Sad Francisco

One of our tech overlords, Mark Zuckerberg recently published a manifesto in the Wall Street Journal describing why we should cheerlead him on his quest for infinite growth and profits.  Eddie Kim writes for the anti-generative AI outlet Gazetteer SF, and several of his recent pieces contend with why Marc Andreesen (venture capitalist, Andreesen Horowitz/a16z), Alex Karp (co-founder with Peter Thiel of surveillance giant Palantir), and Zuckerberg keep larping as Aristotle.  Also discussed: Crime reporting that only takes into account press releases from the District Attorney and Mayor's offices, how tech media article slop fed the AI bubble, and the Luigi Mangione effect.  Eddie for Gazetteer: Asshole shrugged [on Mark Zuckerberg's manifesto] The banality of Palantir's evil airport ad Eddie on Twitter/X   Mark Zuckerberg for the Wall Street Journal: The AI Future Is for Everyone Palantir on Twitter/X: The Technological Republic  CNBC: New CNBC Generation Lab poll shows almost half of 18- to 34-year-olds see democratic socialism positively Most recent PatronScan coverage from Cydney Hayes: 'Members of the LGBTQ+ community have legitimate reasons to be sensitive about privacy' Thom Waite (Dazed): Techno-fascist fashion: Why Silicon Valley is moving into menswear   Episodes: Enter the Panopticon with Ian Firstenberg Aesthetics of the New Rightwing Tech Intelligentsia with Jimmy Wu   Support the show and get merch on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco    PS. The 60th anniversary of the Compton's Cafeteria riot is this year. Come see Susan Stryker's documentary about the riot, Screaming Queens, on 8/27 in SF. It's free, and Susan Stryker and dee(dee) c. ardan from the podcast are also on the lineup. There will be Sad Francisco merch for sale.

What was the filmic movement called mumblecore? Jemma Decristo and dee(dee) c. ardan offer an abridged history of the post-college-centric genre that went mainstream in the early 2000s. One of few mumblecore movies with a Black director and Black leads is 2008's indie romance Medicine for Melancholy by Barry Jenkins, before he did Moonlight If Beale Street Could Talk, and the 2024 Lion King sequel. In the movie, girl living in the Marina hooks up with boy living in the Tenderloin, and a meditation on gentrification ensues, replete with a cameo by anti-gentrification activist Tommi Avicolli Mecca. Return to the time of "violently heterosexual" hipsters on fixed-gear bikes as we talk MOAD vs. MOMA, the influence of Criterion, Awkwafina's blaccent, and why being the solitary blerd or gaysian in an otherwise white clique should never be the goal. Episode: Jemma on her book The Aesthetic Character of Blackness: Sounds Like Us Support the show and get merch: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco 

In 2026, dead internet theory—the idea that most of the internet is bots and AI-generated content—is more reality than theory.  Matthew Lawson co-hosts Eating For Free—a podcast critiquing American culture and politics through the lens of pop culture—with Paper Magazine editor Joan Summers. In their series "It's All Bots, Girl," they've been reporting on the corporations and politicians (Benjamin Netanyahu, for example) who are engaged in psychological warfare against the rest of us, using bots that pretend like they're real people on the internet. Topics discussed include industry plants, fake fan accounts, and manufactured hate campaigns devised to control discourse and sell you products. And possibly to punish Chappell Roan for being a gay woman who supports Palestine and Epstein survivors. Eating For Free https://eatingforfree.com/ https://www.instagram.com/eatingforfree/ https://x.com/_matthewlawson Eliza McLamb: Fake Fans https://www.wordsfromeliza.com/p/fake-fans Times of Israel: Netanyahu, allies using armies of bots to influence social media discourse – report https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-allies-using-armies-of-bots-to-influence-social-media-discourse-report/ Madiswan on YouTube: Is Zeus Network a CIA Psyop? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-9wU2sRdpY Buzzfeed: In the Chapell Roan controversy, 23% of posts were bots https://www.buzzfeed.com/natashajokic1/chappell-roan-controversy-bots Zeteo: The Fake 'Invasion' of Spain: What You Need to Know https://zeteo.com/p/the-fake-invasion-of-spain-what-you What did Epstein have to do with 4Chan, and Ghislane have to do with Reddit? https://www.ms.now/opinion/jeffrey-epstein-4chan-chris-poole Support the show and get merch on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco 

The government is putting queers on lists and hunting undocumented people at the Home Depot parking lot. Have you ever felt so seen? Sad Francisco Surveillance State Correspondent Ian Firstenberg returns to talk about our current dystopia, but it's not all bad news: people are destroying FLOCK cameras with abandon, protests against data centers are getting bigger, and Garry Tan is freshly single. Ian's recent piece for 48Hills on the death of privacy culture in San Francisco: https://48hills.org/2026/07/what-happened-to-sfs-privacy-culture/ Cydney Hayes for Gazetteer: Why do these Castro gay bars have TSA-style face scanners: https://sf.gazetteer.co/why-do-these-castro-gay-bars-have-tsa-style-face-scanners Matt Wolfinger for Working Mass: The Dungeon Over Lowell: How the Data Center Boom Divided One City's Working People: https://working-mass.com/2026/06/10/the-dungeon-over-lowell-how-the-data-center-boom-has-divided-one-citys-working-people/ ShotSpotter lobbyist's dramatic monologue at an Oakland City Hall hearing (via Jaime Omar Yassin / @hyphy_republic on X): https://x.com/hyphy_republic/status/1846598258308825144 Noah Shachtman and Maddy Varner for Wired: "Madison Square Garden Kept a List of Gay Celebrities": https://www.wired.com/story/madison-square-garden-celebrity-database-surveillance/ Andy Greenberg and Dhruv Mehrotra for Wired: "A Leak of San Francisco Police Drone Footage Exposes the New Reality of Urban Surveillance": https://www.wired.com/story/sfpd-drone-video-leak-surveillance/ DeFlockSF (IG): https://www.instagram.com/deflocksf/ Have I Been Flocked?: https://haveibeenflocked.com/ Ian's last episode: https://www.patreon.com/sadfrancisco/posts/home-sweet-state-158916825 Episode with StopAI: https://www.patreon.com/sadfrancisco/posts/end-agi-before-127632638/ Support the show and get merch on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco 

