This Is Your Afterlife

Comedian and TV writer Tim Barnes (The Tonight Show, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central) and I bond over our longing for disembodiment.

Content warning: race, class, retail mirror reflections, abstraction, the Phantom Menace hype machine.

Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher.

Follow Tim: @TimBarnes451 on Twitter, @timbarnescomedy on Instagram, and @TimBarnes on Bluesky.

Read and subscribe to his comedy Substack newsletter, Letters From African America: timbarnescomedy.substack.com, and his short fiction Substack, Alternate Timeline: alternatetimeline.substack.com.

Listen and subscribe to the Star Wars podcast he co-hosts, Yub Nub.

Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I'm analyzing TV and movies with writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

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Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

Neo-Futurist Neil Bhandari and I really hit it off! We bonded over being big talkers and mischievous little guys (in the full convo you can hear on Patreon), and it was a joy to relate to his neuroses and listen to him describe moments of peace and LIFE.

Content warning: India, Costa Rica, language barriers, extreme cold, the problem with the afterlife is figuring out the ages.

Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher.

Catch a Neo-Futurists show if you're in Chicago!

Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I'm analyzing TV and movies with writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

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Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

In this solo episode, I respond to a suggestion from Mom Stomp's Jo Scott to talk pet peeves. I also provide highly specific and surprisingly sincere affirmations.

Content warning: human nature, (anti-)local pride, outside sounds, synchronicity, imaginary enemies, being present.

Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher.

The music I play under the affirmations is by previous guest Matt Sage, from an out-of-print album called Chautauqua (Loops). The newest M. Sage solo album, Paradise Crick, comes out this Friday, May 26, and I'm so excited! Find it and more at msage.bandcamp.com.

Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I'm analyzing TV and movies with writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

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Music = Future: "Use Me" / M. Sage: "Euclid Priori" and "Nell's Line" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

Owen Black, one of the most interesting conversationalists I know, is a writer and once-a-year comedian on his birthday. Hot off his 35th birthday set, my old standup buddy and I talk about his travels, upbringing, relationship to Blackness, and his new Instagram project.

Content warning: walking through town eating gelato in the South of France, hymn raising, Brazil, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, starving and waiting in line at the same time, the curse of infinite variety, dying before your partner.

Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher.

Follow Owen everywhere—Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter—with the handle @owenblk. That's also his web address: owenblk.com.

Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

And check out my other podcast, Genre Reveal Party!, where I'm analyzing TV and movies with writer and cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley.

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Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

To kick off our first season on the theme of "Family Matters," we're talking about HBO's Succession: a show about daddy that's got a lot of mommy issues.

While clearly positioned among HBO's prestige dramas (and currently Emmy campaigning as such), many critics and fans have made the case that Succession is quite clearly a comedy.

So how do we read Succession? And what is it trying to say about the family, capitalism, and genre?

Spoilers: dead daddy, the Shiv of it all, #TeamGerri, Nicholaus Braun seems sketchy, and no more power point presentations from Adam McKay!

Follow us @genrerevealpod on Instagram and Twitter.

Follow Madeline @la_louve_rouge_ on Twitter and Instagram.

Follow Dave @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram, and listen to his other podcast, This Is Your Afterlife.

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Music by Kirk Rawlings from Courtesy and beige on beige

Cover art by Tuli Lane-McKinley

Hilarious and thoughtful comedian/my good friend Andrew Tisher delivers an all-time great episode.

Content warning: noisy neighbors, highly personal afterlife cinema, Thomas Aquinas, Brooklyn Annoyance Theatre, college lunches during thunderstorms in New Mexico, what if hell is real?

Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher.

Watch Tisher's very funny video sketches for IFC, "God's Angels" and "Drapple."

Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

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Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

Here's the trailer for Genre Reveal Party. Writer/cultural critic Madeline Lane-McKinley and comedian/actor Dave Maher host this podcast exploring tv and movies through the lenses of politics and genre. Season 1 is "Family Matters," focusing on family stories like "Succession," "A Serious Man," "Star Trek: Picard," and "Fast X."

Episodes drop on Fridays! Subscribe now, so you don't miss a single one.

On the heels of releasing his independent comedy album, David Feinberg Plays the Hits, David Feinberg joins me to talk about the beauty and guilt of shmying around.

Content warning: grandfather dying, Jewish summer camp, casket library, resilience.

Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher.

Follow David on IG: @davidfeinbergonline, and he says you can email him at [email protected].

Check out David Feinberg Plays the Hits on Bandcamp.

And if you're in Chicago, look for his Tuesday writing sessions at the Annoyance and Wednesday open jam at Otherworld Theatre.

Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

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Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

Vocalist and songwriter Stephanie Alma (Raro) almost got to the bottom of why she writes songs one night on the dance floor, and I can't let it go.

Content warning: disability/crip culture, humble hopes, songwriting from pain, death is Mexican culture, perfecting whistle tone on Lake Shore Drive.

Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher.

Follow Stephanie on IG @_stephaniealma_ and follow her band Raro @raro_band.

Look out for Raro's forthcoming album, From Your Fear I Learned.

Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

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Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

It was only a matter of time before This Is Your Afterlife included lighthearted discussions of the Holocaust. I'm pleased they come in this episode with Hebrew & Arabic literature scholar Sheera Talpaz (Oberlin College).

Content warning: Palestine, Israel, (anti-)Zionism, Auschwitz, "Never again" for whom?, middle school, motherhood, euthanasia rollercoaster.

Patreon supporters make This Is Your Afterlife possible and get awesome bonus episodes. Become an Afterhead at patreon.com/davemaher.

Follow Sheera on Twitter: @snarkademic

For a taste of her work, read her article, "Yehuda Amichai, the Unlikely National Poet," about nationalism (and the resistance to it) and translation as it relates to the titular poet.

Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

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Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"