Get to know the gay Zionist Burner Manny Yekutiel, of Manny's cafe in the Mission, and why groups like Gay Shame and Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (QUIT!) have been boycotting Manny's since 2018. HALA Collective BAD (Bay Area Drag) Fund "Progressive coalition boycotts 'woke-washing' of San Francisco event space" (Toshio at Waging Nonviolence) "What boycott of Manny's in the Mission is about" (Margot Goldstein and Rachel Lederman at SF Chronicle)...
Jun 17, 2024•22 min
For our first live show taping in May, Jemma DeCristo, LaVelle Ridley, and Mama Ganuush spoke brilliantly on Trans Black-Palestinian Solidarity amidst the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Naturally, given the topic, things got emotional. Thanks to everyone who made the night possible! Jemma Decristo currently holds the record for most appearances on Sad Francisco! Her repertoire includes the episodes "Is the Transgender District a Force for Liberation or Gentrification?" and "Hot Cop of the Castro...
Jun 10, 2024•50 min•Season 1Ep. 62
LEFT IN THE BAY exposes histories of the Bay Area that explain how we got our ideological reputation. Two from the collective, Matt Ray and Matt Wranovics, speak on their recent piece covering the Bay's protests in the 1980s against South African apartheid, and some lessons to genocide in Palestine. "They're watching you; don't let them down": the 1985 anti-apartheid occupation movement at Berkeley by Left in the Bay (at Notes from Below) Left in the Bay on Instagram Left in the Bay on Twitter...
Jun 03, 2024•51 min•Season 1Ep. 61
Julie Pitta and Jeremy Mack are part of the Phoenix Project, which is tracking the wealthy wannabe overlords of the Bay. They run down dossiers of five extremely rich dudes who want to run local politics: Michael Moritz, William Oberndorf, Chris Larsen, John Kilroy, Jr., and Garry Tan. Phoenix Project - request the Phoenix Papers: Volume 2 Episodes mentioned: "VCs vs. SF" f/ Julie Pitta "Michael Shellenberger Thinks He Knows Your Gender" f/ Soleil Ho "Stop Garry Tan to Stop Asian Hate" f/ Emily ...
May 27, 2024•51 min•Season 1Ep. 60
Part 2 of the conversation with Deeg, with more on LAGAI-Queer Insurrection (formerly Lesbians And Gays Against Intervention), the Bay Area collective that started organizing in 1983 in response to the US war machine meddling overseas. UltraViolet (LAGAI's zine) "How a queer liberation collective has stayed radical for almost 40 years" (Toshio in Waging Nonviolence) Episode with Deeg on the Boycott of Manny's in the Mission Episode with LAGAI member Kate Raphael: Queers for a Free Palestine...
May 20, 2024•40 min•Season 1Ep. 59
Deeg is back for some oral history lessons about LAGAI-Queer Insurrection (formerly Lesbians And Gays Against Intervention), a radical collective that started organizing in 1983 in response to the US war machine meddling overseas. Some of the same members from forty years ago continue to meet, plan direct actions, and send thousands of copies of their zine UltraViolet into prisons for free, with no 501(c)3 and next to no funding. We talk: avoiding burnout and cooptation, how to measure movement ...
May 13, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 59
In the US, traditional media censorship of pro-Palestinian voices didn't start October 2023. A new report on Zionism's chilling effect on journalists is out this week, spotlighting how some reporters and editors self-censor, and corporate outlets keep Palestinian stories from being published. With Tiana Reid ( @tianareid | tianareid.com ) of the National Writers Union's Freelance Solidarity Project. *This episode was recorded in March. Subscribers to our Patreon got this episode early. Help supp...
May 07, 2024•25 min•Season 1Ep. 52
Dylan Rodriguez is back to talk about his new piece: "How the Stop Asian Hate Movement Became Entwined with Zionism, Policing, and Counterinsurgency." Launching off the murders of Asian sex workers in Atlanta in 2021, The Asian American Foundation (TAAF) raised over $1 billion in six months. How was the rage over those deaths transformed into liberal, reformist solutions to violence, plus a TAAF board appointment for the ADL's Jonathan Greenblatt? Dylan's "How the Stop Asian Hate Movement Became...
May 06, 2024•34 min•Season 1Ep. 58
Erin McElroy is back to talk about fresh release "Silicon Valley Imperialism." Starting in the 2010s, the post-socialist Romanian government created special visas to attract tech corporations and digital nomads. They hoped to create a mini-San Francisco; the book looks at how that materialized. Silicon Valley Imperialism (Duke) Anti-Eviction Lab Previous Erin episode: Landlord Tech Watch Silicon Holler episode f/ Tom Sexton...
Apr 29, 2024•44 min•Season 1Ep. 57
Nonprofits could never: Three members of the autonomous West Side Tenants Association/WSTA discuss the evergreen problem of charity; what movements gain by putting collectivism before individualism; how knowing your neighbors is the most effective and meaningful survival tactic; and the inspiration we all get from past solidarity work in the Bay, like the thousands of people who came together around the I Hotel in the 1970s. West Side Tenants Association (also on Instagram ) The Worst Evictors o...
