Sad Francisco

Uncover the lore of four masked comrades who meet up regularly to offer aid to unhoused neighbors and teach self-defense. We talk about the discourse around wearing frog costumes to ICE protests and giving public comment at San Jose City Hall dressed as Batman (that's the clip at the beginning of the episode). BASH Linktree https://linktr.ee/bayareasuperheroes BASH IG https://www.instagram.com/bayareasuperheroes Kai Kai's Linktree https://linktr.ee/kaikaibee Absolute Batman https://sfpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S93C7252448 Episode with Food Not Bombs co-founder Keith McHenry https://youtu.be/d3SmXWz1L38 Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco

Morgan Bassichis brought the 1977 queer cult fairy tale "The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions" back to print and stage a few years ago. Its messages about how to live under patriarchy feel extra prescient in 2026. The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions By Larry Mitchell and Ned Asta With essays by Morgan and Tourmaline https://nightboat.org/book/the-faggots-their-friends-between-revolutions/ Morgan's website https://www.morganbassichis.com/ Can I Be Frank? - Morgan's show, coming to New York this summer https://www.canibefrank.nyc/ Morgan's Instagram https://www.instagram.com/morgankindof/ Love in a F*cked-Up World Podcast (with Morgan and friend of the pod Dean Spade) https://www.youtube.com/@Dean_Spade/podcasts Episode: "Marsha P. Johnson Beyond Stonewall with Tourmaline" https://www.patreon.com/posts/marsha-p-johnson-129316368

Mama Ganuush is back home in San Francisco after hosting the first JAHA Film Festival in December in Lisbon. The festival features all trans-focused films from the Global South, and begins screening online starting this Friday, Feb. 14. JAHA Film Festival https://www.jahafilmfestival.com/ Trans Liberation Film School https://www.jahafilmfestival.com/transliberationfilmschool

Trung Nguyen teaches Asian American and ethnic studies at San Jose State. His presentation at the last American Studies Association conference covered how the interests of US empire, Airbnb.org, and refugee landlords market property ownership as a humanitarian act. Trung's site https://tpqn.org/ Iyko Day: The Yellow Plague and Romantic Anticapitalism (Monthly Review) https://monthlyreview.org/articles/the-yellow-plague-and-romantic-anticapitalism/ Eric Tang: Unsettled: Cambodian Refugees in the New York City Hyperghetto https://sfpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S93C3280280 BDS Movement's BDS Guide https://bdsmovement.net/Guide-to-BDS-Boycott Toshio's 2-minute explainer on Balaji Srinivasan's Network State https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8fRrpxF/ Related episodes: Urban Alchemy with Brooke Lober and Norma Azucar https://www.patreon.com/posts/urban-alchemys-f-109662919 Silicon Valley Imperialism with Erin McElroy https://www.patreon.com/posts/silicon-valley-f-103189183

"Meet the New Right-Wing Tech Intelligentsia" is Jimmy Wu's recent piece for Bay Area Current, a new publication covering labor, culture and politics based in East Bay. In it, Jimmy beautifully describes some of the aesthetics and icons preoccupying the tech elites and their media mouthpieces right now. "Meet the New Right-Wing Tech Intelligentsia" https://bayareacurrent.com/meet-the-new-right-wing-tech-intelligentsia/ Related: Soleil Ho on anti-poor influencer Michael Shellenberger https://www.patreon.com/posts/michael-thinks-f-97015564 The AI industry must be stopped, with Stop AI https://www.patreon.com/posts/end-agi-before-127632638 Garry Tan must be stopped, with Emily Mills https://www.patreon.com/posts/stop-garry-tan-90552668 Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco

