Zombie Book Club
Welcome to Zombie Book Club! We're a Podcast that's also a book club! We talk about Zombie / Apocalyptic horror novels, TV and movies.
Zombie Book Club
Zombies Unite for Labor Day | Zombie Book Club Podcast Ep 59
Join Leah and Dan for a laid-back episode as they gear up for Labor Day weekend amidst wedding festivities and last summer hurrahs. We reflect on the importance of Labor Day and delve into the impactful history of labor movements and the ongoing quest for workers' rights.
Plus, enjoy quirky tidbits from our lives, from observing nature's minutiae to embracing the unusual connections of online friendships. This episode features an elevator pitch for 'Furies Rising (Book One: Hollow Valley)' by Andrew Lyons, along with a melodious treat from Jack Callaghan, author of 'Zombie Nerd and the Half Term Harrowing.'
FURIES RISING (BOOK ONE: HOLLOW VALLEY) by Andrew Lyons
http://andrewlyonsbooks.com
https://www.instagram.com/andrewlyonsbooks
Jack Callaghan (Tell him 'What the cluck' was amazing)
https://www.instagram.com/jackcallaghanauthor
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Welcome to the Zombie Book Club, the only book club where the book is a three-day weekend that involves a wedding that we have to go to. So this is going to be a quick little casual dead for you, and actually my weekend's going to be a four-day weekend.
Speaker 2:Rub it in while I don't you. Actually, I'm getting a whole, I'm getting an 11-day weekend, wow.
Speaker 1:I'm Dan, and when I'm not taking the weekend off to go to a wedding, I'm writing a book about survivors of a zombie apocalypse and, honestly, it's been a while since I've had a minute to even look at it, but it's on my mind every second of the day which I think counts as writing.
Speaker 2:It does. You're marinating. Yeah, it's important. There's a tofu block. That is your brain. You need the marinade. It's marinating. What is the marinade food?
Speaker 1:block. That is your brain. You need the marinade. It's marinating. What is the marinade? Oh, it's delicious sauce, the jerk sauce. It is, it's jerk sauce. This is getting spicy already.
Speaker 2:Yes, and I'm leah, and I spent many hours yesterday watching ants crawl around on the ground from my hammock. It was a good time. Yeah, yeah, it was. I don't remember that part. I mean I said hours, but it was probably just like seconds.
Speaker 1:Yeah it felt like hours. Uh, today is a casual dead episode. We do these usually, usually every other episode. We've been going hard the last few episodes, it seems. Yeah, we've been deep in the interviews. Yeah, we've done so many, but this one's going to be a little bit short because of aforementioned wedding that we have to go to. We have to go to it. We got to travel. It's a long way away.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're leaving our house, y'all Be proud and yeah, and this is going to be the last big weekend of the summer, because it's Labor Day weekend when we're recording this or no, next weekend is when it comes out is Labor Day weekend.
Speaker 3:Correct yeah.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:This is last week, right now, today, tomorrow, next week.
Speaker 2:What is time? What is time? It's when the sun comes up, the sun goes down, the moon comes around and the people dance all around. That's my bad sound song and it's by Elephant Revival and it's called what Is Time. Go listen to it, because it's going to be a much better rendition than what I just did. That, hopefully, you actually delete.
Speaker 1:Nope, it's staying in.
Speaker 2:We release episodes every Sunday, including this Sunday, even though we're not even at home and we've got so many things going on, which is why this is going to be so short yeah, while you're listening to this, we are driving home, possibly hung over from the wedding, talking shit about all the relatives that are dan's that we just saw and dreaming up more about our zombie apocalypse barbie series that we will eventually tell you more about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let us know if the, the, the word zombie apocalypse, barbie sounds interesting to you, because, I mean, we've been thinking about it for months.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's gestating right now. It's going to take a minute before you see it but it's going to be, it's going to be a good time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, speaking of good time, life updates, leah yeah. What of good time life updates? Leah yeah. What have you been doing? Oh me, I mean I've been working a lot. Oh my God, I mean Friday. I didn't get home until like almost nine o'clock. It was a 14 and a half hour day. I thought I wanted to just crawl into my own grave and just pull the dirt in behind me.
Speaker 2:The way that I describe or I think I want to describe your face after really long days like that is like you come home and it's like all of the muscles in your face have disappeared and it's just like you. Just it's just like flesh hanging off of your bones and your eyes are dull and you make groans and you are sort of like a zombie.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've become a zombie. So, yeah, things have been rough. I mentioned that I haven't had a second to even write. It's actually probably been like a month and a half since I've actually put words on the screen. But I'm not mad about it because I've kind of gotten to a point where I really do need to go back and edit a lot of stuff. I really do need to go back and edit a lot of stuff. I need to make sense of what I have written, which I don't even know how many words gonna go, and I've like had some really good brainstorming sessions this week that really really changed the the course of everything as far as my story is going, and I'm pretty happy about it. That's how. That's how writing goes. You think we got an idea of what we're writing. No, we don't. We got.
