This Is Your Afterlife

Dave Maher
  • 5.0 (33)
  • Personal Journals
  • Updated Weekly

What do you hope happens when you die? If you could relive one memory, what would it be? What's your coma? Comedian and coma survivor Dave Maher ("This American Life") asks artists and organizers these questions in conversations about death, politics, and art.

  1. 11h ago

    Two More Minutes of "Purple Rain" with Hanif Abdurraqib

    This is an all-time great episode of This Is Your Afterlife, the entry point I'll give to TIYA newcomers going forward. Poet, essayist, cultural critic, Ohioan, and MacArthur “Genius” grant recipient Hanif Abdurraqib explores death, loss, grief, awe, and even heaven so deeply in his work that I had to rephrase the show's tentpole questions for this conversation. The result is a dream episode with a new metaphor for the afterlife I can't stop thinking about. Hanif has a way with images that keep you thinking. We talk about: birds, aboutness as myth, talking to Martin Scorsese about The Last Waltz, not wanting war criminals in your heaven neighborhood, what Frightened Rabbit's Scott Hutchison taught him about "sad songs," making a city yours, checking in with people about the condition of their heart. This Is Your Afterlife is made possible by listeners like you on Patreon. Support the show & get bonus episodes by subscribing to TIYA After Dark: https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlife Follow Hanif: https://www.instagram.com/nifmuhammad/ I'm Always Looking Up and You're Jumping comes out April 2027! https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/790234/im-always-looking-up-and-youre-jumping-by-hanif-abdurraqib/ Follow TIYA, share your thoughts: https://thisisyourafterlife.com/ https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/ thisisdavemaher@gmail.com Music by TIYA house band Lake Mary: https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/ https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/ Artwork by Matt Sage: https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

  2. 6d ago

    PATREON PREVIEW — TIYA After Dark: Mid-Life Crisis Tier List with Drennen Quinn

    This is a preview of this week's bonus episode. Subscribe to TIYA After Dark on Patreon to support This Is Your Afterlife & get all bonus episodes for $5 a month: patreon.com/thisisyourafterlife. I turned 42 last week, which is honestly the closest to middle age I've ever been. I decided to have fun with it and do some CONTENT CREATION by making a tier list with my buddy, TIYA After Dark regular Drennen Quinn. I created tiers based on the Afterlife Power Rankings, and we slotted in as many standard mid-life crises as we could, plus a few super specific ones. You can see the final list on Patreon, but good luck guessing what any of it means without listening to the episode! Final Tier List: https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlife/posts/tiya-after-dark-169078220 Afterlife Power Rankings: https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlife/posts/afterlife-power-157398357 Follow Drennen: https://www.instagram.com/drennenwon/ Follow TIYA, share your thoughts: https://thisisyourafterlife.com/ https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/ thisisdavemaher@gmail.com Music by TIYA house band Lake Mary: https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/ https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/ Artwork by Matt Sage: https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

  3. Sep 1

    Utmost Worst with Tom Krell (How to Dress Well)

    "There is nothing theorizable or interesting about death," Tom Krell says 30 minutes into his appearance on my podcast about death. He's speaking precisely. By "death," he means what he's learned of it from watching those close to him die. The annihilation of self. The finality of it. What he's not doing is dismissing the topic. Tom earned his PhD in philosophy, metaphysics specifically, so it makes sense he's intentional and unsparing with his words. But he also makes this beautiful music. Under the name How to Dress Well, his art-damaged R&B soundtracked my bike rides the summer before my coma in 2014. Since then, his music has grown deeper and more promiscuous. He incorporates metal, noise, and field recordings on tracks with lyrics about the hegemony of realism and intergenerational trauma. But it's all wrapped around a spine of primal, haunting melody. In our conversation, Tom tells me how important it is for him to use direct language to discuss philosophical ideas. And that is what he's doing with his music. He piles layers of sound and meaning onto melodies to bury the ideas and feelings deep. I'm still listening. This episode also includes the fun of Tom claiming Hegel, Heidegger, and Marx are easy to grasp and the rare TIYA exclusive! Here it is: Tom plans to call the new How to Dress Well album "Glow Palimpsest No Hell." We talk about: working on philosophy in piecemeal while touring, writing about your own work, Gaspar Noe's Climax, exoteric vs. esoteric, his version of the "terribly stupid" movie Memento, consciousness as Hegelian "picture thinking," metaphysical cope. This Is Your Afterlife is made possible by listeners like you on Patreon. Support the show & get bonus episodes by subscribing to TIYA After Dark: https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlife Follow How to Dress Well: https://howtodresswell.substack.com/ https://instagram.com/howtodresswell/ https://twitter.com/HowToDressWell Listen to (and buy!) I Am Toward You. It's really very good: https://howtodresswellmusic.bandcamp.com/album/i-am-toward-you Follow TIYA, share your thoughts: https://thisisyourafterlife.com/ https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/ thisisdavemaher@gmail.com Music by TIYA house band Lake Mary: https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/ https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/ Artwork by Matt Sage: https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

