This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with Los Angeles-based writer Will Hagle. Will is a co-host of the Connecting The Classics podcast and a great deal of his work can be found on the webzine Passion of The Weiss. He is also the author of the excellent 33 ⅓ book dedicated to MF DOOM and Madlib’s album Madvillainy. The book — which is the focus of this episode — celebrates Madvillainy as a representation of two genius musical minds melding to form one revered supervillain. A product of circumstance, the album came together soon after MF DOOM's resurgence and Madlib's reluctant return from avant-garde jazz to hip-hop. Written from the alternating perspectives of three fake music journalist superheroes — and featuring interviews with Wildchild, Cut Chemist, M.E.D, Walasia, Stones Throw execs, and many other individuals involved with the album's creation — Will’s book blends fiction and non-fiction to celebrate Madvillainy not just as an album, but as a folkloric artifact. It is one specific retelling of a story which, like Madvillain's music, continues to spawn infinite legends. In this episode host Michael Shields and Will Hagle discuss both Madlib and MF DOOM’s origin story while expounding at length what makes Madvillainy such a special and enduring piece of art. They explore the somewhat disputed stories on how MF DOOM and Madlib connected for the project, and dig into how unique it was that Madvillainy existed as an album that straddled the analog and digital eras. They celebrate the song “Accordion,” as one of the most unparalleled songs in hip-hop history, remark on Madvillainy's profound influence in modern music, and so much more.

Grab a copy of Will Hagle’s Madvillainy 33⅓ here — and learn more about Will’s projects at his subtack.

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast features an interview with Joanna Schwartz, a professor of law at UCLA, where she teaches civil procedure and courses on police accountability and public interest lawyering. Her writing, commentary, and research about police misconduct, qualified immunity, indemnification, and local government budgeting have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Christian Science Monitor, ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, CNN, NPR, and elsewhere. Her latest book, Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable, is the focus of this episode. In recent years, the high-profile murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many others have brought much-needed attention to the pervasiveness of police misconduct. Yet it remains nearly impossible to hold police accountable for abuses of power. The decisions of the Supreme Court, state and local governments, and policy makers have, over decades, made the police all but untouchable. In Shielded, Joanna exposes the myriad ways in which our legal system protects police at all costs, with insightful analyses about subjects ranging from qualified immunity to no-knock warrants. The product of more than two decades of advocacy and research, Shielded is a timely and necessary investigation into why civil rights litigation so rarely leads to justice or prevents future police misconduct. Weaving powerful true stories of people seeking restitution for violated rights, cutting across race, gender, criminal history, tax bracket, and zip code, Schwartz paints a compelling picture of the human cost of our failing criminal justice system, bringing clarity to a problem that is widely known but little understood. Shielded is a masterful work of immediate and enduring consequence, revealing what tragically familiar calls for “justice” truly entail. In this episode host Michael Shields and Joanna examine the legal principle of Qualified Immunity as well as Section 1983 of The Civil Rights Act which has been methodically made less powerful by the Supreme Court over the last five decades. They discuss the varying barriers to accountability that exist within the legal system and the myths that act as the backbone of justifying the protection of police misconduct. They explore changes that are occurring that might hint at a days ahead with more robust civil rights enforcement, and so much more.

Grab a copy of Shielded: How The Police Became Untouchable here!

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast features an interview with Deborah Rowan Wright, an independent researcher, ocean advocate, and marine-policy researcher who writes about marine conservation. She has worked with the UK NGOs Whale & Dolphin Conservation, Friends of the Earth, and Marinet. Her work on marine renewable energy, ocean governance reform, and public-trust law has been published by the International Whaling Commission and the Ecologist, among others. In 2010, her policy document The Ocean Planet formed an integral part of Marinet’s Common Fisheries Policy reform campaign, and it won her Friends of the Earth’s Communication of the Year Award. The world’s oceans face multiple threats: the effects of Climate Change, pollution, overfishing, plastic waste, and more. Confronted with the immensity of these challenges and of the oceans themselves, we might wonder what more can be done to stop their decline and better protect the sea and marine life. Such widespread environmental threats call for a simple but significant shift in reasoning to bring about long-overdue, elemental change in the way we use ocean resources. In Deborah’s book, Future Sea, she provides the tools for that shift. Questioning the underlying philosophy of established ocean conservation approaches, Rowan Wright lays out a radical alternative — a bold and far-reaching strategy of 100 percent ocean protection that would put an end to destructive industrial activities, better safeguard marine biodiversity, and enable ocean wildlife to return and thrive along coasts and in seas around the globe. Future Sea is essentially concerned with the solutions and not the problems and it shines a light on existing international laws intended to keep marine environments safe that could underpin this new strategy. Deborah gathers inspiring stories of communities and countries using ocean resources wisely, as well as of successful conservation projects, to build up a cautiously optimistic picture of the future for our oceans. A passionate, sweeping, and personal account, Future Sea not only argues for systemic change in how we manage what we do in the sea but also describes steps that anyone, from children to political leaders (or indeed, any reader of the book), can take toward safeguarding the oceans and their extraordinary wildlife. In this episode host Michael Shields and Deborah Rowan Wright discuss the bevy of threats facing the ocean and the countless reasons why protecting the oceans is so crucial. They consider how the oceans aid in fighting Climate Change, how the Public Trust Doctrine might be employed to help protect our oceans, small solutions we can all do to safeguard our seas, the magnificent sea creatures who call the oceans home that need our protection, and much, much more.

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This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast presents an interview with prolific percussionist, vibraphonist, bandleader, and vocalist Mike Dillon. How many artists have been praised as a “punk rock provocateur,” “jazz  vibraphone visionary,” and “percussion virtuoso”? There’s only one: Mike Dillon. Whether through his affiliation with artists like Les Claypool of Primus, Rickie Lee Jones, Dean Ween Group, and Ani Difranco, and collaborations such as Nolatet, Garage a Trois, The Dead Kenny G's, Critters Buggin, or bands he has led, including Mike Dillon Band, Mike Dillon's New Orleans Punk Rock Percussion Consortium, Billy Goat, and Hairy Apes BMX, the Texas-native has set his own standard for three decades now. Over the past decade, Mike Dillon has released a number of acclaimed albums, intertwining a range of influences from Zappa-esque eccentricity to Fishbone punk funk, D.C. Go-Go to Milt Jackson-influenced vibraphone majesty. His latest project, a trio that goes by the name Punkadelick, features Brian Haas (Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey) on Fender Rhodes, piano, bass Moog and melodica, and Nikki Glaspie (Beyonce, Nth Power) on drums, cymbals, and vocals. Punkadelick’s latest album, Inflorescence, is an expansive 10-track collection, focused and fearless, representing a world where Duke Ellington and Augustus Pablo rub shoulders with crate-digger exotica, the freak-funk of Parliament, and the 'anything fits' outsider ethos of acid-fried punks like The Meat Puppets. In this episode host Michael Shields and Mike Dillon discuss the genesis of Punkadelick and what it’s like creating music with phenomenal talents such as Brian Haas and Nikki Glaspie. They discuss the botanical influence behind the album’s title, life on the road amid their current tour, the forthcoming tour with Les Claypool and The Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, and so much more.

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast features an interview with Director Connor Martin and Executive Producer Tony Kriz, part of the team behind the eye-opening new documentary Sentenced. Each year millions of kids are sentenced to a future they don’t deserve because of their inability to read, and Sentenced shines a bright light on this devastating problem. The motivation behind the film is simple — over 43 million Americans can't read well enough to get a job and support a family. The film posits there are actually no illiterate children, just children who haven't learned to read yet. Sentenced exposes this tragic reality and presents a solution for overcoming failing systems and preventing kids from disappearing into society's margins. Filmed from the point of view of ethnically diverse adults and children who have never learned to read, Sentenced is a powerful yet tender tale of how literacy can free children from the cycles of generational poverty. In this episode host Michael Shields, Connor Martin, and Tony Kriz discuss the staggering number of adults in the United States who score low in literacy while considering the small window of time that children are afforded the opportunity to learn how to read. They discuss the role of a parent or adult in learning to read and write, how experiencing trauma early in life affects a child’s ability to process information, how illiteracy is passed down through generations in families, and so much more.

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with Sequoia Maner, Assistant Professor of English at Spelman College. She is author of the poetry collection Little Girl Blue (2021) and co-editor of the book Revisiting the Elegy in the Black Lives Matter Era (2020). Her poem “upon reading the autopsy of Sandra Bland” was a finalist for the 2017 Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize. Her essays, poems, and reviews can be found in venues such as Meridians, Obsidian, The Langston Hughes Review, The Feminist Wire, Auburn Avenue, and elsewhere. Sequoia is also the author of the 33 ⅓ book dedicated to Kendrick Lamar’s seminal album To Pimp a Butterfly, which is the focus of this episode. Breaking the global record for streams in a single day, nearly 10 million people around the world tuned in to hear Kendrick Lamar's sophomore album in the hours after its release. To Pimp a Butterfly was widely hailed as an instant classic, garnering laudatory album reviews, many awards, and even a canonized place in Harvard's W. E. B. Du Bois archive. Sequoia’s book takes a deep dive into the sounds, images, and lyrics of To Pimp a Butterfly to suggest that Kendrick appeals to the psyche of a nation in crisis and embraces the development of a radical political conscience. Kendrick breathes fresh life into the Black musical protest tradition and cultivates a platform for loving resistance. Combining funk, jazz, and spoken word, To Pimp a Butterfly's expansive sonic and lyrical geography brings a high level of innovation to rap music. Kendrick's introspective and philosophical songs found on this brilliant work of art launched him into another stratosphere of stardom and influence. In this episode, host Michael Shields and Sequoia Maner explore how a trip to South Africa, and the great Tupac Shakur, inspired the themes and soundscapes of To Pimp a Butterfly. They discuss the impact the empowering track “Alright” had on the protest movement and Black Lives Matter, the collaborative effort it took to bring such a complex album to life, and so much more.

Grab a copy of Sequoia Maner’s To Pimp a Butterfly 33 ⅓ here!

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast features an interview with Louis L. Reed who organized a national grassroots network of reform activists after serving fourteen years in federal prison, and Brandon Kramer, a Washington, DC-based filmmaker and co-founder of Meridian Hill Pictures. Brandon directed City of Trees. and the Webby Award-winning independent documentary series The Messy Truth. Brandon won Best Director at the 2016 Chesapeake Film Festival and Indie Capital Awards, received the Audience Choice Award at the 2015 American Conservation Film Festival and was a 2015 DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities Individual Arts Fellow. He has directed over 30 short documentaries commissioned by public agencies and nonprofits including AARP and US Institute of Peace. Before starting Meridian Hill Pictures, Brandon served as a teaching artist for the John F. Kennedy Center’s national media education program. Brandon’s latest documentary, The First Step, finds activist and famed CNN correspondent Van Jones, in a divided American, controversially working across party lines on landmark criminal justice reform and a more humane response to America's addiction crisis. Attempting to be a bridge builder in a time of extreme polarization takes him deep into the inner workings of a divisive administration, internal debates within both parties, and the lives of frontline activists fighting for their communities. Facing fierce opposition from both political parties in a climate where bipartisanship has become a dirty word, Jones and his team enlist the support of justice-impacted individuals, faith leaders, grassroots activists and cultural figures — including Kim Kardashian — to pass legislation that would fix some broken aspects of the justice system and bring thousands of incarcerated people home early. The bill’s champions immediately find themselves navigating a high-stakes game of political chess in Washington, D.C. Their quest brings them face-to-face with progressive champions like Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, U.S. Senators Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders, as well as conservative figures like U.S. Senator Rand Paul, Kellyanne Conway, Jared Kushner — and ultimately, Donald Trump himself. While trying to pass a bipartisan bill through a deeply polarized Congress, Jones is condemned by the right for his progressive beliefs — and by the left for working with conservatives. The film reveals an intimate portrait of an activist’s isolation and internal struggles, what it takes to make change in a divided nation, and everyday people in both political parties drawn into a historic fight for freedom and justice.

The First Step is screening this weekend (2.17.23) at The Justice Film Festival. The Justice Film Festival is the premier showcase for films that shine a light on social justice and affirm the dignity of all people. Learn more about the Justice Film Festival here, including showtimes and schedule of all events.

