This Is Your Afterlife

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 thisisyourafterlifepodcast@gmail.com.Follow 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 thisisyourafterlifepodcast@gmail.com.Follow 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 thisisyourafterlifepodcast@gmail.com.Follow 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 thisisyourafterlifepodcast@gmail.com.Follow 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 thisisyourafterlifepodcast@gmail.com.Follow 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 thisisyourafterlifepodcast@gmail.com.Follow 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 thisisyourafterlifepodcast@gmail.com.Follow 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 thisisyourafterlifepodcast@gmail.com.Follow 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 thisisyourafterlifepodcast@gmail.com.Follow 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 thisisyourafterlifepodcast@gmail.com.Follow 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 thisisyourafterlifepodcast@gmail.com.Follow 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 thisisyourafterlifepodcast@gmail.com.Follow 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 thisisyourafterlifepodcast@gmail.com.Follow 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 thisisyourafterlifepodcast@gmail.com.Follow 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 thisisyourafterlifepodcast@gmail.com.Follow 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 thisisyourafterlifepodcast@gmail.com.Follow 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 thisisyourafterlifepodcast@gmail.com.Follow 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 thisisyourafterlifepodcast@gmail.com.Follow 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 thisisyourafterlifepodcast@gmail.com.Follow 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 thisisyourafterlifepodcast@gmail.com.Follow 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 thisisyourafterlifepodcast@gmail.com.Follow 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 thisisyourafterlifepodcast@gmail.com.Follow 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 thisisyourafterlifepodcast@gmail.com.Follow 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 thisisyourafterlifepodcast@gmail.com.Follow 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.

Beneath the singing, performing, and party organizing, Anna De Ocampo Kain sees themself as a facilitator. I get to the bottom of how the pandemic has changed her career plans to explore my own anger about it.Content warning: seeing a dead body, dead friends, vocal hemorrhage, Lyme disease, storefront opera, funeral karaoke, rejecting institutions where you're not wanted, radical hope.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 Anna on Instagram: @kain.deo.anna.AND follow Parallel Play, Anna's collective organizing COVID-conscious events, at @parallel.play.chi on IG. You currently CAN STILL GET tickets to Dilly Dally, their speed-friending karaoke mixer in Chicago on April 13, at dillydally1.eventbrite.com.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 thisisyourafterlifepodcast@gmail.com.Follow 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.

Comedian, writer, and artist Julie Mitchell and I get on like gangbusters in this episode that easily could have gone twice as long. The whole conversation felt like unhinging a release valve for me, despite taking on one of my toughest challenges yet as a host: Julie has a definitive coma moment, but it's too raw and unresolved for her to go into detail. How do you talk about a moment that changed you when you can't talk about the moment itself? You talk about the changes!Content warning: musical improv, rape jokes, Long COVID, Palestine, big "T" vs. little "t" trauma, vulnerability requires anonymity, Maya Shetreat, the Psychedelic Assembly, crowdwork in standup comedy, Pigeon Feathers, finally getting the movie Magnolia.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 Julie @juliepoptart on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.Subscribe to her Substack—Girl, Uninterrupted—at juliepoptart.substack.com. And read her movie reviews on her blog, I Heard the Book Was Better!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 thisisyourafterlifepodcast@gmail.com.Follow 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 Fuubutsushi collection is complete! Chris Jusell, the ambient jazz band's violinist, joins me to jump down all the pop culture rabbit holes our brains present us as we try to get to the bottom of why Chris says he wants to take up as little space as possible. 'Cause does he really?Btw, I forgot to mention the Pigeon patrons on Patreon in my intro, so here they are: G, Barry Fontenot, Shubha Singh, Kati Llewellyn, Fred Fedewa, and DEBO. Thank you all!Content warning: grandparents' deaths, therapy, judgement, safety vs. variety, Titanic, The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, Chris is single.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 Chris (and hire him to arrange music!) at his website, chrisjusell.com.Follow him on Instagram: @jusellllBuy Fuubutsushi's music at cached.media/shop, and listen everywhere! Their Instagram is @_fuubutsushi.If you'd like there to be a working class of musicians in the U.S., sign this petition to support the Living Wage for Musicians Act.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. Follow 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.

