instead of who cares about the criticisms of today or the headlines of tomorrow 10 years from now, which is how I try to govern, I want to look back and say, we tried to do the right thing and maybe we even succeeded in doing the right thing.

[876] You know, if you put your head out of the foxhole, course people are going to fire at you, but somebody's got to lead the charge.

[877] Somebody has to.

[878] Yeah, the founding fathers knew to have provisions to keep public sentiment from swaying the course every five days.

[879] And now with the availability of news and media, you could be just swerving the ship in it all over the place.

[880] When you look at the New Deal or something, something like this couldn't have even happened today.

[881] Because people forget the New Deal was like, try, try, try, try, fail, fail.

[882] Then, oh, that works, succeed.

[883] Yes.

[884] Today you'd be out of office before.

[885] The first two failures, you know, want to attack our toughest problems, opioid addictions, high school graduation, homelessness.

[886] It's like, these are such complicated.

[887] things, that if you don't have the patience for us to collectively figure out how to get there together and the patience of, you know, winning a war, I joke with my team on homelessness here in Los Angeles, which is a huge focus for me. People want D -Day.

[888] They want us to have conquered Europe and have the Marshall Plan in place, and they want it tomorrow.

[889] Yes.

[890] The only failure is in action.

[891] Exactly.

[892] Because every attempt, whether it pans out or not, is at least one box out of the trial and error that we can go, okay, that didn't work.

[893] That's helpful.

[894] Now we can.

[895] try this.

[896] It's rare that I would get the ear of the mayor.

[897] I mean, it's really crazy.

[898] First, I was just like interested in your story and everything.

[899] And I thought, hold on a second.

[900] I can complain about some stuff.

[901] Exactly.

[902] That's what I'm here for.

[903] I'm going to start by owning the fact that this is one of the times that I think I'm an old man. Okay.

[904] I recognize that these are probably cutting down on cars and they're probably democratizing transportation.

[905] Those fucking scooters.

[906] These fucking scooters, Eric.

[907] What the fuck every, they're, I'll leave my house.

[908] There's a hundred scooters in my yard.

[909] I'm like, no, no, no, what has happened?

[910] I'm driving down the road.

[911] People are riding two up on the scooter.

[912] They're crossing the road.

[913] I saw a dude riding two scooters at once.

[914] I'm assuming he's returning the scooters.

[915] And again, I recognize it's probably a move in the right direction environmentally and all these other things.

[916] But then there's also this issue with people that are in wheelchairs.

[917] They can't get down the sidewalk.

[918] There's videos of guys crushing the scooters with their little rascals.

[919] Where are you at on this scooter thing?

[920] This is a zombie scooter.

[921] It is.

[922] It is, you know, when I came into office, it was funny, like, with Uber and Lyft, people were trying to get me to stop that when I first got in.

[923] But I saw that most people were either future phobic and trying to, like, stop the future, and that doesn't work very well.

[924] No. Or future passive, like, oh, you know, just let them put the scooters wherever and, like, we got nothing to do about that people want this.

[925] They're voting with their feet, which is true.

[926] Yeah.

[927] My philosophy is don't be either.

[928] Be future guiding.

[929] Don't say no, but make it work better.

[930] Right.

[931] So, like, inevitably with Airbnb, we have to regulate so that.

[932] that people don't take apartments that we need offline and just rent them out to folks when we have a housing crisis.

[933] Uber and Lyft have to buy the rules and pay to go into LAX so we get some money that we can spend on improvements at the airport and things like that.

[934] Yeah.

[935] So with the scooters, it's exciting because Uber and Lyft doesn't take car rides off the road.

[936] That piece doesn't reduce the pollution or the carbon footprint because people are still in a car being moved.

[937] It might have been your car in the past, but with the electric scooters, it genuinely is.

[938] And a lot of that first mile, last mile which means how do you get to transit lines like the subway it's a good way to get back and forth and at least a third if not half of them are probably what would be car trips so it's taking those off the road right that said totally agree it's chaos out there it is chaos so we have passed now rules and regulations we have the ability to take them off ourselves and crush them so forget other people they don't abide by the rules we've gotten each of the companies to sign up we've told them to give us the data not information of people it's anonymized data but we need to know if there's 10 ,000 scooters that show up at Staples because people can't walk and cars can't go.

[939] So we are writing the computer language that they have to now share with us in real time so that we know where these all are at.

[940] Okay.

[941] We know how to count them.

[942] So if they're over their quota, we're now telling them how many they can have each instead of just chaos.

[943] And over time, I do think we need to figure out if you're blocking the right of way or maybe we put them in racks or something that's more orderly or something.

[944] Because there is something to be said for them being even just on residential street so somebody doesn't have to walk five blocks down to the main street to get them because that's how they're going to work.

[945] So now we regulate them.

[946] Let's figure out if it works the next few months, a couple of years, but they're not going away.

[947] And they're great.

[948] So I'm kind of pro -scooter, but annoyed as well.

[949] You know, what Jack Shepard is pissed off about and trying to make sure you don't trip over that.

[950] Stay tuned for more armchair experts, if you dare.

[951] Okay, so now here's another one.

[952] This is a real touchy.

[953] hot button topic.

[954] Rent control.

[955] Here's my argument in a nutshell.

[956] No one would think that someone has a right to live in Beverly Hills.

[957] There's no right that you should have affordable rent in Beverly Hills.

[958] We all kind of recognize, oh, that's just this really crazy upscale thing.

[959] And no, I don't assume I have a right to live there affordably.

[960] And I would argue Los Angeles is a Beverly Hills of the world.

[961] It is one of the top six cities in the world.

[962] And it's going to be expensive to live here.

[963] feel like it's unrealistic in pretending that there aren't market forces, that everyone has a right to live in Tokyo.

[964] This is where I get a little more libertarian.

[965] Now, granted, I was a 20 -year -old who moved to Santa Monica and I benefited greatly from having a rent -controlled apartment.

