This Podcast Will Change Your Life.

This episode stars Seth Rogoff (The Castle: A Novel, Smashing the Tablets: Radical Retellings of the Hebrew Bible, The Kirschbaum Lectures). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Kafka's (and Rogoff's now) home city of Prague in April 2025.

This episode stars Dr. Stacey Diane Arañez Litam (Patterns That Remain: A Guide to Healing for Asian Children for Immigrants). It was recorded in-person at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Chicago Downtown* in April 2025. *Please do ignore the occasional outside noise, unlike the host and guest, there were people actually working the day of the recording.  

This episode stars Judy and Adam Tanzer, the host's mother and brother respectively. It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and their homes which are located in greater Philadelphia-land in April 2025.

This episode stars Wendy C. Ortiz (Excavation: A Memoir; Hollywood Notebook, and Bruja: A Dreamoir) just as all three of her groundbreaking books have been simultaneously re-released. It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Ortiz' home in the City of Angels in March 2025.

This episode stars David Scott Hay ([NSFW], The Fountain). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Hay's home in the City of Angels in February 2025.

This episode stars Ruben Quesada (Brutal Companion, Jane /La Segua, and more). It was recorded in-person and in the host's South Loop office in February 2025.

This episode stars Kurt Baumeister (Twilight Of The Gods, Pax Americana). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Baumeister's home in greater Philadelphialand in February 2025.

This episode stars Ignatius Valentine Aloysius & David Allen Sullivan (Salt Pruning, Fishhead: Republic of Want, Strong-Armed Angels). It was recorded in-person and in the host's South Loop office in January 2024.

This episode stars Christine Marie Eberle (Finding God Along the Way, Finding God Abiding, Finding God In Ordinary Time). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Eberle's home in greater Philadelphialand in January 2025.

This episode stars Cynthia Weiner (A Gorgeous Excitement). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Weiner's home town of New York City in January 2025.

This episode stars Jeremy T. Wilson (The Quail Who Wears The Shirt, Adult Teeth). It was recorded in person at The Coffee Studio in Chicago, IL in October 2024.

This Podcast Will Change Your Life is a most glorious year-end episode, as well as a quite glorious Three Hundred and Fiftieth episode, which stars the equally, and endlessly glorious Rachel Robbins (Sound of a Thousand Stars, In Lieu of Flowers). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Robbins' mother's Northern California home in November 2024.

This episode stars Mathieu Cailler (Forest for the Trees, May I Have This Dance?, Loss Angeles & many, many more). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Cailler's Loss Angeles home office in September 2024.

This episode stars William Walsh (The Poets, Pathologies, Questionstruck & many, many more). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Walsh's Massachusetts' workplace in August 2024.

This episode stars Ross McMeekin (Below the Falls, The Hummingbirds). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and McMeekin's Northwest home in August 2024.

This episode stars Anne Poirier (Not a Fat Annie, The Body Joyful). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Poirier's Sunshine State home in September 2024. We want to note that the episode is dropping today in honor of Body Acceptance Week (October 21-25, 2024) an exciting initiative promoting body acceptance—including body positivity, body neutrality, and body liberation—for all.

This episode stars Ben Lindner (Beyond The Zero podcast). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Lindner's down under home studio in July 2024.

This episode stars Michael Tager (Pop Culture Poetry: The Definitive Edition, Mason Jar Press). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Tager's Charm City office in June 2024.

This episode stars Lee Matthew Goldberg (The Great Gimmelmans, Stalker Stalked, Immoral Origins & many more). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Goldberg's Central Park office in the city so nice they named it twice in April 2024.    

This episode stars Maddie Norris (The Wet Wound). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Norris' home office in the Tar Heel State in June 2024.

This episode stars Caleb Curtiss (Age of Forgiveness, A Taxonomy of the Space Between Us). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Curtiss' home office in the home state of our 46th President in June 2024.

This episode stars Steven Miletto (Teaching Learning Leading K12 podcast). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and the Teaching Learning Leading K12 podcast studio in the great state of Georgia in May 2024.

This episode stars Cyn Vargas (On the Way, Nothing's Ever The Same). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Vargas' Chicagoland home in July 2024.

This episode stars Dmitry Samarov (To Whom It May Concern, Old Style, All Hack & many more). It was recorded in-person and in the host's borrowed South Loop classroom in May 2024.

This episode stars Ken Volante (Something (rather than nothing) Podcast). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Volante's home in the greater Northwest in April 2024.

This episode stars Spencer Fleury on the release day for his new book I Blame Myself But Also You. It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Fleury's freshy fresh San Diego hotel room in June 2024.

This episode stars Danielle Ariano (The Requirement of Grief, Getting Over the Rainbow). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Ariano's Pennsylvania office in May 2024.

This episode stars Tyler Bingham (Salt Lake Dirt). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Bingham's, yes, Salt Lake City home studio in April 2024.

