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 these categories: Art & Politics, Ecology, Historical Perspectives, Literary, and Social Movements. These Public Talks have been archived in audio and more recently in video in the Shaping San Francisco collection at the Internet Archive, and embedded in archival pages at shapingsf.org. We are now moving them to the archive at Foundsf.org, a process that will take some months (this note will disappear when the process is complete).

Unlinked Talks mean there is no audio or video available.

Art & Politics

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 / 20072010

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, Jesus Barraza, and Zachary Karnazes

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 / 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 / 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 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