​Ed. note: As with Part 1 of Larry's episode, a reminder that we recorded under the BART tracks, so we took pauses when trains passed by overhead. We left that audio in the final edit and we hope you enjoy.

In this podcast, Larry picks up where he left off in Part 1. He talks about going to Lowell High School in The City and then Academy of Art University, where he first got to know people very unlike himself.

In his high school days, Larry had started to question things he was into as well as stereotypes of Black young men such as himself. He took some acting and movies courses at AAU and then went on to actual theater school. But Larry didn't wanna be an actor.

A chance ride one day turned out to be fortuitous. He got an in at The Punchline.

As he was coming up in comedy, as he puts it, he "disappeared from the world" to hone his craft. It was around this time that he also got an internship at KMEL.

Larry traces his activism to his time at City College. He worked with Black Lives Matter, various Black student unions around The City, fed houseless folks. He makes light of his activist work, but ties it back to his comedy. He shares stories of some of his first times on the comedy stage.

He lets us know about his 101-year plan. 2020 being 2020 threw things off a little, but thanks to his week-by-week plan, Larry was able to pivot. And he ends the podcast sharing his hopes for San Francisco to get its soul back through culture and youth and how he wants to focus on reparations.

Follow Larry on social media @larrydorseyjr

We recorded this podcast at Cayuga Park under the BART tracks in April 2021.

Photography by Michelle Kilfeather

Ed. note: This one is special for a couple reasons. First, Larry blew us away with his kindness, energy, and knowledge. Also, we recorded under the BART tracks, so we took pauses when trains passed by overhead. We decided to leave that audio in the final edit because, well, it was part of the experience that day. We hope you enjoy. ​ Larry Dorsey, Jr.'s parents came to the Bay Area from the South and South America.

In this podcast, the SF born-and-raised comedian and radio personality shares the story of his parents' migration to San Francisco. His dad played football in the NFL before his move west; Larry's mom, a lawyer, left her home country of Colombia because of political reasons.

They arrived in Oakland separately and met at SF State. Larry is their first-born, one of two sons. Larry has vague memories of his first years on Earth, which he shares with us. One is a pretty hilarious (and hilariously cute) playground-type story.

Larry tells us what it was like to go to a "hippy" elementary, and then contrasts that with his time at Aptos Junior High. But he also spent many school lunchtimes in the library. His curiosity and pursuit of knowledge was just getting started. He ended up at Lowell, during a time when he started getting into "a lot of trouble."

Larry wraps up Part 1 sharing the first time he got in trouble with a cop.

Join us Thursday for Part 2 and the continuation of Larry Dorsey, Jr.'s story.

Related Podcast Arthur Gaus, Part 1 and Part 2

We recorded this podcast at Cayuga Park in April 2021.

Photography by Michelle Kilfeather

Marcia Gagliardi could've ended up in LA. In fact, if it weren't for the 1994 Northridge earthquake, there might be no Tablehopper.

In this podcast, Marcia picks up where she left off in Part 1. She came back to the Bay Area and found a place in the Western Addition (where she still lives today!). She chronicles various jobs at design firms before the 2000 "dotbomb." Not long after that, she started Tablehopper.

We asked Marcia to name three of her favorite San Francisco bars or restaurants in 2006 when she launched her newsletter.

Then Marcia tells us how she got started in 2018 doing My Milligram, a media brand featuring reviews of low-dose and high-quality cannabis products made in California.

She ends the podcast with her outlook on San Francisco in the near future.

We recorded this podcast at an apartment in the Western Addition in April 2021.

Photography by Michelle Kilfeather

Marcia Gagliardi's family used to own a pizzeria and Italian deli in the Sierra foothills.

In this podcast, the Tablehopper creator and author goes a couple generations back to trace her family's story and how they ended up in Northern California. Her Italian grandparents went back to their homeland shortly before Marcia was born, but we'll get back to that.

Marcia grew up on the Peninsula, one of two daughters for the Gagliardis. She recounts what that experience was like for her, and shares the story of the time she spent in Italy during college. It was at a Christmas dinner there that she discovered just how diligently her dad had kept up their Italian customs in California.

She talks about family's move to the foothills and back and shares how she and a friend would drive up to The City and arrange deals for their high school classmates, long before the internet. Marcia ends Part 1 with the story of her year in Venice and her return home to finish college at UCLA.

​Please check back Thursday for Part 2, when Marcia will tell us how she got started doing Tablehopper, and later, MyMilligram.

Related Podcasts Laura Meyer's Wedge of Parmesan

We recorded this podcast at an apartment in the Western Addition in April 2021.

Photography by Michelle Kilfeather

In this podcast, Matt picks up where he left off in Part 1, with his involuntary foray into placing temp workers. Turns out, he loved the job.

He moved around from job to job over the next few years, but returned to thank the person who pushed him into this new career.

A trip to Paris led, in a very roundabout way, to Matt starting his own French recruiting firm. With that, he moved to Europe and lived there for the next 11 years, while keeping his place (and job) here the Bay Area.

