This Is Your Afterlife

It's an all-time-great This Is Your Afterlife with artist, musician, and independent folklorist Daniel Bachman. Daniel creates huge concept albums like Almanac Behind, which documented the climate crisis with field recordings of extreme weather that sometimes swallowed his guitar playing, and writes pieces on his Substack like “Well Seasoned”: A History of North American Immunocapitalism.

Content warning: I use this space to alert folks to traditional content warnings as well as cheekily share some of the topics covered in the episode. This time, we've got some fairly heavy genuine content warnings, almost all to do with the American culture of white supremacy: hate crime, suicide, drug overdose, Charlottesville Unite the Right rally, animal cruelty, COVID, and colonialism. AND there is so much genuine beauty, history, camaraderie, and fun in this episode! From Daniel teaching me about abolitionist minister and writer Moncure Daniel Conway to discussing his non-human collaborators, this is just a wall-to-wall banger of a conversation.

If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want fun bonus episodes, like the Crossing Guard Trilogy of This Is Your Aftershow episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher.

Follow Daniel: @almanacbehind on Instagram and Twitter.

Listen to his most recent recording for Longform Editions, Quaker Run Wildfire (10​/​24​/​23​–​11​/​17​/​23) for Fiddle and Guitar.

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.

How do you make political art that isn't dogmatic or trite? What are ways to reimagine live performance to activate an audience instead of creating a seated mass of mindless consumers?

It's my performance chat with Bindu Poroori!

If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want fun bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher.

Follow Bindu on Instagram: @himabindu

Check out Do the Needful at @dtn_chicago on Instagram.

Donate to the Chicago Abortion Fund via my page to provide life-saving healthcare to folks who need abortions.

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.

Bindu Poroori is a warm, deep, brilliant writer, performance artist, and singer whose creative practice can't be summed up tidily. She's in a band called Do the Needful, and her time hosting Salonathon made her the live performer she is. We bonded over our approaches to performance and the struggle to make political art that is authentic to us, so much so that there will be a whole bonus episode with our performance talk!

For now, enjoy Bindu's answers to the prompts, "What do you hope happens when you die?," "What's your coma?," and "Relive one memory."

Content warning: friend breakups, Hinduism, castes, the use of reincarnation for oppression!, invitations into intimacy, the ancestral pleasure of one specific meal at Saravanaa Bhavan.

If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want fun bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher.

Follow Bindu on Instagram: @himabindu

Check out Do the Needful at @dtn_chicago on Instagram.

Donate to the Chicago Abortion Fund via my page to provide life-saving healthcare to folks who need abortions.

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.

Devin Bustin is not just a poet, songwriter, musician, and, gulp, minister (official title: Director of Spiritual Growth and Students). He's one of the most influential people in my life. Listen to us plumb our shared evangelical Christian history, the possible different functions of doubt in our lives, our shared love of poetry, and the entry of recovery into our lives.

Content warning: going pro with Christianity, poverty tourism, sobriety, the unmarketed opinions of evangelical churches, A Gentle Path Through the Twelve Steps, Carl Rogers' unconditional positive regard, Ross Gay's Last Will and Testament.

If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want fun bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher.

Devin has a website, devinbustin.com, and an Instagram, @devinbustin. He doesn't use either much, but if he has new projects to announce, it should be on one or both of those platforms.

Donate to the Chicago Abortion Fund via my page to provide life-saving healthcare to folks who need abortions.

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 snap of a good jerky stick. The taste of very wet eggs. Venturing off alone to see art. Performing as a Neo-Futurist. Annie Share enjoys her life! It's a skill she's cultivated through a careful selection of little treats.

Content warning: yearbook enemies, wanting to die young and riding your bike, imaginary friend Gerald Oliver Dickens (G.O.D.), solo adventures, breakfast food preferences.

If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want fun bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher.

Annie is mostly offline, so it makes sense you can follow her on Instagram @anniesoffline.

Go see The Infinite Wrench at the Neo-Futurists, especially when Annie rejoins the cast in June!

Donate to the Chicago Abortion Fund via my page to provide life-saving healthcare to folks who need abortions.

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.

Brad E. Rose is a musician, podcaster, music writer, label owner, graphic designer, and dad, and we talk about his motivations beneath and for all of that.

