San Francisco History Podcast – Sparkletack

By the time I arrived, San Francisco was already a city — and had been one for the previous century and a half. But what... Read more

Part two of the pre-history of San Francisco, the early life of the village of Yerba Buena. The epic sweep of Mexico’s r... Read more

Tonight’s podcast features a special method of German homework avoidance: brew up a batch of beer, breathe in the delici... Read more

THIS WEEK'S PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:1871: The fall of a hoodlum kingApril 9, 1871: A hoodlum king's power is broken, and all ... Read more

THIS WEEK’S PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:The San Francisco “Cocktail Route” 1890-something The Cocktail Route — “Champagne Days of... Read more

Treasure Island is easily visible from San Francisco’s Embarcadero, a low-lying front porch jutting out towards the Gold... Read more

The very name gives one chills, doesn’t it? On a sunny day it seems almost unbelievable that such a lovely little island... Read more

It’s one of San Francisco’s best-loved monuments — the figure of a heartbreakingly beautiful girl balancing lightly atop... Read more

Spinning junk into art — is a smile returning to the face of San Francisco? I haven’t been carrying my digital camera, j... Read more

The Golden Gate Bridge is the no. 1 suicide landmark in the world. It opened proudly in 1937, but less than two years — ... Read more

As I was riding around town this weekend, I was suddenly struck by a thought: stopped at the intersection of Broadway an... Read more

THIS WEEK'S PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:Slumming the Barbary Coast1871 "A Barbary Cruise"I've been thinking about the fact that -... Read more

You’ve seen the green and white signs in front of the “Lefty O’Doul Restaurant and Piano Bar” down on Geary Street, but ... Read more

THIS WEEK'S PODCAST TRANSCRIPT: 1849: As the fateful year of 1849 begins, a newspaper editor scrutinizes San Francisco's... Read more

After a few days in san francisco, you’ll begin to notice a strange proliferation of fat silvery cylinders sprouting fro... Read more

Oh, for the life of a sailor in Gold-Rush San Francisco! Those hard-luck men and boys were lucky enough to witness the b... Read more

Well, I always thought that I knew the story of Levi’s jeans, how the Bavarian Levi Strauss showed up in Gold Rush San F... Read more

There’s a strange atmospheric phenomenon peculiar to our location halfway up the North-American coastline, something tha... Read more

I can clearly remember the first time I saw the wild parrots of San Francisco flying through the air over my neighborhoo... Read more

What is Treasure Island? Why is it there? And where is it going? In the second episode of this 2-part podcast series, Sa... Read more