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Music.

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Hi, I'm Liz Hershnoff-Tolley, and welcome to the Capital Coffee Connection podcast.

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And today I have the pleasure of virtually having a coffee with Mayor Karen

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Bass, Mayor of Los Angeles. Mayor Bass is formerly a U.S. Congresswoman from Los Angeles.

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And while she is a politician, we're not here to talk about politics and policy.

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We are here to really talk about the heart and the humanity,

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something that I think all of us believe might be missing a little bit in our

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political world and something that would be really important for all of us to embrace.

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I will start by saying, welcome, Mayor Bass.

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Thank you for joining me. Thank you very much.

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And just as a way of introduction, you're a woman of quite a few firsts.

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So you are the first woman mayor of Los Angeles, first female leader.

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Yes. And you also were the first African-American and the first woman in U.S.

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History to serve as a speaker of the state legislative body when you were the

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California State Assembly's 67th speaker.

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You know, I think that one of the ways that we really like to talk about our

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leaders is what they have done and having been a first and what it means to

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be a first and obviously not to be a last.

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Absolutely. That's for sure. So as a way of saying thank you for coming,

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I would love for you to start by just telling us a little bit about what it

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means to be a mayor, what it means to be the mayor of Los Angeles,

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and what makes Los Angeles special. Absolutely. Well, let me just start with what makes Los Angeles special.

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And Liz, thank you so much for including me in your podcast.

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I love our city because it's like living in the middle of the entire world.

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Everybody is here. The breadth and the diversity of Los Angeles.

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I mean, where is it that you could go surfing and skiing in the same day in our region?

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Region I'm born and raised here and Los

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Angeles has given me a lot and I'm just incredibly honored

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and humbled to be able to give back to

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the city by leading the city at this particular time and can you talk a little

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bit about like what it means to be the mayor because being a mayor is like non-partisan

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everybody doesn't matter which side what group you are the mayor for everybody

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which is a beautiful thought but it's also could be challenging I assume Well, actually,

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you know, after, let's see, 18 years of being in a partisan environment.

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I really enjoy being in an environment where party affiliation doesn't matter.

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Now, I do have to say that we're an overwhelmingly Democratic city and our city

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council is, you know, all Democrats, but Democrats on the spectrum.

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That doesn't mean that everybody feels the same way. but being a mayor means the buck stops with you.

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So you tend to be charged with responsibility for everything,

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but when it gets to the weather and traffic and all of those things,

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I'm honored to have the responsibility.

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But different from being a legislator where you are responsible for passing passing legislation.

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And in Congress, that means you have to get 217 people to agree with you.

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Or if you're in the state legislature, it's more like 40 or 50 people to agree with you.

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That's a lot more labor intensive in a different kind of way.

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Being a mayor, the rubber hits the road right here. So there are problems that

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you can solve right on the spot. And I really enjoy that, Liz, because for so many years I was working on the

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30,000 foot level. Well, this is the one You're in the weeds.

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So if it's an issue, absolutely.

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If it's an issue of when our freeway caught fire and the freeway was going to

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be shut down for what we thought was months, that was immediately a crisis. Or when L.A.

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Was potentially going to face a hurricane, something that no Angeleno,

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born and raised here, even knows what that is like.

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We don't experience rain in the summer. We rarely experience rain at all.

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And so the challenge of immediately having to go into action and response is

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exhilarating, intimidating, and rewarding all at the same time.

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That's a nice way to put it. Yeah. So you were born in LA, you were raised in LA.

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And I know you went to Hamilton High School. Could you talk a little bit about

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what it was like growing up with your parents and your family and LA,

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what it meant to you growing up there? Because obviously LA has changed, but for people like yourself and I was born

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and raised in LA, it had a very special place in my heart for when I was young

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and growing up in the city. Well, absolutely. I was extremely I was extremely fortunate to have two amazing,

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very stable parents, very stable family.

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The only girl with three brothers. And so that certainly prepared me for politics.

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It prepared me for leadership. But during the years that I was growing up was

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a year of years of incredible change. I mean, post-civil rights movement,

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the city, the country, the world was in turmoil.

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And all of that to me was very exciting. And I couldn't wait to grow up so I

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could be a part of a movement for change.

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And that has been at the center of my life since I was a child.