[966] For 10 years, it probably allowed me to stay here.

[967] So it's conflicting.

[968] And now add on, let's assume I was third generation in that apartment.

[969] And so I recognize people go, well, the people that are now working in this city can't afford to live in this city.

[970] That's a great argument.

[971] To which I would apply.

[972] Well, if it gets so expensive, they'll move elsewhere.

[973] They'll do those jobs there.

[974] We in L .A. will have to finally pay what it should cost to have your house cleaned or any other thing.

[975] If we want the people to be working here, we're going to have to pay them enough that they can afford to live here.

[976] So I feel like some of it could be ironed out downstream.

[977] Now, tell me why I'm wrong or tell me if you agree at some of those points.

[978] Look, you make good points.

[979] I get always practical about these things again.

[980] I mean, I had my ideology and I have some ideology that guides me, but I also look at the reality.

[981] We don't have rent control in the sense that if you move out of your apartment and I move into it, I pay what you paid.

[982] Right.

[983] We can reset it with every renter.

[984] So it goes up to market rate when anybody leaves.

[985] And the average apartment, somebody leaves in two and a half years.

[986] And there are cases, but in that small percentage, maybe you have that nice grandma who's been there for 40 years and she's still paying only 3 % up from what it was 40 years ago.

[987] But with the rare exception like that, a sense you have market rate, it just slows when somebody's in there how quickly you can raise the rents.

[988] Yeah.

[989] It's called rent stabilization.

[990] And I think we all pay a boatload of money when the ones that aren't under rent stabilization, anything built after 1979, if somebody can raise the rents 50 % in a year, so what's the cost to us?

[991] So, you know, pollution when somebody has to move further out because they can't afford, traffic when they're commuting in from the inland empire to go to a job here, to the businesses who can't get employees who just find they, you know, I can't do it to an half -hour commute and still raise a family.

[992] So if the system works well enough that people can make money as being apartment owners and keep something that's more affordable, I think that's a good system.

[993] But where you're right also is at the end of the day, we need more apartments.

[994] That's one thing that's missing.

[995] It's not just, you can't regulate your way out of a crisis.

[996] You actually have to build more stock so that seven people aren't living in that apartment underneath you, but maybe they can afford to have two apartments and live a little bit more humanely.

[997] So I've been a big proponent against nimbism, which is the not my backyard syndrome of saying, look, if you don't like the homelessness on our streets, you don't like the rents being too high.

[998] There's actually a solution that is market -based as well of just let us build more.

[999] Yeah, we have an inventory issue above all things.

[1000] California in general as a state is just very anti -building.

[1001] Is that fair to say?

[1002] Yeah, I mean, that's an example on the left, well -intentioned environmental laws.

[1003] And I'm for the environmental part of environmental laws, like if it's about pollution or this, that, or the other, are often used so somebody can take $89 out and challenge anything based on environmental laws.

[1004] Sometimes you have the property owner next door doing it because they want to keep their rents high.

[1005] That has nothing to do with the environment.

[1006] Right.

[1007] These liberal laws that just slow down and people have to then cook in two years of delay, three years of delay on what it cost to build something.

[1008] That doubles their price.

[1009] And then we wonder why it costs $500 ,000 to build a single apartment here.

[1010] Yes.

[1011] That stuff, I'd love to see Sacramento, especially now Democrats have a super majority, reform that and say look we can be a place that's a little bit more libertarian about that still protect the environment but let's greenlight this stuff and about social justice and the marketplace together now that then leads perfectly into homelessness yes so i've lived now in l .a for 25 years i guess so let me just also add my frustration i happen to be in a hotel room whenever i'm in a hotel room i as a habit make myself watch fox news because i'm like i want to know what you know i want to know what that perspective is and I dedicate time to it I can get through all of it it's the one I was like I wanted to call and say please let me go debate him as Tucker Carlson just on this high horse about our homeless problem and how it's a result of liberal policies he's like you don't see it in the cities in the south and I'm like no one's moving there or you're also talking about cities that have a terrible winters you know we have earthquakes I don't think that has anything to do with this being a liberal right so there's some issues we have right the weather's warm this if you're If you're going to be homeless, this is a damn nice place to be homeless.

[1012] Well, you heard the president talk about it himself a couple days ago.

[1013] Yeah, he said San Francisco, Los Angeles, the streets are disgusting.

[1014] He was in Japan saying how clean the streets were, right?

[1015] Oh, right, right, right.

[1016] And he might have to intervene.

[1017] He said this problem started two years ago.

[1018] And my response was, I'm glad to tell him that two years ago when he was elected president, that's not what homelessness started.

[1019] It's not his fault.

[1020] Nor is it mine, but we can together do something if he's serious about talking about it.

[1021] I didn't want to score cheap political points.

[1022] I invited him to come out here.

[1023] or go to the White House.

[1024] And I'll bring Republican mayors from red states in places like Arizona, who I work with closely because they have a huge problem, Democratic areas.

[1025] Well, I wanted to call them and go, like, please let us know in Mobile, Alabama, what the policy is that resulted in no homelessness?

[1026] We'll enact your policy.

[1027] Tell me what it is.

[1028] You know, if the rights got a real handle on this, what is it?

[1029] What's the magic sauce?

[1030] You know, people with homelessness, it is the most complicated issue that I've ever dealt with and probably ever will deal with because people always want to say, well, what's the thing that causes homelessness?

[1031] Is it drug addiction?

[1032] Is it mental health issues?

[1033] Is it PTSD and veterans?

[1034] Is it the foster care system and kids emancipating without parents and a family?

[1035] Is it sexual and domestic violence against women?

[1036] Is it people getting out of prison?

[1037] Is it a lifestyle?

[1038] Is it low wages?

[1039] Is it a choice?

[1040] Yeah.

[1041] And, you know, I say yes.

[1042] It's all those things.