"All the perfections are left in," I say in the intro to this perhaps-greatest-ever episode of the podcast, and yes, I meant "imperfections." But I enjoy the mistake, so it stays in, which is fitting for an episode I've minimally edited so that you can experience it as close to how I did as possible. And fitting for an episode in which legendary experimental/ambient musician and hospice chaplain Jefre Cantu-Ledesma helps me understand in a deep way the meaning of accepting all our feelings about death.Content warning: hospice, the experience of dying, old age, Zen Buddhism, grieving previous versions of yourself, Frank Ostaseski's The Five Invitations, relationship to creative career success, the Five Remembrances.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 Jefre Cantu-Ledesma on Instagram: @jcantuledesmaListen to and purchase his wonderful, beautiful, mind-blowing, life-affirming music on Bandcamp.Sign on to support the Living Wage for Musicians Act.And donate here to help me raise money for abortion access with Chicago Abortion Fund!Follow this show on IG: @thisisyourafterlife, and get more info at thisisyourafterlife.com. Follow 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.

Does Pinko editor Max Fox have a thing with posthumous projects? We explore Max's relationship to death by talking about his work editing his friend Chris Chitty's book, Sexual Hegemony: Statecraft, Sodomy, and Capital in the Rise of the World System.Content warning: suicide, dead friends, anxiety, legacy, Accountability, history is real, gay communism, Amphitheater of the Dead, having sex in nature.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 Max on Twitter: @mxwfx, and check out his website, maxfox.site. You can read his translation of Guy Hocquenghem's The Amphitheater of the Dead for free on his website. You can buy Sexual Hegemony at Duke University Press.Visit Pinko at pinko.online. Issue 3 of the magazine starts shipping soon! You can follow Pinko, @pinkomagazine, on Twitter and Instagram.Follow this show on IG: @thisisyourafterlife, and get more info at thisisyourafterlife.com. Donate to Chicago Abortion Fund during their fund-a-thon via my link here!Follow 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.

Mark Richardson (former Editor-in-Chief at Pitchfork, current rock and pop music critic at the Wall Street Journal) tells me about his tendency to help others rather than himself, being pushed into following his dream, and keeping a grasp on the substance of that dream.Content warning: anxiety, cancer, dementia, parents dying, Christian heaven sounds nice, part-time job with health insurance, difficulties of creating a funeral playlist, helping others to avoid helping yourself.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. Read and subscribe to Mark's newsletter at markrichardson.substack.com, and follow him on Twitter @MarkRichardson. Get a taste of Mark's writing at his website, markrichardson.org. Follow this show on IG: @thisisyourafterlife, and get more info at thisisyourafterlife.com. Follow 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.

After 20 years in prison, C. Fausto Cabrera is free. Six weeks post-release is quite a time to talk about transformation, and here we go.Content warning: prison, anxiety and depression, social death, not being a victim, dry room, Keats' negative capability, doing party drugs and getting lost at sea, beets and boiled eggs.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. You owe it to yourself to check out C. Fausto Cabrera's work at his website, faustocabrera.com.Follow him: @CFaustoCabrera on Twitter and @chris.fausto1 on Instagram.Chris and I met thanks to my work for Haymarket Books on their announcement of the inaugural Writing Freedom Fellows, of whom he is one. Find out more about the fellowship and Chris' fellow writers at writing-freedom.org.Learn about the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop at mnprisonwriting.org, and read the collective's essay anthology, American Precariat. One of the book's coeditors, Zeke Caligiuri, will join Bill Ayers in conversation at Pilsen Community Books in Chicago on Friday, March 15.Learn about the narrative non-profit We Are All Criminals at weareallcriminals.org.Find info about human rights org Until We Are All Free at uwaaf.org.Follow this show on IG: @thisisyourafterlife.Follow 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.

