This Is Your Afterlife

Dylan Rodriguez is a founding member of Critical Resistance, a national abolitionist organization that has shaped my thinking about the abolition of police and the prison industrial complex. As importantly, he's a rad, righteous, down-to-earth dude who is fine with people creating Elvis-and-Tupac-style conspiracy theories that he's still alive after he dies. This is a long episode because I just couldn't cut much (though there is an extra 20 minutes on Patreon)!

Content warning: copaganda, collectivity vs. individualism, Boyz II Men, academia, Geronimo Ji-Jaga, humility, rude baby.

If you think this show's worth the cost of a coffee or a meal a month, subscribe for $5 or $15 at patreon.com/davemaher. You'll get my mostly-unedited full convos with guests, every installment of the companion podcast This Is Your Aftershow, and shoutouts in future episodes.

If you're looking for an introduction to abolition, I highly, highly recommend Critical Resistance's "Resource Guide for Teaching and Learning Abolition."

Also, check out Dylan's books:

White Reconstruction: Domestic Warfare and the Logics of Genocide

Abolition for the People: The Movement for a Future Without Policing & Prisons (edited by Colin Kaepernick)

Read the article he wrote in response to his invite to the UC Riverside Campus Safety Workgroup: utotherescue.blogspot.com/2021/06/a-public-response-to-ucr-chancellors.html

Check out the Cops Off Campus coalition: copsoffcampuscoalition.com

And, of course, Critical Resistance: criticalresistance.org

Follow Dylan on Twitter: @dylanrodriguez and Instagram: @dylanrodriguez73

Subscribe to my weekly newsletter, Definitive Answers! And follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

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Transcript: This Is Your Afterlife on Podscribe

Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Four Tet: "Two Thousand and Seventeen" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

Jo Scott (Joe Pera Talks With You) introduces a unique funeral feature, which rarely happens on This Is Your Afterlife, and that's just one part of a free-flowing conversation that includes talking about introducing the concept of death to kids, a side-investigation into my romantic relationship, and a memory Jo would choose to relive for investigative reasons! 

Content warning: motherhood, families, children crying, rough childhood, fear of Nothingness, me shitting on reincarnation, Defending Your Life.

If you think this show's worth the cost of a coffee or a meal a month, subscribe for $5 or $15 at patreon.com/davemaher. You'll get my mostly-unedited full convos with guests, every installment of the companion podcast This Is Your Aftershow, and shoutouts in future episodes.

Follow MOM STOMP: Apple, Spotify, Instagram

Subscribe to my weekly newsletter, Definitive Answers! And follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

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Transcript: This Is Your Afterlife on Podscribe

Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Four Tet: "Two Thousand and Seventeen" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

Abortion stories flooding my timeline got me thinking about how we mine our most intense experiences for art, or worse, content. As a comedian with a couple one-man shows about my coma, it's a familiar process! Why do we do this? What are we looking for? Do we need to share at all? How can we know what's right for us? Comedian and frequent This Is Your Afterlife guest Claire Favret joins me as a sidekick to sort this all out, once and for all, absolutely no more follow up required, ever, we did it, we're the ones.

Content warning: mansplaining, moms, abortion, social media philosophizing, seeking comfort and connection, unrealistic expectations, boundaries.

If you think this show's worth the cost of a coffee or a meal a month, subscribe for $5 or $15 at patreon.com/davemaher. You'll get my mostly-unedited full convos with guests, every installment of the companion podcast This Is Your Aftershow, and shoutouts in future episodes.

Donate to Chicago Abortion Fund's 2022 Fund-A-Thon: https://fund.nnaf.org/daveandhope

Follow Claire @clairefavs on Twitter and Instagram

Subscribe to my weekly newsletter, Definitive Answers! And follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

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Transcript: This Is Your Afterlife on Podscribe

Music = Future: "Use Me" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

Lucia Whalen has a killer joke that combines environmental disaster with infertility, and you should know that's the sort of screaming into the abyss I encourage on This Is Your Afterlife. She tells me about her upbringing among hippies devoted to Vedic astrology, the bad mushroom trip that got her sober, and her craving for words of affirmation, even in death.

Speaking of fertility, abortion is healthcare. Here is the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' statement to that effect I read in the show's intro. And here is a list of abortion funds in every U.S. state for you to donate to fight the Supreme Court (possibly, likely) overturning Roe v. Wade: bit.ly/abortionfundslist.

If you think this show's worth the cost of a coffee or a meal a month, subscribe for $5 or $15 at patreon.com/davemaher. You'll get my mostly-unedited full convos with guests, every installment of the companion podcast This Is Your Aftershow, and shoutouts in future episodes.

Listen to Lucia's new environmental comedy podcast with fellow comedian Tyler Horvath, What a Waste: website, Apple, Spotify.

Check out Lucia's tour dates at her website, and follow her on Instagram: @luciawhalen.

Subscribe to my weekly newsletter, Definitive Answers! And follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

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Transcript: This Is Your Afterlife on Podscribe

Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Four Tet: "Two Thousand and Seventeen" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

Taja Cheek records brilliant, kaleidoscopic, genre-bursting music under the name L'Rain. She joins me to talk about the amount of twee in her personal hell, "nice" vs. kind vs. "interesting," and all it takes to grow as a person. We hear about a joyous all-night Thanksgiving cooking binge, and she reckons with a perpetual L'Rain topic, the possibility of change.

The Patreon version of this episode includes a discussion about what Taja is learning about abolition and how we wrestle with ideas of community and self-improvement in our work.

