4.8 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 22 February 2023
⏱️ 56 minutes
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Giving listeners a glimpse into his new book, Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World, guest Malcolm Harris joins Ayana in a vast conversation dealing with the shape and form of Palo Alto’s specific place alongside overarching systems of capital. Cutting through the romanticization and myth that surrounds much of the allure around California as place and as metaphor, Malcolm offers well-rooted thought touching on the history of Stanford University, the internet, Palo Alto’s military connections, and more. This conversation reveals the values of understanding our material realities and the structures that support society as it stands. When we understand these intricacies, how might knowledge allow us to subvert domination?
Offering his critical thought to this conversation, Malcolm reminds us that this permutation of society was not inevitable, and neither is any particular future. As examples, the practices of Land Back movements, student resistance, and collective organizing spaces, offer hope for alternatives. If specific visions of justice are impossible within this system, how do we steward a future in which they are?
Malcolm Harris is a freelance writer and the author of Kids These Days, Shit is Fucked Up and Bullshit, and the new book Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World.
Music by Little Foster Music (Harry Foster), Harrison Basch, and Ian George. Visit our website at forthewild.world for the full episode description, references, and action points.
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0:48.0 | Hello and welcome to For the Wild Podcast. I'm Ayanna Young. |
0:52.4 | Today I'm speaking with Malcolm Harris. |
0:55.4 | Well, just like any workplace is, right? I mean, any place where you're going to have to |
0:59.4 | people to work under capitalism, any exercise of power includes the possibility for resistance. |
1:08.6 | Malcolm Harris is a freelance writer and the author of Kids These Days, |
1:12.8 | should his fuck up and bullshit, and the new book Palo Alto, a history of California, capitalism, |
1:18.7 | and the world. |
1:19.4 | Well, Malcolm, thank you so much for joining us today on For the Wild. I am really looking |
1:30.4 | forward to this conversation, doing the research for this interview. Definitely energized me, |
1:36.8 | and I felt quite passionate about much of what you talk about and write about, so thanks so much. |
1:45.5 | Um, so excited to hear. Thanks so much for having me. |
1:48.9 | Oh, good, good, good, good. Well, I'm thinking we could just jump right into talking about California |
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