This Is Your Afterlife

Ian Rhine is "one of the guys" who host Pod Casty for Me, my current favorite podcast. He and Jake Serwin talk about film and politics, and their deep friendship is evident in every episode. I find it illuminating and comforting and fun, and, wouldn't you know it, that's also how I feel about this conversation with Ian. I split him from Jake for another two-episode week, so stay tuned for Jake on Part 2. Ian and Jake joined me on a bonus episode a few months back to talk about Exorcist III, so these appearances on TIYA proper are overdue! I really love these guys, and I hope you do too.We talk about: each other's podcasts, bodies of work, depression, suicidal ideation, cognitive behavioral therapy, the stuff you're worried about mostly not happening, becoming a Movie Guy, the liberation theology to Politics Guy pipeline, hiking in Glacier National Park, his movie rec for TIYA listeners.Support the show and get the TIYA After Dark feed on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlifeFollow Pod Casty for Me:https://www.podcastyforme.com/https://patreon.com/PodCastyForMehttps://www.instagram.com/podcastyforme/https://twitter.com/podcastyformeFollow/contact This Is Your Afterlife:https://thisisyourafterlife.com/https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/[email protected] by TIYA house band Lake Mary:https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/Artwork by Matt Sage:https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

This is a preview of a bonus episode from the Patreon feed, TIYA After Dark! Head to patreon.com/thisisyourafterlife to hear this full episode and all the others for just $5 a month.People have mentioned many versions of the afterlife on TIYA, but which one is THE BEST? That's exactly why we're here today. Afterheads, I present to you the Afterlife Power Rankings. My long-time comedy collaborators Daniel Strauss and Drennen Quinn join TIYA After Dark to rank eight separate afterlives, but first, we discuss the Pixar movie Soul, since Lucia Whalen mentioned it on her recent episode. I'll update the Afterlife Power Rankings from time to time on the podcast, but those updates will all be reincarnations of this very first list. You're in on the ground floor. How did we do?In addition to assembling the APR and Soul talk, we play a game of Real vs. Fake: Jazz Venues!We talk about: Soul; jazz; achieving your dream and still feeling disappointed; Afterlife Movie Club & other film representations of the afterlife; Panama City Beach, Florida; DO NOT LIVE EVERY DAY LIKE IT'S YOUR LAST.Support the show and get the TIYA After Dark feed on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlifeRead the pieces I mention that discuss Blackness in Soul better than we can:"As a Black Woman, Here Are the Issues I Have With Pixar's 'Soul'" by Sa'iyda Shabazz:https://www.scarymommy.com/soul-pixar-black-character-represntation-harmful"Soul: The Missteps in Representation" by Kelechi Ehenulo:https://confessionsfromageekmind.com/2020/12/28/soul-the-missteps-in-representation/Follow Daniel and Drennen:https://www.instagram.com/danielstrauss/https://www.instagram.com/drennenwon/Follow/contact This Is Your Afterlife:https://thisisyourafterlife.com/https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/[email protected] by TIYA house band Lake Mary:https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/Artwork by Matt Sage:https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

Place-Goers Week continues on TIYA, an acronym my guest—comedian/actor/YouTuber Danny Catlow—attempts to pronounce in this episode and we agree doesn't quite roll off the tongue. WE COVER SO MUCH GROUND IN THIS EPISODE. It starts with talk of how we met each other when my improv group Computer stayed on his couch for a festival in Austin when he was 18 and I was in my mid-20s. Strange! And then it ramps up (or cooks down?) into an exploration of grief in its many forms as Danny attempts to break the podcast's record for number of "comas" mentioned in an episode.We talk about: male hosting, sleep anxiety, bad breakup, mom dying young, contrarianism & shamelessness, play therapy, falling in love with restaurants, kids grieving performatively, Six Feet Under, mono no aware.Support the show and get the TIYA After Dark feed on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlifeFollow Danny:https://www.youtube.com/@Place-Goershttps://www.instagram.com/strongdannycatlow/Follow/contact This Is Your Afterlife:https://thisisyourafterlife.com/https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/[email protected] by TIYA house band Lake Mary:https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/Artwork by Matt Sage:https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

I've become a weekly watcher of Kate O'Connor's YouTube vlog, Place-Goers, which features her going places with her boyfriend, Danny Catlow. I know both comedians—and unapologetic YouTubers!—from doing comedy in Chicago, but since they live in L.A. now, that's the site of most of their place-going. Their dynamic is great together, but for their TIYA appearances, I wanted to talk to them separately. These are the first two-part episodes featuring collaborators in a long time, and it's the very first two-episode week for the podcast.We talk about: relationship patterns, increasing bone density, Jungian therapy, being a gamer, codependency, abusive relationships, the euphoria of witnessing death, Delta Work and frying the small fish.Support the show and get the TIYA After Dark feed on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlifeFollow Kate:http://www.youtube.com/@Place-Goershttps://thebrokenelbow.substack.com/Follow/contact This Is Your Afterlife:https://thisisyourafterlife.com/https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/[email protected] by TIYA house band Lake Mary:https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/Artwork by Matt Sage:https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

All-new type of bonus episode this week! I decided to visit the cemetery across the street from me, make my way to the grave of Cleveland working class artist hero and underground comics pioneer Harvey Pekar, and bring you all on the trip. This was a blast to record, and it's one of my favorite episodes of TIYA After Dark and maybe even the entire project of This Is Your Afterlife. Some of the audio is rough around the edges, especially in the bookshop and coffee shop, but those segments are quite short, so stick through if you're having trouble!I talk about: historical people, violent ways of networking, coffee mishaps, daffodils, expectation vs. reality, art about everyday life.Patreon is the only place to see pics from the trip!Get those, support the show, and listen to the full TIYA After Dark feed here:https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlifeFollow/contact This Is Your Afterlife:https://thisisyourafterlife.com/https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/[email protected] by TIYA house band Lake Mary:https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/Artwork by Matt Sage:https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

Chicago comedian and gem-of-a-person-to-talk-to Lucia Whalen returns to This Is Your Afterlife... for the first time? Lucia wanted a few things from episode 83 kept private, so I sent it to the great podcast beyond, and we took the opportunity to record a new conversation as episode 205. I honestly think we had even more fun than before! We're older, wiser, and Lucia is DEFINITELY prepared this time. Right, Lucia?We talk about: having a one-page worldview, the 2020 Pixar movie Soul, disappearing into oneness vs. losing consciousness, being present for her dad's heart attack, the lonely life of a touring standup comic, if clips on social media have changed the feeling in the room for standup shows, winning the lottery with your friends and family, our opinions of each other.Support the show and get the TIYA After Dark feed on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlifeFollow Lucia:https://www.instagram.com/luciawhalen/https://www.instagram.com/whatawastepod/See her quarterly variety show, Surprise! We Made a Comedy Show, at the Hideout in Chicago on July 15.And check for her upcoming segments on the Buddy System podcast:https://www.instagram.com/buddysystempod/Follow/contact This Is Your Afterlife:https://thisisyourafterlife.com/https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/[email protected] by TIYA house band Lake Mary:https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/Artwork by Matt Sage:https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

