This Is Your Afterlife

Hero, mentor, and friend of mine Chris Gethard ("The Chris Gethard Show," "Career Suicide" on HBO, Beautiful/Anonymous podcast, countless TV shows & movies) is here for an extended episode of the show. I tell him about a text exchange we had that he didn't know changed my life, and that's just the warmup. He goes on to describe his customized hell full of Aerosmith, socks with sandals, and raw...

Comedy writer and actor Patrick Rowland quit his job at Target to work his dream job as a writer for "The Amber Ruffin Show." Patrick's story should be taught to creative people everywhere as an object lesson in doing all the things "they" tell you to do: work hard, be kind, and be patient. It actually worked for him! Other highlights: He and I agree being immortal would NOT get boring! Patrick ge...

Was it a dream, alien abduction, angel visitation, or something else? Whatever it was, artist/musician/writer Ross Simonini refuses to dismiss the flying experience he had as a child. We take a tour of some of Ross' more extreme consciousness-shifting experiences in part 2 of our conversation. He also tells me about the play he wrote as a kid for his loved ones to perform at his funeral. Get my fu...

Painter, musician, and writer (among many other things) Ross Simonini likes to get at the truth by subtraction. In this episode, we talk about the zen koan of "the finger and the moon" and how it relates to knowing the unknown. He introduces me to fun concepts like apophatic theology (the idea that God can never be known or described). And he describes the hell that is being trapped inside yoursel...

Artist and children's book illustrator Bianca Diaz talks to me about unpacking her identity as a white Latina, the personalities of buildings, and the comfort she'd like to give children with incarcerated parents in See You Soon , her forthcoming book with bestselling author and abolitionist organizer Mariame Kaba. She's also at least the third person to reference What Dreams May Come when describ...

Pro wrestler Colt Cabana (AEW, All Elite Wrestling) is a man of sensory pleasures, which is why this is the most sexiest, "nut"-filled episode of the podcast yet. Colt talks about the rare wrestling event that honored a wrestler who died (his friend Brodie Lee), the distinction between joke hell and cartoon hell, and how getting fired from WWE changed his life, for the better. It's not just sex-y,...

I discuss specific New Year's resolutions and the concept of resolutions with previous guests Ariel Elias and Daniel Strauss in the first ever This Is Your Afterlife New Year's Special. We talk about the best approach to making resolutions, how to break big goals down into smaller ones, and if it's worth it to make them at all! Ariel and Daniel also talk a lot about Rosh Hashanah and try to frame...

I guess it's not back to regular programming this week. Instead, you get a Christmas special! My aftershow co-host Meaghan Strickland and her partner, Tim Lamphier, listen to me try to explain my love for "Alt jeg ønsker meg," a 2015 Christmas song by then-13-year-old Norwegian twin Justin Biebers Marcus & Martinus. Join us on this ride. Meaghan and Tim take stabs at translating Norwegian, Tim...

I share quarantine "coma moments" (like embracing my identity as a metaphorically ambient comedian), the process of developing my one-man show Literally the Afterlife, and a live standup recording of my newest bit, "Bud Light Coma Guy," in the first solo episode of This Is Your Afterlife! Back to our regular programming next week. To hear extended episodes, every installment of the debrief podcast...

G.O.A.T. episode here. What starts as a usual This Is Your Aftershow—with Claire Favret & Meaghan Strickland joining me to unpack Oscar Sanchez's episode of This Is Your Afterlife—becomes something entirely new to the "This Is Your" Universe when Oscar surprises Meaghan & Claire halfway through by JOINING US. With and without Oscar, we touch on topics such as: how misguided, confusing, and...

Oscar Sanchez (Southeast Chicago community activist, CHI Hunger Striker to #StopGeneralIron, and poet) calls my first question about death "wholesome." Then he gets fiery about the fight for hope, joy, and liberation. He lays out his funeral spread, including carne asada and choco flan. He chooses to relive a memory he doesn't have except in a photobook. And he challenges the entire premise of ask...

Nicholas Ward talks to me about the deep friendships that have shaped his life, including in difficulty and tragedy. We also talk about his plan to get an urn shaped like Prince's symbol and engineering car rides to catch the sunset. Nick's book, All Who Belong May Enter, is a reflective AND FUN tramp through Midwestern restaurants, neighborhoods, and suburbs, all the while examining the privilege...

