Podcast archive, 2019

The Muni Diaries Podcast features stories told at Muni Diaries Live, as well as stories recorded in-studio for our spinoff project, San Francisco Diaries. Subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss an episode.


Ep 94: Making my own crime scene on Muni

On her way home from a baby shower, storyteller Maureen Bogues encountered what most of us hope we wouldn’t on Muni.


Ep 93: Exploratorium After Dark: Journey to Big Lots

Storyteller Dhaya Lakshminarayana is a stand-up comedian. She’s also the subject of the documentary “NerdCool.”


Ep 92: San Francisco Diaries: Fighting the power from WA to CA

Local activist and retired tradeswoman Molly Martin shares the story of her community, starting in her revolution-minded college years in Washington state through the middle of the AIDS crisis in 1980s San Francisco.


Ep 91: San Francisco Diaries: DJ Steve Fabus and the surprise farewell for disco legend Sylvester

DJ Steve Fabus has been called “one of the founding fathers of San Francisco’s gay disco scene.”


Ep. 90: Live from Clarion Alley

Storyteller Jesse James shares a story about his days working at the now-closed Nob Hill Theater, the famed all-male adult theater.


Ep. 89: The city gardener’s family shares the tale of the AIDS Memorial Grove

Leef Smith shares the story of his father, a city gardener who tended to the beautiful garden that later became the AIDS Memorial Grove.


Ep. 88: Need a place to find yourself? Try Muni (really).

Simone Herko Felton, a senior at Lowell High School in San Francisco. Simone has lived here all her life and takes the 23-Monterey to go to school daily. She shares why this line is emblematic to being in high school in the city.


Ep. 87: San Francisco Diaries: Leaving your assumptions at the checkout line

Justina Wu of  Beyond Borders Storytelling shares a story of an encounter when she spoke her mind, but almost too soon.


Ep 86. San Francisco Diaries: Listeners weigh in on the city’s existential crisis

Listeners have lots of thoughts about the episode from Smiley Poswolsky, a self-described Millennial workplace expert.


Ep 85: A “Millennial Expert” on how we define San Francisco

Smiley Poswolsky left his suit-wearing days behind in Washington, D.C. to start a new life as a writer in San Francisco. In this story, he asks: Who has the right to define a city and what it is (or should be) all about?

Listen to his story:


Ep. 84: Artist Kurt Schwartzmann tips his cap to Muni, a refuge for tougher times

Artist Kurt Schwartzmann shares how Muni drivers helped him survive a time when he was homeless and had lost vision of one eye due to complications from AIDS.


Ep. 83: Ady Lady on how one Muni ride went from “piss to bliss”

Muni is probably our longest love-hate relationship, a widespread phenomenon that became the focus of Ady Lady’s one-woman play.


Ep. 82: “Camp Folsom” shares tale of their own chosen family

musician Colin Daly stopped by the studio to share a timely retelling and ode to his time at Camp Folsom: back to a time when a room in the Mission went for $300, with life lessons about community and love included.


Ep. 81: Toeing the thin red-blue line on the 49

Storyteller Kathleen Auterio  was caught in the crosshairs of a potential firefight on the 49-Mission/Van Ness.


Ep. 80: Chronicle artist finds his muse on Muni

Artist George McCalman shares why he founds Muni riders so fascinating, and how this resulted in his Observed column in the San Francisco Chronicle.


Ep. 79: Dropping the ‘hard R’ to strangers on BART

Storyteller Sureni Weerasekera contrasts the magic of a feel-good experience on BART with a passive aggressive Bay Area brand of racism and othering.


Ep. 78: San Francisco Diaries: A surprising reunion at the Castro Safeway

Storyteller Dhaya Lakshminarayanan reunites with a high school friend and embarks on a new friendship that involves an urban rodeo and other very San Francisco experiences.


Ep. 77: Taking Muni all day leads to falling in love with San Francisco again

Chronicle reporter Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight rode every Muni line for an entire day and lived to tell the tale.


Ep. 76: Finding Satan’s jacket at the Elbo Room

Elbo Room owner Matt Shapiro shares a behind-the-scenes story about the lengths that club owners will go to keep a promise.


Ep. 75: Gwen Carmen on taking BART to see Aretha Franklin’s last concert in Oakland

On her way home on BART, former teacher Gwen Carmen finds herself in the middle of a crime scene. Fortunately some former students came to her rescue.


Ep. 74: Meaghan Mitchell runs into a familiar face when she took Muni to skip school

Native San Franciscan Meaghan Mitchell recalls a learning experience on Muni.


Ep. 73: Pete Mulvihill on how he went from store clerk to the owner of Green Apple Books

Pete Mulvihill is living every book lover’s dream: owning the book store he loves.


Ep 72: Nuala Sawyer on the worst year in San Francisco

Storyteller Nuala Sawyer was having a terrible year. Then, a man on Muni shared a vulnerable moment with her that changed her perspective.


Ep. 71: How do you take up personal space on public transit

Storyteller Irene McCalphin has often experienced the invasion of personal space on public transit, but this one time she decided enough was enough, and she was going to take up the space she deserves.


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