March 2, 2025 • 57 mins
In this episode of Zombie Book Club, we explore the eerie parallels between zombie fiction and the realities of navigating life under growing fascism. Join Dan and Leah as they discuss practical coping strategies, the power of storytelling, and the importance of community-building in turbulent times. From grassroots activism to creative resilience, this episode blends humor, heart, and actionable insights to help you find strength in the face of uncertainty.
Tune in for a mix of personal stories, survival tips, and a deep dive into how fiction can help us process existential threats. Plus, we’ll share updates on Living Dead Weekend, Kickstarter projects (Zombie Date Night by Steve Urena), and ways to stay engaged with the zombie-loving community. Whether you’re here for the laughs, the insights, or the undead, this episode is your survival guide for the chaos ahead.
Relevant Links
Zombie Date Night by Steve Urena: Kickstarter Link
Living Dead Weekend: https://www.thelivingdeadweekend.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Welcome to the Zombie Book Club, the only book club
where the book is a copingmechanism during an age of
growing fascism, and sometimesit doesn't work so well.
I'm Dan and when I'm not coping, as best as I know how, by
hyperventilating in the basementeating Fritos.
I'm writing a book about afuture where fascism controls
our entire governing body andrampant corruption and corporate
(00:47):
authoritarian interestscompletely hobbles every social
safety net, just in time for azombie outbreak to wipe us all
out.
I do want to point out thatI've been writing this book for
like more than a decade, so I'llsee you in court, gop uh, I'm
leah and I'm here.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I'm alive.
I play way too much katanlately.
That is my main copingmechanism oh yeah, the katans
yeah, uh, and today's a casualdead.
Thank god I love our interviews, but sometimes I just need to
rant at you.
Oh yeah, from across ourpodcast table in our zombie
bunker yeah, I feel like.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Uh, we used to have casual deads, as like every
episode, for like the beginningyeah, we were just talking to
each other.
Yeah, and whoever was listeningum, but yeah, I also.
I also much, much love thecasuals yeah, it's a nice.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
It's a nice change and also, I think, especially in
this time, like it, it doesfeel weird to go about business
as usual and be like get thiszombie book, but we do actually
still want you to get the zombiebooks.
It's just strange to have theselike expansive periods of time,
or two whole weeks, which justfeels very like a lot happens
right now in two weeks.
Two weeks or two years, yeah,two weeks, sometimes three weeks
(01:54):
if we've got lots of interviews.
You want to make sure we getout where we just like not
talking to you about the realshit, the real apocalypse, um,
that we're living through.
So that's what we're doingtoday.
But we also have some funthings to chat about, like
vending a living dead weekendthis summer, and some not so fun
things to chat about, likeresistance strategies under
fascism.
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
And, on another high note, an elevator pitch from a
fellow zombie creator, StevenUrena Zombie Date Night.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
We'll be talking about that in a little bit.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, that'll be in there.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
It'll be in here somewhere.
It'll be coming shortly.
Yes, and it's really great.
It's interesting.
We had a bit of a quiet period,with elevator pitches, and then
January came and all of asudden we've got a bunch.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
What is it about?
Speaker 2 (02:36):
January.
People are no longer drinkingand eating and being merry.
They're trying to do stuff, Iguess I guess so that must be it
.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
eating and being married, they're trying to do
stuff, I guess I guess, so thatmust be it.
Uh, we release episodes everysunday, so sub scuba dive yeah,
I wrote that.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, I think it's because I'm trying to um tell
you something about what I mightlike for my birthday you want
to go scuba diving for yourbirthday?
Speaker 1 (02:59):
I do.
I thought you wanted an artcart.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
At this point I want another hundred pounds of food
supplies or like a bunch ofstuff for our garden, yeah, but
I would love to learn how toscuba dive.
Life updates Leah, yeah, we'realso calling this segment how
we're coping.
How are we coping?
How are you all coping outthere Eating Fritos?
Speaker 1 (03:20):
in the basement.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
That's a lie.
Dan is not eating.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Well, have you eaten?
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Actually, you know what Maybe you have?
Do I need to see?
Speaker 1 (03:28):
where the Fritos are in the bunker.
Here's the thing.
You know, all that emergencyfood that we bought yeah, I
actually ate it, and I've beenhiding Fritos inside of the
buckets that I don't tell youabout.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Wow, I mean Fritos would probably stick around for
a long time.