[1043] It's literally everybody's a different combination of those, but it's kind of trauma together with high rents inspired to people being...

[1044] And a very conducive and...

[1045] environment to live outdoors.

[1046] Los Angeles.

[1047] No question.

[1048] It's a good place to do that.

[1049] In other cities, they have homeless populations that are bigger in places like New York, but they're indoors, partially because they have a right to shelter law.

[1050] The state pays for those shelters, but also because you'll die in the wintertime if you can't stay in a tent, you know, it's freezing outside.

[1051] Now, when I was in college, I had to do an ethnography on Skid Road.

[1052] And this is so anecdotal.

[1053] This is just me for two weeks as a college student.

[1054] But I will say, and I'm a recovering addict, it was very, I mean, it was in the 90s percent of people I interviewed that were clearly just addicts.

[1055] And it was so counterintuitive.

[1056] What I learned by a lot of the people is that they actually reside in a home until they get their disability check or whatever their check is.

[1057] And then they leave their mom's house or their brother's house.

[1058] They come down to Skid Row and spend that money doing drugs.

[1059] And when they run out of the money, they go back to a home.

[1060] And I was like, well, this is the opposite of the pattern I would have thought existed.

[1061] I'm like, wow, that's a tricky problem to solve.

[1062] You're right.

[1063] I mean, it's self -reported, and we do a count of everybody who's homeless in the city and county each year.

[1064] Self -reported, it's 30 % that have drug use or alcohol and or mental health.

[1065] That's probably low because it's self -reporting, so I'd say it's 50, maybe even 60.

[1066] There's a lot more people who don't fit that cliche than ever before who are economically caused homelessness, living in cars, couch surfing, maybe living in out of shelters and working.

[1067] But for that first piece, and those are the most difficult cases, they're probably the most visible as well, right?

[1068] Absolutely.

[1069] They're the most traumatizing ones for us to see some people who are literally dying on the street.

[1070] Yeah, sure.

[1071] And until this country recognizes that there's a mental health crisis and usually the drug use and alcohol use is obviously the self -treatment of that, self -medication, we're not going to get out of this crisis.

[1072] And cities, you know, I have police and sanitation so I can arrest and clean up.

[1073] Neither of those solve homelessness.

[1074] So people are like, get rid of the tents.

[1075] It's like, okay, that'll be in the next neighborhood.

[1076] And under the law, there's no longer penalties.

[1077] There's no carrot and stick for drug use where you can say you're either going to prison or a treatment program.

[1078] Right.

[1079] Well -intentioned criminal justice reforms, let people out.

[1080] Those savings were supposed to go into treatment and job training.

[1081] They just never make it there.

[1082] I haven't seen it.

[1083] So I think that the state has kind of failed to do that effectively or needed to put that first before people got out because nobody should go to prison for 20 years for a gram of something too much.

[1084] But they should be immediately taking those savings and turn.

[1085] their lives around.

[1086] And a week after they're out, they might be on the street now in a tent, using, again, breaking into cars to feed that habit.

[1087] So, you know, I feel like the loan voice on this a lot of time.

[1088] Most of the solutions rest with the county of Los Angeles, which has the mental health, has the hospitals, the social services, the state, which gives us affordable housing dollars and health care dollars or the feds.

[1089] So we've stepped up twice at the local level with voters passing two measures to build a bunch of new housing and to provide services.

[1090] Well, there's really compelling data now, right, that the actual cost of preventative costs is way, way lower than the services that they use, but be it police or, as you say, emergency rooms.

[1091] It's such a net win to invest in them, isn't it?

[1092] Even if you're a fiscal Republican.

[1093] Yeah, do it for your pocketbook.

[1094] You know, like in Finland, if you're, if an addiction problem, the first thing to do is they put you in an apartment, which is totally counterintuitive.

[1095] Here, it's like, no, you got to earn your way to that.

[1096] You stop using, you know, until we tell We're a very punitive society for whatever reason.

[1097] And they just do it practically because, look, homelessness, the trauma we see on the streets existed, I believe, five and ten years ago, but more of it existed indoors.

[1098] It's just the supply now of so many jobs coming in a booming economy, it's counterintuitive, more homelessness, because all these jobs come in.

[1099] People who are the richest move at the top, people who used to live in those housing units move down to the middle -class housing.

[1100] Middle -class people get smushed down to the lower -class, lower -class to on the brink.

[1101] And people who are on the brink economically now are on the streets, or, you know, in cars.

[1102] And so if we're...

[1103] Does your wife work with Path?

[1104] Yeah.

[1105] We've done a lot with people assisting the homeless.

[1106] Yeah, yeah.

[1107] They're a great organization.

[1108] My wife has forced me to do many.

[1109] I would do nothing good in the world if I had married her.

[1110] I know the feeling.

[1111] I know the feeling.

[1112] Yeah, yeah.

[1113] There's amazing success that we've had, which is a tough message to sell because people see what's on the street, but we've gone from 9 ,000 people a year being housed in L .A. to 22 ,000 last year.

[1114] Really?

[1115] If you told me four years ago, we would more than double.

[1116] I'd be like, we're going to be done with homelessness in two or three years.

[1117] But the supply in accelerated beyond.

[1118] It went up 16 % in the city, 12 % in the county, and on average, 35 % in the state.

[1119] So the work that we're doing when people say, yeah, we still went up.

[1120] My counter is the plan's actually working, and that's why we didn't go up nearly as much.

[1121] We went up a third to a half of everybody else, but there's a larger force here.

[1122] You know, cities run by Republicans, inland, coastal, throughout California.

[1123] and, by the way, way, way beyond California, New York's been up 10 % each year.

[1124] So the last time the nation took this on, Reagan was president, Tip O 'Neill was a speaker, Senator Kennedy, found national priority.

[1125] These are veterans, these are our friends.

[1126] Anybody's ever gone through mental health, addiction issues with family members know how tough this can be.

