DEATH // SENTENCE

Aubrey Sitterson, author of The Comic Book Story of Professional Wrestling joins us to discuss the One True Sport. Along the way we lust after Zack Sabre Jr., talk about the similarities between death metal and pro-wrestling and find out why wrestling being fake makes it better than all other sports. Music by Skullcrush: https://redefiningdarknessrecords.bandcamp.com/album/skullcrush-visions-of-th...

The best turn-of-the-century literary guy named Jonathan has a new one out, and he's back doing detective stories. Can he get back into the groove he found in 1999's Motherless Brooklyn? Will he be the first novel to take on Trump and win? How can literature make sense of a world like ours? What happens when you die honking your dong to Japanese animation? Music by Hate Eternal: https://hateeterna...

Writer, podcaster and Troop Nate Bethea (@inthesedeserts) joins us to talk about the buzzed-about Cherry by Nico Walker, the almost-entirely true story of an Iraq vet getting into heroin, then bank robbery. We also talk about the opioid crisis, the shoot'n'cry genre, alt-lit and being afraid to like Bukowski. Music by Ulthar: https://listen.20buckspin.com/album/cosmovore And Grimorium Verum, from...

We've got Deirdre Coyle (@DeirdreKoala) and Michael J Seidlinger (@mjseidlinger) on the show to talk about Jeff Jackson's (@deathoflit)Destroy All Monsters, a mind-bendingly weird story of bands getting shot, and that means we get to talk about small-town scenes, KoRn, why serial killers have gone out of style and a little band of debauched space-mutants called GWAR. Music by Cloud Rat: https://cl...

We're joined by The LitCrit Guy (@thelitcritguy) to talk about Oli Mould's Against Creativity, a book that argues that capitalism has co-opted art, so of course we talk about whether Slimer is a comrade, the lingering trauma of the tapeworm-man episode of the X-files and cereal cafes. Music by Body Void: https://bodyvoid.bandcamp.com And Bliss Signal: https://blisssignal.bandcamp.com/

In the sequel or spinoff to the last episode, we're still on the line with Chistine Kelly, owner and operator of Tridroid Records, who helps us to become the tape label moguls that we were always meant to be. But first: Kanye. Music by Hallucinogenia, coming out soon on Tridroid Records: http://tridroid.bandcamp.com

We've got Christine from Tridroid Records on the show to talk about Olivia Laing's fiction debut Crudo... which means actually talking about Gritty, Kathy Acker, FDR faking his disability, neoliberalism, knife crime and how maybe we're just dumb, I don't know. Part two, where we talk to Christine about running a record label, is coming soon. Music by High Cost, coming soon on Tridroid Records: htt...

Antifascist war-metal breakout stars Neckbeard Deathcamp are signed to Prosthetic Records and playing Maryland Death Fest after one intentionally bad EP and now a split with Gaylord, but they're still regular guys who wear ski masks while being interviewed for podcasts. We also talk about $300 plugins to make records sound worse, Ghost, non-player characters, fascism, Vidal Sasoon and Ke$ha. With...

Gary Shteyngart, bestselling, award-winning novelist, has a new book out that weaves together threads of race, class and power to create a vibrant portrait of America in 2018. Dril is... Dril. Which of these literary giants is America's greatest satirist and why is it obviously Dril? This episode comes with lengthy digressions into cringey #resistance articles, Elon Musk, The Wire, and the True Me...

Corey Pein (@coreypein) joins me to first give us an update on the fallout from the Unite The Right 2 mess in Portland, then to talk about his book Live Work Work Work Die (on @MetropolitanBks), in which he tries to pitch a startup to unionise Silicon Valley before pulling back the curtain to reveal the tech industry's dark past (spoiler: literal Nazis). Music by Thou: https://thou.bandcamp.com/al...

We're joined by Sean McTiernan (@nochorus) of the All Units podcast to talk about Hideo Azuma's Disappearance Diary, the story of the cult manga artist's alcoholism and homelessness, but we also talk about the pope, muscular hardcore frontmen, the psychotic workload in the manga industry and Youtube reaction videos. Music by Candy: https://candygonnadie.bandcamp.com And Noose Rot: https://sentient...

It's safe to say that we and just about everyone else podcasting right now wouldn't have even picked up a USB microphone and 'evaluation' copy of Adobe Audition without Will, Matt, Amber, Felix, Virgil, Brendan, Chadd, Thruster, Vron, Trrr and %, the hosts of Chapo Trap House. Now, they have a book out- but can they bring the magic to the printed page? And what's with that Spectator article about...

Dune is perhaps the greatest science-fiction epic of all time, and thus deserves deep, critical literary analysis. We can't do that so we talk about the Foo Fighters' AIDS denial, ecology, death commandos, LSD, sharing a birthday with Hitler, Varg Vikernes's dating advice, sequels and the weed that helps you understand Metal Gear Solid. Music by Gaylord: gaylord.bandcamp.com and Outer Heaven: oute...