We could start saving them.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
They don't, though, because I've been eating them
Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Is there a secret stash of Fritos in this house?
No, Darn it.
I was about to be like let'shave some Fritos.
Nobody tell me about the Fritos.
Although who makes Fritos?
Because I have a feeling it'sabout to be on our band list
(04:12):
fritos makes it well, no fritolays.
Okay, well, who owns?
Who owns?
Frito lays?
This is like my part-time job.
Pepsi co.
Of course.
Well, yeah, we shouldn't.
We shouldn't be consuminganymore.
We shouldn't be consuminganything.
It's true um only only wateryeah, because Cause the Pepsi
supports the Israel war.
Yeah, israel war with Hamas.
And quotation marks AKAgenocide.
And yes, there's a ceasefireright now.
Maybe there isn't when you'relistening to this.
I don't, don't hold me, I'm not.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
This is not the news.
The Israel versus innocentcivilians war.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah, um, but yeah, pepsi's is on our list of of
no-goes, but uh, he's on ourlist of no-goes, but uh, how,
how are we coping?
Um, I don't think I am coping.
I think you're doing better.
I think, since you went to thatprotest, which was, I think,
our last casual dead, you'redoing a little bit better.
You're writing again yeah, um,but otherwise I don't know.
You're making me really tastyfood every day that's how,
(05:01):
that's the.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Is that coping?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
um, you're turning to me in the middle of the night
and saying, Leah, we need ahandgun immediately.
And I had to be like I love youand I understand that urge, but
I don't think that that is theactual thing we need right at
this moment.
I think we need other things.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
I heard you say yes.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
I said yes.
Eventually I said let's get ourgarden set up and let's work
more on the community buildingstuff we want to do, because
it's not the time for the gun um, agree to disagree.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Uh yeah, writing has been a little bit better.
I haven't.
I haven't been writing anythingnew.
That's the thing.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Um, I've been going through all of my old stuff
which needs to happen this isall the stuff you you mouth
wrote this summer while you weredriving yeah, last summer.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Well, it's also everything I've written before
that.
So everything, um and yeah,like getting all of that sorted
and like make, make thebeginning make sense, that's,
that's priority number one,because I cannot write anymore
until I get things.
Uh.
So what I have now, after thepast couple weeks of just like
(06:07):
re-editing old stuff, is I nowhave like five chapters that I
would feel comfortable sendingto an editor.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
This is a live update , because last I checked it was
four, so that's great.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
I miscounted.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Oh, okay, I was going to say that was like two days
ago.
You told me that, yeah, butthat's very exciting.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
I'm going chapter by chapter whenever I get a chance
and I will get a chance latertoday because we're going to be
doing Naila's write-in.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, naila King, who we had on the show a couple
weeks ago, a zombie bestie ofours has a Discord called
Naila's Ghost Carnival, Ibelieve, and every weekend
almost, we have had to miss acouple because of a snowstorm in
my family.
Um, or no, you did participatelast week with my family here,
didn't you?
I don't know, I think you didand I remember you trash talking
my mom to naila maybe.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Yeah, you know what now it's coming, it's coming
back to me.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
This is why I tell my mother to never listen to the
podcast anyways.
Um yeah, she has weeklywrite-ins.
They're really fun.
Dan and I both do it.
I usually write Zombie BookClub podcast emails and Dan
writes.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Some other things I've done to cope is trying to
take control of our destiny alittle bit in this very
uncertain time.
One of those things is weordered a bunch of shelf-stable
food, not an unlimited supply,but 100 pounds, so that's
something.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
It would last the three of us about 30 days.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yeah, that's a really good start actually, and that
could mean the differencebetween life and death.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
sometimes it could mean the difference between
keeping our house or getting ittaken.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Yeah, true, and also- .
Speaker 2 (07:43):
To be clear, sorry, I'm just going to say we are not
at risk of losing our houseright now, but these are things
we think about in these times.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
They can have it over my cold dead body.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Okay, this is why he wants a handgun, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Also, I've been using my 3D printer brand new 3D
printer.
I've been printing a lot ofthings and I'm printing pieces
for, like, a vertical garden,which we'll probably talk about
later.
Yeah, we'll talk about thisstuff in more detail.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
That's our whole Fashions and Apocalypse Survival
Update segment.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
I bring it up because it's how I'm coping.