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast features an interview with prolific author and renowned scientist and thinker Howard Bloom, who was also a music publicist in the 1970s and 1980s for performers such as Prince, Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, and Styx (to name a just few). He has published a book on Islam, The Muhammad Code, an autobiography, How I Accidentally Started The Sixties — which is the focus of this episode — and three books on human evolution and group behavior: The Genius of the Beast, Global Brain, and The Lucifer Principle. Howard has been called the Einstein, Newton, and Freud of the 21st century (by Britain's Channel 4 TV). One of his seven books — Global Brain — was the subject of a symposium thrown by the Office of the Secretary of Defense which included representatives from the State Department, the Energy Department, IBM, and MIT. His work has been published in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Psychology Today, and Scientific American. He has been in Science since the age of ten, starting in microbiology and theoretical physics. Currently, he is working on a project entitled “The Grand Unified Theory of Everything in the Universe Including the Human Soul,” and he can be heard at 1:06 am EST every Wednesday night on 545 radio stations on Coast to Coast AM. Even amid his enormous contributions to Science, Howard found the time to birth the largest PR firm in the music industry which led him to work with the aforementioned artists as well as with Paul Simon, Bette Midler, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Kiss, Queen, Peter Gabriel, David Byrne, and Run DMC. In that role he helped found Farm Aid and Amnesty International. More recently he's collaborated with Buzz Aldrin and the 11th president of India, Dr. APJ Kalam, on harvesting solar power in space and transmitting it to earth, a path to net zero and the Green New Deal (For more, see http://howardbloom.institute or howardbloom.net.) In a career and life spanning interview, host Michael Shields and Howard Bloom dig deep into Howard’s roots, inspirations, and adventures that helped forge one of the most fascinating and innovative minds of the modern era. They discuss the teachings of poets and scientists that have forever shaped Howard’s worldview and the dynamic way in which he lives his life. They explore the idea of “ecstatic” emotions, having an interdisciplinary approach to both work and life, the benefits of being a perpetual outsider, his current work with the Howard Bloom Institute, a project entitled “The Glorified Theory of Everything in the Universe Including the Human Soul,” and so much more.

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast features an interview with William J. Carl (PhD), a Greek scholar, screenwriter and playwright, former professor, seminary president, and pastor, who has spoken at Oxford, Cambridge, Princeton, Cornell, Boston University, Carnegie Mellon, as well as many other schools in the U.S., and internationally. He is the author of eight nonfiction books and one novel entitled Assassin's Manuscript — the focus of this episode. He also lectures on the Brain at medical schools and medical conferences. Assassin’s Manuscript tells the story of when former CIA assassin Adam Hunter’s last hit goes awry and he attempts to leave behind his world of espionage and murder by embarking on a career in ministry. But soon, he is pulled back in to crack a code hidden in an ancient manuscript in order to foil a terrorist plot. In the meantime, Renie Ellis, a lawyer in the small town he’s moved to, gets caught up in his dilemma and falls in love with him, not realizing he killed her fiancé by accident. The heist of a famous Codex from the British Museum, Papal intrigue in the Vatican, Sicilian and Russian Mafia involvement, and a U.S. President who knows more than she admits, all play key roles in a story that keeps the reader guessing until the end. From Rome to Jerusalem, from Egypt’s Mt. Sinai to Tennessee’s Smoky Mountains, the characters in Assassin’s Manuscript scramble for their lives, racing the clock to prevent an international disaster. In this episode host Michael Shields and William Carl discuss the vast amount of research involved in bringing Assassin’s Manuscript to life (including interviewing multiple real-life assassins). They discuss the exotic locations brought vividly to life in the book and the diverse and unique motivations of the eclectic grouping of characters found in the novel. They explore the weighty themes present in the book, the legendary text (the Codex Sinaiticus) that lies at the heart of Assassin’s Manuscript, what might be in store for the character of Adam Hunter moving forward, and so much more.

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his episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast features an interview with Catherine K. Ettman, the chief of staff and director of strategic initiatives at the Boston University School of Public Health. Catherine is the co-editor of Urban Health (Oxford University Press, 2019) and Migration and Health (University of Chicago Press, 2022) — the book that is the focus of this episode. Her important work explores the social and economic factors that shape population mental health. International migrants compose more than three percent of the world’s population, and internal migrants — those migrating within countries — are more than triple that number. Population migration has long been, and remains today, one of the central demographic shifts shaping the world around us. The world’s history — and its health — is shaped and colored by stories of migration patterns, the policies and political events that drive these movements, and narratives of individual migrants. Migration and Health offers the most expansive framework to date for understanding and reckoning with human migration’s implications for public health and its determinants. It interrogates this complex relationship by considering not only the welfare of migrants, but also that of the source, destination, and ensuing-generation populations. The result is an elevated, interdisciplinary resource for understanding what is known — and the considerable territory of what is not known—at an intersection that promises to grow in importance and influence as the century unfolds. In this episode host Michael Shields and Catherine discuss the drivers of migration and just how many people across the globe are classified as migrants. They explore the mental health concerns affecting migrants while considering how Climate Change heightens matters revolving around migration and health. They discuss the role of the World Health Organization (WHO) in mitigating health concerns of migrants, how Universal Health Coverage (UHC) can be a pivotal tool in improving the overall health of migrants, and so much more.

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This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast presents an interview with novelist David Goodwillie about his book Kings County. Goodwillie is also the author of the novel American Subversive, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and the memoir Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time. Goodwillie has written for the New York Times, New York Magazine, Newsweek, and Popular Science, among other publications. He has also been drafted to play professional baseball, worked as a private investigator, and was an expert at Sotheby’s auction house. In this episode host Michael Shields, who describes Kings County as a "love letter to Brooklyn," discusses with Goodwillie his relationship to the borough and to all the musicians and artists featured in the story. They discuss the characters in the book and themes that propel the book revolving around change. They explore how Goodwillie brought to life the big reveal of the book in a deeply-affecting letter, how a minor character ended up having one of the bigger moments in Kings County, the origins behind a gay cat named Richard, and so much more.

Learn more about Love Velma: Love Velma is a private 100 capacity jazz venue and nightclub located on the ground floor of The Mod House of Ellenville, a mid-century modern lodge and social club in Ellenville, NY — just ninety minutes north of New York City. A proper speakeasy with incredible sound, Velma’s monthly shows are packed with smartly dressed music and art obsessives. Run by drummer and music industry veteran Nick Gordon, artists are encouraged to come early and soak up The Mod House’s three acres of secluded land. 

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with Dr. Paul Smith, who serves as the secretary-general of Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI). BGCI leads the Global Tree Assessment and recently published the “GTAReportMedRes-1.pdf">State of the World’s Trees Report” showing that one-third of the world’s tree species are threatened with extinction. Prior to joining BGCI, Paul was the head of the Millennium Seed Bank of the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew. He is editor of The Book of Seeds, published by the University of Chicago Press. His most recent book — Trees: From Root To Leaf — is the focus of this episode. Trees provoke deep affection, spirituality, and creativity. They cover about a third of the world’s land and play a crucial role in our environmental systems — influencing the water, carbon, and nutrient cycles and the global climate. This puts trees at the forefront of research into mitigating our climate emergency. In Paul’s astonishingly comprehensive book, he celebrates all that trees have inspired across nearly every human culture throughout history. Generously illustrated with over 450 images and organized according to a tree's life cycles — from seeds and leaves to wood, flowers, and fruit — his book lauds the great diversity and beauty of the 60,000 tree species that inhabit our planet. In this episode, host Michael Shields and Dr. Paul Smith explore the wonders found within Trees: From Root To Leaf. They discuss the magical ways in which seeds spread themselves throughout the world and the crucial work done at seed banks internationally. They discuss how Climate Change is affecting tree populations and other threats to tree extinction throughout the planet, and much, much more.

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In this episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast, host Michael Shields interviews music critic and journalist Steven Hyden, the author of This Isn’t Happening, Twilight of the Gods, Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me, and (with Steve Gorman) Hard to Handle. His writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Washington Post, Billboard, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Grantland, The A.V. Club, Slate, and Salon. He is currently the cultural critic at UPROXX. Hyden’s latest book, Long Road: Pearl Jam and the Soundtrack Of A Generation, the focus of this episode, Hyden celebrates the life, career, and music of Pearl Jam, widely considered to be one of the greatest American rock bands of all time. Much like the generation it emerged from, Pearl Jam is a mass of contradictions. They were an enormously successful mainstream rock band who felt deeply uncomfortable with the pursuit of capitalistic spoils. They were progressive activists who spoke in favor of abortion rights and against the Ticketmaster monopoly, and yet they epitomized the sound of traditional, male-dominated rock ‘n’ roll. They were looked at as spokesmen for their generation, even though they ultimately projected profound confusion and alienation. They triumphed, and failed, in equal doses — the quintessential Gen-X tale. Impressive as their stats, accolades, and longevity may be, Hyden also argues that Pearl Jam’s most definitive accomplishment lies in the impact their music had on Generation X as a whole. Pearl Jam’s music helped an entire generation of listeners connect with the glory of bygone rock mythology, and made it relevant during a period in which tremendous American economic prosperity belied a darkness at the heart of American youth. More than just a chronicle of the band’s career, this book is also a story about Gen-X itself, who like Pearl Jam came from angsty, outspoken roots and then evolved into an establishment institution, without ever fully shaking off their uncertain, outsider past. For so many Gen-Xers growing up at the time, Pearl Jam’s music was a beacon that offered both solace and guidance. They taught an entire generation how to grow up without losing the purest and most essential parts of themselves. In this episode host Michael Shields and Steven Hyden discuss the unique way in which Hyden decided to organize the book and what a cassette known as the “Momma-Son Tape” meant to the genesis of Pearl Jam. They talk about how a fateful night at Red Rocks Amphitheater in June of 1995 helped shape the band's identity and how the Grateful Dead influenced Pearl Jam in the later stages of their career. They explore Hyden’s love for guitarist Mark McGrady, the singular way in which Gen-X often turns on their childhood musical heroes, how Pearl Jam found a way to survive and thrive well into their middle ages when so many of their peers crashed and burned, and so much more.

Grab a copy of Long Road: Pearl jam and the Soundtrack of a Generation by Steven Hyden here!

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with the author of Song Noir: Tom Waits and the Spirit of Los Angeles, Alex Harvey. Alex Harvey is a producer and director of programs including Panorama and The Late Show for the BBC. His films include The Lives of Animals and Enter the Jungle. Based in Los Angeles, he regularly writes on literature, film, and music for the London Review of Books and Los Angeles Review of Books. His book, Song Noir, examines the formative first decade of Tom Waits’s career, when he lived, wrote, and recorded nine albums in Los Angeles: from his soft, folk-inflected debut, Closing Time in 1973, to the abrasive, surreal Swordfishtrombones in 1983. Starting his songwriting career in the seventies, Waits absorbed Los Angeles’s wealth of cultural influences. Combining the spoken idioms of writers like Kerouac and Bukowski with jazz-blues rhythms, he explored the city’s literary and film noir traditions to create hallucinatory dreamscapes. Waits mined a rich seam of the city’s low-life locations and characters, letting the place feed his dark imagination. Mixing the domestic with the mythic, Waits turned quotidian, autobiographical details into something more disturbing and emblematic, a vision of Los Angeles as the warped, narcotic heart of his nocturnal explorations. In this episode host Michael Shields and Alex Harvey discuss what Tom Wait’s Los Angeles of the 1970s was actually like, a LA that doesn’t exist today. They explore how the Beat writers like Jack Kerouac and Charles Bukowski influenced Waits’ songwriting and how the city eventually became more of a trap than means of escape for Waits. The expound upon the character of Frank that Waits brought to life over a trilogy of albums, his highly accomplished acting career, and so much more.

