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.

On the heels of last week's 200th episode, I talk about why it made me more emotional than I expected, and I offer a guide to the back catalog in the form of 5 episodes that changed my thinking, 4 about death and 1 about art.

Support the show and get the TIYA After Dark feed on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlife

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/

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:

1. Coma
2. Have Kids
3. Epiphany — 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)
4. Sobriety
5. Had Enough
6. Big 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:

https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

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/