Speaker 2:No, we don't have a clue it seems like characters take over a lot. I see a lot of authors say that, which I find very interesting.
Speaker 1:And you know your characters. They want to be safe, they want to win, so sometimes they will take you right into a corner, and then what you have to do is you have to step away from the desk for a little while and be like, okay, how can I fuck over my characters again? Otherwise, this book's going to be pretty dull, because they're doing all the smartest things, unless you have a disaster of a character, which maybe I need more disasters.
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe I'll keep things interesting. Yeah, I think more disasters would be good. I have another life update about our life. Yeah, a life update about life. Our little blow-up pool has a hole in it and now it's just a shriveled, floppy, sad blue thing on the side of our hill, and today would have been a perfect day to get in it. But I don't know if it's repairable. We've got to figure it out.
Speaker 1:I'm sure it is. It seemed like a pretty small hole. It's just like it has to be empty for us to even find it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Luckily it is now now so we can take a look. Do you know? Every time we do these things, I think about my old high school teacher, who I will not name. Uh, oh, fuck it, he's never gonna listen to this podcast. Uh, mr bruce dyer, d-y-e-r. Go google him, I don't know. Anyways, every year to this day I mean I have not talked. To this day, I mean I have not talked to this man since I was 18 years old I get a life update email about him and his wife and it's about how their cat's doing and that they've befriended some chipmunks.
Speaker 2:And I'm like I think, that's what we sound like he has a little email that he sends out Like here's what we did this year. Wow, yeah, he has his own casual dad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know I've wanted to have a newsletter for like, it's a really good idea. A great social media strategy is, while you're building your social media presence, you should also be driving people to a newsletter, like people that care about you. Because you own your email list, but your Instagram account, your twitter, your youtube, like there those can go away. You don't really own them, but you have your email list.
Speaker 2:But if you have an email list, that's yours I have signed up for so many emails now though, yeah, I look at so few of them, unfortunately there's a, there's a couple that like, when they pop up, I'm like I should read that, but then I don't dan, I have a question. Yeah, do you think there'll be any zombies at this wedding?
Speaker 1:Yeah, probably yeah, there's going to be some meandering zombies, for sure. There's going to be some alcoholic zombies. There's going to be some people that are definitely a little bit dulled from their imbibation of their zombie juice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, your family loves their drink.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:They brag about getting really really drunk a lot. They love it.
Speaker 1:I never really thought maybe my family has a drinking problem because, like you know, they're just like oh well, we're a german family, so you know, we, just we just drink a lot. Um, it's not alcoholism, it's, it's our heritage, it's in our dna. But, like you know, being away from that for like many years and then also being in a place where, like I, really don't drink as much as I used to anymore, like it's very rare, like I, I had a seltzer yesterday and that's like the first alcohol I've had in like a month or more. Um, but, like I go to a family event, I'm just like whoa, there is so much drinking this. This sink is just full of empties and the trash can, yeah, and they're all over the counter and there's a wastebasket outside filled to the top with beer bottles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then they get really drunk. Really drunk and then very hungover the next day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm like also, they've been drinking out of a kegerator, so who's been drinking these bottles and cans?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think they're functional. They're functional and I don't want to label anybody an alcoholic because that's not my business. I'll just say but they do drink a lot, um more than what my little teetotaling family was used to. So my family has alcoholism in it, um, with my one of my siblings and with my grandfather uh, and others uh in my family. My dad's side, however, like never drinks almost, and just my brother calls them lobsters because they just like clack their little claws at each other and are very like very. They're very waspy, white, anglo-saxon Protestant. They're very like rigid. There's definitely something up their ass that's keeping them straight.
Speaker 1:So they're wasps and lobsters.
Speaker 2:Yeah, lobster wasp. Can you imagine a lobster wasp zombie? Yeah, that's, that's the next movie, that's my worst nightmare.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I used to drink a lot, especially like right after getting out of the army, after being a civilian contractor and, just like you know, I never really labeled myself as an alcoholic because I didn't have like a chemical dependence to alcohol, but I was absolutely drinking for all the wrong reasons and drinking to excess, um, and and there were a few points in my life where I recognized those things and I'm like, oh well, I should stop. And then I did and I was like, obviously I'm not an alcoholic because I don't have that chemical dependence, I'm not shaking, I'm not like like stabbing people for a drink, and I kind of think that's how my family is is like I don't think any of them are gonna get the dt's and like shake like leaves if we take their alcohol away. But you know they definitely drink a lot and they don't really regulate themselves at all yeah, I think that a lot of people don't know this.
Speaker 2:I certainly didn't know this until I listened to I think it's um, I don't remember the name of the podcast. I wish I could give it a shout out. It's a long time ago. I listened to an episode on a podcast about what the difference is between alcohol abuse and alcoholism and I would say you abused alcohol, but you are not somebody who is an alcoholic, whereas my sibling is definitely an alcoholic. And it's not just the physical symptoms, it's just the, it's the um, it's the dependency, it's it's. They can maybe stop for a little while, but then if there's anything happening in their life that's a little stressful, it's just very easy to go back and a lot of denial of that issue.
