Across the Margin: The Podcast

In this latest episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast host Michael Shields sits down with actor, writer, and comedian Katie Hartman. Katie has starred in film and television, most recently in HBO's series High Maintenance, TV Land's Younger, TBS's Search Party and the Netflix film The Week Of. In 2018 Katie was selected as a New Face of Comedy for the prestigious Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal. She was a staff writer and performer on the WGA nominated Paid Off with Michael Torpey on truTV and a correspondent/writer for Hearst Media's Seriously.tv. Her hilarious web series Made to Order was listed as one of the "6 Brilliant Web Series" by Marie Claire. In this episode, Michael and Katie converse about her influences, her extraordinarily talented siblings, her assorted and impressive comedy/ acting projects, their shared political angst, where the term "going, going, gone" was coined, and much, much more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast, host Michael Shields, with the help of author and National Park Service (NPS) authority Dr. Gil Lusk, celebrate the national treasure that is the United States’ National Park System. Dr. Lusk is a retired National Park Service employee with thirty-five years of experience. For his efforts, he was awarded the U.S. Department of Interior's two highest performance awards: the Meritorious Service and Distinguished Service awards, the latter presented by the Secretary of Interior and the President. Dr. Lusk’s book, National Parks: Our Living Treasure (A Time For Concern), recounts the origins and the rich history of the NPS, while also ushering readers into NPS’s current conflicted era, where an abundance of issues endanger the important mission and preservation goals of the NPS. In this episode, Michael and Dr. Lusk converse over what makes the National Parks and the National Park Service so special, break down the crucial concerns facing the National Park Service (particularly politically), and climatically, Dr. Lusk suggest a series of urgent changes that are needed to bring the NPS back to its prime and ensure the protection of one of America’s most wondrous treasures. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this latest episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast host Michael Shields interviews filmmaker Steven Cantor about his latest film Between Me and My Mind, a documentary providing an in-depth and personal look at the life and career of Phish frontman Trey Anastasio. Steven Cantor is best known as the director of such hit documentaries as Dancer (2017), Chasing Tyson (2015), loudQUIETloud: A Film About Pixies (2011), and What Remains (2007). He is also the producer of such films as STEP (2017), Devil's Playground (2002), Reporter (2011) and Unraveled (2012). He is the founder of NY-based Stick Figure Productions, and the topics of his films have encompassed Willie Nelson, ballet star Sergei Polunin, photographer Sally Mann, boxers Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield, musician James Blake, and more. Between Me and My Mind finds Cantor following Trey Anastasio as he writes songs and prepares for the band's 2017 New Year's Eve concert at New York's famed Madison Square Garden. In addition, it tracks Anastasio through the writing and recording of his deeply personal new solo album Ghosts of the Forest, which came out in April. This podcast episode offers a behind the scenes look at a film that offers an in depth look at the life and career of Anastasio while shining a light on the massive heart and creative force behind a modern day rock n’ roll legend. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this latest episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast author Erik Rasmussen joins in on a conversation about the art of fiction writing, a discussion born from an in-depth examination of his novel, A Diet of Worms. Erik Rasmussen is the Editor-In-Chief of At Large magazine, and the former Deputy Editor at Man Of The World. His articles, essays, interviews, and photographs have appeared in a myriad of fashion magazines, literary journals, and websites. He is currently at work on a collection of short stories and his second novel: Recess For Idiots. His first novel, A Diet of Worms, tells the story of a young cynic's misadventures on the hunt for something to believe in. It is a coming-of-age story inspired by the themes of religion and addiction that have spilled into Erik's life. In this episode, Erik discusses the challenges of writing fiction, digs into the weighty themes present in A Diet of Worms (religion, sexuality, economic inequality, addiction, etc!), expounds upon his influences and stylistic choices, and a whole lot more! