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The Boundless Podcast
The Fence magazine’s Founding Editor, Charlie Baker, on launching a print magazine in a very digital age
In 2019, having almost no experience of journalism whatsoever, Charlie Baker decided to launch a print magazine. In a world where print readership is in dire decline, people thought he was completely nuts — but over five years on, The Fence is flying.
Marina Hyde and Richard Osman recently toasted the magazine on their podcast The Rest is Entertainment, and Patrick Radden Keefe says it is the only place he gets his news. Keefe probably wasn’t being entirely serious when he said that but he has written for The Fence, along with people like John Banville, Roísín Lanigan, Fergus Butler-Gallie, and our own Patrick Galbraith. Charlie talks to Patrick about why he thinks that reading print is preferable to reading digitally, what makes a great story, and the future of magazines in a rapidly-changing media landscape.
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21. Faiqa Mansab on the tradition of Sufi storytelling
18:30||Season 1, Ep. 21Author of The Sufi Storyteller Faiqa joined Boundless Junior Editor Sadia Nowshin to discuss the beauty of Sufi stories, how classic Western literature might have been inspired by the tradition, and the love and pain of mother-child relationships.
21. Building the Brooklyn Bridge with Erica Wagner
24:26||Season 1, Ep. 21Erica Wagner talks to Patrick Galbraith about her book Chief Engineer, which was published by Bloomsbury in 2017. They discuss Washington Roebling, the man who built the bridge, and his extraordinarily prescient understanding of engineering. It isn't just a story about metal and rock but it's a story about fathers and sons and it captures, in tremendous detail, a time of great change. There was, for instance, a ferry company that tried to sue when the bridge was built.
20. Alison Bechdel on capitalism, representation, and her comic novel Spent
20:23||Season 1, Ep. 20Alison Bechdel joins Erica Wagner to chat about her new comic novel Spent, writing a new kind of autobiography, and learning new things.Spent by Alison Bechdel was published by Jonathan Cape on 22nd May 2025 (£22) and is available for preorder now
19. Hedgelayer and writer Richard Negus on the disconnect between the urban and rural
29:37||Season 1, Ep. 19Patrick Galbraith talks to Richard Negus about hedgelaying, nature writing, and the disconnect between the urban and rural sphere.Richard’s debut book, Words From the Hedge: A hedge layer’s view of the English Countryside, was published by Unbound on May Day.
18. Shelley Fisher Fishkin on what Mark Twain would say of politics today
25:40||Season 1, Ep. 18Shelley Fisher Fishkin speaks to Boundless Editor-at-Large Erica Wagner about the enduring relevance and influence of Mark Twain — and how his words can still be used to apply to American politics today over a century since his death.
16. Patrick Galbraith on what the land actually means
23:35||Season 1, Ep. 16Patrick Galbraith and Erica Wagner talk about Patrick’s unexpectedly controversial new book, Uncommon Ground, which explores land access throughout Britain. From naturism to fox hunting to magic mushroom picking and farming, Uncommon Ground has been called “a raking survey of England”
15. Elizabeth Garner on folk tales and liminal spaces
26:52||Season 1, Ep. 15Erica Wagner talks to Elizabeth Garner about folklore, and Erica and Patrick Galbraith discuss Elizabeth’s piece for Boundless on a well that sits in the garden at her childhood home.Erica and Patrick also discuss Patrick’s new book Uncommon Ground.
14. Lamorna Ash on the rise of young people turning to religion
31:54||Season 1, Ep. 14Patrick Galbraith talks to Lamorna Ash, the author of Don't Forget We're Here Forever which will be published shortly by Bloomsbury, about the rise of interest in religion among young people in Britain. That's the topic of her book, which also looks at conversion and Lamorna's own relationship with Christianity.
13. Manya Wilkinson on Yiddish, and misplacing what was lost
14:47||Season 1, Ep. 13Erica Wagner talks to the novelist Manya Wilkinson, the winner of the 2025 Wingate Prize, about the influence of Yiddish in writing today.