A Candid Conversation with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

Higher Ground

Tv & Film, Film Interviews, Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 24 August 2025

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s been a year in Los Angeles. Between the historic wildfires, rapid recovery efforts, and the ICE raids over the summer, Mayor Karen Bass has been tasked with moving at a breakneck speed to meet the demands of a city in peril.

Watch this conversation on our new YouTube channel.

The Mayor joins us this week to reflect on her office’s response to ICE in Los Angeles (7:00), the federalization of thousands of National Guard troops by the Trump administration (11:20), and the ongoing legal battle now being waged in court (15:00). We also discuss the city’s “rapid rebuilding efforts” in the aftermath of the January wildfires (21:45), lessons learned from the historic catastrophe (25:50), and why she cut through “federal red tape” (28:48) to push forth her Inside Safe program designed to reduce homelessness (30:20).

On the back-half, we get into some of Bass’ personal story: coming of age in the Venice/Fairfax area of Los Angeles (36:30), working in emergency rooms during the crack epidemic of the 1980s (46:00), and her six terms in Congress representing various Los Angeles districts (58:00), all while navigating unimaginable personal loss (54:00). To close, the Mayor discusses her ongoing mission to end homelessness (1:00:00), the promise and potential of the 2028 Olympics (1:04:00), and where she finds the strength to continue fighting for the city that raised her (1:04:45).

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, everyone, it's Sam. If you like Talk Easy, there's another podcast I think you'll really enjoy.
0:05.2	It's called Death, Sex, and Money from the Good People at Slate, hosted by my friend and mentor, Anna Sale.
0:12.2	It's a show about all the things we think about a lot, but don't talk about enough.
0:16.7	From debt to breakups to grief, and it gets people to open up about the parts of life that can
0:22.0	feel really isolating and confusing. So my personal favorites include Jane Fonda, Miranda July,
0:29.5	Celine Song, which we dropped in this feed, and the late great Bill Withers. It's that episode
0:35.3	with Withers called How to Be a Man that served as a real true inspiration for Talk Easy.
0:42.2	I've said it before, but I'll say it again.
0:44.2	Without that episode, How to Be a Man with Bill Withers, just even now thinking about it, it gets me emotional.
0:50.6	Without that episode, I don't know.
0:53.0	I don't think Talk Easy would be what it is today.
0:56.9	And so before I get any more emotional than I already am, you can follow and listen to death,
1:01.5	sex, and money, wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Stamphigoso.
1:13.6	Welcome to the show.
2:01.2	Today, the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass. She made history back in 2022 as the first woman to be elected as the city's mayor, beating out real estate developer Rick Caruso, who, if you remember, ran a campaign that cost north of $104 million.
2:05.8	The celebration of that fact lasted about seven seconds.
2:13.1	Somewhere between the news breaking, the balloons dropping, and the confetti being swept up by the janitorial staff the next day,
2:17.4	the L.A. Times editorial page put the mayor-elect on notice.
2:20.9	Congratulations to Karen Bass, the editors wrote.
2:24.7	Condolences as well for a difficult job ahead.
2:26.8	If only they knew just how difficult.
2:33.2	Upon being sworn in, Bass inherited a divided city rife with political scandal,
	...

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