George McCalman keeps a sketchbook the way other people keep a diary, except his pages end up in the San Francisco Chronicle. For years he ran art departments at magazines that told other people's stories; now he tells his own, one watercolor image at a time.

Born in Grenada, raised in Brooklyn, and remade in San Francisco, George is the illustrator and author behind Illustrated Black History, a 500-plus-page tribute to figures both iconic and nearly forgotten. His Chronicle column Observed turns the city into a running visual essay — the coffee shop regulars, the drag queens, the protest marches, the funerals — rendered with the patience of someone who knows that seeing is a form of respect.

Join us for a searching conversation about who gets to be considered beautiful, how taste used to be manufactured by curators and is now generated by the algorithm, how you draw a face you've never seen, and what an immigrant kid from Grenada learned about holding up a mirror to America.

Warm Intro
A conversation, not an interview. Warm, sometimes weird, conversations with interesting people doing big things.

Warm Intro is a video podcast. We're available on every major podcast app and YouTube.

YouTube: @warmintro
Instagram: @warm.intro

Hosted by Chai Mishra
Chai is the Founder of The Essential, an ethical commerce company funded by the leading lights of Silicon Valley.

Chai served on the board of UNICEF, and has advised cities, universities, national sports teams and Fortune 500 corporations. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Chai’s work has also been covered in publications ranging from the SF Chronicle to Business Insider.

Presented by Wefunder
Wefunder created The Community Round.
— allowing founders to raise funds directly from their communities
— allowing anyone to support their favorite founders and join their success.

Raise on Wefunder

Views here are those of the host and the guest. Wefunder makes the show possible but doesn't control who we have on or what we say.

Cate Hall was once the highest-ranked female poker player in the world. But that’s not the most incredible part of her story.

Cate was a Supreme Court lawyer before walking away to play poker full-time. Within a year, she had become the highest-ranked female player in the world. Since then, she’s led a multibillion-dollar science foundation, co-founded a pandemic medicine company, and built a Substack that has become a cult favorite for its unflinching writing on agency, addiction, and what it takes to reinvent yourself.

Join us for a searching conversation about agency and the invisible rules most people mistake for laws, what poker taught her about risk and pressure, how to tell when you’re being lied to, the acid trips that reordered her sense of self, finding God in unexpected places, and what she thinks happens when we die.

Cate’s new book, You Can Just Do Things, out July 21st. It’s a prison-break manual for anyone who has been quietly waiting for permission to live the life they actually want.

Warm Intro
A conversation, not an interview. Warm, sometimes weird, conversations with interesting people doing big things.

Warm Intro is a video podcast. We're available on every major podcast app and YouTube.

YouTube: @warmintro
Instagram: @warm.intro

Hosted by Chai Mishra
Chai is the Founder of The Essential, an ethical commerce company funded by the leading lights of Silicon Valley.

Chai served on the board of UNICEF, and has advised cities, universities, national sports teams and Fortune 500 corporations. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Chai’s work has also been covered in publications ranging from the SF Chronicle to Business Insider.

Presented by Wefunder
Wefunder created The Community Round.
— allowing founders to raise funds directly from their communities
— allowing anyone to support their favorite founders and join their success.

Raise on Wefunder

Views here are those of the host and the guest. Wefunder makes the show possible but doesn't control who we have on or what we say.

Broke-Ass Stuart showed up in San Francisco with a notebook, a hangover, and no money--then turned all three into a twenty-year career. The writer, publisher, and man-about-town, Stuart Schuffman, built brokeassstuart.com from a photocopied zine into one of the city's last independent local news outlets, ran for mayor, hosted his own IFC travel show, and, on October 17, 2025, even had an official San Francisco holiday declared in his honor by the Board of Supervisors.

His new book, The Worst of Broke-Ass Stuart: 20 Years of Love, Death & Dive Bars, brings together two decades of writing about San Francisco and the people who make it interesting. It's part memoir, part collection of stories, and a look at the artists, activists, weirdos, and regulars that have shaped the city over the years.

Join us for a conversation about staying broke on purpose, building an independent media business, running for mayor with no money and no shame, why dive bars still matter, and what it feels like to have the city you love give you your own holiday.

Warm Intro
A conversation, not an interview. Warm, sometimes weird, conversations with interesting people doing big things.

Warm Intro is a video podcast. We're available on every major podcast app and YouTube.

YouTube: @warmintro
Instagram: @warm.intro

Hosted by Chai Mishra
Chai is the Founder of The Essential, an ethical commerce company funded by the leading lights of Silicon Valley.

Chai served on the board of UNICEF, and has advised cities, universities, national sports teams and Fortune 500 corporations. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Chai’s work has also been covered in publications ranging from the SF Chronicle to Business Insider.

Presented by Wefunder
Wefunder created The Community Round.
— allowing founders to raise funds directly from their communities
— allowing anyone to support their favorite founders and join their success.

Raise on Wefunder

Views here are those of the host and the guest. Wefunder makes the show possible but doesn't control who we have on or what we say.