Del Seymour got interested in politics early in his life, in the 1960s in Chicago.

In this podcast, Del walks us through the early years of his life. He attended a Catholic school in Chicago and went to seminary to be a priest. But that didn't last long, and he soon joined the military as a medic.

After that, he moved to Los Angeles to get away from the snow and cold weather. Within his first year, he became a firefighter/paramedic with LAFD, one of the first several dozen in a program that was new at the time.

When he became a single parent, his sister in Oakland helped with his kids, and Del soon moved up to the Bay Area to be with them.

Del ends this episode with a strange twist, at least for this podcast.

Please join us Thursday for Part 2, when Del will describe his move to San Francisco and what he's done here since then, especially in and around the Tenderloin.

This podcast was produced in partnership with an exciting new project that launches today. It's called Represent Collaborative, and it's a storytelling platform that covers issues of racial and social justice.

We recorded this episode on Zoom during quarantine in San Francisco in August 2020.

Photography by Michelle Kilfeather