Speaker 1:So, um, yeah, like binge drinking is considered alcohol abuse yeah, now I just kind of feel like it's better that I don't, like I don't really get anything from it because I don't know, alcohol just doesn't affect me anymore. So I don't really get much from it because if you objectively think about drinking alcohol, it's not like it tastes good. No, you do it because it makes you feel a certain way, and for me it doesn't make me feel a certain way.
Speaker 2:It's never been my favorite feeling either, and that's maybe some luck, some genetic lottery, because my family has all kinds of addiction issues. But I don't have that one anyways, and I much prefer things from the earth yeah, like mushrooms, which is why I was watching ants yesterday. We finished off the last little bit that we had and it was Really wonderful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had a lot of insights that I needed to share with everyone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dan, I was like having a great time, okay, Super bubbly, laughing, joking and Dan just looks at me and was like I need you to go there with me, leah, I need you to witness this. And then went on. I don't know, I mean time is different. Okay, it could have been two seconds, but it felt like an hour-long detailed description of Marlon Brando and how he's been telling his own movieiously difficult he was to work with. Like he just do things on set. That would.
Speaker 1:That would like he would control the set by doing something dumb, like in apocalypse. Now he just had a sandwich in his hand that he wouldn't put down and he was just like, please, marlon Brando, stop eating a sandwich. It's not like the scene doesn't call for it. And he was just like, yeah, sure. And then, like he's still holding onto it and like it forced them to do a tight end shot of his face because he just had a sandwich in his hand and they didn't want the sandwich in the scene. It's like just put the sandwich down, marlon Brando, why are you being such an asshole? But, as it turns out, his scenes in that movie were so incredible because they had to do these like crazy, like really dark up, close shots of him, instead of just like the scene they had planned so intoxicated, dan came to the revelation this was intentional.
Speaker 1:You had not thought of that before yeah, I kind of feel like you know he's. I I feel like marlon brando probably has done his fair share of drugs and uh, and he had like a different perspective of life has marlon brando been in a zombie movie?
Speaker 2:I don't think so that's a shame. I learned that marlon brando had a waste paper basket on his head once from you. I don't know anything about marlon brando. I literally can't even picture him, but that was the best thing I learned on your very long diatribe last night that took me out of the joy zone into Apocalypse Now.
Speaker 1:Here's another Marlon Brando fact he was the godfather in the Godfather.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can't even picture that, but also.
Speaker 1:I hate that movie. Iconic thing about the godfather right is the way that he talks because he has cotton balls in his mouth, oh that sounds uncomfortable, he talks very strangely. Um, and that's like that's the thing that people reference when they talk about the godfather is like the way that the godfather talks. Here's the thing nobody ever told him to put cotton balls in his mouth. He did it himself. And they're like can you take the cotton balls out of your mouth?
Speaker 1:you sound weird and he's just like I'm not gonna take the cotton balls out of my mouth and they're like okay, I guess we gotta fucking shoot this movie, and it became the most iconic part of the whole fucking movie it's true, it's the only thing I know.
Speaker 2:I've watched it once and I I feel like I have very unpopular takes on some movies. I just didn't. I don't know. I guess I'm not really interested in the mob or like how incredibly sexist it was yeah uh, just couldn't really like when something is that that intensely sexist is. I just don't want to watch it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's, that's, that's right but that's what mushrooms can do. Sometimes you, just you just go down this fucking path where you're just like oh my God, I'm Marlon Brando.
Speaker 2:Also, I was the funniest person ever to you yesterday, which is wonderful. I would say the most basics observations and you were like yes.
Speaker 1:And then you'd cackle. It was lovely. Yeah, I was like crying, laughing because we were talking to my brother, simon, and you're like Simon, you live up there and we live in the basement. I just laughed like crazy. It was the funniest thing I ever heard.
Speaker 2:I was thinking about how we have different temperature experiences because we are in the ground and Simon is on the second floor of the garage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Because we are in the ground and Simon is on the second floor of the garage. Yeah, so if you have legal access to mushrooms, you should try that out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, as long as you're not allergic to mushrooms like one of my friends. That's true, yeah, and start small, but it's a really good time. It's very healing. It makes me realize my own internalized zombie of how you just kind of go about your day and you don't really see a lot. Your internalized zombie of how you just kind of go about your day and you don't really see a lot.
Speaker 2:Like your brain filters out so much of what's actually around you and it just does the things that are habitual. And I think the best part about mushrooms is the like hey, first of all, you should notice the fact that you have left all of these tools at the front door for like four weeks. I don't know if you've noticed that you left them there, leah, but you did, and it would actually not take very much work for you to move them. And also, it's okay that you didn't. That's what mushrooms does, just silly things like that Makes your brain flexible. Also made me think about all of you many of you who have become our friends over this time, like zombesties as we say, and I got so weird out by the fact that we have friends that will never meet probably yeah, it's.
