Gina Mariko Rosales, Part 2 (S8E17)
Storied: San Francisco
In Part 2, we pick up right where we left off in Part 1, with Gina’s first official address in San Francisco. In talking about finding a place to live in The City, Gina mentions that all her friends either live in rent-control apartments they’ve been in forever, or they’re able to live in a place that someone in their family bought and has kept in the family. When she tells me where that first apartment in SF was, I let her know that my first place here, back in 2000, was less than a block away. As we’re name-dropping hotspots on the block, I have a brain fart and can’t remember the...
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Gina Mariko Rosales, Part 1 (S8E17)
Storied: San Francisco
Chances are, you’ve been to one of Gina Mariko Rosales’ events, even if you weren’t aware. In this episode, which kicks off our Asian-American/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month programming, meet Gina. Born in Daly City, she’s lived most of her life on the Peninsula and in San Francisco. But let’s talk about how she got to where she is today. Gina was born at Seton hospital in Daly City and her parents raised her in Pacifica. In her words, Gina “grew up with a bunch of skaters and surfers.” Sounds fun. But she was one of only a few Filipinas in her hometown. She was...
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415 Day 2026 (S8 bonus)
Storied: San Francisco
Listen in as I chat with guests at 415 Zine’s 415 Day celebration at last week. Find the guests of this bonus episode: Mackenzie C Kirk Carrie Cotini Mike Bruno Allison/If n Wendy Stephanie (no online presence) Spike Fredo Laine Find 415 Zine on IG and . We recorded this podcast at Art Bar in April 2026.
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Kiri the Japanese Fire Truck, Part 2 (S8E16)
Storied: San Francisco
In Part 2, we pick up where we left off in Part 1. Todd has just learned the process of importing automobiles into the US. He had one under his belt. He was ready for more. He’d learned about older Japanese fire trucks and set his sights. He was still going to Japan frequently, and began to make “car friends” over there. As could be expected, there’s quite a subculture around cars in many countries, and Todd had found his in his home away from home. He found a tiny Japanese fire truck on an auction site, but the going price went out of his range of comfortableness. Normally, he’d...
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Kiri the Japanese Fire Truck, Part 1 (S8E16)
Storied: San Francisco
There’s a little red Japanese fire truck rolling around all over San Francisco. But instead of putting out fires, Kiri the Japanese Fire Truck is spreading joy and inspiring smiles. In this episode, meet and get to know Todd Lappin, the human being who brought Kiri from Japan to the US—Bernal Heights specifically. We start with Todd’s life story in Part 1. He has lived in the 94110 ZIP code for 34 years. But he’s originally from New Jersey. “Even after 34 years, New Jersey is like a stain that doesn’t wash out,” he says. He grew up in what he calls the “Ohio part” of the...
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Soleil Ho, Part 2 (S8E15)
Storied: San Francisco
For Part 2, we pick up where we left off in Part 1. Soleil was working in restaurants in Minneapolis, both front-of-house and back, and also starting writing about food around this time. There was a new food publication in Minneapolis at the time called Heavy Table, and Soleil offered to intern for them. At first, it was a lot of looking around for events for the publication to cover. Eventually, there were opportunities to do some writing, and Soleil pounced. That led to other chances to write, and the proverbial ball was rolling. They were also on food stamps at the time, which doesn’t...
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Soleil Ho, Part 1 (S8E15)
Storied: San Francisco
The story of Soleil Ho starts with their grandparents. In this episode, meet and get to know the food writer and member who’s been on my radar since they replaced longtime Chronicle food writer and mysterious human Michael Bauer. In Part 1, we dive into Soleil’s family story. It begins two generations back, when their grandparents came to the US from Vietnam in the Seventies. They were refugees from the US war in their homeland. On Soleil’s mom side, the grandparents brought Soleil’s mom and seven other children from Vũng Tàu to Freeport, Illinois. They had first ended up in a...
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Rae Alexandra and “Unsung Heroines,” Part 2 (S8E14)
Storied: San Francisco
In Part 2, we pick up where we left off in Part 1. We’re talking about Mission bars, and I share a story about the backroom at Delirium. Rae brings up similar stories of her own at places like Thee Parkside, and we agree that Parkside owner is the best. Rae shares a story that confirms it. She looks back on the years before she got her SSN grateful that Kerrang! allowed her to work. She says and I agree—those jobs don’t really exist anymore. The industry itself was misogynistic, but there was also a freedom to the job. They flew her to shows all over the place. And they paid her enough...