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with Tara Watson, professor of economics at Williams College and a co-editor of the Journal of Human Resources, the leading academic journal in labor economics, as well as Kalee Thompson, a journalist and senior editor at Wirecutter and the author of Deadliest Sea: The Untold Story Behind the Greatest Rescue in Coast Guard History. Watson and Thompson are co-authors of The Border Within: The Economics of Immigration in an Age of Fear — the focus of this episode — which is a profoundly eye-opening analysis of the costs and effects of immigration and immigration policy, both on American life and on new Americans. For decades, immigration has been one of the most divisive, contentious topics in American politics. And for decades, urgent calls for its policy reform have gone mostly unanswered. As the discord surrounding the modern immigration debate has intensified, border enforcement has tightened. Crossing harsher, less porous borders makes unauthorized entry to the United States a permanent, costly undertaking. And the challenges don’t end on the other side. At once enlightening and devastating, The Border Within examines the costs and ends of America’s interior enforcement — the policies and agencies, including ICE, aimed at removing immigrants already living in the country. Economist Tara Watson and journalist Kalee Thompson pair rigorous analysis with deeply personal stories from immigrants and their families to assess immigration’s effects on every aspect of American life, from the labor force to social welfare programs to tax revenue. What emerges is a critical, utterly complete examination of what non-native Americans bring to the country, including immigration’s tendency to elevate the wages and skills of those who are native-born. In this episode, host Michael Shields, Tara Watson, and Kalee Thompson discuss the crucial focus of the book (interior immigration enforcement) while dispelling a bevy of myths surrounding immigration regarding the economic benefits of immigration, immigrants effect on crime rates, and the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of enforcement by agencies such as ICE. They discuss the concept of “chilling effects” and ponder what an ideal internal enforcement approach would look like. Ultimately this episode celebrates the essential work that is The Border Within, a book with far-reaching implications for immigrants and non-immigrants alike.

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with the author of Harvard’s Quixotic Pursuit of a New Science (The Rise and Fall of the Department of Social Relations), Patrick L. Schmidt. In Harvard’s Quixotic Pursuit of a New Science, Schmidt tells the little-known story of how some of the most renowned social scientists of the twentieth century struggled to elevate their emerging disciplines of cultural anthropology, sociology, and social and clinical psychology. Scorned and marginalized in their respective departments in the 1930s for pursuing the controversial theories of Freud and Jung, they persuaded Harvard to establish a new department, promising to create an interdisciplinary science that would surpass in importance Harvard’s “big three” disciplines of economics, government, and history. Although the Department of Social Relations failed to achieve this audacious goal, it nonetheless attracted an outstanding faculty, produced important scholarly work, and trained many notable graduates. At times, it was a wild ride. Some faculty became notorious for their questionable research: Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (reborn as Ram Dass) gave the psychedelic drug psilocybin to students, while Henry Murray traumatized undergraduate Theodore Kaczynski (later the Unabomber) in a three-year-long experiment. Central to the story is the obsessive quest of legendary sociologist Talcott Parsons for a single theory unifying the social sciences — the white whale to his Captain Ahab. All in all, Schmidt’s lively narrative is an instructive tale of academic infighting, hubris, and scandal. Patrick L. Schmidt is an attorney in Washington, D.C. He received a BA, magna cum laude, from Harvard College, a JD from Georgetown University, and an MIPP from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. He first examined the history of the Department of Social Relations in his undergraduate honors thesis at Harvard, meaning that he has lived with and examined this story for many years now. In this episode host Michael Shields and Patrick L. Schmidt examine why a group of some of the most distinguished social scientists of the twentieth century embarked up the controversial yet noble endeavor of birthing the multidisciplinary, innovative Department of Social Relations at Harvard. They discuss the famed thinkers that were members of the department such as Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Henry Murray, and Talcott Parsons. They explore the exciting rise of the Department of Social Relations, it’s controversial downfall, and ultimately expound upon the legacy and lasting impact of the movement and those a part of it. 

Grab a copy of Harvard’s Quixotic Pursuit of a New Science here!

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with musician Chris Forsyth. It isn't hyperbole to describe Chris as one of rock’s most gifted improvisers. Chris got his start in Brooklyn's experimental circles in the early 2000s and promptly grew into a masterful technical player. As the bandleader of Chris Forsyth & the Solar Motel Band, he composed mostly instrumental pieces that channeled both the psychedelic jamming of the Grateful Dead and the precision of art-punk guitar acts like Television. Whether with the Solar Motel Band or on his other solo projects, Chris sources from an extensive pool of influences — psychedelia, folk, noise, classic rock — melding the varying influences into Chris’s own brand of cerebral improvisational rock. Chris’s latest album — the focus of this episode — is entitled Evolution Here We Come, a largely instrumental album and a powerful and driving work of art. Featuring contributions from Douglas McCombs (Tortoise), Marshall Allen (Sun Ra Arkestra), Steve Wynn (The Dream Syndicate), Linda Pitmon (The Baseball Project), Tom Malach (Garcia Peoples), Ryan Jewell (Ryley Walker), and co-producer Dave Harrington (Darkside), Evolution Here We Come is seven sprawling sonic journeys that exhibit just how talented of a guitarist Chris persists as. In this episode host Michael Shields and Chris Forsyth discuss how music from the 80s and bands such as ZZ Top influenced Evolution Here We Come while talking about what it was like co-producing the album with Dave Harrington (Darkside). They recount how Chris was able to get Marshall Allen (Sun Ra Arkestra) to play on the album, what it meant to cover Richard Thompson’s “You’re Going To Need Somebody,” his forthcoming tour with Meg Baird, and so much more.

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with Woodstock, New York via North Carolina singer-songwriter Kenny Roby. Roby is the former lead singer of 6 String Drag, which he formed with bassist Rob Keller in the early 1990s, a band which quickly became one of the more notable bands of the Americana movement. The band's style ranged from old style country with a hint of soul and gospel to rock. While 6 String Drag broke up in the late 1990s, Roby continues to make records and play live shows with the Mercy Filter, which includes Scott McCall of $2 Pistols. Roby has released seven solo albums, his latest album — the focus of the episode — is self-titled and written and recorded in Woodstock, NY. Throughout Kenny Roby, the gifted storyteller embraces the spirits of songwriters who once inhabited the very same hills like Fred Neil, Van Morrison, Tim Hardin, Karen Dalton, Bobby Charles, Levon Helm and, of course, Bob Dylan. Over the album's dozen tracks, Roby — supported by a cast including Daniel Littleton (guitars), Jeff Hill (bass), Tony Leone (drums) and superb guest vocals from Amy Helm and the legendary John Sebastian on harmonica — takes us on a sprawling walk through the neighborhood of his mind. In this episode host Michael Shields and Kenny Roby discuss Kenny Roby’s genesis and the themes present in the album. They talk about the outstanding players on the album such as Amy Helm and John Sebastian while exploring how living in Woodstock, New York led to who contributed to the album’s enthralling sound. They discuss Roby’s friendship and working relationship with Neal Casal and the gifts that deep acquaintanceship still award Roby, and so much more. 

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with author Ryan Pinkard, a music journalist from Denver, Colorado. Pinkard is the author of the new 33 1/3 book, Boxer, which is the focus of this episode. Boxer is a comprehensive and enlightening oral history of the band that traces The National's early career and struggles, culminating in the creation of their watershed album. He has just begun work on his second book for 33 1/3's new Genre series, in which he'll explore the ethereal genre of Shoegaze. We all know the story of the Boxer. That grisly, bruised American allegory of a fighter who somehow gets up more times than he's knocked down. Pinkard’s 33 1/3 book, Boxer, chronicles the fight that nearly broke The National but turned out to be the one that allowed them to become champions. Released in 2007, The National's fourth full-length album is the masterpiece that veritably saved them. For fans, Boxer is a profound personal meditation on the unmagnificent lives of adults, an elegant culmination of their sophisticated songwriting, and the first National album many fell in love with. For the band, Boxer symbolizes an obsession, a years-long struggle, a love story, a final give-it-everything-you've-got effort to keep their fantasy of being a real rock band alive. Based on extensive original interviews with the fighters who were in the ring and the spectators who witnessed it unfold, Pinkard obsessively reconstructs a transformative chapter in The National's story, revealing how the Ohio-via-Brooklyn five-piece found the sound, success, and spiritual growth to evolve into one of the most critically acclaimed bands of their time. In this episode host Michael Shields and Ryan Pinkard dive deeply into what made Boxer such a game-changing album for The National while exploring the challenges and pressures the band faced while working on bringing the album to life. They discuss the importance of lead singer Matt Berninger’s wife Carin becoming his lyric writing partner during the Boxer sessions and how that has shaped the band to this day. They converse upon the political climate of the day that inspired the album’s essence and, ultimately, they ruminate on what Boxer means to the band’s legacy and to their enduring success.

Grab a copy of The National’s Boxer 33 ⅓ by Ryan Pinkard here!

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with musician and founding member/keyboardist for the progressive rock band Umphrey's McGee, Joel Cummins. Joel’s keyboard wizardry is widely established throughout the music world. Beyond his heralded work with the increasingly popular, must-see live act that is Umphrey’s McGee, Joel has released impressive solo work and plays in bands with the likes of Nels Cline, Mike Watt, Stephen Perkins of Jane's Addiction, and Chris Poland of Megadeth. Beyond that, he has collaborated with such acclaimed artists as Huey Lewis, Joshua Redman, Mavis Staples, Phil Lesh, Buddy Guy, Thundercat, A$AP Ferg, Bela Fleck, Victor Wooten, Warren Haynes, Bob Weir, and Les Claypool. Throughout their now twenty-four year career, Umphrey’s McGee has slowly but surely become one of America’s most crowd pleasing live acts. The band has been completely DIY their entire existence and have been extremely successful at it without any major label or management influence. While grouped within the genre, Umphrey's McGee doesn't fit a traditional "jamband" mold. With elements of prog and classic rock, and even heavy metal, influencing their sound and live performances, Umphrey’s McGee is a unique and captivating beast of band, one which has fostered legions of hardcore fans and has propelled to the top of festival bills, annual multi-night stands at venues such as Red Rocks and the Beacon Theater, and an extremely successful touring career.  Their latest album, Asking For a Friend, — the focus of this episode — is the band’s fourteenth studio effort and it might be their most emotionally charged and powerful yet. The reason for this heightened potency is pandemic related. Recorded over the course of three sessions at three different studios during the pandemic, Asking For A Friend represents a new approach for Umphrey’s McGee. With less pressure to finish the album quickly due to the industry-wide pause caused by the pandemic, the band was able to spend more time perfecting each track. In this episode host Michael Shields and Joel Cummins discuss the fascinating way Asking For a Friend was recorded amid the pandemic while expounding upon the band’s songwriting process in general. They talk about the lyrical themes of the album, what it has been like adding the music from Asking For a Friend into their live repertoire, and a great deal more!

Grab the vinyl or a digital copy of Asking For a Friend here!

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast features an interview with journalist, published author, and the foremost expert in this ever-changing QAnon conspiracy theory, Mike Rothschild. Mike is a contributing writer for millennial-focused news and technology site the Daily Dot, where he explores the intersections between internet culture and politics through the lens of conspiracy theories. As a subject matter expert in the field of fringe beliefs, Mike has been interviewed by the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, Yahoo, the Daily Beast, CBS, the San Francisco Chronicle, Rolling Stone, Snopes, NBC News, Vice, and Politico, among many others. He is also a frequent speaker, and podcast and radio guest on the topic of conspiracy theories, including NPR’s weekly show “On the Media,” a Vice documentary, and the ReplyAll podcast. On October 5, 2017, President Trump made a cryptic remark in the State Dining Room at a gathering of military officials. He said it felt like “the calm before the storm” — then refused to elaborate as puzzled journalists asked him to explain. But on the infamous message boards of 4chan, a mysterious poster going by “Q Clearance Patriot,” who claimed to be in “military intelligence,” began the elaboration on their own. In the days that followed, Q’s wild yarn explaining Trump’s remarks began to rival the sinister intricacies of a Tom Clancy novel, while satisfying the deepest desires of MAGA-America. Did any of what Q predicted come to pass? No. Did that stop people from clinging to every word they were reading, expanding its mythology, and promoting it wider and wider? No. In Mike Rosthchild’s The Storm Is Upon Us — the focus of this episode — readers are whisked from the background conspiracies and cults that fed the Q phenomenon, to its embrace by right-wing media and Donald Trump, through the rending of families as loved ones became addicted to Q’s increasingly violent rhetoric. He also makes a compelling case that mocking the seeming madness of QAnon will get us nowhere. Rather, his impassioned reportage makes clear that it’s critical to figure out what QAnon really is — because QAnon and its relentlessly dark theory of everything isn’t done yet. In this episode host Michael Shields and Mike Rothschild discuss the appeal of QAnon to far too many Americans while considering how the mythology of QAnon somehow continues to endure. They explore how Anti-semitism is deeply baked into QAnon’s mythology, how violent the movement has alway been (well before the January 6th Insurrection), how the pandemic affected the QAnon movement, how one can potential help release a family member from Q’s spell, and much, much more.

