Across the Margin: The Podcast

Across the Margin / Osiris Media
  • 4.9 (27)
  • BOOKS
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

Host Michael Shields brings you Beyond the Margin, guiding you deeper into the stories told at the online literary and cultural magazine, Across the Margin. Listen in as they take you on a storytelling journey, one where you are bound to meet a plethora of intriguing writers, wordsmiths, poets, artists, activists, musicians, and unhinged eccentrics illustrating the notion that there are captivating stories to be found everywhere. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. Episode 231: Pat Kelly's Hook

    MAR 25

    Episode 231: Pat Kelly's Hook

    This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast features an interview with Pittsburgh-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Pat Kelly. Pat recently released his fifth album, and his first for Glamour Gowns Records, entitled Hook, an enticing and cathartic set of songs that evokes self-doubt, delusional ambition, anger, and wistfulness. Pat’s lyrical prowess is exceptional. His wordplay and delivery brings to mind some of the greatest, from David Berman of the Silver Jews, to Bill Callahan and Leonard Cohen. In this interview host Michael Shields and Pat discuss some of the meaningful themes that manifest themselves throughout Hook, the tremendous musicians who helped Pat bring the album to life, the unique inspirations behind the songs on Hook, and more. Find Pat Kelly’s Hook here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    29 min
  2. Episode 230: Nature’s Last Dance with Natalie Kyriacou

    MAR 20

    Episode 230: Nature’s Last Dance with Natalie Kyriacou

    This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast features an interview with Natalie Kyriacou, an award-winning environmentalist, charity director, and author. Natalie was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia and the Forbes 30 Under 30 honor for her services to wildlife and environmental conservation in 2018, and was recognised as one of The Australian’s ‘Top Innovators’ in 2022. She was the UN Environment Programme’s ‘Young Champion of the Earth’ Finalist and is LinkedIn’s Top Green Voice. She is a Board Director at the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife and CARE Australia, the Founder of My Green World, a UNESCO Green Citizens Pathfinder, a member of the XPrize Brain Trust for Biodiversity and Conservation, and an Australian Delegate and Climate Justice Lead at the W20 (the official engagement group of the G20). Her book — Nature’s Last Dance : Tales of Wonder in the Age of Extinction — is the focus of this episode. Amidst the tragedy of wild species extinction lies a hidden world of survival and wonder. Conservationists are embroiled in a high-stakes clash with a drug cartel to save a porpoise. Scientists are fighting to save a flightless bird that romances rocks. Unconventional animals are upending 21st century beauty standards, and financiers are betting on whale poo to make its debut on Wall Street. Nature's Last Dance is a story of survival and extinction, of life and death, of curiosity and perversion, of unimaginable joy and harrowing sorrow. Set against the backdrop of a rapidly unfolding mass extinction event, Nature's Last Dance takes readers across hunting grounds, through jungles and oceans, inside communities, through trafficking rings and courtrooms, and into the heart of battles to survive against all odds. Grab a copy of Nature’s Last Dance here! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    44 min
  3. Episode 229: On Healing Land, Birds Perch with Naja Lockwood

    MAR 3

    Episode 229: On Healing Land, Birds Perch with Naja Lockwood

    This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast features an interview with director Naja Lockwood. Naja has executive produced multiple documentary and narrative films focusing on social justice and is the founder of RYSE Media Ventures which supports stories of diverse voices. Born in Vietnam, Naja immigrated to Massachusetts during the Fall of Saigon. As a refugee, Naja continues to advocate for immigrants from her undergraduate years to her current work with the Governor's Workforce Services. She serves on the Committee for Ethnic Studies and Asian American Studies at Harvard University and The Coalition for Diverse Harvard. She is the Founder and CEO of Naja Lockwood Designs which supports female artisans of Southeast Asia. She is the director of “On Healing Land, Birds, Perch,” which is the focus of this episode. “On Healing Land, Birds Perch (Đất Lành Chim Đậu)” tells the stories behind the iconic photograph taken by Eddie Adams during the 1968 Tet Offensive titled “Saigon Execution.” The film presents an opportunity to delve into the complex narratives and the lasting impact of a single moment captured in time. The photograph of General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong officer, Nguyen Van Lem, has become a powerful symbol, often viewed as emblematic of the brutality of the Vietnam War. However, it also represents much more than the act of violence it depicts. It reflects the personal stories, struggles, and the human costs of war for generations that continue to reverberate today. Watch “On Healing Land, Birds Perch” here!  *A correction to what’s said on the podcast: Malcolm Brown’s burning monk photo was taken in 1963, not 1968.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    29 min
  4. Episode 228: What Do You Do When You're Lonesome with Jonathan Bernstein

    FEB 18

    Episode 228: What Do You Do When You're Lonesome with Jonathan Bernstein

    This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast features an interview with Jonathan Bernstein, a senior research editor and writer at Rolling Stone, who before that was a freelancer for Oxford American, The Guardian, GQ, Vulture, Pitchfork, The Village Voice, Spin, Entertainment Weekly, and American Songwriter. His book, What Do You Do When You’re Lonesome : The Authorized Biography of Justin Townes Earle, is the focus of this episode. In What To Do When You’re Lonely, Jonathan Bernstein, with the full cooperation of the Justin Townes Earle estate, unravels a short but incredibly creative life, and reveals the backstories behind Justin’s greatest songs and what happened when it all fell apart while also capturing a shadow world of the neglected children of Nashville legends who wrestle with the legacies of their hard-living, road-weary, often absent parents. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    53 min
  5. Episode 227: Michael Townsend's Secret Mall Apartment