This is a preview of a bonus episode from the Patreon feed, TIYA After Dark! Head to patreon.com/thisisyourafterlife to hear this full episode and all the others for just $5 a month.Thanks to everyone who contributed voice messages to this first call-in episode of TIYA After Dark (at least of the new era)! It's an exorcism of all the casual cruelty we experience at work, from the mundane to the dramatic. I hope you dig it. It was very fun to do.I talk about: work, bosses, how much I love work and bosses in case any of mine are listening, Jury Duty Presents Company Retreat, DOGE, money laundering schemes, drop me 60, tell whoever you need to tell, Karl Marx.Support the show and get the TIYA After Dark feed on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlifeFollow/contact This Is Your Afterlife:https://thisisyourafterlife.com/https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/[email protected] by TIYA house band Lake Mary:https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/Artwork by Matt Sage:https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

There's only one piece of music from 2026 so far that I've loved, but it's nearing the point of obsession: Wretched Blessing's "How Deep Is Your Love?," which features guitar work from previous TIYA guest Genital Shame! It's a cover of the Calvin Harris & Disciples song (not the Bee Gees), but there's an important note: Norwegian singer/songwriter Ina Wroldsen is uncredited on the original, despite singing the hook and co-writing the song. Wretched Blessing drummer and singer Rae Amitay emphasizes this in the liner notes on Bandcamp, and they brought it up on this episode.Rae and Wretched Blessing are attuned to the overlooked, as their songs frequently face evils that are regular conversation topics on TIYA: fascism, Zionism, complacency. It was a pleasure to hear Rae and Kayhan Vaziri, the other half of Wretched Blessing (who are real-life engaged), talk about the intersections of politics and art. They're sweet and fun people who make heavy music full of righteous rage. You get all of that here.We talk about: preaching to the choir; teaching kids music in School of Rock; high school exes; the mind-expanding benefits of travel; Crimethinc.; Zionist indoctrination; Gruyeres, Switzerland; HR Giger; and basically everyone on earth should be in a touring band maybe?Support the show and get the TIYA After Dark feed on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlifeFollow Wretched Blessing:https://wretchedblessing.bandcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/wretchedblessing/Follow/contact This Is Your Afterlife:https://thisisyourafterlife.com/https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/[email protected] by TIYA house band Lake Mary:https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/Artwork by Matt Sage:https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

This is a preview of a bonus episode from the Patreon feed, TIYA After Dark! Head to patreon.com/thisisyourafterlife to hear this full episode and all the others for just $5 a month.A solo episode in which I'm trying to choose narratives for my life. Maybe you can relate?Support the show and get the TIYA After Dark feed on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlifeFollow/contact This Is Your Afterlife:https://thisisyourafterlife.com/https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/[email protected] by TIYA house band Lake Mary:https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/Artwork by Matt Sage:https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

"How can this possibly be the way?!" is a question Leigh Claire La Berge asks constantly in Fake Work: How I Began to Suspect Capitalism Is a Joke. The book is Leigh Claire's reflection on her time prepping a Fortune 500 company for Y2K by essentially making a bunch of copies, double-checking spreadsheets, and traveling internationally to give frivolous PowerPoint presentations. It's very funny! And unfortunately hella resonant! Leigh Claire jumped right into the deep end with me on this episode, and the result is one of my favorites in a while.We talk about: anxiety, Fake Work, fake work, marxism, really trying to understand how other people came to their beliefs, psychoanalysis, getting a PhD, making room for pleasure and humor in our politics.Support the show and get the TIYA After Dark feed on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlifeFollow Leigh Claire:https://www.instagram.com/marxforcats/https://twitter.com/marxforcatsAnd read her books! Fake Work: How I Began to Suspect Capitalism Is a Joke — https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2534-fake-workMarx for Cats: A Radical Bestiary — https://bookshop.org/p/books/marx-for-cats-a-radical-bestiary-leigh-claire-la-berge/5c87bc279b7a45a4Wages Against Artwork: Decommodified Labor and the Claims of Socially Engaged Art — https://bookshop.org/p/books/wages-against-artwork-decommodified-labor-and-the-claims-of-socially-engaged-art-leigh-claire-la-berge/ad4130cecb721c22Follow/contact This Is Your Afterlife:https://thisisyourafterlife.com/https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/[email protected] by TIYA house band Lake Mary:https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/Artwork by Matt Sage:https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

This is a preview of a bonus episode from the Patreon feed, TIYA After Dark! Head to patreon.com/thisisyourafterlife to hear this full episode and all the others for just $5 a month.Daniel Strauss and Drennen Quinn return to talk about Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York. They're my closest comedy friends since right before this movie came out in 2008, and it was fun to sit down and goof off about a movie Daniel calls one of his favorites that he'll never see again.We talk about: bedtime, a career in the arts, phone etiquette when recording a podcast, Theatre of Cruelty, aging, nontraditional horror, no longer being able to relate to characters you dislike, still relating to those same characters.Support the show and get the TIYA After Dark feed on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlifeFollow Daniel and Drennen:https://www.instagram.com/danielstrauss/https://www.instagram.com/drennenwon/Follow/contact This Is Your Afterlife:https://thisisyourafterlife.com/https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/[email protected] by TIYA house band Lake Mary:https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/Artwork by Matt Sage:https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

I recently saw two movies that exemplified how I want to make political art: Neo Sora's "Happyend" and "Failed State" by Christopher Jason Bell and Mitch Blummer. Both films tell intimate stories that show rather than obscure the ways political systems influence their characters' lives. In this episode of This Is Your Afterlife, I'm grateful to talk to "Failed State" co-director Chris Bell about his approach to making political work and what makes him the artist and person he is. He's TIYA's first filmmaker guest!We talk about: DIY filmmaking, reconnecting with childhood friends, panic attacks, meditation, the mundanity of skydiving.Support the show and get the TIYA After Dark feed on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlifeFollow Chris:https://linktr.ee/christopherjasonbellhttps://means.tv/ (use his code, CHRISBELL, for 10% off)Follow/contact This Is Your Afterlife:https://thisisyourafterlife.com/https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/[email protected] by TIYA house band Lake Mary:https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/Artwork by Matt Sage:https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