If you think this show's worth the cost of a coffee or a meal a month, subscribe for $5 or $15 at patreon.com/davemaher. You'll get my mostly-unedited full convos with guests, every installment of the companion podcast This Is Your Aftershow, and shoutouts in future episodes.

Listen to Fatigue, L'Rain's most recent album, on Bandcamp, Spotify, and Apple.

Check out L'Rain's tour dates at her website.

Subscribe to my weekly newsletter, Definitive Answers! And follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

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Transcript: This Is Your Afterlife on Podscribe

Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Four Tet: "Two Thousand and Seventeen" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

Afterlife Movie Club is back! Rapper and previous guest SHOWYOUSUCK joins me to discuss the 2000 Adam Sandler vehicle Little Nicky. The cameos, the soundtrack, the Popeye's, this movie's got it all! And somehow we're able to overthink our way to a genuine discussion of human nature by the end of the episode. Enjoy this silly, strange, surprisingly real conversation.

If you think this show's worth the cost of a coffee or a meal a month, subscribe for $5 or $15 at patreon.com/davemaher. You'll get my mostly-unedited full convos with guests, every installment of the companion podcast This Is Your Aftershow, and shoutouts in future episodes.

Follow @SHOWYOUSUCK on Twitter and Instagram, and follow his band Air Credits on Instagram and Twitter.

Buy tickets for Air Credits' April 30 show at the Empty Bottle.

Subscribe to my weekly newsletter, Definitive Answers! And follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

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Transcript: This Is Your Afterlife on Podscribe

Music = Future: "Use Me" / Four Tet: "Two Thousand and Seventeen" / Incubus: "I Miss You"

Skyler Higley (Conan, The Onion) is a Black comedian with white parents who grew up Mormon and isn't anymore. He loves comedy, but he wants to be remembered for more than comedy. His new album, SALTWATER, IS more than just comedy. He worked with collaborator Nicholas James to weave comedy and music organically, and they created something that transcends musical comedy. And after a lot of comedy talk, Skyler tells me about losing his religion.

If you think this show's worth the cost of a coffee or a meal a month, subscribe for $5 or $15 at patreon.com/davemaher. You'll get my mostly-unedited full convos with guests, every installment of the companion podcast This Is Your Aftershow, and shoutouts in future episodes.

Listen to SALTWATER on Spotify and other platforms.

Follow Skyler on Twitter @skyler_higley, and check out Nicholas James on Spotify.

Subscribe to my weekly newsletter, Definitive Answers! And follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

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Transcript: This Is Your Afterlife on Podscribe

Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Four Tet: "Two Thousand and Seventeen" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

The second solo episode of the show is about living half-alive, unreasonable expectations, deaths of communities, isolation, disability, and hope. I feel vulnerable putting this out. I hope it connects.

Please let me know what you think. Email me at [email protected].

Inspiration:

Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel

Rebecca Solnit: "The world is unpredictable and strange. Still, there is hope in the madness"

Alabaster DePlume: GOLD on Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify

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Subscribe to my weekly newsletter, Definitive Answers (not "Definite Answers," like I say in the episode). Here's the most recent one I'm so proud of. And follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

I think this show's worth the cost of a coffee or a meal a month. If you do too, subscribe for $5 or $15 at patreon.com/davemaher. You'll get my mostly-unedited full convos with guests, every installment of the companion podcast This Is Your Aftershow, and shoutouts in future episodes.

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Transcript: This Is Your Afterlife on Podscribe

Music = Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

Shalewa Sharpe (HBO, Comedy Central) is a fantastic standup. If you don't know her, I'm psyched to welcome you into the fandom. She describes a highly physical hell and a surprisingly detailed belief about angels for someone who's not religious. We talk about both her parents dying within two years of each other, including the lessons she learned about funeral planning and the ways she shut down all feeling afterward. No resolution offered, and none needed on This Is Your Afterlife!

I think this show's worth the cost of a coffee or a meal a month. If you do too, subscribe for $5 or $15 at patreon.com/davemaher. You'll get my full convo with Shalewa, every installment of the companion podcast This Is Your Aftershow, and shoutouts in future episodes.

Follow Shalewa, @silkyjumbo on Twitter and Instagram, and @silkyjumb0 on TikTok.

Check her out on "Bust Down" on Peacock too! She's super funny.

Subscribe to my weekly newsletter, Definitive Answers! And follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram.

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Transcript: This Is Your Afterlife on Podscribe

Music = Future: "Use Me" / James Blackshaw: "The Cloud of Unknowing" / Four Tet: "Two Thousand and Seventeen" / Johnnie Frierson: "Miracles"

Oui Ennui (bold, brilliant, and beautiful electronic musician/synthesist) is back as the first return guest on This Is Your Afterlife! We hit it off so much in our first conversation, and here, we have a more expansive, less structured talk about topics like:

• Language devolving
• Imposing vs. discovering/defining your creative niche
• Afterlives created by human fear
• The absurdity of being alive

If you think this show's worth the cost of a coffee or a meal a month (I do!), subscribe for $5 or $15 at patreon.com/davemaher. You'll get my full convo with Jonn (aka Oui Ennui), every installment of the companion podcast This Is Your Aftershow, and shoutouts in future episodes.

Check out Oui Ennui's music at ouiennui.com. The new album, Forensic Architecture, is especially good.

Subscribe to my weekly newsletter, Definitive Answers (it's my best social media)! You can also follow me @thisisdavemaher on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram.

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Transcript: This Is Your Afterlife on Podscribe

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