I think it's important to namethat because taking control of
little, tiny things in your lifewill make you feel like you're
doing something to you know,stave off the all the horrible
news.
Well, it is going to theprotest, felt like it felt like
(08:35):
I did something yeah, it isreally important to feel like
you have that internal.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
It's called the internal locus of control
according to psychotherapy, andright now we're being barraged
so violently and part of thepsychological effort of that is
to feel like you have no control, so you'll just concede.
So anything you can do rightnow that feels like you are
doing something towards a betterworld, a safer world for
yourself and for others, isgoing to make, is going to help.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Yeah yeah, um, how have you been coping, leah?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
well, um, I remember when the election happened and I
said oh, you know, I'm likereally into my chanting right
now.
I've been meditating a lot.
My yoga practice is like onlock.
None of that's happening rightnow.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Oh, seems like a drastic shift.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Yeah, hard, hard pendulum swing yeah, I mean I'm
still doing yoga a little bit.
Lenswing yeah, I mean I'm stilldoing yoga a little bit.
I sometimes chant a little bitin my head if I'm like waiting
in line somewhere or something,but I've definitely fully just
like fallen out of all of mypractices that are healthy
coping mechanisms and I havedove really deep into a game
(09:39):
called Catan.
Let me know if you're also aplayer of Catan, because then
you can come play it with me onCatan Universe online, which is
where I'm spending most of mytime.
In fact, it's an obsession thatis so intense that I have to
actively choose to work insteadof play it.
Uh, dan has listened to me.
Just wander around the houselike in between meetings, being
like I cannot play katan rightnow.
I need to work.
(10:00):
I have to finish this document.
So that's been very seriousdissociation.
I've also watched like fourdifferent international seasons
of love is blind, a bunch of 90day fiance and all the spinoffs
um, oh, and I've been going toget acupuncture and I've
discovered melatonin is reallygreat.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
So that's where I'm at yeah, the, the acupuncture
I've been very happy hearingabout from you yeah, it's made a
difference so far.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Yeah, it makes me really sleepy after, which I
guess is normal.
And also, the person that I'mgoing to is not just an
acupuncturist, but also I forgetwhat their degree is, but they
have some degree in like what.
Is it Not a kinesiology?
I think is what it is.
It's like sports medicine oh solike a physical therapist.
(10:55):
They're not a physical therapist, but, for the first time ever,
no one has ever explained to methe mechanics of how plantar
fasciitis happens in the waythat he has.
So he has me doing some thingsthat I'm hopeful, for the first
time in a long time, couldcontinue to put me on my
recovery journey, which is veryup and down all over the place.
So that's nice yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
And you also had a really bad issue with your leg
where it was going numb.
Yeah, and how long did thattake to clear up after going to
acupuncture?
Speaker 2 (11:16):
It was two sessions I went on a Wednesday and a
Friday and it was basically gone.
Then I had a slight relapsewhen I sat on a very hard chair
all day playing games with mymom when she was visiting.
But it was very slight and Ihaven't really had issues since.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
So that's good.
Yeah, I, I always, I alwaysthought that like acupuncture
was just one of those things,that it's like um placebo, yeah,
like a placebo a thing.
But like you know, we've we'vegotten it for our dog who has a
back problem.
And now you've, you've had itand you can report on like how
(11:52):
effective that was, and I thinkit's really amazing it's a lot
gentler than a lot of the otherthings that I've done.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Yeah, you know, um, but I like.
I think why I like this inparticular is because I'm doing
exercises and stretches, uh,that are different from ones
I've been told to do before,which is kind of wild.
Sometimes, because you have achronic illness, you get so many
different perspectives andexpert opinions, so this is a
different expert opinion I'mtrying out, so I like that.
He does both and who knows,maybe it's placebo, maybe it's
(12:20):
not, but I have seen it help ourdog and I have seen it help our
horse before he passed awayYears ago.
He had some back issues and hegot acupuncture made a big
difference for him.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
I'd like to see an acupuncturist in a zombie
apocalypse story.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
That's interesting.
I will have to bring that up tomy acupuncturist.
What would you do in a zombieapocalypse?
That's what I'm going to comein how you in a zombie
apocalypse that's what I'm gonnacome how would you help people?
He's gonna say, how are youdoing how's?
How's your leg numbness?
And I'll be like, uh, I don'twant to talk about that.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
I'm gonna pay you to tell me what you do in the
apocalypse?
Yeah, because I mean, I don'treally know a whole lot about
acupuncture, but I know thatthere's like a wide range of
things that you can treatthrough acupuncture.
Um, when I was first goingthrough my VA disability claims,
uh, like a year and a half agothe the one that I'm currently
waiting on um, one of the firstpeople I talked to, um, she
(13:14):
wasn't an acupuncturist anymore,uh, but she used to be a
licensed practicingacupuncturist and told me a lot
of interesting things.
Um, I had, I had, I had no idea, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Well, I mean, it is a medicine tradition that's been
around for thousands of years,and I think Western medicine
sometimes believes that there'sa hierarchy where, like, that's
the best way to do things andhow I know everything, and I
just don't think that that'strue.
So I'm trying it.
We'll see what happens.
Worst case scenario after asession, as I'm extremely
relaxed, which I think hasactually helped me feel a little
more centered the last fewweeks, but I can't even say a
(13:50):
few weeks.
It's been like a month sincethe inauguration, but like the
last week has been, it feelslike years.
Yeah, and I also want to talkabout some things that we're
grateful for before we get intosome of the harder stuff.
Yeah, I'm grateful for thewrite-ins with naela me too,
I've something to look forwardto every week.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Yeah, yeah, um, and I , and I hope that we continue
this well into my summer workseason because, yeah, I get, I
get a lot done when I'm.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
When I do it, it's really great yeah, I'm grateful
for this podcast because itgives me something to do, and I
remarked to dan recently westarted it, I don't know a few
months after atlas, our horsedied, and I think this podcast
podcast takes approximately theexact same amount of time that
having a horse did, but andthere's still some expenses but
much less expensive than a horse.
(14:37):
So thanks for being my newhobby.
Yeah, um, and I'm mostly reallygrateful that, like, while
things are bad, I keepremembering that we have power,
we have a house, we have twosweet dogs that love us, I've
got a really wonderful partnerand I currently am employed and
can feed myself and groceryprices while they have been
going up or not out of the parkfor us to be able to afford
(14:59):
right now, and so this is theprime time to like, just look
around and be grateful for whatyou do have, if you do have any
of those things, yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
And you know I I'm grateful that I have a job to go
to at the end of the winter.
Not that I want to go to it,but you know, while it's like
the best case scenario that my,my disability claim goes through
without a hitch, you knowthere's the possibility that it
doesn't A strong possibilityeven as the VA gets fucking
(15:30):
gutted.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
By.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Fuckfaces.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
By the space cadet and his fuckboy team, but I
don't think that my job isreally under threat for the most
part.
I think there's going to besome things that are going to be
challenging.
Like any, biden pushed throughthat gave a lot of money to
(16:07):
States to rebuild theirinfrastructure and we're still
doing that, and I don't thinkthat they can take it away, but
at the same time, we didn'tthink that they would do any of
the things that they're doing.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
So I mean that same bill is the same bill that
they've frozen all the funds forthe things that I do with
environmental justicecommunities around solar and
clean energy.
So, yes, they can, but theywere able to do that
specifically with the work thatI do and the folks that I work
with because, news flashed allof you environmental justice
organizations are extremistsaccording to this new government
(16:43):
.
So that was why and it was partof the DEI diversity, equity
and inclusion executive order.
So that's why those kinds ofthings are frozen.
But I agree, like road building, maybe not so much.
This was supposed to be a listof things we're grateful for See
how immediately it just goesdown.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
But you know, I'm grateful that I have what I have
, yeah, because it gives someamount of security that a lot of
people right now don't have.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
It's wild Like the number of folks who have lost
their jobs at the federalgovernment, the number of folks
who have job insecurity nowbecause funding from the federal
government that was going to doreally amazing projects that
are now considered extremistthat part's scary to me.
I also feel really grateful tohave a job because the market is
going to be flooded with a lotof professionals who are highly
(17:30):
skilled, who hopefully are goingto band together with us and
kick some ass in other ways.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
My mom lost her job.
Well, she got the resignationrequest and she took it because
she wanted to retire this yearanyway.
I hope that that works out forher.
I have my doubts, but theDepartment of the Army claimed
(17:55):
that it should not affect herability to retire after the
period of time of theresignation.
I hope so.
Fingers crossed yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
I hope so.
Let's do something happy justfor a minute.
Yeah, let's talk about theliving dead weekend.
Okay, yeah that's happy it isbecause we are going to be
vending there.
