This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast features an interview with Antonio A. Casilli, professor of sociology at the Institut Polytechnique de Paris and a member of the Interdisciplinary Institute on Innovation of the French National Center for Scientific Research. In addition to co-leading the research team DiPLab (Digital Platform Labor), he is the co-founder of the INDL (International Network on Digital Labor). His latest book — Waiting for Robots: The Hired Hands of Automation — is the focus of this episode. In his bracing and powerful book, Casilli uses up-to-the-minute research to show how today’s technologies, including AI, continue to exploit human labor. Waiting for Robots urges us to move beyond the simplistic notion that machines are intelligent and autonomous. This eye-opening book makes clear that most “automation” requires human labor — and likely always will — shedding new light on today’s consequences and tomorrow’s threats of failing to recognize and compensate the “click workers” of today.

Grab a copy of Waiting For Robots here!

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This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast features an interview with directors Dominic and Nadia Gill. Born in Oxford, United Kingdom, and educated at Shrewsbury, Dominic became a biologist who, at the age of 25, left the corporate world of environmental consulting to fulfill his dream as an adventurer and filmmaker. He set up shop creating and producing film and television content. Dominic's first adventure film Take A Seat: Alaska to Argentina, in which he rode a tandem bicycle from the top of Alaska to the bottom of Argentina, won Special Jury Prize at the Banff Mountain Film Festival in 2009 and has since been shown in over 400 cities worldwide. He also published the story of this journey in the book, Take A Seat. Nadia Gill, a former lawyer, left her job to join Dominic in biking across the United States in 2010 while they produced a television series: Sharing A Ride Across America. In 2015 they released their first feature documentary Coming To My Senses, chronicling the vision quest of former motocross athlete Aaron Baker as he crossed Death Valley in the culmination of a 14-year effort learning how to walk again. Together Dominic and Nadia formed Encompass Films, and their latest documentary, Planetwalker, is the focus of this episode. Planetwalker tells the story of black environmentalist Dr. John Francis, known the world over as “Planetwalker.” In 1971, after witnessing an oil tanker collision in San Francisco Bay, he gave up motorized transport in protest and relied solely on his own two feet. Months after that he took a vow of silence, convinced that listening rather than adding fuel to any argumentative fire was the way ahead. During the next 17 silent years — serenaded only by his banjo — he walked across the United States listening to and studying the environment around him. Planetwalker focuses on the period of John's life from the oil spill through his meandering 20-year journey across the States where he resumes speaking to work on oil spill legislation with the US Coast Guard. During this time, it seemed like the whole world, every creed and color, saw John pass by and interacted with him if only fleetingly. Planetwalker re-introduces the world to the inner-magic of Dr. John Francis, a central figure in the intersectional environmental movement who’s story takes on new meaning today.

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This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast features an with interview Sarath "SkIZ" Fernando, a former music critic, who has written for The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Source, Spin, and Vibe. Later, under the alias Spectre he became a record producer, rapper, and electronica artist. He is the founder and the head of his own label WordSound, as well as the author of several books about hip hop music, including The New Beats: Exploring the Music, Culture & Attitudes of Hip-Hop and From The Streets of Shaolin: The Wu-Tang Saga, the definitive biography of hip-hop's greatest group. His latest book, a biography of MF DOOM, The Chronicles of DOOM: Unraveling Rap's Masked Iconoclast (Astra House) is the focus of this episode. Sweeping and definitive, The Chronicles of DOOM: Unraveling Rap’s Masked Iconoclast recounts the rise, fall, redemption, and untimely demise of MF DOOM. Broken down into five sections: The Man, The Myth, The Mask, The Music, and The Legend, journalist S. H. Fernando, or SKIZ, chronicles the life of Daniel Dumile Jr., beginning in the house he grew up in in Long Beach, NY, into the hip-hop group KMD, onto the stage of his first masked show, through the countless collabs, and across the many different cities Daniel called home. Centering the music, SKIZ deftly lays out the history of east-coast rap against DOOM’s life story and dissects the personas, projects, tracks, and lyrics that led to his immortality.Including exclusive interviews with those who worked closely with DOOM and providing an unknown, intimate, behind the scenes look into DOOM’s life, The Chronicles of DOOM is the definitive biography of MF DOOM, a supervillain on stage and hero to those who paid attention. Learn more about MF Doom and SKIZ’s compelling book on this episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast.

Grab a copy of The Chronicles of DOOM: Unraveling Rap's Masked Iconoclast here!

