Welcome to Season 2 of Storied: San Francisco podcast. This season won't be too different from what you heard in Season 1. The changes are mostly cosmetic—new theme music, a new look for the website, that sort of thing. Michelle and I learned a lot the first year, and we hope to bring some fresh perspectives to this project. Our theme this season is: What is it about this place? What draws people here, whether they visit, settle here, stay in the city for a time then pick up and move on, or are born and raised and stay ... there's something about this place, and through posing that question to another 49 storytellers, we hope to get to the heart of why we're all drawn to San Francisco. Like many of us, Melinda Uno moved to San Francisco. She moved to the Tenderloin. And she loves it. For Melinda, a big part of the draw of San Francisco is that you can be your true self here. In Part 1, she talks about moving to San Francisco and eventually being part of the effort behind opening the Tenderloin Museum and the ways in which they help educate the public and celebrate the neighborhood, especially its part in women's history.
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It's been a minute. Michelle and Jeff take a break from their break to reflect on Season 1 and how Michelle got involved to begin with. We talk about getting ready for Season 2 and everything we're doing to set up our two-day event, Two Storied Nights, on Nov. 9 and 10. We're so happy to have brought you 49 different storytellers in Season 1, and now, we want to meet you! Two Storied Nights is your chance to make good on the theme of Season 1: Get to know your neighbors. Plus, there'll be art, music, dance, and booze. Who could say no to that? Get your tickets today (Friday is donation-based). And look out for S2E1 on Nov. 13!
Film photography by Michelle Kilfeather
Gary Weinstein grew up in Buffalo, New York. He chose not to go to nursing school and decided instead, in 1971, to move to San Francisco. After a couple of short-lived gigs, he got a job driving Muni buses. In Part 1, Gary talks about his time with Muni, from his adventures while training to his distaste for driving light-rail vehicles. Bertha Fajardo grew up going to games at both Candlestick Park and the Oakland Coliseum. Her dad and uncles got her started, but her love of the game survived her teenage years, and in 1997, she got a job with the Giants. In her role as manager of Community and Family Programs, Bertha oversees much of the charitable work that current and former Giants players and their families are involved in. In Part 1, Bertha takes us through her life, both as a baseball fan, and more recently, as someone whose entire career has been with the sport. Mike Lynch grew up in Maine. In the 1980s, so many of his New England friends had moved to San Francisco that he decided to give it a try. More than 30 years later, he owns a business and a home and has a family. In Part 1, Mike talks about the printing jobs he had, which eventually led him to the shop he owns today--Babylon Burning in SoMa. Sidenote: Mike's shop made the Storied: SF T-shirts, hats, and koozies that we have for sale on our store page. Buy one today to support your favorite San Francisco podcast. Pepper Alexandria is a belly dancer and dance instructor these days. She puts on a big show every year called Carnival of Stars. She moved to San Francisco in 1968, in the heyday of the hippie movement. In this podcast, Pepper talks about shows she went to, bands she knew, and venues they played at. She shares stories of underground comix and their parties, which she often danced at. She ends the show with a history of her belly dancing career, which includes studying for a time in Egypt. We recorded this episode at Pepper's home in Berkeley in August 2018. It's 2004. September 11 wasn't even three years removed yet. But Kevin DeMattia had a thing for climbing large buildings and structures, and Sutro Tower was calling his name. In Part 1, Kevin, who co-owns Bender's Bar and Grill in the Mission and Emperor Norton's Boozeland in the Tenderloin, shares the story of conquering the 977-foot TV and radio antenna tower that has become quite the iconic symbol of San Francisco. Episode 44: Giants VP of Communications Staci Slaughter (Part of Our SF Giants at 60 Series)8/28/2018
Photo courtesy the San Francisco Giants
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's 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, Staci takes us through her career in baseball, leading up to the team's eventual move from Candlestick Park to a new stadium. 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 11, and the influence that hippies had on him. 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 Part 1, Gordon talks about growing up in San Francisco and learning to love photography. He shares what makes Chinatown so special, learning about other neighborhoods later in life, and even some of his favorite restaurants. For 24 years, photographer Andy Kuno has been on the field with the San Francisco Giants. He grew up going to games at Candlestick Park 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 Part 1, Andy talks about memories of the Giants in the 1989 and 2002 World Series. 