The government is putting queers on lists and hunting undocumented people at the Home Depot parking lot. Have you ever felt so seen? Sad Francisco Surveillance State Correspondent Ian Firstenberg returns to talk about our current dystopia, but it's not all bad news: people are destroying FLOCK cameras with abandon, protests against data centers are getting bigger, and Garry Tan is freshly single. Ian's recent piece for 48Hills on the death of privacy culture in San Francisco: https://48hills.org/2026/07/what-happened-to-sfs-privacy-culture/ Cydney Hayes for Gazetteer: Why do these Castro gay bars have TSA-style face scanners: https://sf.gazetteer.co/why-do-these-castro-gay-bars-have-tsa-style-face-scanners Matt Wolfinger for Working Mass: The Dungeon Over Lowell: How the Data Center Boom Divided One City's Working People: https://working-mass.com/2026/06/10/the-dungeon-over-lowell-how-the-data-center-boom-has-divided-one-citys-working-people/ ShotSpotter lobbyist's dramatic monologue at an Oakland City Hall hearing (via Jaime Omar Yassin / @hyphy_republic on X): https://x.com/hyphy_republic/status/1846598258308825144 Noah Shachtman and Maddy Varner for Wired: "Madison Square Garden Kept a List of Gay Celebrities": https://www.wired.com/story/madison-square-garden-celebrity-database-surveillance/ Andy Greenberg and Dhruv Mehrotra for Wired: "A Leak of San Francisco Police Drone Footage Exposes the New Reality of Urban Surveillance": https://www.wired.com/story/sfpd-drone-video-leak-surveillance/ DeFlockSF (IG): https://www.instagram.com/deflocksf/ Have I Been Flocked?: https://haveibeenflocked.com/ Ian's last episode: https://www.patreon.com/sadfrancisco/posts/home-sweet-state-158916825 Episode with StopAI: https://www.patreon.com/sadfrancisco/posts/end-agi-before-127632638/ Support the show and get merch on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco 

THANK YOU to everyone who made it out to our biggest live show ever. The night ended up raising ~$5K for Bay2Gaza Mutual Aid, which will go directly to Gaza (Brooke shares details during the show). The episode was recorded at The Lab in the Mission on June 25, 2026, with music from DJ Parle G and help from a ton of volunteers. Brooke's performance focused on Cypress, a Jewish lesbian feminist who lived in the Bay. She talks more about Bay2Gaza Mutual Aid on this episode. Mama Ganuush read from their upcoming memoir. JB honored the late, great Leslie (Les) Feinberg. Lavelle sat them down to get the details on their pieces. Supergrateful to everyone who picked up some Sad Francisco dad hats, t-shirts, and tabi socks to help cover some of my bills. Speaking of, you can support the show and get merch on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco 

A lot has been happening in the lives of three of this podcast's longtime foes: District Attorney Brooke Jenkins; cafe owner and wannabe supervisor Manny Yekutiel; and the state Senator running for Nancy Pelosi's soon-to-be vacant seat in Congress, Scott Wiener.  Guests: Balto from Frisco Voices and Joshua Reyes, who's been doing court support and security for some of the people experiencing the wrath of Brooke Jenkins.  We talk about the arrests at the Trans March and Stud Alley parties during Pride; Brad Chapin coming forward as a victim of Manny Yekutiel; the Golden Gate 26 sentencing, and more. A very local episode involving characters that help explain San Francisco's twisted political scene. There is a lot going on here; I'm very open to comments or tips about things we didn't speak on. Frisco Voices: friscovoices.org Frisco Voices IG: https://www.instagram.com/friscovoices/ Joshua (IG): https://www.instagram.com/joshuanlreyes/ — ADHD key to figures and organizations discussed in the episode: A Wider Bridge: pinkwashing organization where Manny was a fellow. A Wider Bridge closed in 2025, after its director Ethan Felson stepped down following a "lewd and lascivious conduct" charge. Baltimore PD: Brooke Jenkins declined to hold police accountable again. Discussed here: https://sfist.com/2026/05/11/sf-da-dismisses-2024-sexual-assault-case-involving-four-baltimore-police-officers/. Banko Brown: killed by Walgreens security guard Michael Earl-Wayne Anthony. https://www.thenation.com/article/society/banko-brown-killing-san-francisco-crisis/. Brad Chapin: came forward about being sexually assaulted by Manny Yekutiel. Calle 24: the city-designated Latino cultural district in the Mission.  Chesa Boudin: DA who began prosecuting police until he was ousted in 2022, after Brooke Jenkins recalled him in a campaign funded by wealthy conservative reactionaries. Chris Larsen: crypto billionaire whose company Ripple Labs donated office space for the SFPD's Real Time Investigation Center surveillance unit, and made the top donation to Trump's 2025 inauguration fund. Shortly after the inauguration, the $2 billion fine Ripple Labs owed the SEC for securities violations was suddenly reduced to $125 million.  THE REST OF THE KEY IS HERE: https://www.patreon.com/sadfrancisco/posts/down-manny-scott-164023395 Previously: Blocking the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges The Anti-Zionist Boycott of Manny's with Deeg The ADL is An Actual Psyop with Emmaia Gelman and Mama Ganuush Support the show and get merch on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco 

May 1979: queer protesters set cop cars ablaze in San Francisco's Civic Center, in response to cop-turned-politician Dan White's relatively light sentence for the assassination of gay politician Harvey Milk and the Mayor, George Moscone. Four people who were there describe the riots, and the related police riots where cops stormed the lesbian bar Peg's Place in the Richmond, and the Elephant Walk, a gay bar in the Castro, during a time of heavy state surveillance and repression—so not unlike today. Event organized by Left in the Bay and PINKO magazine. Recorded live at Et Al in the Mission 6/24/2026. Left in the Bay: leftinthebay.com PINKO: www.pinko.online On this episode (in speaking order): Jen Reck, moderator: Sociology & Sexuality Studies professor at SF State who recently published a history of the Castro with Gerard Koskovich: The Castro: The Story of San Francisco's Best-Known LGBTQ+ Neighborhood. https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Castro.html?id=uu2Z0QEACAAJ Ruth Mahaney worked for years as a member of the Modern Times Bookstore Collective, and as an LGBT Studies professor at City College of SF. Randy Alfred is a journalist who cofounded the Bay Times, edited the San Francisco Sentinel, and hosted The Gay Life radio show. Revisiting The Gay Life, on Queer Power Hour / KALW: www.kalw.org/show/queer-power-hour/2026-06-18/revisiting-the-gay-life-e01-history-of-lgbtq-radio Charlie Hinton: co-founded Magnus magazine and has worked on campaigns against the World Bank/IMF and to free Leonard Peltier. Episode with Charlie on BAGL (Bay Area Gays and Lesbians): www.patreon.com/sadfrancisco/posts/gay-liberation-f-95946813 Charlie on solidarity with Haiti: www.patreon.com/sadfrancisco/posts/why-us-fears-f-98899594 Gwenn Craig worked on the Harvey Milk campaign, and against the Briggs Initiative. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco 