This is a preview of a premium episode from the Patreon feed, TIYA After Dark! Head to patreon.com/thisisyourafterlife to hear this full episode and all the others for just $5 a month.I love talking to Lucas O'Neil about the specifics of standup comedy craft, and since he just released his first special, Emotional Man, I use this bonus episode as an opportunity to dig deep with him into the process of conceiving, creating, and releasing it. It's the kind of creative exercise I've longed to do in podcast form, and I'm grateful to be able to do it with a previous guest of This Is Your Afterlife who also happens to be a very funny and thoughtful artist and friend.We talk about: Edinburgh Fringe, breaking gender and genre boundaries, outfit anxiety.Support the show and get the TIYA After Dark feed on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlifeWatch Emotional Man:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2mYyGhtajMFollow Lucas:https://lucasoneil.com/https://www.instagram.com/mr.lucasoneil/Follow/contact This Is Your Afterlife:https://thisisyourafterlife.com/https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/[email protected] by TIYA house band Lake Mary:https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/Artwork by Matt Sage:https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

Michael Penn II, aka CRASHprez, makes two rapper episodes in a row! Not since Mike Watt has there been a This Is Your Afterlife guest slinging this much of their own lingo (what is it about Mikes?), and I do my best not to pretend too hard like I understand it all. Fortunately, we take a detour into the topic of slang ("getting kirk" is simply unbelievable) on the way to Michael revealing one of his origin stories as an artist. It's a small, powerful moment, the kind I love featuring on TIYA, and I'm glad he didn't save it for his eventual Rolling Stone interview.We talk about: gay shit, COVID shit, ally fatigue, underground rapper trade, social death theory, Lil Wayne's "The Carter" documentary, the relationship between actions and words.Support the show and get the TIYA After Dark feed on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlifeFollow CRASHprez:https://www.instagram.com/crashprez/https://crashprez.bandcamp.com/https://twitter.com/CRASHprezFollow/contact This Is Your Afterlife:https://thisisyourafterlife.com/https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/[email protected] by TIYA house band Lake Mary:https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/Artwork by Matt Sage:https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

This is a preview of a premium episode from the Patreon feed, TIYA After Dark! Head to patreon.com/thisisyourafterlife to hear this full episode and all the others for just $5 a month.On the heels of last week's 200th episode, I talk about why it made me more emotional than I expected, and I offer a guide to the back catalog in the form of 5 episodes that changed my thinking, 4 about death and 1 about art.Support the show and get the TIYA After Dark feed on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlifeFollow/contact This Is Your Afterlife:https://thisisyourafterlife.com/https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/[email protected] by TIYA house band Lake Mary:https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/Artwork by Matt Sage:https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

Sometimes a guest breaks my brain, like when Open Mike Eagle asks the titular question of this episode. I'm still parsing the way the question reorients consciousness in the body rather than as an entity separate from it. Maybe it's a basic thought, but it hit me fresh this time. But let me back up. OPEN MIKE EAGLE IS ON EPISODE 200 OF THIS IS YOUR AFTERLIFE. The rapper, podcaster, streamer, TV writer-performer-producer-creator, and independent art-making role model of mine has been a dream guest since I started the show. You can hear why at the beginning of the episode. This conversation took years to happen, and I'm so glad it did. He's a pro talker and an interesting thinker, and I came away deeply evaluating how I want to live, create, and move through the world, which is one of my favorite states of being. Is this the greatest TIYA episode of all time? It's in the running!And hey, thank you for listening to This Is Your Afterlife. It is a joy to produce, and it means more than words to me that you listen.We talk about: sad pigeon man, Edinburgh Fringe and Baby Reindeer, Comedy Central, Internal Family Systems therapy, professional jealousy, compartmentalizing, ways people don't listen, unapologetic art rap.Support the show and get the TIYA After Dark feed on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlifeFollow Open Mike Eagle:https://openmikeeagle.bandcamp.com/musichttps://www.youtube.com/@open_mike_eaglehttps://www.twitch.tv/open_mike_eaglehttps://www.instagram.com/open_mike_eagle/https://www.patreon.com/openmikeeaglePast Due podcast with Ana Marie Cox: https://pod.link/1207507389What Had Happened Was podcast: https://pod.link/whhwFollow/contact This Is Your Afterlife:https://thisisyourafterlife.com/https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/[email protected] by TIYA house band Lake Mary:https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/Artwork by Matt Sage:https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

This is a preview of a premium episode from the Patreon feed, TIYA After Dark! Head to patreon.com/thisisyourafterlife to hear this full episode and all the others for just $5 a month.I use my coma as the central metaphor of This Is Your Afterlife to discover the moments that transformed my guests' lives, but is there a more transformative life experience than a coma? What's the MOST transformative life experience? This is the question we answer in this week's TIYA After Dark, Bracketology: Transformative Life Experiences."We" is several members of K.C. Redheart, my first improv team in Chicago at the Playground Theater: brilliant standup Meaghan Strickland, stupid (compliment) sketch comedian and improviser Bill Stern, and the very funny Nick Leveski (who improvises in Richmond, VA) and Mark "Huberman." These are some of my closest friends and oldest comedy collaborators, going back to 2008!Bracketology is a game show format we created where we a) pick a topic, b) fill a bracket with examples of that topic, and c) argue the matchups in the bracket until we crown a winner. The thing is, the winner of Bracketology is the quintessential example of the topic, NOT necessarily the "best" or our favorite example.If you want to follow along from the beginning without knowing the outcome of each match, here are the top 6 seeds we determined before the episode started:ComaHave KidsEpiphany — Drug-Induced, Art-Related ("See Fall Out Boy at Ryman"), Spiritual Awakening, Ego Death, Cultural (International Travel or Try New Food Whoa It's Good)SobrietyHad EnoughBig MoveI hope you love listening as much as we loved doing this. And if you listen to the very end of the full episode on Patreon, you get to find out next week's guest for THE 200TH EPISODE OF THIS IS YOUR AFTERLIFE.Support the show and get the TIYA After Dark feed on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlifeFollow Meaghan:https://www.instagram.com/stricklygram/Follow Bill's sketch group, Cigarette Sandwich:https://www.instagram.com/cigsandwich/Follow/contact This Is Your Afterlife:https://thisisyourafterlife.com/https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/[email protected] by TIYA house band Lake Mary:https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/Artwork by Matt Sage:https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

KR Riiber wrote one of the best plays I've ever seen, Tangles & Plaques, a show about dementia and memory care borne from their time as an ensemble member of the Neo-Futurists, the Chicago theater group with core tenets like honesty, brevity, risk & chance, and transformation. Hmmmm, sound like any other show/podcast you know??? Jk, this is not exactly a "brevity" podcast. Truly though, the Neos have been a huge influence on my work, and I'm excited to finally welcome KR to the ranks of Neo-Futurists I've had on the show. The afterlife they imagine in response to the show's first big question is so rich and provides a scaffolding for everything else in the episode. What a treat!We talk about: divorce, Marfan syndrome, how live performance contains the possibility of failure, "graduating" from the Neo-Futurists, worry vs. practicality in response to traumatic news, a life-changing improv exercise.Support the show and get the TIYA After Dark feed on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlifeFollow KR:https://www.krriiber.com/Follow/contact This Is Your Afterlife:https://thisisyourafterlife.com/https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/[email protected] by TIYA house band Lake Mary:https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/Artwork by Matt Sage:https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

