A Shoplifting Panic to Cover Police Terror with Amy Martyn and Damena Page
Sad Francisco
Starting in 2021, a shoplifting panic was hatched and spread by corporate media, cops, and politicians, resulting in life-or-death consequences (see: Banko Brown). Damena Page called from SF county jail to report on the conditions, abuse, and how reporting abuse can result in retaliation. Amy Martyn is a journalist based in the Bay, who's been covering the shoplifting panic since the beginning of the pandemic. Damena on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/girlyfacemena/ America's absurd war on 'organized retail crime' (Amy Martyn, Business Insider) ...
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The Aftermath of the Fire at 22nd and Mission Streets with Alejandra Rubio
Sad Francisco
Ten years have passed since the fire that disappeared the apartments and businesses at 22nd and Mission Streets, and killed Mauricio Orellana. Many people continue to suspect landlord arson. Slumlord Hawk Ling Lou inherited the buildings in the 1990s, and owns the now-empty lot, plus about 20 other buildings in San Francisco (some under family members' names). On May 15, 2025, despite overwhelming community dissent the Planning Commission granted Hawk Ling Lou the permission to build market-rate luxury condos on the space. If they're ever built, they'll be sold to hypothetical newcomers and...
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World's Worst TERFs and Girlbosses with Sophie Lewis
Sad Francisco
Sophie Lewis's book Enemy Feminisms depicts some of Western history's most despicable women, like Alma Bridwell, a Pentecostal preacher who spread the gospel of the KKK, and May French Sheldon, an explorer and genocide apologist for Belgium during the Rubber Terror in the Congo Free State. They were also some of the most celebrated feminist figures of their time, weaponizing feminism for capitalists, authoritarians, and white supremacists. Enemy Feminisms: TERFs, Policewomen, and Girlbosses Against Liberation https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2440-enemy-feminisms Sophie's Patreon...
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Stream of Consciousness with Toshio and Tofu
Sad Francisco
Seasons change, fascists remain. Another one where Toshio and Tofu have a semi-incoherent discussion about things in the works at Sad Francisco HQ. The protests that corporate media is mostly ignoring (Erica Chenoweth, Jeremy Pressman, and Soha Hammam, Waging Nonviolence) Citations Needed Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting Support us and find links to our past episodes:
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Blocking the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges
Sad Francisco
In 1989, the Golden Gate Bridge was blockaded for the first time by a group of protesters going by the name Stop AIDS Now…or Else! They were sick of their friends dying in a government-facilitated genocide of queer people (the medical industrial complex and corporate media were complicit, too). It wasn't till 2016 that another group of protesters (black.seed) blockaded the Bay Bridge, this time propelled by the Ferguson uprisings and the crisis of Black people dying, especially at the hands of police. And then in 2023 and 2024 the Bay Bridge 78 and Golden Gate 26 blockaded for Gaza;...
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Radiation Disaster at Hunter's Point with Chris Roberts
Sad Francisco
Chris Roberts is who you call to learn how the Navy’s atomic weapons tests made parts of SF toxic, and the government’s radiation experiments on people incarcerated at San Quentin, military officers stationed at Pittsburg, and the 49ers. Read Chris’s reporting and listen to Rebecca Bowe’s companion podcast: Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunter's Point sfpublicpress.org/exposed "The Naval Scientist Who Wanted To Know How Football Players Would Survive Nuclear War" (Chris for Defector)...
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Dyke March: Origins & Dykes for Palestine with Lisa Roth, Jemma, and Kira
Sad Francisco
Zionists are still trying to pinkwash Israel's genocide, co-opting queer and trans institutions in the service of the Netanyahu dynasty and the Christian Zionists behind Project Esther. One way they're doing this is by attempting to de-fang the radical history of Dyke March, a march that has happened every Saturday of Pride weekend in San Francisco since the early 1990s. With Lisa Roth of Dykes for Palestine, and Jemma and Kira from Gay Shame. The Diametric Dyke March for a Free Palestine June 28, 2025 18th and Dolores, San Francisco Gather at 4PM March at 5PM Gay Shame ...
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Vintage Sad Francisco: Queers Out of the Cop Parade with Jemma DeCristo
Sad Francisco
This week, rewind to one of our earliest episodes on how for two years, the SFPD was uninvited to Gay Pride. In solidarity with the cops, politicians boycotted the 2022 Pride parade, and a few pro-cop LGBTs sold everyone else out. New episode on the radical history of the Dyke March coming next week, also with Jemma! Gay Shame's 5-0 Out of Pride video series: Support us and find links to our past episodes:
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Prisons Must Fall with Emile DeWeaver
Sad Francisco
Self abnegation is the total denial of oneself—which is how Emile Suotonye Deweaver describes what it took to get paroled by a white supremacist institution that is about reproducing power hierarchies, not repair or rehabilitation. He writes about the experience (plus notes on shibari and Dungeons & Dragons) in his new book about surviving 21 years in the California prison system, Ghost in the Criminal Justice Machine. Ghost in the Criminal Justice Machine https://thenewpress.org/books/ghost-in-the-criminal-justice-machine/ Emile's Instagram...
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Trans Film, Cis Backlash and 10 Years with MAJOR! with Annalise Ophelian and StormMiguel Florez
Sad Francisco
Annalise Ophelian directed and StormMiguel Florez co-produced MAJOR!, the beloved documentary about the beloved Miss Major. The Roxie is screening the movie for its ten year anniversary this month; its messages about community, role models and resilience are relevant as ever given our current political moment. Annalise and StormMiguel discuss how to make a documentary without objectifying your stars, making movies in the Bay, and their more recent film projects. MAJOR! Trailer Tickets for June 8 at the Roxie The Whistle Looking for Leia Annalise is offering...
info_outlineA crowd of people set fire to a robotaxi last Lunar New Year in San Francisco's Chinatown. Jasmine explains how Asian American influencers and corporate media outlets used the "death" of a Waymo "self-driving" vehicle to stoke fear about anti-Asian violence.
Fundraiser for Yazan in Gaza [https://chuffed.org/project/115145-yazan]
Write to Casey Goonan [https://www.abcf.net/blog/update-on-casey-goonans-legal-case]
LA Public Press Podcast: https://lapublicpress.org/the-tenant-association/
Episode referenced:
Dylan Rodriguez on Zionists and Counterinsurgency in Stop Asian Hate [https://www.patreon.com/posts/zionists-and-in-103600189]
Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco