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
Winding Down from the Whirlwind of ZombieWeen | Zombie Book Club Podcast ep 68
Join us for a hilariously offbeat episode of Zombie Book Club as we recount the wild and unpredictable "Zombie Ween Game Show 2024" — a chaotic blend of laughter, bookish mayhem, and a few unexpected twists. Dan juggles his busy work life with podcasting and reading, while Leah dreams of cozy winter breaks. Together, we dive into our latest Brain Munchers meet-up, where we watched "Biker Chicks in Zombie Town," a mashup of gun-toting zombies and ‘80s nostalgia that left us both bewildered and entertained.
Alongside our usual laughs, we also tackle healthcare differences between the U.S. and Canada, with personal stories that highlight the need for accessible care. Expect upcoming thrilling interviews with authors like LM Juniper, and we talk about being a guest on the Zombpocalypse Podcast. Plus, we explore how libraries might just be the ultimate zombie apocalypse safe haven. With humor, camaraderie, and plenty of zombie misadventures, this episode has it all!
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Welcome to Zombie Book Club, the only book club where I have absolutely no plan and no intro. Is that every book club where I have absolutely no plan and no intro? Is that every book club? That's no. How dare you. Who are you? I put so much thought into just the intro and nothing else in most episodes. I'm Dan and I am reaching, oh so near the end of my work season and I am obliterated. And while I'm not doing that, I am trying so hard to write a book.
Speaker 2:But mostly recording and editing a podcast. Yes, this one.
Speaker 1:Oh, I cannot wait for winter.
Speaker 2:It's going to be good. I'm Leah and I am also obliterated from Dan's season, but in a different way. I'm just really ready for cozy winter soups that Dan makes, getting more foot massages and just a break from the everyday grind that is capitalism. For at least one of us, it makes a really big difference, so it's quite exciting, but won't you miss the dead?
Speaker 1:stare in my eyes, no, as I, as I meander in through the front door and collapse onto the couch and stare vacantly for several minutes yeah, like I said at, eight o'clock at night I think it was the first episode of zombie ween game show this year.
Speaker 2:I laurie and I concluded you are undead at least during the work season.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't remember that you have to huff the hot sauce.
Speaker 2:Oh, do we even feel alive? I do you moan and groan pretty much just this week it didn't work.
Speaker 1:I barely, I barely huffed any hot sauce this week it was very disappointing.
Speaker 2:So what is this episode you may ask? It's the after after party for zombie lean game show 2024. We did it, we did it and, um, like sylvester said, we did this by ourselves, just kidding, there were a bunch of people that were contestants, that's true, um we made it.
Speaker 1:We made it through you know there's a lot of planning. That went up too. That's what I hear anyway. I hear that there was a lot of planning yes, it was a part-time job.
Speaker 2:For a few weeks I was like I had to make a deck with the questions, which apparently didn't matter because people were still confused. Um, it was a lot of coordination, organization making, um, trying to figure out who would go up against who which got thrown away completely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, having to make everything up on the fly all over again. But I told you that before we recorded that morning I was like making the final polished touch to the deck and I was like, dan, there's a, there's a real chance that, like some people may not be able to make it, that happens, yeah, so I need a backup plan. But even my backup plan needed a backup plan, yeah, and it all worked out in the end. That's kind of the chaos, I think is just what the game show is this was good practice, practice for the apocalypse.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I have more faith in myself to improvise in a bad situation. Not that it was a bad situation for recording. It was just like you know I. It's a good example of like plans are good to make, but also the odds of it actually going that way are pretty much zero. Just like the apocalypse, yeah.
Speaker 1:You leave your shelter with the plan to perfectly execute a raid on the neighbor's house to get all of their cans of beans.
Speaker 2:Because they're zombies.
Speaker 1:Now they don't need it. Well, that's when everything falls apart and you realize oh, they had a security alarm on their house and now it's drawing zombies. This is clearly Jack's house. This is Jack's house. Yes, and Jack is a zombie.
Speaker 2:He has so much beans, so many vegan sausage and beanie cans. If you don't know what we're talking about and you haven't listened to Zombie Wing Game Show, it's very important because there's no other way you'll understand fart parties or big emodium from Nihila King.
Speaker 1:Big emodium is absolutely paying Jack off. Jack is lobbying. Emodium is absolutely paying Jack off. Jack is lobbying Emodium and they bought his opinions. Yeah, and everything you heard from Jack was paid for by Emodium.
Speaker 2:Dan how are you feeling?
Speaker 1:after Zombierine Game Show Tired. Yeah, I mean, we recorded that last week. I'm still tired from it.
Speaker 2:We didn't record it last week. What?
Speaker 1:when did we record it?
Speaker 2:october 12th. What's now?
Speaker 1:the 27th holy shit, it's been hard. You know what, though? I am really happy. I hate that. I look forward so much to the end of fall because it's my favorite, but it really is like I'm just trying to get through the work season and things like this happen, where I'm like, yeah, zombie Ween was crazy when we recorded it yesterday. That was like three weeks ago well, you just edited it.
Speaker 2:That word is so hard for me edited um, you edited the finale episode. I know you edited the week before, but then you had to look at over again. I would say, like for every episode, dan spending I don't know a couple hours. Uh, on a good week editing things with with the zombie ween episode especially.
Speaker 1:Like I probably listened to that episode like each, each episode, like five times, because I did like a first pass that was not quite good enough. Then I did a second pass and I'm like I kind of want to put sound effects in it.
Speaker 2:So if anybody hates those sound effects, like the constant air horns and I love it the uh, the, the applause that just keeps looping I wish there were more sound effects, honestly, and I wish you'd cut more of my rambling, yeah, but I'm sure that we have guests from the show that were like, really did you keep that in dan? So blame dan, blame it on the edit, if you're.
Speaker 1:If you're like oh, when you ramble, the words that you say are important.