It's our first experiencevending in monroville,
pennsylvania.
June's I want to say june 6thto 9th, but I should probably
look at a calendar.
Yep, I got it right June 6th to8th.
(18:29):
Okay, yeah, hold on, let mere-say that so you can fix it.
It's going to be the weekend ofJune 6th to 8th, right near
Peppa, that place Right nearPittsburgh, so it's a long drive
for us.
My mom and her partner haveagreed to look after the dogs,
which is a big thing becausethey're old and have special
needs and we're going to meet somany Zom besties.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Yeah, I mean, it's kind of overwhelming a little
bit.
I don't love huge crowds, but Ifeel like if I have to pick a
crowd, I'm going to pick the onethat loves zombie stuff crowd.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
I'm gonna pick the one that loves zombie stuff.
Yeah, I think it's gonna be agood crowd of people.
A lot of really awesome authorswe admire are gonna be their
creators.
Um, who knows who else we'regonna run into.
It's gonna be interesting andwe're gonna have a little booth
where we basically ask peoplezombie ween questions and they
get to answer them and be on thepodcast yeah, that'll be a
tough episode to edit.
Well, we'll just pick the clipswe like yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
That's true, and we're also going to bring Rod
zombie, our life size zombie,and he's going to hold a sign
that tells people to come andtalk to us.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Yeah, We'll see how that goes.
It's all depending on Rodzombie.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah, what if no one talks to?
Speaker 1 (19:41):
us, then I guess we'll just be lonely.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Yeah, we'll just have to talk to each other.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
I guess.
So yeah, we can make an episodeabout how nobody talked to us
at Living Dead Weekend.
How everybody treated us likeliteral zombies.
I don't think that's what'sgoing to happen.
But the other thing I wanted toannounce is we actually have,
because of my stupidity, twofree tickets to Living Dead
weekend.
And I was thinking about doingcompetition but then I was like
you know, we're a lovely smallcommunity.
(20:10):
If you would like a ticket toliving dead weekend or two
tickets, they're just sitting inmy inbox.
I don't have any use for themlet me know.
We would love to be surprisedwith some additional zombesties.
We know it's a long drive formany folks, or a plane ride,
which I don't recommend.
Yeah, um, that's our paranoia.
Some people probably fine withit, but, uh, yeah, if you're
(20:34):
interested, let me know.
Send us an emailzionbookclubpodcasts at gmailcom
.
The first people to claim itget it.
That's my competition.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
First come, first serve.
The only thing about it isyou're probably going to have to
come meet up with me becauseit's in my name, so hopefully
that's not too awkward for you,but I'd like to meet you.
They're like oh, like that'show your face moves, leo, and
you talk.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Yeah, it is.
My face doesn't move when Italk at all, so prepare yourself
for that.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
We also got a really nice new review on Apple
podcasts.
Oh, let me read it to you.
Yeah, read me this review.
It's from Jacob, hi, jacob.
So Jacob very nicely gave usfive stars and said we're fun
and clear.
Clear exclamation mark.
Love the podcast.
I love when leah goes on asmall anthropology lesson.
Thank you, jacob.
(21:27):
That's a really nice outlet todo that.
On the podcast they go on tosay they sound, the sound is
clear and that goes a long wayfor me.
I love hearing two people thatI feel like are on the same
wavelength as me.
Best of luck for y'all.
Exclamation point Thanks, jacob, thanks.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Jacob.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
And Jacob actually gave us a shout out on their
podcast, which is called Viva LaFestiva I did it like an
American which is called Viva LaFestiva podcast.
I'm sure I put the wrongemphasis on a syllable there,
but we will have it in the shownotes.
You should definitely check itout.
They gave us a shout out attheir Blobfest episode, which
was a few episodes ago, fromJanuary 21st.
(22:03):
Yeah, I'm going to have tocheck that out.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Yeah, you know, an appreciator of clear audio, I
feel like that is a podcast Ishould listen to, because I also
like when podcasts sound clearand audible.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
It is.
It's you know the way it should, be Also well edited.
Thank you, dan.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Thank you.
Thank you, Leah, foracknowledging my great skills.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
And the other bit of awesome news, before we get into
the depressing but importantstuff, is a elevator pitch from
Steven Urena, who is the creatorof Zombie Date Night, a zombie
romance comedy, and the sequelto their first comic is coming
out, and they've got aKickstarter going on right now
that we just backed, actually,because it's really an awesome
(22:47):
story.
