We're All Gonna Die! (And Other Fun Facts)

Obviously, you're probably thinking that everything can be said about all of the shining constellations in the musical universe that is Bob and the Dangerous Brothers has already been said. However, after months of tense negotiations with their legal team, we were given the opportunity to ask the members of the post-Bob and the Dangerous … Continue reading Ep 105: An Oral History of Bob & the Dangerous Brothers in 10 Questions

Tony Burfield's new collection of haibun poetry is a vivid recollection of a Northern Appalachian childhood. Burfield's haibun poems capture two aspects of memory: the stories we tell and the emotional responses we feel. During our conversation we do a deep dive into the world of poetic form, the role of wilderness in his poetry, … Continue reading Ep. 104 The Slingshot Vignettes

Dr. Roxana Cazan is a poet and professor who engages with the beauty and sadness of our human frailty. Her new collection of poems entitled Tethered to the Unexpected: Poetry about Illness explores death, birth, illness, motherhood, and what it means to be connected to people across continents. She reads some of her fabulous poems, … Continue reading Ep. 103: Tethered to the Unexpected

Our most frequent guest has released his KTel record of the greatest hits and unreleased poems. A History of Backroads Misplaced is a retrospective of the last decade of his work. During this episode we look back at Jason Baldinger‘s evolution as a poet, what it means to revise old work, and there are some … Continue reading Ep. 102: Jason Baldinger's KTel Record

For our very special 101 episode, we we go back to the beginning with our guest for our first ever episode! Spiff Wiegand is a musician, actor, aspiring producer, and all around interesting human. He joins the podcast from a McDonald's Parking Lot in Georgia. During the course of our sprawling conversation we discuss: Spiff's … Continue reading Ep. 101: Spiff Wiegand is a Bookend

For our 100th episode we didn't do a cheesy clip show. Instead, poet Valerie Bacharach stopped by for a deep discussion on memory, grief, and poetry as a tool for healing. Valerie reads from her new excellent book Ghost Mother, which you should buy Ghost Mother from Finishing Line Press or buy it from the … Continue reading Ep. 100: Ghost Mother

Jason Baldinger is one of the folks who has made this podcast what it is, and who better to have on for our last show in the double digits but him. However, this was perhaps the most difficult podcast I have ever recorded, because it is about his split poetry and art book co-authored by … Continue reading Ep. 99: The Afterlife is a Hangover

We intended to discuss Season 1 of Chris Q Murphy's livestream where he performs his songs and discusses songwriting craft with guests. However, CQM is the person I have been close friends with the longest, and well . . . things got off track. Join us for our intimate conversation about music, young people, and … Continue reading Ep 98: Chris Q Murphy has a Livestream Now

Brook Pridemore and I set out to talk about noise and music, and immediately we got sidetracked into an intimate conversation about the death of monoculture, protective identities, and what it means to revisit places that mean a lot to our (often painful) personal memories. During the conversation we kinda forgot to talk about why … Continue reading Ep 97: Just Brook, Anyway Here's Wonderwall

Nina Padolf is a poet who writes about family history, trauma, and memory. Her poems exist at the intersection of personal history and that which we often prefer not to discuss. Thankfully, during our podcast we were able to have a deep and meaningful conversation about poetics, identity, and Dr. Padolf reads for us. You … Continue reading Ep. 96 Uprooted

EW Harris is a musician who fuses sci-fi and folk, playing on upcycled instruments and cell phones. His new single “Bad Ghost” explores the ways in which our insecurities and regrets might just follow us into the afterlife. During the course of our conversation, we talk about how being born in the Rust Belt might … Continue reading Ep. 95: I was a Weak Man. Now I'm a Bad Ghost

Anthony Kapfer and Amber Irish host an excellent comedy/variety talk show on Twitch TV every Monday night at 10 Eastern called Digital Slumber Party. Anthony also has a new comedy album entitled, I Can't Believe It's Not Better. We discuss both and why being buried alive is the worst way to die. Also, we get … Continue reading Ep. 94: I Can't Believe It's Not a Digital Slumber Party

John Grochalski is a poet, novelist, editor, and junk wax collector. Not sure we talk about any of those things, but we do have a lively conversation about poo on pizza, 21st Century America, and people who poo in public in 21st Century America. It’s a well rounded convo, really. Eating a Cheeseburger During the … Continue reading Ep. 93: Gilded Age End Time Cheeseburgers

In this extra special episode of We’re All Gonna Die. I’m sharing the audio of me reading my poetry at St. Francis University. St. Francis is a very special place to me, and I wanted to be able to share my reading while being respectful to the privacy of others, so I cut of the … Continue reading Ep 92: Fr. Bede Hines TOR Memorial Poetry Reading with Dr. Matthew Ussia

