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San Francisco: City of Freedom?

Matthew Bannister asks San Franciscans for their stories of freedom. He meets a former hippie, a gay rights campaigner, a legendary music journalist and two tech entrepreneurs.

As part of the BBC's season of programmes on the theme of freedom, Outlook has been to San Francisco, a city long-associated with social and creative liberty, to find out if that spirit still exists.

Matthew Bannister meets Jay Thelin, a former hippie who, in the 1960s grew his hair long, took mind-altering drugs and believed he could change the world.

Ben Fong-Torres was the News Editor of the legendary Rolling Stone magazine in the 60s and early 70s; he got up close and personal with the rock stars of his generation whose experimentation was redefining popular music.

Rights activist Cleve Jones tells us about the freedom he experienced as a young gay man arriving in San Francisco in the 1970s and how things changed when AIDs devastated his community.

We also meet the new breed of San Franciscan: hi-tech entrepreneurs already worth millions of dollars, and by contrast - a single parent family living in public housing on the other side of the tracks.

Available now

55 minutes

Last on

Tue 1 Apr 201402:06GMT

Broadcasts

  • Mon 31 Mar 201411:06GMT
  • Mon 31 Mar 201421:06GMT
  • Tue 1 Apr 201402:06GMT

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