Category:Talks

Shaping San Francisco hosts Public Talks on a variety of topics on Wednesday nights, about 18 times a year. Our topic themes vary, but we've grouped them over time into the categories listed below. These Public Talks have been archived in audio and more recently in video. Browse our offerings, and catch up on almost a decade and a half of public discussions. Find them also at the Shaping San Francisco collection on the Internet Archive, and embedded in archival pages at shapingsf.org.

Unlinked Talks mean there is no audio or video available.


Art & Politics

Public Talks: Art & Politics / 2020-

May 8, 2024: Hughen/Starkweather
February 26, 2020: Miranda Bergman

Public Talks: Art & Politics / 2015-2019

September 11, 2019: San Francisco Poster Syndicate
April 3, 2019: Chris "L7" Cuadrado
February 13, 2019: Seth Eisen/OUT of Site
November 28, 2018: Public Art and Murals: Controversy, Neglect, Restoration
May 2, 2018: Kal Spelletich--Do Androids Dream of Surplus Value?
April 4, 2018: Insurgent Country Music and its Roots in the Golden State
March 14, 2018: Ilana Crispi: Tenderloin and Mission Dirt
February 28, 2018: Lou Dematteis
November 8, 2017: Seth Eisen "OUT of Site"
June 7, 2017: Kent Minault's "Diggerly-Do's"
January 25, 2017: Packard Jennings
September 28, 2016: Jenny Odell, Art as Archiving, Archiving as Art
February 24, 2016: Mauro Ffortissimo with Dean Mermell
November 4, 2015: Guillermo Gomez-Peña
September 30, 2015: Nato Green
March 4, 2015: Sirron Norris
February 11, 2015: Rene Yañez

Public Talks: Art & Politics / 2011-2014

November 12, 2014: Janet Delaney
April 30, 2014: Yolanda Lopez
March 26, 2014: Norman Nawrocki — Cazzarola!
January 22, 2014: Songs of Freedom celebration
April 24, 2013: Rebar
November 7, 2012: Clarion Alley Mural Project
May 16, 2012: Amy Franceschini
May 9, 2012: Rock, Posters, and Politics!
April 18, 2012: "Reel Hood Heroes": Conscious Youth Media Crew
March 21, 2012: Jess Curtis: Body of Work
October 19, 2011: An Open Rehearsal of Trial of Lucullus
May 25, 2011: Lost Murals, Political Posters, Underground Comix: Ten Years That Shook the City: San Francisco 1968-78
February 9, 2011: Eric Drooker and HOWL

Public Talks: Art & Politics / 2007-2010

October 27, 2010: A Staged Reading of Money, a WPA Comedy from 1937
September 22, 2010: RIGO
May 19, 2010: History of San Francisco's Carnaval
March 10, 2010: Socially Engaged Printmaking Today
February 17, 2010: Melanie Cervantes and Jesus Barraza
January 20, 2010: Patricia Rodriguez
December 9, 2009: Keith Hennessy
November 18, 2009: Philippines: Immigration Politics and the Body
September 23, 2009: From India to the Bay Area: Culture and Economy
September 16, 2009: Conscious Youth Media Crew
May 27, 2009: Susan Greene
April 15, 2009: Russell Howze
March 18, 2009: Jet Martinez
February 18, 2009: Doug Minkler
October 8, 2008: San Francisco Print Collective
September 10, 2008: Art as Intervention
March 19, 2008: Favianna Rodriguez
February 20, 2008: Eric Drooker
January 16, 2008: Andrew Schoultz
October 17, 2007: Hugh D’Andrade
September 19, 2007: Mona Caron
September 12, 2007: Grant Funding for the Arts in San Francisco: A Discussion