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 Bitch Talk, Kundan walks us through some colorful stories surrounding this neighborhood drinking hole that still doesn't have any TVs. We recorded this episode at Zam Zam in July 2018. 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 Part 1. It was there that he learned about people and the city he lives in and loves—San Francisco. 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 Part 1, Lily talks about coming to feel like San Francisco is where she needs to be. Some revelations along the way helped usher in that feeling. George Downes is a San Francisco County Sheriff's office 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, George talks about taking a friend who was visiting SF to leather bar for his birthday. We recorded this podcast at The Tempest in June 2018. Yeva Johnson is a musician, a physician, and a poet. She works with patients at end of life, doing what she can make to make that transition as peaceful and harmonious as possible. For this podcast, she talks about medical school, including work she did with AIDS patients in Africa. She moved to San Francisco in 1990 and immediately began working with AIDS patients at General Hospital in Ward 5A. Her set involves a set of lessons she's learned throughout her career and it ends with Yeva playing a song on the flute. This episode is taken from our first live event, Working with Death. It was recorded at the Cafe du Nord in San Francisco in April 2018. In case you missed it, here is Mason J.'s set from that same show: Episode 31: Mason J.'s Poems and Stories of Survival Alyce Murphy turned 100 this May. The third-generation San Franciscan spent her early life in a tiny, crowded house behind St. Luke's 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 are wont to do. In Part 1 of this very special podcast, Alyce talks about the Mission back in the 1920s and 1930s, watching people go in and out of St. Luke's, going to Playland and Sutro Baths (where her dad was a manager), and she compares going out for a Saturday night walking down Mission Street to getting dressed up for a trip downtown to her favorite store—the Emporium. 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 Part 1, Adair, a writer and former columnist for the Chronicle, talks about that house, the living room of which we recorded in. I first heard Stephen Satterfield on Bitch Talk Podcast. There, he talked about his childhood in Atlanta, college days in Oregon, and life on a farm in NorCal before he moved to San Francisco in 2010. In Part 1, 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 love about Stephen Satterfield? Entertainment lawyer Michael Aczon has music running through his veins. In Part 1, Michael talks about his father's arrival in San Francisco in 1931 (including, he later found, 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 rode their bikes over the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin, where Michael saw his first "separated houses." You will hear and feel Michael's deep appreciation of The City in this episode. 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. shares three poems and a story about their experiences with death, something that has surrounded them their entire lives. The first is a pantoum poem about dementia called "All of My Uncles Are Dead." The second is about the Ghostship fire in Oakland in 2016. The last poem is about Mason's personal experiences with death. Mason ends the podcast with a story about their sister, who was born HIV-antibody-positive. This episode was recorded at our first-ever live storytelling event: Working with Death, at Café du Nord in April 2018. Musician and hair stylist ChrisO moved to San Francisco in 2003. Among the odd jobs he had before he learned to style hair, he took a job at mayoral candidate, ex-supervisor, and ex-state senator Mark Leno's sign shop in the Castro. In Part 1, Chris talks about working in that shop. Then he shares observations on San Franciscans' odd relationship with their appearances. SF State Associate Professor of Journalism Venise Wagner loves ice skating. When she's not writing books like Love in the Time of Pinochet and Reporting Inequality: Tools and Methods for Covering Race and Ethnicity, teaching journalism to a new generation, or spending time with her friends, family, and her dog, Cici, Venise likes to relieve all the pressures of life at the rink. In this episode, Venise shares the story of one trip to the ice rink that went a little sideways. After her accident, many things came into perspective for her. We recorded this podcast at Saul's in Berkeley in April 2018. In 1973, Mario Alioto got lucky. After his older brother moved on from being a bat boy for the San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park, it was Mario's turn. In Part 1, Mario, now VP of Business Operations for the Giants, shares stories from his days with the team before they moved north to their current home. He talks about being a bat boy for visiting teams, managing the visiting clubhouse, the 1989 earthquake, and his role in the current bobblehead craze. Photojournalist Jessica Christian got her start in the newsroom while she was still in journalism school at SF State. After graduation, she got a job at the SF Examiner, where she covered the separate stories of two homeless men. In Part 1, Jessica shares those stories, stories that have to very different endings. |