Speaker 2:Are they?
Speaker 1:Yeah Well that's kind.
Speaker 2:When I was a kid I was told I talked way too fast. So it's really like I've tried to have a more measured voice. But when I get excited or confuzzled or I'm making shit up as I go, then the rambling and no breathing happens. So I understand that that's hard to edit, but there's a few where I was like, oh, just you kind of cut that part out.
Speaker 1:It's also kind of hard to know in the moment sometimes because like I am listening to hours of footage, yeah. So like as I'm playing along, sometimes it just blends into everything else All together, Well it's because you're also like making art while you're editing it's true, everything else altogether.
Speaker 1:Well, it's because you're also like making art while you're editing, it's true, but that that helps me focus, though if I didn't do that, there wouldn't be any edits, because I'd just be like I'd get to the end and I'd be like it's three weeks later what happened. I just zoned out I need to listen to it again but this is that's why I do so many passes editing passes of the episode because there's so many times where I'm just like I don't know if I was actually listening.
Speaker 2:I hope that our listeners pay more attention to our episodes than I do I mean, I think it's perfectly fair to zone in and out while you're listening to a podcast or an audiobook. I mean, sometimes that I'm listening to an audiobook, my little adhd brain will hear one word that they say, and then I'm like off on a fucking journey and I don't know how long that I was gone for ever 30 seconds back button.
Speaker 1:Yes, I'll hit that like five or six times in a row, just like I know I wasn't. I wasn't here for like an hour, yes, and I'm also driving, so I don't know how I did that yeah, that's terrifying.
Speaker 1:I'm usually walking the dogs when I'm listening to audiobooks yeah I don't know if I've talked about this before, but there's like, um, people are familiar with, like highway hypnosis. Maybe not everybody is, but it's, it's a thing, it's a. It's a phenomenon where, like, you can be driving and the hip, the highway hypnotizes you and like like a different part of your brain just takes control, while your conscious mind is just off and never, never land. Well, I do that while I'm also going off into a world of zombies, listening to an audio book, oh goodness. And I'm like and like, if I think back, like where was I 15 minutes ago? Oh, I was, I was. I was battling a horde of zombies. No, wait, no, that was a book. And I'm like, how can my mind be in so many places and how has nobody died yet?
Speaker 2:adhd. It's I, you know I it's got its downside. I'm seriously thinking about trying medication for the first time in my life, uh, but I I do enjoy our brain's ability to do a lot of different things and to make connections where they don't. They're not always going to be made and I know that, like shockingly or unshockingly, people who love this podcast also have adhd. Uh. So, team adhd, we see you out there, we appreciate you and we are grateful for the times. You forgive us. Um kareen I'm talking to you who wrote me a message on um instagram that I saw and I remember seeing it. I remember thinking, I responded and then later I wanted to connect with Corinne, who's also Canadian, and I realized it had been like three weeks and I was like I'm sorry and she's like it's okay. Object, what's it called? Object impermanence is real.
Speaker 1:Yeah, object impermanence happens to me while I'm driving Terrifying yeah.
Speaker 2:The road you're like. Is that there?
Speaker 1:yeah, is it real? It's not there anymore.
Speaker 2:So let's talk about life updates. Oh yeah, has life happened? It has. I voted yeah for the first time in almost 15 years of living in the united states of america, I got to vote yeah, but did you just not feel like exercising your civic duty before? No, I just got the right to vote. In what was it?
Speaker 2:may or june, I forget uh, I want to say june I know we talked about it on a past episode from that time frame, but yeah, I finally got to vote. It was weird but also nice to like have some kind of say but then also just be like I don't know, this, this country's kind of fucked up and I think this is the best choice. But like also I wish there were other choices, slash that we all just lived a communal, simpler existence within a world without amazon, yeah, and genocide and us funding genocide.
Speaker 1:You know, that's all that's my, uh, my, my special interest in the zombie apocalypse. What that? All that stuff just goes away. That's your, maybe not the genocide.
Speaker 2:I think that'll still happen but oh well, then I don't want the zombie apocalypse.
Speaker 1:We won't have the amazon anymore, or capitalism, except in small groups that still want to buy the amazon?
Speaker 2:do you mean the rainforest or the uh? Yeah, I think the rainforest will be better with zombies interesting I mean, if they like slowly rot over time, then they could help restore the rainforest well they're definitely not gonna clear. It no, they would stop that.
Speaker 1:That would stop which would be great, yeah, so uh, vote zombies for the rainforest, that's your 2024 platform.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I voted.
Speaker 2:It was really cool and I also like love vermont for sending us mail-in ballots and like just being able to get it done early it has its pros and cons, but I think that's one of its pros is that they actually give a shit about voting instead of actively trying to, um, make it harder for people to vote. I appreciate that, but I did feel. I kind of felt like am I allowed to do this? I've been spectating us politics my whole life and now I actually get to have a say this is wild. Yeah, a tiny, teeny, tiny say yeah, it's.
Speaker 1:You have as much of a say as you have the ability to win the lottery pretty much, yeah, unfortunately I can't uh, just make this a dictatorship that I run you know what the downside is of mail-in ballots, what we don't get a sticker.
Speaker 2:That is oh well, maybe we can just go in and be like I mailed it in and it was my first time voting and like here's my naturalization certificate. Could you just please give me a sticker so I can save it, because I kind of want one. I hadn't thought of that. Maybe we can get a sticker on amazon.
Speaker 2:I feel like the stickers up here con, vermont, con. The stickers up here are way less exciting than the georgia stickers. I really wanted a georgia. I voted sticker because it's like a little peach, oh, and it says I voted. It's cute. Yeah, this one's just like I voted and there's a flag, lame. Um, what else has happened? What's going on in your life, dan?