Grab a copy of The Storm Is Upon Us here!

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with journalist and author Philip Watson. Philip worked for a number of years at GQ, where he was deputy editor, and Esquire, where he was editor-at-large. He has been freelance for the past decade or more, contributing articles and features to many publications in Britain, Ireland and the US, including the Guardian, Telegraph Magazine, Sunday Times, Observer, Irish Times, London Evening Standard, Travel + Leisure, and music magazine The Wire. His most recent work Beautiful Dreamers: The Guitarist Who Changed The Sound of American Music — the focus of this episode — is the definitive biography of guitar icon and Grammy Award-winning artist, Bill Frisell, featuring exclusive interviews with Paul Simon, Bon Iver and more. Over a period of forty-five years, Bill Frisell has established himself as one of the most innovative musicians at work today. A quietly revolutionary guitar hero for our genre-blurring times, he has synthesized many disparate musical elements — from jazz to pop, folk to film music, ambient to avant-garde, country to classical — into one compellingly singular sound. Described as “the favorite guitarist of many people who agree on little else in music,” Frisell connects to a diverse range of artists and admirers, including Paul Simon, Elvis Costello, Lucinda Williams, and Bon Iver. Everybody loves Bill Frisell. Through unprecedented access, and interviews with his close family, friends and collaborators, Philip Watson tells the story of why. In this episode host Michael Shields and Philip Watson discuss Frisell’s many music influences that have contributed to inspiring his signature sound while conversing upon  how coming of age in Denver helped shape him musically as well. They explore the many mentors Frisell had throughout his musical journey, talk about what Frisell is like personally, consider the immense impact Frisell has had on a bevy of notable musicians, and much much more.

Grab a copy of Beautiful Dreamers: The Guitarist Who Changed The Sound of American Music here!

Listen to a Bill Frisell Playlist by Philip Watson here!

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast features an interview with award-winning journalist and photographer currently focused on migration, conflict, and humanitarian crises, Sally Hayden. Hayden has worked with VICE News, CNN International, TIME, BBC, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the New York Times, Al Jazeera, NBC News, Newsweek, the Independent, the Telegraph, the National, the Huffington Post and ITV News, and had stories and photojournalism republished on six continents by outlets including National Geographic, NPR, the Observer, ABC News, among many others. She was named as one of Forbes' "30 Under 30” in Media in Europe, in part because of her work on refugee issues. Her book My Fourth Time We Drowned: Seeking Refuge on the World’s Deadliest Migration Route — the focus of this episode — exposes a human rights disaster of epic proportions. One day, Sally Hayden was at home in London when she received a message on Facebook that read: “Hi sister Sally, we need your help.” The sender identified himself as an Eritrean refugee who had been held in a Libyan detention center for months, locked in one big hall with hundreds of others. The city around them was crumbling in a conflict between warring factions, and they remained stuck, defenseless, with only one remaining hope — contacting her. From this single message begins a staggering account of the migrant crisis across North Africa. With unprecedented access to people currently inside Libyan detention centers, Hayden’s book is based on interviews with hundreds of refugees and migrants who tried to reach Europe and found themselves stuck in Libya once the EU started funding interceptions in 2017. My Fourth Time, We Drowned is an intimate portrait of life for these detainees, as well as a condemnation of NGOs and the United Nations, whose abdication of international standards will echo throughout history. But most importantly, Hayden’s groundbreaking work of investigative journalism shines a light on the resilience of humans — how refugees and migrants locked up for years fall in love, support each other through the hardest times, and carry out small acts of resistance in order to survive in a system that wants them to be silent and disappear. In this episode host Michael Shields and Sally Hayden discuss the compelling story of how a cryptic Facebook message led to the revelation of atrocities taking place in detention camps in Northern Africa. They discuss the true scope of the migrant crisis taking place while expounding upon how the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN) are largely responsible for the ongoing emergency. They discuss the importance of documenting and paying attention to the suffering in the world, and much more.

Grab a copy of Sally Hayden’s My Fourth Time, We Drowned here!

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with independent underground rapper Sage Francis, widely considered one of our generation’s greatest lyricists. His career derives mainly from gifted wordplay which creates vivid narratives to instigate as well as inspire. Dubbed as the “forefather of indie-hop,” Francis originally earned acclaim in the early 2000s by winning the most highly coveted titles of the emcee battle circuit. With little to no funding, Francis sustained himself by selling his innovative “Sick of” mixtapes, all made by hand on the floor of his Providence, Rhode Island apartment. These were essentially bootleg compilations full of select recordings from his 12” vinyl singles, demo sessions, live performances, and radio freestyles. The popularity of these tapes birthed Strange Famous Records (SFR); a meager, one-man operation in 1999. Despite having no official distribution, Francis’ unique brand of music spread like wildfire via the advent of file sharing networks. This resulted in him attaining a massive cult-like following around the world, creating a demand for his albums and live performances at which point the bigger labels took notice. With his first studio album, Personal Journals (2002), — the focus of this episode — Francis daringly set aside the more boastful side of rap by catering to his poetic leanings and scathing socio-political commentary. In 2005 Sage Francis was the first hip-hop artist signed to the punk rock label Epitaph Records and soon became one of the highest selling independent artists of his genre. Rather than abandon his day-to-day grind at SFR, he channeled all of his newfound resources into it, allowing the label to expand in staff as well as roster. Having fulfilled his contract obligations with Epitaph Records, Sage Francis has returned to releasing music independently as he gears up to defeat the odds. But, as alluded to, this episode focuses on where it all began for Francis, his aforementioned first studio album put into the world by the underground hip-hop collective Anticon in 2002. It’s a deeply personal album where Francis wears all of life’s suffering on his sleeve while inviting listeners to join in on a tour of the tortured, introspective mind of a gifted storyteller. While decisively weighty, Personal Journals is also witty, and full of hard-hitting old school boom bap hip-hop brimming with a slam poetry ethos. Personal Journals, like few hip-hop albums ever birthed, is an amazing display of fearless honesty and it’s easy to look at the lyrical offerings of Personal Journals as akin to Francis pulling wide his scar tissue and narrating a detailed, candid tour of their frayed innards. In this episode host Michael Shields and Francis discuss what Francis feels and about Personal Journals with twenty years of hindsight to consider. They explore the meaning behind a bevy of the tracks on the album while Francis shares stories about the Personal Journals recording sessions, how his intimate lyrics were received by those closest to him, and much, much more.

Bonus Feature: At the conclusion of the episode you will hear a snippet of a demo referenced in the interview of "Runaways" lyrics over the Alias beat which would eventually become the "Keep Moving" song on Human the Death Dance!

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with organ, keyboard, and synth extraordinaire Robert Walter, a founder member of the Greyboy Allstars. Walter is a dynamic and prolific musician who splits his time between his own 20th Congress, The Greyboy Allstars, and a robust film soundtrack career in Los Angeles. Initially formed as the backing band for rare groove luminary DJ Greyboy, The Greyboy Allstars became a long term project for Walter with a string of critically acclaimed albums and world tours. The band quickly became home to some of the most revered players in the modern music scene and their success served as a platform for the band's individual members to launch highly successful and substantially diverse solo careers. The Greyboy All Stars recently released an album entitled Get a Job: Music from the Original Broadcast Series Soul Dream, which lies at the heart of this episode. Originally aired as Soul Dream — a four-part, episodic series on Nugs.net in the summer of 2021 — Get a Job is a ten song set of unique never-before-released covers that have become an integral part of the band’s famed live sets for nearly three decades. Songs by artists such as Gene Ammons, Gil Scott-Heron, Sonny Stitt, George Harrison, Gary Bartz and Langston Hughes, Dr. Lonnie Smith, and Burt Bacharach and Hal David. In this episode host Michael Shields and Robert Walter discuss how Get a Job emanated from the four part episodic series Soul Dream while conversing over how Walter and the Greyboy Allstars decide upon the songs they choose to cover. They go back in time to talk about the genesis of the Greyboy Allstars, celebrating the famed Wednesday night shows at The Green Circle Bar in San Diego where it all began. They discuss Walter's excellent solo album Better Feathers, how he came to be a part of Mike Gordon from Phish’s band, what it is going to mean to him to return to Jazz Fest this year, and a whole lot more.

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, and music producer Stuart Bogie. Bogie has toured and recorded extensively with groups such as Antibalas, Arcade Fire, TV on the Radio, and Iron and Wine, to name a few, and he performed as the featured soloist in the original Broadway production of Fela!. As a composer/arranger, he scored the Oscar nominated documentary How To Survive a Plague, which featured performances by the Kronos Quartet alongside Bogie’s group Superhuman Happiness. He has appeared on recordings by renowned artists such as Craig Finn (of The Hold Steady), Cass McCombs, Sharon Van Etten, Angelique Kidjo (2 Grammy winning albums), Medeski Martin and Wood, Yeasayer, Spencer Day, Holly Miranda, Foals, Passion Pit, Mac Miller, and legendary improvised conductor Butch Morris. Bogie currently leads The Bogie Band featuring Joe Russo, a nine piece Winds and Drum group that just released their debut album entitled The Prophets In The City (Royal Potato Family) — the main focus of this episode. The Prophets in the City is a collaboration between old friends, as Bogie teams with drummer extraordinaire Joe Russo most known for helming Joe Russo’s Almost Dead. Heightening Bogie's fiery arrangements and Russo's dynamic drumming, The Prophets in the City features a supporting cast of musicians whose resumes run through some of New York City's most beloved bands including Antibalas, The Dap-Kings, Budos Band, St. Vincent, and David Byrne's American Utopia.The resulting efforts on the debut album are riotous and jubilant, pushing the boundaries of instrumental music. In this episode host Michael Shields and Stuart Bogie discuss how New York City’s energy and spirit directly inspired The Prophets in the City. They discuss the brilliant grouping of players on the album and what it's like for Bogie to work with the phenomenally talented Joe Russo. They discuss music that has influenced Bogie over the years, a variety of his other projects, and so much more.

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In this episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast host Michael Shields interviews Elijah Anderson, the Sterling Professor of Sociology and of African American Studies at Yale University. Anderson is one of the leading urban ethnographers in the United States and his publications include Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City (1999); Streetwise: Race, Class, and Change in an Urban Community (1990); and the classic sociological work, A Place on the Corner (1978). He also wrote The Cosmopolitan Canopy: Race and Civility in Everyday Life (2011) and his latest book — the subject of this episode — is Black In White Space which sheds fresh light on the dire persistence of racial discrimination in our country. A birder strolling in Central Park. A college student lounging on a university quad. Two men sitting in a coffee shop. Perfectly ordinary actions in ordinary settings — and yet, they sparked jarring and inflammatory responses that involved the police and attracted national media coverage. Why? In essence, Elijah Anderson would argue, because these were Black people existing in white spaces. In Black In White Space, Anderson brings his immense knowledge and ethnography to bear in this timely study of the racial barriers that are still firmly entrenched in our society at every class level. He focuses on symbolic racism, a new form of racism in America caused by the stubbornly powerful stereotype of the ghetto embedded in the white imagination, which subconsciously connects all Black people with crime and poverty regardless of their social or economic position. From Philadelphia street-corner conversations to Anderson’s own morning jogs through a Cape Cod vacation town, he probes a wealth of experiences to shed new light on how symbolic racism makes all Black people uniquely vulnerable to implicit bias in police stops and racial discrimination in our country. Throughout this episode Michael Shields and Elijah Anderson discuss how Black In White Space is part of a larger, and critically important, body of work by Anderson. They define and explore the role of ethnographers in social science while breaking down the idea of symbolic racism, the ghetto as a symbol and a mental space, places that Anderson defines as “cosmopolitan canopies,” and so much more.

