Ep. 160: Roman Rimer and the bus that got him there
Muni Diaries
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...
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Ep. 159: Dewayne Deams: A Life in Transit
Muni Diaries
Dewayne Deams was born and raised in San Francisco and caught the transit bug early. You might say it’s in his blood: his great-grandfather Curtis E. Green was the General Manager of Muni—the first Black GM of a major U.S. transit agency—and both of his parents worked for Muni, too. But despite his own deep knowledge and love of Muni, Dewayne was determined to take the track less traveled. In this first installment from our Wayfinding Show in April, Dewayne shares how he learned to embrace his longtime status among friends and coworkers as chief navigator and resident transit expert and...
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Ep. 158: Night of Ideas Part 3—A Bus of Whimsy
Muni Diaries
This is the final installment from our pop-up story booth at the San Francisco Public Libary's 2024 Night of Ideas! In this episode, we share a selection of bite-sized stories from everyday Muni riders about whimsical transit rides they've taken in our beloved San Francisco. Check out Part 1—Everyday Heroes on the Bus (ep. 152) and Part 2—The Friends We Made along the Way (ep. 155) for more short stories from that evening. And if you have your own whimsical bus story to share, be sure to follow us on Instagram at @munidiaries to hear about future podcast pop-ups around the city!...
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Ep 157: Meaghan and Ronald Mitchell on the people's railway (and its people)
Muni Diaries
Meaghan Mitchell returned to the Muni Diaries stage at our "Thank You, Driver" show with a loving tribute to her dad, 35-year Muni veteran Ronald Mitchell. She shares what it was like being raised by a Muni driver in '90s San Francisco, and what makes Muni more than a transit agency—and then invites Ronald to join her on stage. Meaghan and Ronald remind us that our Muni operators are human, that they have families, and that they're on the front lines of our city's biggest challenges every day. And they ask us to keep on loving and riding Muni: as Ronald says, "There's nothing like the...
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Ep. 156: Rory O'Neill to the rescue
Muni Diaries
Getting stuck on a stalled Muni train is every rider's worst nightmare. But what's it like being one of the mechanics with the daunting task of getting that train and its frustrated riders moving again? Rory O'Neill understands both sides of that coin. He spent many years working as a mechanic on the mobile response unit and the emergency response unit for Muni's light rail fleet—and he's also an every-day Muni rider. Now the supervisor of the Maintenance Training Department, Rory joined us at Muni Diaries Live and gave us a glimpse into the oft-overlooked world of Muni's vehicle...
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Ep. 155: Night of Ideas Part 2—The friends we made along the way
Muni Diaries
Back in March 2024, Muni Diaries had the pleasure of attending the Night of Ideas, a program organized by the San Francisco Public Library. This installment paid homage to our favorite transit system, and we'd be remiss if we didn't tap into the wealth of Muni-riffic experiences (good, bad, great, somewhere in between) for our popup story booth. It was a huge success. We collected so many stories, which we've curated for your listening enjoyment. This is the second in our series from that evening; hit up Ep. 152 for Part 1, Everyday Heroes on the Bus.
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Ep. 154: Where the 6 takes you: How Kristee Ono met her hero
Muni Diaries
Kristee Ono knows her fellow 6 Haight-Parnassus riders well — even though they're technically strangers. When she decided to write about one of them for the Muni Diaries Live Haiku Battle, she had no idea he was local transit icon Kurt Schwartzmann. Kristee tells the heartwarming story of what followed, and how two beloved Muni Diaries storytellers went from strangers on the bus to cherished friends. Photo by
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Ep. 153: Muni operator Charles Haletky on teaching "professional paranoia"
Muni Diaries
Veteran operator Charles Haletky walks us through the highs of "pure, exquisite joy of public humiliation" and the lows of, well...the lowest you can imagine. He reminds us that, as someone who trains the next generation of operators, he needs to be cruel on occasion—not to be kind, but for the greater good.
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Ep 152: Night of Ideas Part 1 — Everyday Heroes on the Bus
Muni Diaries
This is the first part in a series showcasing short Muni stories we collected from attendees at the Night of Ideas at the San Francisco Public Library on March 2, 2024. In this episode we focus on everyday heroes on the bus: situations where a small gesture or act of kindness by a transit rider or operator turned a tense situation around, made someone feel seen or appreciated, or just brightened their day.
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Ep. 151: Katy Birnbaum on the Power of Streets to Divide or Connect Us
Muni Diaries
Where most people see a desolate street, Katy Birnbaum sees a celebration and the regeneration of community waiting to happen. But it didn't start out that way. Katy grew up in a car-dependent suburb where the streets isolated her and her family. In this story from our November 2023 live show, Katy shares how moving to San Francisco transformed her relationship to streets, how Muni connected her to the things most important to her, and how she decided to give back. Katy is the founder of Into The Streets, a San Francisco-based cultural production studio dedicated to bringing people together in...
info_outlineGetting stuck on a stalled Muni train is every rider's worst nightmare. But what's it like being one of the mechanics with the daunting task of getting that train and its frustrated riders moving again?
Rory O'Neill understands both sides of that coin. He spent many years working as a mechanic on the mobile response unit and the emergency response unit for Muni's light rail fleet—and he's also an every-day Muni rider.
Now the supervisor of the Maintenance Training Department, Rory joined us at Muni Diaries Live and gave us a glimpse into the oft-overlooked world of Muni's vehicle mechanics and maintenance workers. Rory reminds us just how many people get us where we need to go every day, whether we see them or not. "In the end, that's what we do, right? We move people."