Sad Francisco

Toshio Meronek
  • 4.8 (57)
  • Society & Culture
  • Updated Weekly

Covering the end of capitalism from a "far Left" trans/queer POV.

  1. 1d ago

    Why movements split: ACT UP San Francisco with Dean Ouellette, Deeg & Kate Raphael

    What leads movement groups to dissolve? Three members of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) San Francisco talk about the group's split following the Big Pharma-pilled 6th International AIDS Conference in 1990.  You'll get a history of the local chapter of ACT UP, which was the most notorious organization to come out of the time when HIV was a death sentence, but beyond ACT UP, I'm interested in how movements keep going, how to deal with drama in groups, and when to refocus your energy. FYI: this episode combines one conversation with Deeg and Kate Raphael, and a separate conversation with Dean Ouelette. I tried to make it flow, but you can decide if I succeeded or not. LAGAI Queer Insurrection! (Ultraviolet is LAGAI's quarterly zine) Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism! (QUIT!) Deeg and Kate have a piece in the upcoming anthology ACT UP Beyond New York: Stories and Strategies from a Movement to End the AIDS Crisis, out fall 2027 from Haymarket Books. ADHD key to figures and organizations discussed this episode AIDS Action Pledge. The name of both a written pledge to protest, and a group formed to combat, the politician Lyndon LaRouche's attempts to quarantine everyone with HIV and his anti-immigrant English-only initiatives. Started under the name Citizens for Medical Justice. Bathhouse Coalition. Formed against the 1984 policy banning bathhouses in San Francisco. CONTINUED HERE because podcast apps have character limits. Support the show and get merch on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco

  2. Sep 7

    Daniel Lurie's Web with Jeremy Mack

    Another rabbit hole of an episode all about San Francisco's billionaire, Zionist, Levi's jeans-heir mayor and his clique. Mostly a bunch of bored billionaires who want to decide the future of San Francisco and if they get their way, the world. TW for electoralism. The Phoenix Project | Instagram | Twitter More Phoenix Project episodes Jeremy on TogetherSF, the now-defunct rightwing lobby group | Jeremy on the rise and fall of the San Francisco "Doom Loop" narrative | Julie Pitta on GrowSF Events  9/17, 7 PM: I'll be talking with Susan Stryker about her new book Changing Gender at Fabulosa Books (489 Castro Street, SF). 9/23, 7 PM: PUML presents The Internet Live and In-Person (at Make Out Room, 3224 22nd Street, SF). ADHD key to figures and organizations discussed this episode Daniel's clique and projects Chris Larsen. Crypto billionaire of Ripple Labs who, with his wife Lyna Lam, funds the cops and Trump so they look the other way. One of his pet projects is the SFPD Realtime Investigation Center, a surveillance den in Ripple's old offices at 315 Montgomery Street, which is partially owned by the Trumps, which he funds through the SF Police Community Foundation. CONTINUED HERE because podcast apps have character limits. Support the show on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco

  3. Aug 31

    The Google Bus and Gentrification with Manissa Maharawal

    A decade ago, the Google bus was a hard-to-escape symbol of the housing unaffordability crisis in SF, as Manissa Maharawal describes in her new book, Anti-Eviction. Manissa works with the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project and teaches anthropology at American University. Discussed: How politicians coddle the tech sociopaths, 9-9-6, and burning piles of e-scooters. Manissa's site Anti-Eviction (code UCPSAVE30 = 30% off) Counterpoints: A San Francisco Bay Area Atlas of Displacement and Resistance FoundSF: Protesting Techsploitation in the 2010s (protest photos by Chris Carlsson) KRON 4: 5 tech buses reportedly shot with pellet guns SF housing groups Gay Shame  Bay TANC Coalition on Homelessness POOR Magazine SF Community Land Trust SF Tenants Union SOMCAN WSTA WRAP Episodes Erin McElroy on Silicon Valley Imperialism WSTA: "We Keep Each Other Housed" Events 9/12, 7 p.m.: Homotopia and Criminal Queers at Human Resources 9/17, 7 p.m.: Susan Stryker & Toshio talk Susan's book Changing Gender at Fabulosa Books Support the show and get merch on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco