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This latest episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast features an interview with David Oks, the campaign manager of Democratic presidential nominee Mike Gravel. Mike Gravel is a former U.S. Senator from the state of Alaska and is most famous for being a fierce critic of the Vietnam War and who was responsible for reading the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record, a bold act that put his career at risk. Gravel is also remembered for his 2008 presidential run where he famously challenged his peers at the debates by championing an end to the Iraq war and advocating for increasing direct democracy. Initially not interested in running for president again, Oks, a senior in high school, approached Gravel and urged him to run, eventually earning himself a role as campaign manager. He then was given the keys to Gravel’s Twitter account which has been employed aggressively and shrewdly to take other presidential candidates to task for their policy record and to provide poignant thoughts on the state of progressive politics in general. The Gravel campaign’s goal, fascinatingly enough, is not to win the presidency but to push the democratic candidate's policies further to the left and to hopefully get Gravel on stage for the Democratic Party debates to challenge candidates about the issues. Throughout this episode host Michael Shields and Oks discuss his motivations to work with Gravel, the specifics of Gravel’s progressive platform, the concerns and shortcomings of Centrism in America, the candidates that Gravel hopes to propel towards the presidency through his campaign tactics, and the ways in which you can contribute to Gravel’s campaign if so inclined. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this latest episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast host Michael Shields sits down with filmmaker/musician Eric Mahoney to take a look back at the legacy and genius of the the Dayton-based indie-rock band Brainiac (3RA1N1AC). On the cusp of a major label deal and breaking into the mainstream, Brainiac’s lead singer and driving force, Tim Taylor, died tragically in a car accident halting the band’s trajectory and forever affecting everyone in Taylor’s orbit. Mahoney’s documentary, Brainiac: Transmissions After Zero, explores Brainiac’s rise to prominence and dissects the intricacies of their unique sound, one that was light years ahead of its time. The documentary intimately whisks viewers into the lives of those closest to Taylor as they attempt to recover from, and process, the fallout from such a monumental loss. Brainiac: Transmissions After Zero celebrates the life and creativity of one of rock music's unsung heroes, exploring with humor and heart the way in which individuals cope with the changes that extreme and sudden loss precipitate.Eric Mahoney is a Dayton, OH born musician and filmmaker now residing in Brooklyn, NY. He fronted the band Murder Your Darlings and his film work has been screened at Tribeca, Cannes, and numerous other festivals around the world. His film, Brainiac: Transmissions After Zero, features interviews with artists who were deeply affected and influenced by Brainiac such as Fred Armisen (who played drums in the Chicago band Trenchmouth before his SNL career), Nirvana/PJ Harvey producer Steve Albini, The National’s Matt Berninger, Cedric Bixler-Zavalaformer of At The Drive-In and The Mars Volta, Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur, the Jesus Lizard’s David Yow, and more. In this podcast Michael and Eric discuss an often forgotten band whose influence can be felt throughout the music industry today, and introduce listeners to a documentary that offers a sense of closure and a path to healing for those forever altered by that fateful night when Tim Taylor and his genius was lost. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this latest episode of Across The Margin:The Podcast listeners are introduced to the latest release from ATM Publishing, The Bounce and The Echo, with an interview with author Ian Johnson. Ian is a former pro basketball player who, for the first three decades of his existence, saw his life revolve entirely around the game. Ian played high school basketball at the prestigious Oak Hill Academy alongside Carmelo Anthony, was a star player during his four years at Davidson College in the lead up to the Stephen Curry era, and went on to play five years of professional basketball in Europe. He won multiple championships and a large number of personal accolades along the way, but Ian spent his career living a double life, both as a committed athlete who thrived on competition and as a skeptical observer who struggled to accept that he was devoting his soul to a game. Ian was a star in a cutthroat system, yet also an unwitting cog, his outward personality indentured to a sport, a fact he didn’t fully understand until he tried to walk away from the game at the age of 27.The Bounce and The Echo is a memoir enriched by the enthralling history of the sport of basketball, from its inception unto its current state. It is the story of one person’s attempt to discover himself anew while on a venture to find peace with a game he so desperately wanted to love. The Bounce and The Echo is a story for every athlete who has ever picked up a ball and wondered why, and a book for anyone who has ever wanted to know what happens to a star athlete once the spotlight fades away. In this episode, we learn what compelled Ian to write such a vulnerable and telling