  4. Aug 27 ·  Bonus

    Podcasting in Time: Stalker with Philip Metres

    Podcasting in Time is brought to you by the Afterheads and Producers on Patreon in collaboration with my unemployment. If you enjoy it, SUBSCRIBE to get episodes early and enable me to do more things like this. You'll also get all the other bonus episodes of TIYA After Dark: https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlife Welcome back to Podcasting in Time, a This Is Your Afterlife bonus miniseries exploring the filmography of Soviet director Andrei Tarkovsky. Stalker is the only movie I'd seen before embarking on this project, and it's in the conversation for most people's favorite Tarkovsky. But for me, the real treat of this episode is my guest. Philip Metres is a poet, scholar, and TRANSLATOR OF ARSENY TARKOVSKY'S POETRY. That's right, the father of Andrei whose poems feature prominently in several of his films, especially including Stalker. Phil and his co-translator Dimitri Psurtsev published I Burned at the Feast: Selected Poems of Arseny Tarkovsky, an approachable volume that shows the father as an artistic force, a fact the son clearly knew. Beyond his translation work, Phil has amassed a heap of impressive accomplishments. Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships! A Pushcart Prize! He's the director of the Peace, Justice, and Human Rights program at John Carroll University! And I just happen to know him socially as a fellow Clevelander and 80s punk rock fan. Who better to talk to about Andrei Tarkovsky's status as "the poet of cinema"? What a treat. Follow Philip and read his work: https://philipmetres.substack.com/ https://instagram.com/philipmetres/ https://twitter.com/PhilipMetres https://linktr.ee/philipmetres https://philipmetres.com/ Follow TIYA, share your thoughts: https://thisisyourafterlife.com/ https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/ thisisdavemaher@gmail.com Music by TIYA house band Lake Mary: https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/ https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/

    Podcasting in Time: Stalker with Philip Metres

  5. Aug 25

    PREVIEW — Everything Is a Ghost Kitchen

    This is a preview of this week's bonus episode. Subscribe to TIYA After Dark on Patreon to support This Is Your Afterlife & get all bonus episodes for $5 a month: patreon.com/thisisyourafterlife. Here's another solo episode of TIYA After Dark where I give myself a starting point and an endpoint and improvise the in-between. This one is brought to you by moving to Ohio and driving to restaurants in the suburbs as well as my conversation with NEXT WEEK'S This Is Your Afterlife guest. Listen to find out who it is! I'm having fun with these. I hope you are too. I talk about: messy Chipotles, beef patties on shroom burgers, the conversation vs. the show, doing it wrong, authoritative truth, trusting your eyes. Follow TIYA, share your thoughts: https://thisisyourafterlife.com/ https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/ thisisdavemaher@gmail.com Music by TIYA house band Lake Mary: https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/ https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/ Artwork by Matt Sage: https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

  6. Aug 18

    Serving, Loving, and Mocking Children with Brandon Ogborn

    I razz him for using "brutally honest" in descriptions of two separate projects, but I love Brandon Ogborn. I know the comedian, playwright, podcaster, and reluctant "content creator" from our days on the same improv team at iO Chicago, Sports Team. Reminiscing about that time is the closest I get to nostalgia, and even then, Bubba had stories that made all our eyes pop out of our skulls. He's continued to amass stories as a parent of two young kids he makes fun of on Instagram, and now he's turned his parenting and growing up stories into a one-man stage show, SAHD (Stay-At-Home Dad). It's a funny, personal piece full of heart and the idiosyncrasies that make Brandon such a joy to know. You should see it in L.A. if you can (details below). Either way, enjoy this little slice of Brandon. We talk about: his dead dad, ADHD, growing up Christian nationalist in the Midwest, out-of-body experiences vs. astral projection, people outgrowing homophobia, the accuracy of Pixar's Soul, reckoning with the statistical unlikelihood of Hollywood success. Also, there is one f-slur and a very quick mention of child sexual abuse. This Is Your Afterlife is made possible by listeners like you on Patreon. Support the show & get bonus episodes by subscribing to TIYA After Dark: https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlife Follow Brandon and his bad-parenting podcast, Listen, They're Fine: https://www.instagram.com/bubbaogborn/ https://www.instagram.com/listentheyrefine/ https://www.listentheyrefine.com/ If you're in Los Angeles August 22, 29, or September 5, check out SAHD (Stay-At-Home Dad) at the UCB Annex: https://ucbcomedy.com/show/sahd-stay-at-home-dad/ Follow TIYA, share your thoughts: https://thisisyourafterlife.com/ https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/ thisisdavemaher@gmail.com Music by TIYA house band Lake Mary: https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/ https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/ Artwork by Matt Sage: https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

