Sad Francisco

By Toshio MeronekSociety & Culture News Politics

Sad Francisco episodes

March 31, 2025 Quarterly Stream of Consciousness with Tofu and Toshio
A quick check-in where we look back at the longest three months in recent memory, with some notes on what's coming up.

Thanks to all our subscribers on Patreon; please join them at patreon.com/sadfrancisco
28 min
March 24, 2025 No Gay Rights, Only Queer Wrongs
Live from the Mission! A conversation between Deeg, Deni, Jemma and Lavelle recorded March 13, 2025 at 518 Valencia Street, steps away from the Death Star known as Manny's. A night of "tales of queer insurrection" where the audience heard the short and sweet versions of the histories of three longstanding Bay Area queer movement groups: Gay Shame, LAGAI Queer Insurrection!, and Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism!

Presented in collaboration with HALA Collective and Left in the Bay; thanks also to Clean Air Network.

Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

1 hr 5 min
March 17, 2025 City of Sensitive Frauds with Abe Woodliff and Mario Riveira
Mario Riveira and Abe Woodliff's first collaborative documentary, The City of Sensitive Frauds, premieres this week. Its topic: gentrifiers and how they homogenize cities.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71eCUCI9CpM

Abe on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/realbayareamemes/

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@abeisabadwriter

Twitter: https://x.com/HeLLaTaLL510

Mario on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mario0o0o0o0o0o

Tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@mario0o0o0o0o0o

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@mario0o0o0o0o

Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

36 min
March 10, 2025 Histories of Hupa Resistance with Stephanie Lumsden
Stephanie Lumsden is a scholar in Feminist and Native American Studies, currently teaching at UC Davis. She tells the story of a gang of Hupa tribe resistance fighters in 1860s California that included Curly-Headed Tom, who wreaked havoc on the area's settlers. Elsewhere in the conversation: the 'bad' vs. 'good Indian' dichotomy, and the concept of 'revenge' as anti-colonial resistance.

stephanielumsden.com=
24 min
March 03, 2025 Against Signal Culture with Jemma and Ralowe
Signal (the phone app) has become an obligatory download for every organizer on the Left in the US. But it was funded through one of the American government's propaganda agencies, and the atmosphere it creates is one of a neverending meeting permeated by paranoia. Epic conversation, care of Jemma DeCristo and Ralowe Ampu.

LAGAI—Queer Insurrection! [https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/OTIxNTJmOWUtMDAxZi00YjgxLWExZGMtZDJlMzBjN2M0OWMx?view=apps&sort=popularity]

Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (QUIT!) [https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/NDI2Y2VjYTItMjcwNi00MjQ5LWFkZTMtZmQyMjE2YjdjMjQ2?view=apps&sort=popularity]

Ruth Wilson Gilmore, scholar recently on Sad Francisco [https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/NjQwMzVkZGUtMzU4MC00YjdkLWI5N2MtNzk2MjdmZWM2YjJk]

SFPD racist texting scandal, 2015 edition [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/26/san-francisco-police-officers-racist-text-messages-jason-lai]

Mentioned in the introduction:

"Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet" by Yasha Levine [https://sfpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S93C3541049]

"Cloudflare Issue Can Leak Chat App Users' Broad Location" (Joseph Cox, 404 Media) [https://www.404media.co/cloudflare-issue-can-leak-chat-app-users-broad-location]

Past episodes with Jemma: "The Twitter Tax Break: How AOC West Sold Out SoMa" [https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/MTUxODQwOGEtNDZhYy00YWQ2LWJlZjMtODdiZmNjYmE3OGM2?view=apps&sort=popularity] "Is the Transgender District a Force for Liberation or Gentrification?" [https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/YmEyM2FiYzktYTA5OC00ODJkLWE4NjktZTY5YzA3MzlkYTAz?view=apps&sort=popularity] "Trans Black-Palestinian Solidarities" [https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/NmYwYTkxYmEtYmYxNS00ZTQxLTk1OWItMzZjNDY3YWMwZDRm?view=apps&sort=popularity]

And Ralowe: [https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/MmIyMmJiYTgtYjMxZS00MGJjLWFjYTctMTYwOTU1YmQ0YmNl?view=apps&sort=popularity]

Referenced:

"Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet" by Yasha Levine [https://sfpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S93C3541049] "Cloudflare Issue Can Leak Chat App Users' Broad Location" (Joseph Cox, 404 Media) [https://www.404media.co/cloudflare-issue-can-leak-chat-app-users-broad-location] Past episodes with Jemma: "The Twitter Tax Break: How AOC West Sold Out SoMa" [https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/MTUxODQwOGEtNDZhYy00YWQ2LWJlZjMtODdiZmNjYmE3OGM2?view=apps&sort=popularity] "Is the Transgender District a Force for Liberation or Gentrification?" [https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/YmEyM2FiYzktYTA5OC00ODJkLWE4NjktZTY5YzA3MzlkYTAz?view=apps&sort=popularity] "Trans Black-Palestinian Solidarities" [https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/NmYwYTkxYmEtYmYxNS00ZTQxLTk1OWItMzZjNDY3YWMwZDRm?view=apps&sort=popularity]

