SF Weekly Podcast

On this week's episode of the SF Weekly Podcast we chat with our newest columnist, Stuart Schuffman — better known to many as Broke-Ass Stuart — and we discuss what is quite clearly the biggest party foul of the summer: Not getting the vaccine.

In addition to joining the SF Weekly team, Schuffman is also co-hosting a web series about the resilience of San Francisco businesses.

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This is why we can't have nice things. Just as Americans were finally beginning to truly let their guard down, mother nature and a fair amount of unvaccinated folks, joined forces to put our hot vax summer on hold.

But, in all seriousness, the delta variant is serious. It is more contagious than previous strains of the novel coronavirus, it is more deadly for the unvaccinated, and it is even causing so-called "breakthrough" cases of COVID-19 in those who have received the vaccine.

So, what are we to do? Well, none of us at SF Weekly is qualified to answer that question, so we called up Dr. George Rutherford from UCSF to get his take on the situation.

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As the Irish glam rock god once sang: The bars are back in town! (The bars are back in town!) One month after California's official unmasking, San Francisco just might be the safest place in the state, country, and even the world, to party... at least for now.

But as we hopefully, truthfully, for real this time, begin to put the pandemic in the rear view mirror, there is a question on every San Franciscan's mind: What's going to happen to all those parklets?

As of last week, the Board of Supervisors ruled they can stay and on this episode of the podcast we explore how they came to be and where they might be headed. Plus we run down some of the best albums of 2021 so far.

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As Donald Glover once said, "This is America (whoo!)." On this week's edition of the SF Weekly podcast, given that it's the Fourth of July and all, we are taking a look at how the United States Anti-Doping Agency caught Sha'Carri Richardson slipping (ugh) and how one Alameda County police officer be trippin' (double-ugh).

Happy Birthday, America. God... you're old.

On this week's episode of the SF Weekly podcast, contributor Saul Sugarman discusses how social media platforms like Instagram and Shopify are turbo-boosting the commercialization of Pride.

Also, Veronica Irwin and Benjamin Schneider talk about Mayor London Breed's promise to divert funds from the police department to help underserved youth of color — which didn't exactly pan out the way all the glowing headlines made it appear earlier this year.

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As Roger Daltrey once said: Meet the new boss! On this week's episode of the SF Weekly Podcast we get to know Carly Schwartz, the newly installed Editor in Chief of SF Weekly, the San Francisco Examiner, and the Nob Hill Gazette.

Carly shares her vision for reimagining three storied local media brands, gives us a rundown on the breadth of experience she brings to the table, and discusses the state of journalism today.

We'll also hear from SF Weekly contributor Veronica Irwin who discusses vaccine skepticism and hesitancy in the cannabis industry.

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Tell 'em where to goooooooooo! In the past 14 months, Oakland, Berkeley, and San Francisco have seen a surge in sideshows — much to the chagrin of the over 30 professional crowd (and especially dog owners).

Law enforcement and politicians have responded with measures aimed at shutting down the impromptu (and illegal) expressions of modern American car culture.

But what if there were another way? Staff writer Veronica Irwin joins us to discuss what she discovered when reporting this story. Hint: the most effective solution doesn't necessarily involve special task forces and punitive public policy.

Also: Kevin chastises Nick — reminding him how lucky he is to be alive after attempting his own sideshow maneuver back in his mid-20s.

This week on the podcast, staff writer Benjamin Schneider breaks down his most recent tome, which is focused on a plan to connect the 21-county NorCal "megaregion" by a network of trains.

Nick and Kevin also discuss the prospect of a Metalocalypse movie and try to figure out why all the burners are so mad.

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With each passing day, it’s becoming increasingly clear exactly how this pandemic will be brought to heel. The more people get vaccinated, the fewer cases of coronavirus we have. It really, hopefully, knock-on-wood, seems to be as simple as that.

With control of the pandemic in sight, it’s now time to re-focus on the other challenges facing San Francisco. The drug overdose epidemic, driven by the opioid fentanyl, is, by any reasonable measure, San Francisco’s gravest public health and safety threat. And it has never received the attention it deserves in the public eye. As SF Weekly staff writer Benjamin Schneider reports in this week's cover story, San Francisco went from being an exemplar in the field of drug overdose prevention, to an epicenter of America’s escalating overdose crisis in just a few short years. In his story, he describes how that happened, and what politicians and public health researchers say we should do about it.

It’s not as simple as giving everybody a vaccine.

We chose San Francisco street artist Calamity Fair to create this week’s cover art precisely because his work can be difficult to look at. His wheat paste collages — with "Weird Lady" being the most recognizable and ubiquitous — are gonzo, bug-eyed, brains-out affairs, which seem to be aimed at unsettling the viewer. They are menacing reminders of the surveillance state… a perpetually humming anxiety… what Hunter S. Thompson might have described as “The Fear.”

As the city continues to grapple with its epidemic of drug overdoses and death we take a hard, uncomfortable look at what this alpha opioid is doing to our streets and our people.

Caitlyn Jenner may be the highest profile challenger to Gov. Gavin Newsom, but she is far from the only one. On this week's episode we run down the list.

Also, Nick talks with Lily Sinkovitz about this week's cover story, "Journalism at San Quentin," which explores how San Quentin is becoming a model for prison journalism and what it might portend for the future of crime and punishment in America.

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