We like to say that Muni is San Francisco's living room, and you never know where a conversation with a fellow bus rider will lead. In today's episode, rider Timo shares a story about the time when someone on the bus asked him why he was wearing his yarmulke. Muni Diaries is made of stories by everyday San Franciscans, and in these times, your stories are more important than ever! We will continue to publish stories from our archive and hope this takes some stress off of your day while shelterin...
Apr 01, 2020•6 min
In these times when most of your fellow bus riders are looking at their phone and have headphones on, reader Teresa submitted a story of how a group of women banded together when they saw another woman in a bad situation. Muni Diaries is made of your stories. If you have a tale to share, email us at muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com .
Mar 21, 2020•6 min
Kristine Poggioli and coauthor Carolyn Eidson became the first people known to have walked San Francisco’s historic 49 Mile Scenic Drive over the course of a year. You know the route, or at least you've probably seen the light blue signs with seagulls on them all over town. They’ve published a book about their experience called Walking San Francisco’s 49 Mile Scenic Drive. In this episode, you’ll find out all about their journey and what they discovered along the way.
Feb 27, 2020•18 min
Storyteller Andrea Carla Michaels has worn many hats over the years, as a standup comic, writer for a game show, and briefly a writer for Designing Women. She now spends her time naming companies and constructing crossword puzzles for the New York Times. Two years ago she found her calling as "Pizza Lady" and you can find her daily in the alleys off lower Polk Street. We first aired this story in April 2018, and we feel like the new year is the right time to how to make a difference this year, n...
Jan 13, 2020•16 min
Storyteller Annette Mullaney is a standup comic based in San Francisco. The San Francisco Chronicle named her one of six "comics to catch" in the Bay Area. She describes her comedy as self-deprecating, feminist, existentialist, smart, vulgar, and full of big words to prove she's been to grad school. In this episode, she shares a BART story that took a long time to see the light of day. But we're so glad she worked up the courage to share. If you have your own story to share on our podcast, send ...
Dec 24, 2019•11 min
On her way home from a baby shower, storyteller Maureen Bogues encountered what most of us hope we wouldn't on Muni. Fueled by adrenaline, she chases after a mugger who took her phone. What would you do in this situation? Maureen is a writer, editor, and occasional public speaker who has been featured at Beyond Borders Storytelling. This story was taped at Muni Diaries Live at Rickshaw Stop in November, 2019. Do you have your own Muni story to share? Pitch us your Muni and San Francisco stories ...
Dec 03, 2019•10 min
Storyteller Dhaya Lakshminarayana is a stand-up comedian and winner of the Liz Carpenter Political Humor Award. She's also the subject of the documentary “NerdCool.” This story was recorded at Exploratorium After Dark in 2019. If you have your own story to share on our podcast, pitch your stories at muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com.
Nov 20, 2019•15 min
Today's story is from Molly Martin, a long-time activist and Bernal Heights resident. She was an organizer of Occupy Bernal, which saved many homes in the neighborhood from foreclosure. Molly is also a tradeswomen activist and is working on a book about the history of women construction workers in the Bay Area. Her story takes us back to 1973 San Francisco. Subscribe to the Muni Diaries podcast so you don't miss a minute of our new episodes! Muni Diaries Live is back on Nov. 2, 2019 at Rickshaw ...
Oct 28, 2019•14 min
DJ Steve Fabus literally provided the soundtrack to one of the most tumultuous periods in San Francisco history. He has been a fixture in the underground music scene in San Francisco since he moved here in the '70s—he described it as a calling that brought him to the city. In today's episode, Steve shares the story of how he found himself at the turn table for the farewell party of disco legend Sylvester. You can hear stories like these live on stage at the next Muni Diaries Live show on Nov. 2,...
Oct 21, 2019•18 min
Today's podcast episode was recorded live in Clarion Alley as a part of Litquake's LitCrawl in 2017. Storyteller Jesse James shares a story about his days working at the now-closed Nob Hill Theater, the famed all-male adult theater. One evening while working behind the counter, Jesse sees a familiar face walking in, and hilarity ensues. If you'd like to hear more stories live, we have two events coming up: a live podcast taping at Betabrand Podcast Theater on Oct. 3, and Muni Diaries Live at Ric...
Oct 03, 2019•18 min
Leef is the owner of Mission Comics and Art on Mission and 18th Street. He’s a San Francisco native who is passionate about making an open, inclusive space that celebrated the creative people in San Francisco. The store features lots of mainstream AND indie comic books and a gallery space. In today's episode, Leef shares the story of the AIDS Memorial Grove from the perspective of the city gardener's family. Leef's father was one of San Francisco's city gardeners, and helped build the the grove ...