Chaz texted me, "it's pretty nice to be reciprocal fans dave." I texted back, "It's so nice! Such a well of comfort and inspiration." Chaz is the third of four members of ambient jazz band Fuubutsushi who I've had on the podcast. And his solo-and-friends recordings as Lake Mary are divine. Enjoy this exploration of his artistry, pains, and loves, which is also the beginning of our friendship.Content warning: deaths of family members and pets, grief seizure, against ego death, Big Fish funeral, mischievous trees, people turning into coyotes, long walks to private lakes, death as a break.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 Chaz on Instagram: @chaz.prymekListen to Lake Mary and Fuubutsushi on Spotify, and listen to/buy Lake Mary albums on Bandcamp.Buy Fuubutsushi's music at cached.media/shop.Donate to Care for Gaza's fundraiser to provide direct aid to Palestinians in Rafah and beyond, and follow their efforts on Twitter @CareForGaza.Here's a Twitter thread with more organizations helping on the ground in Palestine.Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I analyze TV and movies with my friend, writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.---All music by Lake Mary

Neo-Futurist Abby Pajakowski joins me for an in-person episode from my kitchen, and we get real specific on their hell, a party game, and the exact ways in which a single night in bed can change your life.Content warning: anxiety, depression, someone slowly approaching with a gun, Antz, mailed cremains, glorious limbo, losing your religion and it's chill.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 the development of Abby's prime time show at the Neo-Futurists' at their website, abbypajakowski.com. On Instagram, follow Abby, @abbypaj, and the Neo-Futurists, @theneofuturists. And if you're in or going to Chicago, see the Neos' flagship show, The Infinite Wrench, ASAP!Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I analyze TV and movies with my friend, writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.---Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

Perfect This Is Your Afterlife guest alert! Aaron Weaver is a comedian who's been thinking about spirituality maybe his whole life? He shares the tools he's picked up recently for being present and staying in his body. Those are buzzwords, but we get specific. We also talk a lot about Aaron's friend, Kenny DeForest, an excellent comedian and amazing person who was killed by a car in December 2023 at age 37. It's brutal and senseless, and I'm grateful Aaron was so open in talking to me about Kenny and his influence on Aaron's life.Content warning: comedy as detachment (vs. enjoyment), classic eyeball stuff, Kenny DeForest, men's groups, somatic experiencing, un-numbing, alligators with podcast ideas, Katt Williams' appearance on Club Shay Shay.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 Aaron on Instagram @weavedreaming, and listen to his wonderful album, Cosmic Joke. Follow Shamady, Aaron's spiritual comedy channel, @comedyfrombeyomedy on Instagram and YouTube.You owe it to yourself to watch Kenny DeForest's newest special, Don't You Know Who I Am?Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I analyze TV and movies with my friend, writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.---Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

Zach Peterson wants to be the Butthole Surfers of comedy. Next step: release his new special, A List of Wet Celebrities, this Thursday, January 25!Content warning: anxiety, OCD, dead parents, Burger King panic attack, sobriety, success, Neil Young, cigarette heaven, Rick Rubin's "The Creative Act," John Prine's "The Tree of Forgiveness," outsider art, avoiding sour grapes.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 A List of Wet Celebrities on Four by Three's YouTube channel. Stream the album version, and buy it from the iTunes store.While you're in the listening mood, stream Zach's previous album, Midwestern Jokes of the Americas, and buy that too!Follow Zach @kingoftheriverpeterson on Instagram and TikTok.Find his merch and tour dates at zachpetersoncomedy.com or museumofuglyfathers.com.And listen to his great podcast, No Coast Comedy Club, where he talks to comedians who live and work in cities that aren't huge entertainment hubs.Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I'm analyzing TV and movies with writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.---Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

Surprise! It's another installment of TIYA REMIXED, in which I re-edit classic interviews from the archives as refreshers for fans and great introductory episodes for new folks.Dylan Rodriguez is a founding member of Critical Resistance, an organization that for decades has provided leadership and resources in the movement to abolish the prison industrial complex. As importantly, he's a down-to-earth dude who could absolutely handle a heaven of sushi buffets every day.Content warning: copaganda, collectivity vs. individualism, Geronimo Ji-Jaga, humility, rude baby.Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher. If you're looking for an introduction to abolition, I highly recommend Critical Resistance's "Resource Guide for Teaching and Learning Abolition."Dylan's books:White Reconstruction: Domestic Warfare and the Logics of GenocideAbolition for the People: The Movement for a Future Without Policing & Prisons (edited by Colin Kaepernick)Check out the Cops Off Campus coalition: copsoffcampuscoalition.comAnd, of course, Critical Resistance: criticalresistance.orgFollow Dylan on Twitter: @dylanrodriguez and Instagram: @dylanrodriguez73Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I'm analyzing TV and movies with writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.---Music = Future: "Use Me" / Four Tet: "Two Thousand and Seventeen" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