Speaker 2:I don't know work, work has has happened have you done more things that you could go to jail for recently? Let me think I don't think, so I'm really really happy to hear that.
Speaker 1:But you know the season's not over yet. You got a couple more weeks and, to be clear, I don't think I would have gone to jail for it. I would have gotten a stern lecture, whatever that might have been and again, this is a joke and it didn't happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely kidding, but I do have an invitation to all of you listeners, actually, because Dan is about three weeks away as of the recording of this by the time you hear it. Oh no, that's not true. Yeah, he's three weeks away-ish from being done and he's going to be done by the week of Thanksgiving. Slash, the day of I hope earlier National morning Pardon, or the national day of morning, I hope earlier but I have a feeling that they'll keep me going as long as they can.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my boss has stuff lined up that he can't wait to put us truck drivers on. We kind of like do a, we, we subcontract to a much larger company. So like, even though I have a boss who pays my paychecks, I don't actually do work for him, I do it for somebody else he just gets for somebody else.
Speaker 2:He just gets a cut of your Basically he gets a cut of your effort. He's literally a fucking middleman who does very little and puts you in the shittiest, shittiest trucks which he provides.
Speaker 1:He provides the shittiest trucks he pays the fuel for. I mean, those are really big things. I've tried, I've run those numbers so many times, I know, in my own truck and I'm like I would literally make less money than I do right now well, let me say what I wanted to say, which is that you're all invited folks to a zombie ver screening on the brain munchers zombie collective on november 23rd.
Speaker 2:Link in this description yes, uh, at 3 pm eastern time, so for you, jl and lindsey, that would be 1 pm Eastern time.
Speaker 1:So for you, JL and Lindsay.
Speaker 2:that would be 1 pm Mountain time. I think it's like six hours in the future for our UK folks, but don't quote me, look it up. But yeah, if you're not a member of the zombie or the Brain Munchers zombie collective that Ollie Eats Brains created, this is the time to join and come uh co-watch with us zombievers as a celebration of dan being done for the season, because I'm also going to require him to consume a lot of cannabis gummies because he's not allowed to do that during the work season.
Speaker 2:technically, not off the season either, so this will be unhinged and wonderful and we can all uh chat together while we watch this, what I believe is probably gonna be the best zombie movie of all time.
Speaker 1:That's. My favorite part is like typing in the chat yeah, it like fulfills my mystery, science, theater um fantasies.
Speaker 2:I'm just like making fun of a terrible movie and having people laugh at my jokes we've watched a couple of movies together on Discord, some of them impromptu with Ollie, uh, but then, most recently, ollie hosted one for biker chicks in Zombie Town, oh my. God that movie which was uh recommended to us by Lindsay King Miller, the author of the Z word.
Speaker 1:We watched it we did, and what's your?
Speaker 2:take. What's your review?
Speaker 1:my God. So I feel like this movie was like two different movies. There was a movie where there were biker chicks in this town and then there was a movie where a little person was trying to kill people for a mad scientist and then at the end they kind of met together and one movie was fucking awful. The the mad scientist part of the movie was just the worst and the biker chick part of the movie was actually really good. Um, and then there were zombies and the zombies were so confused as to what they were supposed to be. A lot of times they they wandered around like zombies to comical carnival music I think polka music, it was slide whistles I was only half watching because it was.
Speaker 2:There were really funny moments, but a lot of the time I was like what the fuck is going on?
Speaker 1:yeah, well, you know you were high, but also we were also saying the same things. Yeah, and I remember this point there's so much stuff just like happened for no reason. Um, somebody brought out like a wheelbarrow full of guns towards the end of the movie and dumped them in the street. It's like, oh good, the townspeople and the biker chicks were, they're all coming together to fight the zombies and then the zombies come over and pick up the guns and then they start shooting at the biker chicks.
Speaker 1:Whoa wrong like they're undead zombies with no coordination. They're like they they shoulder their rifles and they're aiming down the sites.
Speaker 2:It's bizarre. Did uh, did it pass the race test, or was it all? All white people?
Speaker 1:Oh, my God, I don't think so.
Speaker 2:You don't think it passed it. It's like 100% white people.
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 2:Did the women, did the biker chicks talk about anything other than a man?
Speaker 1:They did that's probably the only thing that they did well was it was very women-centric, it was all about female empowerment. It was about it was it was kind of like a role reversal where, like the biker chicks were actually kind of like aggressively feminine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they were like really proud of being sluts, which I love, yeah.
Speaker 1:Their. Their gang was like cycle sluts yeah.
Speaker 2:Who doesn't want to be a member of cycle sluts? I do, yeah.
Speaker 1:I need to be a member of Cycle Sluts. I do. Yeah, I need to get a bike and the townspeople wanted to lynch them for some reason. I think it's because one of the bikers came into the bar at the beginning and impromptu sang like a bluesy rock and roll song. That was also kind of like the what's that movie, where she does a dance on a stage and then pulls a rope and a bucket of water falls on her on her chair flash dance oh, it was basically that, but to a really weird like saxophone rocks, rock and roll song, 50s did it pass the um vito russo test?
Speaker 2:were there any queer or trans characters?
Speaker 1:yes, yeah, because um, the leader of the of the cycle sluts who did the flash dance to the saxophone music, um which it came from a jukebox right had no lyrics, so she provided her own lyrics to the song. It was weird. It was so weird anyways, when, when they're having their at the end of the second act breakdown, where they're like we don't want to be cycle sluts anymore, we'll go back to being housewives, oh my god. And then the uh, the leader is like trying to whip them all in shape and and they're like you're such a bulldike and she's like I'm not, I'm such a bulldike and she's like I'm not, I'm not a bulldike, I'm the motherfucking bulldike. Hell yeah. And then she cracks a whip, she pulls out a whip and starts whipping him.
Speaker 2:That is wonderful. And then my last one. I forget what it's called, but is there a character with a disability that has a meaningful plot?