Jumping back a bit, Matt describes meeting Sister Roma shortly after he moved up to San Francisco. Then we fast-forward to Matt's return from Paris to Glendale to help care for his ailing father. After his dad passed away and his marriage broke up, Matt moved back to The City.

After trying unsuccessfully to buy an Italian restaurant in the Castro, he and his chef partner went in search of a new place of their own. Matt closed escrow on the spot where Roma's is on March 16, 2020.* He describes how, in light of the quarantine order, he shifted his business approach—he added an Italian market to the restaurant he had already established.

Matt is quick to point out what a communal effort it was to get the place off the ground. Please visit their website for more info, including their "Roma's Drag Deliveries" on Wednesdays.

He ends this podcast looking into the future, both for his business and for San Francisco.

* the date that San Francisco's shelter-in-place order went into effect.

We recorded this podcast at Roma's Ristorante Italiano in South of Market in April 2021.

Photography by Michelle Kilfeather

Matt Leum has more friends from his school days now than he did back then.

Matt grew up in Glendale, a suburb north of LA. His family's swimming pool was the only one on that block.

His dad owned a chain of supermarkets in the greater Los Angeles area. His parents met at the flagship store of that chain back when it was just a corner market. Matt grew up the youngest of six; his younger brother died at 4.

In the podcast, he shares stories of his mom's bad-assery as we dive into her history quite a bit, including her French and Inuit parents.

After college in Santa Barbara, Matt sent an unsolicited letter to a law firm in San Francisco asking about jobs, and got offered work as a response.

Please check back Thursday for Part 2, when Matt will tell us all about opening his restaurant in The City during the pandemic.

We recorded this podcast at Roma's Ristorante Italiano in South of Market in April 2021.

Photography by Michelle Kilfeather 

In this episode, Morris picks up where he left off in Part 1, sharing some of the pot edibles he was making with a friend. This was back when California had legalized medicinal marijuana, but not yet recreational. And the US government, as they still do to this day, more than frowned upon even this limited use.

Morris walks us through the evolution of his business, from a medicinal marijuana cultivation and delivery company known as "San Francisco Roots" through to what SF Roots is today—an equity cannabis company based right here in The City. He tells us about San Francisco's Cannabis Equity Program, whose stated goal is to "lower barriers to cannabis licensing to those hit hardest by the War on Drugs."

We chat about how COVID has impacted the business. And then Morris ends the episode with his take on the future of San Francisco.

Related PodcastsUncle Damien, Part 1 and Part 2

We recorded this podcast at SF Roots HQ in April 2021.

Photography by MIchelle Kilfeather

Morris Kelly's great-grandfather was a sharecropper who bought his own freedom.

In this podcast, Morris, who today owns SF Roots cannabis company, shares the story of how he came to grow up in The City. He chronicles the various schools he went to, talks about Muni rides to arcades and movie theaters all over town, and car rides with his grandparents on which they'd visit non-chain stores and restaurants.

He shares stories of leaving San Francisco—to visit family in Milwaukee, or to go to Baptist conventions in the South with his grandparents—and the lessons he learned on those trips.

Uninterested in conventional high school, Morris found Urban Pioneers—an outdoor program for students that got them out backpacking and exploring various spots around California.

Morris got out of high school and, as he puts it, went on to "goof off" at City College.

Related Podcast Ricky Rat, Part 1 and Part 2

We recorded this podcast at SF Roots HQ in April 2021.

Photography by Michelle Kilfeather

In this podcast, Alia picks up where she left off in Part 1, sharing stories of joining her mom on pot-brownie runs in The City in the late-'70s. She pivots from there to just a few years later, when Alia witnessed the devastation of AIDS first-hand. She also speaks of communities coming together around the epidemic to provide support for those who needed it.

We fast-forward to around 2000, when Alia began traveling in Europe for many years. While walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain, she began writing. She started a writing program but left that to spend some time in Cuba and later, different parts of South America.

She left her travels when her mom got ill. Spending time with her and recording would eventually lead to Alia's book, Home Baked, which she briefly discussed in Part 1 and which comes out on paperback next week. Look for it at your favorite local bookstore.

Alia shares the story of her and Kevin Hunsanger's (Season 2, Episode 10—links below) wedding, which is quite the San Francisco tale.

We end the podcast with Alia's thoughts on what's next for her hometown of San Francisco.

Related Podcasts Kevin Hunsanger Part 1 and Part 2

We recorded this podcast in Alia's backyard in April 2021.

Photography by Michelle Kilfeather

It isn't every episode that we get to learn more about the main character in a book. First of all, if you haven't already read Home Baked, Alia Volz's autobiography about her mom, her dad, and the pot brownie business they had in San Francisco in the 1970s, please do. In this podcast, Alia, who was born and raised amid that booming business four decades ago, dives deeper into her parents' stories, both individually and as a couple. As she does in her book, she sets the stage for her eventual arrival, back when her parents lived and cooked baked goods in a warehouse in the Mission. And then Alia wraps up Part 1 with the story of her birth. Related Podcast Alan Kaufman Part 1 and Part 2 We recorded this podcast outside of Alia's home in the Inner Richmond in April 2021.

Photography by Michelle Kilfeather