Muni Diaries

Meaghan Mitchell is a native San Franciscan and news editor at Hoodline, which you can imagine gives her tons of local cred. Meaghan shares a story of one really hard day at school and how it brought her to Muni.

And podcast listeners: we will be at the Betabrand Podcast Theater on Thursday, March 7 at 7p.m. to tape our first episode with a live audience! If you'd like to be in our audience, make sure you get a ticket (only $5!) by going to MuniDiaries.com.

Green Apple Books is one of the most beloved bookstores in San Francisco, and a mainstay on Clement Street (and now also in the Inner Sunset). Founded in 1967, the bookstore is now owned by three of its employees. We invited co-owner Pete Mulvihill to the San Francisco Diaries podcast studio to share how he went from being a young book lover working at this iconic shop to being its owner. You can follow Green Apple Books on Twitter @greenapplebooks, and be sure to visit the store on 506 Clement Street.

Got your own favorite San Francisco spot with a rich history? Send us your own tale of the city by emailing us at [email protected]!

Storyteller Nuala Sawyer was having a terrible year in San Francisco. One of those times in your life when you just think things couldn't get any worse. Then, a man on Muni shared a vulnerable moment with her that changed her perspective.

Nuala is the news editor at SF Weekly. She writes about a little bit of everything: City Hall, the courts, homelessness, immigration, housing, crime and of course, transportation.

You can follow her on Twitter at @TheBestNuala, or hear her on Rollover Easy Thursday mornings at bff.fm.

If you have a story to share on and off the bus, we want to know! You can submit your own diary to the Muni Diaries podcast by emailing us at [email protected], or tag us @munidiaries on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.

Storyteller Irene McCalphin has often experienced the invasion of personal space on public transit, but this one time she decided enough was enough, and she was going to take up the space she deserves.

As co-founder and massage therapist of A Sovereign Embodiment Healing Collective and Board-member of the Body Political, Irene blends magic with massage, storytelling and performance art to liberate, heal and reclaim space for marginalized community. They're currently working on a book and facilitating the creation a healing and retreat space for queer femmes in Grass Valley, CA. You can find her writing on MammyIsDead.com.

You can also see Irene's first Muni Diaries entry involving a burrito as deterrent for pickup artists.

Got your own Muni or San Francisco story to contribute? Email us at [email protected]! And remember to subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an episode!

Storyteller Baruch Porras-Hernandez is a writer, performer, host, storyteller, and regular KQED community events host based in San Francisco. He is a Lambda Literary Fellow in Poetry and regularly organizes poetry shows in the Bay Area. In today's story, Baruch shares an exchange that he had with a visitor while working at one of the longest running gay sex clubs in San Francisco. Upon realizing that the visitor was having a hard time in our city, Baruch encourages him give San Francisco a second try.

Please note that this story has themes about suicide if this topic may be triggering for you. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress, prevention and crisis resources for you or your loved ones, and best practices for professionals: 1-800-273-8255.

Today's story is from Luke and Chris, who you might know as Sequoia and the Early Bird on the radio show, Rollover Easy on BFF.FM.

Rollover Easy is a morning radio show that has a "healthy dose of positive news, banter, and interviews with interesting San Francisco locals." Luke and Chris are up every Thursday morning at 8 a.m. to report on and chat with locals over coffee.

In this episode, Luke and Chris shares how their mutual love for Herb Caen led to an art project on Market Street. With little construction experience, these two San Francisco lovers were determined to make Herb Caen's writing come alive to pedestrians on Market Street.

Got a San Francisco diary you'd like to share? Email us at [email protected] to submit your own!

If you've been to our live shows, you know the highlight of every show is The Muni Haiku Battle. It's a Muni-themed poetry throw down and we've had some pretty intense battle on stage of the 5-7-5 variety.

In this episode we have our reigning champion Alexandria Love and challenger Jessica Cohen from our 10th anniversary show this April at the Elbo Room. Jessica is an illustrator, an infrequent performer/fortune teller. Jessica grew up in the East bay and went to college in San Francisco. Reigning champion Alexandria is a writer from Oakland and also the current reigning champion of the Dirty Haiku Battle at Oakland's Tourette's Without Regrets.

You can see our next Muni Haiku Battle at our fall show: Muni Diaries Live, Nov. 3, 2018 at the Elbo Room (tickets).

In this episode, storyteller Louis Evans shares a story of one seemingly uneventful day when he was leaving the underground parking lot at Civic Center, only to find out that there's an active shooter situation above him.

Louis is the host of the new literary event, Cliterary Salon. Cliterary Salon is a show of rowdy, original stories about female sexual pleasure or feminism or anything in that umbrella, bringing a spirit of fun sexuality to a literary scene that's traditionally been focused on cis male experience.

Storyteller Thea Selby has lived in the Lower Haight since 1999. She's a mom, a member of the City College of San Francisco's Board of Trustees, and, as you'll learn in this episode, a tireless advocate for the art that has defined her neighborhood for decades.

Listen up as Thea walks us through the tumultuous history behind the Love in the Lower Haight mural project

When City Arts and Lectures call you to be the backup for your favorite writer, you clear your calendar right away. In this episode, storyteller Judson True recalls that one fortunate phone call in 2001, right after 9/11, when he was called to be the backup interviewer for Scott Shafer. The subject? His favorite writer, Joan Didion.

Judson is currently the chief of staff for state assemblyman David Chiu. Before that, he was once the spokesperson for the SFMTA, a job that probably no one envies. You can find him on Twitter at @judsontrue.