Max Blue is one of San Francisco's few remaining art critics in legacy media (see: his column in SF Examiner); he also contributes regularly to Hyperallergic.  Max gives the best brief introduction of the big art movements San Francisco is most well known for, and names names including:  BXP, the company that benefited from the Vaillancourt fountain's removal)  CIA Operation Mockingbird, the US government's mission to spread abstract expressionism across the globe KAWS's hold on the Instagram background niche  Randall Kline, SF Jazz founder behind the upcoming low-income artists' housing on Market Street Sid Sijbrandij, the tech billionaire and art patron flooding public space with Burning Man installations Max Blue: https://maxbluewriter.com Max's Substack: https://maxblue.substack.com/ Max for the San Francisco Examiner: https://www.sfexaminer.com/culture/private-funding-of-public-art-prompts-questions-about-intent/article_89b311c0-108a-4464-b676-73548d51471f.html Max for Hyperallergic: https://hyperallergic.com/author/max-blue/ Episodes:  Hanky Code Art NSF Trash Cans with Christen Cioffi: https://www.patreon.com/sadfrancisco/posts/78664457 The Technofascist Plan for an Elite City in Solano County with Anna Kirsch: https://www.patreon.com/sadfrancisco/posts/audio-planning-f-107037093 Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco 

Brutal honesty is all we have for Boots Riley's overstuffed filmic ode to shoplifters and maybe communism, I Love Boosters. Topics discussed include: The Coup's early work Betrayal by union leaders Megan Ellison, the alleged black sheep of the Zionist Ellison dynasty Tax credits they give you to film a movie set in the Bay in Georgia The Leaning Tower of Millennium A vow for the next episode to feature a movie we would actually recommend dee(dee) c. ardan, Jemma DeCristo, and Ralowe T. Ampu return for what turned into a roast of an episode. - Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco 

A monologue revisiting a Truthout piece I wrote back in 2014 for this solo episode and stroll down memory lane featuring a Gay Shame action, crying in eviction court, and one of eviction lawyer Daniel Bornstein's boring-ass webinars where he explains the tricks of his trade. Daniel (who runs Bornstein Law—formerly known as Bornstein & Bornstein) is a white guy who's used his adopted Black kids as a cynical marketing tool, and describes landlords as the state's "whipping boy." He counsels his clients on the best ways get around tenant laws so they can smoothly empty their properties of lower-income people, and jack up the rent till life is unaffordable for everyone except Zionist property owners like himself.  Truthout: Tutors in the Fine Art of Eviction Under Fire in San Francisco Gay Shame documentation of a direct action at the Bornstein & Bornstein offices, then located off Polk Street Bornstein Law's webinar: Creating Vacancy Without an At Fault Eviction 'Villain' eviction attorneys Bornstein & Bornstein break up, sue each other (Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez in SF Examiner) Oakland landlords hold rally demanding end to eviction moratorium (CBS News) Bay Area Legal Aid (free lawyers for tenants) Eviction Defense Collaborative (also free lawyers for tenants)

Ian covers local oligarchs and the surveillance state for 48Hills and The Phoenix Project. We talk about FLOCK adding microphones to their camera network, state repression after the anti-cop protests of summer 2020, and how crypto oligarch Chris Larsen bought off the Trump regime. Ian in 48Hills: "Flock keeps spying on us all, and state and local officials aren't protecting us": https://48hills.org/2026/05/flock-keeps-spying-on-us-all-and-state-and-local-officials-arent-protecting-us/   And previously: "Inside SF's private surveillance state": https://48hills.org/2025/10/sfs-private-surveillance-state/ Ian at the Phoenix Project on Chris Larsen and his billionaire friends' latest mission: to kill attempts at a billionaire tax https://www.phoenixprojectnow.com/phoenix-review/blog/special-report-the-billionaire-tax-revolt Episodes: Erin McElroy on landlord surveillance tech: https://www.patreon.com/posts/landlord-tech-f-109663054 Jeremy Mack on The Phoenix Project's report on the rightwing rascals behind San Francisco's Doom Loop: https://www.patreon.com/posts/rise-and-fall-of-147853607 Get tickets to our live podcast show in San Francisco on 6/25: QUEERS AGAINST ZIONISM with Judith Butler, Mama Ganuush, and more (a benefit for Bay2Gaza Mutual Aid) https://buytickets.at/heritageactivistsliberationartists/2224123 Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco 

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) started as a civil rights organization for Jewish people in the US. It's now a pro-Israel group that spies on Leftist organizations and defends Elon Musk when he does a white power salute. Emmaia Gelman's new book The Anti-Defamation League and the Racial State details the history of the Zionist group that influences everything from the history written into American textbooks, to the way headlines are written in mainstream news. Next, Mama Ganuush returns to discuss two gay Zionists running for election in the Bay who have helped manufacture consent for genocide in Palestine who you will know well if you're a regular listener, Manny Yekutiel and Scott Wiener. 'The Anti-Defamation League and the Racial State' releases 6/16/2026, pre-order with code UCPSAVE30 at University of California Press https://www.ucpress.edu/books/the-anti-defamation-league-and-the-racial-state/hardcover Emmaia's site https://emmaiagelman.com/ Past Palestine episodes https://www.patreon.com/collection/383604 *** Get tickets to our live podcast show on 6/25: QUEERS AGAINST ZIONISM with Judith Butler, Mama Ganuush, and more (a benefit for Bay2Gaza Mutual Aid) https://buytickets.at/heritageactivistsliberationartists/2224123 Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco 