memoir, what the word “Dying” in the subtitle of the book truly refers to, how Ian’s struggles with mental health threatened his career and well-being, what the game of basketball and sports in general can better do to prepare athletes for life’s challenges, and much, much more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this latest episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast listeners are whisked back in time to the evening of Feb. 20th, 1939, a night where 20,000 Americans rallied in New York’s Madison Square Garden to celebrate the rise of Nazism — an event largely forgotten from American history. This chilling and distressingly relevant to today’s times event is the subject of the recently released, Oscar nominated short film “A Night At The Garden,” and this episode features an interview with the filmmaker behind the film,” Marshall Curry. Curry’s body of work is remarkable, from the 2002 Oscar-nominated Street Fight (which chronicled Cory Booker's 2002 mayoral campaign), to the Oscar-nominated If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (about an environmentalist who faced life in prison for burning two timber facilities), and onto his work on Mistaken For Strangers (centering on the band The National). All of Marshall’s films are engaging, revealing to the human condition, socially conscious, and riveting.While Curry’s extensive career and projects are discussed, this episode’s focus was aimed most sharply at “A Night At The Garden,” a distressing documentary short made entirely from archival footage filmed that fateful night. This affecting film transports audiences to this chilling gathering and shines a light on the power of demagoguery and anti-Semitism in the United States, and in this episode Michael and Marshall discuss how the footage was unearthed, the unique way in which Marshall edited and presented the footage, and the alarming relevance of this event, so many years removed from today, to the current political climate in America. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this latest episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast host Michael Shields welcomes author Jesse Jarnow to the podcast to discuss his latest work, Wasn't That a Time: The Weavers, the Blacklist, and the Battle for the Soul of America. Jesse Jarnow’s writing on music, technology, and culture has appeared via Pitchfork, Wired.com, Rolling Stone, the New York Times, and elsewhere, and he is a contributing editor at Relix. He is the author of Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America and Big Day Coming: Yo La Tengo and the Rise of Indie Rock. Jesse hosts The Frow Show on the independent Jersey City radio station WFMU and is the host of the podcast Alternative Routes (Osiris Media). His latest, The Weavers, the Blacklist, and the Battle for the Soul of America, is a deeply insightful book which details the remarkable rise of Pete Seeger's unlikely band of folk heroes, from basement hootenannies to the top of the charts, and the harassment campaign that brought them down.Exploring how a pop group's harmonies might be heard as a threat worthy of decades of investigation by the FBI, Wasn't That a Time turns the black-and-white 1950s into vivid color, using the Weavers to illuminate a dark and complex period of American history. With origins in the radical folk collective the Almanac Singers and the ambitious People's Songs, the singing activists in the Weavers set out to change the world with songs as their weapons, pioneering the use of music as a transformative political organizing tool.Listen in as Michael And Jesse discuss what made the Weavers so special and influential, and as they expound upon the history of folk music as explored in Jarnow’s book while examining the amount of research it took for this work to come to life, the power of music and art in combatting oppression, and much, much more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With the final episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast of 2018, host Michael Shields curates a pairing of conversations that celebrates the varied and wondrous music released this year. Joined by the head of ATM''s Art Department, editor/artist Chris Thompson, the Top 50 Albums of 2018 as selected by the staff of Across The Margin is analyzed, where marvelous releases by the likes of Kamasi Washington, Janelle Monáe, Phosphorecent, Khruangbin, David Byrne and Spirtualized (and more!) are heralded. Up next, Michael converses with music connoisseurs, and hosts of the podcast Beyond the Pond, Brian Brinkman and David Goldstein. Beyond the Pond is a podcast that introduces listeners to a vast array of bands and artists, starting with specific pieces of improvisation by the Vermont-based band Phish. The aim of Beyond the Pond is to take music fans out of their specific comfort zones and, with the aid of their wealth of musical knowledge, steer people towards a more diverse and eclectic smattering of music. Join in on a music-centric odyssey of an episode, where the sonic bounties of today are trumpeted and rightfully earn their appreciation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.