
Outside Lands San Francisco
Nicole Meldahl and a rotating cast of hosts from the Western Neighborhoods Project (outsidelands.org / OpenSFHistory.org) share San Francisco west side neighborhood history with humor, a real fact or two, and much-better-informed occasional guests.
Latest episodes

Sep 22, 2024 • 39min
540: USF Mens College Part 2
Nicole Meldahl and Drew Moss continue this now three-part series on the University of San Francisco, covering its time as St. Ignatius College at Hayes and Van Ness until something happened in 1906...

Sep 11, 2024 • 32min
407R: Sears Store at Masonic (repodcast)
Revisit the Sears Store at Geary and Masonic with this classic episode.

Aug 24, 2024 • 57min
539: USF Men's College Part 1
In Part 1 of a two-part episode, Nicole and Drew dig into the history of St. Ignatius Academy, which later became the University of San Francisco.

Aug 10, 2024 • 48min
538: Spreckels Lake
Nicole and Drew are at Spreckels Lake where they chat with San Francisco Model Yacht Club Commodore Rob Weaver and dive into the origins of a favorite Golden Gate Park feature.

Jul 27, 2024 • 1h 3min
537: Fashioning San Francisco
Nicole sits down with Laura Camerlengo, the curator in charge of costume and textile arts for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, to talk about the city's unique fashion history and the current deYoung exhibition, "Fashioning San Francisco: A Century of Style."

Jul 12, 2024 • 57min
536: CinemaSF
Jaimi Holker and Adam Bergeron - the team behind CinemaSF - join Nicole to talk about their work running our beloved west side movie theaters: the Balboa, 4 Star, and Vogue.

Jun 28, 2024 • 39min
385R: Toppling Monuments (repodcast)
It's been 4 years since the Francis Scott Key, Junipero Serra, and Ulysses S. Grant statues in Golden Gate Park were toppled. Revisit our podcast episode from June 2020 where Woody, David, and Nicole discuss the context in which the statues were put in the first place, and the history of the 3 subjects, and their unplanned removal.

Jun 16, 2024 • 1h 25min
535: Sutro Library
Nicole is joined by Mattie Taormina, Director of the Sutro Library, to talk about how the institution got started and all the awesome things you can find there today.

Jun 2, 2024 • 55min
534: The Bridge Theater and Peaches Christ
Nicole Meldahl and SFGATE reporter Amanda Bartlett explore the history of the Bridge Theater on Geary and interview drag legend Peaches Christ about her time there as hostess of Midnight Mass during our 25th Birthday Bash at the 4 Star Theater.

May 17, 2024 • 30min
347R: Paul´s Hat Works (repodcast)
Revisit our episode featuring Abbie Dwelle, the owner of Paul's Hat Works, a Richmond District institution for over a century.