This is a preview of a premium episode from the Patreon feed, TIYA After Dark! Head to patreon.com/thisisyourafterlife to hear this full episode and all the others for just $5 a month.I got to talk about my favorite movie with the hosts of my favorite podcast! My guests this week, Pod Casty for Me's Jake Serwin and Ian Rhine, have not appeared on the main feed. YET! But I couldn't resist easing them into the TIYA universe with a talk about a movie I first saw in the fall of 2024 that has since become one of my all-time favorites: William Peter Blatty's Exorcist III! This is the most excited I've been to release an episode since relaunching the podcast, and that is really saying something. This is a wonderful conversation about faith, art, politics, and horror, on screen and in life, wrapped in a blanket of hating on Pete Holmes. Suffice it to say, you don't need to have seen the movie to enjoy this ep! But just FYI, it does spoil plot. I can't say E3 has edged out Bad Santa as my favorite movie ever, but I was not exaggerating when I said Pod Casty for Me is my favorite podcast. If you dig This Is Your Afterlife and want a podcast with a similar worldview but not similar subject matter, you should check out Jake and Ian's show. I hope you join the Patreon to hear the whole two and a half hour episode, and I'm even offering it as a standalone release over there for $3. If not, enjoy this meatier than usual preview.Follow Pod Casty for Me:https://www.podcastyforme.comhttps://www.patreon.com/PodCastyForMehttps://twitter.com/podcastyformehttps://www.instagram.com/podcastyformehttps://www.youtube.com/@podcastyformeFollow/contact This Is Your Afterlife:https://thisisyourafterlife.comhttps://www.instagram.com/[email protected] by TIYA house band Lake Mary:https://lakemary.bandcamp.comhttps://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymekArtwork by Matt Sage:https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage

I encountered the live feed puppetry of Theatre Nobody's "rustbelt." when I shared a venue with the show at Cleveland's BorderLight Festival 2025. That's how I met Kevin Michael Wesson, a Chicago puppeteer and theatre artist committed to the DIY ethos that so inspires me. This episode is full of gems like Kevin calling his childhood puppeteering "playing critters" or dropping the knowledge that doing puppetry is like "acting if you didn't have a body."We talk about: the foundations of puppetry, bunraku, urban exploration, Midwestern emo, being proudly unrepresented, moving to Chicago from Florida, LaVeyan Satanism, New Year's resolutions.Support the show and get the TIYA After Dark feed on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlifeFollow Kevin:https://www.instagram.com/xmungyx/https://www.instagram.com/xtheatrenobodyx/https://www.instagram.com/stopmotionplant/https://www.instagram.com/puppetqueers/https://www.instagram.com/puppetqueersnyc/https://roughhousetheater.com/pips-1https://www.instagram.com/roughpuppets/Follow/contact This Is Your Afterlife:https://thisisyourafterlife.com/https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/[email protected] music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary:https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/Artwork by Matt Sage:https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

This is a preview of a premium episode from the Patreon feed, TIYA After Dark! Head to patreon.com/thisisyourafterlife to hear this full episode and all the others for just $5 a month.I love year-end list season! Whether you're as gung ho as I am or view these lists with skepticism (or both), I've decided to share my enthusiasm by reading a bunch and then very UNSCIENTIFICALLY telling you which albums on them are truly the best. I sorted through hundreds of albums to arrive at these 11, unranked but sorted into six groupings. Plus three Unlisted Faves that didn't make the lists I perused but that I liked enough to share. You can read the full list on Patreon, but here are...The Groupings: Rap Faves From Earlier in the Year, Other Faves With Good New Albums, Previously Familiar With a STATEMENT, Discovery (Ambient), Album of the Year?, Discoveries, Unlisted FavesFollow/contact This Is Your Afterlife:https://thisisyourafterlife.com/https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/[email protected] music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary:https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/Artwork by Matt Sage:https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

Keir Neuringer is my kind of artist. The saxophonist, improviser, writer, and composer of Irreversible Entanglements and DROMEDARIES faces down the horrors of our world and plays AT them. He's not making easy-to-compartmentalize "political art." He's grappling with how to be an artist, father, bandmate, and human being during collapse. Like we all are.We talk about: being radicalized during the Iraq War, incorporating politics into music, depression, divorce, playing saxophone after a car accident, hospicing both of his parents when they died of cancer, literally arming the audience, No Mas Lagrimas in Ithaca.Support the show and get the TIYA After Dark feed on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlifeFollow Keir, and get the new DROMEDARIES album, The Burning Bright Light:https://www.keirneuringer.com/https://www.instagram.com/keirseye/https://karlrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-burning-bright-lightFollow/contact This Is Your Afterlife:https://thisisyourafterlife.com/https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/[email protected] music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary:https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/Artwork by Matt Sage:https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

This is a preview of a premium episode from the Patreon feed, TIYA After Dark! Head to patreon.com/thisisyourafterlife to hear this full episode and all the others for just $5 a month.Matt Sage, aka M. Sage and 1/4 of TIYA fave Fuubutsushi, is here to talk about a shared passion of ours: compact discs, aka CDs!!! Matt and I have become friends since his first appearance on the podcast, and it was a blast to stretch out and go super-nerd mode here. I hope you find it as fun as we did.We talk about: being physical media guys, Neanderthal behavior, the morality of collecting objects, the relative newness of recorded audio, best spots for CD shopping, overspending abroad, ekphrasis, archeology, curation, greenwashing, powerlessness vs. unmanageability, Scotland, Matt's no-streaming resolution, plastiglomerate.Support the show and get the TIYA After Dark feed on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlifeIf you listen to the full episode, you'll get a full list of the albums we talk about.Follow Matt (who also did the TIYA & After Dark artwork):https://msage.bandcamp.com/album/tender-wadinghttps://tallgrassdispatch.substack.com/https://cached.media/https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/https://matthewjsage.com/Follow/contact This Is Your Afterlife:https://thisisyourafterlife.com/https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/[email protected] music by TIYA house band Lake Mary:https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/

