Podcasts about Tenderloin

A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists.   In this two-part series of Oakland Asian Cultural Center's “Let's Talk” podcast Eastside Arts Alliance is featured. Elena Serrano and Susanne Takehara, two of the founders of Eastside Arts Alliance, and staff member Aubrey Pandori will discuss the history that led to the formation of Eastside and their deep work around multi-racial solidarity.   Transcript: Let's Talk podcast episode 9  [00:00:00] Emma: My name is Emma Grover, and I am the program and communications coordinator at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center, known also as OACC. Today we are sharing the ninth episode of our Let's Talk Audio Series. Let's Talk is part of OACC'S Open Ears for Change Initiative, which was established in 2020. With this series, our goals are to address anti-Blackness in the APIA communities, discuss the effects of colorism and racism in a safe space, and highlight Black and Asian solidarity and community efforts specifically in the Oakland Chinatown area. Today's episode is a round table discussion with Elena Serrano, Susanne Takahara, and Aubrey Pandori of Eastside Arts Alliance.  [00:00:53] Aubrey: Hello everybody. This is Aubrey from Eastside Arts Alliance, and I am back here for the second part of our Let's Talk with Suzanne and Elena. We're gonna be talking about what else Eastside is doing right now in the community. The importance of art in activism, and the importance of Black and Asian solidarity in Oakland and beyond.  So I am the community archivist here at Eastside Arts Alliances. I run CARP, which stands for Community Archival Resource Project. It is a project brought on by one of our co-founders, Greg Morozumi. And it is primarily a large chunk of his own collection from over the years, but it is a Third World archive with many artifacts, journals, pens, newspapers from social movements in the Bay Area and beyond, international social movements from the 1960s forward. We do a few different programs through CARP. I sometimes have archival exhibitions. We do public engagement through panels, community archiving days. We collaborate with other community archives like the Bay Area Lesbian Archives and Freedom Archives here in Oakland and the Bay Area. And we are also working on opening up our Greg Morozumi Reading Room in May. So that is an opportunity for people to come in and relax, read books, host reading groups, or discussions with their community. We're also gonna be opening a lending system so people are able to check out books to take home and read. There'll be library cards coming soon for that and other fun things to come.  [00:02:44] So Suzanne, what are you working on at Eastside right now? [00:02:48] Susanne: Well, for the past like eight or nine years I've been working with Jose Ome Navarrete and Debbie Kajiyama of NAKA Dance Theater to produce Live Arts and Resistance (LAIR), which is a Dance Theater Performance series. We've included many artists who, some of them started out here at Eastside and then grew to international fame, such as Dohee Lee, and then Amara Tabor-Smith has graced our stages for several years with House Full of Black Women. This year we're working with Joti Singh on Ghadar Geet: Blood and Ink, a piece she choreographed, and shot in film and it's a multimedia kind of experience. We've worked with Cat Brooks and many emerging other artists who are emerging or from all over, mostly Oakland, but beyond. It's a place where people can just experiment and not worry about a lot of the regulations that bigger theaters have. Using the outside, the inside, the walls, the ceiling sometimes. It's been an exciting experience to work with so many different artists in our space.  [00:04:03] Elena: And I have been trying to just get the word out to as many different folks who can help sustain the organization as possible about the importance of the work we do here. So my main job with Eastside has been raising money. But what we're doing now is looking at cultural centers like Eastside, like Oakland Asian Cultural Center, like the Malonga Casquelord Center, like Black Cultural Zone, like the Fruitvale Plaza and CURJ's work. These really integral cultural hubs. In neighborhoods and how important those spaces are.  [00:04:42] So looking at, you know, what we bring to the table with the archives, which serve the artistic community, the organizing community. There's a big emphasis, and we had mentioned some of this in the first episode around knowing the history and context of how we got here so we can kind of maneuver our way out. And that's where books and movies and posters and artists who have been doing this work for so long before us come into play in the archives and then having it all manifest on the stage through programs like LAIR, where theater artists and dancers and musicians, and it's totally multimedia, and there's so much information like how to keep those types of places going is really critical.  [00:05:28] And especially now when public dollars have mostly been cut, like the City of Oakland hardly gave money to the arts anyway, and they tried to eliminate the entire thing. Then they're coming back with tiny bits of money. But we're trying to take the approach like, please, let's look at where our tax dollars go. What's important in a neighborhood? What has to stay and how can we all work together to make that happen?  [00:05:52] Susanne: And I want to say that our Cultural Center theater is a space that is rented out very affordably to not just artists, but also many organizations that are doing Movement work, such as Palestinian Youth Movement, Bala, Mujeres Unidas Y Activas, QT at Cafe Duo Refugees, United Haiti Action Committee, Freedom Archives, Oakland Sin Fronteras, Center for CPE, and many artists connected groups.  [00:06:22] Aubrey: Yeah, I mean, we do so much more than what's in the theater and Archive too, we do a lot of different youth programs such as Girl Project, Neighborhood Arts, where we do public murals. One of our collective members, Angie and Leslie, worked on Paint the Town this past year. We also have our gallery in between the Cultural Center and Bandung Books, our bookstore, which houses our archive. We are celebrating our 25th anniversary exhibition.  [00:06:54] Susanne: And one of the other exhibits we just wrapped up was Style Messengers, an exhibit of graffiti work from Dime, Spy and Surge, Bay Area artists and Surge is from New York City, kind of illustrating the history of graffiti and social commentary.  [00:07:30] Elena: We are in this studio here recording and this is the studio of our youth music program Beats Flows, and I love we're sitting here with this portrait of Amiri Baraka, who had a lot to say to us all the time. So it's so appropriate that when the young people are in the studio, they have this elder, magician, poet activist looking at him, and then when you look out the window, you see Sister Souljah, Public Enemy, and then a poster we did during, when Black Lives Matter came out, we produced these posters that said Black Power Matters, and we sent them all over the country to different sister cultural centers and I see them pop up somewhere sometimes and people's zooms when they're home all over the country. It's really amazing and it just really shows when you have a bunch of artists and poets and radical imagination, people sitting around, you know, what kind of things come out of it. [00:08:31] Aubrey: I had one of those Black Power Matters posters in my kitchen window when I lived in Chinatown before I worked here, or visited here actually. I don't even know how I acquired it, but it just ended up in my house somehow.  [00:08:45] Elena: That's perfect. I remember when we did, I mean we still do, Malcolm X Jazz Festival and it was a young Chicana student who put the Jazz Festival poster up and she was like, her parents were like, why is Malcolm X? What has that got to do with anything? And she was able to just tell the whole story about Malcolm believing that people, communities of color coming together  is a good thing. It's a powerful thing. And it was amazing how the festival and the youth and the posters can start those kind of conversations.  [00:09:15] Aubrey: Malcolm X has his famous quote that says “Culture is an indispensable weapon in the freedom struggle.” And Elena, we think a lot about Malcolm X and his message here at Eastside about culture, but also about the importance of art. Can we speak more about the importance of art in our activism?  [00:09:35] Elena: Well, that was some of the things we were touching on around radical imagination and the power of the arts. But where I am going again, is around this power of the art spaces, like the power of spaces like this, and to be sure that it's not just a community center, it's a cultural center, which means we invested in sound good, sound good lighting, sprung floors. You know, just like the dignity and respect that the artists and our audiences have, and that those things are expensive but critical. So I feel like that's, it's like to advocate for this type of space where, again, all those groups that we listed off that have come in here and there's countless more. They needed a space to reach constituencies, you know, and how important that is. It's like back in the civil rights organizing the Black church was that kind of space, very important space where those kind of things came together. People still go to church and there's still churches, but there's a space for cultural centers and to have that type of space where artists and activists can come together and be more powerful together.  [00:10:50] Aubrey: I think art is a really powerful way of reaching people. [00:10:54] Elena: You know, we're looking at this just because I, being in the development end, we put together a proposal for the Environmental Protection Agency before Donald (Trump) took it over. We were writing about how important popular education is, so working with an environmental justice organization who has tons of data about how impacted communities like East Oakland and West Oakland are suffering from all of this, lots of science. But what can we, as an arts group, how can we produce a popular education around those things? And you know, how can we say some of those same messages in murals and zines, in short films, in theater productions, you know, but kind of embracing that concept of popular education. So we're, you know, trying to counter some of the disinformation that's being put out there too with some real facts, but in a way that, you know, folks can grasp onto and, and get.  [00:11:53] Aubrey: We recently had a LAIR production called Sky Watchers, and it was a beautiful musical opera from people living in the Tenderloin, and it was very personal. You were able to hear about people's experiences with poverty, homelessness, and addiction in a way that was very powerful. How they were able to express what they were going through and what they've lost, what they've won, everything that has happened in their lives in a very moving way. So I think art, it's, it's also a way for people to tell their stories and we need to be hearing those stories. We don't need to be hearing, I think what a lot of Hollywood is kind of throwing out, which is very white, Eurocentric beauty standards and a lot of other things that doesn't reflect our neighborhood and doesn't reflect our community. So yeah, art is a good way for us to not only tell our stories, but to get the word out there, what we want to see changed.  So our last point that we wanna talk about today is the importance of Black and Asian solidarity in Oakland. How has that been a history in Eastside, Suzanne?  [00:13:09] Susanne: I feel like Eastside is all about Third World solidarity from the very beginning. And Yuri Kochiyama is one of our mentors through Greg Morozumi and she was all about that. So I feel like everything we do brings together Black, Asian and brown folks. [00:13:27] Aubrey: Black and Asian solidarity is especially important here at Eastside Arts Alliance. It is a part of our history. We have our bookstore called Bandung Books for a very specific reason, to give some history there. So the Bandung Conference happened in 1955 in Indonesia, and it was the first large-scale meeting of Asian and African countries. Most of which were newly independent from colonialism. They aimed to promote Afro-Asian cooperation and rejection of colonialism and imperialism in all nations. And it really set the stage for revolutionary solidarity between colonized and oppressed people, letting way for many Third Worlds movements internationally and within the United States.  [00:14:14] Eastside had an exhibition called Bandung to the Bay: Black and Asian Solidarity at Oakland Asian Cultural Center the past two years in 2022 and 2023 for their Lunar New Year and Black History Month celebrations. It highlighted the significance of that conference and also brought to light what was happening in the United States from the 1960s to present time that were creating and building solidarity between Black and Asian communities. The exhibition highlighted a number of pins, posters, and newspapers from the Black Liberation Movement and Asian American movement, as well as the broader Third World movement. The Black Panthers were important points of inspiration in Oakland, in the Bay Area in getting Asian and Pacific Islanders in the diaspora, and in their homelands organized.  [00:15:07] We had the adoption of the Black Panthers 10-point program to help shape revolutionary demands and principles for people's own communities like the Red Guard in San Francisco's Chinatown, IWK in New York's Chinatown and even the Polynesian Panthers in New Zealand. There were so many different organizations that came out of the Black Panther party right here in Oakland. And we honor that by having so many different 10-point programs up in our theater too. We have the Brown Berets, Red Guard Party, Black Panthers, of course, the American Indian Movement as well. So we're always thinking about that kind of organizing and movement building that has been tied here for many decades now.  [00:15:53] Elena: I heard that the term Third World came from the Bandung conference. [00:15:58] Aubrey: Yes, I believe that's true.  [00:16:01] Elena: I wanted to say particularly right now, the need for specifically Black Asian solidarity is just, there's so much misinformation around China coming up now, especially as China takes on a role of a superpower in the world. And it's really up to us to provide some background, some other information, some truth telling, so folks don't become susceptible to that kind of misinformation. And whatever happens when it comes from up high and we hate China, it reflects in Chinatown. And that's the kind of stereotyping that because we have been committed to Third World solidarity and truth telling for so long, that that's where we can step in and really, you know, make a difference, we hope. I think the main point is that we need to really listen to each other, know what folks are going through, know that we have more in common than we have separating us, especially in impacted Black, brown, Asian communities in Oakland. We have a lot to do.  [00:17:07] Aubrey: To keep in contact with Eastside Arts Alliance, you can find us at our website: eastside arts alliance.org, and our Instagrams at Eastside Cultural and at Bandung Books to stay connected with our bookstore and CArP, our archive, please come down to Eastside Arts Alliance and check out our many events coming up in the new year. We are always looking for donations and volunteers and just to meet new friends and family.  [00:17:36] Susanne: And with that, we're gonna go out with Jon Jang's “The Pledge of Black Asian Alliance,” produced in 2018.  [00:18:29] Emma: This was a round table discussion at the Eastside Arts Alliance Cultural Center with staff and guests: Elena, Suzanne and Aubrey.  