  4. Aug 24

    Technofascist Manifestos with Eddie Kim

    One of our tech overlords, Mark Zuckerberg recently published a manifesto in the Wall Street Journal describing why we should cheerlead him on his quest for infinite growth and profits.  Eddie Kim writes for the anti-generative AI outlet Gazetteer SF, and several of his recent pieces contend with why Marc Andreesen (venture capitalist, Andreesen Horowitz/a16z), Alex Karp (co-founder with Peter Thiel of surveillance giant Palantir), and Zuckerberg keep larping as Aristotle.  Also discussed: Crime reporting that only takes into account press releases from the District Attorney and Mayor's offices, how tech media article slop fed the AI bubble, and the Luigi Mangione effect.  Eddie for Gazetteer: A*****e shrugged [on Mark Zuckerberg's manifesto] The banality of Palantir's evil airport ad Eddie on Twitter/X   Mark Zuckerberg for the Wall Street Journal: The AI Future Is for Everyone Palantir on Twitter/X: The Technological Republic  CNBC: New CNBC Generation Lab poll shows almost half of 18- to 34-year-olds see democratic socialism positively Most recent PatronScan coverage from Cydney Hayes: 'Members of the LGBTQ+ community have legitimate reasons to be sensitive about privacy' Thom Waite (Dazed): Techno-fascist fashion: Why Silicon Valley is moving into menswear   Episodes: Enter the Panopticon with Ian Firstenberg Aesthetics of the New Rightwing Tech Intelligentsia with Jimmy Wu   Support the show and get merch on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco    PS. The 60th anniversary of the Compton's Cafeteria riot is this year. Come see Susan Stryker's documentary about the riot, Screaming Queens, on 8/27 in SF. It's free, and Susan Stryker and dee(dee) c. ardan from the podcast are also on the lineup. There will be Sad Francisco merch for sale.

  5. Aug 17

    Medicine for Melancholy (Sad Framecisco #4)

    What was the filmic movement called mumblecore? Jemma Decristo and dee(dee) c. ardan offer an abridged history of the post-college-centric genre that went mainstream in the early 2000s. One of few mumblecore movies with a Black director and Black leads is 2008's indie romance Medicine for Melancholy by Barry Jenkins, before he did Moonlight If Beale Street Could Talk, and the 2024 Lion King sequel. In the movie, girl living in the Marina hooks up with boy living in the Tenderloin, and a meditation on gentrification ensues, replete with a cameo by anti-gentrification activist Tommi Avicolli Mecca. Return to the time of "violently heterosexual" hipsters on fixed-gear bikes as we talk MOAD vs. MOMA, the influence of Criterion, Awkwafina's blaccent, and why being the solitary blerd or gaysian in an otherwise white clique should never be the goal. Episode: Jemma on her book The Aesthetic Character of Blackness: Sounds Like Us Support the show and get merch: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco

  6. Aug 10

    It's All Bots, Girl: Chappell Roan and the Fake Outrage Machine with Matthew Lawson (Eating For Free)

    In 2026, dead internet theory—the idea that most of the internet is bots and AI-generated content—is more reality than theory.  Matthew Lawson co-hosts Eating For Free—a podcast critiquing American culture and politics through the lens of pop culture—with Paper Magazine editor Joan Summers. In their series "It's All Bots, Girl," they've been reporting on the corporations and politicians (Benjamin Netanyahu, for example) who are engaged in psychological warfare against the rest of us, using bots that pretend like they're real people on the internet. Topics discussed include industry plants, fake fan accounts, and manufactured hate campaigns devised to control discourse and sell you products. And possibly to punish Chappell Roan for being a gay woman who supports Palestine and Epstein survivors. Eating For Free https://eatingforfree.com/ https://www.instagram.com/eatingforfree/ https://x.com/_matthewlawson Eliza McLamb: Fake Fans https://www.wordsfromeliza.com/p/fake-fans Times of Israel: Netanyahu, allies using armies of bots to influence social media discourse – report https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-allies-using-armies-of-bots-to-influence-social-media-discourse-report/ Madiswan on YouTube: Is Zeus Network a CIA Psyop? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-9wU2sRdpY Buzzfeed: In the Chapell Roan controversy, 23% of posts were bots https://www.buzzfeed.com/natashajokic1/chappell-roan-controversy-bots Zeteo: The Fake 'Invasion' of Spain: What You Need to Know https://zeteo.com/p/the-fake-invasion-of-spain-what-you What did Epstein have to do with 4Chan, and Ghislane have to do with Reddit? https://www.ms.now/opinion/jeffrey-epstein-4chan-chris-poole Support the show and get merch on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco

  7. Aug 3

    Enter the Panopticon with Ian Firstenberg

    The government is putting queers on lists and hunting undocumented people at the Home Depot parking lot. Have you ever felt so seen? Sad Francisco Surveillance State Correspondent Ian Firstenberg returns to talk about our current dystopia, but it's not all bad news: people are destroying FLOCK cameras with abandon, protests against data centers are getting bigger, and Garry Tan is freshly single. Ian's recent piece for 48Hills on the death of privacy culture in San Francisco: https://48hills.org/2026/07/what-happened-to-sfs-privacy-culture/ Cydney Hayes for Gazetteer: Why do these Castro gay bars have TSA-style face scanners: https://sf.gazetteer.co/why-do-these-castro-gay-bars-have-tsa-style-face-scanners Matt Wolfinger for Working Mass: The Dungeon Over Lowell: How the Data Center Boom Divided One City's Working People: https://working-mass.com/2026/06/10/the-dungeon-over-lowell-how-the-data-center-boom-has-divided-one-citys-working-people/ ShotSpotter lobbyist's dramatic monologue at an Oakland City Hall hearing (via Jaime Omar Yassin / @hyphy_republic on X): https://x.com/hyphy_republic/status/1846598258308825144 Noah Shachtman and Maddy Varner for Wired: "Madison Square Garden Kept a List of Gay Celebrities": https://www.wired.com/story/madison-square-garden-celebrity-database-surveillance/ Andy Greenberg and Dhruv Mehrotra for Wired: "A Leak of San Francisco Police Drone Footage Exposes the New Reality of Urban Surveillance": https://www.wired.com/story/sfpd-drone-video-leak-surveillance/ DeFlockSF (IG): https://www.instagram.com/deflocksf/ Have I Been Flocked?: https://haveibeenflocked.com/ Ian's last episode: https://www.patreon.com/sadfrancisco/posts/home-sweet-state-158916825 Episode with StopAI: https://www.patreon.com/sadfrancisco/posts/end-agi-before-127632638/ Support the show and get merch on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco

  8. Jul 27

    Judith Butler, Brooke Lober, Mama Ganuush and Lavelle Ridley: Queers Against Zionism LIVE SHOW

    THANK YOU to everyone who made it out to our biggest live show ever. The night ended up raising ~$5K for Bay2Gaza Mutual Aid, which will go directly to Gaza (Brooke shares details during the show). The episode was recorded at The Lab in the Mission on June 25, 2026, with music from DJ Parle G and help from a ton of volunteers. Brooke's performance focused on Cypress, a Jewish lesbian feminist who lived in the Bay. She talks more about Bay2Gaza Mutual Aid on this episode. Mama Ganuush read from their upcoming memoir. JB honored the late, great Leslie (Les) Feinberg. Lavelle sat them down to get the details on their pieces. Supergrateful to everyone who picked up some Sad Francisco dad hats, t-shirts, and tabi socks to help cover some of my bills. Speaking of, you can support the show and get merch on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco

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Trailer

4.8
out of 5
57 Ratings

About

Covering the end of capitalism from a "far Left" trans/queer POV.

Information

  • Creator
    Toshio Meronek
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    170
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Show Website
    Sad Francisco

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