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 Festi...
Jul 19, 2021•25 min
This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast features an interview with Patrick Burke, associate professor of music at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Burke is the author of Come In and Hear the Truth: Jazz and Race on 52nd Street and also the recently released Tear Down The Walls: White Radicalism and Black Power in 1960s Rock — the focus of this episode. From the earliest days of rock and roll, white artists regularly achieved fame, wealth, and success that eluded the Black art...
Jun 16, 2021•33 min
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, ...
May 27, 2021•35 min
This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast features an interview with Jacob M. Appel, one of the most prolific, accomplished, yet humble people in America. Appel is an author, poet, bioethicist, physician, lawyer and social critic best known for his short stories, his work as a playwright, and his writing in the fields of reproductive ethics, organ donation, neuroethics and euthanasia. He is the director of Ethics Education in Psychiatry and an associate professor of psychiatry and medical e...
May 19, 2021•27 min
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: ...
May 04, 2021•52 min
This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast introduces you to producer, writer, filmmaker, and media expert Jimmy Chairman. From 2006 until 2020 Chairman interviewed celebrities for a living. All told, he conducted over 10,000 interviews. On the red carpet night in and night out working for E! Entertainment — in the channel’s heyday — Chairman admirably picked the brains of the world's most famous actors, athletes, and artists. Beyond his work on the red carpet, Chairman helms his own product...
Apr 22, 2021•1 hr 1 min
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...
Apr 12, 2021•35 min
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 worl...
Apr 06, 2021•50 min
This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents 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 . Using the inspiring story of his own rise from humble beginnings, and that of his parents and grandparents, Up From Nothing sets out to display how individually we can change our mindset from survivor to thriver to winner, and move beyond just getting b...
Mar 17, 2021•32 min
This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents 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 bringing together musicians, video artists, and visionaries to create music, art, and experiences that explore the human condition. Saint Disruption, in conjunction with its record label Root Doctor Me...
Mar 11, 2021•35 min
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...
Feb 25, 2021•37 min
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 healin...
Feb 12, 2021•38 min
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 “ 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, ...
Jan 22, 2021•1 hr 3 min
This thought-provoking 100th episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with Oakland, California-based artist, writer, and educator, Jenny Odell. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times , New York Magazine , The Paris Review , The Believer , McSweeney's , and Sierra Magazine . Her visual work has been exhibited internationally, including as a mural on the side of a Google data center in rural Oklahoma. Odell has been an artist in residence at the Internet Archive, the...
Jan 12, 2021•39 min
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...
Jan 06, 2021•59 min
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 Religio n, 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 ...
Dec 28, 2020•49 min
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 ...
Nov 17, 2020•35 min
This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast serves as an introduction to Roots and Tings , the San Francisco Bay Area-based Revolutionary Culture Music collective. Roots and Tings comprises Quannum and Solesides co-founder, Grammy nominated MC, Lateef the Truth Speaker, acclaimed DJ and producer Jah Yzer, and the multi-talented musician and reggae artist Winstrong. Together, these dynamic artists have created a unique sound fusing elements of dancehall and hip-hop into a stunning reggae tape...
Nov 09, 2020•37 min
In this episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast, host Michael Shields interviews Dr. Wolfgang Mack, who shares his vivid memories of living through one of the worst dictatorships in modern history. Dr. Wolfgang Mack knows what causes a country to slide into complete authoritarian control and chaos, and how legitimately elected leaders are able to grab power and gain control. A young boy when the Nazi Party took over Germany, Mack’s lifelong interest in autocratic leadership and dictatorship le...
Oct 30, 2020•29 min
Kareem Tabsch is an award-winning documentary filmmaker who believes in the power of film to enrich and change lives. His filmmaking focuses on documenting the oft-ignored parts of society, that which isn't always conventionally beautiful, widely accepted, or deemed normal. As a documentary filmmaker, Tabsch’s works have been official selections of Sundance, SXSW, True/False, Full Frame, HotDocs, Slamdance, AFI Docs, DocNYC, Rooftop Films, and LA Film Fest. His 2015 film Dolphin Lover won the Be...
Oct 21, 2020•55 min
In this episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast, host Michael Shields interviews Professor of Sociology and Coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College, Alex S. Vitale. Professor Vitale has spent the last thirty years writing about policing and consults with police departments and human rights organizations internationally. He is a frequent essayist, whose writings have been published in The New York Times , The Washington Post , The Guardian , The Nation , Vice ...
Oct 14, 2020•35 min
In this episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast, host Michael Shields shines a light on one of his passions: trees. In what amounts to a celebration of the wonders of nature, and specifically some the largest organisms on the planet, this episode honors trees, those majestic giants who benevolently provide humankind with oxygen, store carbon, stabilize the soil, provide shelter to the world's wildlife, and so much more. Digging deep into the myriad ways in which trees make a difference in our ...
Oct 09, 2020•40 min
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 a...
Sep 30, 2020•29 min
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 Nation...
Sep 24, 2020•1 hr 1 min
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 wri...
Sep 15, 2020•59 min
In this episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast host Michael Shields converses with actor and writer Michael Imperioli. Imperioli is best known for his starring role as Christopher Moltisanti in the acclaimed HBO TV series The Sopranos , which earned him a Best Supporting Actor Emmy Award. He also wrote five episodes of the show and was co-screenwriter of the film Summer of Sam , directed by Spike Lee. While best known for his acting, this episode focuses on another one of Imperioli’s gifts, h...
Sep 08, 2020•27 min
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 ...
Aug 14, 2020•48 min
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 ba...
Aug 07, 2020•25 min
In this latest episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast host Michael Shields sits down with activist, philanthropist, businessman, restaurateur, and practicing Buddhist Tracey Ryans for a wide-ranging interview that contemplates the unique moment in time we all inhabit. With a heavy focus on the unfolding global protests for equality and justice and against police violence and corruption, Michael and Tracey expound upon Tracey’s active role in the protests as a member of The Wide Awakes and The...
Jul 23, 2020•58 min
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 conside...
Jul 15, 2020•33 min
