I was a guest on Tony DuShane’s eponymous podcast/radio show, Drinks with Tony. We discuss the craft writing, how I ended up driving a taxi, my experiences with Lyft and Uber, how I landed a gig writing a column for the S.F. Examiner, the pandemic and how a little bit of success can lead to a whole lot of despair.
I think. We talked for a while, and I kinda hoping he edited a bunch of stuff out…
Anyway. Not sure what Tony was drinking, but I had a seltzer on ice.
Check out the podcast here.
The Urban Suburban Girl blog reviewed the third issue of Behind the Wheel. Can’t ask for better praise than this:
“A must read, especially for San Francisco residents. It brought back the San Francisco edge in my mind’s eye, the edge that has been disappearing slowly as gentrification has been taking over. It will encourage you to join the resistance.”
Check it out here.
Lots of other good stuff on this blog as well, with a focus on SF and the Bay Area.
Get your copy of Behind the Wheel 3: From Uber/Lyft to Taxi here.
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Last month, I went to the KALW studios and talked with Jenee Darden about the I Drive S.F. column, the Behind the Wheel zine series, how I ended up driving for Uber and Lyft, then switching to taxi and what it’s like dealing with all those things in a city like San Francisco.
The interview aired on January 30, 2019.
Ridesharing services offer on-demand rides much like taxicabs, but distinguish themselves from cabs by emphasizing the friendly, social aspect of the in-car interaction. Crucial to the ability of these companies to distinguish themselves from cabs has been the insertion of smartphones as “social interfaces” between drivers and passengers, restructuring social interaction through an allegorithm the productive co-deployment of a socially relevant allegorical script and a software-mediated algorithm). Much of the affective labor of ridesharing drivers consists in maintaining this affective framing and internalizing the logic by which their performances are monitored. In this article the writings of three ridesharing drivers will be drawn on to illustrate the ways drivers develop and evaluate their own performances as ridesharing drivers.
This scholarly article in Surveillance and Society (available as a free PDF) by Donald Nathan Anderson explores the “social interface” as part of driving for Uber and Lyft, and how the companies utilize algorithms to remotely monitor – and ultimately control – the behaviors of drivers and passengers.
The author references the first two issues of Behind the Wheel, as well as early I Drive SF blog posts, to elucidate the Uber/Lyft experience from a driver’s perspective.
A few months ago I was a guest on the Two Paychecks Podcast, an anarchist podcast out of the Pacific Northwest.
We talk about my gonzo adventures documenting the Uber/Lyft experience before going pro as a bonafide taxi driver. From recording the vapid attitudes of the new urbanites to going full-on Jerry Springer on a panel at a tech conference, this rambling exchange covers a lot of ground.
The Two Paychecks Podcast is also available on iTunes.
VIDEO: Short clip from an interview with Kelly Dessaint, filmed by John Han, about the insurance question when driving for Uber and Lyft.
An outtake from Han’s full-length Uber/Lyft/Taxi documentary “Driving for Hire.”
Watch the entire interview here.
VIDEO: Short clip from an interview with Kelly Dessaint, filmed by John Han, about how drivers make money driving for Uber and Lyft.
An outtake from Han’s full-length Uber/Lyft/Taxi documentary “Driving for Hire.”
Watch the entire interview here.
AUDIO: On Dec. 1, 2016, I was a guest on the Getting Higher Radio podcast, hosted by AJ Cook and Jon Foreman. We had a rowdy conversation about taxis, drugs, politics and life in San Francisco.
I Drive S.F. 