Total SF

Paula Poundstone returns for her annual end-of-year trip to the San Francisco Chronicle archive. During the recording, right before her New Year's Eve show, Poundstone talks to host Peter Hartlaub about her year as a San Francisco bike messenger, shares some Comedy Day in the Park memories and talks about her love of the TV show "M*A*S*H" when she was a broke traveling comic. Produced by Peter Har...

Former KPIX and KRON anchor Wendy Tokuda visits the San Francisco Chronicle archive studio, to talk about her former co-anchor Dave McElhatton, work with at-risk students, her family's history in Japanese internment camps and her continuing love for the Bay Area. Produced by Peter Hartlaub. Music is "The Tide Will Rise" by the Sunset Shipwrecks off their album "Community." Learn more about your ad...

With the third #TotalSF movie night approaching fast on Dec. 5, the Chronicle's Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight welcome "Sister Act" superfan and Sisteractivist Sarah Katz-Hyman, who runs the @SisterActivism Twitter account, to talk about the film's greatness. They talk about Whoopi Goldberg's time in San Francisco, and Katz-Hyman makes a case for the underappreciated "Sister Act 2: Back in the...

A crossover The Big Event and City Insider episode, where hosts Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight interview Byron Cobb, the reigning Cable Car Bell Ringing Contest champion and eight-time winner. Produced by Peter Hartlaub. Music is "The Tide Will Rise" by the Sunset Shipwrecks off their album "Community." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Announcing the finish of the #TotalSF reboot of the 49 Mile Scenic Drive, the 81-year-old route with the seagull signs that needed an update. Heather Knight and Peter Hartlaub talk about what they included, what they left out and why.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 103 of The Big Event is a tribute to the Pacifica Taco Bell, and a talk about fast food with (at the time of the recording) Food Editor Paolo Lucchesi. Host Peter Hartlaub and Lucchesi talk about their own fast food history, the best and worst fast food in the Bay Area, And they review the new Taco Bell Cantina on Pacific Coast Highway in Pacifica. After years as an A&W and a normal Taco B...

Joey Avery and Andrew Orolfo are rising comics in the Bay Area comedy scene, who have been considering a move to Los Angeles. They joined two friends, Mark Smalls and Dauood Naimyar, and recorded an album at the Set-Up comedy club in San Francisco, representing their best work in the Bay Area. "Pier 69: Junior Varsity" was released in September and hit Number One on the iTunes comedy charts. Avery...

Episode 100 of The Big Event is an interview with Scott Sampson — new executive director of the California Academy of Sciences and "Dr. Scott" on the PBS children's show "Dinosaur Train." Host Peter Hartlaub asks Scott about the past, present and future of the Cal Academy, coyotes in Golden Gate Park and that time the paleontologist named a new dinosaur after a famous rock star. Scott also talks a...

Episode 99 is an interview with Salesforce co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff, who has a new book "Trailblazer," and writes about his foundational relationship with his grandfather, former San Francisco supervisor Marvin Lewis. Benioff talks with host Peter Hartlaub about the book (in bookstores Oct. 15), San Francisco and Lewis — a homeless advocate and monorail-loving politician who was a driving f...

Episode 98 of The Big Event is the fourth 49 Mile Makeover podcast, where host Peter Hartlaub and San Francisco columnist Heather Knight report a big breakthrough on their new 49 Mile Scenic Route. Hartlaub and Knight also discuss the use of transit on the new route, give an update on Total SF movie night, and discuss whether Twin Peaks belongs on the new route. Produced by Peter Hartlaub. Music i...

In this flashback episode from 2018, "Check, Please! Bay Area" host Leslie Sbrocco joins host Peter Hartlaub to talk about the show's origins, why they ply guests with wine before a show, her sparkling wine-themed tattoo and the "Check, Please! Bay Area Kids" four-part special, which enters its second season on October 2019..  Produced by Peter Hartlaub. Theme music is "The Tide Will Rise" by the...

Episode 97 of The Big Event is a tribute to Golden State Warriors jerseys. With the team announcing new jerseys for Chase Center, host Peter Hartlaub is joined by The Chronicle's Tony Bravo and Ann Killion to pick the best jerseys in team history — The City and The Town both score well — and choose the worst jersey in Warriors history. They discuss the question: How old is too old for men to wear...

Warriors president Rick Welts joins the San Francisco Chronicle's #TotalSF team Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight for a The Big Event/SF City Insider podcast crossover. Welts makes the case to add the Chase Center to the new 49 Mile Scenic Route being created by Knight and Hartlaub, and talks about living in San Francisco, his friendship with NBA legend Bill Russell and submits to Knight's City In...

