ACROSS THE MARGIN: THE PODCAST

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Podcast host Michael Shields guides you deeper into the stories told at the online Arts & Culture magazine, Across the Margin. Listen in as he takes you on a storytelling journey, one where you are bound to meet a plethora of intriguing writers, wordsmiths, poets, artists, musicians, filmmakers, activists, and unhinged eccentrics illustrating the notion that there are captivating stories to be found everywhere…

LATEST EPISODES

Episode 185: California Dreaming with Noa Silver Across the Margin: The Podcast

This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with author Noa Silver, who was born in Jerusalem, raised between Scotland and Maine, and now resides in Berkeley, California. After receiving her BA in English and American literature and language from Harvard University, Noa lived and taught English as a Second Language on Namdrik — part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the smallest inhabited atoll in the world. She later completed her MFA in creative writing from San Francisco State University and then worked as an editor on various oral history projects, ranging from an archive documenting the Partition of India and Pakistan to a cancer researcher telling the stories of trauma experienced by cancer survivors. Her debut novel, California Dreaming — the focus of this episode — will be available everywhere on May 21st, 2024. In California Dreaming, we find Elena Berg, having grown up on stories of her mother's wild youth in California, relocating from New England to the Bay Area in 2011 for a placement as an English teacher with Teach for America. Once there, she is eager to inspire a love of poetry and literature in her diverse but underprivileged students. Her own grandfather — a Holocaust survivor — was a storyteller and teacher who touched the lives of his students for years to come. Elena’s mother followed in his footsteps, leaving behind the hippie lifestyle of her twenties to become a university professor.But Elena quickly finds herself feeling disconnected from teaching, unable to inspire her students, and before long, she grows disillusioned with her career. Coming of age between the Occupy and #MeToo movements and against the backdrop of the 2016 election and California's ever-worsening fire season, Elena reckons with California as she imagined it, and California as it really is. As she does so, she must also ultimately reconcile the person she envisioned herself to be with the person she actually is.California Dreaming is a robust debut in literary fiction. It is an earnest story that encourages readers to think about how we make meaning in our lives, and how the stories we tell ourselves influence the ways in which we see the world — and our place in it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
  1. Episode 185: California Dreaming with Noa Silver
  2. Episode 184: Holy American Burnout! with Sean Enfield
  3. Episode 183: The Last Repair Shop with Ben Proudfoot
  4. Episode 182: A Father's Promise with Rick Korn
  5. Episode 181: Brother Outsider with Nancy Kates

ARCHIVED EPISODES

ep113


THE QUEEN OF BASKETBALL with BEN PROUDFOOT

An interview with Ben Proudfoot, the Oscar nominated creative force behind Breakwater Studios.

ep112


WHITE RADICALISM & BLACK POWER IN THE 1960s with PATRICK BURKE

Featuring an interview with Patrick Burke, associate professor of music at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

ep111


FREE RADIO: EARTHWORMS

Featuring an interview with the backbone of the Asheville, North Carolina based hip-hop group Free Radio, emcees Austin Haynes and Johnny Reynolds.

ep110


JACOB APPEL

Featuring an interview with Jacob M. Appel, one of the most prolific, accomplished, yet humble people in America.

ep109


SUN RA’S CHICAGO

Presenting 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.

ep108


THE ART OF THE INTERVIEW & NEW BEGINNINGS with JIMMY CHAIRMAN

An introduction to producer, writer, filmmaker, and media expert Jimmy Chairman. From 2006 until 2020 Chairman interviewed 10,000+ celebrities for a living. 

ep107


ROW with DANIEL GOLDSTEIN

Celebrating, 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.

ep106


LOUDER THAN BOMBS with ED VULLIAMAY

Presenting an interview with Ed Vulliamy, former reporter for The Guardian and The Observer and his latest book Louder Than Bombs — part memoir, part reportage — a story of music from the front lines of war.

ep105


UP FROM NOTHING with JOHN HOPE BRYANT

Featuring an interview with entrepreneur, author, philanthropist, and prominent thought leader John Hope Bryant, in a thought-provoking episode which centers on Bryant’s latest book, Up From Nothing.

ep104


SAINT DISRUPTION’S JEFF FIREWALKER SCHMITT

Presenting an interview with musician, folk healer, ceremonialist, and scientist Jeff Firewalker Schmitt. Schmitt, along with renowned jazz musician John Medeski (of Medeski Martin & Wood), have formed a musical collaborative called Saint Disruption.

ep103


CHICAGO SOUL MUSIC & BLACK CULTURAL POWER with AARON COHEN

Featuring an interview with Aaron Cohen, author of Move On Up: Chicago Soul Music and Black Cultural Power

ep102


SANYA N’KANTA

Presenting 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.

ep101


THE REVISIONARIES with A.R. MOXON

This episode explores “The Revisionaries,” a new book by A.R. Moxon, and an achievement in fiction writing. It’s a tour de force of a novel heralded by critics as a “modern classic” and a “spectacular invention.”

ep100


HOW TO DO NOTHING with JENNY ODELL

This thought-provoking 100th episode presents an interview with Oakland, California-based artist, writer, & educator, Jenny Odell. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, New York Magazine, The Paris Review, The Believer, McSweeney’s, & Sierra Magazine. 

ep99


RUNNING TO PROTEST & ABOUT THE PEOPLE with COFFEY

Presenting an interview with Brooklyn-based filmmaker & activist Coffey. Formerly the fashion editor of the hip-hop magazine XXL and the founder of the Define New York Run Club, Coffey is one of the leaders behind the Running To Protest movement.