Two Wasian Americans and one classic, everyday Asian American, all millennials, try to make sense of East Asian American discourses in the zeitgeist of the past six months. Recorded shortly before the cursed Wasian meetups in SF and NY. 1. CS graduation rates fall off a cliff. For a particular class of Asian Americans, computer science degrees were a step in the direction of the American Dream. Now that tech oligarch's true nature as warmongers who hate humanity and want to replace workers with data centers has been revealed, where will they go? See: DailyCal, "UC Berkeley CS major enrollment on pace to drop by 59% as part of nationwide trend" https://www.dailycal.org/news/campus/academics/uc-berkeley-cs-major-enrollment-on-pace-to-drop-by-59-as-part-of-nationwide/article_8ceded3c-d939-4f60-8aa4-110be003c4e3.html 2. Is the Laufey music video starring Alyssa Liu, Hudson Williams, a Katseye member and other Wasians of Hollywood a Wasian supremacist cultural object? See: Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/aznidentity/comments/1sodav8/wasian_obsession_in_the_western_media/ 3. Benjamin Champagne Song is a political prisoner convicted as part of Pam Bondi (RIP) and Andy Ngo's effort to kill dissent and funnel more money to the white power movement and DHS contractors. Fanmail to (as of May 2026): BENJAMIN HANIL SONG, #11137-512, FMC Fort Worth, FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTER, P.O. BOX 15330, FORT WORTH, TX 76119 4. 2025 ended with Asian (and to an extent, Black) TikTok Gen Z thru Gen X consumed by H-Martgate, which started as a joke questioning non-Asian peoples' place in Asian grocery stores. See: Madeline Qi's original TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@say_qis/video/7546343858146118926 5. The birth rate in the US is now well below "replacement rate": Are Hell Joseon (South Korea) and other East Asian countries a window into our future? See: Namuwiki: https://en.namu.wiki/w/N포세대 Chris on the anti-trans, red scare Falun Gong cult (known for its Epoch Times newspaper and Shen Yun anti-communist dance troupe spectaculars): https://www.patreon.com/posts/falun-gong-and-122689473 Jasmine on the problem with Waymos being personified and racialized as Asian: https://www.patreon.com/posts/waymos-arent-lee-120643766 Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco 

dee(dee) and Jemma return to dissect another vintage film set in the Bay. Did Hollywood predict Sam Altman would meet his husband in Peter Thiel's hot tub? Seeking an answer in "Electric Dreams" (1984), an extremely 1980s rom-com in which a young architect working out of the Transamerica Pyramid programs an early PC into a Frankenstein-ian monster. Philip Oakey & Giorgio Moroder: Together in Electric Dreams https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVJYBPQyFTQ Previously: Watching "Dirty Harry" https://www.patreon.com/posts/movie-club-dirty-152490581 AI is Being Force Fed to Students and Professors with Martha Kenney https://www.patreon.com/posts/ai-force-feeding-144687776 Aesthetics of the New Rightwing Tech Intelligentsia with Jimmy Wu https://www.patreon.com/posts/aesthetics-of-wu-148707467 Stop AI https://www.patreon.com/posts/end-agi-before-127632638 Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco 

Until Land Back, there's land trusts. Kyle Smeallie from the San Francisco Community Land Trust on removing land from the speculative market and the clutches of real estate industrialists. San Francisco Community Land Trust https://sfclt.org/ Proud Stutter (Maya's podcast) https://www.proudstutter.org/ Episode: Abolish Rent with Leonardo Vilchis and Tracy Rosenthal https://www.patreon.com/posts/abolish-rent-and-119757781

May Day 2026, QUEER & TRANS NON/WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE for a tour of some historically significant sites in the Mission, detailed on this episode. All hookers, loiterers, shoplifters, street sellers, truants, 1099 queens, gig workers, students, time theft recidivists, hustlers, welfare fags, & SSDI dykes are encourage to attend. May 1 at 7pm, 16th BART Plaza in San Francisco Gay Shame  https://gayshame.net/ Map of Technofascist Terror in the Mission Gay Shame on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/gay.shame/ Gay Shame: The Podcast: Anti-Sex Worker Barricades at Capp Street https://gayshame.net/index.php/gay-shame-podcast-episode-9-anti-sex-worker-barricades-at-capp-street-update-and-whats-to-be-done/ Valleywag: Dropbox Dudes Tried to Kick Children Off a Soccer Field https://web.archive.org/web/20200220131518/https://valleywag.gawker.com/dropbox-douchebags-tried-to-kick-children-off-a-soccer-1644947724 Mission Local: SF teacher says she was tricked into 'I Am Not a Monster' BART campaign https://missionlocal.org/2018/01/sf-teacher-says-she-was-tricked-into-i-am-not-a-monster-bart-campaign/ By Hook or By Crook trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayvl07NwTIM Episodes: The Redstone Labor Temple f/ Rick Gerharter and Tiny Gray-Garcia https://www.patreon.com/posts/redstone-labor-f-97275952 Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco 

Prince Shakur is an anarchist political educator with a book dealing with how he was politicized (When They Tell You To Be Good), a big library of video essays on YouTube, and a Black anarchist podcasts he co-hosts called The Dugout. Prince's site https://www.princeshakur.com/ The Dugout's site https://www.thedugoutpodcast.com/ On YouTube: How To Be A (Better) Organizer in 2026 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTWpoN0H2YY More episodes on anarchism https://www.patreon.com/collection/2086623

Michael Scarce worked at a now-defunct nonprofit called the Stop AIDS Project till in 2007, he blew the whistle when it began suggesting that to end AIDS, we need to "prevent sexual mixing." Michael's Substack: 'A Parable of Second-Hand Sodomy: Lessons Learned From San Francisco's Failed Attempt at Viral Apartheid in the Name of HIV Prevention' https://gettingbeyondzero.substack.com/p/a-parable-of-second-hand-sodomy-lessons Center for HIV Law and Policy's project against HIV surveillance https://www.hivlawandpolicy.org/basic

In March, viral depositions of a couple of 20-something white twinks named Justin Fox and Nathan Cavanaugh (referred to on social media as "DOGE bros") made explicit how careless and nihilistic the federal government was in cutting humanities funding last year, as part of Elon Musk's short-lived Department of Government Efficiency. Jane Ward is a Feminist Studies professor at UC Santa Barbara who wrote about recent closures of gender and women's studies departments at US colleges on her Substack, the Sapphic Cut. Co-hosting! Trung P. Nguyen, friend/recent guest who teaches Ethnic Studies at San Jose State. Jane's Substack: "This is How They Kill Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies" https://substack.com/@thesapphiccut/p-188282946 Trung's site https://tpqn.org/ Joseph Cox, 404 Media: "Judge Allows DOGE Deposition Videos Back Online" https://www.404media.co/judge-allows-doge-deposition-videos-back-online/ The Independent: DOGE deposition clips https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpbGF7l-t2w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXXvgZzK0Cc