    JAN 29

    Episode 227: Michael Townsend's Secret Mall Apartment

    This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast features an interview with artist and educator Michael Townsend. Michael is the founder of the Tape Art movement and for over 30 years, he has created hundreds of ephemeral murals and community projects around the world. His work includes the 9/11 Hope Project, the invention of the BOOM! Projector, and the now-legendary documentary Secret Mall Apartment. Directed by Jeremy Workman and executive produced by Jesse Eisenberg, the critically acclaimed documentary follows Michael and his collaborators, who, in 2003, secretly built and lived in an apartment inside Providence Place Mall for four years. What started as an underground protest against gentrification has become a cultural phenomenon, a story about art, resistance, and community. At the center of the film is Michael Townsend, the artist whose work sparked the story. Michael has found a way to live his art, and give back to his community and the country all the while, from teaching collaborative drawing in hospitals and schools, and building projects designed to disappear physically but endure culturally. The mall apartment was one project among many — a piece of protest art that happened to be documented, and in this episode host Michael Shields and Michael Townsend delve into Michael’s motivations, his enduring and inspiring work with Tape Art, the blended line between art and everyday living that defines Michael’s life, and so much more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    35 min
  6. Episode 226: Plan C For Civilization with Ben Kalina

    12/10/2025

    Episode 226: Plan C For Civilization with Ben Kalina

    This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast features an interview with award-winning director and producer Ben Kalina, whose work centers on the collision between human nature and the force of nature. In 2020 he produced and directed Can We Cool the Planet? for NOVA. His film Shored Up, the 2014 Sundance Institute LightStay Sustainability Award winner, explored rising sea levels and the politics of Climate Change in the U.S. in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. He was Associate Producer of A Sea Change, broadcast on Discovery’s Planet Green in 2009, and Two Square Miles, broadcast on PBS’ Independent Lens in 2006. Ben’s production company, Mangrove Media, is based in Philadelphia where he is an Assistant Professor in the Film and Television Program at Drexel University. His latest documentary — Plan C For Civilization — is the focus of this episode. Plan C for Civilization tackles the promise and peril of solar geoengineering with exclusive verite access to its protagonist David Keith and the SCoPEx project as well as the rogue geoengineers of Make Sunsets. From Bangladesh to Nevada, the extremely controversial promise of solar geoengineering is emerging after more than 60 years in the shadows, and with it, a new chapter of the Climate Change saga. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    36 min
  7. Episode 225: You're No Island with Andrew Daly Frank

    11/25/2025

    Episode 225: You're No Island with Andrew Daly Frank

    This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast features an interview with singer-songwriter and guitarist Andrew Daly Frank. Andrew is an inimitable songwriting voice and virtuosic guitarist, and his debut album, You’re No Island — the focus of this episode — is a gorgeous, affecting piece of art that is pacifying and vitalizing. Andrew is a guitarist who has lent his thrilling leads and delicate chordal touch to albums by Charlie Kaplan and released a series of beguiling EPs in the lead up to You’re No Island. Andrew’’s arrangements on You’re No Island are both intimate and expansive, and he emerges here as an auteur in his own right, a songwriter of uncommon wisdom and an architect of subtle musical effects. In this interview host Michael Shields and Andrew Daly Frank discuss the genesis of You’re No Island and the ways in which the songs on it took shape over the past five years. They talk about the cunning lyricism found on the album, Andrew’s musical influences, and so much more.  Songs featured in the episode: “Alone in the Frame,” “Someone Somewhere,” “Lisbon.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    33 min
  8. Episode 224: The 90s Jam Band Explosion with Mike Ayers

    11/17/2025

    Episode 224: The 90s Jam Band Explosion with Mike Ayers

    This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast features an interview with author and seasoned music and culture journalist, Mike Ayers. Mike has had work published in Billboard, The Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, Time, Esquire, and Relix. His first book, One Last Song: Conversations on Life, Death, and Music came out in 2020, with Variety declaring it as one of the best music books of the year. His latest book, Sharing in the Groove: The Untold Story of the '90s Jam Band Explosion and the Scene that Followed, is the focus of this episode Sharing in the Groove is a rich examination of an underdog genre that helped define the 1990s musical landscape — a scene that paved the way for modern-day cultural institutions such as the Bonnaroo Music Festival and kept the Grateful Dead ethos alive. Beginning in the mid-’80s and traveling up to New Year’s Eve 1999, Sharing in the Groove covers milestones such as getting signed to record labels and working the club scenes to playing amphitheaters and arenas. Along the way, details emerge of the scene’s own cultural values and the desire to be unique in a world that wanted them to follow a prescribed path. Ultimately, it’s a DIY story of creativity and making music — and how that won over a huge audience. Filled with anecdotes and stories directly from the musicians, promoters, managers, roadies, producers, label executives, and fans who lived this scene, Sharing in the Groove is a fun, fast-paced oral history that will appeal to music lovers everywhere. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    57 min
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4.9
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About

Host Michael Shields brings you Beyond the Margin, guiding you deeper into the stories told at the online literary and cultural magazine, Across the Margin. Listen in as they take you on a storytelling journey, one where you are bound to meet a plethora of intriguing writers, wordsmiths, poets, artists, activists, musicians, and unhinged eccentrics illustrating the notion that there are captivating stories to be found everywhere. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Information

  • Creator
    Across the Margin / Osiris Media
  • Years Active
    2015 - 2026
  • Episodes
    232
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Across the Margin, 2018
  • Show Website
    Across the Margin: The Podcast

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