This episode takes a look at the medical community’s first encounter with AIDS in San Francisco. As reports began to circulate of a mysterious disease affecting gay men, fear spread even faster than the virus itself. Here medical researchers and healthcare professionals discuss how the health community grappled with this fear of the unknown: from medical institutions and staff refusing to treat patients, to the internal conflict of the health practitioners themselves as they faced the reality that their pursuit to save lives could very well risk their own. Ultimately, the management of fear—among patients, the public, and the health community itself—proved to be one of the first steps in the city’s medical response to AIDS.

Read the full episode transcript here: https://ucblib.link/OHCPodcastS03E02

Ep 2: The Virus of Fear

Gunfighter Nation—GFN—is a wild summation of the experiences of its founders, Scott and Martin. Setting out to write a new chapter in the intertwining sagas of psychedelic and techno, GFN drives hard grooves and deep polyrhythmic beats into sonic explorations intended to liberate headphone jockeys and dance-floor denizens alike. Influenced by their shared California upbringing, Scott and Martin believe that the West still means something—a spirit of independence, rugged experiences, and a desire to push boundaries.
Scott is a graphic artist and, formerly, a promoter of underground warehouse raves (which got him run out of town by San Diego’s finest). Martin is a historian, author, and interviewer. Combined they create detailed sonic narratives that are firmly rooted in the present but also leaning toward the future of electronic music. GFN values and respects the past and thus proudly admits to drawing freely on historic sounds, from 90s techno to 80s acid, 70s disco to 60s psychedelia—and even 50s beat poetry and western swing of the 40s.
GFN began as an experiment, a dare really, in the summer of 2010. But the project quickly became more of an obsession than anything else. Rapidly jumping from entry-level software and hardware, Scott and Martin now compose their music, often begun as live jams, with Ableton Live 8. In addition to software instruments, Scott and Martin work with a growing stable of hardware instruments, including: Roland’s SH-01 GAIA, Korg’s Electribe EMX, Korg’s Microkorg XL, Korg’s Kaossilator Pro, and a host of effects pedals and live percussion instruments.
Scott and Martin employ the full range of these instruments in their live performances, which also often feature video accents; Scott and Martin are often joined in their live performances by guitar-wizard and notorious gunslinger Josey Wails. Typically, Scott and Martin use an Onyx Blackbird Firewire as their on-stage (and in-studio) pre-amp and mixer, thus sending only two lines to the front of the house.
Gunfighter Nation is based in San Francisco, California. GFN has performed at the Folsom Street Fair (SF), Red Devil Lounge (SF), Milk Bar (SF), Hotel Utah (SF), the Uptown (Oakland), and the Shrouded Monkey (Oakland).
DJs: we invite you to download our tracks and include them in your sets. If you do, shoot us a note and let us know!



The Oral History Center preserves voices of people from all walks of life, with varying political perspectives, national origins, and ethnic backgrounds. Our podcast, The Berkeley Remix, delves into pressing issues, making our vast archive accessible to scholars and the public. The UC Berkeley Oral History Center, a division of The Bancroft Library, was founded in 1953 and produces carefully researched, audio/video-recorded, and transcribed oral histories and interpretative historical materials for the widest possible use.