Raquel Willis' resume is long: the first trans lead editor at Out magazine, a TIME 100 awardee, memoirist (The Risk It Takes To Bloom), and co-founder of the group Gender Liberation, whose direct actions at the US capitol calling for basic needs like trans healthcare reverberate far outside the DMV. We discuss the limitations of mainstream visibility in saving trans lives, and her podcast series AFTERLIVES, whose first two seasons cover the lives and passings of Layleen Polanco and Marsha P. Johnson. Raquel's site https://www.raquelwillis.com/ AFTERLIVES podcast https://www.afterlivespod.com/ Episode: Tourmaline on Marsha P. Johnson https://www.patreon.com/posts/129316368 Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco  SAD FRANCISCO hats and shirts have landed: https://sadfrancis.co/?post_type=product

The return of Susan Stryker! On this episode: The utopian potential of Trans SanFrisco of the 1990s, and why the new third edition of Transgender History may be her last time editing the classic tome. Transgender History https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/susan-stryker/transgender-history-third-edition/9781541605886/ When Monsters Speak https://www.dukeupress.edu/when-monsters-speak Susan's upcoming book: Changing Gender https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250453921/changinggender/ Episode: Susan on the Compton's Cafeteria riot https://www.patreon.com/posts/jail-at-comptons-79134233

Friends Stab and Trung both texted me when about a recent, very Sad Francisco-coded feature in Wired magazine. Here's a little response, inspired partially by an impromptu reading group a few friends did around the piece. Mentioned: Alexandr Wang Barry's Bootcamp  Gawker.com Melania's box office Peter Thiel Sam Altman Tim Cook TW for brief mention of Sam Altman sexually assaulting his sister, and the US war assault on Iran including the AI-assisted murder of kids there. Zoë Bernard, Wired: Inside the Gay Tech Mafia https://www.wired.com/story/inside-the-gay-tech-mafia/ Ryan Grim, The Intercept: The Death of Peter Thiel's "Kept" Romantic Partner is Being Investigated as a Suicide https://theintercept.com/2023/03/23/peter-thiel-jeff-thomas/ Owen Thomas, Valleywag: Peter Thiel is totally gay, people Blog post that Peter Thiel didn't really love https://www.gawkerarchives.com/335894/peter-thiel-is-totally-gay-people Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press: documentary on Netflix following Peter Thiel's successful quest to bankrupt Gawker.com by funding a lawsuit related to a Hulk Hogan sex tape https://www.netflix.com/title/80168227 Episode: Aesthetics of the New Rightwing Tech Intelligentsia with Jimmy Wu https://www.patreon.com/posts/aesthetics-of-wu-148707467

First episode covering movies set in the Bay! With dee(dee) and Jemma. Starting with: 1971's DIRTY HARRY, in which Clint Eastwood plays a vigilante cop tracking down a gay Zodiac killer clone in a San Francisco overrun with hippie scum.  Jemma on her book "The Aesthetic Character of Blackness: Sounds Like Us" https://www.patreon.com/posts/146458351 dee(dee) on the 1970s queer zine "Gay Sunshine" https://www.patreon.com/posts/142696453 Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco   

Uncover the lore of four masked comrades who meet up regularly to offer aid to unhoused neighbors and teach self-defense.  We talk about the discourse around wearing frog costumes to ICE protests and giving public comment at San Jose City Hall dressed as Batman (that's the clip at the beginning of the episode). BASH Linktree https://linktr.ee/bayareasuperheroes BASH IG https://www.instagram.com/bayareasuperheroes Kai Kai's Linktree https://linktr.ee/kaikaibee Absolute Batman https://sfpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S93C7252448 Episode with Food Not Bombs co-founder Keith McHenry https://youtu.be/d3SmXWz1L38 Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco     

Morgan Bassichis brought the 1977 queer cult fairy tale "The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions" back to print and stage a few years ago. Its messages about how to live under patriarchy feel extra prescient in 2026. The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions By Larry Mitchell and Ned Asta With essays by Morgan and Tourmaline https://nightboat.org/book/the-faggots-their-friends-between-revolutions/ Morgan's website https://www.morganbassichis.com/ Can I Be Frank? - Morgan's show, coming to New York this summer https://www.canibefrank.nyc/ Morgan's Instagram https://www.instagram.com/morgankindof/ Love in a F*cked-Up World Podcast (with Morgan and friend of the pod Dean Spade) https://www.youtube.com/@Dean_Spade/podcasts Episode: "Marsha P. Johnson Beyond Stonewall with Tourmaline" https://www.patreon.com/posts/marsha-p-johnson-129316368

Mama Ganuush is back home in San Francisco after hosting the first JAHA Film Festival in December in Lisbon. The festival features all trans-focused films from the Global South, and begins screening online starting this Friday, Feb. 14. JAHA Film Festival https://www.jahafilmfestival.com/ Trans Liberation Film School https://www.jahafilmfestival.com/transliberationfilmschool

Trung Nguyen teaches Asian American and ethnic studies at San Jose State. His presentation at the last American Studies Association conference covered how the interests of US empire, Airbnb.org, and refugee landlords market property ownership as a humanitarian act. Trung's site https://tpqn.org/ Iyko Day: The Yellow Plague and Romantic Anticapitalism (Monthly Review) https://monthlyreview.org/articles/the-yellow-plague-and-romantic-anticapitalism/ Eric Tang: Unsettled: Cambodian Refugees in the New York City Hyperghetto https://sfpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S93C3280280 BDS Movement's BDS Guide https://bdsmovement.net/Guide-to-BDS-Boycott Toshio's 2-minute explainer on Balaji Srinivasan's Network State https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8fRrpxF/ Related episodes: Urban Alchemy with Brooke Lober and Norma Azucar https://www.patreon.com/posts/urban-alchemys-f-109662919 Silicon Valley Imperialism with Erin McElroy https://www.patreon.com/posts/silicon-valley-f-103189183

"Meet the New Right-Wing Tech Intelligentsia" is Jimmy Wu's recent piece for Bay Area Current, a new publication covering labor, culture and politics based in East Bay. In it, Jimmy beautifully describes some of the aesthetics and icons preoccupying the tech elites and their media mouthpieces right now.  "Meet the New Right-Wing Tech Intelligentsia" https://bayareacurrent.com/meet-the-new-right-wing-tech-intelligentsia/ Related: Soleil Ho on anti-poor influencer Michael Shellenberger https://www.patreon.com/posts/michael-thinks-f-97015564 The AI industry must be stopped, with Stop AI https://www.patreon.com/posts/end-agi-before-127632638 Garry Tan must be stopped, with Emily Mills https://www.patreon.com/posts/stop-garry-tan-90552668 Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco 

