Vanessa + Raina/Valkyries, Say Less
When Vanessa Hutchinson-Szekely and Raina Mast aren’t going bananas about the Golden State Valkyries, they’re teaching kids in San Francisco.
In this episode, meet and get to know Vanessa and Raina, cohosts of the Valkyries, Say Less podcast.
We begin with Vanessa. Her parents met in San Francisco in 1970. Her mom came here the year before from her home country, France. In her mom’s first month in The City, she met the man who became Vanessa’s dad. She had just finished photography school back home, and planned to return to France. But fate wanted a word with her.
Vanessa’s dad grew up on the East Coast. Before he settled on creating stain-glass works, getting to know his own artistic bent, he came to San Francisco to explore that side of himself. He met Vanessa’s mom. They were young artists, they were in love, and the rest is history.
About a decade later, in 1979, they had a kid—Vanessa, their only child. She talks about being on the cusp between Gen X and Millennial, but considers herself mostly Californian/French. With her parents, Vanessa spent (and still often spends) summers in the French Alps.
Both being artists, Vanessa’s mom realized that between herself and her husband, one of them needed a job that offered health insurance. And so she went to a temp agency. That allowed her dad to pursue his stained-glass art. He later designed the stained glass in the Mrs. Doubtfire house. A lot of his glass art still exists around North Beach.
Vanessa grew up amid all that art here in SF. But at the time, she might not have appreciated it like she does today. Eventually, she moved to New York City for college. She was drawn in by the romantic version of NYC depicted in movies and shows.
After her time at Columbia University, Vanessa moved to LA to teach. She always knew she would come home, but wasn’t sure when. After 11 years away (four in New York and seven in Los Angeles), she came back. She was 30 and had met the man she would later marry. It was time.
Riffing off her seven years of teaching middle school in LA, which she started when she was 22, Vanessa came back and found work with the SFUSD, where she’s been since 2008.
We go on a sidebar about raising kids in San Francisco, something I didn’t do but Vanessa did and wants more people to do.
She and her Valkyries, Say Less cohost, Raina, met through a mutual friend. Vanessa’s version of their meeting 10 years ago is that they were both invited to a party at that mutual friend’s house. Vanessa saw Raina and thought, Damn, that is one cool-looking person. We’ll hear Raina’s version of that story later in Part 1.
We end Vanessa’s segment by hearing about her SF schools, a must for born-and-raised folks. She’s quick to note that she only went to one school for K through 12—the French-American International School.
Then we turn to Raina. They grew up in Pennsylvania Amish country, where they played basketball and ran track. They’re from Easton, the town where Crayola crayons are made. Raina says the company would often survey town folks to help name new colors. Easton is 1.5 hours away from both New York City and Philadelphia. Both cities called to them, they say.
They lived in New York City, Puerto Rico, and Upstate New York. Then they joined friends on a cross-country road trip, looking for a place to call home. After 13 years of Catholic school, they never really felt like the fit in back home. I ask if, like me, Raina is a recovering Catholic. They say they are fully recovered, in fact. Remarkable, especially for a queer woman. Brava!
Being one of five kids in their family, with three brothers, was another challenge. Raina’s oldest brother was the artist among them. Eventually, they took another trip across the US. New Orleans tried to grab Raina, and possibly almost did. The other choice was San Francisco, but they didn’t move here right away.
When it came time to move here, their family was shocked not at all. The first visit happened in 2001. There’s a really funny story they share about driving through SF and ending up in Sacramento before they realized it. With no GPS and only paper maps, they circled back and this time, exited off the bridge to San Francisco.
A few years later, now pregnant, they started thinking, Where do I wanna raise this kid? That’s when SF really drew them in. Their younger brother lived here already, with an apartment in the Marina. There are stories about getting bested by The City’s hills and wearing sandals and wondering why they were so cold—classic newcomer to San Francisco stuff. Despite all that, they loved it. In 2014, they made the leap.
Since arriving to live here, they’ve lived in the Mission, the Haight, and nowadays, they call the Richmond home. Before their move here, they applied for art school and teaching fellowships at the same time. The teaching gigs they got offered health insurance and more stability, so they chose that path. Today, they are able to walk parallel paths of art and education. They’ve taught art, but these days, it’s Spanish classes.
Going back to their meeting story, Raina and Vanessa are both creative folks who also teach. As creative people with not a lot of money, a DIY mindset set in for them individually and together. It’s what propelled and inspired them to start their podcast—Valkyries, Say Less. Vanessa speaks to being on the same “teacher rhythm,” meaning time off at the same time, stuff like that.
Raina adds that, both being Gen Xers, they grew up without women’s sports being what it is today. We end Part 1 with Raina’s version of meeting Vanessa, who would later be their podcasting partner. Right away, Raina thought Vanessa was very stylish, mostly owing to her French heritage, as they later learned.
In May 2025, channeling Raina’s music-recording background, Vanessa’s podcasting knowledge (she has a meditation show), and both of their love of women’s sports, and with the kickoff of the first WNBA team in The Bay, Valkyries, Say Less was born.
Check back Thursday for Part 2 with Raina and Vanessa.
We recorded this podcast Rikki’s Women’s Sports Bar in August 2026.
Photography by Jeff Hunt
