Mind Your Margins

Michelle Myers

Feeling world weary? Disheartened by politics? Enraged by racism? In MIND YOUR MARGINS, Michelle Myers draws on her experience as a professor, activist, and poet to foster a space for listeners where it’s humanly possible to make humanity possible. Each episode, Michelle discusses topics with a focus on marginalized identities. She also encourages healthy ways to manage anxiety and anger as well as emphasizes the importance of practicing daily affirmations of personal acceptance, healing, and compassion. As an Asian American woman, Michelle highlights the experiences of people of color, particularly people who identify as AAPI, immigrants/children of immigrants, and/or multiracial/multicultural.

  1. 11/20/2025

    10:The Fire and the Feed - Escaping the Digital Cave

    Michelle Myers draws on her experience as a professor, activist, and poet to foster a space for listeners where it’s humanly possible to make humanity possible. Each episode, Michelle discusses difficult topics with a focus on practicing mindfulness and self-care as well as on claiming a personal space of acceptance, healing, and compassion.  In this episode, Michelle journeys from the shadows of Plato’s cave to the glow of our modern screens to ask a timeless question: What is real - and who decides?Michelle unpacks how platforms profit from emotion, how disinformation thrives in the chaos of “breaking news,” and how the pressure to perform—to “say something,” to “be seen reacting”—turns genuine communication into spectacle. Below are links to articles about the topics discussed in the episode. This is not an exhaustive list and our listeners are encouraged to research these topics on their own as well: Philip Deloria, “The Myth of Thanksgiving” David Silverman, This Land is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving Jon Stewart, The Weekly Show podcast, “How Social Media Exacerbates Disaster and Disinformation" Cambridge Analytica used personal data from Facebook to create psychological profiles of voters during the 2026 election Data showing that immigrants, including undocumented ones, are less likely to commit crimes than U.S.-born citizens: Cato Institute Congressional document National Academy of Sciences You can find Mind Your Margins on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and you can email suggestions for topics or share your thoughts at mindyourmargins@gmail.com Host: Michelle Myers Producer: Myong McCloud

    56 min
  2. 08/12/2025

    9: Who Gets to Learn? Insights on Trump’s Anti-Education Agenda

    Michelle Myers draws on her experience as a professor, activist, and poet to foster a space for listeners where it’s humanly possible to make humanity possible. Each episode, Michelle discusses difficult topics with a focus on practicing mindfulness and self-care as well as on claiming a personal space of acceptance, healing, and compassion.  In this episode, Michelle breaks down Trump’s $6.8 billion education funding cuts, the political attacks on K–12 and higher education, and asks a fundamental question: Who gets to learn? From DEI rollbacks to threats against academic freedom, we explore how these policies harm vulnerable students—and why access to education must remain a human right. Below are links to articles about the topics discussed in the episode. This is not an exhaustive list and our listeners are encouraged to research these topics on their own as well: “Donald Trump loves the 'poorly educated' — and they love him” By Josh Hafner, USA TODAY - February 24, 2016 “Trump loves the poorly educated” By Julianne Malveaux, The Chicago Crusader - March 28, 2025 “‘It’s been chaos:’ WVU nears end of tumultuous academic year after jobs, programs unexpectedly cut” By Amelia Ferrell Knisely, West Virginia Watch - April 23, 2024  “Trump Has Targeted These Universities. Why?” By Alan Blinder,  The New York Times - June 30, 2025 “A Look at the Universities with Federal Funding Targeted by the Trump Administration” By Makiya Seminera,  Associated Press - April 15, 2025 "Rural Schools Feel the Pinch from Trump administration's cuts to mental health grants" By Associated Press - June 27, 2025 "Who Will Bear the Brunt of Trump's Hold on $6.8 Billion in School Funds?" By Mark Lieberman, Education Week - July 7, 2025 "See How Much School Funding Trump is Holding Back from Your State" By Mark Lieberman, Education Week - July 1, 2025 "Democrats are Too Educated for Our Own Good" By Chris Conrad,  Political Science at Haverford College - October 27, 2020 “School districts sue Trump administration over $6 billion funding freeze” by Arthur Jones II, ABC News - July 21, 2025 “School Districts, Parents, Educators, and Advocates Sue Trump-Vance Administration for Unlawfully Blocking Billions in Funding” By Democracy Forward - July 21, 2025 “What Republican senators are now saying about Trump admin’s education funding freeze” By Arthur Jones II, ABC News - July 23, 2025 “GOP senators urge Trump administration to reverse $6 billion education funding freeze” By Arthur Jones II, ABC News - July 16, 2025 “24 states sue Trump admin to unfreeze more than $6 billion in education grants” By Sequoia Carrillo, NPR - July 14, 2025 “Columbia University to pay $200m in settlement with Trump administration” By Brandon Drenon, BBC News, Washington DC - July 24, 2025 You can find Mind Your Margins on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and you can email suggestions for topics or share your thoughts at mindyourmargins@gmail.com Host: Michelle Myers Producer: Myong McCloud

    55 min
  3. 06/11/2025

    8: Professors as the Enemy? Academic Repression and the Fight for Justice

    Michelle Myers draws on her experience as a professor, activist, and poet to foster a space for listeners where it’s humanly possible to make humanity possible. Each episode, Michelle discusses difficult topics with a focus on practicing mindfulness and self-care as well as on claiming a personal space of acceptance, healing, and compassion.  In this episode, Michelle confronts the escalating political attacks on higher education—fueled by authoritarian rhetoric, anti-intellectualism, and growing efforts to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion in colleges across the US. Are professors the enemy—or the last line of defense for truth and justice? In this episode, we unpack the Trump-era war on higher ed, the legacy of educational erasure, and what it means to teach from the margins in a time of rising repression. Education isn’t neutral—and neither are we.  Below are links to articles about the topics discussed in the episode. This is not an exhaustive list and our listeners are encouraged to research these topics on their own as well: "The Carlisle Indian Industrial School: Assimilation with Education after the Indian Wars (Teaching with Historic Places)" Information about Indian Boarding Schools From the American Indian Resource Center at the University of California-Santa Cruz  Horace Mann on Education and Poverty (1848) bell hooks - Teaching to Transgress: Teaching as the Practice of Freedom Paulo Freire-- The Pedagogy of the Oppressed "Fact Check: Yes, Vance once said 'professors are the enemy.' He was quoting Nixon" from yahoo!news You can find Mind Your Margins on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and you can email suggestions for topics or share your thoughts at mindyourmargins@gmail.com Host: Michelle Myers Producer: Myong McCloud

    45 min

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

Feeling world weary? Disheartened by politics? Enraged by racism? In MIND YOUR MARGINS, Michelle Myers draws on her experience as a professor, activist, and poet to foster a space for listeners where it’s humanly possible to make humanity possible. Each episode, Michelle discusses topics with a focus on marginalized identities. She also encourages healthy ways to manage anxiety and anger as well as emphasizes the importance of practicing daily affirmations of personal acceptance, healing, and compassion. As an Asian American woman, Michelle highlights the experiences of people of color, particularly people who identify as AAPI, immigrants/children of immigrants, and/or multiracial/multicultural.