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In this episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast host Michael Shields interviews Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University where she is also the principal investigator for the Democratic Knowledge Project. In 2020, she won the Kluge Prize for Achievement in the Study of Humanity, administered by the Library of Congress, that recognizes work in disciplines not covered by the Nobel Prizes. She is the author or co-editor of many books, including Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality, and Democracy in the time of Coronavirus, which is the focus of this episode. In Democracy in the Time of Coronavirus Allen untangles the U.S. government’s COVID-19 victories and failures to offer a plan for creating a more resilient democratic polity — one that can better respond to both the present pandemic and future crises. Looking to history, Allen also identifies the challenges faced by democracies in other times that required strong government action. In an analysis spanning from ancient Greece to the Reconstruction Amendments and the present day, Allen argues for the relative effectiveness of collaborative federalism over authoritarian compulsion and for the unifying power of a common cause. But for democracy to endure, we — as participatory citizens — must commit to that cause: a just and equal social contract and support for good governance. In this episode Michael Shields and Danielle Allen explore what exactly an ideal social contract that serves as the basis for a functioning constitutional democracy would look like while examining how currently that social contract is fundamentally broken. They discuss how important leadership is when dealing with massive crises, how the prospect of a "common purpose" could be the most powerful tool in the democratic tool kit, how federalism can be an asset in trying times, what the federal and state governments should have done to combat Covid 19, and much, much more.

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with Phil Freeman, a renowned music journalist specializing in jazz and metal. He is the former managing editor of the world music magazine Global Rhythm, the former editor-in-chief of the metal magazine Metal Edge, the founder of MSN Entertainment's Headbäng daily metal blog, and currently writes a monthly jazz column, Ugly Beauty, for Stereogum. Freeman is also the co-creator of Burning Ambulance, a quarterly journal of arts and culture that encompasses a website, a podcast, and a record label. His latest book, Ugly Beauty: Jazz in the 21st Century, the focus of this episode, highlights how vibrant and diverse today’s Jazz scene truly is. What does jazz “mean” 20 years into the 21st century? Has streaming culture rendered music literally meaningless, thanks to the removal of all context beyond the playlist? Are there any traditions left to explore? Has the destruction of the apprenticeship model (young musicians learning from their elders) changed the music irrevocably? Are any sounds off limits? How far out can you go and still call it “jazz”? Or should the term be retired? These questions, and many more, are answered in Ugly Beauty, as Phil Freeman digs through his own experiences and conversations with present-day players. In this episode host Michael Shields and Freeman discuss what to expect when exploring the pages of Ugly Beauty while expounding on the unique jazz sounds coming out of the four cities focused on in the book: Los Angeles, London, Chicago, and New York City. They talk about the current surge in jazz appreciation abounding and the reasons for it, what it meant when Kamasi Washington broke through garnering masses of fans from outside of the Jazz world, and how hip-hop has dramatically affected Jazz in the 21st century. They also praise a slew of artists who cannot be contained by traditional views of what is and isn’t jazz, and so much more.

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with guitarist Scott Metzger, a musician who has spent the past decade earning a reputation as one of the most adventurous improvisers in live music. When he wasn’t sharing the stage with the likes of Phil Lesh, John Scofield or Nels Cline, he was playing to massive crowds with Joe Russo’s Almost Dead. His musical interests, however, run broader than his bonafides might suggest. During downtime from JRAD Metzger pursued projects like WOLF!, a hard-charging, fully electrified guitar trio that balanced tight compositions with group improvisation, and the Showdown Kids, an acoustic gypsy jazz trio. When the global pandemic darkened stages everywhere, Metzger hunkered down in Brooklyn and did what came naturally — he picked up the guitar every day and wrote instrumental music. Shortly thereafter, he booked time at a Brooklyn recording studio to document the guitar pieces he’d created. The result of those efforts is Too Close to Reason — Metzger’s first solo album and the focus of this episode. The 12-track collection, released by Royal Potato Family, showcases a more contemplative side of his musical personality. From the first swelling notes of the atmospheric ”Appropriate Wattage,” the album is full of musical surprises, starting with the fact that Metzger plays nearly every note of this primarily acoustic guitar-based album. The sole exception is “Only Child,” a ballad with Katie Jacoby, violinist for The Who (and Metzger’s wife). Too Close To Reason exposes trace elements of Metzger’s musical DNA through influences like Chet Atkins, Django Reinhardt, Jim Hall, and Richard Thompson, but it ultimately presents his own fully-formed and distinct voice as a guitarist. In short, his debut reveals an artist in full bloom who has honed his craft and knows himself, contradictions and all. Within this episode host Michael Shields and Scott Metzger discuss the musicians, the guitar, and the pandemic that inspired his new album. They expound upon the fascinating ways in which the first two singles, “Don’t Be a Stranger” and “Waltz For Beverly,” came to life while conversing about how special it is that he has had the opportunity to create music with his wife, violinist Katie Jacoby. They even discuss how the artist's recent addiction to running bolstered his capabilities in regard to his performing with Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, and so much more. Scott Metzger will celebrate the release of Too Close To Reason with four East Coast performances beginning at the end of March (currently on-sale) in Cambridge, New York City, Washington, DC and Philadelphia. 

Too Close To Reason is available March 4th, pre-order a 180-gram vinyl here!

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with Ian Tyrrell, emeritus professor of history at the University of New South Wales. He is the author of numerous books, including True Gardens of the Gods: Californian-Australian Environmental Reform, 1860 –1930 and Historians in Public. His latest book, American Exceptionalism: A New History of an Old Idea, is the focus of this episode and persists as an important and remarkably comprehensive examination of an extremely contentious notion. The idea that the United States is unlike every other country in world history is a surprisingly resilient one. Throughout his distinguished career, Ian Tyrrell has been one of the most influential historians researching the idea of American Exceptionalism, but he has never written a book focused solely on it, until now. The notion that American identity might be exceptional emerged, Tyrrell shows in his book, from the belief that the nascent early republic was not simply a postcolonial state but a genuinely new experiment in an imperialist world dominated by Britain. Prior to the Civil War, American Exceptionalism fostered declarations of cultural, economic, and spatial independence. As the country grew in population and size, becoming a major player in the global order, its exceptionalist beliefs came more and more into focus — and into question. Over time, a political divide emerged: those who believed that America’s exceptionalism was the basis of its virtue and those who saw America as either a long way from perfect or actually fully unexceptional. Tyrrell masterfully articulates in his book the many forces that made American Exceptionalism such a divisive and definitional concept. Today, the demands that people acknowledge America’s Exceptionalism have grown ever more strident, even as the material and moral evidence for that exceptionalism — to the extent that there ever was any — has withered away. In this episode host Michael Shields and Ian Tyrrell discuss the origins of American Exceptionalism, how one would go about quantifying a nation’s exceptionalism, how American Exceptionalism persists as ideology representing reality rather than an account of American actuality, the rise of religious-based American Exceptionalism in the 1970s and 80s, how America can increasingly be perceived as exceptional in a negative light, and much, much more.

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast looks back on the distressing events of January 6th, 2021 with an examination of the documentary Day of Rage, a film that culls thousands of hours of videos and audio from rioters and police body cams to tell the story of the Capitol insurrection. The product of a six-month New York Times investigation, Day of Rage provides the most complete picture to date of what happened — and why. To properly delve into this powerful documentary, this episode features an interview the senior producer of the New York Times Visual Investigations team who produced and co-directed Day of Rage, Malachy Browne. Browne was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2020 for international reporting for coverage of Russian culpability in crimes around the world, including the bombing of hospitals in Syria. He has has led investigations into the killing of Breonna Taylor and other Black Americans by police, the Las Vegas mass shooting, chemical weapons attacks in Syria, extra-judicial military shootings in Nigeria, and the killing of a young Palestinian medic along the Gaza-Israel border. In this episode host Michael Shields and Malachy Browne discuss a bevy of the shocking particulars of the January 6th insurrection that were featured in Day of Rage. They converse upon the massive effort in bringing the documentary to life, who exactly the rioters were as exposed in Day of Rage, the evidence present in the film that that the storming of the Capitol was assuredly premeditated, how the Capitol police were let down by their superiors on that fateful day, and so much more. Join in on an episode that pays tribute to a documentary that lays out plainly just how fragile democracy can be.

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast features an interview with Lina Zeldovich, a writer and editor specializing in the journalism of solutions. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Reader’s Digest, Smithsonian, Popular Science, Scientific American, Atlantic, and Newsweek, among many other popular outlets, and she has won awards from the Newswomen’s Club of New York, the Society of Professional Journalists Deadline Club, and the American Society of Journalists and Authors. Her first book, The Other Dark Matter: The Science and Business of Turning Waste Into Wealth and Heath, is the focus of this episode. Did you know that the average person produces about four hundred pounds of excrement a year (keep in mind, more than seven billion people live on this planet!). Because of the diseases it spreads, humankind has learned to distance themselves from our waste, but the long line of engineering marvels we’ve created to do so — from Roman sewage systems and medieval latrines to the immense, computerized treatment plants we use today — has also done considerable damage to the earth’s ecology. Now scientists tell us that we have been wasting our waste. When recycled correctly, this resource, cheap and widely available, can be converted into a sustainable energy source, act as an organic fertilizer, and provide effective medicinal therapy for antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection. In clear and engaging prose that draws on her extensive research and interviews, Lina Zeldovich documents the massive redistribution of nutrients and sanitation inequities across the globe. She profiles the pioneers of waste upcycling, from startups in African villages to innovators in American cities that convert sewage into fertilizer, biogas, crude oil, and even life-saving medicine. She breaks taboos surrounding sewage disposal and shows how hygienic waste repurposing can help battle Climate Change, reduce acid rain, and eliminate toxic algal blooms. Ultimately, she implores us to use our innate organic power for the greater good. In this episode host Michael Shields and Lina Zeldovich discuss the stigmas around human waste that has led it to being undervalued throughout history. They converse upon many invaluable uses of our organic matter, from fertilizer to biofuels and beyond. And they explore how sewage technologies and greening up fuel can help fight Climate Change. Grossly ambitious and rooted in scientific scholarship, The Other Dark Matter shows how human excrement can be a life-saving, money-making resource — if we make better use of it.

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast introduces you to American Gadlfy, a documentary that tells the story of how, a decade since his last campaign, 89-year-old former senator and 2008 presidential candidate Mike Gravel came out of retirement when a group of teenagers convinces him to run for president one last time. Through the senator’s official Twitter account, the four “Gravel teens” embark on an unlikely adventure to qualify him for the Democratic debates in order to advance an anti-war, anti-corruption, and direct democracy agenda in the 2020 presidential race. Working together, the young activists and the experienced politician confuse and amaze the generations between them. To properly delve into this powerful, inspiring documentary, this episode features an interview with the director of American Gadfly, Skye Wallin. For over a decade, Wallin has been deeply immersed in the worlds of documentary, journalism, and activism. He spent several years filming with scientists and activists at more than twenty water-related disasters across the United States. Wallin worked closely with Mark Ruffalo on this project, leading video and short documentary production for Ruffalo’s organization Water Defense for three years. Wallin's work helped to expose multiple water pollution scandals that had been covered up, including EXXON's poisoning of Lake Conway in Arkansas and millions of organic crops being watered with oil-contaminated water sold to farmers by Chevron, the latter of which resulted in front page coverage in the Los Angeles Times. His latest effort, American Gadlfy, isn’t simply a documentary about an underdog trying to win an election. It's about how the next generation understands democracy, engages in politics and influences ordinary people with passion, humor and honesty. So tune in to learn all about this rousing political adventure  on this latest episode of Across the Margin: The Podcast.

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with Keith Wailoo, Henry Putnam University Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University. His books include Dying in the City of the Blues, How Cancer Crossed the Color Line, and Pain: A Political History. Along with Dr. Anthony Fauci and others, Wailoo won the prestigious 2021 Dan David Prize which supports outstanding contributions to the study of history and other disciplines that shed light on the human past. Wailoo is also the author of Pushing Cool: Big Tobacco, Racial Marketing, and the Untold Story of the Menthol Cigarette which is the focus of this episode. In Pushing Cool, he tells the intricate and poignant story of menthol cigarettes for the first time. Wailoo pulls back the curtain to reveal the hidden persuaders who shaped menthol buying habits and racial markets across America: the world of tobacco marketers, consultants, psychologists, and social scientists, as well as Black lawmakers and civic groups including the NAACP. Today most Black smokers buy menthol cigarettes, and calls to prohibit their circulation hinge on a history of the industry’s targeted racial marketing. In 2009, when Congress banned flavored cigarettes as criminal enticements to encourage youth smoking, menthol cigarettes were also slated to be banned. Through a detailed study of internal tobacco industry documents, Wailoo exposes why they weren’t and how they remain so popular with Black smokers today. Spanning a century, Pushing Cool reveals how the twin deceptions of health and Black affinity for menthol were crafted — and how the industry’s disturbingly powerful narrative has endured to this day. In this episode host Michael Shields and Keith Wailoo discuss exactly why menthol cigarettes were “pushed” so vigorously upon Black urban communities and assess how increased governmental restriction on cigarette advertisements actually heightened this push. They explore the lies about the health benefits of menthols used to market the cigarettes, point out a plethora of surprising public figures who have consistently pushed back against a ban on menthols, examine the link in the fight to ban menthol cigarettes to e-cigarettes, and much, much more.