Ecology

Public Talks: Ecology / 2024

March 26, 2024: Cultivating Food Resilience and Combating Global Challenges

Public Talks: Ecology / 2020-2023

December 2, 2023: Thinkwalk—1862 Flood
September 30, 2023: Natural Areas II Bike Tour: Golden Gate Park to Lobos Valley
September 23, 2023: Frisco Bay Mussel Group: A Look Back
September 22, 2023: San Francisco Natural History with Greg Gaar
April 23, 2023: Special Anniversary Bike Tour: Natural Areas and Native Plants
March 18, 2023: Urban Forum: Walk and Talk—Journey to the Highest Peak: Mt. Davidson
November 5, 2022: Urban Forum: Walk and Talk—China Beach to Mountain Lake
October 15, 2022: Urban Forum: Walk and Talk—Tunnel Tops to Francisco Park
September 24, 2022: Urban Forum: Walk and Talk—Chain of Lakes, Golden Gate Park
April 9, 2022: Urban Forum: Walk and Talk—San Bruno Mountain
March 26, 2022: Urban Forum: Walk and Talk—Fort Funston to Pine Lake
January 29, 2022: Urban Forum: Walk and Talk—Visitacion Valley and Little Hollywood
November 6, 2021: Urban Forum: Walk and Talk—Glen Canyon and Sutro Forest
October 9, 2021: Urban Forum: Walk and Talk—Bayview Hill and Candlestick Point State Recreation Area
August 28, 2021: Urban Forum: Walk and Talk—Grandview Peak and Golden Gate Heights
June 26, 2021: Urban Forum: Walk and Talk—Dogpatch, Warm Water Cove, Shipyards and Crane Cove Park
April 10, 2021: Urban Forum: Walk and Talk—Presidio: Crissy Field to El Polín Spring
December 13, 2020: King Tide/Sea Level Rise Mission Bay Virtual Walking Tour
September 19, 2020: Urban Forum: Walk and Talk—India Basin and Heron's Head Park

Public Talks: Ecology / 2018-2019

September 25, 2019: Neighborhood Corridors: Memory and Ecology
May 22, 2019: Local Ecological Justice and Urbanity
March 27, 2019: Sea Level Rise: Pacific Ocean and the Bay Area
March 28, 2018: Saving the Bay from the "Future"
March 7, 2018: Resilient by Design: The Language of Water
February 7, 2018: Building a Deep Map--Beyond Buildings and Views

Public Talks: Ecology / 2015-2017

September 27, 2017: Other Food Systems Are Possible
May 10, 2017: From the Delta to the Bayshore: Adaptation Infrastructure and Rising Seas
February 8, 2017: Citizen Science/Extinction Culture
November 30, 2016: Unseen City
May 11, 2016: What’s Going Right with the Global Environment!
April 27, 2016: Oil, Soil, and (Climate) Turmoil
April 13, 2016: Synthetic Biology: DIY Tinkering Meets Big Capital
December 2, 2015: Tending the Urban Wild
May 13, 2015: Plumbing California: Past, Present, and Future
May 6, 2015: Rewilding and the Anthropocene
April 22, 2015: Telling Stories with Bricks
February 4, 2015: San Francisco’s Wild Menu: Flora, Fauna, Feast

Public Talks: Ecology / 2012-2014

November 5, 2014: Trees and History
September 10, 2014: The Evolving Eastern Shoreline
May 14, 2014: Political Economy of Bees
May 7, 2014: Dogs, Density, and Natural Areas
April 9, 2014: Urban Farming and Urban Nature: Are We Competing or Cooperating?
March 12, 2014: Saltworks and Shorelines: a Visual and Social History of the San Francisco Bay
February 26, 2014: Design Radicals: Berkeley 1960s and Today
February 5, 2014: Becoming a Biodiversity City
October 30, 2013: Liberation Biology
May 22, 2013: Talking About Ecology and Science in Public
March 27, 2013: Designing Resilient Landscapes: What history teaches us about San Francisco and the Bay-Delta Estuary
January 16, 2013: The Tigers of Market Street: Butterfly Habitat along a Busy Urban Corridor
December 5, 2012: Planning 4th Street: Remaking a San Francisco Corridor
August 28, 2012: The Next Step in Sustainability
May 23, 2012: What Are Our Streets For?