Alejandro Salinas may or may not be a death doula, but he's definitely a vampire.Content warning: even more death talk than usual (incl. dead dad), ice cube as reincarnation metaphor, bird eye contact, why goths are tall, dying practice.Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher. Follow Alejandro on Instagram: @alej_salinasFollow Chicago Death Doula Collective on IG too: @chicago.death.doula.collective. CDDC is hosting a death cafe on January 27 at Chi Yoga Shack, where Alej teaches dream yoga.Buy the Coffin Cards deck, and listen to the Coffin Cards podcast. Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I'm analyzing TV and movies with writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.---Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

Tyler Parker (The Ringer) wrote a damn novel! A Little Blood and Dancing is a technicolor Oklahoma revenge story, and I was so stoked to talk to an old friend from Chicago improv about the transition from performing comedy to writing fiction.Content warning: Christian music, wanting to record your own audiobook, what hell would do to your vocal cords, accepting you're not too good for Minions.Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher. Read Tyler's book, A Little Blood and Dancing! And check out his basketball writing for The Ringer.Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I'm analyzing TV and movies with writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.---Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

Friend, TIYA superfan, and This Is Your Aftershow cohost Claire Favret returns to the main feed for our annual New Year's Special episode. We celebrate our years of minimal and no resolutions, and we answer a series of New Year's reflection questions Claire is pretty sure came from Simi Botic of Movement Unmeasured.Content warning: YOU DON'T NEED RESOLUTIONS TO DO THINGS, relationship to the word "prayer," cooking with loved ones, CD shopping, love/frustration with your union, validation at Socialism Conference, good vs. bad hating, printing stickers, Free Palestine.Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes, including every This Is Your Aftershow with Claire. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher. Follow Claire on Instagram: @clairefavsFollow me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I'm analyzing TV and movies with writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.---Music = Future: "Use Me" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

Comedian, sex worker, and writer Daniel Shar directed my first one-man show, Dave Maher Coma Show. The experience changed everything for me creatively and turned us from acquaintances into full-blow friends. Shar is so creative and funny, and he produces work as efficiently as a Comedy Terminator.Content warning: mom's death, breakup, porn career, surprise Beyonce fandom, this is absurd, evolving ambitions, objectively correct places to haunt, the hell of no comedy, the hell of using comedy work to outrun personal pain, Better Questions.Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher. Listen to/watch Shar's Weird Copcept Album, which features prominently in his Relive 1 Memory segment!!And he's not on social media, so check out his other projects or get in touch with him via his website, danielshar.com. Tell him he needs to name his show Best Non-Sex Performance!Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I'm analyzing TV and movies with writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.---Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

John Michael is my solo play-creating peer, independent art comrade-in-arms, and throwing-humor-at-heavy-subjects brother. I talked to him in my kitchen a couple weeks after seeing his most recent show, Spank Bank Time Machine, at the Neo-Futurist Theater. It's a new TIYA classic.Content warning: drug overdose, mental illness, weird bits, giddy laughter, Narcan, toxic friend representation, trauma dump vs. trauma bond, our sibling dynamic, twisted mom humor.Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher. Follow John Michael on Instagram: @jmsillyFollow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I'm analyzing TV and movies with writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.---Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