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with Stuart Blume, a professor emeritus of science and technology studies at the University of Amsterdam. Blume’s latest book, entitled Immunization: How Vaccines Became Controversial, is an important and extremely relevant-to-the-moment work that is the focus of this episode. At a time when vaccines are a vital tool in the fight against Covid-19 in all its various mutations, Blume’s hard-hitting book takes a longer historical perspective. It argues that globalization and cuts to healthcare have been eroding faith in the institutions producing and providing vaccines for more than thirty years. It tells the history of immunization from the work of early pioneers such as Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch through the eradication of smallpox in 1980, to the recent introduction of new kinds of genetically engineered vaccines. Immunization exposes the limits of public health authorities while suggesting how they can restore our confidence in the fight against infectious disease. In this episode host Michael Shields and guest Stuart Blume examine how vaccines protect the human body while also looking at how exactly viruses are “born” into human populations. They contemplate the dawn of vaccine hesitancy, converse about the corporations and politicians that are chiefly to blame for it, and champion the idea that while vaccine technologies are extraordinary tools, addressing the root causes of viruses is absolutely crucial in confronting urgent public health concerns.

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with Chris Gibson and Andrew Warren. Chris is a professor of geography at the University of Wollongong, Australia while Andrew is a senior lecturer in economic geography at the same university. They are also the co-authors of The Guitar: Tracing The Grain Back To The Tree, a deeply insightful book which lies at the center of this episode.

Guitars inspire cult-like devotion. An aficionado can tell you precisely when and where their favorite instrument was made, the wood it is made from, and that wood’s unique effect on the instrument’s sound. In The Guitar, Chris and Andrew follow that fascination around the globe as they trace guitars all the way back to their source tree. The authors visit guitar factories, port cities, log booms, remote sawmills, Indigenous lands, and distant rainforests, all on a quest for behind-the-scenes stories and insights into how guitars are made, where the much-cherished guitar timbers ultimately come from, and all the while introducing you to the people and skills that craft those timbers along the way.The authors interviewed hundreds of people to give readers a first-hand account of the ins-and-outs of production methods, timber milling, and forest custodianship in diverse corners of the world, including the Pacific Northwest, Madagascar, Spain, Brazil, Germany, Japan, China, Hawaii, and Australia. They unlock surprising insights into longer arcs of world history: on humanity’s exploitation of nature, colonialism, industrial capitalism, and cultural tensions. But the authors also strike a hopeful note, offering a parable of wider resonance — of the incredible but under-appreciated skill and care that goes into growing forests, felling trees, and milling timber in order to craft these enchanting musical instruments. The Guitar promises to resonate with anyone who has ever fallen in love with a guitar.In this episode host Michael Shields explores with Chris and Andrew the many compelling facets of their comprehensively researched book, including how tracing the roots of the guitar can teach profound insights about history and the human condition. Chris and Andrew pinpoint the exact origins of the modern guitar and examine how Climate Change is threatening the industry, as well as deforestation and irresponsible harvesting. They tip a hat to all the foresters and those in the guitar industry who are employing forest management techniques to preserve guitar wood for generations to come, and much, much more.

Grab a copy of The Guitar: Tracing The Grain To The Tree here!

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with Lizzie Johnson, a staff writer for the Washington Post. Previously, Johnson worked at the San Francisco Chronicle, where she reported on fifteen of the deadliest, largest, and most destructive blazes in modern California history, and covered over thirty communities impacted by wildfires. Recently she released a book entitled Paradise: One Town's Struggle To Survive An American Wildfire — the focus of this episode — which serves as the definitive first hand account of California’s Camp Fire, the nation’s deadliest wildfire in a century. Paradise is a riveting examination of what went wrong and how to avert future tragedies as the Climate Crisis unfolds.

On November 8, 2018, the people of Paradise, California, awoke to a mottled gray sky and gusty winds. Soon the Camp Fire, the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s history was upon them, consuming an acre a second. Less than two hours after the fire ignited, the town was engulfed in flames, the terrified residents trapped in their homes and cars. By the next morning, eighty-five people were dead. As a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, Lizzie Johnson was there as the town of Paradise burned. She saw the smoldering rubble of a historic covered bridge and the beloved Black Bear Diner and she stayed long afterward, visiting shelters, hotels, and makeshift camps. Drawing upon her years of on-the-ground reporting, and reams of public records, including 911 calls and testimony from a grand jury investigation, Johnson provides a minute-by-minute account of the Camp Fire, following residents and first responders as they fight to save themselves and their town. We see a young mother fleeing with her newborn; a school bus full of children in search of an escape route; and a group of paramedics, patients, and nurses trapped in a cul-de-sac, fending off the fire with rakes and hoses. In Paradise, Johnson documents this unfolding tragedy with empathy and nuance. But she also investigates the root causes, from runaway climate change to a deeply flawed alert system to Pacific Gas and Electric’s decades-long neglect of critical infrastructure. A cautionary tale for a new era of megafires, Paradise is the gripping story of a town wiped off the map and the determination of its people to rise again. In this episode, host Michael Shields and Lizzie Johnson explore how Climate Change has increased the intensity and size of wildfires throughout the world, how economic factors have increasingly swelled the population in the wildland-urban-interface, the challenges of evacuating the entirety of a town, forest management suppression miscalculations and the need for “controlled” burns, the emotional toll of reporting on tragedies, and much, much more.

This episode concludes with a deeply affecting song by John-Michael Sun, a Camp Fire survivor. Listen to the entirety of the song here.

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker Yael Bridge. Bridge is the producer behind Left on Purpose, winner of the Audience Award at DOC NYC, and also Saving Capitalism, starring former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, which was nominated for an Emmy Award in Business and Economics. Her latest documentary, The Big Scary “S” Word, which is the focus of this episode, delves into the rich history of the American socialist movement and follows the people striving to build a socialist future today. In this enlightening documentary, a former Marine and a public school teacher in two different states find themselves broke and unable to sustain their livelihoods despite being employed. Activated by the energy of the 2016 Bernie Sanders presidential campaign and the murmurs of a state-wide teacher strike, both turn to socialism, a once-fringe ideology, to tackle problems larger than themselves. With inequality growing, a climate catastrophe looming, and right-wing extremism ascending around the world, many Americans are wondering whether capitalism is to blame. But what is the alternative? Socialism is plagued by conflicting definitions. Is it dictatorship or democracy? Norway or Venezuela? Reform or revolution? The Big Scary “S” Word explores where American socialism has been, why it was suppressed, and imagines what a renewed American socialism might look like. In this episode host Michael Shields and Yael Bridge converse on the inadequately discussed and rich history of socialism in America, revealing that socialism is in fact, as American as apple pie. They explore the roots of current misconceptions about socialism, expose the threat that capitalism poses to human life, expound on the growing appreciation of socialism in America, and much, much more.

Learn more about The Big Scary "S" Word and sign up for updates here!

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with Dr. Fabian Holt, associate professor in the Department of Communication and Arts at Roskilde University. He is the author of Genre in Popular Music and of Everyone Loves Live Music: A Theory of Performance Institutions, the focus of this episode. For decades, millions of music fans have gathered every summer in parks and fields to hear their favorite bands at such renowned festivals as Lollapalooza, Coachella, and Glastonbury. How did these and countless other festivals across the globe evolve into glamorous pop culture events, and how are they changing our relationship to music, leisure, and public culture? In Everyone Loves Live Music, Dr. Holt looks beyond the marketing hype to show how festivals and other institutions of musical performance have evolved in recent decades, as these once meaningful sources of community and culture are increasingly consumed by corporate giants. Examining a diverse range of cases across Europe and the United States, Dr. Holt upends commonly-held ideas of live music and introduces a pioneering theory of performance institutions. He explores the fascinating history of the club and the festival experience both in San Francisco and New York, as well as a number of European cities. This book also surveys the social forces shaping live music as small, independent venues become corporatized and as festivals transform to promote consumerist trappings. Dr. Holt’s book further provides insight into the broader relationship between culture and community in the twenty-first century. Everyone Loves Live Music reveals how our contemporary enthusiasm for live music is more fraught than we would like to think. In this episode host Michael Shields and Dr. Fabian Holt explore the ins-and-outs of Everyone Loves Music, discussing the history of music festivals, the joys and community they can offer in the most ideal of form, while dissecting in depth how popular music festivals have been developed into mass-market commodities by a cultural industry and capitalistic societies.

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In this episode host Michael Shields interviews Ben Proudfoot, the Oscar nominated creative force behind Breakwater Studios. Dedicated to the art of the short documentary, the studio’s work has been recognized by the Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, The Emmys, The Webbys, James Beard Foundation, and Telluride Film Festival among others. His film A Concerto is a Conversation, co-directed by Kris Bowers and executive produced by Ava DuVernay, debuted at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Short Subject. Proudfoot’s latest documentary, The Queen of Basketball, is the story of Lucy Harris, a pioneer in women's basketball who led a rural Mississippi college to three national titles, scored the first basket in women's Olympic history in 1976 and was remarkably the first and only woman to be drafted into the NBA. In 1992, she became the first Black woman to be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Throughout the episode Michael and Ben expound upon Lucy's incredible story, from her upbringing in rural Mississippi to her unparalleled dominance playing college basketball, unto her history making run in the Olympics, and beyond. They also explore what it means to Lucy to be featured in a documentary, how extraordinary it was that she was drafted to play in the National Basketball Association, all the important and fascinating work Ben is doing with Breakwater Studios, his Almost Famous anthology series, and so much more in an episode that serves as an ode to one of the most important American athletes of the 20th century.

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast features an interview with the backbone of the Asheville, North Carolina based hip-hop group Free Radio, emcees Austin Haynes and Johnny Reynolds. Free Radio was formed in 2012 by Haynes and Reynolds when they released their debut album, The Powers That Be. Fueled by Hayne’s beats that dig into everything from classic soul, rock, modern pop, and space-age lounge, both Haynes and Reynolds are accomplished emcees, and around western North Carolina, Reynold’s syrupy flow has become a thing of legend. Over the past decade Free Radio has taken different forms, won multiple awards for “best hip-hop group” by local newspapers, and shared the stage with heavyweights like Wu-Tang Clan, Ice Cube, Slick Rick, Nappy Roots, Digable Planets and Warren Haynes. Today, Free Radio has found its most powerful configuration with the addition of Grammy Award winning singer Debrissa McKinney and Datrian Johnson, whose deep, soulful vocals (think of a modern day Barry White or Isaac Hayes) are brimming with power and authenticity.Free Radio releases its latest album, Earthworms, this Friday and in this episode host Michael Shields learns from Haynes and Reynolds what to expect from the album. They discuss Free Radio’s conception in 2012, the music that inspires Haynes and Reynolds, and how special it is to now have Grammy Award winning singer Debrissa McKinney and Datrian Johnson in the group. They also discuss what it means to the talented rappers to be coming out of Asheville, North Carolina, the social conscious themes present in Free Radio’s music, and so much more!