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So I grew up wanting to do nothing other than what I'm doing today.

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Now, I never thought about being a politician. I never thought about running for office. But what I was consumed by was my

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desire to change the community, to change the country for the better.

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Right. And I understand that your father and you watched some TV together and

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watched a lot about civil rights and politics. And that was an inspiration.

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Can you talk a little bit about that? My mother was very unusual because she

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was born in Los Angeles and African-Americans really didn't come to L.A.

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In large numbers until after World War II and what is known as the Great Migration.

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So my father was a part of the Great Migration, escaping the South,

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escaping the violence, segregation, and racism of the South.

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He came from Texas after World War II.

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And I grew up sitting next to him either in front of the TV or on the radio

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because we didn't have 24-hour news during that time.

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But he got me interested and addicted to watching the news compulsively,

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something that I continue to do today.

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And that opened my eyes to what was going on in the South.

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And he explained to me, as somebody who escaped violence, he explained to me

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what living in the South was like, what the movements were like,

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and why people were doing sit-ins, and what Martin Luther King was really trying to accomplish.

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So I grew up watching that.

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But then Hamilton High School and also the West L.A.

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Community, the Pico-Fairfax, Pico-La Cienega area, which is and was a predominantly

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Jewish area, was also one of the centers of progressive activism.

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So talk a little bit about that, because you are a young Black woman,

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teenager, and you went to Hamilton, and I assume that many of the students were Jewish.

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Like 80%. Okay, so talk about that. And Hamilton was a Jewish high school,

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and I went to Hancock Park Elementary School, where I was the only- For both

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public schools, you declare both public schools. Both public schools, yes. Hancock Park, I was the only non-Jewish person in my class.

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So I learned of Yom Kippur when I showed up to school and nobody was there in

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my class but me. That would have been a hard reveal, exactly.

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But it was a community that was inclusive? Was it a community of,

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because you were, if you were all involved in things of like civil rights and

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how did that feel? Well, it was not quite all inclusive.

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But I will tell you that there were a lot of parents who were activists.

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And so, frankly, I learned how to conduct a meeting and write my first flyer

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from parents who were activists.

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There was the Workman Center on La Cienega near Pico. And so there were,

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for the parents who were inclusive, they tended to be activist-oriented.

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They were anti-Vietnam War. They were involved in the peace movement.

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The civil rights movement was kind of winding up and transitioning into another

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phase when I was growing up.

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And did you have a teacher or somebody that was a mentor when you were young?

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The teachers that I had at Hamilton were very much activists.

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They were mentors. And that was extremely positive,

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but it had a negative side too, because they were very helpful in terms of helping

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me to understand the problems and the contradictions in our country,

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but they weren't very solution-oriented.

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And that was very confusing for an adolescent.

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Yeah, that makes sense. And then when you went to school, higher education,

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you studied social work and you studied, that was your passion,

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which was to help people. Actually, my passion was to help people, but I didn't study social work until I was in Converse.

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So my education was in healthcare.

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First I trained as a nurse and then I trained as a physician assistant.

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So I was interested in helping people immediately, but my true love was in systemic

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change and international change.

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And so my day job was helping people immediately, but it never occurred to me,

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Liz, that I could make a living off of systemic change.

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So that's what I did after work. And on the weekends, I focused on macro love change.

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How how do we change U.S. foreign policy? How do we change domestic policy?

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How do we deal with the problems that communities were having with police?

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Police abuse was a real issue. LAPD at the time was very, very,

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very, very conservative. So having said that, I also know that a passion for you has been young people,

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and you've done a lot with foster care.

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And I also know that in your personal life, one of the things as mayor you've

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talked about that, you know, I think it was at your State of the Union,

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you mentioned that your newest grandchild was sleeping in the room and your

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family was there and you're smiling. But I know that you also had the loss of your daughter and her husband and that has a huge effect.

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But I also understand that you have these four children and you do have a beautiful family.

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Is it fair to ask you to talk a little little bit about that,

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just so I think that people can understand you're smiling and you're this amazing,

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powerful woman, but you've had some struggles. It has not been easy.

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No, no, no, no. It has not been easy. In terms of my family though,

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when my husband and I divorced and he remarried and had three children,

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we raised our children together. And so it wasn't a step, It wasn't a half. They were all siblings.