Let's Talk Audio series is one of OACC'S Open Ears for Change projects and as part of the Stop the Hate Initiative with funds provided by the California Department of Social Services in consultation with the commission of Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs to administer $110 million allocated over three years to community organizations. These organizations provide direct services to victims of hate and their families and offer prevention and intervention services to tackle hate in our communities. This episode is a production of the Oakland Asian Cultural Center with engineering, editing, and sound design by Thick Skin Media.  [00:19:18] A special thanks to Jon Jang for permission to use his original music. And thank you for listening.  [00:19:32] Music: Life is not what you alone make it. Life is the input of everyone who touched your life and every experience that entered it. We are all part of one another. Don't become too narrow, live fully, meet all kinds of people. You'll learn something from everyone. Follow what you feel in your heart. OACC Podcast [00:00:00] Emma: My name is Emma Grover, and I am the program and communications coordinator at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center, known also as OACC. Today we are sharing the eighth episode of our Let's Talk audio series. Let's talk as part of OACC's Open Ears for Change Initiative, which was established in 2020. With this series, our goals are to address anti-blackness in the APIA communities, discuss the effects of colorism and racism in a safe space, and highlight black and Asian solidarity and community efforts specifically in the Oakland Chinatown area.   [00:00:43] Today's guests are Elena Serrano and Suzanne Takahara, co-founders of Eastside Arts Alliance. Welcome Elena and Suzanne, thank you so much for joining today's episode. And so just to kick things off, wanna hear about how was Eastside Arts Alliance started?   [00:01:01] Susanne: Well, it was really Greg Morozumi who had a longstanding vision of creating a cultural center in East Oakland, raised in Oakland, an organizer in the Bay Area, LA, and then in New York City where he met Yuri Kochiyama, who became a lifelong mentor.   [00:01:17] Greg was planning with one of Yuri's daughters, Ichi Kochiyama to move her family to Oakland and help him open a cultural center here. I met Greg in the early nineties and got to know him during the January, 1993 “No Justice, No Peace” show at Pro Arts in Oakland. The first Bay Graffiti exhibition in the gallery. Greg organized what became a massive anti-police brutality graffiti installation created by the TDDK crew. Graffiti images and messages covered the walls and ceiling complete with police barricades. It was a response to the Rodney King protests. The power of street art busted indoors and blew apart the gallery with political messaging. After that, Greg recruited Mike Dream, Spy, and other TDK writers to help teach the free art classes for youth that Taller Sin Fronteras was running at the time.   [00:02:11] There were four artist groups that came together to start Eastside. Taller Sin Fronteras was an ad hoc group of printmakers and visual artists activists based in the East Bay. Their roots came out of the free community printmaking, actually poster making workshops that artists like Malaquias Montoya and David Bradford organized in Oakland in the early 70s and 80s.   [00:02:34] The Black Dot Collective of poets, writers, musicians, and visual artists started a popup version of the Black Dot Cafe. Marcel Diallo and Leticia Utafalo were instrumental and leaders of this project. 10 12 were young digital artists and activists led by Favianna Rodriguez and Jesus Barraza in Oakland. TDK is an Oakland based graffiti crew that includes Dream, Spie, Krash, Mute, Done Amend, Pak and many others evolving over time and still holding it down.   [00:03:07] Elena: That is a good history there. And I just wanted to say that me coming in and meeting Greg and knowing all those groups and coming into this particular neighborhood, the San Antonio district of Oakland, the third world aspect of who we all were and what communities we were all representing and being in this geographic location where those communities were all residing. So this neighborhood, San Antonio and East Oakland is very third world, Black, Asian, Latinx, indigenous, and it's one of those neighborhoods, like many neighborhoods of color that has been disinvested in for years. But rich, super rich in culture.   [00:03:50] So the idea of a cultural center was…let's draw on where our strengths are and all of those groups, TDKT, Taller Sin Fronters, Black artists, 10 – 12, these were all artists who were also very engaged in what was going on in the neighborhoods. So artists, organizers, activists, and how to use the arts as a way to lift up those stories tell them in different ways. Find some inspiration, ways to get out, ways to build solidarity between the groups, looking at our common struggles, our common victories, and building that strength in numbers.   [00:04:27] Emma: Thank you so much for sharing. Elena and Suzanne, what a rich and beautiful history for Eastside Arts Alliance.   [00:04:34] Were there any specific political and or artistic movements happening at that time that were integral to Eastside's start?   [00:04:41] Elena: You know, one of the movements that we took inspiration from, and this was not happening when Eastside got started, but for real was the Black Panther Party. So much so that the Panthers 10-point program was something that Greg xeroxed and made posters and put 'em up on the wall, showing how the 10-point program for the Panthers influenced that of the Young Lords and the Brown Berets and I Wor Kuen (IWK).   [00:05:07] So once again, it was that Third world solidarity. Looking at these different groups that were working towards similar things, it still hangs these four posters still hang in our cultural, in our theater space to show that we were all working on those same things. So even though we came in at the tail end of those movements, when we started Eastside, it was very much our inspiration and what we strove to still address; all of those points are still relevant right now.   [00:05:36] Susanne: So that was a time of Fight The Power, Kaos One and Public Enemy setting. The tone for public art murals, graphics, posters. So that was kind of the context for which art was being made and protests happened.   [00:05:54] Elena: There was a lot that needed to be done and still needs to be done. You know what? What the other thing we were coming on the tail end of and still having massive repercussions was crack. And crack came into East Oakland really hard, devastated generations, communities, everything, you know, so the arts were a way for some folks to still feel power and feel strong and feel like they have agency in the world, especially hip hop and, spray can, and being out there and having a voice and having a say, it was really important, especially in neighborhoods where things had just been so messed up for so long.   [00:06:31] Emma: I would love to know also what were the community needs Eastside was created to address, you know, in this environment where there's so many community needs, what was Eastside really honing in on at this time?   [00:06:41] Elena: It's interesting telling our story because we end up having to tell so many other stories before us, so things like the, Black Arts movement and the Chicano Arts Movement. Examples of artists like Amiri Baraka, Malaguias Montoya, Sonya Sanchez. Artists who had committed themselves to the struggles of their people and linking those two works. So we always wanted to have that. So the young people that we would have come into the studio and wanna be rappers, you know, it's like, what is your responsibility?   [00:07:15] You have a microphone, you amplify. What are some of the things you're saying? So it was on us. To provide that education and that backstory and where they came from and the footsteps we felt like they were in and that they needed to keep moving it forward. So a big part of the cultural center in the space are the archives and all of that information and history and context.   [00:07:37] Susanne: And we started the Malcolm X Jazz Arts Festival for that same reason coming out of the Bandung Conference. And then the Tri Continental, all of this is solidarity between people's movements.   [00:07:51] Emma: You've already talked about this a little bit, the role of the arts in Eastside's foundation and the work that you're doing, and I'd love to hear also maybe how the role of the arts continues to be important in the work that you're doing today as a cultural center.   [00:08:04] And so my next question to pose to you both is what is the role of the arts at Eastside?   [00:08:10] Elena: So a couple different things. One, I feel like, and I said a little bit of this before, but the arts can transmit messages so much more powerfully than other mediums. So if you see something acted out in a theater production or a song or a painting, you get that information transmitted in a different way.   [00:08:30] Then also this idea of the artists being able to tap into imagination and produce images and visions and dreams of the future. This kind of imagination I just recently read or heard because folks aren't reading anymore or hardly reading that they're losing their imagination. What happens when you cannot even imagine a way out of things?   [00:08:54] And then lastly, I just wanted to quote something that Favianna Rodriguez, one of our founders always says “cultural shift precedes political shift.” So if you're trying to shift things politically on any kind of policy, you know how much money goes to support the police or any of these issues. It's the cultural shift that needs to happen first. And that's where the cultural workers, the artists come in.   [00:09:22] Susanne: And another role of Eastside in supporting the arts to do just that is honoring the artists, providing a space where they can have affordable rehearsal space or space to create, or a place to come safely and just discuss things that's what we hope and have created for the Eastside Cultural Center and now the bookstore and the gallery. A place for them to see themselves and it's all um, LGBTA, BIPOC artists that we serve and honor in our cultural center. To that end, we, in the last, I don't know, 8, 9 years, we've worked with Jose Navarrete and Debbie Kajiyama of Naka Dance Theater to produce live arts and resistance, which gives a stage to emerging and experienced performance artists, mostly dancers, but also poets, writers, theater and actors and musicians.   [00:10:17] Emma: The last question I have for you both today is what is happening in the world that continues to call us to action as artists?   [00:10:27] Elena: Everything, everything is happening, you know, and I know things have always been happening, but it seems really particularly crazy right now on global issues to domestic issues. For a long time, Eastside was um, really focusing in on police stuff and immigration stuff because it was a way to bring Black and brown communities together because they were the same kind of police state force, different ways.   [00:10:54] Now we have it so many different ways, you know, and strategies need to be developed. Radical imagination needs to be deployed. Everyone needs to be on hand. A big part of our success and our strength is organizations that are not artistic organizations but are organizing around particular issues globally, locally come into our space and the artists get that information. The community gets that information. It's shared information, and it gives us all a way, hopefully, to navigate our way out of it.   [00:11:29] Susanne: The Cultural Center provides a venue for political education for our communities and our artists on Palestine, Haiti, Sudan, immigrant rights, prison abolition, police abolition, sex trafficking, and houselessness among other things.   [00:11:46] Elena: I wanted to say too, a big part of what's going on is this idea of public disinvestment. So housing, no such thing as public housing, hardly anymore. Healthcare, education, we're trying to say access to cultural centers. We're calling that the cultural infrastructure of neighborhoods. All of that must be continued to be supported and we can't have everything be privatized and run by corporations. So that idea of these are essential things in a neighborhood, schools, libraries, cultural spaces, and you know, and to make sure cultural spaces gets on those lists.   [00:12:26] Emma: I hear you. And you know, I think every category you brought up, actually just now I can think of one headline or one piece of news recently that is really showing how critically these are being challenged, these basic rights and needs of the community. And so thank you again for the work that you're doing and keeping people informed as well. I think sometimes with all the news, both globally and, and in our more local communities in the Bay Area or in Oakland. It can be so hard to know what actions to take, what tools are available. But again, that's the importance of having space for this type of education, for this type of activism. And so I am so grateful that Eastside exists and is continuing to serve our community in this way.   What is Eastside Arts Alliance up to today? Are there any ways we can support your collective, your organization, what's coming up?   [00:13:18] Elena: Well, this is our 25th anniversary. So the thing that got us really started by demonstrating to the community what a cultural center was, was the Malcolm X Jazz Arts Festival, and that this year will be our 25th anniversary festival happening on May 17th.   [00:13:34] It's always free. It's in San Antonio Park. It's an amazing day of organizing and art and music, multi-generational. It's beautiful. It's a beautiful day. Folks can find out. We have stuff going on every week. Every week at the cultural center on our website through our socials. Our website is Eastside Arts alliance.org, and all the socials are there and there's a lot of information from our archives that you can look up there. There's just just great information on our website, and we also send out a newsletter.   [00:14:07] Emma: Thank you both so much for sharing, and I love you bringing this idea, but I hear a lot of arts and activism organizations using this term radical imagination and how it's so needed for bringing forth the future that we want for ourselves and our future generations.   [00:14:24] And so I just think that's so beautiful that Eastside creates that space, cultivates a space where that radical imagination can take place through the arts, but also through community connections. Thank you so much Elena and Suzanne for joining us today.   [00:14:40] Susanne: Thank you for having us.   [00:15:32] Emma: Let's Talk Audio series is one of OACC'S Open Ears for Change projects and is part of the Stop the Hate Initiative with funds provided by the California Department of Social Services. In consultation with the commission of Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs to administer $110 million allocated over three years to community organizations. These organizations provide direct services to victims of hate and their families, and offer prevention and intervention services to tackle hate in our communities.   This episode is a production of the Oakland Asian Cultural Center with engineering, editing, and sound design by Thick Skin Media. A special thanks to Jon Jang for permission to use his original music, and thank you for listening.   [00:16:34] Music: Life is not what you alone make it. Life is the input of everyone who touched your life and every experience that entered it. We are all part of one another. Don't become too narrow. Live fully, meet all kinds of people. You'll learn something from everyone. Follow what you feel in your heart. The post APEX Express – August 14, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

Nearly half of San Francisco's seniors lack the money to meet their basic needs. At Saint Francis Living Room in the Tenderloin, seniors help each other.

