Storied: San Francisco

Taler Nicols is a fifth-generation San Franciscan. Her family here dates back to Potrero Hill when it was called Goat Hill.

In this podcast, Taler, who is a tattooer now, talks about growing up in bars and restaurants in North Beach, thanks to her man-about-town dad. She ends the episode talking about neighborhoods and the changes in San Francisco ... Read more

Sherri Franklin loves animals.

This episode, she starts off talking about Heidi—an eight-year-old Bassett hound who inspired Sherri to do something about senior dog care. And so, she founded Muttvile Senior Dog Rescue in 2007. Today, Muttville has found forever homes for more than 7,000 senior dogs, and they place 1,110 dogs in homes every year.

If you're int... Read more

How do you go from being a successful hair stylist who uprooted herself to move to the Bay Area to founding a senior dog rescue non-profit? That's the story of Muttville Founder and CEO Sherri Franklin.

In this podcast, Sherri takes us on a journey from LA to the Bay Area. She shares her experiences in the 1989 earthquake. She ends this episode with her early volunt... Read more

This podcast picks up right where Part 1 left off: With Danny Mac telling us about Emperor Norton's dogs, Bummer and Lazarus, as well as Norton's currency system.

Danny goes on to talk about growing up in the Excelsior in the 1950s and '60s, the Vietnam War, his evolution as an artist an... Read more

Macchiarini Creative Designs has been in North Beach since 1948. Today, it enjoys legacy business status.

​In this podcast, the studio's owner, Danny Mac as he's known to his friends and loved ones, talks about his father's involvement in the Bohemians (one of our city's early counter-culture groups) of the 1930s in San Francisco. He goes into ... Read more

What if, in the early days of your new job, you were tasked with these two things: 1. Moving a fabled city's collection of thousands of historical records (official papers, photos, ephemera, etc.) to a new building, and 2. Essentially establishing and adding to that city's archives. That's what life was like for San Francisco city archivist Susan Goldstein back when the public library moved into its current building.... Read more

San Francisco city archivist Susan Goldstein was drawn to history from a young age. She left her childhood home in Southern California to go to college out east. After a stint in Phoenix, she went to Austin where she worked in photo archiving at the University of Texas. In 1984, she came to the Bay Area to work on union archives at SF State.

In this podcast, she talks about her evolution as an archivist and historian. She... Read more

Uncle Damien is doing his part to make a positive difference in the world.

In this podcast, Uncle Damien (Damien Posey) talks about Uncle Damien Speaks, his motivational speaking work. He found inspiration through a stint in federal prison, Rudy Cor... Read more

Motivational speaker Uncle Damien went through a lot to get here.

In this podcast, Damien Posey, who was born and raised in San Francisco, talks about the journey that got him to where he is today. It's a story of a young man who had no positive male role models, who got shot at a young age, and who ended up in federal prison. But w... Read more

Patrick played some songs for us when we recorded. Three of those songs are featured here (the fourth appears at the end of Part 2).

Patrick's album  Read more

For Patrick O'Malley, music and politics evolved side-by-side. In this podcast, Patrick talks about how he came to understand housing policy, both in San Francisco and statewide in California, through his day job. He goes on to tell us about some public-transit advocacy work he's done in light of Google busses and ride share companies in the city. He ends the episode talking about the various music projects he's been part of, inclu... Read more

Patrick O'Malley started playing guitar at an early age. But it wasn't until his time in Santa Barbara that his music took on a new meaning for him—one of political activism. In this podcast, Patrick talks about growing up in Southern California and his arrival in San Francisco in the late-1990s. Among other things, he points to the write-in mayoral candidacy of Tom Ammiano in 1999 that really sparked something in him. Patrick will... Read more

In this podcast, Avengers vocalist Penelope Houston talks about the legendary Sex Pistols show at Winterland that the Avengers opened. It's a story that includes Sid Vicious ODing (but surviving) at the afterparty. She goes on to talk about her solo musical career and resurrecting the Avengers. She ends with her work at the SF Public Library putting together its punk rock collection. If you missed Part 1, when Penelope talked about... Read more

Penelope Houston's family moved around the country quite a bit when she was a kid, eventually settling up in Washington state long enough for her to go to high school. She came to San Francisco to go to the Art Institute for visual arts, but quickly started going to shows and became friends with other kids who wanted to be up on stage. In this podcast, Penelope talks about the nascent San Francisco punk scene of 1977. The episode e... Read more

Ken Walton grew up in Sacramento always considering San Francisco a special place. He got inspired to do street photography after watching a documentary about Vivian Maier. In 2016, he founded ​StreetFoto San Francisco, an annual international street photography festival. We caught up with Ken at this year's festival and chatted with him about San Francisco in 1990s and what street photography means to him. Photo by Ken Walton

Specs is special. In a city with a history of providing safe harbor (literally and figuratively) to so many over the years, the bar encompasses the spirit of San Francisco perfectly. In this podcast, Elly Simmons, whose parents Specs and Sonia opened the bar in 1968, talks about the documentary movie she's making about the place, its history, and her folks. If you love Specs and want its history documented for future generations, p... Read more

North Beach is still alive. And one of its best and longest-lasting watering holes, Specs, is still a San Francisco treasure. In this podcast, the current co-owner of the bar, Elly Simmons, tells the story of how her parents got together. Elly's dad, Richard "Specs" Simmons, and her mom, Sonia, met at Vesuvio across Columbus Street in 1952. It's a wild ride that takes us all over the neighborhood (and the country and city) in the 1... Read more

In this podcast, artist William Rhodes talks about the 3.9 Art Collective and how it influenced his latest show, Threaded Memories. The exhibition, up at the African-American Art and Culture Complex now through Aug. 2, celebrates the community that lived in the Fillmore during that neighborhood's "Harlem of the West" days. To kick off the show, William held a party called Juke City in which he invited folks to dress up in Jazz Era ... Read more

In this podcast, artist William Rhodes talks about growing up in Baltimore, some similarities between there and San Francisco, moving to the city, the art of the Mission, and establishing his own art experience here. Williams's show, Threaded Memories, is up at the African American Art and Culture Complex now through Aug. 2. He'll be giving an artist's talk there next Thursday, July 25, at 6 p.m. Through various media, the show cel... Read more