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And so my stepchildren, technically, I have been in their life since the day they were born.

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They're all now in their 30s. And so my stepdaughter lives with me along with

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my three grandsons. Oh, three. Sorry. I thought, okay. Okay.

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Well, it's two, but then one was just born seven weeks ago.

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So you have a big house. He's the newest addition.

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But yes, I lost my daughter and my son-in-law.

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And, you know, when you have something that happens like that overnight,

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you know, one day you're talking to them and it's the last time you will ever talk to them.

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It's life changing. You know, it definitely is life changing.

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I will tell you that, you know, some of the joy of life kind of goes away,

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but you learn how to manage and function because you have no choice.

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Yeah. Well, thank you for sharing that. I think I unfortunately know people,

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too many people who've lost children and there's a strength in hearing other people's stories.

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One of the traditions, if you will, is if you're a parent who's lost a child

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and you know of somebody who's lost a child, you typically reach out to them

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and say, you're now a member of a club you never wanted to be a part of.

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So there is a, you know, emotional connection that you make with other parents.

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And I won't do that if there's somebody that I know I reach out to.

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Yeah. Well, thank you for sharing that. Can you...

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Talk about the foster children and why that was important for you.

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And that has been important because how do we take care of young people?

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You know, when I was growing up, my mother took care of everybody's kids.

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I mean, you know, she did, she just did that. There were always kids in the house.

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So I think I grew up really with a belief that as an adult, you're responsible

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for children, not necessarily your own biological children, but you're responsible for children.

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And so what happened with me specifically on that issue, though,

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in 1990, I was a full-time faculty member at USC Medical School.

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In the African-American community, there was a crisis connected to crack cocaine and gang violence.

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And I left my teaching job to go to the epicenter of that crisis and to start

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an organization to try to figure out how we shift public policy away from punishing

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individuals who have problems, but actually work on their health.

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Because addiction, to me, is a health issue.

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Unfortunately, during that time, that was not the way society viewed it.

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And so the African-American community was punished. And when that punishment

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happened, for example, the incarceration rate for African-American women increased 800, 800 percent.

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When you incarcerate a woman, then the children fall between the cracks.

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And that led to a massive increase in the foster care system.

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And that's what got me involved. I actually didn't know anything about foster

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care. The other thing that was unique to the crack cocaine epidemic was it was

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the first time women became addicted equal to men.

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So drug treatment programs were not set up for men.

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Jails and prisons were not set up for men.

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And so I started working on foster care advocacy. And at the time,

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grandmothers, a lot were saddled with their grandchildren, sometimes on a moment's notice.

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But society punished the grandmothers because they said that the reason why

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their kids were addicted was... Was because of something they did wrong. So if you were a grandmother,

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you were given no financial support to take care of your grandchildren.

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But as a society, we pay strangers to take care of children.

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But a 70-year-old grandmother, it was viewed like, well, that's your obligation.

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And so we organized the grandmothers and we fought for the grandmothers to have resources.

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Now that's passe. I mean, people today would think that making a statement like

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that was crazy, but that was the common belief at the time.

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It is no longer the common belief.

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Now, grandparents, aunts, and uncles are encouraged to take the children and

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they are supported financially as well as with social service resources,

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something that was non-existent 30 years ago.

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Yeah. So you basically went from helping people in the community with the injustice

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justice and the drugs and, and, and putting together the coalition.

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And then you understood that then what was missing and what was really devastating

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was the children and they needed to be taken care of.

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And so basically what, the reason why I bring this up and sort of to centralize

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the thought is like, you're just somebody that sees a problem and you go and

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you try to fix it and you work with others to fix it.

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You don't say I alone will fix it, but you work with others and you understand

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like, how do we make a long-term change while we at the same time fix things

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in the short term, which I think is a really sign of a person,

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not just a good leader, but a good person who understands that you have to have

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both lanes and you have to work hard in both of them at the same time.

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Exactly. I think I'm better though, working on the policy level because I have

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a difficulty with boundaries, especially when it comes to children.

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So, for example, yesterday we had about 15 former foster youth,

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young adults here in the city, and they were shadowing members of the city council,

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and that the board of supervisors hosted them for breakfast.