[1127] These are people who have exhausted probably their network and are cut off from their families.

[1128] I go out and do a lot of outreach work.

[1129] I got a couple people to come in off the street just last week going from tent to tent.

[1130] And when you hear the stories, they're heartbreaking.

[1131] And they just have nobody left to talk to.

[1132] Nobody left to go.

[1133] 60 ,000, right?

[1134] I mean, that would be a big city.

[1135] It would be in the Midwest.

[1136] In the city of L .A., there's 27 ,000 we estimate on the streets.

[1137] Wow.

[1138] Yeah, it's such a daunting problem to tackle.

[1139] And again, I believe that we're so reluctant to invest in prevention.

[1140] Right.

[1141] Yeah, what percentage of the people on the street were probably in the foster care system at one point?

[1142] A huge percentage.

[1143] I don't, of the youth, it's overwhelmingly.

[1144] The young people are either foster and or LGBTQ youth from other parts in the country and here who, you know, their families don't accept them.

[1145] And so they come to places like Hollywood.

[1146] Or you look at one other thing.

[1147] Like for women, 91 % of homeless women have been either victims of sexual and or domestic violence.

[1148] Yeah.

[1149] So we know what causes these things.

[1150] You can point to a mayor and I accept responsibility for the response.

[1151] I wrote a letter to this city saying somebody's got to and I will.

[1152] But if you think one person caused or can solve this, I need the engagement of everybody.

[1153] And I will not retreat from this.

[1154] I feel like a firefighter.

[1155] Like most politicians run away from this fire.

[1156] And I'm running straight to it just because I so deeply believe in it.

[1157] And I'm convinced what we're doing is right and we'll work in 10 years from now.

[1158] People say, thank God somebody was focusing on it.

[1159] But I need all the other levels, especially those drivers in.

[1160] And the prevention piece, you're right.

[1161] New York does something where they give folks who are homeless HIV AIDS.

[1162] Forget how much it is, but like let's say 800 bucks a month.

[1163] forever.

[1164] Which you're like, that's un -American.

[1165] You're not helping me with my rent.

[1166] But they just did the calculation and they take something from their disability check combined with that $800 and a roommate or two, and they're in apartments.

[1167] Right.

[1168] And so either we're going to pay tens of thousand dollars for a weekend visit to an emergency room or you can give them a three or four years to prevent anybody from becoming homeless.

[1169] And so we're starting a program in L .A. now to eviction prevention and to help people with rent who are right on the brink.

[1170] And just say, here, here's money.

[1171] And if you need six months, here's six months, and that may be enough for them to get not on the streets.

[1172] Because once they're on the streets, we're paying hundreds of thousands to get them off.

[1173] Right.

[1174] Oh, my God.

[1175] Well, I'm really glad that you're at the helm of that.

[1176] You know, I get frustrated that people just don't want to accept the real problems we have.

[1177] I'm sorry, we're going to have to build some infrastructure at the border.

[1178] This problem's not going away.

[1179] So when are we just going to go like, no, no, we got to step up and build this shit.

[1180] We've got to be able to handle all these people.

[1181] And it's just a fact.

[1182] Absolutely.

[1183] And look at the source.

[1184] Go to Central America.

[1185] And instead of, as our president suggested, withdrawing aid from those countries because he's pissed, give them the aid that will actually prevent people from leaving, solve the problem.

[1186] Yes, it's like it's going to require three steps of thought, of why, and that seems to be one too many steps for most people.

[1187] The last question I have for you before you go.

[1188] Mint chocolate chip.

[1189] Mint chocolate chip?

[1190] Oh, well, now I don't trust you.

[1191] Wait, what is the best restaurant in L .A., according to you?

[1192] I love down the street, the tacos at Yuka.

[1193] Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1194] Cochin eat the stewed pork, yeah.

[1195] Yes.

[1196] That's probably been my long -time favorite.

[1197] But kind of higher end, here's looking at you, I love on 6th Street in Koreatown.

[1198] Oh, we can have a perfect mix of like Asian, Latino, L .A. It's like that kind of world cuisine, such good stuff.

[1199] I've never had a single bad dish there.

[1200] Here's looking at you.

[1201] Oh, really?

[1202] And they did not pay me. We're going to go there.

[1203] This podcast brought to you by.

[1204] Oh, and Lucas Tacos.

[1205] Fingers crossed.

[1206] We're always picking up sponsors.

[1207] Okay, I just, the last thing I want to know is, The subway, will it continue to expand or it will?

[1208] Yes.

[1209] The Olympics and Paralympics are coming.

[1210] Go America.

[1211] We're bringing it back to L .A. for the third time.

[1212] By 2028, we're going to finish 288 projects.

[1213] And we have 15 rail lines, light rail lines, or rapid busways that we're building in L .A., the car capital of the country.

[1214] It's 787 ,000 jobs for the next 40 years.

[1215] So these are great middle class jobs.

[1216] Wow.

[1217] In the car capital of America, we'll finally get a network that connects.

[1218] It doesn't happen overnight.

[1219] But I just went down into the subway.

[1220] extension on Wilshire Boulevard, it's like a cathedral underneath there, this huge underground room that will be the station.

[1221] I went with NBC News because they're saying, why can't America build infrastructure?

[1222] The only big transportation infrastructure project in the country for transit is here in L .A. It'd be 22 minutes from Westwood to downtown.

[1223] Oh, you know, we'll connect with the airport.

[1224] We've never had public transit to the airport.

[1225] You don't feel it overnight, but whether it's on homelessness, whether it's on infrastructure, like we're making those investments for the next 30 to 40 years.

[1226] I see the world through the eyes of my daughter and I kind of look back and say, why didn't the generation before we do these things?

[1227] You know, why did we gut our public transit system?

[1228] Why didn't we build enough housing?

[1229] And it's frustrating because people do want in this world instant answers and instant results.