Today is all about learning what our elders can teach us about caring for one another. First, a unique living room in the Tenderloin helps vulnerable seniors meet their daily needs. Then, how community choirs are providing more than just a fun time.

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Pork Tenderloin in the Air Fryer 07/22/25

Bilal Mahmood became the first Muslim American elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors last year. Now, Mahmood is proposing controversial legislation to put homeless shelters in each supervisorial district throughout the city. Scott is joined in studio by Mahmood, who represents the city's fifth district including the Haight-Ashbury, Fillmore, Western Addition and Tenderloin neighborhoods.     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Garment District in New York City undergoes a fascinating transformation from its origins as a red-light district known as "The Tenderloin" to becoming the epicenter of American fashion manufacturing and design. We explore how this neighborhood shaped the American fashion industry through crisis, innovation, and cultural shifts.My links : https://linktr.ee/magnifiquepodSupport the show

In Part 2, we pick up where we left off in Part 1. Dregs shares the story of the day he started doing graffiti. It was also when he began experimenting with rapping. Dregs talks about all the “cool shit in The City” back then, the early 2000s. From sports and music to the aforementioned underworld of San Francisco, SF was lit. It was a time when you could simply step outside your home and find something or someone or some people. You could take a random Muni ride and let stuff happen. And it happened all over town, with creativity pouring out of so many corners. For Dregs, tagging happened first. He started hanging out more in The Sunset, which was quieter than his own hood. He and his buddies would tag, hang out in the park with their boomboxes, drink 40s, and freestyle. One of those buddies had a computer audio-editing program and a cheap mic (RIP Radio Shack). That friend sent him a track over AIM and it blew young Dregs away. Then he learned that two other guys wanted to battle. Dregs hopped on a bus to Lawton Park to join in. It was his first rap battle. The crew that battled that day ended up uniting and making more and more music together. They formed a tagging crew called GMC (Gas Mask Colony), which didn't last long as as a tagging crew, but they kept the name for their rap group. But the group splintered. As mentioned, Dregs ended up at ISA in Potrero. He got into a DJ program and honed his skills. Soon, it was time to get into a studio to lay down some tracks. They recorded their first song and people liked it. The crew of four included several different ethnicities and neighborhoods across San Francisco, so they had widespread reach. We take a sidebar to discuss how Dregs got his name. It's a story that involves the movie Scarface. Because of time, I ask Dregs to walk us quickly through the years between getting underway with hip-hop and starting his show, History of The Bay. He did music with his GMC posse as well as some solo projects. Days of hanging out and drinking 40s gave way to adult-life realities—jobs and such. They hadn't figured out a way to make money off their art. Dregs went to City College and then spent two years at UC Riverside. He came back and worked as a youth counselor in the Tenderloin. At another job in TL, a woman in supportive housing where Dregs worked had a psychotic breakdown. He was the only employee around, and even though he was about to leave for the day, he helped her out. The next day, a boss type thanked Dregs, but told him he'd never get properly compensated for what he did until or unless he had a bachelor's degree. And so he enrolled at SF State. He was in his late-twenties at this point, and did better in school than he had ever done. He was a straight-A student, in fact. He took a heavy courseload. It was the first time he'd had Black teachers. One of them advised Dregs to go to graduate school. He looked through the graduate-level programs available and decided that law was his best fit. And so off he went, to law school in Davis. He did well at this level, also. He graduated, passed the California bar, and got hired by a firm. He was making good money and thought about saying good-bye to making music. But then the folks he worked with at the law firm convinced him not to. One of the first cuts he did in that era was a collaboration with Andre Nikatina called “Fog Mode.” When the song dropped, it was the pandemic. Dregs had been doing his law work from home. It “sucked,” he tells me. But the track took on a life of its own. He realized amid it all that it was time to go for it with his art. One of the first steps was to get his social media ramped up. Some people suggested TikTok, but Dregs wasn't sure what content to throw up on that app. Others said, “Talk about you, talk about your interests.” He looked around and realized that no one out there was really talking about the SF/Bay hip-hop Dregs grew up on, or the prolific taggers he ran with. Around this time, in December 2021, his dad passed away. In the early stages of his grief, Dregs figured it was once again time to quit art and turn his energy and attention to taking care of his mom. But then something happened, something that some of us who've experienced loss can possibly relate to. In March 2022, Dregs launched History of The Bay on TikTok. With his music and social media popping, his law work took a back seat. Folks in his firm took notice and laid Dregs off. It was for the best. Find Dregs online at his website or on social media @dregs_one. Get History of The Bay on any podcast app. We end the podcast with Dregs' take on our theme this season—keep it local.

Joanna Sokol's life as a paramedic took her to three different counties: the casinos and trailer parks of the Nevada desert, the cozy beach town of Santa Cruz, and, eventually, the crowded tenements of San Francisco's Tenderloin district.There are no clear villains or heroes in Sokol's world, only a group of patients and medics who are doing their best in a deeply broken system.  She tells many stories of that time in the new book, “A Real Emergency: Stories from the Ambulance.”

Thanks to Patsy's Pub for the tenderloins! They are sooooo good! It’s #TenderloinTuesday with the Smiley Morning Show and Visit Hamilton County, Indiana!! Go to www.tenderlointuesday.com to get the deals!!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Kate has gone to an immersive theater experience in the Tenderloin. Maysoun goes to see art in the Tenderloin. Everyone goes to the Tenderloin. Plus coffee. The music in this episode is by DeerhoofCompton's Cafeteria Riot (the play)Tenderloin MuseumScreaming Queens'It's erasure': One of San Francisco's most celebrated sites is at a crossroadsOakland Liberation Center Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Part 2, we pick up where we left off in Part 1. Young Ed was studying at UC Davis and exploring his sexuality. He didn't consider himself bisexual, and instead thought that everyone was fluid. But he thought he had made a choice—that is, to be heterosexual. Part of that decision is that Ed always wanted a family of his own, and therefore, partnering with a woman was the only way to achieve that. But between relationships with women, Ed would visit “cruise-y bathrooms,” places known for their hookup potential. This was before the internet and smartphones. Stuff like this was word-of-mouth and need-to-know. But during his visits, Ed never hooked up with anyone. He says that he merely wanted to be adjacent to that world. After he graduated, Ed stayed in Davis. One day over coffee with a female friend at a lesbian cafe, his friend told him that she might be bi. He said he might be, too. She suggested that they “go to this club in San Francisco” where they could scratch that itch, so to speak. Ed says that The Box remains the most diverse array of folks in the LGBTQIA+ community he has ever been part of. And it wasn't diverse only on the sexuality spectrum. There were folks from all over the gender spectrum, too, he says. Ed watched men of various ethnic backgrounds dancing with one another and thought, ‘Why are those straight guys dancing with each other? Wait, they're not straight. Wait, I'm not straight.' So now he knew. But the question of whether and how to come out was a totally separate question. It was the mid-Nineties. Coming out was, in Ed's words, “really fucking scary.” He remembered that his dad, who has since come around and is loving and accepting of who his son is, often used homophobic slurs casually when Ed was a kid. Still, Ed summoned the courage and started telling folks. His mom was cool. His dad and brother were cool, too, but also probably confused. His friends shrugged him off in a very “no duh” kinda way. But there was that one member of his friend group for whom the news seemed not to sit well. Brad had been Ed's friend since seventh grade back in Hawaii. Three months after coming out to his friends, Brad let Ed know that he, too, wanted to come out of the closet, but that Ed had stolen his thunder. Laughs all around. Going back to that night at The Box, Ed met someone and they started dating. His new partner lived in Berkeley and Ed moved in (they had a roommate). Then Ed and that first boyfriend moved to the Tenderloin together, followed by a move to the Mission. Ed got a job teaching at Balboa High School in The City. He says he was so young (23) and blended in with students enough that on his first day, the principal at Balboa told him to get to class. Again, belly laughs. Ed loved teaching and did well at it. He lasted at Balboa from 1996 to 2001, teaching English as a second language to students from all over the world. The conversation shifts to the moment when Ed realized that San Francisco was home. Despite being here so long (since the mid-Nineties), Ed feels that SF is one of several places for him. Hawaii will always hold a place in his heart. He says that his sense of adventure and curiosity have him roaming around to other cultures regularly. But being married and having kids of his own grounds him in The City. One of his two children experiences mental health challenges, so that makes leaving tricky. All of that and community. Community keeps him here. I get it. One space Ed finds community is at The Social Study, where we recorded. It's his neighborhood bar, the place where bartenders know his drink without him ordering it. The spot where other regulars and semi-regulars ask him details about his life. Sure, he could find that in another part of town or in another city altogether. But right now, that community is his. And he relishes it. There's also his work. Aside from classroom teaching, Ed did some after-school work, education philanthropy work, and some other education-related jobs. Early in the pandemic, his non-binary older kid struggled. Ed says that in hindsight, he wished he had taken his child out of “Zoom school.” He wanted the kid to pick one topic, whatever they wanted, and learn that. They would spend time outside and hang out together. But that's not what happened. The teacher in Ed pushed his kid, over and over. Ed and his partner were able to find support groups around SF and the Bay Area that work with children who exhibit mental health issues. That helped, but he eventually realized that his own parenting needed help and support, because it wasn't meeting the moment. He sought that help, but wasn't impressed. He says it was mostly folks telling him what he was doing wrong, instead of being supportive and uplifting and actually teaching him. He found a couple of tools that served as Band-Aid solutions, but he was left looking and looking and looking for answers. He needed help that acknowledged and addressed his own traumas. And so he began working more or less on his own. One of his first discoveries was recognizing a moment, however short and fleeting, between his kid's stimulating action or words and Ed's reaction. If he could interrupt that automatic reaction and gain control of his own emotions, it would serve both himself and his kid. He worked on stretching out that time … from one second to two seconds and eventually to five. Once he got there, he could respond thoughtfully and lovingly vs. reacting. Realizing that he was able to overcome his shortcomings as a parent all on his own lead to Ed's founding of The Village Well. He'd met others who were aligned with his parenting experiences. He knew that if they created a space where folks in their situations could come for comfort and sharing and advice, they'd be doing the right thing. If you're interested in learning more, please visit The Village Well's website and follow them on social media @villagewellparenting. As we do at Storied: San Francisco, we end this podcast with Ed Center's take on our theme this season—keep it local. We recorded this podcast at The Social Study in June 2025. Photography by Jeff Hunt

Joanna Sokol spent years as an EMT, including working as a wilderness EMT and a ski patroller. She also has worked in the desert in Reno and in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. Now she chronicles 15 years of her experience as a paramedic in her new memoir, A Real Emergency: Stories from the Ambulance. Sokol discusses, and listeners call in to speak about their time working as an EMT.