Speaker 2:It's a little bit sad it's sad and weird, but also like what it is. But I was just thinking like all of those people, all of you people are like out there doing things with your feet and your hands. Yeah, what are you doing? Yeah, you're doing stuff right now and we're not a part of it. And we're doing stuff and you're not a part of it. But somehow we're all connected and now it's starting to feel kind of spiritual. So I'm gonna end there it's weird, it's weird and I.
Speaker 2:I wonder if this will feel weird for other generations or if it's just still weird for ours, because we were the generation, as millennials, that like went from fully lo-fi you know you had to pay extra money for a long distance phone call to. I met the love of my life on the internet at 14 and I am with him now. Yeah, speaking of I got a similar experience Of meeting the love of your life on the internet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, have I ever told you about that story? You told me last night and I cried so hard that there's a snot running out of my nose. Yeah, that was really sweet, dan. I don't know if you all know this, but Dan loves me a lot. Yeah, I do. He's a nice guy.
Speaker 1:You know I'm a big softie and I've got a soft spot for Leah the softest.
Speaker 2:Why is that funny? Are you still high? I hope that all of you out there have have lots of really good love in your life, whether it's friends or a person.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's nice um, let's talk about the day that today is, and by today I mean next week well, it'll actually be tomorrow, because monday is the labor day and this will come out on sunday.
Speaker 2:Oh so, labor, labor Day, I think, is actually worth talking about in the Zombie Book Club, because I feel like we need to all come together as laborers, as the working class, like a horde of zombies, march our asses down to the White House or you know what? Fuck it. Why don't we just march our asses down to the front of the Amazon headquarters and not fucking leave until shit changes? And that's why we have Labor Day.
Speaker 1:I thought you were going to start talking about going to the Capitol.
Speaker 2:Oh, we're not going to be January 6th, we're going to get in there, get in the Capitol. No, but we do need to eat the rich. So, Dan, you didn't know a lot of the history of Labor Day. Yeah, I didn't.
Speaker 1:I knew to eat the rich. So, dan, you didn't know a lot of the history of labor day. Yeah, I didn't. I knew nothing about labor day.
Speaker 2:I just know that you do grill grill food, grill food all so many holidays honestly ruined with like buy more stuff and the food part's great, but people don't know what it's about. So labor day became a federal holiday in 1894 and at that time in the US, unions were largely contested and courts would often rule strikes illegal, which would lead to violence that would involve the police violently suppressing citizens protesting for their rights Freedom. You know we talk a lot on this podcast with the 40 hour workweek versus zombie apocalypse. The reality is the 40 hour workweek was long fought for by organizers labor organizers who said we should not be working every fucking second of our day for pennies on the dollar. We should actually have some level of work-life balance, which I still think is way too skewed for the people who are making money off of us. But it's a start and it wasn't until the National Labor Relations Act of 1934 that private sector employees were granted the right to join unions, and you know unions can have their problems, but overall I think they're pretty great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean we're watching the Wire right now. Season two's got a union thing going on and you know we can see that in that light the union seems kind of be like a bit like a mob. In that light the union seems to kind of be a bit like a mob. But I think that's a bit of propaganda that's kind of been pushed in our faces. They pointed out a few cases where union leaders are kind of mafia-esque, speaking of the Godfather, yeah, but they're here to make sure that we're treated fairly, you know they've got a tough job.
Speaker 2:I think there can be always a shadow size of any side of any kind of uh organization, and I certainly have experienced those. So before I get into why I love unions, I'll be honest with the ones that are not great stories. One I had an ex who was being sexually harassed. I was a member of a construction union and like, literally had someone okay, fast forward 60 seconds if you don't want to hear something explicit literally had a co-worker rest their balls on top of their head while they were kneeling over doing something. Didn't know they were going to do that and they went and complained to their union representative. Their union said you can file a complaint but you'll never work again yeah so if if the culture itself is fucked up, then that's not good.
Speaker 2:And then I also had a, a french teacher in elementary school who, despite numerous complaints of how abusive she was in class like throwing chalk and chairs at kids um, like just couldn't, couldn't fire her. So I you know there's um, there's downsides to it, but I'll tell you what the flip side. One of the things that shocked me when I moved to georgia was my ex mother-in-law is a nurse and when I learned what she made, I was appalled. When I learned what teachers make in the united states, I was also appalled. And the biggest difference I can see is that where I grew up, there's's nurses unions, there's teachers unions. My dad has a great pension that is going to take care of him until he dies because he was a teacher.
Speaker 2:They don't even pay dues anymore because they made so much money off the Blue Jays. Actually. Yeah, the teachers union. Well, that was a few years ago. Maybe they have union dues again? I can't say that with certainty. For a while they did not have to pay union fees. I can't say that with certainty. For a while they did not have to pay union fees.