[1230] Oh, yeah, we're hardwired now.

[1231] For me, like the best part of being mayor is not being stressed out about the moment, but thinking about what's it going to be like when I'm a grandfather here.

[1232] When I'm riding that subway with my grandkids, my daughter are children when the city has the jobs, has the housing, when people aren't intense.

[1233] And it's the most beautiful thing to, I think, be able to do and to look back on.

[1234] Well, you're awesome.

[1235] I'm really glad that you came and talked to us.

[1236] And I don't regret getting dressed up for you.

[1237] Thank you.

[1238] I do not either.

[1239] This is really, really fun.

[1240] And now my favorite part of the show, the fact check with my soulmate Monica Padman.

[1241] Wow, what an episode, Monica.

[1242] Eric Garcetti.

[1243] Yeah.

[1244] What a stud.

[1245] Mm -hmm.

[1246] We liked them.

[1247] I liked them very much, yeah.

[1248] The most.

[1249] You know that me and you have a different opinion on giving people superlatives like that.

[1250] That's right.

[1251] I have the warm fuzzy approach.

[1252] The children's book with a warm fuzzy bag.

[1253] It's an endless bag.

[1254] There's limitless warm fuzzies to be given out.

[1255] Mm -hmm.

[1256] And then a witch comes to town and convinces everyone that there's a finite amount of warm fuzzies in their bag.

[1257] And she convinces them to start hoarding their warm fuzzies and handing out cold pricklies, which she sells.

[1258] And it turns the community upside down in this book.

[1259] It was one of my favorite books as a child.

[1260] I've never heard of it.

[1261] Oh, the warm fuzzies.

[1262] Yeah, it's great.

[1263] Read it to the kids.

[1264] That's lovely.

[1265] It's a good message.

[1266] That's a very good message.

[1267] Yeah.

[1268] This episode was brought to you by Warm Fuzzies.

[1269] I don't even know if that's actually the title of the book.

[1270] I just know it deals a lot with Warm Fuzzies.

[1271] Got it.

[1272] So the beginning, he said that he was wearing his daughter's socks.

[1273] I didn't want people to be confused.

[1274] He wasn't wearing his daughter's socks.

[1275] His socks had the face of his daughter on them.

[1276] Mm -hmm.

[1277] Great distinction.

[1278] It's not like a weird thing he does where he borrows his little daughter's socks.

[1279] Also, we would hate for people to jump to the conclusion that either his daughter had gigantic feet or our mayor had tiny feet, feminine step.

[1280] That's right.

[1281] Petit feet.

[1282] Petit feet and feminine step.

[1283] No, his feet were normal.

[1284] They were good sized.

[1285] And his socks had the face of his daughter on them.

[1286] They're very cute.

[1287] I feel a little jealous that I don't have pictures of my daughters on my socks.

[1288] Okay.

[1289] Well, I'm sure we could arrange that.

[1290] Yeah.

[1291] There's different print houses that could make that happen.

[1292] I'm sure.

[1293] I'm sure someone will send it after you say that.

[1294] You know, my fear with getting socks printed with my family members on them is that I'm afraid they'd be using cheap socks that I wouldn't like, you know, not like bambas or something.

[1295] Sure.

[1296] Could I send them some bambas and then get them printed on?

[1297] I don't know.

[1298] I bet there has to be a very specific fabric.

[1299] continue to be able to print on.

[1300] Okay.

[1301] I don't know if that's one of us.

[1302] I regret not asking them if they were comfortable.

[1303] We'll have to email him and ask.

[1304] Okay.

[1305] We'll email the mayor.

[1306] Yeah.

[1307] It's going to take five minutes out of his day to answer that.

[1308] He talks about naps.

[1309] The power of naps?

[1310] Napping is the best.

[1311] I enjoy it very much.

[1312] You already took one today, right?

[1313] I tried.

[1314] I wasn't not able to actually take one.

[1315] But I applaud it because you tried to take a nap at like 930.

[1316] Mm -hmm.

[1317] That's great.

[1318] That says you really prioritize your naps.

[1319] Yeah, well, I felt like that was the only time I was going to be able to take one today, and I needed to take one, and I did not get to take one.

[1320] How many days a week do you say you get a nap in?

[1321] Not very often anymore.

[1322] Oh.

[1323] Yeah, maybe like once a month.

[1324] Once a month?

[1325] Huh.

[1326] I feel like I observe you take a nap more than once a month.

[1327] When?

[1328] I'll go out by the pool or something, and you're just coming too.

[1329] That's happened a few times.

[1330] Maybe a few times in the last five years.

[1331] In the last week or something.

[1332] Yeah.

[1333] No, I have not taken one in a long time.

[1334] Oh, I'm sorry.

[1335] Well, it's fine.

[1336] I do like them, though.

[1337] Yeah.

[1338] I never take them.

[1339] But when I do, it is a euphoric feeling to fall asleep in the middle of the afternoon.

[1340] I get no euphoria at night when I fall asleep.

[1341] The times I've taken like a nap in my trailer at work, my whole body starts buzzing.

[1342] Yeah.

[1343] Like I'm on opiates or something.

[1344] Yeah, sure.

[1345] It is highly intoxicating.

[1346] You took one the other day.

[1347] You took one last week.

[1348] Yeah.

[1349] After my motorcycle excursion that depleted all my power and juices, I needed a nap.

[1350] There's different kinds.

[1351] You know, there's like a certain amounts of time you're supposed to be napping and you shouldn't do like too much or too little.

[1352] I've read 20 minutes is the amount for a power nap.

[1353] That's the ideal.

[1354] Yeah.

[1355] And what would be your preference to go?

[1356] For like a burst of energy.

[1357] I want to go for 40 minutes, I think, is when I have.

[1358] napped.

[1359] That's what I want.

[1360] I want 40.

[1361] It's hard once you get past a certain point because then, like sometimes then I'll just keep snoozing and then it's two hours.

