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 These Public Talks have been archived in audio and more recently in video.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)
Pages in category "Talks"
The following 34 pages are in this category, out of 34 total.
