Does Palo Alto Represent Everything That Is Wrong about Capitalism?

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“Palo Alto is nice,” begins Malcolm Harris in his new book, aptly named “Palo Alto.” But according to Harris, Palo Alto, where he grew up, is also a microcosm for much of what is wrong with capitalism and the California Dream. Charting the history of the town from its founding to the present day, Harris looks at the impact Stanford University, Republican politics, unions and the tech industry have had on the town that has become synonymous with astronomical home prices and venture capital. We’ll talk to Harris and hear from you: Does Palo Alto represent a dream gone awry? Guests: Malcolm Harris, author, "Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism and the World" - Harris is also the author of "Kids These Days: The Making of Millennials" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:42.8	From KQED.
0:58.8	From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.
1:04.6	Plenty of global narratives reserve a privileged place for Silicon Valley and Palo Alto in particular.
1:12.0	Heroic stories abound about the place as the center of technological development, of innovation of the future.
1:14.8	What if author Malcolm Harris asks,
1:20.4	the companies of the Bay Area really have been the architects of the wildly unequal dreadfilled times we're living through?
1:21.8	Their products and services haven't been a salve for our degrading life world, but rather the cause.
1:27.2	Harris's new book, Palo Alto, traces a new arc through California history, from violent
1:32.5	settlement and vigilantism, through the building of the missile suburbs, and all the way to
1:36.7	Uber and other bad ideas.
1:38.4	It's a lot, and it's all coming up next after this news.
1:47.0	Welcome to Forum.
1:48.2	I'm Alexis Madrigal.
	...

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