[1362] Okay.

[1363] Yeah, two hour nap is probably not advisable.

[1364] Yeah.

[1365] And you feel really groggy afterwards.

[1366] And then wide awake when you hit the pillow at night.

[1367] Generally, yeah.

[1368] Yeah.

[1369] It's one of the downfalls with napping.

[1370] Now, napping is a powerful part of staying functional as an alcoholic too.

[1371] You know, like a lot of people have to make that game day decision regularly on a Saturday, right?

[1372] You go out.

[1373] Maybe you have a bloody mare or whatever you have.

[1374] You get a little buzz on around noon.

[1375] Uh -huh.

[1376] And then you're confronted with a big conundrum.

[1377] Try to keep this buzz going for the next 14 hours or go home and grab like a two -hour nap, wake up a little confused, and then start drinking again.

[1378] Sure.

[1379] Don't you find that that's a conundrum drinkers find themselves in pretty often?

[1380] Yeah, I guess if they're planning on drinking for that long, yeah.

[1381] I was thinking about it all the time on the vacation.

[1382] I was like, okay, great.

[1383] winds out at noon.

[1384] Oh, yeah.

[1385] I'll vacation, yeah.

[1386] Yeah, so that's going to be an interesting maintenance of it throughout the whole evening.

[1387] You don't want to get too drunk and tired, but you want to keep that sweet spot of that buzz.

[1388] I'm just saying you've got to be real precise on the throttle in these situations.

[1389] You're right.

[1390] Because you're looking at 12 hours of a buzz, noon to midnight.

[1391] But actually, if I think I've observed for you, you kind of shut it off about two hours before you go to bed.

[1392] on vacation i would shut it off around well time was very weird there so i don't know who knows but hours before bed yeah it was always three hours later than we thought it was yeah it was so confusing there because the sun was just about to set at 10 p .m we're like wait a minute what time is it is it seven yeah it was bizarre that and the phones were pinging off of illinois towers and people's fucking clocks were wrong no one had no one knew the right time that's right it was kind of liberating It was the whole vacation.

[1393] You couldn't count on what time your phone said.

[1394] And you're like, well, I don't know.

[1395] Does it even matter?

[1396] Yeah, not really.

[1397] I know.

[1398] You don't really get that very often in real life.

[1399] Okay.

[1400] What year did L .A. become a minority majority?

[1401] The 1990 U .S. census and 2000 U .S. census found that non -Hispanic whites were becoming a minority in Los Angeles.

[1402] I know I feel that way.

[1403] I drive around L .A. and I don't see a single white person.

[1404] I'm like, where are they?

[1405] They're nowhere to be found.

[1406] They've been run out of town.

[1407] Yeah.

[1408] Yeah, that's how I feel, too.

[1409] Yeah.

[1410] I miss the white people.

[1411] Yeah, yeah, we're going to get them back.

[1412] We've got some kind of policy that incentivizes whites to live here, you know?

[1413] Definitely.

[1414] Okay, that Keith Jarrett concert.

[1415] Oh, the Pienist?

[1416] Mm -hmm.

[1417] And it was in 1975.

[1418] To date, it's still the best -selling piano album of all time.

[1419] And it almost never happened.

[1420] And as you said, Jared had arranged for a Bosendorfer 290 Imperial Concert Grand Piano.

[1421] Gotta have it.

[1422] Yes.

[1423] And unfortunately, the opera house staff wheeled out the wrong piano a much smaller Bosendorfer, baby grand.

[1424] And to make it worse, it was a piano used for opera rehearsals, and it was in bad condition and out of tune.

[1425] So he was not going to do it.

[1426] and then he got convinced to and yeah and then it became the biggest kind of album it's kind of become a symbol of how much creativity can flow out of a bad situation yeah less than ideal and that a lot of people to promote creativity try to disrupt people's work environment that can lead to great productivity i think the other example they gave in the podcast i listened to is that the tube had shut down and there's all these people that rode the tube to work and for three weeks they con in or whatever and that when it reopened they found that 30 % of the people did not return to the tube because they discovered there was no reason for them to even be taking the tube that they were walking in about the same or whatever it was it was but it took something to disrupt their pattern yeah to make them discover a more truthful truth yeah it's kind of fascinating metaphor for life I would say like do you think that we should we should we should You should experiment and do an episode of the show where you look straight into the bathroom and I have my chair turned and I stare at the dog.

[1427] Okay.

[1428] And then we talk to the person.

[1429] Sure.

[1430] I think that's probably rude, but we could try it.

[1431] Okay.

[1432] Just see if it leads to an incredible episode.

[1433] Yeah.

[1434] I don't think rudeness really leads to good things.

[1435] But maybe if like we were wearing Nixon masks and they were wearing like the Jason mask.

[1436] Sure.

[1437] Yeah, that could be a disruptor.

[1438] Great for audio, too.

[1439] Yeah, well, we'd have to cut out the mouse really wide.

[1440] Sure, well, we can do something crazy.

[1441] All right, let's do it.

[1442] Yeah.

[1443] Lie down for an episode?

[1444] That would be very fun.

[1445] Yeah.

[1446] We might get into some napping.

[1447] We maybe should ask a returning guest because you don't want it like some, everyone gets there.

[1448] It's not really fair.

[1449] It's not fair.

[1450] They should have a real shot at a normal interview.

[1451] Yeah.

[1452] But maybe with a returning guest, we could ask them to lie supine with us on the floor and talk let's do it sounds fun it might bring that element of like when you're laying in bed with your friend at night when you'd have a sleepover the kind of conversations you have yeah staring at the ceiling yeah and you're just staring endlessly at all the different things you're discovering about the ceiling there that light or if you're me use that time to do hairplay and massage but you could also pillow talk you could do that in the uh during the interview for sure oh i'd love that little hairplay we could do a hairplay circle that's ideal Um, you said apartheid Africa.