Claire Favret and Meaghan Strickland join me to unpack Rob Auton's episode of This Is Your Afterlife, including such topics as: needing subtitles for British accents The Agreement Zone hard work + talent + luck in creative/entertainment careers Get all episodes of This Is Your Aftershow and the extended episodes of This Is Your Afterlife at patreon.com/davemaher . Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Ins...

Claire Favret (comedian, friend, fan) professes her newfound love for pretty much everything about Ariel Elias in our debrief of Ariel's This Is Your Afterlife episode. Get all episodes of This Is Your Aftershow and the extended episodes of This Is Your Afterlife at patreon.com/davemaher ! Follow me @thisisdavemaher on Instagram and Twitter , and subscribe to my weekly newsletter, Hella Immaculate...

Rob Auton (HBO's Miracle Workers, Edinburgh Fringe whiz) is a writer, performer, comedian, and poet of extraordinary wonder. While this episode is split into many of the usual segments about Rob's personal hell, his views of the afterlife, funeral planning, and his "coma," this conversation flows together as one long meditation on the meaning and magic of life and finding your purpose. Check out R...

Ariel Elias (Just for Laughs New Faces) is a fantastic standup comic, my friend, and my co-host on our upcoming SURVIVOR PODCAST together. Here, she talks about the comfort she gets from outer space, enjoying seizures while she's in them, a simple and beautiful memory of her late dog, and not one but two "coma" moments, one from childhood and one from adulthood. It's a cozy and charming portrait o...

Jacoby Cochran (The Moth, Snap Judgment, City Cast Chicago) is a damn delight talking about discovering his love of performing, the small moments full of love he'd relive on a loop if he could, and the hell of not being able to correct someone you know is wrong. He's got the smoothest deep voice of any guest I've had, and he uses it to harmonize with me the song that changed his life. Check out Ja...

In-your-face, feminist, political, party rap duo Glitter Moneyyy (TayyySlayyy and Queen Trashley) join me to talk about DRUUUUUUGS. Their funeral planning includes mandatory drug-taking, and their visions of the afterlife get pretty stoner-y. They also talk about the break-up (an old one) and pandemic (the current one) that rearranged their lives. Check out Glitter Moneyyy's extended episode at pa...

New show alert!!! Comedians, friends, former guests, and fans of the podcast Claire Favret and Meaghan Strickland join me for This Is Your Aftershow, a new, sporadically released This Is Your Afterlife debrief show. On this Low Aftershow, we talk about: worst parenthood fears our exact yearly earnings holiday supremacy prison abolition Get all future episodes of This Is Your Aftershow at patreon.c...

Low the band, the band Low (making sure I get my SEO straight there) is one of the greatest rock bands of the past 30 years and a perfect fit for a show talking about death, life, and transformation. Most Low interviews touch on their Mormon faith, and there's a bit of that here. But I was more interested in the personal feelings and faiths of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker (the married couple who...

Part 2 of the best or worst introduction to this podcast is here! Comedians, past guests, and friends of mine Meaghan Strickland and Claire Favret continue the utterly, definitely-everyone's-saying-it's-classic-and-not-just-a-word-we-made-up "reversaroo" format asking my own questions of me, Dave Maher (This American Life). In this part, I give the most horrific response to "Paint Your Hell" I can...

This episode is either the best or the worst introduction to this podcast. I, Dave Maher (This American Life), talk to my friends, fellow comedians, former guests and still-current fans of the show, Meaghan Strickland and Claire Favret, as they turn the tables and ask me all the questions I normally ask guests. A classic "reversaroo," of course! The episode comes in two parts. In this one, I relay...

Adwoa Agyepong (organizer with #DefundCPD, Chicago AfroSOC, and Chicago DSA) shares the Ghanaian pop music she'd have play at her funeral, her perfectly relivable memory of drinking sunset mimosas in New Orleans, and a good old-fashioned self-acceptance journey from being the person she hated the most to the person she loves the most. This episode is wholesome, warm, and inviting, just like Adwoa!...

Connor (The Neo-Futurists) and I ponder the possibility of handing out T-Mobile gift cards at your funeral. He talks about what a hassle life is. And he's the first guest not to bring a concrete "coma" to the table, so instead we talk through what waiting for one of these drastic life-rearranging moments is like. There are also a couple long silences. Nothing's wrong. That's just Connor thinking....

Matt Sage and Fuubutsushi put out four records—aligned with the seasons—that helped keep me sane in quarantine. Until this conversation, I had no idea he and I had so much in common, including: obsession with naming things, especially bands nondenominational Christian background knowledge of the Christian ska band Five Iron Frenzy type one diabetes surviving comas And these similarities aren't eve...