In 2022, rightwing influencers began using the term "doom loop" to paint San Francisco as a crime- and fentanyl-ridden hellhole that whose downfall was due to too much woke progressivism. It didn't matter that the doom loop narrative wasn't based in reality: the media took it and ran with it. The narrative has since lost its resonance in San Francisco, but it's now being deployed in several other cities. Jeremy Mack is back to talk about the Phoenix Project's most recent report, "The Rise and Fall of the San Francisco Doom Loop." The Phoenix Project: Rise and Fall of the San Francisco Doom Loop https://www.phoenixprojectnow.com/doomloop-report SF Mayor Daniel Lurie celebrates Blackstone and private equity https://youtube.com/shorts/1MsExVGa5sY Andrew Cuomo's racist anti-Zohran Mamdani ad https://youtube.com/shorts/y4yqFFDD650 Related episodes: TogetherSF (RIP), with Jeremy https://www.patreon.com/posts/togethersf-wants-114226580 5 Rich Guys Trying to Buy the Bay, with Jeremy and Julie Pitta https://www.patreon.com/posts/5-rich-guys-to-f-104982980 Garry Tan, with Emily Mills https://www.patreon.com/posts/stop-garry-tan-90552668

Jenny Chan founded Pacific Atrocities Education in San Francisco after learning about some of Japan's terror campaigns across Asia through World War II. It's history that Japanese conservatives are trying to suppress. The Japanese Imperial Army's Unit 731 was the chemical and biological warfare facility that conducted experiments on about 14,000 people in China. None of those 14,000 survived, while the leaders of Unit 731 were granted immunity by the US in exchange for their "research." Pacific Atrocities Education https://www.pacificatrocities.org/ Podcast / YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/c/PacificFrontUntold Video: Rightwing Japanese nationalist Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi doesn't love politician Taro Yamamoto's suggestion that Japan is an American colony https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRE4Bm7EUoR/ Related episodes: Comfort Women part 1, with Judith Mirkinson from Comfort Women Justice Coalition https://www.patreon.com/posts/nationalism-vs-1-109743478 Comfort Women part 2, with Kota from Against Japanism https://www.patreon.com/posts/nationalism-vs-2-78561553 Nikkei Progressives, on how ICE detention compares to Japanese internment during WWII https://www.patreon.com/posts/internment-camps-109659819 Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco 

Jemma DeCristo RETURNS! Her new book The Aesthetic Character of Blackness is out, and covers how revolutionary Black art is co-opted by capitalists and the state, and art's limits as a revolutionary tool (and it's widespread use as a counterinsurgent one).   The Aesthetic Character of Blackness: Sounds Like Us (Duke University Press) https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-aesthetic-character-of-blackness   Support Dahnoun Mutual Aid (Direct Support for People in Gazan) https://chuffed.org/project/115245-dahnoun-mutual-aid   Previously: Jemma on the Transgender Cultural District https://www.patreon.com/posts/is-transgender-f-105793639   Jemma and Ralowe on the narrowness of Leftist organizing on (the app) Signal https://www.patreon.com/posts/against-signal-123358271   Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco   

Janetta Johnson and zen blossom speak from the home base of Transgender, Gender Variant and Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP) in SF. They speak on Miss Major (who led TGIJP for years); the year Janetta turned down the SF Pride grand marshal title; and the status of the Bay Area's reputation for being a haven for trans people. TGI Justice Project https://tgijp.org Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex https://www.akpress.org/captivegenders.html Previous episodes mentioned: Rest in Peace Miss Major https://www.patreon.com/posts/rip-miss-major-142054390 Tourmaline on her biography of Marsha P. Johnson https://www.patreon.com/posts/marsha-p-johnson-129316368

Public universities are under constant threat of budget cuts, but somehow administrators find millions to toss at extractive tech, like ChatGPT Edu. SF State professor Martha Kenney describes how administrators at the CSUs spent $17 million on a contract with OpenAI without asking students or professors if it was a good idea—subsidizing an industry built on hype and plaigiarism. - Martha Kenney and Martha Lincoln: "Let Them Eat Large Language Models: Artificial Intelligence And Austerity In The Neoliberal University" https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/6z5pa_v1   MIT Study https://mlq.ai/media/quarterly_decks/v0.1_State_of_AI_in_Business_2025_Report.pdf   Library of Babel Listserv https://lists.mayfirst.org/mailman/listinfo/assembly   Episode with Stop AI https://www.patreon.com/posts/end-agi-before-127632638   Martha Lincoln: "It's Time to Pull the Plug on ChatGPT at Cal State" https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2025/11/25/chatgpt-poses-risk-student-mental-health-opinion   Martha Lincoln on BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/heavyredaction.bsky.social - Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco   

San Francisco tried to atone for the war on drugs with a DEI program for recreational weed store owners. In the end, the real winners were rich white dudes like London Breed's old roommate, Conor Johnston. Chris Roberts—America's top cannabis journalist and historian reporting from America's number-one cannabis producing region—returns. We go deep on his recent Chronicle piece detailing how it all went wrong. - "San Francisco's first 'equity' weed store was an epic failure. City Hall insiders may still pocket millions" sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/marijuana-weed-legal-shop-haight-21063653.php "White Weed Entrepreneurs Are Gaming Programs Meant to Help People of Color" (Chris for Vice) vice.com/en/article/white-weed-entrepreneurs-are-gaming-programs-meant-to-help-people-of-color/ Previous episode with Chris, on the radiation disaster at Hunter's Point patreon.com/posts/radiation-at-132819458 - Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco   

dee(dee) c. ardan is live in the studio apartment for the first episode about trans/queer media from the Bay's past, showing that indeed, this place has been trans as hell for a long, long time. Starting with issue one of the 1970s zine GAY SUNSHINE, we deduce how the Bay gained a reputation for being the place you come to push the trans agenda and make life hell for conservatives.   Gay Sunshine's first two issues, via UC Berkeley Library https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/121520 https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/121521   Shattered Glass reading group contact: essgeesquared@gmail - Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco 