In Part 2, we start off talking about the underground nature of trans and drag safe spaces such as Compton's back in the Sixities, and well before that. Because of this, precise records of places and events are often hard to come by. Saoirse also speaks to the human psychology of needing other people to act in order to justify joining an action. Of course, everyone's threshold for this varies. Shane joins in to talk about how queer history is the story of fighting back against hate when there's nothing left to lose. Folks on the frontlines of these battles don't always plan the fights that end up happening. Case in point—the events at Compton's Cafeteria that form the basis of the play. Then we shift the conversation to talk about Compton's Cafeteria Riot and how the play came about. Mark Nassar (Tony and Tina's Wedding) saw the Tenderloin Museum's (TLM) exhibition on the riot at Compton's and soon got in touch with Donna Personna and Collette LeGrande through a project the two were working on at the time—Beautiful by Night, a short documentary about their lives as trans people and drag queens. Over the course of about a year of periodic meetings at Mark's house, where Donna and Collette shared their stories of Compton's and the riot, the three weaved together enough personal stories to create an immersive play. Katie Conry at the Tenderloin Museum told the group that if something ever came out of what they're doing, to let her know. Shane shares her story of the first time she saw Donna Personna perform. Prior to that, Shane thought that drag was a young person's thing. She'd never seen someone of Donna's age do drag. But she was blown away and was able to meet Donna. That night, Donna hinted to Shane about the project she was working on with Mark Nassar and Collette LeGrande. She told Shane that when the time came, when they had something ready, she'd let her know. About a year later, Shane was at Mark's house reading for the role of Rusty, the character based on Donna. Some of this story has already appeared on Storied: SF, in the podcast on Katie and TLM. The museum helped bring the play to life by getting a space for the production. It was 2018. They were doing it. The first run of Compton's Cafeteria Riot lasted several months. It was deemed a success and the plan was to bring it back in 2020. But the universe had different ideas. Prior to the pandemic, the biggest challenge was securing a space. But then, Shane says she was at Piano Fight in February 2020 for an event to sign a lease on a new spot. Just a few weeks later, the first shelter-in-place orders were handed down. Shane speaks to what it means, now more than five years down the road and in a very different political and social environment, to get the play staged. And Saoirse talks about how honored she is and how personal it is for her to portray an actual living legend (Collette LeGrande). I ask Shane and Saoirse to respond to this season's theme on Storied—”keep it local.” Saorise then shares the story of being targeted and harassed by right-wing bigots (is there any other kind?) right here in San Francisco. She tells this story to emphasize that, even in The City, trans people are not safe from fascist transphobia and violence that are spreading across the nation and the world. She also speaks to the massive wealth disparity here in SF and The Bay. All of this to say that for Saoirse, keeping it local requires engaging with all of these truths. Shane begins by riffing off of Saoirse's response. She works for The City and County of San Francisco and wonders whether some of her coworkers know what's at risk. She points to right-wing groups coming to SF to hold “de-transition” events. She then ends the episode by cataloging the many reasons she loves The City and wants us all to fight for it. For more information and to buy tickets for Compton's Cafeteria Riot, please go to comptonscafeteriariot.com. And follow the production on Instagram @comptonscafeteriariot. We recorded this episode in the Compton's Cafeteria Riot play space in the Tenderloin in May 2025. Photography by Mason J.

Saoirse Grace was one of the first successful in vitro pregnancies in Massachusetts. In this episode, Saoirse is joined by her Compton's Cafeteria Riot play costar, Shane Zaldivar. The two share short versions of their respective life stories and how they got to the Bay Area and San Francisco. Then we dig into the history of the Compton's Cafeteria riot, followed by a conversation on the play about the riot, their roles in it, and the actual lived experiences of trans people today. Saoirse, who plays Collette in the play, was born in Boston and grew up a little there, and a little in San Diego. But she got into some trouble in school and was sent to reform school in Austria, near her ancestral homeland in the Dolomites. After high school, not exactly wanting to come back to the US, she went to France for college, where she studied Spanish language literature. This whole time, Saoirse was a professional actor. She started acting in third grade. By seventh grade or so, she knew that acting was something she loved to do. After about a decade of just acting, Saoirse joined an aerial circus, where she was a trapeze artist for a group in Texas called Sky Candy. After a few years in Austin, working and doing circus performances, Saoirse came to San Francisco to go to law school. She says, perhaps half-jokingly, that she still wanted to perform, but to do so in a way that made more money than acting. She went to USF and did some police accountability work, but ultimately, practicing law didn't work out. And so, after a short time in Las Vegas doing porn and sex work, Saoirse came back to The Bay to do a PhD program to become a professor. It was another opportunity to have an audience, but to also make more money than other performing careers. But that also didn't pan out. This run with the Compton's Cafeteria Riot play is Saoirse's first foray back into acting in more than a decade. Backing up a little, I ask Saoirse about her first move to San Francisco and what she thought of it. She shares the story of leaving Austin, packing up as much as she could fit on her bicycle in Seattle, and riding down the Pacific coast to get here. Wow. At the end of that roughly 1,000-mile ride, she arrived in The City during the Pride parade in 2013. The timing! She soon found work as a bicycle mechanic, something Saoirse still does more than a decade later. Then we get to know Shane Zaldivar, who plays Rusty in Compton's Cafeteria Riot. Shane was born and raised in Florida, where she spent time between there and Belize, where a lot of her family is from. Her mom had Shane when she was relatively young, and so she spent a lot of time with her mom's family, both in Belize and in the US. Life in Florida was rough for Shane. She was bullied a lot early in life for her femininity. She says that when she visits now, she gets no joy out of the place except to be with family members. Belize was much more hospitable for her. She went to middle school and high school in the Central American country. But she ended up getting a scholarship to attend college at Florida International University, which she says is a diverse place. It was at college that Shane had several awakenings—her sexuality, her love of doing drag. But she says her biggest realization, the one that led her to the Bay Area, was around cannabis. Where she had previously bought into the idea that weed was this terrible thing, from the first time Shane tried it, it changed everything for her. Shane set out to learn everything she could about the plant and its medicinal, healing properties. She took a college class in Florida on hallucinogens and in that class learned about a school in Oakland called Oaksterdam University. That's what led Shane to The Bay. She raised money for the flight and registration at her new school. Once here, she patched together a liberal arts degree in Oakland, studying such topics as hospitality, theater, and anthropology. It was 2014, and she lived in Oakland, too. But it dawned on her later that San Francisco was only a bridge away. After moving around from hostel to hostel, she found an affordable place of her own in The City. It didn't take Shane long to fall in love with the Bay Area. She soon discovered events like Folsom Street Fair and spots like The Stud. She got a job in the Ferry Building and found a place to live, a place she still resides in 10 years later. She says that San Francisco is where she really got to explore her art and her activism. In addition to being in a band, Shane is the Pop-up Drag Queen, a local fixture who performs al fresco, usually in front of the Ferry Building. Then we talk about her foray into acting, something that came about relatively recently in Shane's life. From the first time she acted, back in Florida, she felt an intense joy that has stayed with her. It marked the first time she played with gender. Today, she identifies as a trans woman. The first run of Compton's, back in 2018, was her return to the art and her first really serious acting gig. We wrap up Part 1 with the historical event behind the Compton's Cafeteria riot, the basis of the play. It was August 1966, so nearly 60 years ago. No one is sure of the exact date, but it was a weekend. “The Tenderloin at the time was the Vegas of San Francisco,” Saoirse tells us. The neighborhood was also the only place that drag queens and trans women were allowed to exist. There was less of a distinction between the two back then—something important to understand, both in this conversation and also in the play. Similarly to the story of Stonewall in New York (which took place two years after Compton's), police did their best not to let these folks exist. The cops commonly conducted raids and sweeps, both on the street and in otherwise safe spaces, which Compton's Cafeteria was. But on that day in August 1966, a trans woman at Compton's decided to fight back, throwing a mug of hot coffee on an officer. Her tight-knit community had her back, as did Vanguard (a radical queer and trans youth organization), and the riot had begun. Check back next week for Part 2 with Shane and Saoirse. And find tickets to the Compton's Cafeteria Riot play here. We recorded this podcast inside the performance space on Larkin in the Tenderloin where Compton's Cafeteria Riot is having its 2025 run. Photography by Jeff Hunt

Sam Rockwell (Bad Guys 2, The White Lotus, Moon) is an Academy Award-winning actor. Sam joins the Armchair Expert to discuss growing up in the Tenderloin of San Francisco, doing plays and improv with his mom at 10 years old, and the parallels between charm and fuel. Sam and Dax talk about stumbling into a Willy Wonka entrance doing his faker baker dancing, adopting delusions of grandeur that he moves like a stretch limo, and completing the two year Meisner program that changed his life. Sam explains getting recognized for the first time while bussing tables, how he builds characters with his acting teacher of 26 years, and the illusion of safety amid peaks and valleys of success.Follow Armchair Expert on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch new content on YouTube or listen to Armchair Expert early and ad-free by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/armchair-expert-with-dax-shepard/ now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Recently Jason was in SF to attend his daughter's college graduation, and he discusses his hotel..in one of worse parts of the city! Then, we all watch clips from "Love After Lock-Up". 

Moira and Adrian tackle the longstanding conservative fixation on the city of San Francisco, its people and its mores. From demographic anxieties, via Joan Didion's hippie-hate, to disaster movies, doom loops, and progressive prosecutors -- the history of SF-hate is a history of US politics. Books and media cited in this episode: Joseph Plaster, Kids on the Street: Queer Kinship and Religion in San Francisco's Tenderloin (2023)Susan Stryker, Victor Silverman (dirs.), Screaming Queens (2005)Thom Andersen, Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003)David Talbot, Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror, and Deliverance in the City of Love (2013) Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968)Eve Babitz, Eve's Hollywood (1974)Mike Davis, City of Quartz (1990)

Today on the HowToBBQRight Podcast, Tyler is BACK from his trip down to Texas (00:14), and he went on a mini BBQ crawl through San Antonio and Austin (03:44)! After months and months of waiting, Malcom FINALLY fired up the grill and cooked that camel tenderloin (16:01). Looking for a new grill to add to your arsenal? Primo Ceramic Grills has you covered (25:56)! I finally got Malcom to wear maroon in Starkville for Mother's Day, and it looks like some of y'all caught us on camera (26:40). Malcom has been thinking about trying Hot Boiled Peanuts on his smoker (33:54). Shoutout to everyone who's competing in both Memphis in May and Smoke Slam, this weekend (39:18). The Palmer Home is hosting their annual Skeet Shootout, and we're catering the WHOLE THING (43:09). I want to know if Malcom would do his take on Trash Can Baked Beans (46:18). If you're looking to take your cracker sandwiches to the next level, try wrapping those bad boys in bacon and throwing them on the smoker (51:01)! When it comes to brisket, is trimming REALLY necessary (52:34)? Weber came out with a new USA style grill, and I'm ordering one right now (56:31)! If you've got a whole pork loin you need to whip up, here's Malcom's FAVORITE ways to cook em (59:01). We've all had Mississippi Pot Roast before, but what are some of the OTHER uses for a whole chuck roast (1:01:39)?  

Larry Kwan shares about the vibrancy of the Tenderloin neighborhood and how we all face different challenges in life.