Speaker 1:Wow, because, yeah, they bought the Blue Jays, which is a baseball team that you don't know. For a second, I thought Not the birds.
Speaker 2:They were.
Speaker 1:They were yeah. But, they bought all these birds.
Speaker 2:All the Blue Jays no, follow the money.
Speaker 1:The Blue Jays.
Speaker 2:You know how many Blue Jays baseball team and yeah, people are paid well. Teachers are paid well when there are unions, as they should be. Doctors and nurses paid well, as they should be, and they are so underpaid in this country. Is that there is a lot of labor organizing and activism happening right now because millennial and Gen Z folks are in a very similar period to the 1880s. That's where we are. The labor market sucks. People cannot afford to live, they can't buy a home, they can't afford to feed their kids. Most of us are one paycheck away from being able to like losing everything. It's kind of a disaster out there. So I'm just saying you know, remember that we are the horde, us worker folks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, be the horde guys. Yeah, be a horde. You know I have a hard job and I work really, really really long hours, but I do get paid for it a decent amount. And if, if somebody was like, do you want to be a teacher instead? I feel like, no, I don't want to do that job. That is a hard, hard job Like there's. There's so many things that I wouldn't want to do being a teacher, being a bus driver, working at a fast food restaurant, and all three of those jobs pay terribly, but they're such insanely hard jobs.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, your job is insanely hard and, frankly, your job is the kind of job that should be unionized, because it should be illegal to work 14 and a half hours and get diesel all of your body and have no, no repercussions for the employer. You are the externality. Your body is literally the thing that the cost that they externalize is your fucking flesh, and I bet you there's a lot of people listening who are also. We're all externalities. You know, when I was working 60, 80 hour weeks, it fucked up my back, it fucked up my hips, which ultimately resulted in my feet getting fucked up. I fucked up my back, I fucked up my hips, which ultimately resulted in my feet getting fucked up. Nobody ends up paying for that, but me in this place.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, unionize. Or if unions aren't exactly the thing you want to do, just you know, at least talk to the people you work with and figure out what you can do to make your workplace better, because you do have power collectively. We have it, and sometimes I feel like I just get on my soapbox on this podcast.
Speaker 2:Let's fight the man, yeah as zombies.
Speaker 1:Usually we say fight the zombies. Now we're the zombies yeah, we switch sides every now and then make them pay.
Speaker 2:Literally.
Speaker 1:All of us deserve more than what we have, and it makes me mad you know, a conversation that's been going on that I've I've really wanted to wanted to like really take center stage is like we've been fed this narrative for so long from the corporations that are. They're like we can't raise your wages because then we would, we'd have to raise the prices, and it's like, and people are now being like hey, look at these record profits that you're getting, while you're just completely gutting everything from the inside and not paying anybody what they're worth. You can afford to pay people more, um, and I'm I'm excited to see possibly some change in that respect. Um, I think that's something that we should all get on the same page about this. You know, like, if, uh, if, if nothing else, try to like understand, um, if you haven't already, that like wanting people to be paid what they're worth and wanting people to like not be worked to death and have to externalize those costs, uh, isn't communism. No, it's like that's not the thing that's destroying this country.
Speaker 2:The thing that's destroying the country is the mega corporations that are just working us to death and not giving us anything in return yeah, and you know, I think about small business owners, or like more of your average people who aren't like the big corporation and they're not always in the same boat as when we think about the corporations I want to name that. It's a different circumstance. Like a small business is apparently like a hundred employees. That's not a small business, first of all, if you have a hundred employees, you can definitely afford some things for them, but if you're working for somebody who's in a smaller circumstance, where they're employing just a few people, that doesn't mean that they still have the right to exploit you.
Speaker 2:Everybody deserves a fair wage and it's really hard to run a business in this country because we don't have supports for each other to get our basic needs met. So we need to solve those problems so people can be small business owners and treat their employees well. I think a lot of people feel like they can't. Yeah, because then they will not survive and we have been taught to just feed on each other like zombies. But we need to feed on the rich, yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, as long as they keep us biting at each other's throats, the rich never have to answer for anything. Yeah, that's, that was. That was why. That's why they created the middle class is so that the, the, the rich and the elite never have to answer for anything. They can just point at one of the other groups and we just fight each other yeah, it's exhausting.
Speaker 2:We, we're all.
Speaker 1:That's why zombies are great, because zombies are all on the same side. Yeah, they are united. Should we start a zombie union? Zombie union 103.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what are we fighting for in the zombie union Brains?
Speaker 1:When do we want it, brains? Oh, thanks for listening to us everybody. I know I get on my soapbox. I'm very passionate about a world is that? This world bums me out and it could be so different. It could be different. But there are people who want to ride on the energy spent by other people. Yep, you know. And they. Then they want to take all the credit. They want to be the victorious industrial tycoon that's so hardworking and so smart and so brilliant that they found a way to take a hundred thousand people's years and add them to their own wealth.