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This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast features an interview with Jordan Chariton, an independent investigative reporter known for reporting on-the-ground across America on significant stories that often fall through the cracks of mainstream media. Chariton has made twenty reporting trips to Flint since 2016 investigating the water crisis and cover-up. He also covered the indigenous-led protests at Standing Rock in North Dakota against the Dakota Access Pipeline, the United Auto Workers strike across the Midwest, and the 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, and he has reported across the US on union drives, worker exploitation, poverty, homelessness, and protest movements. He is the CEO and lead reporter for Status Coup News, an independent news outlet on YouTube. His recent book, We The Poisoned : Exposing the Flint Water Crisis and the Poisoning of 100,000 Americans, is the focus of this episode. From crooked Wall Street financial schemes to political payoffs, destruction of evidence, witness tampering, falsified water data, threatened whistleblowers, and panicked phone calls, We the Poisoned: Exposing the Flint Water Crisis Cover Up and the Poisoning of 100,000 Americans reveals, for the first time, the real story behind how the government poisoned a major American city — and how they are still getting away with it. We the Poisoned is a cautionary tale about “run-government-like-a-business” leaders who champion privatization and economic development at the expense of the environment, public health, and vulnerable citizens. Perhaps even more important, with water and environmental contamination surging across the US, Chariton’s revelations provide a road map for how to fight back and prevent similar tragedies from happening to other communities. In this episode host Michael Shields and Jordan Chariton discuss how Jordan originally became compelled to invest so much time and effort covering this multifaceted scandal. They expound upon just how bad the water in Flint was when the source was switched to the Flint River, how the declaration of a financial emergency was used to hijack Democracy in Flint, the utter lack of accountability to those responsible for so much pain and loss, how the Flint scandal is emblematic of many profound problems in America, and so much more.

Grab a copy of We the Poisoned here!

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This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast features an interview with acclaimed violinist and composer Jenny Scheinman. Scheinman has produced several critically acclaimed solo albums, including 12 Songs, named one of the Top Ten Albums of 2005 by The New York Times. She has played with Norah Jones, Nels Cline, Lou Reed, Ani Difranco, Aretha Franklin, Lucinda Williams, Bono, Bill Frisell, and Allison Miller. For years, Scheinman nursed the idea of a musical homage to Humboldt, in particular the area known as the Lost Coast, a remote, earthquake and mudslide-prone region of coastal northern California, where she was raised. She considered the project from many angles. That idea has come to fruition in the form of her latest album entitled All Species Parade, the focus of this episode. All Species Parade is an epic and sprawling double album with an A-list ensemble, featuring guitarists Bill Frisell, Julian Lage and Nels Cline, pianist Carmen Staaf, bassist Tony Scherr and drummer Kenny Wollesen. Though the album does evoke a sense of pastoral wonder, it also strives to capture in Jenny’s words, “a charged relationship to nature, a feeling of being part of something bigger than ourselves, powerful, and fragile, and constantly changing. Something alive. With All Species Parade, I set out to musically reflect that experience of awe.” In this episode host Michael Shields and Jenny Scheinman discuss how nature, and a personal musical challenge of Jenny’s regarding song length and breadth, inspired the soundscapes found on All Species Parade. They talk about the outstanding grouping of players on the album, how Jenny paid tribute to the Wiyot Tribe with the song “Jaroujiji,” what the true meaning of the song “Shutdown Stomp” actually is, and so much more.

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This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast features an interview with director James Kicklighter and political analyst / producer Guy Tal Seemann. Kicklighter spent the first eighteen years of his life in Bellville, Georgia, population 123. Since then, he has gone on to become an award-winning director and producer of narrative films, documentaries, and advertising. His latest film, The American Question — the focus of this episode — seeks to answer the pressing question: can America rediscover its unifying values and restore trust among its people? The captivating documentary is narrated by political analyst Guy Tal Seemann who has worked in government and campaigns since the age of 16. He is an entrepreneur and community leader. He was a political journalist for a year and a half and worked in the U.S. Senate as an aid. He worked on Middle East national security strategy while in the Israeli government and most recently became an entrepreneur by developing his own startup company in drug discovery and a nonprofit in the performing arts.

Examining the heart of a divided America, The American Question explores the historical and contemporary factors that have eroded our trust in our neighbors, communities, institutions, and government. The film takes viewers on a journey from historical empires to pivotal moments in modern America, through an independent team’s eight-year mission to discover the forces that shaped our now divided society. The film shares personal stories from diverse Americans in swing state communities in Pennsylvania and Michigan, and analysis from leading political scientists and historians. The American Question uncovers how economic shifts like globalization and the atrophy of local communities have fragmented the national identity. In this episode host Michael Shields, James Kicklighter, and Guy Tal Seemann discuss a bevy of factors that have led to the political division that is viscerally felt in America today. James and Guy expound on what they learned in the eight years they spent talking to people on both sides of the political divide in crucial swing states while offering thoughts on potential solutions that can begin to heal a divided America, and so much more.

Streaming everywhere on October 29th. Find it Here!