This week on the show we are joined by Donna Personna & Mark Nassar two of the three writers — along with Collette LeGrande — of The Compton's Cafeteria Riot which has returned to San Francisco's Tenderloin after a successful run in 2018. The immersive, interactive play brings to life the 1966 uprising in San Francisco's Tenderloin district that was one of the first acts of organized LGBTQ+ resistance in the United States pre-dating the Stonewall Riots by three years.Donna beings her real life experience of being part of the Tenderloin's LGBTQ+ community at the time of riot, and her years as an advocate for transgender rights to the story while Mark brings a career that includes being one of the creators of the long standing interactive theatre hit Tony & Tina's Wedding to bear on bringing this moment of sometimes hidden San Francisco history to life.SHOW NOTESThe Compton's Cafeteria Riot Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria Donna The Next Stage Immersive Summit Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oakland-based graphic artist Hugh D'Andrade, author of the graphic novel “The Murder Next Door,” talks about: His first graphic novel, The Murder Next Door, including what led him to finally making a graphic novel after being a big fan of them for a long time; studying fine art at the California College of Arts and Crafts back in the 1980s, and then going back to the same school, now called simply California College of the Arts, to get a masters in graphic novels; graphic novelists who have been influential to Hugh, including Adrian Tomine from nearby Berkeley, Chris Ware, who he refers to as both a giant and a genius in the field, as well Art Spiegelman, Thi Bui (whom he had as one of his graphic novel professors), Marjane Satrapi, and Phoebe Glockner; how the graphic novelists he's met have generally been very talkative and have quirky sensibilities, but also have introverted streaks which are necessary for long stretches alone that are necessary for producing their work; how he worked on the beginning of his graphic novel while in grad school, where the crits were very nurturing and supportive, unlike crits from back in the day (undergrad); where graphic novel reading falls in our attention economy; the value he puts on the hand-drawn in comics, with modest digital intervention; and how Vipassana meditation, the first chapter of the book, played a big role in Hugh's healing journey…. [the Conversation continues for another hour in the BONUS episode for Patreon supporters] In the 2nd half of the full conversation (available to Patreon supporters), Hugh talks about: the distinction between cartooning and illustration, and how challenging it is to render a person from multiple views in that style; what feedback he's gotten so far, with at least one reader saying that it was ‘very unique,' probably meaning they found it too dark; the roll his parents played (or didn't play) in healing from his trauma (the murder the book is focused on); his trolling of conspiracy theorists on social media (which is described in the book), which came out of his reaction to people making things up about who was responsible for the murder, along with the pros and cons of engaging with a conspiracy theorist; his description of 3 or 4 major career trajectory paths for artists in big art capitals, inspired by his nephew and students and their impending career paths- the A path/A-train: rock star; B path/B train: you have a partner who has a job/supports you financially;  C path/train: artist with a day job;  D-train: you live just outside of a major city, or in a college town, or rural areas; housing in the U.S., particularly in the art capitals (a sort of passion of both of ours) and how he bought a house in East Oakland, a part of the city he had never been in and he'd been living in the East Bay for decades; how he's in a ‘coffee dessert,' meaning he needs to drive at least 10 minutes to get to a good coffee spot, leading to a beautiful paradox: as a participant in gentrifying his neighborhood, he realizes that as soon as that fancy coffee place pops up in his neighborhood, the gentrification will essentially be complete; the neighborhoods Hugh lived in in San Francisco, particularly the Mission, Hayes Valley and the Tenderloin, and their respective reputations and what he experienced living there as an older young person going to punk shows and the like; his friend Rebecca Solnit's book Hollow City, about how gentrification displaces people of color as well as creative communities; we dig quite a bit into the weeds of the housing crisis, and how he lived on the cheap in the Bay Area for years, including getting around by bike up until 10 years ago; and finally he talks about his music show highlights over the years, including his changing relationship to the Grateful Dead over the decades. 

The Tenderloin Museum turns 10 years old this summer, and I for one am here to celebrate that. We first visited TLM early last year, when we talked with museum Executive Director Katie Conry. This bonus episode is all about the many, many programs going on as they approach a milestone anniversary. To start us off, we hear from Program Director Alex Spotto. Alex shares many (but not all) of the upcoming events Tenderloin Museum is either producing or affiliated with. They include: a new production of the Compton's Cafeteria Riot play (opens tomorrow, April 11!) an art show by Lady Harriet Sebastian (up through May) Monumentalizing Community (film screening and discussion on April 17) Club 181 Live at Great American Music Hall (April 23) McSweeney's 78: The Make Believers Issue Release Party in Myrtle Alley (May 1, 6 to 8 p.m.) Tenderloin Music and Arts Festival, by Psyched! Radio (May 16–17) Panel discussion about the book Daughter, Mother, Grandmother, Whore (May 22) Matthew G. Lasner talk about transforming apartments in the post-war era (May 29) Visit TLM's Programming page for more events and more info, including tickets. Then, Katie and I go on a walking tour of the new space into which the Tenderloin Museum will be expanding. The new spot will triple the size of the current museum and provide, among other things, a permanent home for the Compton's Cafeteria Riot play. They'll break ground this July, coinciding with the museum's 10th anniversary. The current space where their permanent collection lives will become the SF Neon Museum. They hope to open the new areas of the museum in 2026. And so, to put it mildly, exciting times at San Francisco's Tenderloin Museum. We recorded this episode at The Tenderloin Museum in March 2025.

This conversation explores the implications of recent changes to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies in education. A panel of educators discusses how these changes affect teaching practices, classroom environments, and student relationships. They emphasize the importance of maintaining inclusivity and building strong relationships with students and families, regardless of policy shifts. The discussion highlights the need for educators to adapt while remaining committed to fostering an equitable learning environment. Follow on Twitter: @_CrystalMWatson @CrystalMWatson on BlueSky | @jehan_hakim | @JM_Butcher | @DevonBeck365 | @MarantoRobert |@AggieAshley | @jonHarper70bd | @bamradionetwork Crystal Watson is a passionate mathematics educator from Cincinnati, serving as an elementary school principal. She is dedicated to helping cultivate spaces of belonging where deep learning and positive growth can happen. Her motto, “What do the students think?” reminds her to always take time to hear different perspectives, especially the children, in order to make sound decisions. Jehan Hakim is a second-generation Arab-American Muslim woman and mother of four. She is a Bay Area native who was born and raised in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, California – and graduated from San Francisco State University with a Bachelor's degree in Political Science. Though she's been a community organizer and educator for decades. The depths  of her experience span from program management and coordination within school districts, to interfaith coalition building, community outreach, foreign affairs, and diversity. Robert “Bob” Maranto is the 21st Century Chair in Leadership in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, has served on his local school board, and with others has written or edited 18 books so boring his own mother refused to read them. He co-edited a forthcoming book, The Free Inquiry Papers, to by published by the American Enterprise Institute in April. Maranto. “Bob”and James V. Shuls. (2011). Lessons from KIPP Delta. Phi Delta Kappan 93: (November) 52-56, at https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/003172171109300313. Jonathan Butcher is the Will Skillman Senior Research Fellow in Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation. He has researched and testified on education policy around the U.S., including testimony before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He is the author of Splintered: Critical Race Theory and the Progressive War on Truth (Bombardier Books, April 2022). He co-edited and wrote chapters in The Critical Classroom (The Heritage Foundation, 2022), discussing the racial prejudice that comes from the application of critical race theory in K-12 schools. In 2021, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster nominated Jonathan to serve on the board of the South Carolina Public Charter School District. Ashley Eberhart is in her 11th year of teaching as a Spanish Teacher at Round Rock High School in Round Rock, Texas. She serves as the Vice President for the Texas Foreign Language Association and the Austin Area Chairperson for the Texas A&M Hispanic Network. Ashley has presented from the campus level all the way to the national level on various topics such as SEL classroom strategies, building relationships in the virtual space, and implementing authentic resources for World Languages to advance interpretive proficiency. Devon Beck is a dynamic leader and advocate for education, equity, and community development. His career spans multiple sectors, including education, community engagement, and the music business, where he has pioneered new roles to address organizational needs. A graduate of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Devon began his career in education, holding various roles such as Teacher's Assistant, Behavior Specialist, Geometry/Algebra Teacher, Family & Student Liaison, and Pre-Referral Coordinator for the Talbot County Board of Education. Through these positions, he developed expertise in mentoring and supporting students who faced learning challenges. His work reinforced his belief that reaching students at critical stages in life can have a lasting impact.

On his mom's side, Woody LaBounty's San Francisco roots go back to 1850. In Part 1, get to know Woody, who, today, is the president and CEO of SF Heritage. But he's so, so much more than that. He begins by tracing his lineage back to the early days of the Gold Rush. His maternal great-great-great-grandfather arrived here mid-Nineteenth Century. Woody even knows what ship he was on and the exact day that it arrived in the recently christened city of San Francisco. On Woody's dad's side, the roots are about 100 years younger than that. His father grew up in Fort Worth, Texas (like I did). His dad's mom was single and fell on hard times in Texas. She came to San Francisco, where she had a step-brother. Woody's parents met at the Donut Bowl at 10th Avenue and Geary Boulevard (where Boudin Bakery is today). Donut Bowl was a combination donut shop/hot dog joint. At the time the two met, his dad worked as a cook there and his mom was in high school. His mom and her friends went to nearby Washington High and would hang out at the donut shop after school. The next year or so, his parents had their first kid—Woody. They came from different sides of the track, as it were. Woody's mom's family wasn't crazy about her dating his working-class dad, who didn't finish high school. But once his mom became pregnant with Woody, everything changed. The couple had two more sons after Woody. One of his brothers played for the 49ers in the Nineties and lives in Oregon today. His other brother works with underserved high school kids in New Jersey, helping them get into college. Woody shares some impressions of his first 10 years or so of life by describing The City in the mid-Seventies. Yes, kids played in the streets and rode Muni to Candlestick Park and The Tenderloin to go bowling. It was also the era of Patty Hearst and the SLA, Jonestown, and the Moscone/Milk murders. But for 10-year-old Woody, it was home. It felt safe, like a village. Because I'm a dork, I ask Woody to share his memories of when Star Wars came out. Obliging me, he goes on a sidebar about how the cinematic phenomenon came into his world in San Francisco. He did, in fact, see Star Wars in its first run at the Coronet. He attended Sacred Heart on Cathedral Hill when it was an all-boys high school. He grew up Catholic, although you didn't have to be to go to one of SF's three Catholic boys' high schools. Woody describes, in broad terms, the types of families that sent their boys to the three schools. Sacred Heart was generally for kids of working-class folks. After school, if they didn't take Muni back home to the Richmond District, Woody and his friends might head over to Fisherman's Wharf to play early era video games. Or, most likely, they'd head over to any number of high schools to talk to girls. Because parental supervision was lacking, let's say, Woody and his buddies also frequently went to several 18+ and 21+ spots. The I-Beam in the Haight, The Triangle in the Marina, The Pierce Street Annex, Enrico's in North Beach, Mabuhay Gardens. There, he saw bands like The Tubes and The Dead Kennedy's, although punk wasn't really his thing. Woody was more into jazz, RnB, and late-disco. We chat a little about café culture in San Francisco, something that didn't really exist until the Eighties. To this day, Woody still spends his Friday mornings at Simple Pleasures Cafe. And we end Part 1 with Woody's brief time at UC Berkeley (one year) and the real reason he even bothered to try college. Check back next week for Part 2 with Woody LaBounty. And this Thursday, look for a bonus episode all about We Players and their upcoming production of Macbeth at Fort Point. We recorded this episode in Mountain Lake Park in March 2025. Photography by Jeff Hunt

In this month's edition of The Bay's monthly news roundup, Alan, Jessica, and Ericka talk about what happened when a Marin County school board member questioned the term “toxic masculinity,” delays in finding a new site for San Jose's iconic flea market, and an Eid festival coming to San Francisco's Tenderloin. Plus, we discuss threats to public media funding. Links: Watch: NPR, PBS Heads Answer Lawmakers' Allegations of Bias A Marin School Board Questioned the Term ‘Toxic Masculinity.' Then Came the Backlash State law blocks potential San Jose flea market site San Francisco's Tenderloin Is Bringing a New Eid Festival to Its Streets  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we meet a wrestler who's making a name for himself while honoring his family legacy. Then, Two candidates draw ahead in Oakland's special mayoral election. Plus, a poem that explores the bittersweet flavors of life, and a reading from a local author about the Mayor of the Tenderloin.  The Bloodline: Wrestling as Family Business Bay Poets: 'The Shape of Salt' by poet Jenny Qi Lee, Taylor apparent front-runners in Oakland's special mayoral election New Arrivals: Alison Owings profiles the “mayor” of the Tenderloin

Randy Shaw is the director of San Francisco's Tenderloin Housing Clinic, founder of the Tenderloin Museum, editor of Beyond Chron, and author of the newly updated book "The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime, and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco." For over 45 years, he has advocated for this unique neighborhood which has maintained its character and resisted gentrification. Shaw discusses the Tenderloin's rich history as a refuge for marginalized communities, its struggles during the Covid-19 pandemic when it became a "containment zone" for homelessness and drug problems, and his hopes that Mayor Daniel Lurie will fulfill promises to improve safety and support local businesses.