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And the young person who was shadowing me, you know, she told me of challenges

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in her life, and I'm immediately wanting to solve them.

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And it's better that I stay at the 30,000-foot level, because I just feel an

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incredible responsibility. Right. However, I will say hearing that story, two things come into my mind.

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One, that she could spend the day with the mayor, an African-American woman

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who knows her whys or whos, her hows.

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And just to have that experience and to be heard by you, I think is hugely important

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because I also look at you being the first woman mayor,

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the second African-American mayor of Los Angeles, and that many children in

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America in Los Angeles can look and say, hey, you know what?

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I can be that. Yes. I like to say that when I was a little girl,

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I didn't know a woman could be the vice president or the president.

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Right. But now young people and little kids and little girls and boys can look

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up and see what possibilities there are.

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And so I think that's an important for us to always keep in mind.

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I mean, I remember when I was growing up, I'm a swimmer.

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I love to swim and I wanted to be a lifeguard and girls were not allowed to be lifeguards then.

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So, you know, it's that, I mean, so many barriers have been lifted,

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but because the barriers have been lifted, it doesn't mean that you don't encounter

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obstacles or resistance or,

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you know, a lot of challenges along the way. Yeah.

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Okay, so now that you said about being a swimmer and talking a little bit more

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about some of your likes and activities, I'm going to ask you some rapid questions.

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They're pretty easy, but feel free to answer them however one word or a sentence or however you'd wish.

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The first one's easy, I think. What is your favorite sound? Favorite sound?

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Oh, no, a violin.

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Okay, that's a good one. Your favorite color? Blue. Favorite smell. Good food.

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Yeah, yeah. Okay, on that one, so if you had to pick a meal that was your favorite

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meal, what would that be? Oh, yeah, you already know.

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I know, but I haven't revealed it to everyone here. I love it.

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Salmon is my favorite. Salmon, kale, spinach, those are my favorite foods.

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I'm healthy here. I always have been. And I'm assuming your mom made that food back when you were young as well.

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Yes, she did. And she, because she was a diabetic, she always had us my whole

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life. We always ate healthy.

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Yeah. And I know you like to ride bikes, but I know being a mayor prevents you

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from having a lot of freedom to just ride around LA.

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Do you still get to ride bikes? And what other exercise do you do? Do you still swim?

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I do swim. I do ride bikes, but I ride on the beach. I don't ride through LA traffic.

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I just have company with me now. Yeah, you don't get to ride alone.

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And I'm used to riding by myself. I like to ride and swim alone.

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But as mayor, you don't always have that anymore. They allow me my space. Great.

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Good, good. And when you're biking, do you have a music list,

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a playlist that you listen to? No, I don't listen to music, actually.

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I don't listen to music. I listen to the sounds all around me.

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Wow. Yeah. Okay. That's nice. I know that you don't have a lot of time, but if you had a household chore,

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what would be your favorite household chore to be doing? I like to wash dishes.

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Because I think when I'm washing dishes. If you were to say,

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what is Karen Bass's superpower? What would you say that is? I don't know. I mean, I think, well,

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my mother raised us and said that being nice is very easy.

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And I find it very easy. I don't understand when people are not kind.

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I just really don't. It's so easy just to be pleasant.

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And I know the way you said it, like it's not a superpower. It should just be innate.

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But I think in some cases being a leader that is nice is perhaps your superpower.

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Well, I think the other thing is being inclusive and not being ego-driven.

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Yeah. So to me, the power comes from having other people with you.

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Not doing it alone. When I was in the state legislature and I wanted to do foster

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care legislation, I did a lot of bills.

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I didn't put my name on them. I gave them to other legislators.

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And I had mine, but I wanted everybody to do bills. So we had about 25 members

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of the legislature who all had bills on foster care.

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And that meant we could get an awful lot done.

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So it's never about what I could do myself. It's just like right now.

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I mean, historically, the mayor's office has always been in opposition to the council.

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To me, that doesn't make any sense. Instead of viewing it one versus 15, I view it as 16.

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And instead of viewing it as the mayor versus the board of supervisors,

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you know, I work with them. Right.

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Well, I also know that when you were in the state legislature,

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you also worked with the then Governor Schwarzenegger.

