Storied: San Francisco

​Staci Slaughter grew up going to Giants games at Candlestick Park. In the 1990s, she got a job in Mayor Frank Jordan's office, where she helped with the effort to keep the baseball team in San Francisco. After Jordan left office, Staci found a job in the Giants' front office, where she's been for 22 years now. Today, she's the Executive VP of Communications for the ballclub. In this podcast, Stac...

Darryl Lim grew up in San Francisco and saw first-hand the devastation that AIDS wrought on the city's gay community. In this podcast, Part 2 of Darryl's story, he talks about what it was like to watch friends and loved ones die of the disease and suffer the stigma of having it. He talks about his own experience with AIDS and what it was like, after living in a few other cities, to come back home...

​Darryl Lim was born in San Francisco and raised in North Beach. In this podcast, Darryl, who is a skin care professional these days, shares the great things about his childhood, including cafes, bookstores, clubs, and the schools he went to. He talks about going to Esalen when he was 12, and the influence that hippies had on him. Check back Thursday for Part 2, when Darryl will talk about living...

Gordon Szeto  loves taking photographs. The San Francisco native found photography as a teenager, and after a run with his family business, he fell back in love with the art. These days, Gordon co-owns  Glass Key Photo , a camera and film store located in the Polk Gulch. In this podcast, Gordon talks about his love of photography—specifically, film photography. He shares thoughts on what makes San...

Gordon Szeto grew up on the edge of Russian Hill, close to Chinatown, a neighborhood that, from a young age, captivated him. As a teenager, he got into photography, and Chinatown was a natural subject. These days, he and a few other photographers are documenting life in Chinatown—the people and businesses that have held out all these years. In this episode, Gordon talks about growing up in San Fra...

It was one thing for the San Francisco Giants to end the franchise's 56-year drought, winning the World Series in 2010. They went on to repeat as champions in 2012 and 2014. In this podcast, the third part of three, staff photographer Andy Kuno shares stories from the second and third World Series victories for the San Francisco Giants. We recorded this podcast at The Social Kitchen and Brewery in...

​Something happened in 2010 that had never taken place in San Francisco before—the Giants won a World Series. The team had been here for 52 years at that point. They had played in three different stadiums. Entire generations of families had been fans. But that season, it all came together and eventually culminated in a parade down Market Street in November. In this podcast, the second part of thre...

For 24 years, photographer Andy Kuno has been on the field with the San Francisco Giants. He grew up going to games at Candlestick with his dad, a photo lab owner who helped out taking pictures of the ballclub. In the 1990s, Andy got the job, and he's been there, through thick and thin, ever since. In this podcast, the first part of three, Andy talks about memories of the Giants in the 1989 and 20...

After Anthony Bourdain passed away in June, our friends at  Bitch Talk Podcast  decided that the best way to honor him was to follow in his footsteps—literally. The second of three planned "Bourdain Crawls" brought them (and Jeff) to Upper Haight's Zam Zam, where we met and were treated to some amazing oral history from bartender Kundan Baidwan. In this episode, which is shared by our podcast and...

In this podcast,  Ed Wolf  talks about moving here and feeling like he was part of a community. Shortly after his arrival in San Francisco, that community was upended by AIDS. Ed tells stories of his own relationship with the disease and he talks about an old roommate who was sick but found hope in an unusual place. Here's the poem Ed mentions having written in this podcast: THE SKI MASK When he's...

Ed Wolf  worked for three years on San Francisco General Hospital's Ward 5A, where AIDS patients came when the epidemic first hit. Part 2 of Ed's podcast details two stories from his time in Ward 5A. One is a story of an unexpected kindness Ed experienced after crossing a line he wasn't supposed to cross. The second is a tale of survival and heroism that should surprise you. Check back tomorrow fo...

Ed Wolf  is an educator. He's a writer, a storyteller, and a trainer. And he loves public transportation.  ​Three rides on mass transit serve as the settings for Ed's first podcast. It was there that he learned about people and the city he lives in and loves—San Francisco. Check back tomorrow for Part 2 of 3, when Ed will tell stories from San Francisco General Hospital's Ward 5A: The AIDS ward. T...

