Storied: San Francisco

In this podcast, Temi picks up where she left off in Part 1 , talking about founding Pembroke , her PR firm here in The City. She goes on to describe how the company transitioned during the onset of shelter-in-place earlier this year. Then Temi pivots to her own experiences with racism and her awakening to racial and social justice. She ends the podcast talking about joining Represent Collaborativ...

Temi Adamolekun moved to San Francisco sight unseen. Temi  was born in Lagos, Nigeria, but raised mostly in London. Her family visited their hometown often after their move to Europe, so Temi grew up with a good sense of where she was from despite her British upbringing. After boarding school and university, she got a job at Condé Nast doing PR work. As a side hustle of sorts, she started making h...

In this episode, Dale picks up where he left off in Part 1 , with his college years in Santa Clara. After he graduated, he moved to LA where he worked in shipping. He had a few other jobs, mostly in data systems. Dale was living in Scottsdale, Arizona, and his then-girlfriend/now wife was taking care of her father, who was ill, while also going to SF State. So, in 2010, Dale moved back to the Bay...

Dale Johnson is the descendent of Black cowboys. In this podcast, Dale traces the history of his family, from New York state and a Black settlement in Texas called High Prairie to the Bay Area. His parents met at a park in the East Bay and Dale was born seven years later. He grew up in "deep" East Oakland. He touches on some of the changes that he remembers, with industrial jobs being off-shored a...

There's a battle going on in the world of San Francisco street art. In this episode, we get to know street artist  Ricky Rat . Ricky's grandparents come from many different heritages. His parents moved to San Francisco, separately, in the '80s and met at a Halloween party in the Mission. Ricky spent some time with his dad (also a comic artist) in the Mission in the 1990s (fun fact—his dad took him...

In this podcast, Michelle and Alex pick up where they left off in Part 1 , discussing how the sale of 111 Minna that left them as co-owners went down. The original owner, Ei Ming, left Michelle in charge, and there was a lot of stuff she had to figure out how to do. A few years down the road, she brought Alex in to help, and soon enough, the two ended up buying the place from Ei Ming. 111 Minna Ga...

Ready your SF bingo card: Michelle Delaney is a punk rock mom who runs an art gallery in The City. In this podcast, we get to know Michelle and  111 Minna  co-owner Alex Kivelstadt . The two talk about their lives leading up to the moment they purchased the art bar/cafe from its previous owner. Check back Thursday for Part 2, when we'll hear the story of Michelle and Alex taking over  111 Minna ,...

You got to know Marke Bieschke earlier this season ( Part 1 / Part 2 ). In this special episode, we catch up with him to hear what's gone on with 48 Hills and The Stud since the pandemic began. We also discuss Marke's book, Into the Streets: A Young Person's Visual History of Protest in the United States , which was published over the summer. Find the book at your local indy bookstore. If you want...

This one is a little different from what we normally do, and what we've been doing during September. We haven't met  Pop's Bar  owners Tom or Spike, nor do we know bartender Charlie yet. But a mutual friend connected us and we couldn't pass up the chance to hear some history of the Mission drinking hole and also their experiences during the pandemic. Spike (who also owns  Madrone Art Bar ) and Tom...

Catch up with Adam Bergeron , whom you met earlier this year ( Part 1 / Part 2 ). Adam fills us in on how the Balboa Theater has responded to the pandemic and shelter-in-place orders. The  Balboa Theater  is open for "social distance popcorn pop-ups" every Friday and Saturday from 4–8 p.m. and Sundays from 2–6 p.m. Please visit their  website  for other ways to support them during the pandemic. We...

Steph Miller got her first dog in New Orleans. In this podcast, Steph picks up where she left off in Part 1. She returned home from New Orleans with her dog, Ruby, who joined two other dogs at Steph's parents' house. You could say that the pack ... got into some trouble. But luck related to Steph's adopting Ruby eventually led her to a career training and working with dogs. She got a job at  Missi...

Steph Miller used to have dreams of playing professional baseball. Her parents met out east, where they're from. But their families weren't so keen on their respective different backgrounds, so the young couple came to the West Coast. Steph's dad got a job in a San Francisco law firm while her mom taught French. Steph talks about her childhood, and she and Jeff start to realize how much they have...