Public Talks: Ecology / 2010-2011

November 9, 2011: In Search of San Francisco's Eradicated Landscapes
October 26, 2011: Urban Homesteading
September 28, 2011: Did Laguna Dolores Exist?
September 14, 2011: Endangered Species Campaigning
June 8, 2011: Ecology and Food of the 1970s: Ten Years That Shook the City: San Francisco 1968-78
March 30, 2011: Reciprocal Bio-Regional Culture from the Bay Area to the Sierras
February 23, 2011: Underground Food Politics
February 16, 2011: Vanished Waters: A History of San Francisco's Mission Bay
January 26, 2011: Environmental History of Golden Gate Park
November 17, 2010: Watersheds from California to Mexico
November 10, 2010: Eco-Politics, a Strategic Roundtable
May 26, 2010: Twin Peaks Bioregional Park: A Conservation Strategy for the Heart of San Francisco
May 12, 2010: Circle the Food Wagons!—Local Food Economies
February 24, 2010: San Francisco Golf Courses, Parks, Natural Areas
January 27, 2010: Urban Forest

Public Talks: Ecology / 2008-2009

October 28, 2009: Climate Change/Climate Justice
September 30, 2009: Ecology and Redevelopment in Bayview/Hunter's Point
May 13, 2009: Can Capitalism really “Go Green?”
April 29, 2009: Permacultural Transformation for the Urban Dweller
March 25, 2009: Toxic San Francisco
February 25, 2009: Bees in the City
January 28, 2009: Lake Merced Natural Area's Future
November 19, 2008: Green Streets: Redesigning San Francisco One Block at a Time
October 29, 2008: Candlestick Point: State Park for the People
February 27, 2008: San Francisco's Imperiled and Surviving Birds
January 30, 2008: Endangered Species Big Year

Public Talks: Ecology / 2006-2007

November 28, 2007: Food Security & Urban Agriculture
October 24, 2007: New Politics for Green Cities
September 26, 2007: San Francisco Water Sources
May 30, 2007: San Francisco Ecology: Butterflies in the City
May 2, 2007: Immigration, Work, and Agriculture: From Enclosures to Fast-Food
April 25, 2007: The National Park Where We Live
February 28, 2007: Laying a Foundation for a Green City (3 podcasts)
January 31, 2007: Grassroots Activism to Save San Bruno Mountain
November 29, 2006: Native Habitat Restoration: Frogs in San Francisco
October 25, 2006: Recycling Activism: Trash and Toxics
September 27, 2006: Activism in and for the San Francisco Bay Ecosystem
May 31, 2006 : Can San Francisco Feed Itself? (3 podcasts)
May 10, 2006: San Francisco's Food Revolt
April 26, 2006: Reclaiming Bay Area Military Bases (2 podcasts)
March 29, 2006: Natural Disasters and Community Response (4 podcasts)
February 22, 2006: Nature in the Urban Environment
January 25, 2006: Natural Areas of San Francisco: a Pre-Urban View

Historical Perspectives

Public Talks: Historical Perspectives / 2021-2024

April 24, 2024: History of Monopoly (the game)
April 10, 2024: Life and Death in a Great American City
December 15, 2023: Talking History with Gary Kamiya
November 15, 2023: Living in the Archives
November 8, 2023: Peoples History of SFO
October 28, 2023: Lone Mountain Cemeteries
October 24, 2023: Mountain View Cemetery
September 27, 2023: Trains into the Outside Lands
August 26, 2023: Bicycle Messenger Crackdown Commemoration Ride
June 14, 2023: San Francisco and the New Deal
May 20, 2023: Urban Forum: Walk and Talk—Food and Baseball in SOMA and the Mission
March 26, 2023: Tour of the Oakland Tribune Tower
January 28, 2023: Urban Forum: Walk and Talk—Bernal Cut to Diamond Heights
November 19, 2022: Urban Forum: Walk and Talk—Pacific Heights and Cow Hollow
September 18 2021: Urban Forum: Walk and Talk—Eureka Valley and Corbett Heights
March 6 2021: Urban Forum: Walk and Talk—Bernal Heights and the Bernal Cut

