Sad Francisco

Janetta Johnson and zen blossom speak from the home base of Transgender, Gender Variant and Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP) in SF. They speak on Miss Major (who led TGIJP for years); the year Janetta turned down the SF Pride grand marshal title; and the status of the Bay Area's reputation for being a haven for trans people. TGI Justice Project https://tgijp.org Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex https://www.akpress.org/captivegenders.html Previous episodes mentioned: Rest in Peace Miss Major https://www.patreon.com/posts/rip-miss-major-142054390 Tourmaline on her biography of Marsha P. Johnson https://www.patreon.com/posts/marsha-p-johnson-129316368

Public universities are under constant threat of budget cuts, but somehow administrators find millions to toss at extractive tech, like ChatGPT Edu. SF State professor Martha Kenney describes how administrators at the CSUs spent $17 million on a contract with OpenAI without asking students or professors if it was a good idea—subsidizing an industry built on hype and plaigiarism. - Martha Kenney and Martha Lincoln: "Let Them Eat Large Language Models: Artificial Intelligence And Austerity In The Neoliberal University" https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/6z5pa_v1 MIT Study https://mlq.ai/media/quarterly_decks/v0.1_State_of_AI_in_Business_2025_Report.pdf Library of Babel Listserv https://lists.mayfirst.org/mailman/listinfo/assembly Episode with Stop AI https://www.patreon.com/posts/end-agi-before-127632638 Martha Lincoln: "It's Time to Pull the Plug on ChatGPT at Cal State" https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2025/11/25/chatgpt-poses-risk-student-mental-health-opinion Martha Lincoln on BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/heavyredaction.bsky.social - Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco

San Francisco tried to atone for the war on drugs with a DEI program for recreational weed store owners. In the end, the real winners were rich white dudes like London Breed's old roommate, Conor Johnston. Chris Roberts—America's top cannabis journalist and historian reporting from America's number-one cannabis producing region—returns. We go deep on his recent Chronicle piece detailing how it all went wrong. - "San Francisco's first 'equity' weed store was an epic failure. City Hall insiders may still pocket millions" sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/marijuana-weed-legal-shop-haight-21063653.php "White Weed Entrepreneurs Are Gaming Programs Meant to Help People of Color" (Chris for Vice) vice.com/en/article/white-weed-entrepreneurs-are-gaming-programs-meant-to-help-people-of-color/ Previous episode with Chris, on the radiation disaster at Hunter's Point patreon.com/posts/radiation-at-132819458 - Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco

dee(dee) c. ardan is live in the studio apartment for the first episode about trans/queer media from the Bay's past, showing that indeed, this place has been trans as hell for a long, long time. Starting with issue one of the 1970s zine GAY SUNSHINE, we deduce how the Bay gained a reputation for being the place you come to push the trans agenda and make life hell for conservatives. Gay Sunshine's first two issues, via UC Berkeley Library https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/121520 https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/121521 Shattered Glass reading group contact: essgeesquared@gmail - Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco

The Tenderloin in 1966: One of the earliest trans/queer actions (that we know of) against police and state violence happened at Compton's Cafeteria. Today, that space (111 Taylor Street) is occupied by Geo Group—otherwise known as the corporation that is America's number-one private prison and ICE profiteer. Zei Wilder is helping organize the local effort to get Geo Group out of San Francisco and turn the Compton's site into something that isn't evil. - Comptons x Coalition: comptonsxcoalition.net Demand Board of Supervisors Action Against Geo Group on November 6, 10 AM, SF City Hall Room 272: instagram.com/p/DPUQYewgdk4/ Episode with historian Susan Stryker, co-director of the Compton's documentary "Screaming Queens": patreon.com/posts/jail-at-comptons-79134233 - Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: patreon.com/sadfrancisco