Al—first names only this episode—is a member of MASK UP, a group of organizers who authored a 70-page doc called “How to Talk to Your Loved Ones About Covid,” which you can find at covid.tips.I don't follow the usual format for this interview. COVID has given shape to This Is Your Afterlife in many ways, so I wanted to explore my current thoughts around it with Al directly, rather than mediated through the usual questions. Until the end!Content warning: tick bite, microscopic feces and blood, chronic illness, fitting in = safety, fatphobia, anger on Twitter, holding complex feelings, experiences with spirits!Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher. Follow Al on Twitter: @AkshapsFollow prominent MASK UP member Liz on Twitter: @RealGayArbysAfter you learn how to talk to your loved ones about COVID at covid.tips, share your stories about these conversations with MASK UP at covidjournal.org.Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I'm analyzing TV and movies with writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.---Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

Matthew Sage (aka M. Sage) and Fuubutsushi put out four records—aligned with the seasons—that helped keep me sane in quarantine. I talked to him in 2021 in this classic TIYA, and now he's my friend. I took my editing finger to this episode as an experiment to see if I could bring it under 30 minutes. I'm calling this leaner version of the podcast TIYA REMIXED. Let me know what you think!Content warning: nondenominational Christianity, type one diabetes, coma snobbery, mushroom suit, memory palace, IVF treatment.Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher. Follow Matt on Instagram: @matthewjsageVisit his website: matthewjsage.comListen to Fuubutsushi on the cached.media Bandcamp.Read about Fuubutsushi in the Chicago Reader.Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I'm analyzing TV and movies with writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.---Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"Poem = Walt Whitman: "This Compost"Poem Reading Bed Music = Fuubutsushi: "I Hold Dearly (for Miles)"

I've been loving Kayte Terry's cannibalism podcast, Tender Subject. It's a weird sell, and that's what I like about it! The visual artist and podcast joins me to bond over type 1 diabetes stuff and talk about the art school permission that was her coma.Content warning: body horror (& Cronenburg, & Crimes of the Future), blood lickers, mushroom suit, the Five Obstructions, reparative readings. Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher. Listen to Kayte's podcasts: Tender Subject and Fangs for the Memories (a Buffy and horror podcast)Check out Kayte's art at kayteterry.comFollow her on Twitter: @kayteterryFollow me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I'm analyzing TV and movies with writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.---Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

Jonathan Euseppi has passed away from cancer. I ramble in the intro about who Jonathan is to me, and I've copied the show notes from Jonathan's This Is Your Afterlife episode below to give you more context. I'm uploading this as a new episode in the feed because it is the extended version of our conversation, previously available only on Patreon. I hope you enjoy it as a brief look at Jonathan's life and work.Jonathan Euseppi (he/they/she) is a comedian who creates one-person shows that feature stories and heightened theatricality, so we're kindred spirits. Her first show, Grief Is Horny, was about her dad's death and her love of the musical Cats. His second show, about getting cancer and marrying his wife, is called Cancer Is Gorgeous. We spend the majority of the episode talking about Jonathan's TWO times suffering through cancer (he's currently cancer-free!) and the difference between those times. But they also talk about their wedding day, their struggle to come out as nonbinary, and the calm that came after admitting who they are. Content warning: suicidal ideation, anxiety, cancer, dementia, Parkinson's, water afterlives, crying just thinking about your wedding vows.Here is Jonathan Euseppi's Instagram profile: @jeuseppiYou can follow me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.---Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing"

Friend of the show Claire Favret helps me process the process of creating my new one-man show, Here to Make Friends.Content warning: Free Palestine, creative process, postcoital vs. postpartum, Infinite Jest version, massive amounts of navel gazing, the most powerful Afterhead, future of the podcast, Free Palestine.Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher. Download the Palestinian Feminist Collective's "All Out for Palestine" Digital Action Toolkit.Follow Claire @clairefavs on Twitter and Instagram.Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I'm analyzing TV and movies with writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.---Music = Future: "Use Me" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

What do comedy and magic have in common? What does it take to produce an independent magic and/or comedy show? I talk to my friend, previous TIYA guest, and magician Rebecca Spectre about our recent/upcoming shows, and how we went about both making them and putting them on.Content warning: DIY producing, comedy vs. magic, you're not Beyonce, "borrowed" tricks, unique venues, Mark James, Max Maven, David Berglas, Gob, the trick that cannot be explained.Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher. Follow Rebecca on Instagram: @rebeccaspectremagic And grab tickets to her Halloween magic show at Inclusive Funeral Care WHILE THEY'RE STILL AVAILABLE.Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I'm analyzing TV and movies with writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.---Music = Future: "Use Me" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

