Muni Diaries

Chris Arvin is a familiar face at Muni Diaries Live after years of selling their whimsical Transit Supply wares, giving witty presentations on Muni's history and its famous boat tram, and hosting interactive transit trivia. But how does a kid from a New Hampshire suburb become a San Francisco transit microcelebrity? At our 2025 Wayfinding Show, Chris took the stage to tell us: how learning about the transit service we lost led to fighting for what we still have, how an online following of transit enthusiasts led to real life community, and how that community powered a scrappy but mighty fight for transit funding. For Chris, Muni has truly been the friends they made along the way.

Muni is the backdrop for so much of our lives, but few of us have documented its familiar presence over years of personal change as vividly as photojournalist Jessica Christian. Trains and buses doubled as transportation and a training ground for Jessica as she developed her eye for "photography that makes you feel something"—first as a student, then a budding photographer, and later as a San Francisco Chronicle photojournalist. Jessica joined us at our Wayfinding Show in 2025 to share the stories behind some of her favorite photographs she's made on Muni and how it helped her find her way as a photographer.

You can follow along with the photos in Jessica's story at munidiaries.com/2026/06/15/muni-through-jessica-christians-lens/.

Like so many Muni riders, comedienne Julia Jackson has perfected the art of sizing up her fellow bus passengers in a glance, and she takes more than a little satisfaction in how often her assessments turn out to be right. But she worries about the distance her snap judgments can create between her and other riders, and she knows firsthand how isolating it feels to be on the receiving end. It's the times when she's wrong about a stranger on the bus—or they're wrong about her—that the magic happens.

Julia had us laughing at our Wayfinding Show in 2025 as she recounted some of her favorite "terminator scan" misfires on Muni, and how they brought her closer to her fellow riders.

One day in 2013, Luisa Isbell—newly minted San Franciscan and tech worker—found herself on the wrong side of a stranger's crisis on the 19 Polk, and went from enthusiastic bus rider to bus avoider. Trading freedom for safety seemed logical after such a scary encounter, but several years of gloomy commutes and thousands of dollars in parking fines later, something had to give.

Now Luisa finds herself working with struggling San Franciscans like that bus passenger every day. She joined us at our Wayfinding Show in 2025 to share her winding journey from tech worker to social worker and stand-up comic, from reluctant car owner back to Muni rider, and what she learned about herself and those struggling at the margins of our city along the way.

We all know the feeling of sitting down on the J Church or the 38 Geary after an especially hard day and wishing we could just disappear into that red seat, alone with our misery, not smushed between 30 strangers. Other times, public transit surrounds us with our fellow riders when we need them the most.

At our Wayfinding Show in April 2025, writer and performer Roman Rimer shared a moving reflection on the realities of navigating life as a trans man in the Bay Area. Roman has watched the city change, made connections and lost them, and grieved more than his fair share—often on the bus. But one thing hasn't changed: Muni always picks him up when he needs it.

Dewayne Deams was born and raised in San Francisco and caught the transit bug early. You might say it's in his blood: his great-grandfather Curtis E. Green was the General Manager of Muni—the first Black GM of a major U.S. transit agency—and both of his parents worked for Muni, too. But despite his own deep knowledge and love of Muni, Dewayne was determined to take the track less traveled.

In this first installment from our Wayfinding Show in April, Dewayne shares how he learned to embrace his longtime status among friends and coworkers as chief navigator and resident transit expert and how it serves him today in his role as a BART operator.

This is the final installment from our pop-up story booth at the San Francisco Public Libary's 2024 Night of Ideas! In this episode, we share a selection of bite-sized stories from everyday Muni riders about whimsical transit rides they've taken in our beloved San Francisco.

Check out Part 1—Everyday Heroes on the Bus (ep. 152) and Part 2—The Friends We Made along the Way (ep. 155) for more short stories from that evening. And if you have your own whimsical bus story to share, be sure to follow us on Instagram at @munidiaries to hear about future podcast pop-ups around the city!

Meaghan Mitchell returned to the Muni Diaries stage at our "Thank You, Driver" show with a loving tribute to her dad, 35-year Muni veteran Ronald Mitchell. She shares what it was like being raised by a Muni driver in '90s San Francisco, and what makes Muni more than a transit agency—and then invites Ronald to join her on stage.

Meaghan and Ronald remind us that our Muni operators are human, that they have families, and that they're on the front lines of our city's biggest challenges every day. And they ask us to keep on loving and riding Muni: as Ronald says, "There's nothing like the Municipal Railway."

Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss any of our true stories from everyday bus riders! Have a Muni story you'd like to share? Email us your pitch at [email protected].

Getting stuck on a stalled Muni train is every rider's worst nightmare. But what's it like being one of the mechanics with the daunting task of getting that train and its frustrated riders moving again?

Rory O'Neill understands both sides of that coin. He spent many years working as a mechanic on the mobile response unit and the emergency response unit for Muni's light rail fleet—and he's also an every-day Muni rider.

Now the supervisor of the Maintenance Training Department, Rory joined us at Muni Diaries Live and gave us a glimpse into the oft-overlooked world of Muni's vehicle mechanics and maintenance workers. Rory reminds us just how many people get us where we need to go every day, whether we see them or not. "In the end, that's what we do, right? We move people."

Back in March 2024, Muni Diaries had the pleasure of attending the Night of Ideas, a program organized by the San Francisco Public Library. This installment paid homage to our favorite transit system, and we'd be remiss if we didn't tap into the wealth of Muni-riffic experiences (good, bad, great, somewhere in between) for our popup story booth. It was a huge success. We collected so many stories, which we've curated for your listening enjoyment. This is the second in our series from that evening; hit up Ep. 152 for Part 1, Everyday Heroes on the Bus.