Eden Robins wrote a novel comprised of obituaries, Remember You Will Die, and even more importantly, she wrote an essay about becoming a school crossing guard that inspired me to do the same. We start our talk there.We talk about: death as subject matter, best practices for talking and writing about suicide, weirdo heroes, obituary writing, the curse of ANY success, making narratives amidst uncertainty.Support the show and get the TIYA After Dark feed on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlifeFollow Eden:https://www.monkeythumbs.com/https://www.instagram.com/edenrobins/The crossing guard essay:https://slate.com/technology/2024/01/corporate-job-quit-now-crossing-guard.htmlRemember You Will Die:https://bookshop.org/p/books/remember-you-will-die-eden-robins/570ce692d432bd63Eden's next book is under the pseudonym Birdie Horne, Don't Cross Mo Ellery, a mystery featuring a crossing guard. Pre-order it now:https://bookshop.org/p/books/don-t-cross-mo-ellery-a-novel-birdie-horne/21c789c4932d4548Follow/contact This Is Your Afterlife:https://thisisyourafterlife.com/https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/[email protected] music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary:https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/Artwork by Matt Sage:https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

This is a preview of a premium episode from the Patreon feed, TIYA After Dark! Head to patreon.com/thisisyourafterlife to hear this full episode and all the others for just $5 a month.For the first episode of this new premium feed, TIYA After Dark, I talk to my close friends and previous TIYA guests Daniel Strauss and Drennen Quinn about holidays. I went into this episode with a plan to rank holidays by how problematic/weird the people are who call them their favorites. Pretty much from the start, my plans got tossed, and I genuinely couldn't be happier.As you'll hear when Daniel SAVAGES my unassailable catchphrase, TIYA After Dark intentionally expands the scope of This Is Your Afterlife so I can do whatever I want. On a sincere note, frequent listeners know I've had to curtail live performance since COVID began, and that's a long time to go without one of my favorite/best-at things. Doing this particular episode with my longest comedy buddies scratched an itch that's been itchy for a long time. That's a big reason why I'm making TIYA After Dark "where anything goes," and I hope you enjoy where I'm taking it. This is just the beginning!We talk about: Experiencing holidays as a kid vs. an adult, pilgrim hat belt buckle bit, "let's drive," are all Jewish holidays rooted in misery?, brown foods & gravy.Support the show and get the TIYA After Dark feed on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlifeFollow Daniel and Drennen:https://www.instagram.com/danielstrauss/https://www.instagram.com/drennenwon/Follow/contact This Is Your Afterlife:https://thisisyourafterlife.com/https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/[email protected]—except the song at the end of this episode ;)—by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary:https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/Artwork by Matt Sage:https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

After a year away, This Is Your Afterlife is back! One of the highlights of my year, creatively and culturally, was dipping my toe into black metal. The extreme music genre inspired my performance art installation, Black Metal Rooftop, which I expanded into a talk show called Black Metal Patio. My house band and musical guest for BMP was Genital Shame, a trans black metal artist from Pittsburgh who now lives in L.A. Real name: Erin Dawson. Genital Shame's Chronic Illness Wish was one of the records that cemented my interest in black metal. In between discovering her music last year and doing Black Metal Patio together in July, my friendship with Erin really began with recording this episode of TIYA, making it an ideal first episode for the podcast's relaunch. We talk about: black metal lyricism, evangelical Christian upbringings, creative process guilt, breakup memories, undermining the toxic positivity of trans coming out narratives on social media, very specific tastes in art and dating, Erin's favorite Cincinnati nickname joke.Support the show and get the TIYA After Dark feed on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlifeFollow Genital Shame:https://www.instagram.com/genitalshame/https://genitalshame.bandcamp.com/Follow/contact This Is Your Afterlife:https://thisisyourafterlife.com/https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/[email protected] music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary:https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/Artwork by Matt Sage:https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

READ THIS!Life has made it hard to put out the podcast weekly, and I can't stop myself from apologizing for that. Just know this is a temporary situation. Diabetes trauma, depression, and full-time work have been hurdles, but I've nearly cleared the first two. I know better than to make promises about show frequency or format now, but I didn't when recording this episode. Rather than tack on an intro, I'm letting you know here:I'm doing fine.I'm sorry the delays.TIYA will go weekly again ASAP.I appreciate and share your enthusiasm for the show. Free Palestine. Here are the regular show notes:I promised the next solo episode of This Is Your Afterlife would be me reading and talking about the emails I've received pitching guests who are entirely wrong for the show, and here it is. This was so fun that at one point I was in my car during the recording, and I looked around to validate the experience, except I was by myself. Genuinely the most fun I've had doing the podcast in a while. Jazz is about the notes you don't play, and This Is Your Afterlife is about the guests I don't book.Content warning: NDEs (near-death experiences), SDEs, pictures of angels, 1 picture of faerie, Albert Einstein, toxic masculinity that transcends death, afterlife employment, interdimensional relationships, dishonest PR people, and a buncha made-up names I used to anonymize people that I forget now, so you'll just have to listen.If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want the full convos and bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher. Follow this show on IG: @thisisyourafterlife, and get more info at thisisyourafterlife.com. Have thoughts on the show? Email [email protected] me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.All music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary.Check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I analyze TV and movies with my friend, writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

THIS solo episode comes from my car during my lunch break.I talk about:Reading Black Metal Rainbows and the uncanny experience of enjoying reading about an art form more than the art form itself, though I'm still enjoying Dawn Treader's Bloom & DecayThe images of Shaaban Ahmad via @letstalkpalestine and so many other places: a 19-year-old software engineering student burning alive in his bed in a hospital tent with IVs still attached to his arms as a result of IOF attacks on GazaWhy I refuse to make work that only looks inwardThis Instagram carousel from @visualizing_palestineHanif Abdurraqib's and Johnny Cash's three themes of their work, and my ownBeing done coddling people with my speech, whether about the genocide in Palestine or the reality of long COVID and necessity of maskingServing you the meal while explaining the recipeBizhiki's incredible album, Unbound, which I think I've recommended beforeThe content of next month's solo episode!I hope this episode can provide you some obsession in the best way. Thanks for listening. Please donate to a fund in the @fundsforgaza Linktree if you can. And follow/donate to the @scholarships4gh4zza initiative.If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want the uncut conversations and bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher. Follow this show on IG: @thisisyourafterlife, and get more info at thisisyourafterlife.com. Have thoughts on the show? Email [email protected] me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.All music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary.Check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I analyze TV and movies with my friend, writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

The Neo-Futurists series continues with dyed-in-the-wool weirdo Emma Casey. We bond over our recovery from the hyperindividualism of mistranslating punk ideology, and she shares a walk through New York City that could only happen with the confidence of youth. She's very cool and thoughtful and lovable, and I hope you love her!Content warning: whiteness, pristine coffee shop hell, personality/worldview copes for not being wealthy or authentic, Taylor Swift, Harold and Maude, Afterlife Tycoon, notebook cartography, the spectacular gift of consciousness. If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want the uncut conversations and bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher. Go see The Neo-Futurists' flagship show, The Infinite Wrench, if you're in Chicago, or find a way to get to Chicago to see it. It is simply the best thing you can see.Follow this show on IG: @thisisyourafterlife, and get more info at thisisyourafterlife.com. Have thoughts on the show? Email [email protected] me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.All music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary.Check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I analyze TV and movies with my friend, writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

