Inside the Valkyries phenomenon

Wanna know the real reason nothing gets built in San Francisco? It's math. The city needs housing of every kind, and it has finally started loosening the rules that held construction back for decades. Yet the cranes still haven't come back. SF Standard contributing editor Thomas Goetz went looking for the reason and found that, for most developers, building in San Francisco simply doesn't pencil out. Building here costs $500 to $700 per square foot, roughly double the national average. And according to the city's chief economist, even if the land were free, most projects still wouldn't break ground. Thomas also explains why he's more hopeful than you might expect. A small set of fixes, including pre-approved building plans, single-staircase buildings, and building more "missing middle" housing on the city's small lots, could change the economics and add as many as 28,000 units in just a couple of years. For more information and episode transcripts, visit: https://sfstandard.com/pacific-standard-time/ Support this podcast from The San Francisco Standard by becoming a subscriber: ⁠https://sfstandard.com/subscriber

When Joe Lacob bought the Golden State Valkyries, he promised a WNBA championship within five years. They did it in two. On Saturday, the Valks beat the Atlanta Dream in Game 7 at Chase Center. They won without a single All-Star, with a roster full of players other teams gave up on, and in front of a fanbase that has sold out every home game in franchise history. Standard sports editor Kerry Crowley joins host Emily Dreyfuss to trace the Valkyries’ rise from expansion team to champions. They get into the leaders who built it (Lacob, team president and marketing whiz Jess Smith, GM Ohemaa Nyanin and coach Natalie Nakase), the culture that turned castoffs into contenders, and why the Valks just wrote the blueprint for women’s sports. For more information and episode transcripts, visit: https://sfstandard.com/pacific-standard-time/ Support this podcast from The San Francisco Standard by becoming a subscriber: ⁠https://sfstandard.com/subscriber

Elizabeth Holmes is back, and the man who exposed her has thoughts. Tyler Shultz met Holmes at Stanford, worked at Theranos, and blew the whistle on the fraud that sent her to prison. Now she has a new company, fresh magazine covers, and a central role in Nathan Fielder's film "You Can See Everything." Theo Baker, sitting in for Emily Dreyfuss, asks Shultz why he says the film isn't a documentary, how Holmes convinces people, what Billy Evans has in common with Sunny Balwani, and why the patients Theranos harmed keep getting forgotten. Plus: whether the AI money boom is setting up the next Theranos, and what it takes to be a whistleblower in the AI era. For more information and episode transcripts, visit: https://sfstandard.com/pacific-standard-time/ Support this podcast from The San Francisco Standard by becoming a subscriber: ⁠https://sfstandard.com/subscriber

Will Muni and BART survive? San Francisco's Nov. 3 ballot includes two tax measures that could decide whether Bay Area transit avoids deep cuts to service, routes and stations. Host Emily Dreyfuss talks with SF Standard reporters Gabriel Greschler and Dustin Gardiner about Regional Measure RTM, a Bay Area sales tax for BART, Muni and Caltrain, and Prop H, Mayor Daniel Lurie's Muni parcel tax. They also explain Lurie's charter reform package: Prop D, which would make it harder to get measures on the ballot, plus Props E and F, which would expand City Hall's contracting powers and let the mayor appoint deputy mayors. Plus, the unpredictable District 8 and District 10 supervisor races, and a practical tip for voting on judges. This is Part 2 of our two-part ballot guide.  View The San Francisco Voter Guide: https://sfstandard.com/2026-election-voter-guide/ For more information and episode transcripts, visit: https://sfstandard.com/pacific-standard-time/ Support this podcast from The San Francisco Standard by becoming a subscriber: ⁠https://sfstandard.com/subscriber

San Francisco ballots are four pages front and back this year. On this episode of “PST,” host Emily Dreyfuss opens hers up and gets help making sense of the statewide races and propositions facing California voters this midterm election.  First we hear from The San Francisco Standard’s comedy correspondent Sophia Garrow about her California gubernatorial candidate interviews. She tells us what Steve Hilton and Xavier Becerra are like in person, and why her conversations with them went viral. The Standard’s politics reporters Dustin Gardiner and Gabriel Greschler then walk Emily through her actual ballot. They cover the race to replace Nancy Pelosi between Scott Wiener and Connie Chan, Prop 40, the billionaire tax, along with Props 41 and 42, the countermeasures built to stop it, and the insurance commissioner race that could hand progressives a historic statewide win. This is Part 1 of our two-part ballot guide. Next week: San Francisco’s local measures. View The San Francisco Voter Guide: https://sfstandard.com/2026-election-voter-guide/ For more information and episode transcripts, visit: https://sfstandard.com/pacific-standard-time/ Support this podcast from The San Francisco Standard by becoming a subscriber: ⁠https://sfstandard.com/subscriber

