Total SF

Total SF visits SCRAP, the hidden arts and crafts wonderland in the Bayview District of San Francisco. Hosts Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight tour the non-profit and meet staffers and volunteers (including formerly homeless artist Wayne Foote) who have seen first-hand how discovering art can positively impact children and communities. After touring the facility, Hartlaub and Knight try to beat th...

While the cable cars made headlines, another heartbeat of the city has also returned — the San Francisco street performer. Total SF co-hosts Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight hop an F-line from the Powell Street cable car turnaround to Pier 39, to visit some of the city's most successful street artists. We hear from: Marc Coleman, the bard of the Ferry Building; Oakland Originalz dancer and stunt...

Total SF hosts Heather Knight and Peter Hartlaub break down their perfect day in San Francisco, creating an hour-by-hour list of things to do and places to go in the city, without telling each other until the podcast started rolling. It gets competitive, as Knight picks a more historical and cultural route, while Hartlaub chooses to get inebriated in the morning and eat sandwiches. But it's collec...

Steve Rubenstein, the longest tenured reporter at The Chronicle, joins Total SF co-hosts Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight to talk about what the San Francisco Chronicle newsroom was like in 1976, give a review of the newly remodeled newsroom and explain why he loved every day of his 45-year journalism career (with a short leave to become a substitute public school teacher). Rubenstein also has go...

Sutro Tower may be the most beloved landmark among San Francisco residents, and now we all have a PhD in the Sutro's history and present. Sutro spokesman Dave Hyams joins co-hosts Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight to talk about what exactly Sutro does in 2021, the constant maintenance and some wild trivia. Did you know that there's so much concrete underneath Sutro Tower that the center of gravity...

The Circle Star Theatre is hard to describe now that it's gone, with it's odd rotating stage and parade of music and comedy acts in the late Decembers of their careers. (Sinatra! Ella Fitzgerald! Richard Pryor!) But the quirky San Carlos freeway-side venue is beloved by those who experienced it from 1964 to 1993. "The Murders That Made Us" author Bob Calhoun joins Total SF host Peter Hartlaub to d...

Reporter Stanley Roberts, who created the popular "People Behaving Badly" segment on KRON, wants to come back to San Francisco. Hosts Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight catch up with Roberts, who moved to Phoenix in 2018, but saw his TV job trimmed because of COVID-19 related cutbacks. He's hoping to come back to the Bay Area as a reporter ... or maybe a politician? Roberts talks about his early ye...

City librarian Michael Lambert discusses how librarians stepped up as disaster service workers during the COVID-pandemic, but are reopening all branches but one this month. Lambert, a former competitive skateboarder, also showed off tricks outside the Park branch library. | Get full digital access to the Chronicle: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Quentin Kopp is a former San Francisco supervisor, state senator and judge — but he's known to local journalists as the most prolific angry letter-writer. in the city Total SF co-hosts Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight visit the self-professed "curmudgeon" to talk about his life, his letter-writing process, what he really thinks of them ... and to wish him a happy 93rd birthday! After making peace...

Co-hosts Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight record on the Page Street Slow Street, and draft their favorite things that are back since San Francisco reopened. After expressing opinions about the removal of Page Street's artwork, Hartlaub and Knight pay tribute to cable cars, Musee Mecanique and a new Oasis SF drag show. Produced by Peter Hartlaub. Music is "The Tide Will Rise" by the Sunset Shipwre...

Singer/songwriter David Gans has played 450 (nearly) consecutive Facebook Live streams since the pandemic began, and continues to play for the community he's built - even as in-person shows resume. Total SF host Peter Hartlaub watched one of Gans' streams and then interviewed Gans in his Oakland backyard — talking about his life in orbit of the Grateful Dead, how livestreams have helped his playin...

"A Series of Unfortunate Events" author Daniel Handler AKA Lemony Snicket joins Total SF to talk bookstores, swimming in the Bay and why he's tripling down on San Francisco when others are leaving. Total SF hosts Heather Knight and Peter Hartlaub interview Handler in the Philosophy Nook of Green Apple Books, one of Handler's favorites. Handler contributes to the next Total SF Book Club title, "The...