And Ralowe: [https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/MmIyMmJiYTgtYjMxZS00MGJjLWFjYTctMTYwOTU1YmQ0YmNl?view=apps&sort=popularity]

Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

1 hr 14 min
February 24, 2025 Falun Gong and the Chinese Right's Anti-Trans, Anti-Communist Moral Panics with Chris Lee
Chris Lee studies the emergent Asian and Asian American rightwing in the US, including forces like the Falun Gong cult. We discuss the FLG and its flagship soft power campaigns that include the Shen Yun dance company and the Epoch Times newspaper—and how it's part of a larger effort to sow anti-communist, anti-trans sentiment in the US.

Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

40 min
February 17, 2025 Radical Demands Only On Anarchism with Margaret Killjoy
Margaret Killjoy on coming out as an anarchist, why anarchist history is so hidden, and the importance of deescalating conflict that isn't with the enemy (and more).

Margaret's Substack [https://substack.com/@margaretkilljoy] has her essay "The Sky is Falling; We've Got This" [https://margaretkilljoy.substack.com/p/the-sky-is-falling-weve-got-this]

Marget on BlueSky [https://bsky.app/profile/margaret.bsky.social] | Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/margaretkilljoy] | Twitter [https://x.com/magpiekilljoy]

Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

39 min
February 10, 2025 Ruth Wilson and Craig Gilmore on Prisons and Neoliberalism
Two founders of the prison abolition movement—renowned thinkers and doers Craig and Ruth Wilson Gilmore—speak on the prison industrial complex's California roots. Also discussed: Why focusing on closing private prisons is too narrow a vision, and Gavin Newsom's campaign to put a kinder, gentler face on mass incarceration via the medicalization of imprisonment (eg. increasing conservatorship, forced rehab, and slapping the words "Rehabilitation Center" on San Quentin).

Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

49 min
February 03, 2025 Zionist Repression at San Jose State and GLIDE Church with Sang Hea Kil and G
It started when San Jose State University's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office sponsored a visit from CSU's premier Zionist. Sang Hea Kil describes the repression she experienced as the only faculty member who joined an encampment of Muslim students in solidarity with Palestine last year at the school.

Later in the episode, G, a former worker at GLIDE Church (a San Francisco nonprofit where the head of "Social Justice" is a Zionist rabbi), speaks about explicit and implicit Zionist bias at progressive nonprofits.

Sang's piece in Radical Teacher: "Islamophobia, Dirty Water Tactics, and Student Encampments for Gaza": https://radicalteacher.library.pitt.edu/ojs/radicalteacher/article/view/1310

Sang on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sangheakil/

G on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gay13/

Episodes mentioned:

How South African Solidarity Encampments Worked f/ Matt Ray and Matt Wranovics (Left in the Bay): https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/YmVmZmIxY2QtYzg4Ny00OTliLWJmZGYtMjVkOTM1MjYwNWJj

Can't Hide a Genocide f/ Dylan Rodriguez and Loubna Qutami: https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/ZmVhOGRjMDYtMmVjOS00NmM4LThmZDktN2JmYjQxMTk0Yjc4

Debt is a Threat to Liberation f/ Maddy Clifford (Debt Collective): https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/MjdhNWQzNmMtNTg4My00NDkwLWIyMmItZmE4NzkwN2RkYzAx

Should Social Movement Work Be Paid? with Dean Spade: [https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/ZmY5YTNkMTUtOTkzNC00YTBjLTk0NDQtMzNkOTliY2EzMDdk

Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

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1 hr 16 min
January 27, 2025 Waymos Aren't Asian with Jasmine Lee Ehrhardt
A crowd of people set fire to a robotaxi last Lunar New Year in San Francisco's Chinatown. Jasmine explains how Asian American influencers and corporate media outlets used the "death" of a Waymo "self-driving" vehicle to stoke fear about anti-Asian violence.

Fundraiser for Yazan in Gaza [https://chuffed.org/project/115145-yazan]

Write to Casey Goonan [https://www.abcf.net/blog/update-on-casey-goonans-legal-case]

LA Public Press Podcast: https://lapublicpress.org/the-tenant-association/

Episode referenced:

Dylan Rodriguez on Zionists and Counterinsurgency in Stop Asian Hate [https://www.patreon.com/posts/zionists-and-in-103600189]

Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

49 min