Nat's Sidewalk Stories

About Nat's Sidewalk Stories

Nat's Sidewalk Stories is a bi-weekly podcast exploring the places, people, and hidden histories that make our neighborhoods vibrant. Join artist and storyteller Nat Kalbach as she walks the streets of Jersey City and beyond, uncovering the stories beneath our feet. Through conversations with preservationists, artists, community advocates, and local changemakers, Nat examines how our physical spaces shape community identity, how art captures neighborhood character, and how ordinary people can make extraordinary impacts. Nat's unique perspective as an artist who documents urban landscapes brings visual and creative dimensions to these place-based narratives. Whether you're passionate about historic preservation, creative placemaking, or simply love a good neighborhood story, this podcast will help you see your surroundings with fresh eyes. New episodes release on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of each month.

Publisher

Nat Kalbach

Category

arts · history · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

8 Apr 2025

Latest episode

27 Aug 2026

Latest episodes

31 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   27 Aug 2026

   Episode #330: A One-Person Show with Nat Kalbach

   No guest this time. Nat closes Season 3 on her own with a few minutes on the nine conversations that made up the season, the thread she noticed running through all of them, and an honest account of how this show actually gets made — a one-person operation with no ads, no crew, and no studio. Plus what's coming in Season 4.

2. 

   13 Aug 2026

   Episode #329: Make it Look Cool, Make it Mean Something with DISTORT

   A wall on Communipaw Avenue changed how I see this city — and in this bonus episode, I finally get to talk to the artist who painted it. DISTORT makes murals, graffiti, engraved car hoods he calls shields, and soon, a monumental first sculpture — all of it asking the same question: who was here before, and what holds a place together? This is a conversation about armor and vulnerability, old masters and spray cans, and why painting the face of someone a neighborhood is grieving might be the most important work an artist can do.

3. 

   24 Jul 2026

   Episode #328: Ley Lines with Deep Space Gallery

   Deep Space Gallery has been called the spiritual heir to 111 First Street — the legendary warehouse artist community that was demolished in 2007 and never stopped being mourned. What makes that comparison remarkable is that Dutch, one of Deep Space's co-founders, never once set foot inside 111. He didn't inherit that legacy consciously. He just built something that carried its spirit anyway. In this conversation, Nat sits down with Jenna Geiger and Keith VanPelt, who goes by Dutch, to mark ten years of Deep Space Gallery at 77 Cornelison Avenue, built into the side of Bergen Hill. They talk about graffiti and lineage, the doula parallel for gallery work, the strange gravitational pull Jersey City exerts on outsider-y people, and a woman named Erminnie Smith who was doing something remarkably similar on Pacific Avenue in 1882 - with Oscar Wilde.

Who has been a guest on Nat's Sidewalk Stories

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Miguel Cardenas
• Jerome China
• Zach Green
• Timothy Herrick
• Duquann Sweeney

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

8 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

9 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 34 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

47

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

51

Contact Nat's Sidewalk Stories

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

Questions about Nat's Sidewalk Stories