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with author and Associate Professor in the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice at the University of Chicago, William Sites. Sites’ first book, entitled Remaking New York: Primitive Globalization and the Politics of Urban Community, focused on the transformation of New York City during the final quarter of the twentieth century. His latest — which is the focus of this episode — is entitled Sun Ra’s Chicago: Afrofuturism and the City, a book that can be aptly described as a comprehensive exploration of the formative years of American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet Sun Ra. Sun Ra’s Chicago persists as much more than simply a biography, but an analysis of the urban spaces and relationships that shaped the transcendent musician into the otherworldly philosophical leader of his band, the Arkestra. Sun Ra, born Sonny Blount, was one of the most wildly prolific and eccentric figures in the history of music. Renowned for extravagant performances in which his Arkestra appeared in neo-Egyptian garb, the keyboardist and bandleader espoused an interstellar cosmology that claimed the planet Saturn as his true home. In Sun Ra’s Chicago, Sites brings this grandiose musician back to Earth — specifically to Chicago’s South Side, where from 1946 to 1961 the accomplished artist lived and relaunched his career. The postwar South Side of Chicago was a hotbed of unorthodox religious and cultural activism. It was an unruly musical crossroads where Sun Ra drew from a diverse array of intellectual and musical sources — from radical nationalism, revisionist Christianity, and science fiction to jazz, blues, Latin dance music, and pop exotica — to construct a philosophy and performance style that imagined a new identity and future for African Americans. Sun Ra’s Chicago shows that late twentieth-century Afrofuturism emerged from a deep, utopian engagement with the city — and that by excavating the postwar black experience of Sun Ra’s South Side surroundings, we can come to see the possibilities of urban life in new ways. In this episode host Michael Shields and William Sites converse about Sun Ra's birthplace of Birmingham, Alabama and examine how the city’s extraordinarily vibrant musical culture began to shape a young Sonny Blount. They then explore Sun Ra’s time in Chicago, where he grew to fame gigging at Club DeLisa and in Calumet City as they explore the myriad of influences and relationships (particularly his friendship with Alton Abraham) that became central to the development of his music and mythology. Ultimately, this episode serves as an ode to the legend and legacy of Sun Ra and serves as a celebration of the intergalactic genius of a true visionary.

Grab a copy of Sun Ra's Chicago here!

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast celebrates, through an interview with director and playwright Daniel Goldstein, the release of the inspiring new musical Row, adapted from the moving memoir A Pearl in the Storm by Tori Murden McClure. Goldstein has directed over 100 plays and musicals worldwide, including work at major theaters across the United States and Asia. He was most recently represented on Broadway by the revival of Godspell and his Off Broadway credits include Walmartopia, Indoor / Outdoor, and Lower Ninth, to name a few. As a writer, Goldstein is currently under commission by the Public Theater, for which he recently wrote the musical adaptation of Tori Murden McClure's aforementioned memoir A Pearl in the Storm with singer/songwriter Dawn Landes. Row, which tells parallel stories of Tori’s journey across the Atlantic Ocean in a rowboat and through her life, is a heartbreaking and ultimately uplifting story of finding your heart in the middle of the ocean. It was scheduled to make its stage debut at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts in the summer 2020. Instead Row just made its world premiere as a recording available on Audible. In this episode host Michael Shields and Daniel Goldstein discuss the complexities of Tori Murden McClure’s inspiring journey across the Atlantic, the unique challenges of bringing a musical to life amid the pandemic, the weighty themes present in Row (faith, isolation, self-doubt, fear), the outstanding sound design featured in the performance, and ultimately, they celebrate the birth of the first ever traditional book musical.

Listen to Row now at Audible!

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with Ed Vulliamy, former reporter for The Guardian and The Observer. He is the author of Amexica: War Along the Borderline and The War is Dead, Long Live the War — Bosnia: The Reckoning. His latest book Louder Than Bombs — part memoir, part reportage — is a story of music from the front lines. In Louder Than Bombs, Vulliamy offers a testimony to his lifelong passion for music. Vulliamy’s reporting has taken him around the world to cover the Bosnian War, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Communism, the Iraq wars of 1991 and 2003, narco violence in Mexico, and more. All places where he confronted stories of violence, suffering, and injustice. Through it all, Vulliamy has turned to music not only as a reprieve but also as a means to understand and express the complicated emotions that follow. Describing the artists, songs, and concerts that most influenced him, in Louder Than Bombs Vulliamy unites the two largest threads of his life — music and war. Vulliamy’s book is a wildly exciting and informative journey that covers some of the most important musical milestones of the past fifty years, from Jimi Hendrix playing “Machine Gun” at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970 to the Bataclan in Paris under siege in 2015. Vulliamy was present for many of these historic moments, and with him as our guide, we see them afresh through his unique perspective, along the way meeting musicians like B.B. King, Graham Nash, Patti Smith, Daniel Barenboim, Gustavo Dudamel, and Bob Dylan. As Vulliamy discovers, when horror is unspeakable and when words seem to fail us, we can turn to music for expression and comfort, or for rage and pain. Poignant and sensitively told, Louder Than Bombs is an unforgettable record of a life bursting with music. In this episode host Michael Shields and Vulliamy converse upon the cathartic power of music while waxing poetically about the ways musicians channel and give birth music. They explore Vulliamy’s interactions with B.B. King and his experience seeing Jimi Hendrix mere days before his passing while recounting the importance of a band called The Plastic People of the Universe around the fall of the Berlin Wall, and ultimately celebrate Graham Nash’s aim to change the world through music, and so much more.

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with Aaron Cohen, author of Move On Up: Chicago Soul Music and Black Cultural Power. In Move On Up, Aaron tells the remarkable story of the explosion of soul music in Chicago. Together, soul music and black-owned businesses thrived and record producers and songwriters broadcasted optimism for black America’s future through their sophisticated, jazz-inspired productions. Soul music also accompanied the rise of African American advertisers and the campaign of Chicago’s first black mayor, Harold Washington, in 1983. This empowerment was set in stark relief by the social unrest roiling in Chicago and across the nation. As Chicago’s homegrown record labels produced rising stars singing songs of progress and freedom, Chicago’s black middle class faced limited economic opportunities and deep-seated segregation. Drawing on more than one hundred interviews and a music critic’s passion for the unmistakable Chicago soul sound, Cohen shows us how soul music became the voice of inspiration and change for a city in turmoil.

In this episode, host Michael Shields and Cohen discuss the countless interviews he took on to bring Move On Up to vivid life, the diversity of sound and influences that defines Chicago soul music, the interconnectedness between music and politics highlighted in the book, the influence of the 1960’s psychedelic counterculture on Chicago’s soul music, the power radio wielded in engaging the community through music and community action, and so much more.

Grab a Copy of Move On Up: Chicago Soul Music and Black Cultural Power here!

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with Sanya N'Kanta, the Jamaican born and Charlotte-based musician who has made a name for himself with his genre-blurring style, bringing together rock, reggae, hip-hop, house music, and electro-pop. Sanya’s latest release, an EP entitled These Are The Days, is an ode to his lifelong love rock n 'roll. Common themes throughout These Are The Days are growth, friendship, morality, the importance of time with family, and healing. While the songs on Sanya's rousing new EP are largely more optimistic and personal than his previous work, his recent singles “I.C.E. at the Door” and “The Lesser of Two Evils,” act as hard-hitting commentaries on the dark political realities of 2020 and America's fraught history. Sanya is a multi-faceted musician and storyteller, and these two songs are a great example of his commitment to incorporating socially conscious themes into his music. In this episode Sanya expounds upon immigrating to the United States and his early experiences in the country, his youthful infatuation with American rock n’ roll music, a recent brush with carbon monoxide poisoning that put his life at risk and changed the way he viewed life and creating art, the intricacies behind the crafting of These Are The Days, and much, much more.

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In this episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast host Michael Shields explores an achievement in fiction writing, a tour de force of a novel heralded by critics as a “modern classic” and a “revisionaries-a-r-moxon.html">spectacular invention” entitled The Revisionaries. Penned by A.R. Moxon, who is featured in this episode, The Revisionaries is a wildly imaginative, masterfully rendered, and suspenseful tale that conjures the bold outlandish stylishness of Thomas Pynchon, Michael Chabon, Margaret Atwood, Stephen King, and Alan Moore — while being unlike anything that’s come before it. It is about a priest who may or may not be a priest trying to differentiate between reality and fantasy in order to find the source of his faith. Beyond his quest toward the spiritual, this priest — named Julius — is under pressure to save the world. Featuring a female acrobat with a luxurious beard, the peculiar followers of a religious cult, an enigmatic smoking figure who seems to know what’s going to happen just before it does, and an ancient hereditary evil hidden in the heart of Tennessee’s grandest tourist trap, Pigeon Forge, The Revisionaries is awe-inspiring in scope and delightfully all consuming. In this episode, Michael and A. R. discuss his collaboration with fellow writer Ben Colmery, the challenges he had in bringing to life a 400,000 word manuscript, the unique stylization choices he employed, the many weighty, thought-provoking themes found throughout the narrative, the influence of the band Phish on the book, and much, much more.

Grab a copy of The Revisionaries here, subscribe to A.R Moxon’s newsletter here, and follow him on Twitter at @JuliusGoat!

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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with Brooklyn-based filmmaker and activist Coffey. Formerly the fashion editor of the hip-hop magazine XXL and the founder of the Define New York Run Club, Coffey has risen to the times as one of the leaders behind the Running To Protest movement. Running to Protest is a campaign, founded with the help of activist Power Malu, that was born in response to what has been happening to Black people, People of Color, and Indigenous people in America. In the wake of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Admaud Arbery (and far too many others), Coffey began organizing protest events and runs that brought together people who are passionate about change. What has arisen from Coffey’s efforts is an ongoing and growing organization that meets regularly to unite, protest, learn, and lay out pragmatic action plans to work towards racial justice and equity. Running parallel and in tandem to his work in activism are Coffey's talents as a filmmaker, writer, and actor. Recently he wrote the screenplay for, and acted in, the short film About The People. About The People is a narrative short film, born of actual events, that examines social injustice and racial inequity in the black and brown community. It is an ode to the power honest conversations about social justice, equity, and race have within these communities. The film centers around a group of concerned pillars of the African American community that hold court at a conference table to discuss how they can improve society for their kinfolk and compel change. They grapple with the political, financial, and educational power structures in America, how they fit inside them, and plans for their re-engineering. Their open dialogue looks to find answers to tough social issues with resolutions and ideas arriving through moments of volatile exchanges. About The People encourages all audience members to have an introspective conversation that sparks real change. 

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In this episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast, host Michael Shields interviews social psychologist, Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University, and the author of The Righteous Mind : Why Good People Are Divided By Politics and Religion, Jonathan Haidt. The Righteous Mind, a book The New York Times Book Review called “a landmark contribution to humanity’s understanding of itself,” examines how morality is shaped by emotion and intuition more than by reasoning, and why opposing political groups have different notions of right and wrong. Drawing on his twenty-five years of groundbreaking research on moral psychology, Haidt shows, in his books and in this episode, how moral judgments arise not from reason but from gut feelings and exhibits why liberals, conservatives, and libertarians have such different intuitions about right and wrong, and why each side is actually right about many of its central concerns.Throughout the conversation Haidt expounds upon the foundations of morality that help explain what drives humans and explores ideas of tribalism and “groupish-ness” and its role in guiding our actions. Haidt also lays out three core ideas that help one to understand exactly what moral psychology is while also spelling out the best way to go about changing another person’s mind (which doesn’t involve appealing to reason!). Ultimately, the discussion veers towards an inspiring culmination where the miracle of human cooperation, and the joy that awaits humans when they trade in anger for understanding, is celebrated

Learn more about Jonathan Haidt’s work at RighteousMind.Com and at OpenMindPlatform.Org!

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In this episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast, host Michael Shields interviews Dr. Lynda Ulrich, the author of the book Happiness is an Option: Thriving (Instead of Surviving) In the Era of the Internet. Dr. Lynda Ulrich is the founder of Ever Widening Circles (EWC), a website whose aim is to prove that the world is a beautiful place, full of wonderment, discovery, and compassion. Within Ever Widening Circles, one will find articles about remarkable insights and innovations that have gone uncelebrated, and thousands of links to prominent thought leaders who are striving to make the world a better place for humankind. Dr. Ulrich’s aim — which is entirely inspiring — is to offer an alternative to all the negativity found in the news and on social media, negativity that is there not because the world is a negative place, but because it drives ratings, or cultivates clicks. Happiness is an Option, the book that lies at the heart of this episode, is brimming with useful insights to obtaining more joy, less fear, and a brighter future in the age of the internet. This episode features an in-depth conversation about Ever Widening Circles and its dynamic and thought-provoking content, four shifts Dr. Ulrich recommends for better navigating and breaking free from the grip of negativity on the internet, the benefits of being “kinder than you need to be,” the inspiring concept that is the “Conspiracy of Goodness,” and so much more.