Speaker 2:So disturbing, so deeply disturbing. I want to read a couple of reasons why we should thank labor organizers and unions the things that we have today, because it could be worse, because it has been, and it can also be better if we keep fighting for it. Like the four-day work week. You know what that's what the zombie union stands for. I like the four-day workweek. You know what that's what the zombie union stands for. I want a four-day workweek. We are, without question, the most productive generation ever because of the technology we have available to us, but we never see the benefits of that. The profits go to everybody else on top. We keep being asked to work those hours. The reality is that AI could cut my work week down, but that's not what happens. I just do more because I have AI. So here's some things we should be grateful for because of labor organizers Weekends without work, breaks at work oh, I'd love a break.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, I usually don't eat much because I can't even stop.
Speaker 2:Dan, you need to unionize that's what I'm realizing Paid vacation, the Family and Medical Leave Act, meaning you can leave your job because somebody is sick in your family, like me.
Speaker 2:And they can't fire you. Yeah, sick leave, social security, minimum wage, the Civil Rights Act, the eight-hour workday, overtime pay, child labor laws, occupational Safety and Health Act, workers' compensation, safety standards, employer health care insurance PS should be public. But whatever Wrongful termination laws, whistleblower protection laws, sexual harassment laws, holiday pay, privacy rights, the right to strike, public education for children Ending sweatshops in the United States, all of those things didn't just magically happen because we have benevolent overlords. They happened because of the zombie horde of unions. Zombie, zombie, union yeah, zombie union.
Speaker 1:Yeah, uh, get with your zombie union leaders. You know, could you imagine if none of those things had been fought for in the past? Back in 1894, we didn't have labor unions and we still had, like, child labor. We had, you know, the 18 hour work day for, you know, four and a half cents an hour.
Speaker 2:Our teeth are falling out of our face because nobody can afford dental care, which is lots of us still today, frankly.
Speaker 1:You go to your boss and you're like my teeth are falling out, can I take the day off to see a dentist? And they just hand you a pair of pliers and then they're like you owe me for the pliers. Yeah, that's going to be $4 for those pliers Because I don't want them back after they've been in your dirty mouth. And if those conversations were happening today, there would be a group of people that consist of like almost half the country that would be like. These lazy millennials, who are communists, think that they should be able to go to a dentist when their teeth falls out and not have to work every second of their life. They are so lazy. This is why they don't own houses.
Speaker 1:And not damn avocado toast, yeah, yeah, that they can't eat because, or rather it's the only thing they can eat, because they don't have any teeth left and they have to eat avocados and nothing but avocados are probably very similar to the consistency of brains.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we should look into that yeah, and you know you don't have to have a union to organize like, uh, my, my organization's a non-profit. We were able to. Yeah, we should's a nonprofit. Like you have to negotiate. And I feel so much more empowered as a person once I realized that I actually can like say no, talk to my colleagues and be like let's talk about how much we're making and see if that's fair, for example, like they make us, they make us think that we can't do those things and we can.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, collective bargaining is a really powerful thing, because otherwise they want to do things behind closed doors. If somebody wants something, they want to only negotiate with one person. But a union's power of collective bargaining is themselves. Maybe because of their gender or their race or their age, who could easily be fired or replaced can also get the same benefits that everybody else gets. Because somebody who's a tough, hard ass goes in and they're like listen, we're only working eight hours today, the end, or else we walk out. Hard ass goes in and they're like listen, we're only working eight hours today, the end, or else we walk out you know what I realized dan we got on a real labor day.
Speaker 2:Tangent my fault, sorry and we actually have some groans from the horde that's grown. Let's hear those grown. Let's shift from our angry rant time. We should just call this angry dead, the angry dead yeah, we're angry zombies.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or something we're furious.
Speaker 2:We're so mad, mad about it. Um, so yeah, we actually have an elevator pitch from an author, andrew lyons, oh wow. And a very special little song from Jack Callahan, author of Zombie Nerd and the Half-Term Harrowing, who very graciously put together a few of our favorite zombie clucks into a very badass song. So I think we should end out with those two things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, let's hear this pitch. I want to know about this Fury's Rising book.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the book is called Fury's Rising Book 1, Hollow Valley by Andrew Lyons. That's Lyons with a Y-L-Y-O-N-S. You can find them at andrewlyonsbookscom. That's also their Instagram name is Andrew Lyons Books and this book is available for pre-order right now, coming out October 1st. Let's listen to what Andrew has to say.
Speaker 1:Alright, let's hit the button. What floor are we going to?
Speaker 2:75.
Speaker 1:Let's go to 70.
Speaker 4:Yeah okay, I'll hit 75. All right, there we go. Lucas Lincoln is an average 15-year-old enjoying the last days of summer camp in the remote Texas Hill Country. But when a strange virus infects 90% of America, killing many and leaving the others as unthinking relentless flesh hunters, lucas and a small group of surviving uninfect relentless flesh hunters. Lucas and a small group of surviving uninfected campers and counselors must find a way to escape. Their journey will take them on a desperate race across the state in search of potential safety. Along the way, as their personal bonds and will to survive are tested, they will uncover a shocking discovery about the origin of the outbreak zombie camp that that sounds great.