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This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast features an interview with Subhadra Das who specializes in the history and philosophy of science, particularly the history of scientific racism and eugenics, and what those histories mean for our lives today. For nine years, she was Curator of the Science Collections at University College London where she was also Researcher in Critical Eugenics at the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation. Her debut novel, UNCIVILISED : Ten Lies That Made The West, is the focus of this episode. Western civilisation is a powerful brand, and full of accepted wisdoms that we rarely question. Taking cues from Greek philosophy and honed in the Enlightenment, certain notions about humanity and society grew into the tenets many of us still live by today. But if we take a closer look at these ideas, it seems they are not all they're cracked up to be. In fact, some of them are outright lies — and we can start to ask who really benefits from them. What is the value of a scientific worldview that conjured up ‘race’? Are the Western concepts of ‘saving’ and ‘wasting’ time really the best ways to live? Who are our laws actually designed to serve? And the real question: is the West as civilized as it likes to think it is? In an age of division and entrenched inequality, UNCIVILISED is a timely, provocative and entertaining counter to the ideas and assumptions that have shaped the West, exposing the fatal flaws at its core. In this episode host Michael Shields and Subhadra Das discuss Subhadra’s work with museum collections, as well as her background growing up in Abu Dhabi, which have both informed her worldview and the stories told throughout UNCIVILISED. They dig into a few of the lies that embolden the West such as ‘Knowledge is Power’, ‘Justice is Blind’, and ‘Time is Money” while also celebrating cultures (Blackfoot Nation / First Australians) that Westerners could learn a great deal from, and so much more.

Grab a copy of UNCIVILISED : Ten Lies That Made The West here!

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This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast features an interview with A.R. Moxon, author of The Revisionaries, a genre-bending debut novel that The Washington Post said "might be the weirdest novel of the year." His weekly online newsletter, The Reframe, enjoys a readership of over 10,000 people. His latest release — Very Fine People: Confessions of an American Fool — is the focus of this episode.

For some people, the rise of Donald Trump's MAGA cult represented only ongoing proof of a supremacist nation they had endured all along. Author A.R. Moxon was not one of them. He was caught unaware. Thus begins this confession of an American fool, a methodical mapping of the nation the author failed to see — a nation of "very fine people" too convinced they are exceptionally good to acknowledge the ways they participate in abuse and harm. Very Fine People is an essay collection contemplating what to do about a populist far-right authoritarian uprising involving so many of our friends and family members. Written from 2016 to 2023, it is a work of progressing awareness, pondering the questions "how did we get here?" and "what do we do about it?" In this episode host Michael Shields and A.R. Moxon ruminate over their shared nativity about how many people in their life, and in America, are comfortable with an open white supremacist and fascist as a president of the United States, while considering how it's clear that an emboldened and vocal minority is willing to do anything to protect their supremacy. They talk about the power of love, art, and story in combating a movement riddled with hate, how being frank with language is a way to replace “current ideas with new ones,” how a hope full of rugged resolve exists within all the madness, and so much more.

Grab a copy of Very Fine People here!

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This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast presents an interview with New York City based musician Mike Horn, who helms the experimental folk project Seawind of Battery. Seawind just released their second album, a mesmerizing work full of gorgeous ambient and drowning soundscapes that is called East Coast Cosmic Dreamscaper. While Seawind of Battery is just a few years young, it is not Mike's first musical project. In 2017, Mike launched his indie folk solo project Goldkey, which released several impressive EP's — Background and escapes. His other musical collaborations include Static Traveler (with Eric Lense) and the psychedelic experimental rock project Sunblinders (with Eric Lense and Jeff Saltzburg). We are also thrilled to feature Jarrod Annis in this episode, a tremendous lap-steel guitar player who became an official Seawind member after he started backing Mike up at live appearances back in late ’22. In this episode host Michael Shields, Mike Horn, and Jarrod Annis discuss the evolving sound of Seawind of Battery as they wade into their sophomore release while considering the songwriting process for the songs on the album often derived from live improvisational moments. They discuss Mike and Jarrod’s shared influences and life events that have led to the birth of the project’s unique, soothing instrumental sound, and so much more.

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This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast presents an interview with singer / songwriter Irena Eide who goes by the stagename Rainy Eyes. A Norway Native now based in Southern Louisiana, Rainy has recently released her second album entitled Lonesome Highway, a soulful, vulnerable, and beautiful work of art that is the focus of this episode. Lonesome Highway, as the story goes, was born out of revelry and resolution in a redwood cabin tucked into the California coast, endowed with a spirit simmering in wanderlust, and ornamented with the rich traditions of the Louisiana bayou. The 11 songs that comprise the album are brimming with perseverance and perspective, written as Rainy reflected on the juxtaposition of her circumstances. As she basked in the joy of motherhood, she was simultaneously confronting a troubled relationship that had turned toxic. Lonesome Highway marks a hope-filled and assertive new beginning for Rainy Eyes, as electric guitar and drums now join fiddle and banjo. In this episode host Michael Shields and Rainy Eyes discuss Rainy’s musical and geographic journey from Norway to California to Louisiana while exploring the musical influences she acquired along the way. They dig into the ins-and-outs of her new album, exploring the weighty and relatable themes present within it, while also celebrating the collection of 70 original folk songs for children entitled Little Folkies she recently released…and so, so much more.

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