Before there was Star Wars, before there was Game of Thrones, before there was Rick and Morty, before there was Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, there was Dune, the O.G sci-fi epic. We talk about the surprisingly deep and woke politics of a book about rich people scheming to get each other eaten by sandworms, Lawrence of Arabia, oil, geopolitics, and Warhammer 40k's fashy cooption. Music by Miserable: https:/...

Is R.O Kwon's The Incendiaries (https://amzn.to/2AhLZJC) the debut of the year? Yes. Yes it is. We go deep into this spectacularly written novel with reference to Nietzsche, Hegel, Sartre, M. Night Shyamalan, vaping, Fortnite and Cosmic Ghost Rider. With music by Hulder: https://hulder.bandcamp.com/releases And Penance Stare: https://penancestare.bandcamp.com

William W. Johnstone released Trigger Warning on an unready world, despite having been dead since 2004, and we stepped up to give it the informed literary criticism that it deserves, but got bored of that and just laughed at how dumb it is. Guest Joe Thrashnkill of Toilet Ov Hell (www.toiletovhell.com) joins us for a discussion that takes in anime, Die Hard, Charles Whitman, boner-farts, and the f...

Deirdre Coyle of Unwinnable and Christine Kelly of Tridroid Records join me to talk about Maria Dahvana Headley's brilliant The Mere Wife, a modernized, feminist retelling of Beowulf that inspires tangents on Trump voters, cryptids, Goths, toxic masculinity and who to cast in the movie version (I maintain that Reese Witherspoon is a highly underrated dramatic actress). Music by Uprising: https://t...

Dan Jackson of Void Ritual, Dead Wretch and others joins me to discuss David Peak's Corpsepaint (https://amzn.to/2J28AZH), the first and currently only trve cvlt blvck mvtal novel. We talk about black metal kayfabe, vegetarianism, neo-nazis and telling stories from a goat's perspective, and play 100% exclusive, never-heard-before tracks from Void Ritual. Check out Dan's non-profit metal label Ipos...

I call up Bud Smith (@budsmith), author of Double Bird and Work and a bunch of other stuff, while he's sitting in his car on a warm summer night, and we discuss the writing life, work, his process and playing Vice City on mushrooms. Regular show folks, regular show. Music by Allfather https://allfather1.bandcamp.com/ And Emma Ruth Rundle https://emmaruthrundle.bandcamp.com/album/on-dark-horses

After a brief sojourn into Elon Musk's latest batch of fuckery, we go elbows-deep into Dempow Torishima's book Sisyphean (https://amzn.to/2tAibRA), four interconnected stories of capitalism-gone-H.R Giger and high-as-fuck weirdness. We also talk about the difficulties of translating Japanese, the CIA's influence on writing style and the dour joys of death-consciousness in books and music. Music by...

The Pervert writer and artist team Michelle Perez (@mperezwritesirl) and Remy Boydell ( are on the line to talk about their book (https://amzn.to/2MsVSWT) on Image Comics, MAGA chuds, tax preparation, hiding porn, collaborating, knives, helicopter rides, seducing Elon Musk, drawing a Rick and Morty comic, dead cops... and friend of the show Kurt Eichenwald! Music by Secret Cutter: https://secretcu...

David Graeber's Bullshit Jobs (https://amzn.to/2xYaydf) builds on his barnstorming 2013 essay... but does it build enough? And can you trick your boss into reading it? Then we talk about how DC Comics went from the company that used rape and murder to 'take the smile out' of comics to a company putting out amazing work starring Elmer Fudd and Snagglepuss. Also featuring a discussion of object-orie...

We get Trevor Strunk of No Cartridge Audio (https://twitter.com/NoCartridge) on the show to talk about the links between videogames and literature but Langdon, mad with power after being made an official contributor, starts spitting FIRE takes like '90 minutes is actually 20 minutes', 'Finnegans Wake is a vaporwave novel' and 'anime is good'. There's also Hegel, Nietzche, Jonathan Blow, Dark Souls...

Special guest Jordan B. Peterson introduces this episode of DEATH // SENTENCE, where Elizabeth Sandifer and I discuss her book Neoreaction: A Basilisk (https://amzn.to/2KTWaEk), Roko's Basilisk, Mencius Moldbug, Nick Land, the magickal war between Alan Moore and Grant Morrison, and whether the alt-right is too stupid to defeat. Plus we subtly Own Angela Nagle by mentioning her very briefly and mov...

Tao Lin was *the* Alt-Lit guy until the scene crashed and burned, and now he's back with... a book about how mushrooms are from space and you have bad teeth because you're a Degenerate. We talk about this, necrophilia, bad scene politics, gross emo guys, tildes, DMT and growing out of being a boring stoner. Music by Svalbard: https://svalbard.bandcamp.com/ And Teksti-TV 666: https://teksti-tv666.b...