[1453] Obviously you meant South Africa.

[1454] I just don't want anyone to say that and act like I didn't catch it.

[1455] Okay, the exact Eleanor Roosevelt quote that he paraphrased is where after all do universal human rights begin and small places close to home so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world.

[1456] Yet they are the world of the individual person, the neighborhood he lives in, the school or college he attends, the factory, farm.

[1457] aren't more office where he works.

[1458] Such are the places where every man, women, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination.

[1459] Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere.

[1460] Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.

[1461] Mm -hmm.

[1462] It's nice.

[1463] It's very nice.

[1464] You agree with it or no?

[1465] In total truth, my mind went to, when you started listing the occupations, you started listing the occupations, I started thinking about, was this an argument for the individual or the collective?

[1466] And then I think it's for the collective.

[1467] Anyways, I just started trying to categorize it and one or the other.

[1468] Yeah.

[1469] I think it's saying instead of looking at issues far away, start with the things around you.

[1470] Your circle.

[1471] Yeah.

[1472] Little by little, you get.

[1473] He could have much easier said, you know, it all goes back to the Mike Jackson song.

[1474] I'm starting with the man in the mirror Isn't that what she's saying?

[1475] I don't think she's talking about starting with you.

[1476] I think she's saying your community.

[1477] Okay.

[1478] And also I don't think he probably wants to be referencing Michael Jackson right now.

[1479] As a politician.

[1480] No. Probably a smart move on his part.

[1481] Just to avoid, I guess, the whole topic.

[1482] Yeah, I would say so.

[1483] But I'm a rebel, so I'll sing a man in the mirror.

[1484] Sure.

[1485] And then also...

[1486] You really have nothing to lose.

[1487] I have nothing to lose.

[1488] And I really also condone his behavior.

[1489] Yeah, of course.

[1490] Yeah, yeah, but also a good song.

[1491] It is a good song.

[1492] And you gotta make the well up at the place.

[1493] Take a look at yourself and make a change.

[1494] I didn't get there.

[1495] Change.

[1496] Still didn't get there.

[1497] Well, whatever.

[1498] Got a little closer.

[1499] Yeah, closer.

[1500] So we talk about the organizational psychologist who was on Sam Harris.

[1501] Oh, what a guy.

[1502] You said that he said power doesn't corrupt.

[1503] It exposes your true nature.

[1504] But he told this really interesting story.

[1505] I went back and listened.

[1506] He tells a story about power to sort of display what he's talking about.

[1507] And he said, the way people use power depends on their preexisting values.

[1508] And there are two lawyers who got into public office.

[1509] Oh, yeah.

[1510] This is interesting.

[1511] One was threatened to be disbarred on the first case he ever tried.

[1512] And the judge said, I doubt you have the ethical qualifications to practice law.

[1513] And that was Richard Nixon.

[1514] Dickie, Nikki.

[1515] Mm -hmm.

[1516] And the second was so ethical that he ended up refusing a client because he said, I know you're guilty and I can't defend someone who I know is guilty.

[1517] And that was - Gabriel.

[1518] Gabriel.

[1519] Lincoln.

[1520] Yeah.

[1521] So that was his point that power reveals.

[1522] Yeah.

[1523] So I like that.

[1524] Me too.

[1525] I agree.

[1526] And then also I would say there can be a period of leveling, you know.

[1527] Like it can be, I think, in my very limited.

[1528] experience of at least getting more power and theory or attention or cultural capital.

[1529] There's a bizarre period where you simply have zero experience with dealing with it.

[1530] So you're kind of learning as you go.

[1531] Yeah.

[1532] I think over time it would level off into your character.

[1533] But I do think at the initial onset of it, it can be a very confusing experience.

[1534] That's true.

[1535] I'm sure even the people with the most integrity really struggled.

[1536] Had to course correct at times.

[1537] Yeah.

[1538] I don't think anyone's just flawless at anything.

[1539] Okay.

[1540] So he said the biggest gap between white men and any other group is for minimum wage is Latinas and that's 61 cents to the dollar.

[1541] And what I found was 2018.

[1542] Latinas in the United States are typically paid just 53 cents for every dollar paid to white non -Hispanic men.

[1543] Boy, that's big.

[1544] 53 cents.

[1545] It's half.

[1546] I know.

[1547] Oh, it's not great.

[1548] Yeah.

[1549] I wonder what it counts for that.

[1550] I wonder, like, what the biggest employers are for Latinas in the U .S.?

[1551] What sector?

[1552] I don't know if they lost 24 of the cents.

[1553] And maybe they just lost, they misplaced.

[1554] Yeah, that's hard to know how.

[1555] That's probable.

[1556] It's really hard to know how careful they are.

[1557] With their change.

[1558] Yes, yes.

[1559] Yeah, it's true.

[1560] We could probably stereotype that they're forgetful.

[1561] Yes, and that white men are just really good at keeping.

[1562] being the change that's given to them.

[1563] That's right.

[1564] Yeah.

[1565] I think we solved this.

[1566] Yeah, we did it.

[1567] Okay.

[1568] He told the story of the Indian girl being the head of the class at the police academy, and I was just not surprised to hear that.

[1569] You weren't?

[1570] No. Of course.

[1571] Because you stereotype Indians as being very industrious.

[1572] They're normally at the head of their class.

[1573] Right, right.

[1574] Or at least in the top percentile.

[1575] Yeah.

[1576] I find that to be true.

[1577] I mean, I wasn't.

[1578] I wasn't.

[1579] You weren't?

[1580] I thought you got a 4 .0.

[1581] Oh, in college.

[1582] Not in high school.

[1583] No. You're doing too many aerials and shit.

[1584] No, I still did really well there.

[1585] I got like a few Bs.

[1586] Oh, so like a 3 -8 maybe or a 3 -9 you get out of there with?

[1587] No, probably not a 3 -9.

