Sad Francisco

Stephanie Lumsden is a scholar in Feminist and Native American Studies, currently teaching at UC Davis. She tells the story of a gang of Hupa tribe resistance fighters in 1860s California that included Curly-Headed Tom, who wreaked havoc on the area's settlers. Elsewhere in the conversation: the 'bad' vs. 'good Indian' dichotomy, and the concept of 'revenge' as anti-colonial resistance. stephaniel...

Signal (the phone app) has become an obligatory download for every organizer on the Left in the US. But it was funded through one of the American government's propaganda agencies, and the atmosphere it creates is one of a neverending meeting permeated by paranoia. Epic conversation, care of Jemma DeCristo and Ralowe Ampu.  LAGAI—Queer Insurrection! [https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/OTIxNTJmO...

Chris Lee studies the emergent Asian and Asian American rightwing in the US, including forces like the Falun Gong cult. We discuss the FLG and its flagship soft power campaigns that include the Shen Yun dance company and the Epoch Times newspaper—and how it's part of a larger effort to sow anti-communist, anti-trans sentiment in the US.    Support us and find links to our past episodes:  patreon.c...

Margaret Killjoy on coming out as an anarchist, why anarchist history is so hidden, and the importance of deescalating conflict that isn't with the enemy (and more). Margaret's Substack [https://substack.com/@margaretkilljoy] has her essay "The Sky is Falling; We've Got This" [https://margaretkilljoy.substack.com/p/the-sky-is-falling-weve-got-this] Marget on BlueSky [https://bsky.app/profile/marga...

Two founders of the prison abolition movement—renowned thinkers and doers Craig and Ruth Wilson Gilmore—speak on the prison industrial complex's California roots. Also discussed: Why focusing on closing private prisons is too narrow a vision, and Gavin Newsom's campaign to put a kinder, gentler face on mass incarceration via the medicalization of imprisonment (eg. increasing conservatorship, force...

It started when San Jose State University's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office sponsored a visit from CSU's premier Zionist. Sang Hea Kil describes the repression she experienced as the only faculty member who joined an encampment of Muslim students in solidarity with Palestine last year at the school.  Later in the episode, G, a former worker at GLIDE Church (a San Francisco nonprofit where t...

A crowd of people set fire to a robotaxi last Lunar New Year in San Francisco's Chinatown. Jasmine explains how Asian American influencers and corporate media outlets used the "death" of a Waymo "self-driving" vehicle to stoke fear about anti-Asian violence. Fundraiser for Yazan in Gaza [https://chuffed.org/project/115145-yazan] Write to Casey Goonan [https://www.abcf.net/blog/update-on-casey-goon...

Churches, nonprofits and politicians have turned the anti-sex trafficking movement into a billion-dollar industry. The lives and stories of migrant sex workers get used as an excuse to hire more cops, and criminalize a form of labor that pays better than most. Chanelle and Elene, on their new book featuring the stories of migrant sex workers from across North America. Not Your Rescue Project (Haym...

"Abolish Rent" is a new organizing bible from Leonardo Vilchis and Tracy Rosenthal, laying out the reasons why capitalism will never provide everyone with the basic human need of shelter. They discuss tactics from successful rent strikes, how California's COVID-19 eviction moratorium was both a success and failure of tenant activism, and the attempt by landlords to rebrand as "housing providers."...

Hanin, Mai and Nadina met and became friends through the Palestine solidarity movement in Tokyo a little over a year ago.  We cover some of the recent successes of the movement, including Israeli defense company Elbit Systems losing contracts, and Israel being disinvited from the yearly event in Nagasaki that memorializes the day the US dropped an atomic bomb.  They speak to some of the particular...

Mama Ganuush and Toshio bring you AIPAC Zombies: people in American culture who have been possessed by the worst Zionist brainrot.   Our first episode: California politician Scott Wiener.   More: "Scott Wiener's Appalling Legacy as San Francisco Supervisor" (Patrick Range McDonald, Housing is a Human Right) [ https://www.housingisahumanright.org/scott-wiener-appalling-legacy-san-francisco-supervis...

Join Tofu and Toshio on an end of the year, stream-of-consciousness check-in.  New episode of Sad Francisco on January 3. AIPAC Zombies with Mama Ganuush premieres January 1. Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco  

A check-in with Mama Ganuush where we hear about their recent hunger strike, their visit with family who evacuated Gaza for Egypt, and discuss how US elections are bought and sold by AIPAC.   SF Drag Artist Leads Hunger Strike Against US Funding of Israel (Nastia Voynovskaya, KQED) https://www.kqed.org/arts/13967427/sf-drag-artist-leads-hunger-strike-against-us-funding-of-israel Mama Ganuush on In...

