Welcome to Navarro FM. My name is Richard Hames. Of all the metonyms in all the world,

perhaps none got more of what it wanted from the 20th century than Silicon Valley.

But what is underneath this name, Silicon Valley is a place, of course,

but it's vastly more than that. It's the world's most important mass of tech and money.

It's become a style of life, a particular view of history, and even an approach to politics.

These politics seemed clear around a decade ago.

Technocratic neoliberalism meets a bland futurism and never mind the racism.

But since then, the politics of the tech sector have got more and more complicated, and

seemingly further and further to the right.

Recently, prominent figures in the valley have come out in favor of Donald Trump and it's not just

the usual spooky suspect.

With the 2024 US election coming now into view, the shifting beliefs of a few unelected,

ultra-powerful tech billionaires matter more than they ever have before.

So where do they come from?

There is perhaps no one more capable of speaking about the buried dark side of the valley

than Malcolm Harris, author of Paolo Alta, a history of California, capitalism, and the world.

Over 700 immaculately researched pages, he documents the transformation of this chunk of California,

from the genocide that helped found the place to its present role in, well, facilitating genocide,

and letting you listen to this.

Following on in the noble tradition of interviews, such as that between Elon Musk and Donald Trump,

I asked him how to understand the rise of right-wing billionaires, what to make of all the

hype around AI, and in suitably Californian mind expanding style where the machines themselves

...