Adam Gilbert (Just for Laughs) is a real sweetie, and he was in a punchy mood (or maybe that's just him?) when we recorded. And even though he compared me to Bill Maher, we had a lot of fun. This makes two weeks in a row of standups, and who knows, maybe this is the start of This Is Your Afterlife as traditional comedy podcast! (It's not.)Content warning: alcoholism, dead dad, escalators, spiders, time, self as a concept like gender or money, unsucked boy.If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want the uncut conversations and bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher. Follow Adam on Instagram: @adamgcomedy, and TikTok: @adamgilbertcomedy.Follow this show on IG: @thisisyourafterlife, and get more info at thisisyourafterlife.com. Have thoughts on the show? Email [email protected] me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.All music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary.Check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I analyze TV and movies with my friend, writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

SNL writer, stand-up comedy comrade of mine, and O.G. observer of my coma, Steven Castillo joins me to brag about the memory of his second Saturday Night Live audition. Actually, this is a very sweet and warm chat between old friends, and I was so grateful to have it (on my 40th birthday! I don't mention this on the main feed, but it's in the full convo on the Patreon). Now it's yours.Content warning: YouTube comments, therapy, failure, convoluted reincarnation, a healthy amount of "fuck you," vape soul.If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want the uncut conversations and bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher. Listen to Steven's new podcast, Mind of Castillo, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and/or watch it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MindOfCastillo/Visit his website: stevencastillohasawebsite.comAnd follow him on social media.IG: @steezus_castilloTwitter: @STEEEZUSCHRISTTikTok: @steeezuschristFollow this show on IG: @thisisyourafterlife, and get more info at thisisyourafterlife.com. Have thoughts on the show? Email [email protected] me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.All music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary.Check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I analyze TV and movies with my friend, writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

"Why Cleveland?" is the question I get when I tell people I moved from Chicago to Cleveland, mostly from people IN Cleveland. This Very Special Episode of This Is Your Afterlife does not answer "why" and in fact cautions against reading too much into every little detail of such a huge life transformation. My lovely pal, very funny comedian, and big TIYA fan Claire Favret helps me tease it all out.Content warning: employment, power outage, crappy apartment, COVID precautions, reckoning with the concept of sour grapes, relationship between making a living and making art, disillusionment with standup, commute soundtrack, are you a club or BLT?Here's the Craig Wedren post on the 30th anniversary of Shudder to Think's Pony Express Record, which I reference.If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want the uncut conversations and bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher. Follow Claire @clairefavs on IG and Twitter.Follow this show on IG: @thisisyourafterlife, and get more info at thisisyourafterlife.com. Have thoughts on the show? Email [email protected] me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.All music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary.Check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I analyze TV and movies with my friend, writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

As a follow-up to last week's Will Oldham episode, I'm re-releasing my episode with the man Will called an "internet angel," saxophonist and Fuubutsushi member Patrick Shiroishi.This conversation has been on my mind because my move to Cleveland has come with consuming more Taco Bell than I have in the past decade, so take any shade I throw toward T. Bell with that grain of salt.In my mind, this is a classic This Is Your Afterlife. I hope you enjoy it.Content warning: Japanese internment camps, ambiguously supportive parents, ancestors, shit, therapy, the Get Up Kids, Taco Bell.If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want fun bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher. Follow Patrick on IG, @patrickshiroishi.Check out Patrick's website for tour dates. Go buy Fuubutsushi's new album, Meridians, right now at cached.media/shop!Follow this show on IG: @thisisyourafterlife, and get more info at thisisyourafterlife.com. Have thoughts on the show? Email [email protected] me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.All music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary.Check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I analyze TV and movies with my friend, writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

Booking This Is Your Afterlife sometimes looks like me hand-writing a list of dream guests off the top of my head. Will Oldham appears on every one of those lists. I've been a fan since he released the first Superwolf album with Matt Sweeney in 2005, and their 2021 follow-up, Superwolves, joins it as one of my favorite albums ever.Few artists are better at combining mystery, sincerity, wisdom, and mischief. And rather than strive for any sort of definitive Will Oldham interview, I just wanted to do the best This Is Your Afterlife episode I could with him on the day we recorded. I hope you like it.Content warning: dying parents, genocide, convenience, hell is a Twitter feed, the shock of early Facebook, the scourge of superhero movies, Kentucky Pocket Wolf, examining the function of music, George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia, Patrick Shiroishi as internet angel.If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want fun bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher. If you want to follow Will on social media, he's @wignifier on Instagram and @signifyingwolf on Twitter.Listen to Superwolf and Superwolves and all the Bonnie Prince Billy solo albums and the old Palace records and and and...Follow this show on IG: @thisisyourafterlife, and get more info at thisisyourafterlife.com. Have thoughts on the show? Email [email protected] me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.All music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary.Check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I analyze TV and movies with my friend, writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

Playwright, actor, and well-balanced adult Steven Strafford is a breath of fresh air when it comes to putting creative pursuits in their proper place, i.e. as part of a life rather than a whole life. It was wonderful to talk to him about sobriety, meeting his husband, and moving from Chicago to Ohio as a grown man.Content warning: sobriety, family, having kids, people pleasing, ants and grasshoppers, the "Pumpkins" song, a funeral at a sensible black box.If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want fun bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher. Watch Steven's solo show, Methtacular!, free on YouTube.Buy his play, Small Jokes About Monsters, from Dramatists Play Service.Follow him on Twitter, @StevenStrafford. He doesn't post often on Instagram, but you can follow him there too, @stevenstraffordelkins. Hell, you can go follow him on Facebook if you like!Follow this show on IG: @thisisyourafterlife, and get more info at thisisyourafterlife.com. Have thoughts on the show? Email [email protected] me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.All music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary.Check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I analyze TV and movies with my friend, writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

I've wanted artist, writer, educator, and organizer Benji Hart on the show for a while, and today we finally make it happen. It's such a pleasure to speak with them about navigating abolition work while acknowledging the very human desire to see evil punished. It's something I think about a lot, and clearly Benji does too.Content warning: abolition, punishment, religion, not being able to relate to doing a genocide, Saturn return, voguing, bomba, dismantling the binary between thinking and feeling, why am I mourning Ben Carson?If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want fun bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher. Find out more about Benji and all their work at benjihart.com.Follow them on Instagram at @benjifemini + Twitter at @radfagg.Follow this show on IG: @thisisyourafterlife, and get more info at thisisyourafterlife.com. Have thoughts on the show? Email [email protected] me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.All music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary.Check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I analyze TV and movies with my friend, writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

