Tales of the City

From debunking Mark Twain to tracking down Lefty O'Doul, podcaster Richard Miller is hot on SF's trail.

Ask Richard Miller why his popular podcast on SF history is called Sparkletack—the subject matter has nothing to do with sparkles or tacks, after all—and the Oroville, CA, native will tell you he simply liked the sound of the words. “I wanted something that sounded cool but wouldn’t tie me down to any particular subject,” says Miller, who began broadcasting his weekly history lessons on the Internet in May of 2005 with a short, off-the-cuff chat about the abandoned household castoffs found on streets all over the city.

“When I did that story, I just picked up a microphone and started speculating about all the leftover desks and couches,” says the 40-year-old graphic designer, who recently resumed his podcast after taking a six-month hiatus. “I quickly realized that working without a script and having no solid facts to back up my words wasn’t going to work.”

Since that first broadcast, Miller has spent an average of 30 hours carefully researching each of his aural essays, whether it’s on the Japanese origins of the fortune cookie or the legend of Lefty O’Doul. “It really bothers me when stories have been altered or embellished. That’s the biggest difference between me and Mark Twain,” says Miller of the legendary raconteur, whose colloquial writing style is evident in the podcaster’s stories. “He never let the truth get in the way of a good story.”

Discovering, for instance, that Levi Strauss was not the originator of the blue jean—that honor goes to a Nevada tailor named Jacob Davis—came as a big surprise to Miller. “I thought I knew the story, but I did the research and found some historic letters that proved I was wrong. It motivated me to start getting the facts straight.”

Currently, the amateur historian is working on a Sparkletack essay book, and ultimately hopes to hang up his graphic-design hat to podcast fulltime. (He’s now turning out two segments per month.) Which may help to explain his recent move to Sacramento, after 17 years in SF—the cost of living is lower there, and the Internet hasn’t made him rich yet. Still, when he’s overseas and people ask him where he’s from, “I always say San Francisco,” says Miller. “Eyes light up. They say, ‘I’ve been there,’ or ‘My aunt lives there.’ Everyone is connected to the city. Its stories resonate all over the world.”

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