San Francisco

Kramer, who died May 27, was an early advocate for aggressive research into the HIV virus. He co-founded both the Gay Men's Health Crisis and the protest group ACT UP. Originally broadcast in 1992.

Pelosi author Molly Ball says the key to the speaker's success is her mastery of the inside game in politics — building relationships, counting votes, plotting strategy and working around the clock.

Growing up in San Francisco in the '70s, Alia Volz's family ran a booming weed-laced brownie business. "I had this understanding of my family as an outlaw family from the very beginning," she says.

Chesa Boudin's radical leftist parents were imprisoned when he was a toddler. Now he's working to reduce the inmate population in San Francisco — and worrying about his dad, who remains in prison.

In the 1960s, Janis Joplin was an icon of the counterculture, a female rock star at a time when rock was an all-boys' club.

Dr. Paul Volberding and nurse Cliff Morrison were on the frontlines of the AIDS epidemic treating patients in the early 1980s before anyone understood what the disease was, or how it was spread. They are now featured in the new documentary '5B'.

New York Times Magazine journalist Robert Draper talks about why Republicans love to attack Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the challenges she faces within her own party and her bid to be speaker of the House.

Author James Ledbetter says many of the nation's worst economic catastrophes happened while on the gold standard. His new book traces the fascination with gold as a symbol of permanence and quality.

Longtime activist Cleve Jones reflects on his decades in the LGBT movement, beginning with the 1970s when he first moved to San Francisco.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg lives in the Mission and says young tech employees have been pouring into the neighborhood. But what to call these new residents? He says the term "techie" used to suggest a computer whiz with no social skills; now it suggests one with no social conscience.

In her new memoir, Fairyland, Alysia Abbott describes her childhood as the daughter of an openly gay father in San Francisco while the gay liberation movement was gaining strength. Her book is based largely on her father's journals, which she found after his death in 1992.

The rise of the San Francisco rock scene in the mid-1960s is a well-known story, but one which might have taken an entirely different direction if Frank Werber's fortunes had played out differently.

Film critic David Edelstein says the Harvey Milk biopic, starring Sean Penn, is one of the most heartfelt portraits of a politician ever made. "The personal and the political aren't just hand-in-hand," he says: "They dance."

Rock historian Ed Ward remembers the sound of San Francisco in the '60s, from the early days of countercultural upheaval through the Summer of Love in 1967. It's all lavishly documented in Love is the Song We Sing, a new four-disc set from Rhino Records.

Journalist Marc Sandalow talks about Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) who stands to become the first female Speaker of the House. Pelosi represents California's 8th District, which covers most of the city of San Francisco. She has held the post since 1987. Sandalow serves as the Washington Bureau chief for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Book critic John Leonard reviews the new first-novel by Fae Myenne Ng, about an immigrant family in San Francisco.

Novelist Armistead Maupin. After moving to San Francisco in the mid-70's, Maupin became a gay activist and celebrated novelist. He's just completed the final book in his series, "Tales of the City," which began as a column in a San Francisco newspaper. The series of novels chronicles life in the gay and straight communities of San Francisco.

Mystery writer Mary Wings. Wings' novels draw on the familiar hard-boiled detective genre, but her heroine is a lesbian-feminist detective named Emma Victor. Wings new book is titled "She Came in a Flash."

Rock historian Ed Ward says that several 1950s and '60s bands associated with San Francisco actually came from nearby cities and towns. He looks at some of the over looked, truly local, drug-fueled bands of that era.

Language commentator Geoff Nunberg reflects on his home city, and the cultural and linguistic differences that separate the natives from the tourists.