  7. Aug 13 ·  Bonus

    Podcasting in Time: Mirror with Vienna

    Podcasting in Time is brought to you by the Afterheads and Producers on Patreon in collaboration with my unemployment. If you enjoy it, SUBSCRIBE to get episodes early and enable me to do more things like this. You'll also get all the other bonus episodes of TIYA After Dark: https://www.patreon.com/thisisyourafterlife Welcome back to Podcasting in Time, a This Is Your Afterlife bonus miniseries exploring the filmography of Soviet director Andrei Tarkovsky. We've reached Mirror, the 4th of the man's 7 fiction features but not quite the midpoint of our series because of the inclusion of a documentary and a book. I say "fiction," but this is famously Tarkovsky's most autobiographical film. In at least one interview, he claimed every single thing in it had happened. I'm skeptical, but as you'll hear, he certainly went to GREAT LENGTHS for verisimilitude. My guest for this episode is Vienna, a contributor to Madeline Lane-McKinley and Sean O'Brien's The Return of the 90s anthology who also happens to love this movie. This episode is a special one because I refer to Tarkovsky's questionnaire for his mother. He had planned to include her answers as documentary footage in an early version of the film, but instead, these wide-ranging questions serve as punctuation throughout our episode. As always, let me know what you think. Check out Vienna's work: https://heatwavemag.info/ https://www.instagram.com/htwvmag/ https://blindfieldjournal.com/2025/01/04/staying-with-the-storm-weathering-with-you-and-the-oceanic/ Follow TIYA, share your thoughts: https://thisisyourafterlife.com/ https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/ thisisdavemaher@gmail.com Music by TIYA house band Lake Mary: https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/ https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/

    Podcasting in Time: Mirror with Vienna

  8. Aug 11

    PATREON PREVIEW — TIYA After Dark Live at Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii with Daniel Strauss and Drennen Quinn

    This is a preview of this week's bonus episode. Subscribe to TIYA After Dark on Patreon to support This Is Your Afterlife & get all bonus episodes for $5 a month: patreon.com/thisisyourafterlife. These bonus episodes are nothing if not experimental. Even more than This Is Your Afterlife, TIYA After Dark is a place to test how close I can come to replicating the experience of doing a live show in podcast form. Which is to say I am so curious what you think of this week's episode, in which my fellow comedians and longtime buddies Drennen Quinn and Daniel Strauss join me to talk over Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii, a recently reissued concert film Drennen saw at the store recently. He suggested we do the podcast while the movie plays, and so we did. Does the concert audio cut out at one point? Does a baby interrupt the recording? Does the episode start with three people and end with two? Yes, yes, and yes! It is chaos. Here's hoping the good kind! I know I encourage your feedback every week, but if there's any week to email, it's this one. We talk about: boomers on weed, music babies can play, how volcanoes work, wearing diapers to concerts. To watch along with us, click the link, hit pause, mute the audio or lower it to your desired volume, and press play when we do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVau7xYA8rk Follow Daniel and Drennen: https://www.instagram.com/danielstrauss/ https://www.instagram.com/drennenwon/ Follow TIYA, share your thoughts: https://thisisyourafterlife.com/ https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/ thisisdavemaher@gmail.com Music by TIYA house band Lake Mary: https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/ https://www.instagram.com/chaz.prymek/ Artwork by Matt Sage: https://www.instagram.com/matthewjsage/

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About

What do you hope happens when you die? If you could relive one memory, what would it be? What's your coma? Comedian and coma survivor Dave Maher ("This American Life") asks artists and organizers these questions in conversations about death, politics, and art.

Information

  • Creator
    Dave Maher
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    268
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Dave Maher
  • Show Website
    This Is Your Afterlife

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