#407 — Can We Ever Return to Normal Politics?

Making Sense with Sam Harris

Waking Up with Sam Harris

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

4.6 • 29.1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 April 2025

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sam Harris speaks with Jon Favreau about the state of American politics. They discuss the Trump administration’s wrongful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, tariffs, why Trump’s supporters don’t care about his corruption, the next steps for Democrats, the energy behind AOC and Bernie Sanders, why Biden failed on the border, Biden’s legacy, potential 2028 Democratic candidates, Elon Musk and DOGE, whether we can ever return to “normal” politics, and other topics.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Making Sense Podcast. This is Sam Harris. Just a note to say that if you're hearing this, you're not currently on our subscriber feed, and we'll only be hearing the first part of this conversation. In order to access full episodes of the Making Sense podcast, you'll need to subscribe
0:21.9	at samharris.org. There you'll also find our scholarship program, where we offer free accounts
0:27.2	to anyone who can't afford one. We don't run ads on the podcast, and therefore it's made
0:31.4	possible entirely through the support of our subscribers. So if you enjoy what we're doing here,
0:36.1	please consider becoming one.
0:49.7	I am here with John Favreau. John, thanks for joining me. Thanks for having me, Sam.
0:57.3	Nice to finally meet you. I've seen you work in your magic in democratic circles for many years, but our paths have never crossed. I know.
1:12.1	Maybe can you summarize your background in politics and media at this point? Sure. I started on the Kerry campaign on John Kerry's campaign in 2004, two weeks after I graduated college. I started as a press assistant there,
1:18.1	and then I ended up becoming a speechwriter. And then after Kerry lost, I worked for then Senator Barack Obama when he got to the Senate in 2005. I was his head speechwriter. And I stayed
1:24.3	with them through the Senate, through the 2008 campaign, went on to the White House to be head speechwriter there. And I stayed with them through the Senate, through the 2008 campaign, went on to the White
1:29.0	House to be head speechwriter there, and I left the White House in 2013.
1:34.3	And then in 2016, started a podcast about the 2016 election with some Obama colleagues
1:40.9	as a hobby.
1:42.3	And then after Donald Trump won, which we did not expect,
1:46.4	like many others, it became a full-blown media company called Crooked Media. And the pod is now
1:53.5	Pod Save America. And now we have many podcasts and a big company. And we're all based in Los Angeles.
1:59.3	Nice. And you're on more than one podcast at this point, right?
2:02.5	Yeah, I co-host Pod Save America and I also host offline.
2:06.4	Right.
2:06.7	A podcast about how the internet's breaking all of our brains, which I know you like to talk
2:11.6	about as well.
2:12.2	It is doing that.
	...

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