The Tenderloin in 1966: One of the earliest trans/queer actions (that we know of) against police and state violence happened at Compton's Cafeteria. Today, that space (111 Taylor Street) is occupied by Geo Group—otherwise known as the corporation that is America's number-one private prison and ICE profiteer. Zei Wilder is helping organize the local effort to get Geo Group out of San Francisco and turn the Compton's site into something that isn't evil. - Comptons x Coalition: comptonsxcoalition.net Demand Board of Supervisors Action Against Geo Group on November 6, 10 AM, SF City Hall Room 272: instagram.com/p/DPUQYewgdk4/ Episode with historian Susan Stryker, co-director of the Compton's documentary "Screaming Queens": patreon.com/posts/jail-at-comptons-79134233 - Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: patreon.com/sadfrancisco 

For Major, who passed on October 13.   Truthout piece https://truthout.org/articles/to-honor-miss-major-we-fight-for-the-trans-and-queer-spaces-she-built/   Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary https://sfpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S93C5592116   A more recent episode with filmmakers behind the documentary MAJOR!, StormMiguel Florez and Annalise Ophelian https://www.patreon.com/posts/trans-film-cis-130068888   MAJOR! (documentary) https://vimeo.com/ondemand/major   Criminal Queers https://vimeo.com/221584005

This episode was recorded before the ceasefire deal went into effect on Oct. 10. Surprising no one, Israel has already broken its promises, continuing to kill Palestinians and withholding aid. UC Berkeley lecturer Peyrin Kao just ended a 38-day hunger strike to keep Palestine on the minds of people on campus and to raise money during Israel's US-backed starvation campaign. A few days before we spoke, UC Berkeley notified him that he was one of 160 people it had turned over to the Trump administration as college administrators cooperate with attacks on anyone who's against the genocide. Berkeley EECS/STEM 4 Palestine Fundraiser tinyurl.com/be4pfundraiser Truthout: Peyrin interviewed by friend of the pod Brooke Lober https://truthout.org/articles/computer-science-lecturer-at-berkeley-is-on-day-36-of-his-hunger-strike-for-gaza/ Brooke's episode on Bay2Gaza Mutual Aid https://www.patreon.com/posts/112157781 Dylan Rodriguez episode: Zionists and Counterinsurgency in Stop Asian Hate https://www.patreon.com/posts/103600189

Bench Ansfield is a professor in the History department at Temple University. Their book "Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City" covers how racial capitalism, political corruption, and the insurance industry created a world where landlords can profit more by burning their own buildings down than maintaining them. They were also part of the research team on the 2019 documentary "Decade of Fire". Bench Ansfield https://www.benchansfield.com Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City https://citylights.com/new-nonfiction-in-hardcover/born-in-flames-bronx-arson-1970s Decade of Fire https://decadeoffire.com Born in Flames (the film the book was named after) https://www.criterion.com/films/30707-born-in-flames Let the Fire Burn: documentary about MOVE's infamous eviction in Philadelphia  https://www.kanopy.com/en/product/let-fire-burn Recent episode on the fire at 22nd and Mission with Angelica  https://www.patreon.com/posts/aftermath-of-at-135107521

Alexis Shotwell is a professor of gender and feminist studies and philosophy at Carleton University in Ottawa. She's also an anarchist organizer particularly interested in the anarchist fantasy and science fiction author Ursula K. LeGuin. Alexis's website https://www.alexisshotwell.com/ Punch Up Collective https://www.punchupcollective.org/ Episode with Deeg on LAGAI-Queer Insurrection! https://www.patreon.com/posts/lagai-queer-w-1-104043005 October 11: Sacramento Anarchist Book Fair https://itsgoingdown.org/announcing-the-third-annual-sacramento-anarchist-bookfair/ October 18: Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair https://www.instagram.com/bayareaanarchistbookfair/ More episodes on anarchism: Edxi Betts https://www.patreon.com/posts/voting-is-scam-f-110266232 Margaret Killjoy https://www.patreon.com/posts/radical-demands-139152446

Court support has spread to Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 100 Montgomery Street, while the mayor and SFPD continue to be complicit with ICE, against the city's sanctuary city policy.  Lxspinguinxs (updates about SF anti-ICE actions on Instagram) https://www.instagram.com/lxspinguinxs Lea on Substack https://leftylea.substack.com on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/leftylea_in_sf Los Angeles Tenants Union https://latenantsunion.org/ Palestinian Youth Movement https://palestinianyouthmovement.com Tenants and Neighborhood Council https://baytanc.com/ Unión del Barrio https://uniondelbarrio.org/ Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco  BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/sadfrancisco.bsky.social Instagram: https://instagram.com/sadfrancis.co TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sadfrancisco Twitter: https://twitter.com/sadfrancisco69 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@sadfranciscopodcast/ Listen on podcast platforms https://pod.link/1653309103   

Boiler Room is a global event promotion company known for enlisting local DJs and promoters to produce Boiler Room-branded parties. This year, Boiler Room was acquired by a Zionist private equity firm, Superstruct/KKR. Three people who DJ and throw parties in the Bay—Daria Lourd, DJ Fridge, and Juanny—on creating culture that is removed from the Boiler Room industrial complex. 9/19 at The Stud: No Bias https://ra.co/events/2225702 9/20 at f8: Bring It Back https://ra.co/events/2224734 9/26 at Monarch: Dj Warning https://ra.co/events/2235766 Daria / No Bias on Bandcamp https://nobias.bandcamp.com/ DJ Fridge https://linktr.ee/DjFridge DJ Juanny's party/label/recording studio project Amor Digital https://linktr.ee/amordigital On Instagram Daria Lourd https://www.instagram.com/bored_lord DJ Juanny https://www.instagram.com/dj_juanny DJ Fridge https://www.instagram.com/djfridge_ HYDEFM (radio) https://www.instagram.com/hydefmradio Ravers for Palestine https://www.instagram.com/raversforpalestine/ Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco  BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/sadfrancisco.bsky.social Instagram: https://instagram.com/sadfrancis.co TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sadfrancisco Twitter: https://twitter.com/sadfrancisco69 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@sadfranciscopodcast/ Listen on podcast platforms https://pod.link/1653309103   

Tracey Helton Mitchell writes about living in San Francisco with an addiction in her memoir "The Big Fix" and now works in harm reduction in the city. The Big Fix: Hope After Heroin https://sfpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S93C3207933 Tracey on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@traceyh415. Tracey on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@traceyh415 Black Tar Heroin: The Dark End of the Street - HBO documentary released in 2000, following Tracey and others around San Francisco https://archive.org/embed/blacktarherointhedarkendofthestreet Update on the cast from Black Tar Heroin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jQSpNmLVeM