In 2022, rightwing influencers began using the term "doom loop" to paint San Francisco as a crime- and fentanyl-ridden hellhole that whose downfall was due to too much woke progressivism. It didn't matter that the doom loop narrative wasn't based in reality: the media took it and ran with it. The narrative has since lost its resonance in San Francisco, but it's now being deployed in several other cities. Jeremy Mack is back to talk about the Phoenix Project's most recent report, "The Rise and Fall of the San Francisco Doom Loop." The Phoenix Project: Rise and Fall of the San Francisco Doom Loop https://www.phoenixprojectnow.com/doomloop-report SF Mayor Daniel Lurie celebrates Blackstone and private equity https://youtube.com/shorts/1MsExVGa5sY Andrew Cuomo's racist anti-Zohran Mamdani ad https://youtube.com/shorts/y4yqFFDD650 Related episodes: TogetherSF (RIP), with Jeremy https://www.patreon.com/posts/togethersf-wants-114226580 5 Rich Guys Trying to Buy the Bay, with Jeremy and Julie Pitta https://www.patreon.com/posts/5-rich-guys-to-f-104982980 Garry Tan, with Emily Mills https://www.patreon.com/posts/stop-garry-tan-90552668

Jenny Chan founded Pacific Atrocities Education in San Francisco after learning about some of Japan's terror campaigns across Asia through World War II. It's history that Japanese conservatives are trying to suppress. The Japanese Imperial Army's Unit 731 was the chemical and biological warfare facility that conducted experiments on about 14,000 people in China. None of those 14,000 survived, while the leaders of Unit 731 were granted immunity by the US in exchange for their "research." Pacific Atrocities Education https://www.pacificatrocities.org/ Podcast / YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/c/PacificFrontUntold Video: Rightwing Japanese nationalist Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi doesn't love politician Taro Yamamoto's suggestion that Japan is an American colony https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRE4Bm7EUoR/ Related episodes: Comfort Women part 1, with Judith Mirkinson from Comfort Women Justice Coalition https://www.patreon.com/posts/nationalism-vs-1-109743478 Comfort Women part 2, with Kota from Against Japanism https://www.patreon.com/posts/nationalism-vs-2-78561553 Nikkei Progressives, on how ICE detention compares to Japanese internment during WWII https://www.patreon.com/posts/internment-camps-109659819 Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco

Jemma DeCristo RETURNS! Her new book The Aesthetic Character of Blackness is out, and covers how revolutionary Black art is co-opted by capitalists and the state, and art's limits as a revolutionary tool (and it's widespread use as a counterinsurgent one). The Aesthetic Character of Blackness: Sounds Like Us (Duke University Press) https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-aesthetic-character-of-blackness Support Dahnoun Mutual Aid (Direct Support for People in Gazan) https://chuffed.org/project/115245-dahnoun-mutual-aid Previously: Jemma on the Transgender Cultural District https://www.patreon.com/posts/is-transgender-f-105793639 Jemma and Ralowe on the narrowness of Leftist organizing on (the app) Signal https://www.patreon.com/posts/against-signal-123358271 Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco

Janetta Johnson and zen blossom speak from the home base of Transgender, Gender Variant and Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP) in SF. They speak on Miss Major (who led TGIJP for years); the year Janetta turned down the SF Pride grand marshal title; and the status of the Bay Area's reputation for being a haven for trans people. TGI Justice Project https://tgijp.org Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex https://www.akpress.org/captivegenders.html Previous episodes mentioned: Rest in Peace Miss Major https://www.patreon.com/posts/rip-miss-major-142054390 Tourmaline on her biography of Marsha P. Johnson https://www.patreon.com/posts/marsha-p-johnson-129316368

Public universities are under constant threat of budget cuts, but somehow administrators find millions to toss at extractive tech, like ChatGPT Edu. SF State professor Martha Kenney describes how administrators at the CSUs spent $17 million on a contract with OpenAI without asking students or professors if it was a good idea—subsidizing an industry built on hype and plaigiarism. - Martha Kenney and Martha Lincoln: "Let Them Eat Large Language Models: Artificial Intelligence And Austerity In The Neoliberal University" https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/6z5pa_v1 MIT Study https://mlq.ai/media/quarterly_decks/v0.1_State_of_AI_in_Business_2025_Report.pdf Library of Babel Listserv https://lists.mayfirst.org/mailman/listinfo/assembly Episode with Stop AI https://www.patreon.com/posts/end-agi-before-127632638 Martha Lincoln: "It's Time to Pull the Plug on ChatGPT at Cal State" https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2025/11/25/chatgpt-poses-risk-student-mental-health-opinion Martha Lincoln on BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/heavyredaction.bsky.social - Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco

San Francisco tried to atone for the war on drugs with a DEI program for recreational weed store owners. In the end, the real winners were rich white dudes like London Breed's old roommate, Conor Johnston. Chris Roberts—America's top cannabis journalist and historian reporting from America's number-one cannabis producing region—returns. We go deep on his recent Chronicle piece detailing how it all went wrong. - "San Francisco's first 'equity' weed store was an epic failure. City Hall insiders may still pocket millions" sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/marijuana-weed-legal-shop-haight-21063653.php "White Weed Entrepreneurs Are Gaming Programs Meant to Help People of Color" (Chris for Vice) vice.com/en/article/white-weed-entrepreneurs-are-gaming-programs-meant-to-help-people-of-color/ Previous episode with Chris, on the radiation disaster at Hunter's Point patreon.com/posts/radiation-at-132819458 - Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco

dee(dee) c. ardan is live in the studio apartment for the first episode about trans/queer media from the Bay's past, showing that indeed, this place has been trans as hell for a long, long time. Starting with issue one of the 1970s zine GAY SUNSHINE, we deduce how the Bay gained a reputation for being the place you come to push the trans agenda and make life hell for conservatives. Gay Sunshine's first two issues, via UC Berkeley Library https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/121520 https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/121521 Shattered Glass reading group contact: essgeesquared@gmail - Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco

The Tenderloin in 1966: One of the earliest trans/queer actions (that we know of) against police and state violence happened at Compton's Cafeteria. Today, that space (111 Taylor Street) is occupied by Geo Group—otherwise known as the corporation that is America's number-one private prison and ICE profiteer. Zei Wilder is helping organize the local effort to get Geo Group out of San Francisco and turn the Compton's site into something that isn't evil. - Comptons x Coalition: comptonsxcoalition.net Demand Board of Supervisors Action Against Geo Group on November 6, 10 AM, SF City Hall Room 272: instagram.com/p/DPUQYewgdk4/ Episode with historian Susan Stryker, co-director of the Compton's documentary "Screaming Queens": patreon.com/posts/jail-at-comptons-79134233 - Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

For Major, who passed on October 13. Truthout piece https://truthout.org/articles/to-honor-miss-major-we-fight-for-the-trans-and-queer-spaces-she-built/ Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary https://sfpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S93C5592116 A more recent episode with filmmakers behind the documentary MAJOR!, StormMiguel Florez and Annalise Ophelian https://www.patreon.com/posts/trans-film-cis-130068888 MAJOR! (documentary) https://vimeo.com/ondemand/major Criminal Queers https://vimeo.com/221584005

This episode was recorded before the ceasefire deal went into effect on Oct. 10. Surprising no one, Israel has already broken its promises, continuing to kill Palestinians and withholding aid. UC Berkeley lecturer Peyrin Kao just ended a 38-day hunger strike to keep Palestine on the minds of people on campus and to raise money during Israel's US-backed starvation campaign. A few days before we spoke, UC Berkeley notified him that he was one of 160 people it had turned over to the Trump administration as college administrators cooperate with attacks on anyone who’s against the genocide. Berkeley EECS/STEM 4 Palestine Fundraiser tinyurl.com/be4pfundraiser Truthout: Peyrin interviewed by friend of the pod Brooke Lober https://truthout.org/articles/computer-science-lecturer-at-berkeley-is-on-day-36-of-his-hunger-strike-for-gaza/ Brooke’s episode on Bay2Gaza Mutual Aid https://www.patreon.com/posts/112157781 Dylan Rodriguez episode: Zionists and Counterinsurgency in Stop Asian Hate https://www.patreon.com/posts/103600189