Every podcast has an origin story. In this episode, Lily Sloane, the creator and producer of  A Therapist Walks into a Bar , talks about how she got started and how podcasting came to be the first thing she tells people when they ask, "What do you do?" If you missed Part 1, click  here . We recorded this podcast at The Sycamore in June 2018. Film photography by  Michelle Kilfeather

Lily Sloane is a podcaster, a radio producer, a music composer, and a psychotherapist, in that order. But it hasn't always been that way. Lily's family moved to Petaluma from the East Coast when she was 8. She moved herself to San Francisco to go to college. But, having never stayed anywhere too long, and despite being here for a reason, it took a little time for the city to become her home. In th...

George Downes is a San Francisco County Sheriff's deputy by day. Woo Woo Monroe is George's drag persona by night. In this podcast, George shares the story of one of his first New Year's Eves in San Francisco. A walk down to the Embarcadero to see the fireworks gave way to a chance meeting he had with two San Francisco icons—the Brown Twins, Marian and Vivian. In the second half of the podcast, Ge...

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. Yeva Johnson is a musician, a poet, and a physician. She works with patients at end of life, doing what she can make to make that transition as peaceful and harmonious as possible. In this podcast, Yeva t...

One-hundred-year-old Alyce Murphy walked across the Golden Gate Bridge when it opened in 1937. She worked as a toll taker on the Bay Bridge shortly after it opened. In this podcast, Part 2 of 2, Alyce talks about the bridges, meeting her husband, raising her family, other jobs she had, and the 1989 earthquake. She also reflects on living all 100 of her years in San Francisco, and talks about why s...

Alyce Murphy turned 100 this May. The third-generation San Franciscan spent her early life in a tiny, crowded house behind St. Luke's Hospital with her grandmother after her mom died when she was very young. It was from that home that Alyce experienced the Great Depression and got into her fair share of mischief, as young kids tend to do. In this very special podcast, Alyce talks about the Mission...

In Part 1 of Adair Lara's podcast, she talked about moving to San Francisco from her childhood home in Marin. She has lived in the same beautiful Queen Anne Victorian house, at the corner of Waller and Scott in Duboce Triangle, since 1973. In Part 2, Adair will take us through her experience as a young writer who ended up with a column in the San Francisco Chronicle, where she met many notable wri...

Adair Lara moved to San Francisco from her childhood home in Marin in 1973. Today, she still lives in the same Victorian house she moved into back then, a beautiful and expansive Queen Anne in Duboce Park. In this podcast, Adair, a writer and former columnist for the Chronicle , talks about that house, the living room of which we recorded in. Check back Thursday, when Adair will share the story of...

In Part 1 of this episode, Stephen talked about working at Nopa restaurant and how that job led to his involvement with students at Ida B. Wells High School. In Part 2, he shares the story of helping Nopa to tell their own stories through Nopalize . The work he did getting Nopalize going provided a framework for Stephen's current project— Whetstone Magazine . Whetstone will be having an issue laun...

To help elevate the voices and stories of Black San Franciscans, we'll be rerunning those episodes for the rest of this week. In this podcast, Stephen shares the serendipitous story of getting a job at Nopa. He talks about how his work there lead to his involvement with Alice Cravens's program Heat of the Kitchen  at Ida B. Wells High School. Restaurants, food, gardens, education ... what's not to...

In Part 1 of this podcast, entertainment lawyer Michael Aczon talked about growing up in the Bayview in the 1970s. In this episode, he'll share what it was like living next to a patron of the San Francisco jazz scene. He'll talk about his brother's band, H.P. Riot, and some old SF music venues. He'll end the podcast with his thoughts on what makes music in San Francisco so special. ​We recorded th...

Entertainment lawyer Michael Aczon has music running through his veins. In this podcast, Michael will talk about his father's arrival in San Francisco in 1931 (including, he later found out, lots of time at the International Hotel), his family's return to San Francisco in the 1960s, growing up in the Bayview, and learning to navigate the city on Muni and his bicycle. He and his friend Marcos once...

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. San Francisco artist and poet Mason J. is a survivor. They were born in the city in the late 1980s into two epidemics that were wiping out entire communities—AIDS and crack. In this podcast, Mason J. shar...