We've read the first one, orI've read the first one.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
I still need to read it.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
And also they have really cool T-shirts and I was
like I absolutely have to getthis T-shirt as well as the
comic.
What floor do we want to go?
Speaker 1 (23:02):
on to listen to this elevator pitch.
I feel like it's the 14th floor, the 14th, yeah, okay.
Yeah, I'll hit the button, allright.
All right, this elevator takesforever.
Yeah, any good movies lately Idon't remember.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Oh, we're here.
Okay, are you ready?
I'm ready, I'm so ready.
Give it a listen, folks.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Hey, zombie Book Club .
What makes a blind date evenmore awkward?
Zombies, of course.
My name is Steve Urena and I'mthe author of the critically
acclaimed zombie rom-com ZombieDate Night.
This comic book series tellsthe tale of two people who meet
up for a blind date that thatgets interrupted by a zombie
invasion.
Will love prevail or is lovedead?
Right now, I'm currentlyrunning a campaign on
Kickstarter to help fund thesecond issue and could use your
(23:41):
help.
For all the zombie lovers outthere.
We've got something foreverybody All the best zombie
shirts, zombie posters, thefirst issue if you want to get
caught up, and even zombievalentines If you're looking for
a horror comic that's got somebite.
Say yes to Zombie Date Night.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Yes, that's got some bites.
Say yes to Zombie Date Night.
Yes, yes, I would love to go ona date with you on Zombie Date
Night.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
I love the premise of this.
What do you love most about it?
I've always said that thezombie apocalypse is like a
perfect place to tell any storythat you want, and the idea of a
zombie apocalypse happeningduring a blind date is hilarious
and also has a lot of room totell a great story yeah, the
(24:25):
first issue is really really fun.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
The art is amazing, which is always like a big one
for me.
You can look at it and knowwhat's happening without even
reading, and it's got a reallygreat unique cast of characters.
Some I've like never, just likepeople I would never have
expected to see in a story, butshould be.
I guess that's how I'm gonnasay without spoiling it yeah, um
, some very funny characters.
(24:47):
I feel like I'm being supervague right now.
One of them is storing pee umin jars.
Yeah, yeah, before theapocalypse yeah, so you can see
how your daydime might begetting ruined if you're running
into somebody who stores pee.
Yeah, but it's pretty great.
Definitely recommend checkingit out and we'll have the
Kickstarter in the show notesand highly recommend you back it
(25:09):
, because we really want to getthis next issue and I need the
shirt.
So, people, please, let's makesure this gets to the goal and
beyond please, let's make surethis gets to the goal and beyond
yeah, get leah a shirt.
Yeah, I gotta have thisshirtless over here.
She's got no shirts.
That sounds so scandalous.
I am indeed wearing a shirt.
Um, what would you do if Iwasn't?
(25:29):
I'd be cool with it.
Good, that's very feminist ofyou.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
I'm glad, okay yeah, don't, don't feel like you need
to wear a shirt on my account.
I'm a feminist.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
You know it's really funny because it's legal to be
topless as a woman in Canada.
Well, I actually I don't knowthe whole country, but
definitely Ontario was years agolike probably coming on 20
years ago that this waslegalized.
But you don't really see itvery often still.
It just shows you, like, thepower of culture and societal
norms where folks don't feelcomfortable doing that because
you're likely still going to getleered at, unfortunately.
(26:04):
Yeah, it's like the instagramnipple.
Is it a male nipple or a womannipple?
Speaker 1 (26:08):
one of them's sexy one of them, apparently, is just
fine yeah, you know, if, if, uh, if instagram gets you for
having the wrong kind of nipples, just cut and paste somebody
else's nipples over your nipplesand that's how you get past the
terms and conditions of ofinstagram work every time.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
I don't know how we got here from zombie date night,
but we did it's just that kindof day.
It is, it is and we want tomake it to naela's write-in.
That's happening in 30 minutes,so we, we're going to focus now
on a very uninteresting If youhave a better segment title for
this, which is just Fascism,apocalypse, survival, update
(26:44):
Things we're dealing yeah that's, we could make it a thing.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
What do you call them when you make a word out of the
letters of a sentence?
Anyways, it's Fu.
This is our fasu update.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Yeah, I can never remember the word acronym you
know I miss the days when wewould have the night of the
living misogyny, capitalistic,uh.