My conversation with Lyn Rye was so intense and locked in that I gave up on taking notes (and doing bits). They're a bass player, songwriter, artist, gardener, "house dad" at Casa Al-Fatiha (an autonomous sanctuary house for LGBTQ+ asylum seekers), and abolitionist troublemaker. Yet our conversation stretched beyond even all that work!Content warning: domestic violence, carceral violence, assisted dying, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, Islam's day of reckoning, Joe Hill, afterlife-as-memory synchronicity. Wanna hear the full-length version of this conversation? Become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher. Follow Lyn on IG: @lyn_rye_music, and find their music on Bandcamp at lynrye.bandcamp.com.For more information and live show dates, visit their website, lynrye.com. Follow this show on IG: @thisisyourafterlife, and get more info at thisisyourafterlife.com. Have thoughts on the show? Email [email protected] me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.All music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary.Check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I analyze TV and movies with my friend, writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

Daniel Wyche is a composer and improvising musician who uses guitar, pedals, and other electronics to make tracks full of ideas, noise, and even humor. I love his new tape with Lia Kohl, Movie Candy, so I talked to him in my living room about how to listen to experimental music (a Patreon-only part of our talk) and just how important other people are to his well-being. Content warning: hell is NO people, a gap year without the name "gap year," Chris Wiersema, learning how to hitchhike, metalhead with duffel bag full of CDs, Estonian farm, cousins.If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want fun bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher. Follow Daniel on Instagram, @danielwyche. And go to Elastic Arts, where he frequently curates programming.You gotta hear Movie Candy. Then, check out his solo albums, 2021's Earthwork and 2016's Our Severed Sleep. You can hear him collaborate with previous TIYA guest Patrick Shiroishi on Long Day (also with Ted Byrnes). And he has a forthcoming project with Lake Mary, so stay on the lookout for that!Follow this show on IG: @thisisyourafterlife, and get more info at thisisyourafterlife.com. Have thoughts on the show? Email [email protected] me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.All music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary.Check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I analyze TV and movies with my friend, writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

Improviser, actor, and teacher Mary Cait Walthall directed Feed Wolf Ice Cream, the one-man show this podcast grew from. I talk to her about how the project has evolved and the comas that lead away from the dream of fame.Content warning: punishment, parenting, enlightenment, death of childhood friends, talking circle funeral, Karens.If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want fun bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher. Mary Cait's improv team, Super Human, performs on Thursday nights at the Annoyance Theatre in Chicago.Get tickets to the play she's in, Comet, at Rhino Fest 2024. There are two more performances, on June 19 and 28.Follow this show on IG: @thisisyourafterlife, and get more info at thisisyourafterlife.com. Have thoughts on the show? Email [email protected] me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.All music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary.Check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I analyze TV and movies with my friend, writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

Moving from Chicago to Cleveland, how do I pay tribute to my home of 22 years, my entire adult life? I do this.Read the poem I reference (and read), David Whyte's Sweet Darkness.If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want more solo (and other bonus) episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher. Follow this show on IG: @thisisyourafterlife, and get more info at thisisyourafterlife.com. Have thoughts on the show? Email [email protected] me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.All music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary.Check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I analyze TV and movies with my friend, writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

It's an all-time-great This Is Your Afterlife with artist, musician, and independent folklorist Daniel Bachman. Daniel creates huge concept albums like Almanac Behind, which documented the climate crisis with field recordings of extreme weather that sometimes swallowed his guitar playing, and writes pieces on his Substack like “Well Seasoned”: A History of North American Immunocapitalism. Content warning: I use this space to alert folks to traditional content warnings as well as cheekily share some of the topics covered in the episode. This time, we've got some fairly heavy genuine content warnings, almost all to do with the American culture of white supremacy: hate crime, suicide, drug overdose, Charlottesville Unite the Right rally, animal cruelty, COVID, and colonialism. AND there is so much genuine beauty, history, camaraderie, and fun in this episode! From Daniel teaching me about abolitionist minister and writer Moncure Daniel Conway to discussing his non-human collaborators, this is just a wall-to-wall banger of a conversation.If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want fun bonus episodes, like the Crossing Guard Trilogy of This Is Your Aftershow episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher. Follow Daniel: @almanacbehind on Instagram and Twitter.Listen to his most recent recording for Longform Editions, Quaker Run Wildfire (10​/​24​/​23​–​11​/​17​/​23) for Fiddle and Guitar.Follow this show on IG: @thisisyourafterlife, and get more info at thisisyourafterlife.com. Have thoughts on the show? Email [email protected] me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.All music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary.Check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I analyze TV and movies with my friend, writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

How do you make political art that isn't dogmatic or trite? What are ways to reimagine live performance to activate an audience instead of creating a seated mass of mindless consumers?It's my performance chat with Bindu Poroori!If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want fun bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher. Follow Bindu on Instagram: @himabinduCheck out Do the Needful at @dtn_chicago on Instagram.Donate to the Chicago Abortion Fund via my page to provide life-saving healthcare to folks who need abortions.Follow this show on IG: @thisisyourafterlife, and get more info at thisisyourafterlife.com. Have thoughts on the show? Email [email protected] me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.All music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary.Check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I analyze TV and movies with my friend, writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

Bindu Poroori is a warm, deep, brilliant writer, performance artist, and singer whose creative practice can't be summed up tidily. She's in a band called Do the Needful, and her time hosting Salonathon made her the live performer she is. We bonded over our approaches to performance and the struggle to make political art that is authentic to us, so much so that there will be a whole bonus episode with our performance talk! For now, enjoy Bindu's answers to the prompts, "What do you hope happens when you die?," "What's your coma?," and "Relive one memory."Content warning: friend breakups, Hinduism, castes, the use of reincarnation for oppression!, invitations into intimacy, the ancestral pleasure of one specific meal at Saravanaa Bhavan.If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want fun bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher. Follow Bindu on Instagram: @himabinduCheck out Do the Needful at @dtn_chicago on Instagram.Donate to the Chicago Abortion Fund via my page to provide life-saving healthcare to folks who need abortions.Follow this show on IG: @thisisyourafterlife, and get more info at thisisyourafterlife.com. Have thoughts on the show? Email [email protected] me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.All music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary.Check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I analyze TV and movies with my friend, writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

