Remembering Malcolm Margolin

For more than five decades, Malcolm Margolin was a fixture at the heart of Berkeley’s intellectual community. As the founder of Heyday Books, he was instrumental in publishing hundreds of titles. Most significantly, in 1978 he published his own groundbreaking book, The Ohlone Way, which woke an entire region up to the amazing natural and human history of the greater Bay Area. Malcolm helped establish many cultural revitalization projects, including Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival, Heyday’s groundbreaking magazine, News from Native California, and most recently the California Institute for Community, Art & Nature (which shares our office). He passed away from complications with Parkinson’s disease on August 20, 2025 at the age of 84. In our podcast episode, we talked with Malcolm about writing The Ohlone Way, the lessons he learned from Indigenous peoples, and the battle to protect the historic West Berkeley Shellmound and Village site. This episode was produced and written by Callie Shanafelt Wong and Toby McLeod. Our interview and video footage of Malcolm Margolin was recorded by Andy Black and Dave Wendlinger. Our theme music was composed and performed by Stefan Smith and Charles Johnson. Special thanks to the Executive Director of the California Institute for Community, Art & Nature, Claire Greensfelder, for reviewing this episode. We welcome you to download and play the podcast for personal use. You may not, except with our express written permission, reproduce, distribute or commercially exploit this copyrighted content.