Speaker 1:There is a little person. I forget the name of the name of the actor. He's actually well known ed something, ed gale. I think he also played chucky from the chucky movies. I forgot what those are called. I'm pretty sure it's just called chucky I. I think it's. I think it has another. Anyways, a lot of them are just called chucky. Scared the shit out of me as a kid.
Speaker 1:Terrified. Yeah, I hated Chucky. Yeah, he's a little person. He had a meaningful role in the mad scientist part. He was the helper of the mad scientist and his job was to go out and kill people and then bring their corpses to the mad scientist so that he could put a butt plug in their brain that turned them into a zombie.
Speaker 2:I completely see how this inspired the Z word. I see it.
Speaker 1:And the mad scientist convinces him to do that by promising to make him taller. Oh, and throughout the movie it says a lot of disparaging things to him about how he's worthless and nobody will ever love him. And he's actually. He's just such a sad character in this movie and you really feel bad for him, if it weren't for the fact that he's comically popping out of trash cans with like a blow gun trying to shoot the cycle. Sluts like he'll pop up and he's like he's got a different weapon every time. He like he. He came around a corner with a revolver one time and then they turned around at the last second so he hit again. And then another time he popped out of a trash can and then somebody showed up and startled him so he jumped back in the trash can. It was like a fucking cartoon.
Speaker 2:It was bizarre I think it was that era. So this movie came out in 1989 and I think that there was this like strange decade, or maybe even two decades, where there's a lot of little people representation in movies, but frequently in really fucked up ways that were very dehumanizing yeah you know like I can think of a bunch of examples and I'm not even sure I want to repeat them, but there's so many from that era and now I feel like there's not enough little people representation.
Speaker 2:We did recently have a very meaningful character in the game of thrones oh, yes, the game of thrones, but I was also thinking about walking dead, the new walking dead. Uh, what was that? What was that show called? The ones who live? The ones who live. Yeah, that character, whose name I don't remember right now, was one of my favorites.
Speaker 1:You're incredible your memory is. I think it's incredible.
Speaker 2:I feel like that's right, yeah um, and that was really, I thought, well done. But I do think that there is this like 80s to 90s era where, uh, they made little people the joke and that's not cool yeah, um, you know the the in the 80s there was warwick davis who played in roles like he was one of.
Speaker 1:He was the first ewok that we meet oh, I love the jedi he was willow he was a oh, he was also the leprechaun in the leprechaun series and then, yeah, then you have people like ed gale, who was chucky and apparently in uh in this movie my brain just left.
Speaker 2:I was trying to remember the name of the giant andre the giant, uh, yeah andre the giant was beloved and died yeah, a long time ago, but I remember being devastated.
Speaker 1:I loved andre they had a big heart. Yeah, too big, too big, it couldn't pump blood right.
Speaker 2:Very sad, yeah, uh, because I was completely random other other life updates and news. Uh, dan and I are living through one of the modern day apocalypses of living in the US. The United States of America made me question why the fuck I moved here when I got this news. Basically, the insurance or health insurance that's provided through my employer already fucked up. Why does your employer provide your health insurance? What, what?
Speaker 2:Let's just think about how stupid that is and how that basically makes it impossible for you to uh, you know, get sick, be an entrepreneur unless you have a ton of money or somebody else with health insurance anyways. Uh, it went up. The premiums went up 54 for dan and i's health care. So the result of that is that next year, dan is not getting health care because my employer can no longer afford to provide care or provide insurance for spouses. They're prioritizing a smaller pay. It's like you still have to pay If you have children. There's still like an additional cost, but it's not too bad comparatively, yeah, but for Dan to be $810 a month and it was just like one of those moments where I think when we learned that I had a lot of respect for leadership in the moment because they first of all had no control over this and they worked really, really hard to to try and solve a very fucked up situation that they have very little control over and make sure that employees at least had health care.
Speaker 2:But it's just like it was enraging. It was really enraging and it was just like. You know, across the border there's this thing called public healthcare in Canada and I've watched it save the lives of my family. I've watched it make sure that nobody goes fucking bankrupt when they have a major heart attack, which literally happened to my uncle last week. He's fine, just I think that's important to say. He's out of the hospital now and he's fine.
Speaker 1:But it's just like really, really, really infuriating, and this is again why I choose zombies yeah, but also I think one of the biggest bummers of the zombie apocalypse is no health care at all I mean, I don't think it's that different, because if you're not employed in the united states with an employer that gives you good health care, you have no health care. Well, you can pay for it though, yeah, but if you can afford it, no, you can pay to go to the hospital.
Speaker 2:You can go into debt.
Speaker 1:There is a hospital.
Speaker 2:That's true. That's true. I guess you're right.
Speaker 1:Okay, I can't believe you're the one who's telling me that it's better not in the zombie apocalypse and that I'm the one that's like um, I'm uh, so I'm lucky in in this circumstance, though, because I have um health benefits through the va, yeah, so uh, so it's okay, but the va doesn't doesn't provide dental health care which is extremely stupid.
Speaker 2:What is? Why is dental and eye care like a bonus round?
Speaker 1:yeah, you know from somebody who's had dental problems, I can tell you that if you, if you can't see the dentist and you have a dental problem, you want to blow your fucking brains out like it is, it is some of the most pain that you can ever feel I feel like in some of our very early episodes, you had just gone through some stuff with your teeth and described in detail what you had to do to deal with them.
Speaker 2:But that's like, yeah, I just have public health care for all. That's all I'm saying. I would like us all to get behind that basic concept. Trust me, I've lived in both worlds. One of them is better.