A new “triage center” in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood opened in early February. It's one of Mayor Daniel Lurie's first tangible initiatives to address the city's fentanyl crisis as he embarks on his first year in office. A second center is also planned in the Tenderloin. KQED's Sydney Johnson visited the new center and tells us what she saw. This episode was produced by Jessica Kariisa, Mel Velasquez, and Tessa Paoli, and guest hosted by Alan Montecillo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Season 5, EPISODE 225 Dry Creek Ranch Red Angus, Retail Beef Sales & Cattle Markets Why Red Angus, 2025 Retail Meat Sale Trends Dry Creek Ranch Red Angus:  Performance, Efficiency & Longevity At Dry Creek Ranch, we understand the importance of adaptability in cattle. Our Red Angus bulls are bred to thrive in diverse conditions—whether it's extreme heat, drought, or heavy snowfall. We prioritize structural integrity and operational efficiency, ensuring that our bulls deliver superior performance year after year. By focusing on low input costs, high performance, and sustainable land management, we aim to offer some of the highest-quality genetics available. No matter the size of your operation, we are committed to providing Red Angus bulls that help maximize your herd's productivity and long-term success. Dry Creek Ranch:  Bull Development Only the top-performing calves are selected to become bulls, ensuring the highest-quality genetics for your herd. Dry Creek Ranch Red Angus bulls are raised in a natural pasture environment, where they have access to free-choice hay and are supplemented with a specially formulated bull developer pellet and a comprehensive mineral package. We focus on slow, steady growth to ensure a moderate rate of gain, with longevity and long-term performance as our primary goals. Our commitment is to develop bulls that will stand the test of time, delivering reliable performance for years to come! Dry Creek Ranch:  Genomic Testing All Red Angus bulls have been GGP-uLD tested for increased accuracy EPDs and parent verification. Retail Beef Demand Stays Strong in 2025 According to Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist Derrell Peel, The all-fresh retail beef price for January was $8.15/lb., up 4.3% year over year.  All-fresh beef retail prices have averaged 5.2% higher month over month for the last year leading to retail all-fresh beef prices for the past twelve months at a record average level of $8.27/lb. Per capita beef consumption in 2024 was unexpectedly higher at 59.7 pounds as a result of constant domestic beef production and larger net imports of beef. The combination of increased beef consumption and higher prices he says indicates stronger beef demand.   All-fresh retail beef prices continue to increase relative to pork and broiler prices.  Wholesale Choice beef cutout prices have averaged 11.8% higher year over year for the first six weeks of 2025. Prices are higher for all primals with stronger prices for end meats relative to middle meats.  Prices for rib primals are up 9.2% year over year with loins prices up 4.6% compared to the first six weeks a year ago.  Chuck prices are 14.8% higher and round primal prices are up 22.3% year over year.  Prices for most wholesale beef cuts are higher thus far in 2025 compared to one year ago Most steak prices are higher, including Strip Loins and Ribeye. The most notable exception is weaker prices for Tenderloin in recent weeks.  Strong prices and numerous lean carcass cuts, primarily from the round, are supported by increased grinding demand for ground beef production. UPCOMING SALES & EVENTS Chestnut Angus:  February 23, 2025 Grund Beef Genetics: February 26, 2025 EF1 Cattle Co:  February 26, 2025 Dry Creek Ranch: March 1, 2025 Lucky 7 Angus:  March 1, 2025 Pederson Broken Heart Ranch: March 5, 2025 Mar Mac Farms:  March 5, 2025 Keller Broken Heart Ranch:  March 6, 2025 Eichacker Simmentals:  March 7, 2025 Fast/Dohrmann/Strommen: March 8, 2025 Leland/Koester Red Angus:  March 14, 2025 Arda Farms/Freeway Angus:  March 14, 2025 U2 Quality Seedstock:  March 18, 2025   Vollmer Angus Ranch:  April 1, 2025 Jorgensen Land & Cattle:  April 21, 2025 World Famous Miles City Bucking Horse Sale: May 15 - 18, 2025 BULL SALE REPORT & RESULTS Click HERE for the latest Bull Sale Results https://ranchchannel.com/category/past-bull-production-sales-archive/ FEATURING Max Robison Dry Creek Ranch https://www.drycreekranchnd.com/ @drycreekranchnd Mark Vanzee Livestock Market, Equine Market, Auction Time https://www.auctiontime.com/ https://www.livestockmarket.com/ https://www.equinemarket.com/ @LivestockMkt @EquineMkt @AuctionTime Kirk Donsbach: Stone X Financial https://www.stonex.com/   @StoneXGroupInc    Shaye Koester Casual Cattle Conversation https://www.casualcattleconversations.com/ @cattleconvos   Questions & Concerns From The Field? Call or Text your questions, or comments to 707-RANCH20 or 707-726-2420 Or email RanchItUpShow@gmail.com FOLLOW Facebook/Instagram: @RanchItUpShow SUBSCRIBE to the Ranch It Up YouTube Channel: @ranchitup Website: RanchItUpShow.com https://ranchitupshow.com/ The Ranch It Up Podcast is available on ALL podcasting apps. https://ranchitup.podbean.com/ Rural America is center-stage on this outfit. AND how is that? Tigger & BEC Live This Western American Lifestyle. Tigger & BEC represent the Working Ranch world and cattle industry by providing the cowboys, cowgirls, beef cattle producers & successful farmers the knowledge and education needed to bring high-quality beef & meat to your table for dinner. Learn more about Jeff 'Tigger' Erhardt & Rebecca Wanner aka BEC here: TiggerandBEC.com https://tiggerandbec.com/   #RanchItUp #StayRanchy #TiggerApproved #tiggerandbec #rodeo #ranching #farming References https://www.stonex.com/ https://www.livestockmarket.com/ https://www.equinemarket.com/ https://www.auctiontime.com/ https://gelbvieh.org/ https://www.imogeneingredients.com/ https://alliedgeneticresources.com/ https://westwayfeed.com/ https://medoraboot.com/ http://www.gostockmens.com/ https://www.imiglobal.com/beef https://www.tsln.com/ https://transova.com/ https://axiota.com/ https://axiota.com/multimin-90-product-label/ https://jorgensenfarms.com/ https://www.bredforbalance.com/ https://ranchchannel.com/ https://www.wrangler.com/ https://www.ruralradio147.com/ https://www.rfdtv.com/ https://www.meatingplace.com/Industry/News/Details/117989

Today, I'm thrilled to welcome back Jed Emerson, our first-ever repeat guest on the show.Jed is a true impact pioneer and has spent decades thinking about and exploring how to create impact and value that is in alignment with who you are – your values, your goals, and your purpose.Jed's impact journey began in the gritty Tenderloin district of San Francisco, California, where he founded a homeless youth center at the height of the AIDS epidemic. This experience led to his dissatisfaction with the nonprofit sector, where funding was too often hinged on politics, persuasion, and perception rather than on real performance.He wanted to rewrite that script.By a stroke of serendipity, Jed crossed paths with George Roberts  – the “R” in the renowned global investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR). Roberts was searching for a way to do good with his wealth that didn't feel empty or disconnected from his business roots.Together, they launched an experimental private equity fund where he learned firsthand that social progress and financial savvy don't have to sit at opposite ends of the table. They can be integrated into what Jed later called “blended value.”Fast forward to the present, and Jed is now the Chief Impact Officer at AlTi Tiedemann Global, which is a global wealth management firm, guiding next-generation family members who are questioning the purpose of their inherited wealth.But don't be fooled into thinking this is a victory lap story. Jed remains as restless and inquisitive as ever, living by his five-year cycles of asking (and answering) life's biggest questions about capital, community, and our collective future.And if you need any proof that Jed is never short on surprises, his book, ‘The Purpose of Capital' inspired a music video. Yes, you read that right: a music video about impact investing.Jed discusses impact investing's key challenge: ensuring tangible outcomes aren't lost to good intentions and slick marketing. He explains why every investment carries an undeniable social and environmental footprint.If you're ready to rethink the purpose of wealth and capital, join us to hear Jed's mix of pragmatic investing and ethical commitment to improving our world.His story will remind you that success isn't just about returns. It's about finding new questions worth asking time after time.—Connect with SRI360°:Sign up for the free weekly email updateVisit the SRI360° PODCASTVisit the SRI360° WEBSITEFollow SRI360° on XFollow SRI360° on FACEBOOK—Additional Resources:- AlTi website- AlTi LinkedInConnect with Jed:- Website- LinkedIn- BlueSkyJed's books:- Impact Investing: Transforming How We Make Money While Making a Difference- The Purpose of Capital: Elements of Impact, Financial Flows, and Natural Being- 'What If' music video- Toniic Institute - GIIN (Global Impact Investing Network)Check out Jed Emerson's first appearance on the SRI360 podcast:- Listen here- Watch on YouTube

I can't wait to hear what y'all think of Brandon D'Ambra!Brandon is one of the creators of the lifestyle brand,Pink7Brandon graduated from the USC Marshal School of Business and was working in tech in Silicon Valley even as his addiction to opiates was steadily progressing. Eventually strung out on fentanyl, Brandon found himself in and out of detoxes and rehabs until finally finding success in sobriety in 2022.Check outPink7Connect withBrandonDM me on⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Message me on⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Listen ADFREE& workout with me on⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Laugh with me on⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Email me chasingheroine@gmail.comSee you next week!

Nick and Dustin are joined by their good friends John Smith. John is an avid woodsman whose skill set goes beyond any normal guy's understanding. The guys break down the last bit turkey action, morels and false morels, and the ins and outs of trapping here in Michigan. A very insightful episode. Takeaways: Talking turkeys. Hunting with the girls Talking kids and family Talking morels Nick finds one lone half free. Good year. 400+. Weather played out well this year Mushroom forums Talking whitetails. Got started with rabbit and squirrel Average season was 300 hour seasons Food plots, property management, screening food plots. Be out there consistently or not at all. Small parcel tactic. Talking summer shooting. Bows and total Archery challenge. Daughter first challenge and tracking. Trapping. Growing up trapping for fur. Doing nuisance control for beaver and coyote. Talking snares and body grippers Try to keep them scent free. Selling furs Beaver. Cutting out of the round? Beaver recipe. Beaver tail. Beaver tail beans? Bow setup. Shooting the 2009 Captain. Rage 2 blade Bow weights Bottom of the brisket inside or 5 Frying mushrooms. Making it good for everyone. Batter is key. Tenderloin and backstrap. Frying steaks Hit it in the batter flip and retrieve. Some sort of greens on the side. Show Partners: Umai Dry Instagram: @umaidry Website: bit.ly/3WhfnnX Sign up for the newsletter for 10% off TieBoss Instagram: @tiebossllc Website: https://tieboss.com/pod?ref=pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nick and Dustin are joined by their good friends John Smith. John is an avid woodsman whose skill set goes beyond any normal guy's understanding. The guys break down the last bit turkey action, morels and false morels, and the ins and outs of trapping here in Michigan. A very insightful episode.Takeaways:Talking turkeys.Hunting with the girlsTalking kids and familyTalking morels Nick finds one lone half free. Good year. 400+. Weather played out well this yearMushroom forumsTalking whitetails.Got started with rabbit and squirrelAverage season was 300 hour seasonsFood plots, property management, screening food plots.Be out there consistently or not at all. Small parcel tactic.Talking summer shooting. Bows and total Archery challenge.Daughter first challenge and tracking.Trapping. Growing up trapping for fur.Doing nuisance control for beaver and coyote.Talking snares and body grippersTry to keep them scent free.Selling fursBeaver. Cutting out of the round?Beaver recipe. Beaver tail.Beaver tail beans?Bow setup. Shooting the 2009 Captain.Rage 2 bladeBow weightsBottom of the brisket inside or 5Frying mushrooms. Making it good for everyone. Batter is key.Tenderloin and backstrap. Frying steaksHit it in the batter flip and retrieve. Some sort of greens on the side.Show Partners:Umai DryInstagram: @umaidryWebsite: bit.ly/3WhfnnXSign up for the newsletter for 10% offTieBossInstagram: @tiebossllcWebsite: https://tieboss.com/pod?ref=pod

Nick and Dustin are joined by their good friends John Smith. John is an avid woodsman whose skill set goes beyond any normal guy's understanding. The guys break down the last bit turkey action, morels and false morels, and the ins and outs of trapping here in Michigan. A very insightful episode.Takeaways:Talking turkeys.Hunting with the girlsTalking kids and familyTalking morels Nick finds one lone half free. Good year. 400+. Weather played out well this yearMushroom forumsTalking whitetails.Got started with rabbit and squirrelAverage season was 300 hour seasonsFood plots, property management, screening food plots.Be out there consistently or not at all. Small parcel tactic.Talking summer shooting. Bows and total Archery challenge.Daughter first challenge and tracking.Trapping. Growing up trapping for fur.Doing nuisance control for beaver and coyote.Talking snares and body grippersTry to keep them scent free.Selling fursBeaver. Cutting out of the round?Beaver recipe. Beaver tail.Beaver tail beans?Bow setup. Shooting the 2009 Captain.Rage 2 bladeBow weightsBottom of the brisket inside or 5Frying mushrooms. Making it good for everyone. Batter is key.Tenderloin and backstrap. Frying steaksHit it in the batter flip and retrieve. Some sort of greens on the side.Show Partners:Umai DryInstagram: @umaidryWebsite: bit.ly/3WhfnnXSign up for the newsletter for 10% offTieBossInstagram: @tiebossllcWebsite: https://tieboss.com/pod?ref=pod

Who gets to go to heaven and who doesn't? According to John Lee Hooker Jr., son of the legendary bluesman and author of From The Shadow of the Blues, many are called but not everyone is chosen. In the new autobiography, he confesses his own journey from addiction and imprisonment to religious redemption, while reflecting on growing up in his father's musical shadow. Hooker Jr. distinguishes between genius (like Prince) and talent (like himself), and offers thoughtful insights on the blues as both a response to African-American suffering and as a celebration of joy. And then there's his take on the heaven question which won't please everyone, especially those from the LGBTQ community.Here are the 5 KEEN ON takeaways from our conversation with Hooker Jr:* On living in his father's shadow - John Lee Hooker Jr. describes it as both a blessing and a burden. While his father was humble and encouraged him to find his own authentic sound, he felt pressure from the music industry to live up to the Hooker name. He makes an important distinction between talent (which he says he has) and genius (which he attributes to artists like Stevie Wonder and Prince who could master multiple instruments and aspects of music production).* His perspective on the blues - He explains that blues music served a dual purpose: expressing the pain and suffering of African Americans during slavery and Jim Crow, but also celebrating joy and dance. He notes that people "sung the blues because they had the blues" - tired of discrimination and different treatment - but the genre encompasses both hardship and happiness.* His battle with addiction - Hooker Jr. describes addiction as a spiritual chain that can't be broken by human means alone. He differentiates between what he sees as lighter "addictions" (like social media) and the physical, desperate nature of drug and alcohol addiction that affected his body and led him to criminal behavior. His struggles led to multiple incarcerations and nearly cost him his life.* His path to redemption - After multiple failed attempts at rehabilitation, including joining a cult called Synanon, he found salvation through religious faith. This transformation occurred after hitting rock bottom in San Francisco's Tenderloin district. He wrote his book to offer hope to others struggling with addiction, showing that change is possible even after multiple relapses and failures.* His current perspectives - While acknowledging the reality of racial discrimination in America, he takes personal responsibility for his past actions rather than blaming the system. He now lives in Germany, not having given up on America, but because he found love there. He maintains strong Christian convictions that guide his now conservative worldview and describes himself as loving everyone while holding firm to his literal biblical interpretations.Reverend John Lee Hooker Jr., was born in Detroit, Michigan, and he is the son of one of the greatest blues legends that has ever lived, the late and the great, John Lee Hooker (1917-2001). He is an artist who has received multiple awards throughout his career; he was also nominated for a Grammy in 2004 and 2008, and the recipient of the 2018 “Bobby Bland Lifetime Achievement Award.”Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting the daily KEEN ON show, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy interview series. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

Oooh, y'all are gonna love today's episode! I sat down with Jared Klickstein, author of Crooked Smile, to chat about his addiction and path to sobriety. Jared was homeless on Skid Row and in the Tenderloin area for much of his addiction. His stories are wild and raw and I highly recommend reading his book. Jared was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1989 to heroin-addicted parents. He spent his teenage years outside of Oakland, California after being adopted by his aunt and uncle. He attended UC Santa Cruz where he got addicted to heroin himself, dropped out, and spent nearly ten years chronically homeless and addicted around the country. His stories are wild and raw and I highly recommend reading his book. I can't wait to hear what y'all think! Connect with Jared on Instagram DM me on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Message me on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen AD FREE & workout with me on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Laugh with me on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Email me chasingheroine@gmail.com See you next week!

Alison Owings lives in San Francisco. Her book, The Mayor of the Tenderloin, came out September 10, 2024. It's essentially a redemption story about Dale Seymour, who started Code Tenderloin.

Isaiah 43:1-7 Psalm 29 Acts 8:14-17 Luke 3:15-17, 21-22   1. What stands in the way of having a deeper faith? On August 5, 1949 a crew of fifteen elite US Forest Service smokejumpers, or airborne firefighters, stepped out of their plane above a remote wildfire in Montana. Within an hour all but three of them were dead or mortally burned. They were caught by flames as they ran uphill through dried grass on a steep slope trying to reach a higher ridge. [1]   The University of Chicago English Literature professor Norman Maclean (1902-1990), who himself had experience as a fire fighter, happened to be in town and took the time to visit the fire even as it still burned. The men who perished were mostly in their early twenties and their stories haunted Maclean until he retired from teaching decades later and began writing about them.   He begins his book Young Men and Fire saying, “The problem of self-identity is not just a problem for the young. It is a problem for all the time. Perhaps the problem. It should haunt old age, and when it no longer does it should tell you that you are dead.” [2]   Maclean found his self-identity wrapped up in the tragedy. And so he studied what happened intently: the physics of fire (how a blowup happens and burns uphill), the geology, weather, terrain and botany of that particular river valley and hillside, safety changes that the tragedy inspired at the Forest Service.   Maclean notes that from the arrangement of the bodies rescue crews observed that most men had fallen and gotten up again. He writes, “at the very end beyond thought and beyond fear and beyond even self-compassion and divine bewilderment there remains some firm intention to continue doing forever... what we last hoped to do on earth.”   His last paragraph says, “I, an old man, have written this fire report… it was important to me, as an exercise for old age, to enlarge my knowledge and spirit so I could accompany young men, whose lives I might have lived, on their way to death. I have climbed where they have climbed, and in my time I have fought fire and inquired into its nature… I have lived to get a better understanding of myself and those close to me, many of them now dead… I have often found myself thinking of my wife on her brave and lonely way to death.”   2. What stands in the way of having a deeper faith? This week in a group my friend Chris directed this question to me. At first I didn't say anything and let the conversation flow. I had in mind the writer Mary Karr's observation that, “Talking about spiritual activity to a secular audience is like doing card tricks on the radio.” [3] But then another friend asked me the same question. So let me try to answer here.   I do not think that the major obstacle to deeper faith has much to do with belief. This is made more complicated because in our time of relative spiritual naiveté many people do not seem aware that we have to learn an adult faith. Paul writes, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways” (1 Cor. 13:11).   Another factor is that many modern people feel that they don't have enough time to come to church or pray. Their work life and other obligations squeeze everything else out. Twenty years ago Robert Putnam pointed out that instead of joining bowling leagues as they once did many people are bowling alone. In other words, people are more isolated and not joining groups and civic organizations in the way they once did. Some people may have an idea of who they might find in a church and simply do not want to be around that kind of person. I can imagine someone with integrity being afraid that faith creates an obligation to take care of other people. And it does.   Despair is also a barrier. Some look at pain in the world and think God is at fault or that this proves there is no God. They have never been introduced to a more subtle form of faith in a God who suffers along with us in the person of Jesus.   I did not say any of this in our conversation. Instead I offered a short response and said: A profound barrier to having faith in our time is rapidly accelerating capitalism. This worldview has become so pervasive today that we are living examples of David Foster Wallace's joke. You remember the old fish swims past two younger ones and says, “How's the water?” The younger fishes swims on for a bit. Then one turns to the other and says, “What the heck is water?” [4]   What I mean by capitalism is an expanding set of values that colonizes our inner life and every domain of our daily experience. This includes a sense that the world is inert or dead, that everything can be measured objectively and valued. It makes our interactions into transactions. It turns gifts into investments and makes non-work activities seem somehow wasteful.   This kind of consciousness leads us to see ourselves as insatiable consumers who can never get enough and others as means to our own ends. It erodes a sense of gratitude and implies that good things have all been earned. It makes radically accelerating inequality seem inevitable even when this destabilizes democracy (and all other forms of community). Above all in our case capitalism is leading us to an extreme individualism that does radical damage to human dignity.   In response, my friends talked about how great life is in the twenty-first century and how it was not that long ago when half of Americans did not have access to warm showers. And I told them about how a society's income inequality is directly correlated with mental illness, and about the misery I encountered that day going twice through the Tenderloin among people suffering so gravely from mental illness and addiction.   I have a friend who lives in a small city apartment. Yes, she has a hot shower. But she wants me to call her every week because she is so alone that no one will even notice when she dies.   Climate scientist Gus Speth writes, “I used to think the top global environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and climate change. I thought with 30 years of good science we could address those problems, but I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed, and apathy – and to deal with these we need a spiritual and cultural transformation and we scientists don't know how to do that.” [5]   3. My friends should have asked a more interesting question, “what can remove these obstacles to faith?” The English translation of today's gospel states that those going out to see John the Baptist were “filled with expectation.” A better translation of this (prosdokōntos) would be foreboding or dread. That was not the world of what some would prematurely call late stage capitalism, but the shocking violence of those times would not be entirely unfamiliar to us.   Did you wonder about the verses that were omitted in our reading (Luke 3:18-20)? They interject a short reference to King Herod who later killed John in prison. And yet Luke writes, “John proclaimed the good news to the people” (Lk. 3). What is this good news? First, even though our inner lives seem thoroughly colonized by a world picture that seems to be leading to the death of our humanity and our planet, we can be changed. The word Luke uses is metanoia and means a change of mind or heart which we call repentance.   Second, don't be confused and think that there are some people who are wheat and others who are chaff. Just as a single grain has both parts, each of us do too. And through prayer we have Jesus' help as we try to separate what is good in our life so that it will thrive and minimize the prejudices and destructive thoughts that distort us.   Finally, let me assure you that deeper than all our thoughts there is a place within us where we can meet God. That voice that speaks quietly to Jesus says the same thing to us too. If you listen this morning you will hear in your own way God saying, “You are my child, my beloved, with you I am well pleased” (Lk. 3).   My friends what stands in the way of having a deeper faith – not just in general, but for you? The world around us is burning. 153,000 LA County residents are under mandatory evacuation orders and an area greater than the size of San Francisco has been reduced to ash. Our governor and next president are publicly feuding. [6] Many of us feel a sense of foreboding as if we were trapped halfway up a hill only just above the rising flames.   Through a lifetime of studying their story Norman Maclean saw similarities between those young men each one knowing he was alone at his death and Jesus. In Young Men and Fire Maclean writes about the group's foreman Wagner Dodge who lit a safety fire and tried to convince his men to follow him into the protection of the already charred land. Strangely enough going toward and more deeply into the fire was ultimately what saved his life. Perhaps this is true for us also. In our time we have fought fire and inquired into its nature. Each of us is trying to reach a higher ridge. After we have lived for a better understanding of ourselves and those close to us we each arrive at the same place. And at the very end beyond thought and beyond fear and beyond even self-compassion that is where we meet the one who has climbed everywhere we have climbed, the one who is closer to us than we are to ourselves. And we shall hear the voice of the One who loves us. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mann_Gulch_fire [2] Norman Maclean, Young Men and Fire (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992) xiii, 300-1. [3] Matthew Boulton, “Theologian's Almanac,” SALT, 12 January 2025. https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2025/1/7/theologians-almanac-for-week-of-january-12-2025 [4] David Foster Wallace, “This Is Water,” Commencement Speech, Kenyon College, 2005. https://fs.blog/david-foster-wallace-this-is-water/ [5] Cited in a letter from Rev'd Dr. Vincent Pizzuto sent on Friday 10 January 2025. [6] https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/11/us/los-angeles-fires-california

Join us for our celebratory year-end Michelle Meow Show special. We'll start with a conversation with local photographer/artist Harry Williams, who photographs the people of San Francisco. We'll explore human connections and how community engagement can preserve our dignity and compassion for each other.  We'll end our program with a special performance by SNOWW. Then stick around for a fun reception and holiday cheer. About the Speaker Harry Williams says his work "is rooted in capturing the resilience and humanity of marginalized communities, presenting them in a way that commands attention and challenges perceptions." He spent more than a year photographing on the corner of Jones and Ellis Streets in San Francisco's Tenderloin district, a neighborhood known for its abundance of single-occupancy residence (SOR) housing and its association with drugs and crime. "This body of work speaks to more than one community; it reflects a reality familiar to cities and small towns alike, where certain neighborhoods undergo shifts that can displace the people who have long called them home. As these areas change, often becoming less accessible to those who built their lives there, a profound cultural and personal loss occurs. . . . Through these images, I seek to preserve the spirit and stories of these communities, highlighting their strength and significance in ways that demand respect and remembrance. Ultimately, I hope that these monumental images confront viewers with both the beauty and strength of communities often sidelined, making space for empathy, connection, and reflection." SNOWW is a celebrated Chinese artist whose talents span electronic music production, DJing, singing, and songwriting. She is the founder of Fake Gentle and The Hormones bands, as well as the creative force behind the E-Motion label. With her distinctive musical style and a keen ear for melody, SNOWW has emerged as an influential figure in the contemporary electronic music scene. In SNOWW's musical universe, the vast electronic soundscapes resonate like a storm of snow, seamlessly intertwining with her warm and evocative voice. Her work combines elements of Deep House, Chillwave, and classical music, crafting an immersive listening experience that feels both intimate and expansive. Her music takes listeners on a dreamlike journey, reflecting the harmony between the digital and natural worlds. As a devoted advocate for melody, SNOWW infuses her compositions with rich and intricate emotional layers. She brings a unique perspective to electronic and rock music, continually exploring diverse sound elements in her creations. In 2021 and 2022, SNOWW was invited to perform at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival for two consecutive years in its online showcases.   The Commonwealth Club thanks Gilead Sciences, Inc. for its generous support of The Michelle Meow Show.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's recipe is Beef Gravy, Perfected!Here are the links to some of the items I talked about in this episode: #adBeef TenderloinRoasting Pan with RackRubber SpatulaGravy SeparatorMeasuring CupMeasuring SpoonsMedium Sauce PanWhiskFine Mesh SieveAll New Chicken CookbookHere's the Recipe Of The Day page with all of our recipe links.If you want to make sure that you always find out what today's recipe is, do one or all of the following:Subscribe to the Podcast,Join the ROTD Facebook Group hereHave a great day! -Christine xo 

This episode took me a while to get to!  We actually recorded this in July of 2024, but it was a beast to edit, so it had been on my to-do list for a long long time.  I hope it is worth the wait! Elaine, Mandy, Ben, Alexa, and I drove around SF for 3 hours trying some of San Francisco's most famous Asian to-go foods.  And they did not disappoint! 1) We started in Chinatown at Golden Gate Bakery for their famous daan taats which were flakey and creamy.  2) Next we went to the Tenderloin for a Saigon Sandwich banh mi, which is the best value meal in San Francisco. 3) Our third stop was Dumpling Home in Hayes Valley, for some sheng jian baos, that had the perfect combination of crispy, pillowy, salty, fatty, and a little sweet, it's such a good bite of food! 4) From there we headed into the fog of the Inner Sunset, for some Rose Indian Cuisine vegetarian samosas.  The crunchy exterior and favorable soft interior was such a great afternoon snack. 5) We headed back towards my hometown and ended our journey at Fil-Am in Daly City for some perfect lumpia Shanghai and some lumpia turon (banana lumpia).  Talk about a strong finish!  I hope you enjoy our ASMR lumpia experience! All in all a fantastic day.  We kept it under $60 for this tasting adventure, and believe it or not, all 5 of us got pretty full off of that small expenditure!  Special thanks to Ben who dropped us off and picked us up at each location! There's no way we would have made it if we had to park each time.  Also special thanks to ALEXA!  Alexa did some fantastic research and presented her facts like an absolute pro!  Mandy did our photography, and Elaine did a lot of the ordering (and paying) for us!  It was truly a team effort!!! I hope you enjoy this episode.  Let me know if you want us to try any restaurants in the Bay Area, the team is definitely ready to head out again! As I always mention, you can write to us at: ⁠infatuasianpodcast@gmail.com⁠, and please follow us on Instagram and Facebook @infatuasianpodcast  Our Theme: “Super Happy J-Pop Fun-Time” by Prismic Studios was arranged and performed by All Arms Around  Cover Art and Logo designed by Justin Chuan @w.a.h.w (We Are Half the World) #sanfranciscofood #foodcrawl #asianpodcast #asian #asianamerican #infatuasian #infatuasianpodcast #aapi #veryasian  #asianamericanpodcaster #representationmatters

Today's recipe is Beef Tenderloin With Gravy.Here are the links to some of the items I talked about in this episode: #adCutting BoardChef's KnifeMeasuring SpoonsCooking TwineRoasting PanProbe ThermometerSaucepanMeasuring CupAll New Chicken CookbookHere's the Recipe Of The Day page with all of our recipe links.If you want to make sure that you always find out what today's recipe is, do one or all of the following:Subscribe to the Podcast,Join the ROTD Facebook Group hereHave a great day! -Christine xo

In this episode we go way back to the early 1900's to meet a California beauty named Emma LeDoux, recount the shocking murder and 'scandals' she became famous for, and in his corner Arthur explains how he knew he was trans and we give some love and shoutouts to members of the Fam who have either helped us or are having a rough go of it.  So join us as we go VERY old school true crime as we discuss Emma LeDoux!  Let's Learn Something!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/family-plot--4670465/support.

Roz shivers into November as listeners call in to share their petrifying real life experiences with the paranormal! Meesh's old Tenderloin apartment came with a ghost pervert (it still gives her chills!), StormMiguel's psychic dreams all came true, and Margaret didn't expect to meet the ghost of Anne Boleyn—what a name dropper! Want to share YOUR paranormal experience on the podcast? Email your *short* stories to GhostedByRoz@gmail.com and maybe Roz will read it out loud on the show... or even call you! Be sure to follow the show @GhostedByRoz on Instagram. Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/3WwYCsr Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Lezak is a rabbi who spends most of his time in service, shoulder to shoulder with some of America's poorest citizens in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, living his faith day to day. He also leads pilgrimages from SF to Montgomery, Alabama to see Bryan Stevenson's incredible memorial there and still manages to take a 25 hour break from technology every week. He and Kelly talk about how his devotion to his practice of Judaism enriches his life on the deepest level. Special thanks to the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, our production partner on the Belief series. Please subscribe, rate and review us wherever you listen to podcasts! We read and appreciate every review. Join Kelly on Instagram @kellycorrigan. (Originally aired on 10/5/2021) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mark Farrell was born and raised in San Francisco, and now he wants to be the city's mayor…again. Farrell served as mayor for six months in 2018, completing the term of Mayor Ed Lee who died unexpectedly in office. Farrell contends that the city has been on a downward spiral since his short tenure: on the campaign trail, he paints a city in decline, plagued by homelessness, a lack of public safety, and a situation in the Tenderloin so dire it requires intervention by the National Guard. A two-term former supervisor for District 2, Farrell argues that his past experience and moderate politics are what San Francisco needs at this moment. We talk to Farrell as part of our series of interviews with the five major candidates in the San Francisco mayoral race. Guests: Mark Farrell, former mayor, San Francisco

"Brothers in recovery" Matt Dorsey (an ex-SFPD staffer turned politician) and Tom Wolf (the rightwing influencer who said the impending closure of a Macy's store was "San Francisco's 9/11") are examples of how conservatives are using their drug rehab journeys to prop up the war on drug users. With enemies like Tom Wolf, rightwing lobbyist Christopher Rufo, and conservative misinformation machine PragerU, our guest, Tenderloin-based writer Lea McGeever, must be doing something right. Lea: Substack: https://leftylea.substack.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leftylea_in_sf/  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@leftylea?lang=en    Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco  

Del Seymour, a former homeless addict known as the "mayor of the Tenderloin," and his biographer, Alison Owings, offer a raw, street-level view of San Francisco's most notorious neighborhood. Seymour, the subject of Owings' book, "Mayor of the Tenderloin," pulls no punches, exposing the paradoxical allure of homelessness and the failings of well-meaning nonprofits. His insights challenge conventional wisdom about addiction and urban poverty, while his Tenderloin walking tours and Code Tenderloin jobs programs demonstrate his enduring hope. 

Frank Solomon (@franksolomon) is one of the most well-liked people I've ever met. Every country has a couch for him to crash on, random encounters turn into lifelong friendships, and for some reason that science still can't explain, meals are always “compliments of the chef.” He's just one of those guys. Frank is a talented big wave charger, Patagonia Surf Ambassador, and now founder of Sentinel Ocean Alliance, a Cape Town-based non-profit that teaches lifesaving skills and ocean education to underprivileged kids. In this episode, we chatted about early big wave sessions at his home break, Dungeons, traveling to Mavericks and getting stuck in a youth hostel in the Tenderloin, and why growing up in South Africa offers a more honest perspective on life. If you dig this podcast, will you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts? It takes less than 60 seconds and makes a difference when I drop to my knees and beg hard-to-get guests on the show. I read them all. You can join my newsletter on Substack. It's glorious.  Get full access to Kyle Thiermann at thiermann.substack.com/subscribe