Devin Bustin is not just a poet, songwriter, musician, and, gulp, minister (official title: Director of Spiritual Growth and Students). He's one of the most influential people in my life. Listen to us plumb our shared evangelical Christian history, the possible different functions of doubt in our lives, our shared love of poetry, and the entry of recovery into our lives.Content warning: going pro with Christianity, poverty tourism, sobriety, the unmarketed opinions of evangelical churches, A Gentle Path Through the Twelve Steps, Carl Rogers' unconditional positive regard, Ross Gay's Last Will and Testament.If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want fun bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher. Devin has a website, devinbustin.com, and an Instagram, @devinbustin. He doesn't use either much, but if he has new projects to announce, it should be on one or both of those platforms.Donate to the Chicago Abortion Fund via my page to provide life-saving healthcare to folks who need abortions.Follow this show on IG: @thisisyourafterlife, and get more info at thisisyourafterlife.com. Have thoughts on the show? Email [email protected] me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.All music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary.Check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I analyze TV and movies with my friend, writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

The snap of a good jerky stick. The taste of very wet eggs. Venturing off alone to see art. Performing as a Neo-Futurist. Annie Share enjoys her life! It's a skill she's cultivated through a careful selection of little treats.Content warning: yearbook enemies, wanting to die young and riding your bike, imaginary friend Gerald Oliver Dickens (G.O.D.), solo adventures, breakfast food preferences. If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want fun bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher. Annie is mostly offline, so it makes sense you can follow her on Instagram @anniesoffline.Go see The Infinite Wrench at the Neo-Futurists, especially when Annie rejoins the cast in June!Donate to the Chicago Abortion Fund via my page to provide life-saving healthcare to folks who need abortions.Follow this show on IG: @thisisyourafterlife, and get more info at thisisyourafterlife.com. Have thoughts on the show? Email [email protected] me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.All music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary.Check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I analyze TV and movies with my friend, writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

Brad E. Rose is a musician, podcaster, music writer, label owner, graphic designer, and dad, and we talk about his motivations beneath and for all of that. Content warning: COVID, parenthood, legacy, the undertow, extremely metal Capsula Mundi alternative, Terry Riley's A Rainbow in Curved Air.If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want fun bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher. Listen to Brad's excellent podcast, Songs of Our Lives!Read his music writing at Foxy Digitalis, and follow @foxy.digitalis on Instagram.His label is The Jewel Garden, and you can learn more about his expansive body of work at bradroseprojects.com.The album Brad released with his daughter, Anna L.H. Rose, is called Blanket, and you can hear it here.And if you'd like to support him financially, here is Brad's Patreon.Donate to the Chicago Abortion Fund via my page to provide life-saving healthcare to folks who need abortions.Follow this show on IG: @thisisyourafterlife, and get more info at thisisyourafterlife.com. Have thoughts on the show? Email [email protected] me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.All music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary.Check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I analyze TV and movies with my friend, writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

Is this the first ever Twitch streamer guest on This Is Your Afterlife? I believe it is! But comedian Case Blackwell (from sketch group Cigarette Sandwich) is much more than a streamer. I've known him a while, and I was surprised by most of our conversation. Take a listen to hear a brilliant silly guy get vulnerable.Content warning: ALS, dementia, parents dying, masculinity, shedding layers of anxiety, realizations while eating and driving, EarthBound pond memories.If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want fun bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher. Watch Case's bonkers, very funny one-man-news-team stream on Twitch most days at twitch.tv/caseblackwell.You can find him on most social media @caseblackwell, including Instagram and Twitter.Check out Case's sketch group Cigarette Sandwich on Instagram, @cigsandwich. Their recent Jurassic Park sketch is incredible, and without exaggeration, I believe Septembert, the Calendar Salamander is one of the greatest sketches of all time. Watch it now.Donate to the Chicago Abortion Fund via my page to provide life-saving healthcare to folks who need abortions.Follow this show on IG: @thisisyourafterlife, and get more info at thisisyourafterlife.com. Have thoughts on the show? Email [email protected] me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.All music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary.Check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I analyze TV and movies with my friend, writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

When I saw musician Maria Jacobson (the creative force behind Fran) was starting a new podcast called Godless—asking guests, "Do you believe in God?" and all the other questions it encompasses—I knew I had to have her on This Is Your Afterlife. So here she is! It's a warm, fun, easy convo about hard stuff, just like we like it.Content warning: anxiety, mom with cancer, climate crisis, Gnostic Gospels, the reward and risk of making friends with strangers on the road, Irenaeus, good in a crisis?, letting go of pressuring others to be good friends/siblings/parents/etc. If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want fun bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher. Listen to Godless on Beloved Radio every 4th Sunday from 10-11am Central Time!Follow Fran on IG: @fran_online__Hear and buy Fran's newest album, Leaving, on Bandcamp.Donate to the Chicago Abortion Fund via my page to provide life-saving healthcare to folks who need abortions.Follow this show on IG: @thisisyourafterlife, and get more info at thisisyourafterlife.com. Have thoughts on the show? Email [email protected] me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.All music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary.Check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I analyze TV and movies with my friend, writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

Second City and Matt Damon Improv's Phylicia McLeod sits down with me to hash out how to deal with strict Christian parents whose idea of what's best for you is different than yours.Content warning: dead sibling, alcoholism, Pentecostal childhood, playing Lil Boosie/Boosie Badazz at your funeral, presence as the solution to boredom in paradise, masturbating in the staircase at work?If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want fun bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher. Follow Phylicia on Instagram: @laugh_with_pheeGo see her show, HOT GIRLS PRESENT: SH*T TALK, at iO Theater on August 16 and 23!Donate to the Chicago Abortion Fund via my page to provide life-saving healthcare to folks who need abortions.Follow this show on IG: @thisisyourafterlife, and get more info at thisisyourafterlife.com. Have thoughts on the show? Email [email protected] me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.All music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary.Check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I analyze TV and movies with my friend, writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

When everyone went scrambling to therapy during lockdown in 2020, what did the therapists think? Find out in this sweet and intimate conversation with Nick Turner, aka the experimental ambient musician Tyresta. I've had lots of musicians who are in Nick's orbit as guests, but he's the first one to really delve into the music-making process, so this could be a good intro to thinking about a genre that can get pretty heady. Find joy in the music and in this episode!Content warning: mom dying, burnout, insomnia, anxiety, modular synthesis, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Zen, making instrumental music ABOUT something, joy-curating practices, Suzanne Ciani & Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith's album Sunergy.If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want fun bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher. Follow Nick on IG at @nick__turner.Listen to and buy the newest Tyresta album, Small Hours.Preorder the new Montgomery and Turner album, Sound Is (Our) Sustenance!And if you want to book therapy with Nick, check out his Psychology Today page.Donate to the Chicago Abortion Fund via my page to provide life-saving healthcare to folks who need abortions.Follow this show on IG: @thisisyourafterlife, and get more info at thisisyourafterlife.com. Have thoughts on the show? Email [email protected] me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.All music by This Is Your Afterlife house band Lake Mary.Check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I analyze TV and movies with my friend, writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.