Category: Podcast

Chris Arvin is a familiar face at Muni Diaries Live after years of selling their whimsical Transit Supply wares, giving witty presentations on Muni’s history and its famous boat tram, and hosting interactive transit trivia. But how does a kid from a New Hampshire suburb become a San Francisco transit microcelebrity? At our 2025 Wayfinding Show, Chris took the stage to tell us: how learning about the transit service we lost led to fighting for what we still have, how an online following of transit enthusiasts led to real life community, and how that community powered a scrappy but mighty fight for transit funding. For Chris, Muni has truly been the friends they made along the way.

Listen to Chris’s story here:

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Muni Diaries is made up entirely of stories from transit riders like you. Have your own Muni story to share? Send us your pitch at muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com.

Muni is the backdrop for so much of our lives, but few of us have documented its familiar presence over years of personal change as vividly as photojournalist Jessica Christian. Trains and buses doubled as transportation and a training ground for Jessica as she developed her eye for “photography that makes you feel something”—first as a student, then a budding photographer, and later as a San Francisco Chronicle photojournalist. Jessica joined us at our Wayfinding Show in 2025 to share the stories behind some of her favorite photographs she’s made on Muni and how it helped her find her way as a photographer.

Listen to Jessica’s story on your platform of choice, and follow along with the photos she mentions in the gallery below, labeled with the relevant episode timestamps:

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3:20

4:15

6:27

7:07

7:35

8:00

8:45

9:25

10:06

11:06

12:17

13:06

14:22

15:44

Muni Diaries is made up entirely of stories from transit riders like you. Have your own Muni story to share? Send us your pitch at muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com.

Like so many Muni riders, comedienne Julia Jackson has perfected the art of sizing up her fellow bus passengers in a glance, and she takes more than a little satisfaction in how often her assessments turn out to be right. But she worries about the distance her snap judgments can create between her and other riders, and she knows firsthand how isolating it feels to be on the receiving end. It’s the times when she’s wrong about a stranger on the bus—or they’re wrong about her—that the magic happens.

Julia had us laughing at our Wayfinding Show in 2025 as she recounted some of her favorite “terminator scan” misfires on Muni, and how they brought her closer to her fellow riders. Listen to her story here:

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Muni Diaries is made up entirely of stories from transit riders like you. Have your own Muni story to share? Send us your pitch at muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com.

One day in 2013, Luisa Isbell—newly minted San Franciscan and tech worker—found herself on the wrong side of a stranger’s crisis on the 19 Polk, and went from enthusiastic bus rider to bus avoider. Trading freedom for safety seemed logical after such a scary encounter, but several years of gloomy commutes and thousands of dollars in parking fines later, something had to give.

Now Luisa finds herself working with struggling San Franciscans like that bus passenger every day. She joined us at our Wayfinding Show in 2025 to share her winding journey from tech worker to social worker and stand-up comic, from reluctant car owner back to Muni rider, and what she learned about herself and those struggling at the margins of our city along the way.

Listen to Luisa’s story here:

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Muni Diaries Live returns to the Rickshaw Stop on April 22nd, 2026! Tickets are going fast, so get yours today.

We all know the feeling of sitting down on the J Church or the 38 Geary after an especially hard day and wishing we could just disappear into that red seat, alone with our misery, not smushed between 30 strangers. Other times, public transit surrounds us with our fellow riders when we need them the most.

At our Wayfinding Show in April 2025, writer and performer Roman Rimer shared a moving reflection on the realities of navigating life as a trans man in the Bay Area. Roman has watched the city change, made connections and lost them, and grieved more than his fair share—often on the bus. But one thing hasn’t changed: Muni always picks him up when he needs it.

Listen to Roman’s story here:

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Be sure to subscribe for more stories from transit riders like you! Have your own Muni story you’d like to share? Email us your pitch at muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com.

Photo by Connor Cimowsky.