Apr 22, 2024•40 min•Season 1Ep. 56
Politics have turned COVID into a dirty word, but Jillian Crochet , a Senior and Disability Action member, is working to get the San Francisco Department of Public Health to keep masking requirements in medical facilities and jails beyond April 30, when they're set to expire. Letter to SFDPH to keep masks in healthcare April 16 Action (IndyBay) Senior and Disability Action ( Instagram | Twitter ) Disability Visibility Project #N95s4UCSF...
Apr 14, 2024•34 min•Season 1Ep. 55
Well-known drag artists have been using their platforms to combat the genocide in Gaza since last October. In part two, Lady Bunny takes on virtue signaling politicians, and describes her suspicions around the viral photo with her name written on an IDF missile . Check part one for Nicki Jizz, host of locally beloved drag night Reparations, who explains how politics and drag mix. And our recent episode with Bay Area-based Palestinian drag artist Mama Ganuush . "Meet the Drag Artists Using Their ...
Mar 31, 2024•48 min•Season 1Ep. 54
Well-known drag artists have been using their platforms to combat the genocide in Gaza since last October. In this first part, Nicki Jizz, host of locally beloved drag night Reparations, explains how politics and drag mix. Check part two for Lady Bunny, who talks about virtue signaling politicians, and describes her suspicions around the viral photo with her name written on an IDF missile . And our recent episode with Bay Area-based Palestinian drag artist Mama Ganuush . "Meet the Drag Artists U...
Mar 31, 2024•15 min•Season 1Ep. 53
Instead of demanding free housing or health care, some people think the answer to homelessness is to build "mental health" jails and forced "rehab" centers to stow unhoused people, indefinitely. With Clio/Thatcher Sady and Tory Becker, from Gay Shame. "Cities Across the US Are Stripping Homeless People of Their Autonomy," by Tory and Toshio, for Truthout In other news: April 5 at Bluestockings in New York City: Come hang out with Shuli Branson, Zuri Arman, and Toshio, around the anthology " Surv...
Mar 26, 2024•33 min•Season 1Ep. 9
On February 15, eight artists altered their works at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) in solidarity with Palestine. Ralowe Ampu is on to talk about the YBCA's neoliberal nothingspeak response to the artists' - and now many staffmembers' - demands of a museum that claims to be centered on diversity and community. **The museum remains closed as of March 7. Love Letter to Gaza, Open Letter from the Artists Boycott YBCA Artists' Statement Open Letter from YBCA Employees in Support of Pales...
Mar 07, 2024•45 min•Season 1Ep. 51
Pierre Labossiere and Charlie Hinton (Haiti Action Committee) speak on common threads between Haiti and Palestine, and how US-enabled death squads are creating chaos in the first country to come out of a successful slave uprising. Haiti Action Committee HAC: Haiti Ten Years After the Earthquake HAC: 'From Haiti to Palestine: One Struggle/One Fight' on Antoine and Georges Izméry, Palestinian-Haitian brothers assassinated by US-backed death squads Randall Robinson: An Unbroken Agony (book) Graham ...
Feb 22, 2024•40 min•Season 1Ep. 50
GrowSF, TogetherSF and other benign-sounding local political organizations are more rightwing innovations from rich tech barons like David Sacks and Michael Moritz. Julie Pitta, a journalist previously at the LA Times, Forbes, and the SF Richmond Review, talks about the newly launched Phoenix Project, which looks at how dark money flows in California politics. (FYI: The conversation with Julie was recorded in early February, shortly after Garry "Die Slow" Tan's drunken appropriation of Tupac lyr...
Feb 15, 2024•19 min•Season 1Ep. 49
Chris Vargas, on the Museum of Transgender Hirstory and Art (MOTHA), a project with no real estate that is "forever under construction," and its Bay Area connections. MOTHA Trans Hirstory in 99 Objects Our episode with Susan Stryker (director of Screaming Queens ), on the Tenderloin's Compton's Cafeteria Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tofu Estolas . Support the show and find links to our past episodes on Patreon ....
Feb 08, 2024•19 min•Season 1Ep. 48
In 2021, Lakeside Investment Company bought the Redstone Labor Temple in the Mission. Poor Magazine's tiny gray-garcia (aka povertyskola), and Rick Gerharter, a movement photographer who's had an office in the Redstone for decades, talk about the significance of the building, as the new landlord drops a gentrification bomb in the form of massive rent increases. Poor Magazine Rick Gerharter Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tofu Estolas . Please support the show and find l...