Sep 28, 2019•11 min
Muni is the through line in this week's podcast story from Simone Herko Felton, a senior at Lowell High School in San Francisco. Simone has lived here all her life and takes the 23-Monterey to go to school daily. She explains what it's like to be a high school student in San Francisco taking this cross town bus, and why this particular line is symbolic of her multi-ethnic identity. Simone is the President of the literary magazine at Lowell High School called The Junkyard. If you have a story to ...
Aug 22, 2019•7 min
Do you often wish you said something to someone who was acting inconsiderate or rude, and you spend days thinking about what you should have said? In this episode, our storyteller didn't hold back and called out a rude fellow shopper at the checkout line, and the results would surprise you. Justina Wu is a writer, storyteller, and producer of Beyond Borders Storytelling, a series of travel-themed workshops and story jams. Check out Beyond Borders online at beyondbordersstorytelling.org, and mark...
Aug 07, 2019•10 min
Our previous episode featured Smiley Poswolsky, a self-described Millennial workplace expert who quit his stuffy Washington, D.C. job to become a writer in San Francisco. His story about personal growth and change, with NOPA/Western Addition in a prominent guest-starring role, really got our listeners talking more broadly about the state of our city—a hot topic lately. For this episode, we invited Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight from The San Francisco Chronicle, and Bernalwood blog founder Tod...
Jul 24, 2019•17 min
Smiley Poswolsky quit his D.C. government job and left his suit-wearing days behind in order to become a writer in San Francisco. A few years in, he found himself realizing that some of the things he was excited about the city were also perhaps ruining the place he loves. But who has the right to define what this city is about? Poswolsky is an expert on millennials in the workplace, a topic that he speaks about professionally, and he is the author of the book, The Quarter-Life Breakthrough. The ...
Jul 09, 2019•11 min
This weekend is Pride weekend, and we are highlighting stories from our LGBTQ community. Today’s story is from Kurt Schwartzmann. Kurt is an artist, printmaker, and photographer. In 2006, he lost all vision in his left eye due to complications of AIDS. In the first half of 2007 Kurt was homeless and living on the streets of San Francisco. Muni buses, running around the clock, often provided him the only safe place to sleep at night. He dedicated his first series of 64 drawings to Muni operators,...
Jun 24, 2019•10 min
Ady Lady is a writer, performer, and all around funny person who's been described as wildly funny by The San Francisco Examiner. She's written and performed two solo shows: Sara Jane Tried to Shoot the President and From Piss to Bliss . She says she actually started writing From Piss to Bliss in a desperate attempt to maintain a state of love while riding Muni. This story was recorded at Muni Diaries Live at Rickshaw Stop in April, 2019. If you liked what you heard on the Muni Diaries podcast, d...
Jun 12, 2019•16 min
San Francisco has been a place where many young transplants found their own identity and voice. In today's episode, storyteller Colin Daly shares the tale of a house on Folsom Street where he and his group of friends found their own "chosen family" in the 1990s. The friends lovingly named the house "Camp Folsom," where a room in the Mission was only $300 and life lessons—about money, community, heartbreak, and learning to be a grownup—were included in the rent. We are celebrating the release of ...
Jun 03, 2019•20 min
When the bus came to a halt, storyteller Kathleen Auterio noticed a familiar face from her Mission neighborhood. What happened next will keep you on the edge of your seat. This story was recorded at Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco. Kathleen was born in Boston but has called San Francisco home for 19 years. She is a heavy metal and horror movie fanatic, and has told stories at The Moth Grandslam, Risk, Porchlight and many more events in the bay. Subscribe to the Muni Diaries podcast so you don't m...
May 14, 2019•14 min
Artist George McCalman shares a story of how he came to be illustrating strangers on Muni, inspired by growing up on the New York subway system. This in turn helped inspired his Observed column in the San Francisco Chronicle. Nowadays he documents life on and off the bus. Trained as a philosophy-focused fine artist at St John’s University, George had a 14-year editorial magazine career before opening the doors of his creative branding studio McCalman.Co in 2011. In 2016, he resuscitated a dorman...