TV host and maker Adam Savage has been holed up in his Mission District "cave" workshop for much of the pandemic. But he's ready for crowds again, planning the Aug. 28-29 SiliCon convention, which will be one of the first Bay Area events with large crowds since the shelter in place started last March. Savage returns to Total SF to speak with co-host Peter Hartlaub about the Mission District and th...

Angel Island State Park is our pick for the official post-pandemic paradise of Total SF, with its biking trails, includible views, old buildings and ... did we mention the views? Hosts Heather Knight and Peter Hartlaub are joined by retired ranger and historian John Martini, who offers some Angel Island history and makes a case for the park being very underused and underrated. Hartlaub and Knight...

Bishop-elect Megan Rohrer returns to Total SF to share some of their favorite spiritual spaces in San Francisco — places where people can feel centered and reflect and revive. Hosts Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight meet Rohrer in Grace Lutheran Church, and talk about their new job, which will make Rohrer the first transgender bishop of any major denomination religion in U.S. history. Produced by...

The Crosstown Trail is the hike San Francisco needs right now, traversing the city on a 17-mile diagonal and daring the walker or biker to fall in love with the city again. Hosts Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight interview one of the Crosstown Trail's chief advocates and creators, Bob Siegel. But first Hartlaub and Knight recap the 30-Day Small Business Challenge that just ended, and announce thei...

Giants PA announcer Renel Brooks-Moon has been a pandemic MVP on social media, continuing to cheer on the Giants and the city of San Francisco, while also speaking her truth about Black Lives Matter and the death of George Floyd, and baseball's response. She joins hosts Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight in McLaren Park to talk about announcing to an stadium with no fans, her favorite small busines...

The beloved Boat Tram streetcar line is back after a pandemic hiatus and hosts Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight are reporting on the first voyage of the beloved transit icon. Interviews include S.F. Mayor London Breed, Muni director Jeffrey Tumlin and Boat Tram operator Melvin Clark, who was inspired by Rice-O-Roni commercials to cross the country and join Muni. Produced by Peter Hartlaub. Music...

After Hunter Pence retired from the Giants last year, Hunter and Lexi Pence decided to stay in San Francisco, exploring the city with fresh eyes and tripling down on their support of indie coffee houses and charity for the community. On May 22-23, 2021, they'll host their first coffee pop-up at Basebalism near Oracle Park. Total SF hosts Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight talk with the Pences about...

Hosts Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight record in Chinatown's Portsmouth Square to give an update on the halfway point of the 30-Day Small Business Challenge. The Total SF co-hosts discuss the rules of the challenge, some areas where they *might* have broken the rules and how taking the challenge might change behavior (and help local businesses) beyond the 30-day mark. Produced by Peter Hartlaub....

"The Murders that Made Us" author Bob Calhoun joins Total SF host Peter Hartlaub on the patio of Red's Java House to talk about Gold Rush-era hoodlums, serial killers, cult leaders and other historic Bay Area criminals — and how they shaped the region. The book is true crime, but it's also a thoughtful (and often darkly funny) exploration of San Francisco Bay Area history. Produced by Peter Hartla...

As the so called "master of disaster" for S.F. Department of Emergency Management, executive director Mary Ellen Carroll had been preparing for an earthquake. But she got a pandemic, and found a home base in Moscone Center, which has become a place of joy for San Francisco residents getting their vaccines. Carroll gives hosts Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight a tour of the facility, and then sits...

New San Francisco Chronicle sports editor Christina Kahrl was the first out transgender sports reporter, and takes over leadership of The Chronicle's Sporting Green at an important time for athletics, as sports becomes more intertwined with politics and social justice. Total SF hosts Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight meet Kahrl near her new home in Oakland, and also talk about her Oakland A's fand...

San Francisco Mayor London Breed joins Total SF to introduce the Small Business 30-Day Challenge, where San Francisco residents are urged to avoid chain stores and shop local for an entire month. Total SF co-hosts Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight make the pledge as well, and talk to Breed about her favorite small businesses as a child in San Francisco, her comeback after a roller skating fall and...

Golden Gate Park activist David Miles Jr. has been roller skating in the park since 1979, and he's stunned by the accusations from two supervisors that car-free JFK Drive is segregationist and "recreational redlining." Co-hosts Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight record in the park with Miles, and talk about park history, diversity on car-free streets and S.F. mayor London Breed's skating lows and h...