Speaker 1:Not saying it's perfect, but it's definitely better. The care because it doesn't. And when you have a healthy population and a secure population that has the benefits of having health, they are more able to innovate. So, even if you're subscribing to capitalism, capitalism works better if everyone in the country has access to health care, not if you can go and invest in hospital and get a 20% on your investment payback. You know like it's as a for profit system it doesn't work. In fact, in Vermont there is no profit and the hospitals around here are thinking about some of them are thinking about going bankrupt because they can't afford to stay open.
Speaker 2:It's just really fucked up. I feel like I'm just repeating myself, but it's. It's upsetting. Like a friend of mine passed away actually, because I mean mean the long short story I'm trying to make a short.
Speaker 2:Basically he had prostate cancer. He didn't go to the doctor to get it looked at because at the time when he started having symptoms he had no insurance because he was between jobs and he didn't want to bankrupt his family. And it was also in that period of time where, like, if you start health insurance with a pre-existing condition, you're fucked, because it's before the Affordable Care Act that Obama put through and which abolished that kind of bullshit, the whole pre-existing condition thing is no longer a thing, an issue, which is huge, but anyways, at that time that was not the case, and so he just didn't go to the doctor. And then I think it was like two or three years later where shit got really bad and he finally went and the reality is was is like he lived for maybe another five years after that instead of if they'd caught it early, he could have lived a regular lifespan.
Speaker 2:So it has real consequences for people and for anybody who would fucking try and say that this human being wasn't worthy, or was like trying to freeload off the system because he didn't have health insurance at the time, or like he didn't deserve it because he couldn't afford it. Go fuck yourself and stop listening to us. That's how I feel. Yeah, he was one of the most incredible human beings on the planet and he's dead now because he had to make a choice between his family being bankrupt and him going to get this looked at yeah, I I currently am going to the hospital for something that if I had ignored it would mean that I would have a much shorter life and like significantly shorter.
Speaker 1:And because, because I have healthcare, I can go to the va and I can go in and be like, please give me an MRI for this thing, and they just say yes, and I don't have to pay out of pocket for it. Because of those things, I can be proactive and they can guide me down a path where I can hopefully reverse it.
Speaker 2:Oh, I had to sneeze and I'm crying a little bit because I hate my first one. I'm thinking about my friend Tom who died, yeah, but also I would like you to live forever. That is my preference. I know that's not possible, but I don't like thinking about you dying.
Speaker 2:I never used to be that bad I shouldn't say never. I was not all about afraid of death until I married you. And then I was like, yeah, I can't, like like I don't want to die because I can imagine how bad that would be for you and I don't want you to die because I know that I would be a mess. I already have like a backup plan. My friend. I told my friend molly. I was like, if anything ever happens to dan like I'm just telling you now I'm gonna need you to fly here, stay with me for a while, because otherwise I'm gonna walk into the ocean. Um, yeah, I love, love you. That's all.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love you too.
Speaker 2:And I think again, the point is that I'm sure everybody listening to this has somebody they really love who deserves health care. So I don't know, maybe we should get in the streets about this a little bit more and demand a change. I, when we I moved here, obama was in power and I just like thought, like surely by the time that I've been here for like 15, 20 years we'll have public health care. We were heading that way. The gears have been greased, yeah, and then fucking trump happened and it's just been. I like it just seems like it's not even on the table. I don't hear a lot of people talking about it that are in um major parties of power, like obviously the socialist party's talking about it, um, the green party's talking about it, the freedom and liberation party is talking about it. I feel like I messed that up. I gotta look up what that party's called.
Speaker 1:But anyways, they're all talking about it, but that doesn't, almost doesn't matter well, you know what's more important, what um uh, people eating dogs and cats what you don't know about that?
Speaker 2:oh, you're referring to that claim. Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1:The very fictitious claim that Haitian immigrants are eating dogs and cats.
Speaker 2:Well, that's the scary part of the world we're in now is that people believe that it's true, yeah, and also we're at the point where we can make video, ai video, where you can just make shit up anything up.
Speaker 1:It's true, it's not to the point where it's 100% believable yet, but it's true it's it's.
Speaker 1:it's not to the point where, like, it's 100 believable yet, but it's gonna be it's coming in the next couple years it's gonna be indistinguishable, um something that I look for whenever I suspect something's ai is. I look for um the levels of contrast, because it's made from static. It'll have points in it where it goes from the very brightest to the very darkest you can possibly have in the color spectrum. It'll be in every single one. So like I'm watching videos and I'm like how dark is that dark spot?
Speaker 2:Oh, so you have a way to spot it so far. We'll see what happens.
Speaker 1:But AI is going to get smart and be like, be like. Maybe I'll decrease the dynamic range of this video so it looks more real well, I have some good news.
Speaker 2:As the apocalypse continues in this country, we can tune in to wzmb dead air radio, hosted by oliver the oliver, the oliver yes, uh, who is broadcasting out of meevil valley, california? Wow, to give us up-to-date news on what's going on in the zombie apocalypse. How's that going? The podcast, or how? How's meevil valley doing? How's meevil valley doing? Um, I mean, they seem to have some level of organization because, uh, oliver is getting drop shipped food and stuff in exchange for making announcements.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, uh, for the public as well but also there was a horde of zombies that made like a sandstorm and what appears to be either a chemical or nuclear explosion that just happened.
Speaker 1:So there's a lot of stuff going on I feel like did I just spoil wzmbcom? That's a teaser.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, anyways, I'm just saying check it out, subscribe to that um and give it a five star so that we can continue to receive, uh, breaking zombie apocalypse news that we all need.
Speaker 1:Also oliver's talking about zombie movies yes yeah, I mean, you know, watching zombie movies in the zombie apocalypse. I don't know, would you? Would you want to watch zombie movies in the zombie apocalypse?
Speaker 2:probably not, because I don't like watching things where cancer is the main subject, like having been through that with two people I love and then them dying. I'm not. I'm not like, oh yeah, this is a vicarious big emotions that I want to feel right now. Yeah, cause it's not vicarious. So, yeah, maybe not, yeah, yeah, all over WZMBio Radio. Why are you choosing to immerse yourself in the zombie world?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and also, are you okay?