Apr 30, 2019•14 min•Ep. 80
Sureni Weerasekera is a Sri Lankan-born, San Diego-raised, & San Francisco-based stand up comedian, actor and writer. In this story, told at Muni Diaries Live at Rickshaw Stop, Sureni shares a story about how people relate to race while riding public transit. Sureni is a contributing writer and actor for "Life of Trying" and runs two of Berkeley's top comedy shows, "Pizza Party" and "Subhumans." Follow her on Instagram @sureni. Check out her upcoming shows at: surenicomedy.com....
Apr 16, 2019•12 min•Ep. 79
Growing up nerdy is not easy anywhere, especially in Alabama. Storyteller Dhaya Lakshminarayanan thought she'd left those teenage memories behind when she moved to San Francisco. But one day, she unexpectedly reunites with one of her long lost friends who shares those high school memories. Upon finding each other at the Castro Safeway, Dhaya and her friends embark on a new friendship that involves an urban rodeo and other very San Francisco experiences. This story was recorded at the Betabrand S...
Apr 01, 2019•12 min•Ep. 78
Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight are long time San Francisco Chronicle reporters who have seen it all. But it took riding every Muni line in one day for them to remember why they love it here so much. This year, they will be embarking on a new journey called TotalSF. We invited Peter and Heather to sit down to have a chat about their experience in front of a live audience. This episode was recorded as a part of the Betabrand Podcast Theater at the Betabrand store on Valencia Street in San Franc...
Mar 28, 2019•22 min•Ep. 77
Matt Shapiro is a musician and the co-owner of the Elbo Room in Oakland. After initially working at the Elbo Room for years as its manager and booker, Matt and co-owner Erik Cantor purchased the bar in 2010. The Elbo Room has been the home of Muni Diaries Live for many years, and just before its San Francisco location closed permanently, Matt joined Muni Diaries Live on stage to share one of the many memorable, behind-the-scenes tales from the fame club. This story involved Satan, his leather ja...
Mar 19, 2019•14 min•Ep. 76
Gwen Carmen is a storyteller, cancer survivor, and a long time teacher of the San Francisco Unified School District. In this episode, Gwen tells a story about taking BART to see one of Aretha Franklin’s final performances. On her journey home from the concert Gwen finds herself in the middle of a crime scene, luckily some of her previous students arrive to save the night. You might remember her from the live shows or from episode 62, where she told a story about bus justice to our live audience ...
Mar 04, 2019•16 min•Ep. 75
Meaghan Mitchell is a native San Franciscan and news editor at Hoodline, which you can imagine gives her tons of local cred. Meaghan shares a story of one really hard day at school and how it brought her to Muni. And podcast listeners: we will be at the Betabrand Podcast Theater on Thursday, March 7 at 7p.m. to tape our first episode with a live audience! If you'd like to be in our audience, make sure you get a ticket (only $5!) by going to MuniDiaries.com.
Feb 21, 2019•13 min
Green Apple Books is one of the most beloved bookstores in San Francisco, and a mainstay on Clement Street (and now also in the Inner Sunset). Founded in 1967, the bookstore is now owned by three of its employees. We invited co-owner Pete Mulvihill to the San Francisco Diaries podcast studio to share how he went from being a young book lover working at this iconic shop to being its owner. You can follow Green Apple Books on Twitter @greenapplebooks, and be sure to visit the store on 506 Clement ...
Feb 07, 2019•16 min
Storyteller Nuala Sawyer was having a terrible year in San Francisco. One of those times in your life when you just think things couldn't get any worse. Then, a man on Muni shared a vulnerable moment with her that changed her perspective. Nuala is the news editor at SF Weekly. She writes about a little bit of everything: City Hall, the courts, homelessness, immigration, housing, crime and of course, transportation. You can follow her on Twitter at @TheBestNuala, or hear her on Rollover Easy Thur...
Jan 29, 2019•13 min
Storyteller Irene McCalphin has often experienced the invasion of personal space on public transit, but this one time she decided enough was enough, and she was going to take up the space she deserves. As co-founder and massage therapist of A Sovereign Embodiment Healing Collective and Board-member of the Body Political, Irene blends magic with massage, storytelling and performance art to liberate, heal and reclaim space for marginalized community. They’re currently working on a book and facilit...
Jan 10, 2019•11 min
Storyteller Baruch Porras-Hernandez is a writer, performer, host, storyteller, and regular KQED community events host based in San Francisco. He is a Lambda Literary Fellow in Poetry and regularly organizes poetry shows in the Bay Area. In today's story, Baruch shares an exchange that he had with a visitor while working at one of the longest running gay sex clubs in San Francisco. Upon realizing that the visitor was having a hard time in our city, Baruch encourages him give San Francisco a secon...
Nov 13, 2018•19 min