This episode stars Emily Schultz (Sleeping With Friends, Little Threats, The Blondes). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Schultz's Brooklyn home in April 2024.

This episode stars Syed Ali (The Peer Effect, Migration, Incorporation, and Change in an Interconnected World, Dubai: Gilded Cage). It was recorded in-person at This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL in March 2024.

This episode stars Judith Krummeck (Old New Worlds, The Deceived Ones). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Krummeck's Charm City home in April 2024.

This episode stars Jeff Margolis (We're Live in 5: My Extraordinary Life in Television). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Margolis' office in the City of Angels in March 2024.

This episode stars Tobias Carroll (In The Sight, Transitory, Vol. 1 Brooklyn). It was recorded in-person and in the host's wildly under utilized South Loop office in February 2024.

This episode stars Mallory Smart (I Keep My Visions to Myself, The Only Living Girl in Chicago, Maudlin House). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Smart's greater Chicagoland home in March 2024.

This episode stars Ben Tanzer, me (The Missing, UPSTATE, Orphans), in conversation with the awfully splendiferous Giano Cromley. It was recorded in-person walking along Division Street in Chicago, IL in March 2024.

This special AWP 2024 episode stars John Reed (The Never End, Snowball's Chance, Tales of Woe, and many more). It was recorded in-person at AWP 2024 in Kansas City, MO in February, wait for it...2024.

This episode stars Lisa Niver (Brave-ish, One Breakup, Six Continents and Feeling Fearless After Fifty). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Niver's City of Angels home in January 2024.

This episode stars Diego Báez (Yaguareté White). It was recorded in-person at Báez's City Colleges of Chicago office on the north side of The Jewel of the Midwest in January 2024.

This episode stars Dana Kaye (Kaye Publicity). It was recorded in-person at Kaye's home office on the north side of Chicago, IL in January 2024.

This episode stars Eugenio Volpe (I, Caravaggio). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Volpe's El Lay home in January 2024.

This episode stars John Noltner (Lessons on the Road to Peace, A Peace of My Mind). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and wherever Noltner is hanging his hat these days in December 2023.

This episode stars Jacob Budenz (Tea Leaves). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Budenz's Charm City home in December 2023.

This episode stars Christina Olson (The Anxiety Workbook, The Last Mastodon) & Ben Drevlow (The Book of Rusty, Ina-Baby: a love story in reverse). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Olson and Drevlow's home in the Peach State, otherwise known as Georgia, in November 2023.

This episode stars JJ Starr (The Mother I Knew: Race to Thunder Bay And The Battle For The Commons). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Starr's home in the Commonwealth of Virginia in November 2023.

This episode stars Elizabeth Strauss Friedman (The Lost Positive, The Eggshell Skull Rule, Gathered Bones are Known to Wander).  It was recorded in-person at Strauss Friedman's home on the north side of Chicago, IL in October 2023.

This episode stars SpiderMeka (SpiderMeka Portraits).  It was recorded in-person at the SpiderMeka Portraits studio on the north side of Chicago, IL in October 2023.

This episode stars Jennifer Banash (The Rise and Fall of Ava Arcana, Silent Alarm, White Lines). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Banash's home in the city that never sleeps in September 2023.

This episode stars Shawn Samuelson Henry (Made in Maine). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Henry's home in the Tar Heel state, also known as North Carolina, and not Maine, in September 2023.

This episode stars Matt Micheli (Two Minutes With The Devil, Scratched, The White). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Micheli's home in the Republic of Texas in August 2023.

This episode stars Daniel Cooney, Andrew Fredericks, Gabriel Joffe, Karla Murthy & Jamie Diaz (Love, Jamie, Daniel Cooney Fine Art). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and a variety of locations across the country in July 2023.

Things Start was published as part of the short story collection After the Flood, which was released by CCLaP in 2014. The collection represents Part Three of the linked short story collection UPSTATE re-released in 2020 by Tortoise Books (and originally released under the title The New York Stories by CCLaP in 2015). Things Start is the final chapter of UPSTATE: The Podcast. Things Start is read by Sara Lippmann (BIO below). INTRO/OUTRO music is Drinking of Me and was generously provided by Monkey Wrench. READER BIOSara Lippmann is the author of the novel Lech (Tortoise Books) and the story collections Doll Palace (re-released by 7.13 Books) and Jerks (Mason Jar Press.) Her fiction has been honored by the New York Foundation for the Arts, and her essays have appeared in The Millions, The Washington Post, Catapult, The Lit Hub and elsewhere. With Seth Rogoff, she is co-editing the anthology Smashing the Tablets: Radical Retellings of the Hebrew Bible for SUNY Press. She is a founding member of the Writing Co-Lab and lives with her family in Brooklyn. For more, visit https://www.saralippmann.com/. https://www.tanzerben.com/blog/upstate-the-podcast