Speaker 2:Let us know Also, we were interviewed by Brian from Zompocalypse Podcast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we were Just yesterday, that was really fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and I'm pretty sure that that episode is going to come out the same day even as this one, so you could hear from us twice yeah, yeah, double, double our voice, yeah, at the same time and, uh, enjoy brian's podcast.
Speaker 2:It's a good one, yeah. And then the other news I have is a week after this episode is out, you'll get to hear us interview elm juniper, the author of the how we end, um, how we begin or how we began and how we survive, series, which we've been listening to and really enjoying. Juniper, the author of the how we End, how we Begin or how we Began and how we Survive, series, which we've been listening to and really enjoying. I'm really listening to it, yeah, I mean, dan, you said it's in your top 10 zombie books of all time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it solidly ranks in there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm really excited we haven't even interviewed him yet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm looking forward to it because it's such an interesting book. So many questions. And I find Elm to also be a very interesting individual and I can't wait to pick some brains Pick.
Speaker 2:Elm's brains. Yeah, I just want to know which tree he likes better. Yeah, which one Elm or junipers.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:They're both great trees.
Speaker 1:What do you think the audience prefers Elms or junipers?
Speaker 2:If the audience is like me and had to look up, like I knew juniper was a tree but I didn't know what kind of tree, so I think audience's gut take is going to be elm, yeah. But then when I looked up what junipers are, they're really gorgeous. So I'm team juniper now. Okay, are you team?
Speaker 1:elm or team juniper. I'm gonna have to see a juniper. It's beautiful yeah, you know I, I like elm, it's a, it's a sturdy wood. Yeah, you know, good building material, good trees, best, the best trees.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we got the best trees and elm lives in sweden, so like there's much better public health care there, I believe I guess we should check in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, elma, how's your healthcare?
Speaker 2:I know this is a zombie podcast.
Speaker 1:Do you have a guest room?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the other thing I wanted to make sure we covered was that we have a new format for interview episodes and books, which we've talked a little bit about, but I think it's worth just restating that we're not doing the every 10 weeks book club book that's right.
Speaker 2:I don't think we've talked too much about that. I think we've talked a little bit about it, but I think it's worth saying again that, um, one of the things that's emerged from our podcast that we didn't anticipate but we should have, is that there's a lot of great authors who want to talk about their zombie books, and while we do our best to read everything that we have on the show, what we're we're aiming for is once a month, a once a month interview with an author about their zombie book or book series. Yeah, and we will give you a heads up, like we just did with Elm Juniper. We've read how we end, so make sure you've read that If you're going to listen to next week's episode or not. Just hear from him and then listen, read it, but you'll you'll know who we're talking to.
Speaker 1:So you can go and read the book if you'd like to in advance. Yeah, and you know, I, I I liked the idea of of the book club, um, but we, you know, since we started interviewing so many more people, it felt kind of weird at the end of an episode to be like that was great, talking about your book. Now everybody go read somebody else's book, yeah, and it just it kind of like it kind of became a bit overwhelming.
Speaker 2:It was there's a lot, yeah, um, and now we can just talk to any anybody we want yeah, but I'm gonna try and like give folks notice and like make posts about it so you know who's coming. We should make a spreadsheet. Uh, I think we should just steal Ollie eats brain spreadsheet. Just upload all the books.
Speaker 1:But also I have a spreadsheet, just be like. Some of the books we're going to read are in this list.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's actually not a bad idea. We could do a post that's just like here's the next three books we're going to be talking about, and or interviewing authors from. It's a great idea. Yeah, okay, I'm going to do that Because I still want to feel like a club.
Speaker 1:It is a club.
Speaker 2:It's way more fun to talk to an author about it than not.
Speaker 1:Leah, do you hear the groans that are coming? The groans.
Speaker 2:Hold on, let me put my ear to the wall.
Speaker 1:Leah's actually putting her.
Speaker 2:I hear a slight rumbling. Slight rumbling like a well, that might be my stomach. Oh well, are they groans from the hoard or groans from your stomach?
Speaker 1:that we're gonna be talking about now. Um well, let's talk about the groans from the hoard my stomach. I think everybody can figure out what what my stomach wants that's fair.
Speaker 2:Well, a couple of episodes. Uh, our first grown from the hoard comes from brian of zumpocalypse podcast who had a reaction to polymorphous lee's. Uh, elevator pitch kind of reaction should we talk about this it was not that kind of action okay so, if you all remember correctly, you can go back a few episodes to listen.
Speaker 2:Polymorphous lee has written a book called the zombie re-erection only sex can save us, where ronald hump is resurrected and it triggers a hump zombie, a humby infested infestation, and the infected skins turns orange and their hair becomes a strange yellow toupee, while a cucumber like appendage emerges from between their legs, no matter their sex or gender, and only sex can save you from this uh humby virus. Yeah, so this was uh zompocalypse's response to listening to polymorphously's pitch, if I could find it okay. Brian says also I just listened to the recent episode in the book about zombies turning into horny zombies. So are they dead or are they still alive and they just want their shit rubbed off. I mean, if you think about it, that's kind of like 80 of men's popular male population. Men just want love and attention and their stuff rubbed off. You know what other genders do too. Brian, that's my response to that. I also want my stuff rubbed off. Yeah, and I'm sure that just made a lot of people cringe.
Speaker 2:That's the thoughts that I was thinking about when I heard the pitch of the book. So we are actually hoping to have Polly Morpheus Lee on as our feature author for December. So I'm just going to say you should read the book. Yeah, read it. That's how you'll find the answer, and then we can also. I'm also going to ask Polly your question for you, brian, when we interview her. If that works out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, I could see them being viral zombies.