Public Talks: Historical Perspectives / 2019-2020

November 14, 2020: Urban Forum: Walk and Talk—McLaren Park and Philosophers' Way
September 26, 2020: Urban Forum: Walk and Talk—Fort Mason and Black Point
August 29, 2020: Urban Forum: Walk and Talk—SF General Hospital and Potrero Hill No recording available
March 11, 2020: Hidden San Francisco: Book Release and Birthday Party
December 11, 2019: Valencia Street as a Lesbian Corridor: Living Memories
November 13, 2019: Progress to Poverty: Land and Rents
November 6, 2019: Alcatraz Occupation: A Beginning
October 23, 2019: Shellmounds, Indigenous Culture, and Ecology on the San Francisco Bay
October 2, 2019: Storytelling and the Memory Keepers
May 29, 2019: Americans in the Spanish Civil War
April 10, 2019: Neighborhood Newspapers of San Francisco
February 6, 2019: Internment and its Aftermath
January 23, 2019: Before San Francisco: Spanish and Mexican Peninsula

Public Talks: Historical Perspectives / 2017-2018

November 7, 2018: The War to End All Wars
October 31, 2018: The Jazz of Modern Basketball:
Racism and Virtuosity at the Roots of the Golden State Warriors
October 10, 2018: Missing Pieces: Remembering Elements of a Gone City
September 26, 2018: Model SF: Collectively Shaping the City
May 23, 2018: Archives and Memory: New Ways of Making History
May 9, 2018: Platform Cooperatives
April 25, 2018: Universal Basic Income, Is It time?
January 24, 2018: Dogpatch Then and Now
December 6, 2017: Popular Front to Cold War
October 11, 2017: Speeding Through the Unseen, From Coding to Commons
October 4, 2017: Art and Architecture During the Depression
May 3, 2017: Agents of Change: California Labor History
February 22, 2017: Progressive Transgressions

Public Talks: Historical Perspectives / 2015-2016

December 7, 2016: Divided We Fall: Immigration and Scapegoating
November 9, 2016: The Housing Crisis and The Growth Consensus: What's Wrong with this Picture?
October 5, 2016: 19th Century California Indian Slavery and Genocide
May 25, 2016: Audible Cities
April 20, 2016: San Francisco, 1960s & 70s: Cultural Ecology and Experimentation
March 16, 2016: Street Names, Streetcars, and Street Life
March 9, 2016: Rise and Fall of Third Worldism
February 10, 2016: New (Old) Paradigms in Medicine
January 27, 2016: Easter Rebellion and Irish San Francisco
December 9, 2015: United Nations and New Deal
October 7, 2015: Archaeology Finds…Daily Family Life in Early SF Settlements
April 8, 2015: The Tenderloin: SF’s Most Fraught Neighborhood
February 24, 2015: Promises of Progress: Panama-Pacific International Exposition
January 21, 2015: Washed Away—Newfound Extreme Weather History

Public Talks: Historical Perspectives / 2013-2014

December 3, 2014: Tunneling San Francisco Then and Now: Where's the Public Interest?
October 9, 2014: Making History by Making Maps
September 24, 2014: No Future at College?!?
May 28, 2014: San Francisco's Ghadar Party Heritage
April 16, 2014: Upton Sinclair/End Poverty in California
March 19, 2014: Stop, Thief! The Commons, Enclosures, and Resistance
January 15, 2014: Latinos at the Golden Gate: Creating Community & Identity in San Francisco
October 9, 2013: Bay Area Indigenous Pre-History
September 25, 2013: Radical Archiving and Cataloging as Social History
September 11, 2013: The Bay Bridge, 1936-2013
April 13, 2013: Chinese Whispers
February 27, 2013: Pier 70, Transforming 19th Century Ironworks to a 21st Century ... ?
January 30, 2013: Catastrophism: The Apocalyptic Politics of Collapse and Rebirth

Public Talks: Historical Perspectives / 2010-2012

December 12, 2012: Old City Hall: Corruption & Racism in 19th Century San Francisco
July 17, 2012: Bristol Radical History Group “History From Below”
May 30, 2012: FoundSF: Dissent
May 2, 2012: Mat Callahan presents the "James Connolly--Songs of Freedom" project
April 25, 2012: Radically Gay: Harry Hay, LGBT pioneer
January 18, 2012: The Vietnam War Continues
December 14, 2011: Centennial Anniversary! Women Get the Vote!
November 30, 2011: The History of the Future
October 12, 2011: Reimagining Market Street
May 11, 2011: A Virtual Civil Liberties Tour of San Francisco
January 19, 2011: Before (and After) the Car: San Francisco's Transit History
January 12, 2011: Rick Prelinger's Lost Landscapes of Detroit
January 13, 2010: Prohibition in San Francisco: Then and Now

