Storied: San Francisco

John Law  grew up quite the mischievous kid. That naturally led him to the Suicide Club , which he talked about in  Part 1 . In this podcast, John catches us up on what he's doing these days, which includes a lot of "urban exploration." The mindset he adopted with the Suicide Club informs a lot of his exploring these days, including to leave no trace at the sites you explore. He ends the podcast r...

John Law  hitchhiked his way to San Francisco. His dad was a college professor, and so the family moved around quite a bit in John's youth. He started hanging out with the "fun kids," which meant breaking into houses and stealing cars. He ran away back to one of his previous hometowns, in Michigan, and then set out for the Bay Area with a friend. In this episode, John (who, really, has done far to...

As we learned in  Part 1 , Liz Beeson-Evans grew up around horses. After splitting her childhood between Northern California and Jalisco, Mexico, Liz moved around a bit before returning to San Francisco with her now-husband. Spending time with her cousin in LA who's a  farrier  inspired her to get back to horses. In this episode, Liz talks about what being around horses can do for people. She foun...

There are many ways to get to San Francisco. For Caring Cowgirl owner Liz Beeson-Evans, it went something like this: She grew up between Northern California and Jalisco, Mexico, moving to the city in the late-2000s. After being far away from family a few years while living first in Brooklyn and then in Los Angeles, her fiancé-now-husband got a good job and they came back five years ago to a very d...

Forty years is a long time. That the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence will celebrate that milestone this weekend speaks to the charity, creativity, and sense of community that the group brings to San Francisco. In this podcast,  Sister Anni Coque l'Doo  will continue the story of her work with the Sisters. When she moved to Oakland, she joined the  Ducal Council of Alameda , essentially establishin...

Born and raised in San Mateo, the young man who is  Sister Anni Coque l'Doo  went to the March on Washington in 1993 and came back inspired to become an activist. In this podcast, the third and final in our Sisters at 40 series (go back and listen to Sister Roma and Sister Mary Media if you missed them), Anni talks about her evolution as an activist. It culminated with her joining the  Sisters of...

​When Dino Medardo Rosso was approached to help restaurant workers better communicate with, and thus better understand, one another, he was onto something. In this podcast, Dino talks about expanding the work he does with  Lingo , his language-instruction business. It's all about bringing groups of people closer together through language. If you missed  Part 1 , when Dino talked about moving to Sa...

Dino Medardo Rosso studied 16 languages and he speaks five or six, depending on the day. He moved to San Francisco about a decade ago, and got work as a bicycle tour guide and then, a high school teacher. In this podcast, Dino tells the story of how a restaurant owner approached him seeking to solve the problem of her kitchen staff not being able to communicate effectively with the front-of-house...

Michael McConnell  owns a café and video store, but he's also an artist—one of a seemingly dying breed in San Francisco. In this podcast, he laments the loss of artists in the city over the last decade or so, adding that with their leaving, San Francisco is losing its character and its diversity. ​Michael will be having open studio this weekend at 1980 Bryant, Suite 414. And the Social Sketch we t...

It's one thing to be an artist and work in a café as a barista. It's another to be part owner of that café, and for it to double as one of the last video stores in San Francisco. In this podcast, Fayes Coffee owner Michael McConnell talks about moving to San Francisco in the late '90s and landing a job at Fayes within a year or so. Fast-forward to today, and the little coffee shop serves an import...

One of the least interesting things about the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is their name, but it's a damn good name. In this podcast, Sister Mary Media tells the story of how a few young gay men decided to form a group based around performance, politics, charity, and spirituality. They came up with the memorable name, and the rest is history. Mary Media goes on to tell much of that history, a t...

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence , like any good spiritual group, have an origin story. There are some minor quibbles, but Sister Mary Media was there. In this podcast, Mary Media describes the political and social climate from which the Sisters came to life in 1979. She goes on to talk about how the work they did back then evolved over time to include educating the public on the dangers of STD...

On April 21 at Dolores Park, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence will celebrate its 40th anniversary, bringing its Hunky Jesus contest back where it originated many years ago. There to emcee the event, as always, will be Sister Roma (Sister There's No Place Like Rome). In this podcast, Sister Roma talks about finding out that her good friend was a Sister, getting made up for the first time (and lo...