Speaker 2:I think they're viral zombies.
Speaker 1:I feel like Ronald Hump is a disease.
Speaker 2:Which means they're not dead. Yeah, they're just infected. And we also have a lot of opinions from our horde about different people's books. Ollie has a comment from Lindsay King Miller's interview episode about the Z word. Oh, ollie and I were talking about giving each other feedback on our podcasts and ideas and things, and Ollie says since we're being open and honest, I do have a thought or two about your Z word. Episode One you hit Lindsay off way too easy for never letting Wendy finish and by finish, finish. Uh, it's the same thing as polly's book about you know, getting their stuff rubbed off with explosions at the end, yeah. Two there's a lot less talk about me and I just don't approve one brain. We got a one brain review from ollie wow, you know what?
Speaker 1:what do we pay for, ollie?
Speaker 2:I'm gonna stop feeding you brains. That's it.
Speaker 1:You're cut off um, yeah, that's right, wendy doesn't get her stuff rubbed off at the end I mean, she gets close and then everything gets ruined.
Speaker 2:Every time she's, she gets edged, basically that's unfortunate.
Speaker 1:It is um I. I thought I thought she did finally get her stuff rubbed off she had sex.
Speaker 2:Okay, we can't uh. There was sex with a person, I'm not gonna say who, and it got close.
Speaker 1:That happened twice yeah, I know, but both times I thought there was one. Both times it did not happen I guess not, no, not even, not even, not even in the uh, the, the very, the very end, like it's weeks later. There wasn't a moment where her stuff was rubbed until it was off. Oh, I don't remember.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I guess that's We'll have to read it again. Yeah, that's all right, it's a good ride. We also have a book recommendation from one of our favorite listeners, megan Megan. Hi, megan, so we got to add this to our lists. One of our favorite listeners, megan Megan. Hi, megan, so we got to add this to our lists. Megan says hey, y'all Don't know if you're looking for book recommendations, but found one I thought y'all might like. It's called Dead North and is all Canadian zombie short stories. Thank you, megan. That sounds familiar. It's edited by one of my favorite Latine authors and so far I'm really enjoying it, and the authors she picked for the collection very unusual zombie stories and takes. Anyway, I especially thought leah might like it, being canadian at all, it's true, and it's a little different from the other books you've covered, since it's all short stories. So this was sent to us a little while ago, back on october 4th, and then a week or so later, megan writes again with a warning okay oh, it was a day later, that's okay.
Speaker 2:She says just to warn y'all. After I've read a lot more of that zombie canadian short fiction book, I thought I should give you a heads up. If you ever decide to read it for the podcast, please give trigger warnings. I'm thinking maybe like a lot of trigger warnings and I said, oh, wow, okay, I'm now intrigued. What are they? And megan says so far I've counted necrophilia, sexual assault, um, kinda, I don't know, it's weird and depictions of harm from eating disorders. I'm maybe a third through. So there could be more besides the other random, regular zombie violence which I figure you should just always assume is present. I agree, yeah, with that, um, but yeah, so we just were saying read it, but also know that there's at least icrophilia sexual assault and depictions of harm from eating disorders.
Speaker 2:I'm intrigued Me too. Well, yeah, but I appreciate the heads up because it's like, again, I think that there should be like cancer trigger warnings on things. That's true, yeah. So thank you for that recommendation, megan. We have got it on our to be read list and we have one more grown from the horde that I could absolutely not miss sharing. Oh, from carol lane on instagram. They say zombie survival tip raid a library, slash, bookstore of where you are when the zombie apocalypse happens, any foraging books, local maps, local fauna and flora books, translation books. If it's in a language you don't know, you may not be in a familiar location when the zombie apocalypse happens. I feel like this is a really brilliant and overlooked yeah, piece of advice.
Speaker 1:Um god, I feel like I watched something where they did actually go to a library. It might have been the walking dead, like in the later seasons, or maybe fear, fear, the Walking Dead. Anyways, yeah, like they absolutely found, like this treasure trove of information that was highly important. In fact, it was the Walking Dead I remember now because it was after Rick is gone and one of the guys is really into music and he finds some sheet music there and he's really excited about it. Then they also bump into somebody who's also raiding the library. But, yeah, there's so many survival back-to-basics books You're going to find. I think, especially if it's a library, you're going to find a lot of local information like property maps and things that are historical to that area specifically.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I actually think I would probably hole up in a library That'd be great. Because then you have access to all that information. You can also share it with people as they come, because if you take it all, then somebody else is going to be trying to go there and be like oh, I really need to find this book, and it's gone, whereas you could be the local librarian.
Speaker 1:That's true. There's also two other benefits. What's that One? It's not a high value location. It's not like holing up in a grocery store or a gun store. People aren't looking at a library and being like I want to go in there, yeah, store. You know, people aren't looking at a library and being like I want to go in there, yeah, um. The second one is that libraries are always super sturdy buildings like thick walls, like, sometimes like stone. Even the the library in our small town, the doors are like three inches oh yeah, we've scoped it out as a potential location for the zombie apocalypse.
Speaker 2:It has windows, but they're pretty high like a person couldn't yeah, unless you had like superhuman climbing strength, which some zombies might uh, you could not get through those windows and you could.
Speaker 1:You could just cover those with the heavy oak tables that are inside. But those doors I like.
Speaker 2:As soon as I open the door I'm like that is a thick door and in the winter you could find the books that are not interesting or useful or offensive and burn them. A good old book burning yeah, I would never recommend book burning, but I think in the apocalypse as kindling I'm not saying you should just burn a whole book, but you could probably like just use one page. Yeah, one page per fire. Yeah, to help you get the fire started.
