Sam Farr: How Democracy Can Work

Dastardly Cleverness in the Service of Good

Sam Farr devoted 44 years of his life to elected office at the local, state, and federal level. That included 24 years as the Congressman for the Central Coast of California, where he grew up in the seaside village of Carmel.

Among his inspirations were his father, longtime state legislator Fred Farr; President John F. Kennedy; and the Peace Corps, which he joined as a young man. If that makes him sound like an idealist, that’s accurate, but it’s only half the picture.

The other half is very pragmatic, with an obsessive focus on the nuts and bolts of policy and politics.

As you’ll hear in this interview, when both of those halves come together, democracy can work. Sam has lots of great stories about how that happens, some of them funny, some very moving, and all of them hopeful.