Speaker 1:Um, I never went to summer camp, but if I did I'd love it. If a zombie apocalypse happened when I was that's the real summer camp.
Speaker 2:Summer camp, summer camp summer camp.
Speaker 1:I kind of feel like, uh, people who go to summer camp, they're almost like prepping for an end of world type of situation, like they're making fires, they're learning how to chop down trees, they're doing archery.
Speaker 2:I mean, there are real zombie summer camps too, though. That's true, we've talked about one Way back like episode three or something. We talked about it, yeah, a long, long time ago, forever ago.
Speaker 1:Possibly even episode one. We should check in with them again and see if they've got any updates. See what they're up to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but that sounds great, andrew. Thanks for sharing that with us Again. You can go and pre-order that book for October 1st at andrewlionsbookscom. Go check them out on Instagram, Andrew Lyons Books. They've got out their book and, uh love, can't wait to hear, like, what the camp counselors do. Yeah, because I've been a camp counselor and a camper and I think if I was in a zombie apocalypse I would not want to be the camp counselor.
Speaker 2:I'm just saying like that's what kids get left in the woods when you're, when you're one person you're responsible for, like eight, seven year olds. It's a lot. It's a lot. You gotta remember their names. First of all, they don't wash their hands, and then they want to hold your hand after they've gone to the bathroom. You got to be like. You got to wash your hands, kid, and then I'll hold your hand.
Speaker 1:After they've been picking up horse feces and throwing it at each other, and then they're like look what's on my hands, and then they just rub it on you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they'll push each other into the dirt, into the dirt. Uh, they are endlessly full of energy. I mean, I guess you could channel the energy see, I'm talking about child labor in the labor union episode. You could channel the energy of the kids and camp the, camp kids it's not child labor if you're channeling energy I think that is what all labor is is channeling energy.
Speaker 2:But you could. You could channel their labor to, like, do things. I don't know what, but first of of all, they have small hands. That's why we had child labor back in the day, it's true, and they can do things with those small hands. I can't think what would you need to do in the zombie apocalypse that requires small hands. Oh, I mean, there's so many tasks.
Speaker 1:I mean, we're talking about just day-to-day survival. You know, we grew up in the country. Uh, you, you lived on a farm, I lived in the woods. Yeah, like this, like I was always piling wood or like doing something mowing the lawn, uh, filling buckets of water, feeding chickens yeah, I mean, we've seen.
Speaker 2:We've seen children channeled recently in uh, what's that show called? There's no zombies in it, but it's the apocalypse. Oh, the cult we just finished watching it A cult. He makes a cult of children to take over the airport. Oh yeah, station 11. Yeah, station 11 uses kids to his advantage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're really good at being suicide bombers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's horrifying, but anyways. I mean, this is a 15-year-old kid too, which means he's definitely full of energy. Oh yeah, Vim and Vinegar doesn't have any aches and pains yet. This could be to their advantage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel like if I had to survive the zombie apocalypse, I'd want to be 15 again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm really curious what happens in this book, so I guess we're gonna have to read it, you know I, I remember fear the walking dead had like summer camp subplot that was awful and and uh, they, they didn't even talk about it, but like they ended up taking these kids and like having them run an oil refinery and it's like are these kids running an oil refinery? Wow, are you doing? Are you doing child labor? It was wild. I can't remember what season that was probably like season four or five, I don't remember.
Speaker 2:It was crazy child labor is not that long ago, my granny, uh my granny's mother, died in childbirth. With her and uh, her, her brother, were put up for adoption and sent to a foster home because her dad remarried and apparently they didn't want to keep the first round of kids, and the people who adopted her adopted her to work on the farm. That's why they adopted her, so now that's two generations ago.
Speaker 1:Let's see them hands, pretty tiny hands. You can probably get them in some time spaces.
Speaker 2:Pretty much. She was very wrinkly for all the time you ever work on a diesel.
Speaker 1:Have you ever been inside a thresher machine? Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Again. Why labor rights, people? I say thank you to everybody who's fought for our rights that we have today. We need to keep going and go further, but I think what we want to do now is end this episode, yeah, with a song from jack callahan, the incredible author of zombie nerd and the half-term harrowing who took all these clocks and put them together for us into quite a song. Are you ready to listen to this? I'm ready. This song is a journey. Do not hit pause at like the 30 second mark. You need to get through and, like get into the atmospheric experience at the first minute. Yeah, and it's like Pink Floyd. It's like it's a song.
Speaker 1:It's the dark side of the moon. Yeah.
Speaker 4:It takes you on a journey.
Speaker 2:Listen to it with your eyes closed and your headphones on, with a cool breeze over your face. Yeah, maybe dance a little bit at certain points. It's a great song. When's the album coming? Yeah, you have more clucks. This is what the Cluck by Jack Callahan.