Spoilers ahead! Nathan Fielder’s Elizabeth Holmes documentary You Can See Everything has everyone talking, and we’ve got a lot to say. Host Emily Dreyfuss is joined by SF Standard news editor Kevin Truong and senior Silicon Valley correspondent Theo Baker, author of How to Rule the World. They break down the Theranos founder’s final days before prison, the eerie “have you ever told a lie?” scene, and the scene-stealing Billy Evans. Theo also reveals that Billy, posing as Elizabeth Holmes on Twitter, tweeted at him. Kevin also reports back about his 11-hour triple feature. He reviews Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning, and the four-hour Musk documentary, which comes with an intermission, an AI Elon, and an appearance by his father Errol Musk. For more information and episode transcripts, visit: https://sfstandard.com/pacific-standard-time/ Support this podcast from The San Francisco Standard by becoming a subscriber: ⁠https://sfstandard.com/subscriber

San Francisco police cleared just 14% of rape cases last year. That’s half the national average and the lowest of any large county in California, according to an SF Standard investigation. One city leader decided that was unacceptable. On this episode of PST, host Emily Dreyfuss sits down with District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar. Melgar called a City Hall hearing this month that brought SFPD leadership to the table and won commitments to overhaul how the department handles sexual assault.  Melgar explains why sexual assault has been deprioritized compared to other crimes, and how she plans to use the city budget to make sure the reforms happen. She also talks about the personal experience that drives her work and why the city needs stronger support for survivors. We also hear from SF Standard investigative reporter Anya Schultz on what happened inside the hearing. For more information and episode transcripts, visit: https://sfstandard.com/pacific-standard-time/ Support this podcast from The San Francisco Standard by becoming a subscriber: ⁠https://sfstandard.com/subscriber

Anthropic and OpenAI are headed towards record-breaking IPOs, with a wave of new AI wealth about to hit San Francisco. Who gets rich, who gets priced out, and what will the city look like after? “PST” host Emily Dreyfuss talks with Mat Honan, editor-in-chief of MIT Technology Review, about soaring home prices, what the Facebook IPO taught us, AI bubble fears, and loving a city that keeps minting millionaires. Then SF Standard reporter Emily Shugerman joins Dreyfuss to talk about how AI lab employees are becoming one of the biggest single-issue political donor blocs in the country.  For more information and episode transcripts, visit: https://sfstandard.com/pacific-standard-time/ Support this podcast from The San Francisco Standard by becoming a subscriber: ⁠https://sfstandard.com/subscriber

What happens when a group of self-described “sluts” decide men need help with flirting? They create SlutCon, a three-day Bay Area conference where men pay between $3,000 to $18,000 to learn how to flirt, escalate, and date without being seen as too awkward.  On this episode of PST, host Emily Dreyfuss talks with SF Standard tech culture reporter Zara Stone, who attended all three days of SlutCon at Lighthaven in Berkeley. The event, co-organized by controversial sex researcher and blogger Aella, featured dozens of “flirt girls” and various training sessions like “Confidence Engineering” and “Physical Escalation." Together with Emily, Zara digs into why so many attendees, most of them from tech and AI, are terrified of being labeled a “creep”. And they explain how SlutCon got caught in the online backlash around AI safety and the rationalist community. Is SlutCon feminist, fringe, or just very Bay Area? For more information and episode transcripts, visit: https://sfstandard.com/pacific-standard-time/ Support this podcast from The San Francisco Standard by becoming a subscriber: ⁠https://sfstandard.com/subscriber

Ryan Clark and his partner were dancing at a Pride event in 2023 when a man stumbled out of the crowd toward them. Under the flashing lights of the Midway Club, just south of Dogpatch, the man began to grope them inside and outside of their pants, the couple said — first Clark, then his partner. They repeatedly told him they were monogamous and wanted him to stop. He didn’t, they say, until they shoved him. They claim that man was Manny Yekutiel, a San Francisco cafe owner, well-known nightlife personality, and now a frontrunner in the District 8 Board of Supervisors election.  While the couple acknowledged the sometimes-complicated rules of consent in gay culture, they said Yekutiel’s actions clearly defied norms of propriety. Yekutiel said he does not recall this specific encounter with Clark and apologized if he crossed any boundaries. He also denies an earlier allegation by Brad Chapin that The Standard wrote about in June. On this episode of “PST,” reporters Joe Fitzgerald Rodgriguez and Jonah Owen Lamb discuss their investigation into this alleged assault, and listeners hear from Clark in his own words about the alleged incident. For more information and episode transcripts, visit: https://sfstandard.com/pacific-standard-time/ Support this podcast from The San Francisco Standard by becoming a subscriber: ⁠https://sfstandard.com/subscriber