Bench Ansfield is a professor in the History department at Temple University. Their book "Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City" covers how racial capitalism, political corruption, and the insurance industry created a world where landlords can profit more by burning their own buildings down than maintaining them. They were also part of the research team on the 2019 documentary "Decade of Fire". Bench Ansfield https://www.benchansfield.com Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City https://citylights.com/new-nonfiction-in-hardcover/born-in-flames-bronx-arson-1970s Decade of Fire https://decadeoffire.com Born in Flames (the film the book was named after) https://www.criterion.com/films/30707-born-in-flames Let the Fire Burn: documentary about MOVE’s infamous eviction in Philadelphia https://www.kanopy.com/en/product/let-fire-burn Recent episode on the fire at 22nd and Mission with Angelica https://www.patreon.com/posts/aftermath-of-at-135107521

Alexis Shotwell is a professor of gender and feminist studies and philosophy at Carleton University in Ottawa. She's also an anarchist organizer particularly interested in the anarchist fantasy and science fiction author Ursula K. LeGuin. Alexis's website https://www.alexisshotwell.com/ Punch Up Collective https://www.punchupcollective.org/ Episode with Deeg on LAGAI-Queer Insurrection! https://www.patreon.com/posts/lagai-queer-w-1-104043005 October 11: Sacramento Anarchist Book Fair https://itsgoingdown.org/announcing-the-third-annual-sacramento-anarchist-bookfair/ October 18: Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair https://www.instagram.com/bayareaanarchistbookfair/ More episodes on anarchism: Edxi Betts https://www.patreon.com/posts/voting-is-scam-f-110266232 Margaret Killjoy https://www.patreon.com/posts/radical-demands-139152446

Court support has spread to Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 100 Montgomery Street, while the mayor and SFPD continue to be complicit with ICE, against the city’s sanctuary city policy. Lxspinguinxs (updates about SF anti-ICE actions on Instagram) https://www.instagram.com/lxspinguinxs Lea on Substack https://leftylea.substack.com on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/leftylea_in_sf Los Angeles Tenants Union https://latenantsunion.org/ Palestinian Youth Movement https://palestinianyouthmovement.com Tenants and Neighborhood Council https://baytanc.com/ Unión del Barrio https://uniondelbarrio.org/ Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/sadfrancisco.bsky.social Instagram: https://instagram.com/sadfrancis.co TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sadfrancisco Twitter: https://twitter.com/sadfrancisco69 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@sadfranciscopodcast/ Listen on podcast platforms https://pod.link/1653309103

Boiler Room is a global event promotion company known for enlisting local DJs and promoters to produce Boiler Room-branded parties. This year, Boiler Room was acquired by a Zionist private equity firm, Superstruct/KKR. Three people who DJ and throw parties in the Bay—Daria Lourd, DJ Fridge, and Juanny—on creating culture that is removed from the Boiler Room industrial complex. 9/19 at The Stud: No Bias https://ra.co/events/2225702 9/20 at f8: Bring It Back https://ra.co/events/2224734 9/26 at Monarch: Dj Warning https://ra.co/events/2235766 Daria / No Bias on Bandcamp https://nobias.bandcamp.com/ DJ Fridge https://linktr.ee/DjFridge DJ Juanny's party/label/recording studio project Amor Digital https://linktr.ee/amordigital On Instagram Daria Lourd https://www.instagram.com/bored_lord DJ Juanny https://www.instagram.com/dj_juanny DJ Fridge https://www.instagram.com/djfridge_ HYDEFM (radio) https://www.instagram.com/hydefmradio Ravers for Palestine https://www.instagram.com/raversforpalestine/ Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/sadfrancisco.bsky.social Instagram: https://instagram.com/sadfrancis.co TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sadfrancisco Twitter: https://twitter.com/sadfrancisco69 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@sadfranciscopodcast/ Listen on podcast platforms https://pod.link/1653309103

Tracey Helton Mitchell writes about living in San Francisco with an addiction in her memoir "The Big Fix" and now works in harm reduction in the city. The Big Fix: Hope After Heroin https://sfpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S93C3207933 Tracey on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@traceyh415. Tracey on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@traceyh415 Black Tar Heroin: The Dark End of the Street - HBO documentary released in 2000, following Tracey and others around San Francisco https://archive.org/embed/blacktarherointhedarkendofthestreet Update on the cast from Black Tar Heroin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jQSpNmLVeM