Speaker 1:Zombie chicken.
Speaker 3:impression Time on deck is 12 to 8 pm. What the cluck? What the cluck? No-transcript. What's that? I'm a chicken from the stand. I'm a chicken from the stand. I'm a chicken from the stand. I'm a chicken from the stand. I'm a chicken from the stand. I'm a chicken from the stand. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. I'm out. What the fuck? What the fuck? What the fuck? What the truck? What the truck? What the truck? What the truck? What the truck? What the truck? What the truck? What the truck? What the truck? Love it again. Love it again. Love it again. Love it again, love it again. What the fuck, what the fuck? What the fuck? Wonder Club, wonder Club, wonder Club. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, wow, zombie club wow, zombie club, zombie cluck oh I that.
Speaker 1:You know what. Now I have to read zombie nerd and the half-term harrowing again yes well, I didn't. I never read it. You didn't read it. You do have to read it yeah, it is really good, jack.
Speaker 2:That was fucking awesome and I wish we listened to that on mushrooms yesterday, because it's a full journey. I demand a full album of songs oh wow, thanks Jack. Yeah, truly.
Speaker 1:We appreciate you.
Speaker 2:Everybody go check out Zombie Nerd and the Half-Turned Harrowing. We will have in the show notes links to jack's instagram and their website so you can go get that book. And we said it's gonna be a short episode but it's not it's like well it's a shorter episode, shorter yeah we got ranting away there, leah, we've got, we've got homework.
Speaker 2:We do have homework yeah it's the z word by lindsey king miller. Yeah, episode 65 it's coming. We actually just interviewed her before we recorded this. Yes, we already did our homework. Yeah, we did it. Have you read it. You should read it. It's very good. It does involve spiciness yeah, there is.
Speaker 1:There's a little bit of spice and some spicy water.
Speaker 2:Yes, uh, very, it's a combination, I would say, of, like really funny campy moments combined with true horror and a good moral to the story. I would say, yeah, and lindsey's awesome. So I, you know, support, support, awesome authors. They deserve, uh, more people to read this book. It's a great one, and it's certainly the first book that I've ever read that centers around zombies and pride. Yeah, dan, you indicated that it could also. Actually, you know, maybe they were the original that Tina Romero was ripping off with Queens of the Dead.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to make that claim for Lindsay or Tina Romero, but if Tina Romero wants to come on and defend herself, we would be okay with that.
Speaker 2:We would be okay with that. Although I would also be like hey, I know you were busy and probably had hundreds and hundreds of extras, but I did ask if it was okay to come with my wheelchair and nobody responded. That's my grumpy comment for the day. So I'm team Lindsay. I want to see the Z word be a movie. All of these things need to be movies. Also, it was the movie they recommended that we're going to watch next.
Speaker 1:Oh, I don't remember something about bike chicks. Something about bike chicks, choppers and zombies. Chopper chicks Something. Yeah, Anybody know a Chopper Chicks movie With zombies?
Speaker 2:Is that in your spreadsheet? Darren from Undead Symphony? Have you watched it? Maybe we should go and see if there's a zombie or a review from Undead Symphony pod, or maybe Listeners of the Dead has watched it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've got a great community of zombie podcasters and zombie aficionados yeah, we're gonna all grow together yeah, well, maybe we can have a watch night of this, this movie you know, uh, a little behind the scenes, like how the sausage is made. Is that like, um, you know we're still growing, know we're not, we're not big, but what, what we have going on here, it's, it's getting bigger every single week and we're getting, we're getting close to a lot of a lot of people who share our love for the zombie apocalypse, and it's really great and I think that we can all grow together and I think that'll be fantastic and, honestly, I think growing together is the only way that we can all grow together and I think that'll be fantastic and I honestly, I think growing together is the only way that we do grow. We can't be individuals in this. You got to help each other out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, zombie commune. Yeah, zombie communion Zombie union. Zombie union yeah.
Speaker 1:But thanks for listening everybody. Remember, if you want to call us and maybe do your own uh elevator pitch of your book, or you just want to ask us a question, leave a comment. Um, you can call us, we, we've got a. We've got a burner phone yeah like in the wire you know, you can leave us a message or buy drugs, you can can't buy drugs.
Speaker 3:We're not selling drugs.
Speaker 1:To be clear, we're keeping them Number is 614-699-006. Probably another zero in there. I don't know how many zeros. I said there's a lot of zeros, but you can leave a message up to three minutes long or you can email us at zombiebookclubpodcast at gmailcom.
Speaker 2:I hope you're having a great long Labor Day weekend and thinking about all the things that people have worked and fought hard for that we benefit from, and now what we can do next to keep pushing for a better world. Yeah, love y'all.
Speaker 1:Love you and don't forget to subscribe, rate and review, and follow us on Instagram or threads, yep, and we'll see you in the next one. The end is nigh. Bye, bye.
