
The Pacific Circuit
A Globalized Account of the Battle for the Soul of an American City
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Narrated by:
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Alexis Madrigal
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By:
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Alexis Madrigal
About this listen
This audiobook, written and read by Alexis Madrigal, reveals how understanding Oakland explains the modern world.
In The Pacific Circuit, the award-winning journalist Alexis Madrigal sculpts an intricate tableau of the city of Oakland that is at once a groundbreaking big-idea book, a deeply researched work of social and political history, and an intimate portrait of an essential American city that has been at the crossroads of the defining themes of the twenty-first century.
Oakland’s stories encompass everything from Silicon Valley’s prominence and the ramifications of a compulsively digital future to the underestimated costs of technological innovation on local communities—all personified in this changing landscape for the city’s lifelong inhabitants.
The Pacific Circuit holds a magnifying glass to the scars etched by generations of systemic segregation and the ceaseless march of technological advancement. These are not just abstract concepts; they are embedded in the very fabric of Oakland and its people, from dockworkers and community organizers to real estate developers and businesspeople chasing the highest possible profits. Madrigal delves into city hall politics, traces the intertwining arcs of venture capital and hedge funds, and offers unprecedented insight into Silicon Valley’s genesis and growth, all against the backdrop of Oakland—a city vibrating with untold stories and unexplored connections that can, when explored carefully, reveal exactly how our markets and our world really function.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
©2025 Alexis Madrigal (P)2025 Macmillan AudioCritic reviews
"The Pacific Circuit gives us a thrilling new kind of historical storytelling. Madrigal masterfully weaves together the financial, technological, and geological forces that shaped his hometown, and shows us how individual lives were shaped by these powerful currents. It’s a story about race, urban planning, imperialism, neighborhood activism, technological innovation—the entire complex system, from the hyperlocal to the global, that gives rise to the places we live."—Steven Johnson, author of The Ghost Map and How We Got to Now
"I’ve been lucky to encounter great books about local history and great books about the global networks that undergird our daily experience, but The Pacific Circuit is one of a precious few that tackle both at once. Madrigal’s ability to connect the local to the global so completely represents a masterful feat of research and storytelling. It also models a challenging and urgently needed way of seeing—one that's as crucial for understanding the places we love as it is for imagining their futures."—Jenny Odell, author of How to Do Nothing and Saving Time
"A dazzlingly imaginative (and surprisingly hopeful) telling of how everything—our cities, our globalized economy, our planet—ended up this way—and how it all started in Oakland. The Pacific Circuit is a marvel of real-life storytelling, making the world around us feel vast and magical, full of casual treachery as well as spaces of hope."—Hua Hsu, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Stay True
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Story
The revelatory true story of the long-forgotten POW camps for German soldiers erected in hundreds of small U.S. towns during World War II, and the secret Nazi killings that ensnared fifteen brave American POWs in a high-stakes showdown.
By: William Geroux
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Splinter Effect
- A Novel
- By: Andrew Ludington
- Narrated by: Roger Wayne
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Smithsonian archaeologist Rabbit Ward travels through time on sponsored expeditions to the past to secure precious artifacts moments before they are lost to history. Although exceptional at his job, Rabbit is not without faults. In a spectacular failure twenty years ago, he lost both the menorah of the second temple and his hot-headed mentee, Aaron. So, when new evidence reveals the menorah’s reappearance in 6th century Constantinople, Rabbit seizes the chance for redemption. But from the moment he arrives in the past, things start to go wrong.
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One of the best Time travel novels I have read!
- By Daniel Lewis on 03-25-25
By: Andrew Ludington
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Stop Me If You've Heard This One
- A Novel
- By: Kristen Arnett
- Narrated by: Cameron Esposito
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Cherry Hendricks might be down on her luck, but she can write the book on what makes something funny: she’s a professional clown who creates raucous, zany fun at gigs all over Orlando. Between her clowning and her shifts at an aquarium store for extra cash, she’s always hustling. Not to mention balancing her judgmental mother, her messy love life, and her equally messy community of fellow performers. Things start looking up when Cherry meets Margot the Magnificent—a much older lesbian magician—who seems to have worked out the lines between art, business, and life.
By: Kristen Arnett
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Red Scare
- Blacklists, McCarthyism and the Making of Modern America
- By: Clay Risen
- Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
- Length: 15 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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An urgent, accessible, and important history, Red Scare reveals an all-too-familiar pattern of illiberal conspiracy-mongering and political and cultural backlash that speaks directly to the antagonism and divisiveness of our contemporary moment. Drawing upon newly declassified documents, journalist Clay Risen recounts how politicians like Joseph McCarthy, with the help of an extended network of other government officials and organizations, systematically ruined thousands of lives in their deluded pursuit of alleged Communist conspiracies.
By: Clay Risen
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The Social Genome
- The New Science of Nature and Nurture
- By: Dalton Conley
- Narrated by: Christopher Douyard
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Sociogenomics brings together advances in molecular genetics and traditional social and behavioral science. The key tool is the polygenic index, which allows us to analyze DNA to measure a child's genetic potential. Today, we can estimate a child's adult height, how far they will go in school, and their weight as an adult—all from a cheek swab, finger prick, or vial of saliva. Dalton Conley and other researchers are using this new science to shed light on the ways in which genes shape our world, influencing how each person both creates and responds to the environment around them.
By: Dalton Conley
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Why We’re Getting Poorer
- A Realist’s Guide to the Economy and How We Can Fix It
- By: Cahal Moran
- Narrated by: Cahal Moran
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Did you know that while we think of money as notes issued by the government, the truth is that the overwhelming majority of money today is credit created by private banks? Did you know that the reason housing keeps getting less accessible is because we haven’t found a way to separate houses from land in our policies? And did you know that far from globalisation being a mystical force, certain countries and currencies have dominated the way it has played out – to their own advantage?
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An accessible explanation of why things feel so broken
- By Bruce on 03-20-25
By: Cahal Moran