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Rae Alexandra and “Unsung Heroines,” Part 1 (S8E14)
Storied: San Francisco
Rae Alexandra has 35 stories to share with you, plus her own. In this Women’s History Month episode, meet and get to know Rae. She recently published a book with City Lights Publishing called Unsung Heroines: 35 Women Who Changed the Bay Area. It’s of course available at City Lights, but you can also find it at your local independent bookstore. I read the book and could not put it down. Only toward the end of the 35 essays did I start to recognize the women Rae features. I love history and I love learning and I have mixed feelings about the fact that there are so many rad women whose...
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What a Creep’s Sonia Mansfield, Part 3 (S8E13)
Storied: San Francisco
Part 3 picks up right where we left off in Part 2. While she was still working that real estate job, Sonia was treating dating like a part-time job. She signed up on several dating sites (this was before swipe apps like Bumble). She went on many awkward coffee dates. Then a friend introduced her to a guy, and the two hit it off right away. They were inseparable from the moment they met, in 2008. They moved in a couple months later. In 2010, they got married, and had a kid shortly after that. But in the middle of all this amazing life shit, Sonia was smacked with a breast cancer diagnosis. She...
info_outlineIn Part 2, we pick up where we left off in Part 1. Toshio talks about those chess players at Powell and Market and other early impressions of The City before they moved here.
Having grown up in Orange County, with its underfunded public transit system, Toshio always wanted to live somewhere that had a subway. Being able to walk was important, too, in contrast with SoCal, where you pretty much need a vehicle to get anywhere. SF and The Bay checked those boxes.
Like Part 1, this episode is rife with sidebars. I guess that’s just what happens when you get two people together who both like to talk. The first one in Part 2 is about running any sort of independent media within the larger framework of late-stage capitalism, especially when the content you create is inherently anti-capitalist. You know, light stuff.
I try to get us back to Toshio’s story of moving to San Francisco, then I can’t help myself—another sidebar, this time about Craigslist, which of course Toshio used to help find a place to live in San Francisco. They were able to get work, as we’ve mentioned, but finding housing was much harder. Their first two places were in the Mission. They left the first one after only one month, thanks to a fire. Their next spot was at 24th and Bartlett, close to BART. Toshio splinters off to talk about some of the other spots they looked at and open houses they went to. “Oof,” they say.
In 2013, they were able to move into a below-market-rate apartment near Civic Center (the very home where we recorded this episode, in fact). Toshio is their own landlord, something I congratulate them on. Sometime after they moved in, they met their boyfriend. They also got exposed to more and more leftist politics in SF during this time. They talk about coming to terms with the fact that the world they want to see will probably not come about in their lifetime. That’s a hard pill to swallow, but it’s probably best to accept that and then fight like hell to overcome it.
Toshio’s light-green living magazine job afforded them the opportunity to write for further left-leaning publications like Truthout. When Al Jazeera opened its US office in The City, they got work there. They’ve also written for Them and Vice. It all served as background for Toshio to launch their own outlet—Sad Francisco.
We go on a sidebar about the corporate takeover of the news, and how local outlets and indie operations like our own have stepped in to try to fill that void. Toshio mentions some newer publications that they’re excited about, including Bay Area Current, The Phoenix Project, and Coyote Media. (Ed. note: Look for an upcoming episode with Coyote Collective founding member Soleil Ho.)
Sad Francisco started (and continues) as an effort to fill the massive gaps left by said corporate media in the Bay Area. Toshio was curious about the podcast medium, and kicked things off reading and riffing on versions of 2,000-word pieces they had already written for traditional media. They mention that we’re at a point now where every journalist, no matter the medium or the employer, should probably be diversifying the distribution of their work. I couldn’t agree more.
Sidenote: I’ve been witnessing Toshio’s move to self-facing camera reels, with them laying out whatever issue is on their mind, then expounding on it. It’s a delivery mechanism I see more and more of, in my limited social media consumption. My wife, Erin (of Bitch Talk Podcast), has begun doing more of these as well, and they seem to resonate with folks. I haven’t yet decided whether or when to do them myself for Storied. But I digress …
Toshio feels that in 2026, people are looking for authenticity. They don’t care so much if your media product is polished. They’re more interested in substance, which would be a gain for society, if true.
When I ask them how folks can find, follow, and support Sad Francisco, Toshio mentions the podcast’s Patreon page. Follow them on Instagram @sadfrancis.co. And check out their website, sadfrancis.co. They’re also available on most podcast apps and YouTube. Another sidebar here about how much I used to love Twitter (RIP).
We end the episode with my asking Toshio how they do it, how they report so well and so relentlessly on the vast amounts of sketchy shit going down in San Francisco and The Bay. Their answer involves their various journalistic jobs and gigs over the years, and how that work trained them to package up complex ideas and explain incredibly complicated scenarios in a simple, easy-to-understand way. Then Toshio and I indulge in a lovefest for 48Hills.org before wrapping.