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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/thisisyourafterlife Follow Open Mike Eagle: https://openmikeeagle.bandcamp.com/music https://www.youtube.com/@open_mike_eagle https://www.twitch.tv/open_mike_eagle https://www.instagram.com/open_mike_eagle/ https://www.patreon.com/openmikeeagle Past Due podcast with Ana Marie Cox: https://pod.link/1207507389 What Had Happened Was podcast: https://pod.link/whhw 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/ 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 Move I 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/thisisyourafterlife Follow 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] Music by TIYA house band Lake Mary: https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/ https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/ Artwork by Matt Sage: a href="https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

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/thisisyourafterlife Follow KR: https://www.krriiber.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/ 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.com https://www.patreon.com/PodCastyForMe https://twitter.com/podcastyforme https://www.instagram.com/podcastyforme https://www.youtube.com/@podcastyforme 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 Artwork 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/thisisyourafterlife Follow 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-1 https://www.instagram.com/roughpuppets/ Follow/contact This Is Your Afterlife: https://thisisyourafterlife.com/ https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/ [email protected] All 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 Faves Follow/contact This Is Your Afterlife: https://thisisyourafterlife.com/ https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/ [email protected] All 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/thisisyourafterlife Follow 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-light Follow/contact This Is Your Afterlife: https://thisisyourafterlife.com/ https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/ [email protected] All 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/thisisyourafterlife If 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-wading https://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] All 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/thisisyourafterlife Follow 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.html Remember You Will Die: https://bookshop.org/p/books/remember-you-will-die-eden-robins/570ce692d432bd63 Eden'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/21c789c4932d4548 Follow/contact This Is Your Afterlife: https://thisisyourafterlife.com/ https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/ [email protected] All 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/thisisyourafterlife 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] Music—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/thisisyourafterlife Follow 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] All 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]. 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 [email protected]. 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 [email protected]. 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 [email protected]. 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.