What percent odds do you actually believe you will experience the apocalypse in your lifetime? That's a question from my most recent one-man show, Here to Make Friends, so I brought in my pals and collaborators Meaghan Strickland, Bill Stern, and Nick Leveski to help me answer it, in a roundabout way. "Roundabout" because before they answer the question directly, we perform Bracketology, an improvised argument game show we devised back in our days on the improv team KC Redheart.Follow along as we attempt to determine what makes for the apocalypse-iest apocalypse.Content warning: actual apocalypse, Here to Make Friends, the humans are changing, monsters, hoisted by our own petard, laziness, magic.Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher.Check out twitch.tv/caseblackwell for future content from Cigarette Sandwich, Bill's sketch group.Follow @funnygamesla for upcoming dates for Funny Games, Meaghan's show/open mic at the Elysian Theater in L.A.And read/subscribe to Continuous Improvement, Nick's weekly newsletter with football "recaps."Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter.And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I'm analyzing TV and movies with writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.---Music = Future: "Use Me" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

This is a podcast in which two comedians, Ariel Elias and Dave Maher, talk about the television program "Survivor." It is not a recap podcast. Each episode, we chose a single moment from the show's 40+ seasons and connected it to comedy, creativity, our personal lives, our relationship to each other, and so many other things. It's a hangout show with "Survivor" as the starting point.We only recorded five episodes of It's a Fucking Stick, which means now it's a miniseries dedicated to promoting Dave's new one-man show, Here to Make Friends, which both contains a lot of "Survivor" material and requires no previous knowledge of "Survivor" to enjoy. In Episode 5, the final episode of the miniseries, we talk about Jenna and Heidi stripping for peanut butter, from Season 6, Episode 7, "Girls Gone Wilder".Get tickets to Here to Make Friends at the Neo-Futurist Theater in Chicago from 9/28/23-10/1/23!Follow Ariel @ariel_comedy on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.Follow Dave @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.IAFS' music is made by Mike Malarkey, who you can follow on IG @malarkeymike or listen to on Spotify.

This is a podcast in which two comedians, Ariel Elias and Dave Maher, talk about the television program "Survivor." It is not a recap podcast. Each episode, we chose a single moment from the show's 40+ seasons and connected it to comedy, creativity, our personal lives, our relationship to each other, and so many other things. It's a hangout show with "Survivor" as the starting point.We only recorded five episodes of It's a Fucking Stick, which means now it's a miniseries dedicated to promoting Dave's new one-man show, Here to Make Friends, which both contains a lot of "Survivor" material and requires no previous knowledge of "Survivor" to enjoy. In Episode 4, we talk about Dan's bonkers slide puzzle "solution," from Season 30, Episode 7, "The Line Will Be Drawn Tonight".Get tickets to Here to Make Friends at the Neo-Futurist Theater in Chicago from 9/28/23-10/1/23!Follow Ariel @ariel_comedy on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.Follow Dave @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.IAFS' music is made by Mike Malarkey, who you can follow on IG @malarkeymike or listen to on Spotify.

This is a podcast in which two comedians, Ariel Elias and Dave Maher, talk about the television program "Survivor." It is not a recap podcast. Each episode, we chose a single moment from the show's 40+ seasons and connected it to comedy, creativity, our personal lives, our relationship to each other, and so many other things. It's a hangout show with "Survivor" as the starting point.We only recorded five episodes of It's a Fucking Stick, which means now it's a miniseries dedicated to promoting Dave's new one-man show, Here to Make Friends, which both contains a lot of "Survivor" material and requires no previous knowledge of "Survivor" to enjoy. In Episode 3, we talk about James' banana etiquette, from Season 20, Episode 6, "Banana Etiquette."Get tickets to Here to Make Friends at the Neo-Futurist Theater in Chicago from 9/28/23-10/1/23!Follow Ariel @ariel_comedy on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.Follow Dave @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.IAFS' music is made by Mike Malarkey, who you can follow on IG @malarkeymike or listen to on Spotify.