Content warning: COVID, parenthood, legacy, the undertow, extremely metal Capsula Mundi alternative, Terry Riley's A Rainbow in Curved Air.

If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want fun bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher.

Listen to Brad's excellent podcast, Songs of Our Lives!

Read his music writing at Foxy Digitalis, and follow @foxy.digitalis on Instagram.

His label is The Jewel Garden, and you can learn more about his expansive body of work at bradroseprojects.com.

The album Brad released with his daughter, Anna L.H. Rose, is called Blanket, and you can hear it here.

And if you'd like to support him financially, here is Brad's Patreon.

Donate to the Chicago Abortion Fund via my page to provide life-saving healthcare to folks who need abortions.

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.

Is this the first ever Twitch streamer guest on This Is Your Afterlife? I believe it is! But comedian Case Blackwell (from sketch group Cigarette Sandwich) is much more than a streamer. I've known him a while, and I was surprised by most of our conversation. Take a listen to hear a brilliant silly guy get vulnerable.

Content warning: ALS, dementia, parents dying, masculinity, shedding layers of anxiety, realizations while eating and driving, EarthBound pond memories.

If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want fun bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher.

Watch Case's bonkers, very funny one-man-news-team stream on Twitch most days at twitch.tv/caseblackwell.

You can find him on most social media @caseblackwell, including Instagram and Twitter.

Check out Case's sketch group Cigarette Sandwich on Instagram, @cigsandwich. Their recent Jurassic Park sketch is incredible, and without exaggeration, I believe Septembert, the Calendar Salamander is one of the greatest sketches of all time. Watch it now.

Donate to the Chicago Abortion Fund via my page to provide life-saving healthcare to folks who need abortions.

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.

When I saw musician Maria Jacobson (the creative force behind Fran) was starting a new podcast called Godless—asking guests, "Do you believe in God?" and all the other questions it encompasses—I knew I had to have her on This Is Your Afterlife. So here she is! It's a warm, fun, easy convo about hard stuff, just like we like it.

Content warning: anxiety, mom with cancer, climate crisis, Gnostic Gospels, the reward and risk of making friends with strangers on the road, Irenaeus, good in a crisis?, letting go of pressuring others to be good friends/siblings/parents/etc.

If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want fun bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher.

Listen to Godless on Beloved Radio every 4th Sunday from 10-11am Central Time!

Follow Fran on IG: @fran_online__

Hear and buy Fran's newest album, Leaving, on Bandcamp.

Donate to the Chicago Abortion Fund via my page to provide life-saving healthcare to folks who need abortions.

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.

Second City and Matt Damon Improv's Phylicia McLeod sits down with me to hash out how to deal with strict Christian parents whose idea of what's best for you is different than yours.

Content warning: dead sibling, alcoholism, Pentecostal childhood, playing Lil Boosie/Boosie Badazz at your funeral, presence as the solution to boredom in paradise, masturbating in the staircase at work?

If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want fun bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher.

Follow Phylicia on Instagram: @laugh_with_phee

Go see her show, HOT GIRLS PRESENT: SH*T TALK, at iO Theater on August 16 and 23!

Donate to the Chicago Abortion Fund via my page to provide life-saving healthcare to folks who need abortions.

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.

When everyone went scrambling to therapy during lockdown in 2020, what did the therapists think? Find out in this sweet and intimate conversation with Nick Turner, aka the experimental ambient musician Tyresta. I've had lots of musicians who are in Nick's orbit as guests, but he's the first one to really delve into the music-making process, so this could be a good intro to thinking about a genre that can get pretty heady. Find joy in the music and in this episode!

Content warning: mom dying, burnout, insomnia, anxiety, modular synthesis, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Zen, making instrumental music ABOUT something, joy-curating practices, Suzanne Ciani & Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith's album Sunergy.

If you believe in This Is Your Afterlife and want fun bonus episodes, become a patron for $5 or $15/month at patreon.com/davemaher.

Follow Nick on IG at @nick__turner.

Listen to and buy the newest Tyresta album, Small Hours.

Preorder the new Montgomery and Turner album, Sound Is (Our) Sustenance!

And if you want to book therapy with Nick, check out his Psychology Today page.

Donate to the Chicago Abortion Fund via my page to provide life-saving healthcare to folks who need abortions.

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.