Episode 95 of The Big Event is a tribute to KFOG, with three classic KFOG veterans: longtime morning show newsman Peter Finch, DJ Renee Richardson and producer Irish Greg McQuaid. After talking about emotions surrounding the recent decision to end the KFOG call letters, the trio talk to host Peter Hartlaub about their early years at the station, what Dave Morey is up to now, their favorite and lea...

In this The Big Event flashback, Chronicle education reporter Jill Tucker joins host Peter Hartlaub to talk about covering the 2017 Wine Country Fires, and then pay tribute to the 1970s/1980s amusement park Marine World Africa U.S.A. They cover the history of the park and some personal highlights — including Jill Tucker's job as a Marine World safari boat driver. Music is "The Tide Will Rise" by t...

Episode 94 of The Big Event is a hard look at the 49-Mile Scenic Drive - and what should stay and go for the new #TotalSF 49-Mile Scenic Route. San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight and pop culture critic Peter Hartlaub talk about their successful attempt to cover the 49-mile Scenic Drive in one day without using a car. The second half of the podcast is a discussion of what we should ke...

Episode 93 of The Big Event is a both-feet-first jump into the 49-Mile Makeover. #TotalSF founders Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight will be covering the existing 49-Mile Scenic Drive route on Sept. 4 by foot, bike, skates, bus - anything but a motor vehicle that they're piloting. They talk about their plans for a new route with reader help, air out the arguments they've been having and invite two...

Episode 92 of The Big Event is a tribute to "The Rock," the 1996 movie starring Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery. Host Peter Hartlaub, Chronicle columnist Heather Knight and editor-in-chief Audrey Cooper induct the film into the SF Cinema Greatest of All Time - despite some reluctance from Cooper. The Chronicle will screen "The Rock" at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26, 2019, at the Balboa Theatre, as the s...

Episode 91 of The Big Event is a John Travolta visit to The Chronicle. The actor goes through his archive photo file, talks about fandom and his new film “The Fanatic,” a drama/horror movie is about a horror movie fan who meets his hero and their tense encounter escalates into violence. Travolta says he learned early to be nice to fans. He also talks about his flying, his preference to give away m...

Episode 90 of The Big Event is a The Bands We Follow episode, with Chuck Prophet saluting a band he's been following since childhood — The Rubinoos. With host Peter Hartlaub and Chronicle pop music critic Aidin Vaziri conducting the interview, Prophet talks about his childhood, falling in love with San Francisco and his discovery in his early teens of The Rubinoos, a Berkeley based band that came...

Episode 89 of The Big Event is an interview with Renel Brooks-Moon, longtime Bay Area radio personality, and public address announcer for the San Francisco Giants since 1999. Brooks-Moon visits the Chronicle archive, to speak with host Peter Hartlaub about her early years at KMEL (and one year at KFRC with Dr. Donald D. Rose), her work as a Giants PA announcer and the influence of her father Natha...

Episode 88 of The Big Event is an introduction to the 49-Mile Scenic Drive makeover, where host Peter Hartlaub and Chronicle columnist Heather Knight begin the process of looking at the 80-year-old path through San Francisco, and how to improve on it for S.F. residents in 2019. Hartlaub and Knight kick the project off by interviewing Eric Kingsbury, a San Franciscan who recently walked the entiret...

Episode 87 of The Big Event is a tribute to Dwight Clark, the San Francisco 49ers great who died in 2018 after a battle with ALS. With the book "Letters to 87" coming out on Aug. 7, 2019, host Peter Hartlaub is joined by the book's editor and NBC Sports Bay Area 49ers reporter Matt Maiocco, KNBR host Brian Murphy and photographer Brad Mangin. The Dwight Clark fans share stories, history and talk a...

Episode 85 of The Big Event is an interview with Ear Hustle co-hosts Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods, who created one of the biggest hits of the current podcast boom, bringing visitors inside San Quentin State Prison. After a tour in the Chronicle archive to look at old San Quentin photos, host Peter Hartlaub talks about Woods’ first months outside of prison, after his life sentence was commuted by...

Episode 84 of The Big Event is a tribute to the Sony Metreon, the 1999 mall that was supposed to redefine the urban entertainment experience, but failed within a few years. Host Peter Hartlaub is joined by San Francisco Chronicle Food editor Paolo Lucchesi (a teen who visited the Metreon in 1999) and Chronicle urban design critic John King (who wrote about it during its launch).   Produced by Pete...