Jan 27, 2024•55 min•Season 1Ep. 47
Soleil Ho is an opinion editor at the San Francisco Chronicle who recently covered the Berkeley-based writer and wannabe California governor Michael Shellenberger. In Shellenberger's last book, San Fransicko , he says rising homelessness rates in West Coast cities comes from us "loving victims" too much. Shellenberger's latest escapade: positioning himself as an expert on trans people. Soleil breaks it down. Soleil's SF Chronicle column on Michael Shellenberger Stop Garry Tan to Stop Asian Hate ...
Jan 18, 2024•29 min•Season 1Ep. 46
Mama Ganuush is an African Palestinian American drag artist living in San Francisco. Right now, they're combining direct action, performances, and Bay solidarity to combat Israel's campaign of cultural erasure and colonization - a campaign led locally by gay Israel subs Matt Dorsey, Rafael Mandelman, and Scott Wiener. Mama Ganuush on Instagram Heritage Anti-Racist Liberation Artists (HALA) - their new artists' collective! Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism Gay Shame BDS Movement BBC News: "McD...
Jan 11, 2024•33 min•Season 1Ep. 45
BAGL (Bay Area Gay Liberation) was a major force in 1970s San Francisco labor activism on many fronts, supporting farm workers and gay teachers, and thwarting the Coors beer dynasty's polygraph tests to weed out gays. The group gave BAGL member Charlie Hinton purpose; he describes its ascent and eventual dissolution that resulted over plans to host a gay air force officer. Read more about queer history from 1970s SF in Christina Hanhardt's 'Safe Space' and Emily Hobson's 'Lavender and Red' . Edi...
Jan 04, 2024•29 min•Season 1Ep. 44
Offensively bland art results from the tyrrany of homeowners with too much time on their hands. Two recent cases where Nextdoor.com creeps and gentrifiers at community benefits district meetings made decisions that censored murals and the like, discussed with Christen Cioffi . Support Sad Francisco and find links to our past episodes on Patreon .
Dec 28, 2023•25 min•Season 1Ep. 43
Politicians always warn that there's never enough funding to pay for the basic things people need to live. Reporting from Northwest Arkansas, Gracie Fuhrman ( Arkansas Justice Reform Coalition ) and (Sad Francisco's editor) Caitlin Wood describe how politicians wasted federal COVID relief on cops and jails.
Dec 21, 2023•33 min•Season 1Ep. 42
Sad Francisco is one year old. Listed in no particular order, our five most downloaded episodes: Queers for a free Palestine, with Kate Raphael Should social movement work be paid? with Dean Spade Is the transgender district a force for gentrification or liberation? with Jemma DeCristo APEC: SF bends over for Asian dictators and Biden, with CCSF Anakbayan Urban Alchemy: a new layer of police in the Tenderloin, with Brooke Lober and Norma Azucar Support Sad Francisco and find links to our past ep...
Dec 14, 2023•16 min•Season 1Ep. 42
Gavin Newsom is soft-launching his presidential campaign with his "California model" of prisons as a centerpiece. Emile Suotonye DeWeaver on how Newsom's attempt to mimic the "Norway model" of imprisonment will affect the biggest single prison system in the world. Re:Frame | Emile Suotonye DeWeaver Gavin Newsom's Prison Reform Isn't Progress - It's a 'Near Enemy' (The Appeal) Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) Prison Closure Roadmap Support Sad Francisco and find links to our pa...
Dec 07, 2023•29 min•Season 1Ep. 41
Gaslighting and double-standards are all over the media and at schools, where Zionists often get put on pedestals, while pro-Palestinian voices get silenced. A discussion of how censorship works on and off college campuses, featuring: Dylan Rodriguez, co-founder of Critical Resistance and the Critical Ethnic Studies Association , and professor of Media and Cultural Studies at UC Riverside Loubna Qutami, co-founder of the Palestinian Feminist Collective and the Palestinian Youth Movement , and as...
Nov 30, 2023•46 min•Season 1Ep. 40
Ahead of 'Giving Tuesday,' it's our episode from the archives featuring Dean Spade, on the nonprofit industrial complex. Next week: a brand-new episode with Dylan Rodriguez and Loubna Qutami, on the Zionist censorship campaign. Support Sad Francisco and find links to our past episodes on Patreon .
Nov 23, 2023•30 min
Jan Tokumaru and Kimi Maru (Nikkei Progressives) describe mutual aid projects that connect Japanese American internment camps to today's ICE detention centers. Nikkei Progressives Nikkei Resisters Shut Down Adelanto Support Sad Francisco and find links to our past episodes on Patreon ....
Nov 16, 2023•28 min•Season 1Ep. 39
Kate Raphael co-founded Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (QUIT!) in the Bay back in 2001. She talks about getting arrested in Israel for taping IDF harassment of Palestinians, why Palestinian liberation is a queer issue, and how Israel hired an SF-based PR firm to pinkwash Israel's genocide. Also check the archives for the recent episode with another QUIT! Member, Deeg, who speaks on the anti-Zionist boycott of Manny's in the Mission. Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (QUIT!) Kate Raphael...
Nov 09, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 38
