Will inadvertently plugs his new book, Kill Them With Kindness, while discussing the pandemic, his fear of death, and love for Warren Zeavon and Nick Cave.

He also shares the opening chapter to a half-novel he wrote years ago about a boy who dies for one day every year on his birthday.

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Will celebrates the birthdays of Burt Bacharach, Homer Simpson and Dorothy Hodgkin, while examining our growing need for external validation.

Add in some Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King and the John Birch Society, and you get the usual mess of topics that eventually come around to the simple fact that what the world needs, now, is love, sweet love.

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Another bonus episode. This time, Will talks about his time working in a cinema before reading his short story, Night of the Day of the Dawn of the Son of the Bride of the Return of the Revenge of the Terror of the Attack of the Evil, Mutant, Hellbound, Flesh-Eating Sub-humanoid Zombified Living Dead 

Part 2 - in Shocking 2-D.

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In part two of this episode, Will delves a little deeper into those buzzwords mentioned in part one. How they are misused. How they are there to help us understand things rather than make them our identity.

There's talk of mental health and art and resilience and adapting ourselves to the world.

If you find certain subjects triggering, this isn't the podcast for you.

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Privilege. Talent. Mistaking feelings for facts. This is the first in a two-part episode.

A'ja Wilson - basketball superstar - was caught on video saying that one of her opponents made it as a professional due to her privilege. Will dives into the different ways in which human beings can consider their privileges and the privileges of others. How hard work and luck can play a part in success. And how A'ja should not have said what she said but that she probably had no choice but to think it.

This episode lays the groundwork for the subject of mental fragility that will be explored in the second part.

Get this in first. As always, the discussion is not going to go where you think it will.....

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What is wealth? Is it how much money you have in the bank or how many stocks you own, or is it the time you give towards your family or your passion?

This started as an episode about money and ended as an episode about patience and the true meaning of wealth.

(Some of these ideas were inspired by The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel, which is highly recommended, and not just for those interested in investing.)

There's also some talk of Vonnegut, Heller and the usual dash of publishing hell. (All with a tongue firmly in the cheek.)

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Memory. It's tricky. False memories. Making memories. Planting memories.

Mind control.

Dementia.

Memory is so malleable.

This week, Will, once again, considers the delicacy of the human mind. And Charles Manson. And posting pictures of your perfect life. And the CIA.

And he asks whether there is a way to document our lives that is true. So that we may look back on what we have done and know that it is real.

Or is it okay to create a life that isn't our own?

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With so many positive messages out there telling us to Never Give Up, it's difficult to not feel inspired to go for our dreams. But is that wise? Is everything pre-ordained? Can we really affect our own success?

When should we surrender?

Will ponders this while talking about his latest book, the religious leaflets that keep dropping through his letterbox and the awards that Megan Fox has won for being a terrible actress...

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Will is tired after staying up to watch the Oscars. But it got him thinking about worth. About the small guys getting noticed and celebrated. About 'little' films and 'little' books and how we will be remembered when we have gone.

Is it possible to live until we are 150?

Can we be immortalised through our work.

And how can we help our kids understand that it's not going to hurt them to read a book, once in a while?

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