In the spring of 2020, The Homeless Gospel Choir released an album that is a quantum leap forward, just in time for the world to shut down. In this podcast, I talk to Derek Zanetti and Matt Miller about what it means to put out an amazing album that cannot be toured on. You really … Continue reading Ep. 91: This Land is STILL Your Landfill

Judith and Charles Brice are a husband and wife poetry double threat. Together for 4 decades, they became poets as they neared retirement. On this episode, Judith and Charlie discuss their poetics and read from their new books. We talk about what how living with another poet enhances their craft and where their poetics differ. … Continue reading Ep 90: Imbibe the Eternal Grin

Jason Baldinger is our most frequent guest, and for good reason. He writes lots of books of poetry, reads those poems very well, and always has something interesting to say in-between. For this episode we talk about his newest collection A Threadbare Universe. We also discuss the state of our post-Trump world, and we get … Continue reading Ep 89: A Threadbare Universe

James Benger is a fantastic poet from Kansas City, and his new book is entitled From the Back. From the Back is a collection of poems about the kinds of characters one could have found in every dive bar in every town in this country before Covid struck. During the course of our conversation, we … Continue reading Ep. 88 From the Back The post Ep. 88 From the Back first appeared on We're All Gonna Die! (And Other Fun Facts).

Janette Schafer stops in to the first podcast she ever listened to in order to talk about her new book Something Here Will Grow available from Main Street Rag. During the course of our conversation we talk about where poems come from, whether or not everything that makes it to a poem actually happened, and … Continue reading Episode 87: Stories We Never Tell The post Episode 87: Stories We Never Tell first appeared on We're All Gonna Die! (And Other Fun Facts).

Halsey Hyer is a poet, activist, and student who is simultaneously working on a manuscript and synchronous communities dedicated to expression and harm reduction. They are active with the Goat Farm Poetry Society and Filler Zine and Distro, two communities dedicated to the power of the written word to change the world and to shape … Continue reading Ep 86: Halsey Hyer’s Turn to Drive

Kristofer Collins stops by our unfortunately named podcast to discuss his new book The River is Another Kind of Prayer. During the course of our conversation, we do a deep dive on his poetics, Kristofer reads to us several poems, and I make sure that by recording this episode, I’m not committing wire fraud. While … Continue reading Episode 85: The Rumproller

Robert Walicki lives in two worlds. He is a poet and a plumber. His poetry bridges the gap between these two worlds, and we discuss his amazing new collection entitled Fountain in depth. Robert reads a number of his poems, including one about seeing The Cure in the 90’s. We also discuss the value of … Continue reading Episode 84: Site Work

Bart Solarczyk is a Pittsburgh poet whose ability to capture a moment in time with very few words fills me with envy and admiration. His new book Tilted World is out on Low Ghost Press, and in this podcast Bart reads extensively from the book (Hey, they’re short poems!), and we talk poetics, de-industrialization, and … Continue reading Episode 83: Tilted World & the Economy of Words

Erica Moulinier and Aaron Grey run the small post-punk label Play Alone Records. Play Alone‘s expanding roster of bands includes: Shadow Age, Silent Age, Silence, Empty Beings, Death Instinct, Wisteria, and Ky Voss. We talk about all these bands as well as the importance of stewardship, how to run an independent label in the age … Continue reading Episode 82: Playing Alone, with Others

Bonnie and the Mere Mortals stop by to discuss the blending of goth and country. During the course of our conversation, I say “interregnum” a lot (again); we discuss what it means to play American music in a time of weirdo nationalism; I prod them about the ins and outs of collaborative song writing; we … Continue reading Episode 81: Appalachian Gothic

Adam Thomas is in 6 bands. Yes, you read that correctly. You might be in a band with Adam Thomas right now and not even know it. In this episode, we talk about every damn one of them, from Concealed Blade to Empty Beings, S.L.I.P. to Chronic Abuse, from No Time to Heavy Discipline, and … Continue reading Episode 80: The Hardest Working Man in Hardcore

In this episode, we talk with Dusty Hanna and Damon Di Ciccio about the new Silence album The Countdown’s Begun and all the apocalyptic feelings that inspired it. This is one of our “close reading” episodes where we take an artistic work and examine it like we’re in a graduate seminar. This is a long … Continue reading Episode 79: We Have 12 Years, Maybe Less

Every time Jason Baldinger writes a new book, it’s his best book, and so for this new podcast we have a hard time, because Jason is here to talk about two new books: The Better Angels of our Nature and Everyone’s Alone Tonight, co-written with the great Kansas City poet James Benger. In the course … Continue reading Episode 78: The Better Angels of Our Nature

For the last 11 years, mutants have been invading Pittsburgh at the end of August, and we’re talking to two of the people responsible, Dusty Hanna and Erica Moulinier. In this podcast, we look behind the scenes and into the inner workings of Skull Fest. Actually, most of the time we just sit around and … Continue reading Episode 77: Enter the Skullcast 11