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Well, I absolutely worked with him. And when I was in Congress,

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I worked with Kevin McCarthy. And Kevin McCarthy and I assent.

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Yeah. Which is which is sign to me of where we should always be,

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which is working with people that are different opinions, different ideas.

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But that will strengthen us by working together. So maybe that's also part of

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your superpower. power? Well, my motto is I keep my eyes on the prize.

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Yeah. And that is my object, not trampling on people to be, you know,

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the first, but just trying to get something done.

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Yeah. No, I think it's really special. So let's say you didn't have to work

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one day or for a weekend, or you could go away.

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Where would be a dream place to travel that isn't as Mayer, but as Karen Bass?

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To the Caribbean beach, the ocean. I love the ocean.

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I don't like to swim in the ocean at all, but I love the ocean.

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And I think the Caribbean is a little warmer than the oceans off of Santa Monica and Malibu.

23:06

Yeah, absolutely. The other place, you know, I would go any number of African countries.

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I spent, when I was in Congress, working on Africa was one of the main things I did. And I I miss that.

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I miss going to Africa. I would go to Africa all the time in Congress.

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But as a mayor, do you travel to places that... No, I don't.

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We have an emergency here, which is why I ran, because of the homeless situation.

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And so I went to Paris. I'm going to go to Paris three more times because of

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the Olympics, because of my responsibility for the Olympics.

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But no, I will not spend a lot of time. I could. I'm invited all the time.

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I just don't think it's appropriate. So that's two points. So the Olympics will be in Los Angeles in 2028.

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And, you know, I appreciate what you said about the unhoused,

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the homeless, you know, that, that that is your priority.

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And I think that that is something that I know is been many years in the making.

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And while we're, and it's not a political question, it's not a partisan,

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but what gets you up in the morning? and even after a day that's really rough

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on what you're trying to accomplish?

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What gets you up in the morning that says, okay, I'm going to start again or I'm going to build on it?

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As long as in the nation's second largest city, one of the wealthiest cities

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in the world, there are people sleeping on the street, it gets me up every morning.

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And the sad thing is that there's been a generation of young people who've grown

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up and this is the only thing they've ever seen. So they think it's normal.

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And those of us that have lived a little longer know that this was not the case.

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Well, my last question, which it piggybacks on a lot of what we've talked about,

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which is what does joy mean to you? What brings you joy?

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And what does, if you have joy, how do you share that joy with others?

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It could be personal and politically, but the idea of joy.

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Well, you know, on the same subject, it is absolutely a joyful experience to

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me to be in the street with my team when they are going to tents and telling

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people, you know, let's go. So, but when I've done that, you know, what I say to people is,

25:20

is that you deserve better than this. You deserve better than this. You do not have to live like this.

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And the tears that come to their eyes when they tell me, I thought I was going

25:30

to die like this. I never thought I would be able to get off the street.

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That brings me incredible joy. And then children and young people always bring me joy. Yeah.

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And do you feel, do you, how do you, how do you share your joy?

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Is that through your work? Is that through just talking with young people and

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just being with people in your community? Yeah. I mean, you know, I'll give you a very specific example.

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The two women that are in charge of the work to get people off the streets,

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I met them and started working with them when they were 14 years old.

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They were two of our original youth members, the youth arm of Community Coalition,

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and they're running the work now.

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And they are both in their mid-40s. Wow.

26:13

Yeah. Well, first I want to say thank you.

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And I think about like the fact that you get up every day with a lot of really

26:22

incredible challenges. You are the mayor of one of the biggest cities in America, one of the greatest economies in America.

26:30

And at the end, most of what you've talked about is the people,

26:34

the children, the people that you share each day with and that you work with.

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And I think that just sort of says who you are, which is that you really look

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at this is about changing lives, which is what you've done your whole life.

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But you have taken on a huge challenge, which is to be the mayor of Los Angeles.

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And you've looked at it as really trying to make many, many people's lives one

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by one and collectively better.

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And I just say thank you, because that's inspiring and means a lot to hear from

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you. And thank you for what you do. Well, you are welcome, but it is also very much what you do.

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So thank you for what you do. Thank you.

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Hi, it's Liz. Please join me every Tuesday for coffee to talk about heart and

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humanity with our elected leaders. Ciao.