Jen Snyder organizes with the Democratic Socialists of America, and recently wrote a piece for Jacobin about socialist policies like free MUNI, and taxing landlords for leaving homes empty. Things that are so popular in San Francisco, people voted to pass them. But then oligarchs and their minions defanged, reversed, or litigated them to death. San Francisco's Ultrarich Are Blocking a Zohran-Style Agenda https://jacobin.com/2025/08/san-francisco-zohran-democratic-socialism Red Bridge https://www.redbridgewins.com/ Jen on IG https://www.instagram.com/ohjennyboy Chris Arvin's Election Map SF https://electionmapsf.com/

Discussing the word "affordable" and how it's weaponized by the real estate industry. What is Affordable Housing? zine https://gayshame.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/What_is_Affordable_Housing_2025_zine.pdf Gay Shame zine: Steal This House: Dissecting the War on Houselessness and the Housing Crisis in the SF Bay Area https://gayshame.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Steal-This-House-Chronological-Order.pdf Tenant and Neighborhood Councils (TANC) https://baytanc.com West Side Tenants Association https://sfern.org Western Regional Advocacy Project https://wraphome.org Street Sheet newspaper https://www.streetsheet.org/ Indybay https://www.indybay.org Related episodes: With members of WSTA https://www.patreon.com/posts/we-keep-each-f-102747039 Landlord Tech with Erin McElroy https://www.patreon.com/posts/109663054 Food Not Bombs with Keith McHenry https://www.patreon.com/posts/136586623 Abolish Landlords with Tracy Rosenthal and Leonardo Vilchis https://www.patreon.com/posts/119757781 Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco  BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/sadfrancisco.bsky.social Instagram: https://instagram.com/sadfrancis.co TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sadfrancisco Twitter: https://twitter.com/sadfrancisco69 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@sadfranciscopodcast/ Listen on podcast platforms https://pod.link/1653309103   

Keith McHenry co-founded Food Not Bombs in 1980, and has been arrested more than 100 times for serving free food to homeless people and protesting the US government. A history lesson on SF's Phil Burton Democratic Party machine, black bloc, and how FNB became labeled as a domestic terrorist group by the FBI. Food Not Bombs https://foodnotbombs.net/new_site/ Seven Steps to Starting a Food Not Bombs https://foodnotbombs.net/seven_steps_flyer.pdf Keith on Twitter https://x.com/keith_mchenry Keith on Substack https://keithmchenry.substack.com/ Episode with Stop AI https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/M2FkNmUxNWEtM2M0NC00ZjBmLWE4NjQtYWQ2YmUxZDNhOTU5 Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco  BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/sadfrancisco.bsky.social Instagram: https://instagram.com/sadfrancis.co TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sadfrancisco Twitter: https://twitter.com/sadfrancisco69 Listen on podcast platforms https://pod.link/1653309103 

Starting in 2021, a shoplifting panic was hatched and spread by corporate media, cops, and politicians, resulting in life-or-death consequences (see: Banko Brown).  Damena Page called from SF county jail to report on the conditions, abuse, and how reporting abuse can result in retaliation.  Amy Martyn is a journalist based in the Bay, who's been covering the shoplifting panic since the beginning of the pandemic. Damena on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/girlyfacemena/ America's absurd war on 'organized retail crime' (Amy Martyn, Business Insider) https://www.businessinsider.com/americas-war-organized-retail-crime-target-cvs-victorias-secret-2024-9  Women Languish at San Francisco's Jail for Years Without Answers—or Sunlight (Amy, The Appeal) https://theappeal.org/women-languish-at-san-franciscos-jail-for-years-without-answers-or-sunlight/ The Killing of Banko Brown (Toshio, The Nation) https://www.thenation.com/article/society/banko-brown-killing-san-francisco-crisis/ Sad Francisco episode: "Avenge Banko" https://episodes.fm/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5saWJzeW4uY29tLzQ0NTgyNC9yc3M/episode/ZTI4NDgxYzQtZmVjNy00MDUxLWE1ZTEtYmQ1ODA0MmE5ZDJi

Ten years have passed since the fire that disappeared the apartments and businesses at 22nd and Mission Streets, and killed Mauricio Orellana. Many people continue to suspect landlord arson. Slumlord Hawk Ling Lou inherited the buildings in the 1990s, and owns the now-empty lot, plus about 20 other buildings in San Francisco (some under family members' names). On May 15, 2025, despite overwhelming community dissent the Planning Commission granted Hawk Ling Lou the permission to build market-rate luxury condos on the space. If they're ever built, they'll be sold to hypothetical newcomers and investors from outside the Mission. Alejandra Rubio grew up in the Mission and has been following the story of the block since she was a teenager. Now a fellow at Galeria de la Raza, she's archiving the memories of people living in the area through a series of art and a zine, so the history of the block doesn't vanish. Download the zine https://alejandrarubio.art/22nd-and-mission-series-of-events Alejandra's website www.alejandrarubio.art Instagram https://www.instagram.com/alejandraaaa415/ TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@alejandraaaa415 Al Jazeera article on the fire (Toshio, with Prisca Carpenter, Kentaro Kaneko, and Clio Sady) https://web.archive.org/web/20160117083725/http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/4/2/hot-rental-market-sparks-suspicions-of-landlord-arson-in-san-francisco.html Sad Francisco episode on 22nd and Mission, with Christen Cioffi https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/ZWVlYTI1MWUtYzk0YS00ZmRkLTgzMjMtYTIxNmYzMTVjZWJj

Sophie Lewis's book Enemy Feminisms depicts some of Western history's most despicable women, like Alma Bridwell, a Pentecostal preacher who spread the gospel of the KKK, and May French Sheldon, an explorer and genocide apologist for Belgium during the Rubber Terror in the Congo Free State. They were also some of the most celebrated feminist figures of their time, weaponizing feminism for capitalists, authoritarians, and white supremacists. Enemy Feminisms: TERFs, Policewomen, and Girlbosses Against Liberation https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2440-enemy-feminisms Sophie's Patreon https://www.patreon.com/reproutopia  The Girlboss episode, with Krystal Farmer https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/YTQwMTYyNTgtOGJiZS00YTgwLTg4MjQtZWY1MDI5YTA2MjY4 Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco