Storied: San Francisco
A weekly podcast about the artists, activists, and small businesses that make San Francisco so special.
- Update frequency
- every 5 days
- Average duration
- 26 minutes
- Episodes
- 548
- Years Active
- 2017 - 2025
S3E22, Part 1: Nico Schwieterman on Her Small-Town Ohio Upbringing
Coldwater, OH, has seven stoplights, by Nico Schwieterman's last count.
In this podcast, Nico, who opened and owns Fleet Wood in the Tenderloin, shares stories of growing up in the small town of Cold…
Special: Uncle Damien on Racism, San Francisco, and the Uprising
One of Uncle Damien Posey's favorite things to tell people is that he's "not a role model, he's a real model."
We checked in with our Season 2, Episode 38 storyteller last week to see how he's doing …
Special: Chloe Jackman on a Mixed-Race Life and the Current Uprising
In this special episode, S2E49 storyteller Chloe Jackman shares her perspectives on race and the current uprising for racial justice. The daughter of a Black man and a white woman, she was often made…
S3E21, Part 2: Thea Matthews on Her Poetry and the Uprising
Thea Matthews is a powerful poet. In this podcast, Thea picks up where she left off in Part 1, talking about the early days of her writing and performing poetry. She helped established the Black Stu…
S3E21, Part 1: Thea Matthews on The City, Her Art, and Her Blackness
Poet, activist, and scholar Thea Matthews grew up in the Excelsior, which to this day is still a largely ungentrified, working-class neighborhood in San Francisco.
In this podcast, Thea talks about g…
Special: William Rhodes on Being a Black Artist in San Francisco
In this special episode, we listen to artist William Rhodes talk about his arrival in San Francisco back in 2008. It wasn't exactly the city he had imagined. Together with other Black artists here, h…
S3E20, Part 2: Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez on Writing About The City
Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez dove head-first into a career in journalism in his hometown of San Francisco.
In this podcast, the young veteran reporter takes us through the later days of his time in City …
S3E20, Part 1: Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez on How He Got Into Journalism
Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez grew up in Cow Hollow, and he'd like you to know what that means.
In this podcast, the prolific San Francisco journalist tells the story of how his parents met (it involves h…
S3E19, Part 2: Hillary Ronen on Life as an Elected Official
In this podcast, District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen picks up where she left off in Part 1, talking about her work at La Raza Centro Legal in the Mission. She goes on a verbal tour of places in the M…
S3E19, Part 1: Hillary Ronen on Her Formative Years
In this podcast, District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen tells the story of how her parents, one from Israel, one from Milwaukee, met in Los Angeles, where she grew up. She went to college at UC San Dieg…
S3E18, Part 2: JoEllen Depakakibo on Opening Pinhole Coffee
In this podcast, JoEllen goes into detail about her various roles at Blue Bottle, including a brief stint in New York City. When she returned to San Francisco in 2012, she started formulating a busin…
S3E18, Part 1: Joellen Depakakibo's First Coffee Jobs
Remember when cafés had couches?
In this podcast, Pinhole Coffee owner Joellen Depakakibo walks us through her life growing up just outside of Chicago. She ended up going to college at DePaul and mov…
S3E17, Part 2: Ray Bair on Small Businesses and Owning Cheese Plus
Businesses often have contingency plans, but few if any could've prepared for COVID-19.
In this podcast, Ray Bair tells the story of how he came to own Cheese Plus, a beloved Russian Hill specialty f…
S3E17, Part 1: Ray Bair on His Farm Days and Time in Austin
From Kansas farms to Austin bands, Cheese Plus owner Ray Bair's life experiences span quite a broad spectrum.
In this podcast, Ray takes us back to the early '70s, when he'd spend summers on his gran…
S3E16, Part 2: Robin Galante on Her Art and the Outer Richmond
Living in San Francisco was never a foregone conclusion for Robin Galante. But growing up on the Peninsula, the city always held a certain allure for her.
In this podcast, Robin talks about her life …
S3E16, Part 1: Robin Galante on Her Peninsula Childhood
Growing up, Robin Galante felt she didn't fit in with kids in her neighborhood, and so she turned to her imagination at an early age.
In this podcast, Robin, who grew up on the Peninsula in Los Altos…
S3E15, Part 2: Marke Bieschke on His Life in San Francisco
Marke Bieschke arrived in San Francisco in the mid-'90s, got a place to live, and got the first of a couple of dotcom jobs. Those were the days ...
Today, Marke is the publisher and arts editor of 4…
S3E15, Part 1: Marke Bieschke's Upper-Midwest (and London) Youth
Marke Bieschke, who today is a member of the 17-person Stud Collective, which owns San Francisco's oldest gay nightclub, and is the publisher/arts editor of 48 Hills and legacy keeper of the SF Bay G…
E3S14, Part 2: Reverend Arnold Townsend on San Francisco, Redevelopment, and Housing
A girly magazine might've drawn Arnold Townsend to San Francisco, but what has kept him here for more than five decades goes much, much deeper than that.
In this podcast, Reverend Arnold tells the st…
S3E14, Part 1: Reverend Arnold Townsend's Early Life
To help elevate the voices and stories of Black San Franciscans, we are rerunning this episode.
Born in Phoenix in 1943 and raised in the all-black town of Rentiesville, Oklahoma, Arnold Townsend's f…