The thing about houseboats is ... they sometimes sink. In Part 1, Sarah told us how the houseboat she and her brother grew up on with their dad sunk in Mission Creek. In this podcast, Sarah tells the story of how the three of them built a new houseboat, the one Sarah lives in today with her daughter down near the ballpark. She goes to describe efforts to get more active spaces built in the surroun...

Sarah Davis grew up unlike most of us. After her parents split up when she was young, her dad eventually decided to live in a houseboat down on Mission Creek. He brought Sarah and her brother with him part-time. In this podcast, Sarah describes growing up on that houseboat (she still lives in a houseboat, albeit a different one, on the creek today). She talks about some of the colorful characters...

To help elevate the voices and stories of Black San Franciscans, we'll be rerunning those episodes over the next few weeks. We'll be back with new stories from your neighbors down the road a bit. Fernay McPherson grew up in the Fillmore of the '80s and '90s, learning to cook from and being inspired by her San Francisco family who had various Texas and Southern roots. In this podcast, Fernay, who o...

Heather J​acks's introduction to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence was serendipitous and took place over a couple of decades. In Part 1, we learned of Heather's time with the Christian fundamentalist church in Sacramento. It turns out the Sisters protested Easter service in the capital city during Heather's time there. Fast-forward to this decade: Now back living in the city again, she learned o...

This April, Heather Jacks's art book about the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, who turn 40 this year, will hit the shelves. In this podcast, we get to know  Heather  before she got involved with the Sisters. You'll hear how she grew up on Indian land in Oregon, graduated high school at 16, moved to Australia, joined a fundamentalist Christian church, and eventually ended up in San Francisco about...

It's fair to say that Pete likes sports. In this podcast, he talks about the Warriors' move to San Francisco later this year. In Pete's mind, Oakland has been great for the team, and with their recent run of championships (three of the last four seasons), he fears that diehard fans are being priced out. In this podcast, Pete talks about the Warriors, the 49ers, and the Giants, including the Giants...

Pete's parents met in San Francisco. He was born in Upper Haight, but his family moved to SoCal soon after that. Around 21, Pete migrated north to the area and started to drink here before eventually moving back to the city. In this podcast, Pete, who bartends these days at Zeitgeist and Emperor Norton's Boozeland, talks about SF now vs. how things were in the 1990s—people are softer now, more pas...

​Sonia and David paid their San Francisco dues. The moved in with each other in the Dogpatch about a year into dating. Shortly after that, Sonia was diagnosed with cancer. Given their young relationship, she feared the worst. To her surprise, David proposed and rose to the task of helping with whatever his fiancée needed. In this second part of our Valentine's Day podcast, the couple shares storie...

Sonia Mansfield is the creator and co-host of  Dorking Out Podcast . She grew up in Concord, but worked so much in San Francisco after college that she eventually decided to move here. She met David through mutual friends in 2008. In this special Valentine's Day podcast, Sonia and David talk about growing up in the Bay Area. They describe their first date at  The Broken Record , a bar in the Excel...

Kevin Hunsanger was part-owner of Green Apple Books for more than 20 years. This January, he stepped away to pursue his latest dream—opening a San Francisco cultural history museum. In this podcast, Kevin shares his inspiration for starting a museum from the ground-up. He speaks to what it is about San Francisco he wants museum visitors to experience—namely education, nostalgia, and a sense of com...

Green Apple Books is a San Francisco institution. Richard Savoy opened the store on Clement Street in 1967. In the early 1990s, Kevin Hunsanger moved to the city and got a job selling rare books there. A few years later, he found himself part of the shop's ownership group, a gig that would last more than 20 years. In this podcast, Kevin talks about his move to San Francisco and his history of work...

Angela Tabora does a lot ... podcast host, fire dancer, film maker. She got her start making documentaries while still at SF State. Her first subject was the house she was living in at the time and its inhabitants. The house was the San Francisco Morehouse, a place for communal living, sensuality classes, and charity. In this episode, Ange talks about making that documentary. In the process, she e...