It's Very Indian to Watch AbFab

Tommy Pico’s poetry builds a contemporary Native American persona, one that occupies multiple spaces simultaneously: New York City, the internet, pop music, and Grindr. It’s an identity that’s determined to be heard by the culture at large. Tellingly, Pico’s first book, IRL, is both in the form of a single epic text — maybe even a sext — and inspired by Kumeyaay “bird songs,” some of the last surviving remnants of the Kumeyaay tribe’s long-form poetry tradition.

This piece aired on KCRW and McSweeney's The Organist podcast.

Last Night at the Lexington

This story might sound culturally and geographically impossible -- the closing of what many consider the last lesbian bar in San Francisco. What does last call at SF's last dyke bar mean for its patrons and the city?

Staying in the Gray

An intimate portrait of what it’s like to be genderqueer in a society that wants to see you as either a man or a woman.

The Church of John Coltrane

Many people revere John Coltrane as a jazz legend, but only in San Francisco have people canonized and praised Coltrane for nearly half-a-century. The Church of John Coltrane recognizes the American jazz saxophonist as a patron Saint.

Meanwhile with Wendy MacNaughton

Despite the media headlines, San Francisco isn’t just the backdrop for some tech zombie apocalypse. Beneath the Google Bus frenzy, San Francisco has another story to tell. Actually, many stories. SF native and graphic journalist Wendy MacNaughton set out to uncover these hidden stories in her new book Meanwhile. And I set out to discover the world of Wendy MacNaughton. 

California's Own Homegrown Language

A few hours north of San Francisco is the town of Boonville, nestled in the quaint Anderson Valley. Like Silicon Valley, this place is known for its innovations in communication – but in a completely different way. 

Inside San Francisco's Secret Sound

Have you noticed how the way a space feels really depends on how it sounds?  There are designers obsessing over the aural aesthetic of a place: sound architects. At engineering firm ARUP’s SoundLab they can listen to the sound of buildings before they’re even built.

You're Being Watched: Surveillance in Oakland

If you’ve driven through Oakland in the last few years, chances are the police know exactly where you’ve been. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non-profit that focuses on defending civil liberties in the digital world, looked into the controversial technology of automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) and I rode with them through Oakland to see just how these ALPRs worked. 

Hitchhiking a Tech Shuttle

Real talk: I’m not the biggest fan of San Francisco public transportation. So when I first heard of the alternative transportation network of private buses coursing through the arteries of the city, my ears perked up. Imagine: buses with wifi, plush seats, sunroofs, arriving at reasonable intervals. Surely they had room for one more?