[This episode went up back in September, but it felt OK to put it back on the feed for anyone who might've missed it. New episodes soon.] As liberation movements face intense repression  from CEOs, cops, landlords, politicians, and Zionists, Dean Spade and friends put together a list of questions we can all ask ourselves, so we don't reproduce the logics of the state. Dean is author of the classic...

Lavender Phoenix https://lavenderphoenix.org/   SF People's Budget: https://www.instagram.com/sfpeoplesbudget/   #JusticeForAkaiGurley: AAPI response to people supporting Peter Liang, the NYPD officer who killed Akai Gurley.  https://caaav.org/justiceforakaigurley-national-sign-on-letter Support us and find links to our past episodes:  patreon.com/sadfrancisco *People's Budget Coalition listed for...

Originally from San Francisco, Brandon Lee was working as a journalist in Ifugao in the Philippines when he survived an assassination attempt–a shooting carried out by forces close to the US-backed Duterte regime.    Brandon talks about surviving the attack, the US disinformation machine, and why the Bay goes so hard for liberation in the Philippines.    Website: Justice4BrandonLee.org IG: Justice...

Jeremy Mack (from The Phoenix Project, which exposes dark money in Bay Area politics) is back for a discussion about upcoming elections, TogetherSF, the billionaire-funded, "pro-moderate" astroturfing group behind SF's Prop. D, and Balaji Srinivasan's plan for "The Network State," a techbro-led New World Order complete with a walled-off Hayes Valley.   The Phoenix Project: https://www.phoenixproje...

Mama Ganuush hosts a discussion on whether people in the US actually stand a chance under American democracy, when money rules everything around us. Guests from The Phoenix Project (exposing dark money in Bay Area politics) and Pups for Palestine (what it says :) ). Salon HALA will return in 2025.  Salon HALA on Instagram   The Phoenix Project   Zinedogs  |  Instagram @zinedogssf   Support us and...

It's one year since the start of the most recent wave of Israel's US-backed genocide of Palestinians. This episode was recorded last fall with Loubna Qutami (co-founder of the Palestinian Youth Movement and a member of the Palestinian Feminist Collective), and one of her mentors, and ours, Dylan Rodriguez (co-founder of Critical Resistance and the Critical Ethnic Studies Association).  Both organi...

"Brothers in recovery" Matt Dorsey (an ex-SFPD staffer turned politician) and Tom Wolf (the rightwing influencer who said the impending closure of a Macy's store was "San Francisco's 9/11") are examples of how conservatives are using their drug rehab journeys to prop up the war on drug users. With enemies like Tom Wolf, rightwing lobbyist Christopher Rufo, and conservative misinformation machine P...

Project 2025 soft launched in San Francisco years ago, with successful attempts to replace politicians with people who are obedient to the rightwing. Because it's the Bay, these replacements are registered as Democrats and they virtue signal about diversity, but make no mistake, they are deeply aligned with rightwing forces like the Heritage Foundation.  This episode's guest Alison Collins is a SF...

Mutual aid and relationships with people we trust are gonna be key to surviving the political and climate apocalypses ahead. Brooke, Lauren and Mama Ganuush  on Bay2Gaza Mutual Aid, and how to sustain connections with people living through the genocide in Palestine, as the US and Israel do everything they can to repress signals of solidarity. Bay2Gaza Benefit is 9/20 at Oakland Secret https://www....

"Cultivating Solidarity in Times of Escalating Repression" (Dean, with Community Justice Exchange, Jocelyn Simonson, Pilar Weiss, Atara Rich-Shea and Zohra Ahmed: http://bit.ly/cultivatesolidarity     As liberation movements face intense repression from CEOs, cops, landlords, politicians, and Zionists,   https://unicornriot.ninja/2023/over-60-people-indicted-on-rico-charges-in-atlanta-allegedly-pr...

Debt is a tool of control wielded by rich people. Maddy Clifford and Debt Collective (the union for people dealing with debt) want to wipe it out.   Maddy's Linktree https://linktr.ee/madlines   Debt Collective  https://debtcollective.org/   Tenant Power Toolkit https://tenantpowertoolkit.org/   "They Want to Keep You in Debt" (Maddy at More Perfect Union) https://perfectunion.us/the-secret-studen...

Hate to be that bummer podcast, but Zionism has invaded party culture, too.    Mama Ganuush discusses Adam Swig, a party promoter from the real estate empire that brought you San Francisco's posh Fairmont and St. Francis hotels.   Next, we talk Israel's colonization of the Playa, complete with a Nova Music Festival memorial, and a "No donations for Doctors Without Borders" policy at the queer Comf...