Public Talks: Historical Perspectives / 2006-2009

December 16, 2009 : Rick Prelinger's Lost Landscapes of the East Bay
November 11, 2009: Alcatraz: 40th Anniversary of Indigenous Occupation
September 9, 2009: Final Tap: An Unofficial History of Beer
February 11, 2009: Rick Prelinger's Lost Landscapes III: Film Fragments of San Francisco
January 21, 2009: FoundSF: San Francisco History Wiki Workshop
November 12, 2008: The Invisible Public Legacy of the Great Depression
September 17, 2008: SF State Strike 40th Anniversary
December 19, 2007: Rick Prelinger's Lost Landscapes: Film Fragments of San Francisco
April 11, 2007: Lowriders: When the Mission was Low and Slow
February 14, 2007: A History of Land Grabs in San Francisco and Some Counter-efforts
December 6, 2006: Rick Prelinger's Lost Landscapes: Film Fragments of San Francisco
November 8, 2006: Sexual and Reproductive Freedom Since the 1960s
June 14, 2006: Films by Calvin Roberts: A San Franciscan’s Lost History
April 12, 2006: Black Exodus and Black Eviction in San Francisco
February 8, 2006: Philippines & San Francisco: Connected Through History
January 18, 2006: Labor strength: Historic Bay Area General Strikes

Literary

Public Talks: Literary / 2010-2017

March 11, 2020: Hidden San Francisco": Book Release and Birthday Party
March 8, 2017: Local History in Your Ear
November 11, 2015: Literary Liberalism and the Western Voice
November 13, 2013: Literary Treasures of the North Mission
October 16, 2013: Unsettlers: El Cabe
May 8, 2013: Unsettlers: Migrants, Homies, and Mammas in the Mission
April 13, 2011: History of the Charles H. Kerr Publishing Co.
March 23, 2011: The Radical Futures Of The Book
October 20, 2010: Hard Boiled for Hard Times—Crime Authors in the City
October 13, 2010: Outspoken Authors Speak Out
March 24, 2010: Science Fiction and the Struggle for Justice
March 17, 2010: Crime/Noir Writers Describe Their Crimes in the City



Social Movements

Public Talks: Social Movements / 2020-2021

May 28, 2022: Urban Forum Walk n Talk: CCSF to SFSU
November 18, 2021: An Irish Catholic Liberal: Bishop Mark J. Hurley and the 1968-69 Strike at State
January 29, 2020: Enola Gay Faggot Affinity Group

Public Talks: Social Movements / 2018-2019

December 4, 2019: Seattle/WTO Shutdown: 20th Anniversary
October 15, 2019: For the Record: Eyewitness Testimonies of the police murder of Luis Góngora Pat
October 9, 2019: Expanding San Francisco’s Common Wealth
May 8, 2019: The Women of Los Siete de la Raza
March 13, 2019: Dockworker Power in the Bay Area and South Africa
December 5, 2018: Movements of Movements
October 24, 2018: Rethinking 1968: What Happened, How Has It Shaped Us?
October 3, 2018: Women, Power, and the Vote: 1911 Suffrage to the 2018 Midterms

Public Talks: Social Movements / 2015-2017

December 13, 2017: San Francisco's Freeway Revolt
October 18, 2017: 50th Anniversary of the Stop the Draft Week Protests
May 31, 2017: Summer of Love or Vietnam Summer?
March 22, 2017: We've Done This Before: 1980s Movements
October 26, 2016: Death of Money: Diggers 50 Years Later
October 12, 2016: Compton's Cafeteria 50th Anniversary—The Transformation of Trans Politics and Identity
September 14, 2016: Hunter's Point Rebellion, 50 Years Later
October 14, 2015: Housing is a Human Right!
September 23, 2015: Prisoners and Politics: from the San Quentin Six to Pelican Bay
April 29, 2015: Union Demise and New Workers’ Movements
April 1, 2015: Vietnam War, Dissent, and the U.S. Military
January 14, 2015: Home on the Grange