Speaker 1:Actually, there's this tool that I want to get on Amazon and it's this press. You fill it with paper and you compress the paper and it turns it into a log. Whoa, and it burns like a wooden log. That's wild it compresses it so much that there's no more oxygen inside of it and it burns super well. And yeah, you could do that with, like uh, the memoirs of george bush or something mine comp.
Speaker 2:I would definitely bring mine comp. Um what else? What let's, let's have a, let's have a like top three books we'd burn.
Speaker 1:Oh, it was only in the apocalypse, not like now I mean there's, there's so many books written by like fox news pundits. I just grab one of those immediately anyone that makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I would burn. Um, I'm forgetting his name right now, but there was a canadian guy who was like really, really, jordan peterson, anti-se? Wow, no, and he was convinced that the Holocaust was a lie. I would burn that guy's book for sure. Yeah, I would burn the bell curve, which is pseudoscience about race, and it actually makes a pseudoscientific claims about how race is real and actually like white people and Asian people are superior. Specifically, I would definitely burn that book.
Speaker 1:I'd have no wouldn't second thought, burn it. This is a terrible fucking book. Yeah, yeah, I I've. I have a hard time picking a third one because, like, even even things that like aren't nearly as like important as as books, like like a magazine or a coloring book they still have like a lot of value, like you could imagine coloring your way through the apocalypse.
Speaker 1:You've got some crayons, You're sitting at the big oak table that you haven't used to board up the window at the door. It's just like I'm bored, so I'm just going to color.
Speaker 2:Actually I know what. My third is Every single diet book.
Speaker 1:I would burn all of them, because they're all horseshit. Perfect. You know, we could definitely not need it in an apocalyptic scenario. Yeah, If we find any like flat earth books or something, we could burn those too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that'd be great yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know what A lot of old libraries also have is functioning fireplaces. Yeah, all right, I love this idea.
Speaker 2:We're going to go to the library next week. You don't even know this, but we're going to go the day before this technically comes out to listen to my new friend's husband's book reading. Really, I didn't know that. Yeah, it's a book that's about. It's called Legend of the Pigman and the pigman I learned is an actual like folk horror story in northfield vermont really yeah, I spent a lot of time.
Speaker 2:He made a book out of it. Do you know what? The pig man? No, apparently there's a pig man out there that chases and captures children if they stay out too late, all right. Well, I'll keep an eye out for him yeah, all right, that's.
Speaker 2:That's by asher ellis I think so let me just double check. And he has a book that's kind of zombie-ish. Hold on, so we might have him on one day. That would be fun. And he also has those video games. Dan, I think you two could be buddies, yeah, um, yes, so his name's asher ellis. He's our neighbor, which is freaking awesome, and he wrote curse of the pig man, um, a book called pet. And then there's I'm trying to find the one that is about, uh, oh, there, it is sort of zombie adjacent, adjacent the remedy. It reads like a really great early 2000s horror. Yeah, like film oh, what's that?
Speaker 1:what's that? One movie that's in a cabin in the woods the cabin in the woods, not that one and there is a uh, there's a, there's a viral outbreak. There's like this bacteria, that's like a flesh-eating bacteria. Yeah, and these, these kids are going up to the cabin to like drink and smoke pot is this a book or a movie you're talking about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I forget what it's called it. It's got that vibe. But I really enjoy this Cabin Fever. Cabin Fever I don't think I've seen it, but there's some great border scenes, border action, which I think is an underutilized, stressful event in books, having been through a lot of border drama between Canada and the United States, and I like that it's set in Vermont. It's a great book.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it sounds like a fun time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think we should sign off, dan, because we got things to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, we got things to do and these were the things that we did. Yes, there you go.
Speaker 2:We did it. We recorded a podcast.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening everyone. Yeah, you, you know we've got. We've got the description down below. It's got lots of links. You check out those links. Did you know that we have a shirt store?
Speaker 2:we do. You can get your own zombie weaned shirt if you want yeah, you could also get a zombie evil magic chicken zombie shirt that's true, and we're gonna have stickers with our logo, because that's been long demanded, and we're also going to turn my little zombies that I draw for our thumbnails into stickers, that's coming again.
Speaker 2:Those kinds of things are coming when Dan has done work, but that's actually not that far from now. So there might be some great zombie stickers just in time for Christmas. Oh my God, christmas zombie stickers. I need to make a Christmas zombie. I haven't done that yet. Oh my God.
Speaker 1:I wish we could make wrapping paper. That'd be amazing. I bet you we could. Yeah, let's figure it out.
Speaker 2:That would be incredible, I mean who doesn't want to have their gifts wrapped in zombies. Yeah, let us know if you want to have zombie wrapping paper. I also am really proud of my most recent banana zombie. Banana zombie is amazing. Okay, here's my, here's my call to action. Go check out elm juniper's how we end. Yeah, and bonus round if you want to be early. Go and read polymorphous lee's the zombie re-erection. Only sex can save us. Then you'll be ready for the upcoming interviews that we're going to be doing yeah, trigger warning.
Speaker 1:There's a lots of a lot of boning in that book. It's pretty much all the book is about.
Speaker 2:Yes, Are there any trigger warnings you think we should say for how we end? No, well, my friends, it's been great. We love you all so very much. And I just want to give one more special shout out and thanks to everybody who was a contestant on Zombieween, everybody who listened to those. If you haven't listened to it yet, please go listen. But, more importantly, go follow those incredible folks and go get their books. Or support Naila on coffee, which is a app that you can throw some cash her way, yeah, yeah. Throw cash. Everybody's way, yeah, money, it's. It's great to have dollar, dollar bills everywhere around me. Thanks, thanks for listening Everyone. How does that song?
Speaker 1:go? I don't know, get the money, everyone. How does that song go? I don't know, get the money. Dollar, dollar bills y'all. You mean cream by the wu-tang clan maybe? Um, I should play my ringtone. Thanks for listening everyone. And uh, the end is nigh bye.