[1588] I don't remember what it was, but I wasn't in the top 50 students, I don't think.

[1589] Mine was abysmal.

[1590] Mine was abysmal.

[1591] Ninth and 10th grade, I averaged at least a 3 -4 or 5.

[1592] That's not horrible.

[1593] No, no. And then in 11th grade, after reading on the road, I think I averaged like a 2 -8.

[1594] And then my senior year, I just barely got like a 2 .0.

[1595] I think I got out of there with like a 2 .6 or something.

[1596] Well, you turned it around.

[1597] I did.

[1598] I did.

[1599] Yeah.

[1600] It's hopeful for maybe some parents out there whose kids aren't doing that great.

[1601] My senior year was brought to my attention like, hey, you might not graduate.

[1602] I was like, whoa, what?

[1603] No, I didn't.

[1604] Incredibly shocked.

[1605] Even though you knew you weren't doing anything.

[1606] Well, I underestimated, I had an AP history class that was taught via satellite with another high school, Wild Lake Central.

[1607] I went to Wild Lake Western.

[1608] And after two days in that class, I realized that teacher never looks at the camera to see what we're doing in our classroom.

[1609] So I was banging back darts in there.

[1610] And then I just completely stopped going to the class entirely.

[1611] So I got a big old fail in that class.

[1612] And it impacted more than I thought.

[1613] I thought you could just fail a couple classes to be fine.

[1614] Oh, wow.

[1615] All right.

[1616] That was the best, though.

[1617] That was my senior year.

[1618] So I was not coming to school till second period because I just wasn't going in that first class and my voice sounded identical to my dad.

[1619] So I called every morning.

[1620] I was like, hi, this is Dave Shepard.

[1621] I just can't let you know, Dax is going to be a little late today.

[1622] Okay, Mr. Yeah, every morning I called me this excuse.

[1623] And then so I would show up at second period and then I had early dismissal to go to work.

[1624] So I was out after fourth period.

[1625] So I was only there, two, three, and four.

[1626] Yeah.

[1627] It was like a holiday.

[1628] Just long enough to check in with my social group.

[1629] Right.

[1630] Yeah.

[1631] Okay.

[1632] Well, if there's any young listeners.

[1633] For any young listeners, that's a horrible approach.

[1634] And I would not advise.

[1635] I'd say it is, we have as many guests in here who have dropped out of things that we did that have completed things academically.

[1636] I don't think it's a good habit to get in the habit of blowing things off.

[1637] Yeah, blowing things off or not taking things seriously or not like seeing things through.

[1638] Although I worked like a dog when I got out at fourth hour, I went and worked my ass off.

[1639] So it was like I was driven to work and make that paper, get some of that around town money.

[1640] Yeah?

[1641] Go to the titty bar and make it rain.

[1642] I'm totally teasing.

[1643] I never, ever went to strip club.

[1644] I just said paper and then paper made me think of make it rain.

[1645] Sure.

[1646] Yeah, no, not.

[1647] But how are we to know that you didn't do it?

[1648] that.

[1649] I mean, it seems totally plausible.

[1650] I'll tell you exactly how you know, because I would say it.

[1651] Well, you said it.

[1652] I'm saying you were making a joke, but so no one would know that was a joke.

[1653] That's right.

[1654] It seems like something you would do.

[1655] Oh, it seems plausible.

[1656] Yeah.

[1657] Did you get out of school early and go to work?

[1658] No. No. I did work some.

[1659] My freshman year I worked, but I didn't get out of high school.

[1660] Where at?

[1661] A gymnastics gym.

[1662] Oh, okay.

[1663] I taught gymnastics.

[1664] Right.

[1665] Training future athletes.

[1666] Any of your students go on to Olympic glory?

[1667] Not that I know of.

[1668] They were like four.

[1669] And I don't remember any of their names.

[1670] Right.

[1671] It would be hard to know.

[1672] I wish.

[1673] What if one of the gals in an interview after winning gold accredited you for instilling a passion for a car wheel?

[1674] Passion for gymnastics.

[1675] I hope you're not a part of one of these scandals that comes out.

[1676] Oh my God.

[1677] Yeah.

[1678] Enabling a predator.

[1679] Who knows what you did there?

[1680] I did not.

[1681] Who knows what you turned a blind eye to?

[1682] Well.

[1683] I'm pretty oblivious, so it could have happened, but I wouldn't have been on purpose.

[1684] I've been molesting Wabiwob for a year and a half, and you seem to not realize it.

[1685] You don't notice that every time you enter when he's buttoning his pants up and he has a tear in his eye?

[1686] Do you haven't noticed that?

[1687] No. Okay.

[1688] That's really all.

[1689] That's everything?

[1690] Yeah.

[1691] Okay.

[1692] You know, we were hesitant to have someone, a politician on because we try to stay apolitical and we knew this person is expressedly a Democrat.

[1693] That's his job.

[1694] Yeah, but I think we kept it.

[1695] pragmatic, didn't we?

[1696] Yeah.

[1697] Pretty much.

[1698] Yeah.

[1699] A lot.

[1700] I also think it's fine.

[1701] It's part of his identity and his job and his life.

[1702] And he's very knowledgeable on all those things.

[1703] And if we did venture into that realm, I don't feel bad about that.

[1704] Well, I guess what I'm saying, too, is he landed more in the story he told, which is when he invited all these mayors around, the mayor's, it was being a mayor first and then their politics was second to the degree that they didn't even know which each other was.

[1705] Right.

[1706] And I think I was just hoping that that would be the takeaway.

[1707] Yeah.

[1708] That it was like an insight into the business of running a city more than a political platform.

[1709] I think everyone did a great job.

[1710] Mission accomplished?

[1711] Yeah, I think so.

[1712] All right.

[1713] I love you.

[1714] You want to get some food?

[1715] Yeah.

[1716] All right.

[1717] Let's party.

[1718] Bye.

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