Public Talks: Social Movements / 2012-2014

December 10, 2014: Latin American Social Movements
October 29, 2014: San Francisco’s Housing Wars 2014
October 1, 2014: A History of LGBTQ Spaces . . .Where you Least Expect Them
December 4, 2013: Remembering Los Siete
November 6, 2013: Confronting Cultural Genocide
October 2, 2013: The Red Army Faction—Dancing With Imperialism
May 20, 2013: "We are not machines!" The Situation and Struggles of the iSlaves in China
March 13, 2013: Asia's Unknown Uprisings
February 20, 2013: The Revolution of Everyday Life
October 17, 2012: Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle
October 10, 2012: Ohlone Profiles Project
September 12, 2012: Mexico Today: Dinosaurs, Popular Refusal, and Hashtags!
April 11, 2012: West of Eden: Communes and Utopia in Northern California
March 28, 2012: Selma James and George Katsiaficas
March 14, 2012: Rebooting the Rainbow
February 22, 2012: Policing San Francisco: 1930s-1960s
February 15, 2012: Corporate Personhood?!?
January 25, 2012: Occupy Everything! An Open Discussion

Public Talks: Social Movements / 2009-2011

November 16, 2011: The Good, The Bad, and the Alternatives to Mass Education
September 21, 2011: Dublin Community Activism Against Drug Addiction
May 18, 2011: Mission Politics in the 1970s: Ten Years That Shook the City: San Francisco 1968-78
April 27, 2011: Overcoming Work and Sacrifice
April 20, 2011: Radical Approaches to Organizing Work
March 16, 2011: Movements and Political Generations
March 9, 2011: The Struggles of the Balkans and Romani in Fact and Fiction
December 15, 2010: Navigating the Criminal Courts: A Guide for Activists
December 8, 2010: Haiti: Gender and Continuity in the Midst of Disaster
September 29, 2010: Education Crisis/Radical Responses
September 15, 2010: Imprisoned But Unbowed: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women
April 21, 2010: Ten Years That Shook the City -- Sneak Preview
April 14, 2010: U.S. Social Forum, Detroit
March 31, 2010: Songs To Enemies And Deserts, A Film Screening About Rebellion In Darfur
February 10, 2010: Queer workers: Class, Gentrification and Struggle in San Francisco
October 21, 2009: Bicycling in San Francisco
October 14, 2009: The Politics of ‘Third Space’ in Global Videos and Installations
May 20, 2009: Anti-systemic Knowledge: Learning from the South
April 22, 2009: Global Commons/Global Enclosures
April 8, 2009: Anti-War Then and Now
March 11, 2009: Local Remanufacturing Our Way out of the Depression
January 14, 2009: Hearing the City: Radio in San Francisco

Public Talks: Social Movements / 2006-2008

December 17, 2008: Lessons and Advice on How to Survive an Economic Meltdown
December 10, 2008: Neighborhood Newspapers: Community Journalism in San Francisco
October 22, 2008: Worker Cooperative Alternatives to Precariousness
September 24, 2008: Global Africa: Liberation, Decolonialization, and Diaspora
March 12, 2008: Arab San Francisco
February 13, 2008: Community Art Spaces Survive Urban Pressures
January 9, 2008: Class and Power in Queer San Francisco
December 12, 2007: News and the Future of Journalism
November 14, 2007: Public Commons vs. Corporate Privatization
October 10, 2007: Voting Perspectives
March 7, 2007: Learnin’ + Teachin’: The Future of Education (4 podcasts)
January 17, 2007: The Public Health Epidemic in a Therapy Society (3 podcasts)
December 13, 2006: Tactical Evolution: Protest Culture, Dissent, and Radical Change
October 11, 2006: Bolivar, Zapata and Sandino Ghosts and Revolution in South America
March 8, 2006: Infrastructure Wars: Sustainable Movements (3 podcasts)