Catch up with Babylon Burning's Mike Lynch in this special episode. Mike talks about adjusting his business in the face of a major downturn, with many of his usual clients pulling back on T-shirt orders. While he normally keeps his screenprinting shop open, literally, to the public, his doors have been mostly closed during the pandemic. And 63 Bluxome Gallery, which is part of Babylon Burning, has...

Catch up with Dino Medardo Rosso , whom we featured in Season 2, Episode 19 ( Part 1 / Part 2 ). After losing a lot of his business when restaurants shut down in March, and then getting laid off from his teaching job, Dino made a critical change. Learn more in this podcast. In addition to hiring Dino for language services, you can donate to his  GoFundMe  to help fund his new business/adventure. W...

Del Seymour 's arrival in San Francisco was one wild ride. In this podcast, Del describes his literal first hours in The City. He touches on nearly two decades of drug addiction and sets the scene at a park in the Tenderloin where he was inspired to sober up a little more than a decade ago. Around that time, he started  Tenderloin Walking Tours , inspired in part by Del's time driving cabs in San...

Del Seymour got interested in politics early in his life, in the 1960s in Chicago. In this podcast, Del walks us through the early years of his life. He attended a Catholic school in Chicago and went to seminary to be a priest. But that didn't last long, and he soon joined the military as a medic. After that, he moved to Los Angeles to get away from the snow and cold weather. Within his first year...

We first met and got to know Liz Beeson in 2019. At the time, she was raising money for a Caring Cowgirl minivan to cart around her therapy mini dwarf horse and mini donkey. (Please go back and listen to Part 1 and Part 2 of her podcast with us.) Fast-forward to earlier this month, when we caught up with Liz to hear what's been going on in her and the minis's lives. Among other stories in this spe...

Catch up with Season 2, Episode 41 storyteller ( Part 1 and Part 2 ), Muttville founder and CEO Sherri Franklin . Sherri talks about everything her non-profit senior dog rescue has gone through during quarantine as well as some exciting plans for the near future. We're excited to announce that tickets are now available for the Muttville Gala! This year's theme:  Mutts on the Moon . Get your  ticke...

In this podcast, Yuka picks up where she left off in Part 1 , with her and her husband Kris's arrival in San Francisco. She worked a number of bartending jobs in The City before the couple decided to open their own place in 2012. She talks about lessons she learned at those bartending gigs. Those, along with observations she had made of how her parents ran in their business back in Japan, informed...

Yuka Ioroi's family name dates back to the 700s. She grew up in Shizuoka prefecture in Japan with Mt. Fuji nearby. Her parents ran a business, and Yuka sees some of their ways of operating reflected in her own running of  Cassava . She moved to Los Angeles when she was 15. In the podcast, she describes some culture shock she experienced as well as a diversity she didn't see at home. After college,...

You got to know Gordon Szeto in S1E42. Michelle and Jeff checked in with Gordon and Glass Key co-owner Matt Osborne for this special episode to see how they're handling all the changes that COVID-19 and the subsequent shelter-in-place have brought. Glass Key Photo is open Mondays through Fridays from 2 to 4 p.m. You can browse their cameras for sale  here . We recorded this special podcast at Glas...

In this podcast, Eskender picks up where he left off in Part 1 . After working for Joyce Goldstein at Square One, he went to Campton Place, where he worked with and learned a lot from chef Daniel Humm. He started doing an underground restaurant in his home, and that became his full-time gig starting in 2005. It was the birth of Radio Africa Kitchen. The owner of  Velo Rogue suggested that Eskender...

When he was a teenager, Eskender Aseged fled his home country on foot. In this podcast, the  Radio Africa  owner shares the story of walking from Communist Ethiopia to Sudan in the early 1980s. He found work in Khartoum and learned English, and he and his brother eventually got refugee status from the U.S. They arrived in Newark, New Jersey in 1986, and Eskender soon moved to New York City, where...

First it was punk rock. Then, dogs saved Pali Boucher's life. In this podcast, Pali picks up where she left off in  Part 1 , with her return to San Francisco after a short time in LA. A teenager with bright red hair, she fell in with the SF punk scene, then in its very early days. Pali describes a wild ride through addiction and eventually, getting sober. It was a rather circuitous route that led...

Pali Boucher had what many would consider a wild childhood. In this podcast, the  Rocket Dog Rescue  founder takes us on a colorful journey through her early years. Let's just say that her parents liked to party. Pali spent her first 10 years with her mom, moving all around the greater Bay Area (and even Mexico). After her mom died, she and her brother were separated when she went to live with her...