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In this episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast, host Michael Shields converses with the author of the recently released book Words Whispered in Water: Why the Levees Broke in Hurricane Katrina, Sandy Rosenthal. Sandy is a civic activist and founder of Levees.Org, an organization dedicated to educating the American public about levee failures in New Orleans and increasingly around the country. Sandy’s book is the riveting, blow-by-blow story of her battles with the Army Corps of Engineers after defective flood walls broke during Hurricane Katrina, inundating New Orleans, and resulting in over 1,500 deaths and billions worth of damage. Against incredible odds, and facing continuous harassment and deception, Sandy exposed a mammoth federal agency failure and ensuing cover-up. When the protective steel flood-walls broke, the Army Corps of Engineers — with cooperation from big media — turned the blame on natural types of disasters. In the chaotic aftermath, Sandy uncovered the corruption and exposed the entire fatal deceit. In this episode, Michael and Sandy discuss how the Army Corps left the city unprepared prior to Katrina, how they covered up their failure following the storm, and examine just how safe New Orleans is today. In addition, this episode highlights Sandy and Levee.org’s important work outside of Louisiana, specifically in Michigan and California. Join in on an episode that acts as an ode to an authentic hero to the city of New Orleans in a story that proves that the power of a single individual is alive and well.

Grab a copy of Words Whispered in Water: Why the Levees Broke in Hurricane Katrina here!

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In this episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast, host Michael Shields interviews prize-winning journalist and internationally recognized expert on corruption in government networks throughout the world, Sarah Chayes. Chayes has served as special assistant on corruption to Mike Mullen, former chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as having advised David McKiernan and Stanley McChrystal (commanders of the International Security Assistance Force). She has been a reporter for National Public Radio from Paris, covering Europe and the Balkans. Chayes is the author of The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban and Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security, winner of the 2016 Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She recently penned a book that illustrates the daunting fact that the United States is showing signs similar to some of the most corrupt countries in the world. That book, On Corruption in America: And What Is At Stake, is the focus of this episode, and is one of the most eye-opening and critical books that you will encounter. From the titans of America’s Gilded Age (Carnegie, Rockefeller, J. P. Morgan, et al.) to the collapse of the stock market in 1929, the Great Depression and FDR’s New Deal; from Joe Kennedy’s years of banking, bootlegging, machine politics, and pursuit of infinite wealth, as well as the Kennedy presidency, to the deregulation of the Reagan Revolution, undermining the middle class and the unions; from the Clinton policies of political favors and personal enrichment to Trump’s hydra-headed network of corruption, systematically undoing the Constitution and our laws, in On Corruption in America, Chayes shows how corrupt systems are organized, how they enforce the rules so their crimes are covered legally, how they are overlooked and downplayed by the richer and better educated, and how they become an overt principle determining the shape of our government, affecting all levels of society. On Corruption in America, and this episode, dramatically highlights what we are all up against. 

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In this episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast host Michael Shields converses with acclaimed music critic Steven Hyden. Hyden is the host of the podcast Celebration Rock wherein he converses with rock stars and the country’s biggest music writers about what’s happening in rock n’ roll. Additionally, he hosts the podcast Rivals, about the most fascinating feuds in music history, and he is one of the co-hosts of 36 From The Vault (Osiris Media), an excellent Grateful Dead podcast. He has written several tremendous books focused on rock n’ roll including Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me (2016), about famous rivalries in pop music history, and Twilight of the Gods (2018), exploring the history of classic rock. Hyden is a critic for Uproxx and previously served as staff writer at Grantland and an editor at The A.V. Club. In just a few weeks, Hyden is releasing his latest book entitled This Isn’t Happening, Radiohead’s Kid A and The Beginning of the 21st Century, a book that explores the making and meaning of Radiohead's groundbreaking, controversial, and epoch-defining album, Kid A. In it, Steven digs deep into the songs, history, legacy, and mystique of Kid A, outlining the album's pervasive influence and impact on culture, in time for its 20th anniversary. Deploying a mix of criticism, journalism, and personal memoir, Hyden skillfully revisits this enigmatic and alluring LP and investigates the many ways in which Kid A shaped and foreshadowed our current world. In this episode, Michael and Steven talk about what made Kid A so noteworthy and different than anything Radiohead had released prior. They recount multiple meltdowns by the lead singer of Radiohead, Thom Yorke, that directly contributed to the sound of KId A. They converse upon the unique time period that Kid A was born into, where the internet was a far different place than it is today and there existed a certain atmosphere of uncertainty in the air that can be dramatically heard on the album. They explore the struggles the band had in bringing the album to life, the unique relationship between Kid A and Radiohead’s first hit single “Creep,” and a whole lot more. All in all, what is celebrated in this latest episode is an album that is worthy of the sort of thorough examination Hyden gives it in his enthralling new book.

Pre Order This Isn’t Happening: Radiohead’s Kid A and The Beginning of the 21st Century

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In this episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast host Michael Shields converses with multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter, and drummer extraordinaire Eric Slick. Slick is best known as the drummer for Dr. Dog (performing on their albums Shame, Shame (2010), Be The Void (2012), B-Room (2013), The Psychedelic Swamp (2016) and Abandoned Mansion (2016)), but his solo work in the last half-decade has  been consistently impressive and wholly captivating. This week, Slick releases his latest album Wiseacre, which is named after the location where he became married to singer Natalie Prass, who guests on the album’s mesmerizing single "Closer to Heaven." While the album features a grouping of airy and enchanting pop-rock songs the are borne of the joy that stems from domestic bliss, Slick delves deeply into self-acceptance and combating your own insecurities throughout the entirety of the album. In this episode, Michael and Eric discuss how personal the Wiseacre project is to him, how the album was birthed (with the help of Grammy-winning producer Jeremy Ferguson), his other solo releases (particularly 2019’s Bullfighter — a song cycle about the first Jewish American matador Sidney Franklin), what Dr.Dog has been up to during quarantine, and a whole lot more.

Follow Eric Slick on Twitter @erickslickmusic and on Instagram at @strangeamerica.

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In this episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast the life and legacy of famed poet, novelist, and short story writer Charles Bukowski is explored through an interview with Italian journalist and film producer Silvia Bizio. In 1981, Bizio had the opportunity to conduct an expansive, seven hour interview with Bukowski that was filmed at his home in San Pedro, California, wherein they explored a bevy of subjects including writing, sex, love, and humanity. This conversation ultimately became the basis for a recently released documentary entitled You Never Knew It — An Evening with Bukowski which allows viewers to experience this in-depth, poignant interview that took place at the height of Bukowski's literary success. Bukowski, well-known for his novels including Post Office, Factotum, Women, and Ham on Rye, is renowned for brilliantly penning tales concerning the lives of impoverished Americans, the solemn act of writing, relationships with women, and the drudgery of work. He wrote thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories, and six novels, eventually publishing over sixty books throughout his life. In this episode, Bukowski’s legacy is explored through Bizio’s profound insight garnered during their multiple encounters, and in this interview she expounds upon their trusting relationship, the particulars of their discussion that remarkable evening in San Pedro, and the incredible story of how the documentary came to life. Join in an episode which acts as an ode to the "laureate of American lowlife,” Charles Bukowski.

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In this episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast host Michael Shields interviews the author of The Future Earth: A Radical Vision For What’s Possible in The Age of Warming, Eric Holthaus. Holthaus is a leading journalist on all things meteorological and Climate Change who has written regularly for the Wall Street Journal, Slate, Grist, and The Correspondent — where he currently covers humanity’s interconnected relationship with the Earth’s dynamic climate. The Future of Earth is widely considered the first authentically hopeful book about Climate Change and one that expertly maps out to readers how to reverse the short and long-term effects of this looming catastrophe over the next three decades. Anchored by world-class reporting, interviews with futurists, climatologists, biologists, economists, and Climate Change activists, The Future Earth offers up a radical vision of our future and shows what the world could look like if we implemented sweeping solutions equal to the scale of the crises we face. The Future Earth is the quintessential book for anyone who feels anxious and overwhelmed by the current state of our environment, and this episode channels hope, inviting listeners to imagine how we can reverse the effects of Climate Change in our own lifetime. Eric’s book encourages us to enter into a deeper relationship with the Earth as conscientious stewards and to reaffirm our commitment to one another in our shared humanity. In this episode Eric and Michael discuss a bevy of critical ideas present within The Future Earth, such as the idea that the Climate movement is intrinsically woven into social and racial justice movements, the concept of a “circular economy,” the power of storytelling in Climate activism, and much more. Ultimately, this episode highlights that now, as the world is rapidly changing, we are given the opportunity to reimagine how our world works entirely — and thus conceive a future in which everyone matters.

Follow Eric Holthaus on Twitter @EricHolthaus.

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Wouldn’t it be thrilling to go to the polls on Election Day, regardless of what U.S. state you live in, knowing your vote and voice will count just as much as everyone else's? In this latest episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast, host Michael Shields meticulously examines the role the Electoral College plays in elections through an interview with Supreme Court journalist and New York Times editorial board member Jesse Wegman. Wegman recently penned the insightful and important book Let The People Pick The President, a thoroughly researched and engaging call to arms that makes a powerful case for abolishing the antiquated and antidemocratic Electoral College. In Let the People Pick the President he demonstrates how as citizens we can at long last make every vote in the United States count — and restore belief in our democratic system.

To this day, millions of voters, and even members of Congress, misunderstand how the Electoral College works. Twice in the last five elections, the Electoral College has overridden the popular vote, calling the integrity of the entire system into question — and creating a false picture of a country divided into red and blue blocks. In this episode, Michael and Jesse delve into how the Electoral College functions and the way in which it was conceived by the Founding Fathers. They also examine the many myths associated with its workings, how the Popular Vote could eventually be implemented in choosing the president (hint: The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is involved), and ultimately, what the United States would look like when the final obstacle from the imperfections and built-in equalities of the nation’s founding was eradicated for good. Essentially they ask: How can we tolerate the Electoral College when every vote does not count the same, and the candidate who gets the most votes can lose?

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In this latest episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast, host Michael Shields sits down for an eye-opening interview with journalist and podcast host Amy Westervelt. Amy is the Editor-in-Chief of Drilled News, a Climate accountability website that investigates various drivers of delay on Climate action. Amy is also the host of the Drilled podcast that is one of the few narrative podcasts about Climate Change. Season 1 of Drilled focused on the Climate research conducted by oil companies examining when and how they shifted from studying the problem to denying it. Season 2 followed a community of crab fishermen as they became the first industry to sue Big Oil. Season 3, which is the main focus of this episode, chronicles the 100-year history of fossil fuel public relations campaigns and ties them to the propaganda we still see today. 

In this episode Michael and Amy dissect the nefarious tactics employed for decades by fossil fuel propagandists, specifics about the spin masters behind these methods, the unique symbiotic relationship between Big Tobacco and fossil fuel companies, and much, much more. You are not going to want to miss this episode, one that exposes plainly how the fossil fuel industry knew for years that they were destroying the planet, yet chose to value profit over human life, and took extreme measures to cover it all up.

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In this latest episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast, host Michael Shields sits down with producer and director Rob Harper to discuss his latest project Journeys to the Edge of Consciousness. This thought-provoking feature is a part-animated documentary film which whisks viewers into an animated trip into the depths of the human mind with three brave pioneers of the 1950s/60s: Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary, and Alan Watts. Journeys to the Edge of Consciousness features animated narrations of some of these sapient explorers most pivotal psychedelic trip reports, and intertwines interviews with modern psychedelic luminaries such as Amanda Fielding, Ben Sessa, Dennis McKenna, Gabor Mate, Rick Doblin, and Graham Hancock. The film explores three psychedelic trips that changed Western culture forever and begs the question: "What can expanded states of mind teach us about ourselves, the world and our place in it?"

In this episode Michael and Rob discuss the ins and outs of the stories told in the film and then expound upon how psychedelics — while certainly not for everyone — can be a tool to not only open people’s minds to the ways of the world, the spiritual, and what really matters in life, but also potentially help people struggling with anxiety, depression, or post traumatic stress disorder.

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