Ghosts and Glamour Take the San Francisco Stage
A former bartender at San Francisco’s Condor Club, the first topless bar in America, says the place is haunted. She describes a bottle of Hennessy that wouldn’t stay put, footsteps on empty stairs and a shadowy figure she’s sure was legendary dancer Carol Doda. “Spooked” podcast producer Zoë Ferrigno visits the North Beach club and digs into the history behind the stories, including a deadly accident that may not have been an accident at all.
Jason Sharma grew up mesmerized by Bollywood actresses but felt he couldn’t look or act like them. Raj Krishna did drag in secret in Singapore before moving to the U.S. Now they perform as Chai Auntea and Bindi Masala as a part of Masala Mahal, one of the only Desi drag collectives in the country. KQED’s Srishti Prabha follows them from a rehearsal in Oakland to a South Asian pride party in San Francisco, and delves into their response to feeling cast aside by both their own culture and mainstream drag.