I don't even remember it allanymore.
Yeah, living dead.
Homophobic living dead,transphobic living dead.
That was fun.
Now we're just talking aboutreal things that suck, uh.
So we have a list of thingswe've been up to.
I really want to hear whatother folks have been up to and,
(27:23):
uh, we're just going to getinto it.
The number one thing I wouldsay is I hope you're doing stuff
now.
Yeah, what are you out theredoing?
What are you up to?
I'd like to know what you cantell us.
Are you preparing?
Speaker 1 (27:34):
are you?
Are you uh filling up yourzombie bunkers?
Speaker 2 (27:38):
yeah, but also, are you like out there helping fix
the problems that are alreadyvery clearly here?
Because something I readrecently was really profound for
me, which is this part of thisshock and awe.
Psychology is also to just bedistracting you on a million
different issues, and there's awhole bunch of things that
they're throwing out there thatmaybe they can do and maybe they
can't do, and some of them willstick and some of them won't.
Yeah, but the reality is like,right now there are unhoused
(28:01):
people who need help.
Right now, uh, there are peoplewho need abortions, who can't
get them.
Like all of this stuff wasalready happening, and so it's
like where can you help rightnow?
Yeah, and then for what youthink is most likely to come
next, prepare for.
So that's what I've beenthinking a lot about is like,
instead of getting distracted byeverything, is like what's the
thing I can do right now forpeople who need help now?
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Yeah, um people need help everywhere.
Yeah, you don't have to go toofar to find people who need help
.
Um greatest country in theworld.
They said people, you know you.
They said people, you know you.
You drive.
(28:42):
Drive five minutes, you seesome person's mansion and then,
right down the road, peoplestruggling america.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
I'm looking for uh, speaking of like things we're
doing, I'm looking for acommunity shared agriculture
membership a csa is what theycall it, or community supported
agriculture depends on the groupwhich s they use in that, in
that acronym speaking ofacronyms and there's one that's
about an hour from us.
That was really inspiring.
It's too far from us to get ourproduce from, but what I loved
about it was that they have avery clear policy which is
(29:07):
basically no one's turned away.
They already have veryaffordable rates, like it's
cheaper to buy from them than itis to go to the grocery store,
and they have a policy that'sjust like if you can't afford
this, tell us what you can, andif you can't afford anything, we
will still give you somethingto eat.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
That is great.
That's like a food bank.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Yeah, and that's the kind of community that we need
to be building more of.
So I'm going to try and findsomething like that here, and my
dream would be that we have arobust enough garden that we
share our produce in that way aswell.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Yeah, you know, building community, you know it
sounds like a daunting task but,like, sometimes I can just be
joining a CSA, like you don'thave to start the CSA, you could
just join one and you becomepart of that CSA community.
Yeah, and those communitiesbecome really important when
things get bad.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Yeah, that's where.
It's where our food comes from,which is so abstracted from so
many of us in the world that welive in.
And I want to acknowledge also,we're in a privileged location
where there's CSAs all around us.
We just get to choose one, andI would pick the one that's an
hour away purely for its ethics,except for the fact that
logistically it's just notviable for us to do so, you know
.
And then on the flip side oflike, where we want to buy stuff
(30:15):
, there's also just been areally concerted effort from us
and I know many others toboycott, boycott, boycott.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Yeah, all the terrible, terrible people,
because corporations are people.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Now, I mean, yeah, they have been for a while, for
a while.
And the people who run them andI don't mean the people who are
working for shit wages, yeah,the CEOs.
So we're moving away fromgoogle, google, wow, like you
really disappointed me, google II could go on a tirade just
about that.
Like really, really, google,yeah, really, you took away
block history month and women'shistory month and every single
(30:47):
other month on your calendarsand you got rid of your ai uh
promise to not use it forfucking weapons, let alone the
gulf of mexico.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Change like this is just a couple of examples way to
way to just roll right over forfascism, fascism, fascism
showed up and rang the doorbelland they just rolled onto their
back and they're like come on in.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Yeah, because they never gave a shit about people
in the first place.
That's what this is uh, veryenlightening and makes me think
about the z word by lindsey kingmill, how you know.
There's that like corporatepride and this.
These are all examples of likethey're friendly when they want
to be, but they don't actuallycare about us.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Yeah, they're just.
They're just there for themoney.
Yeah, you know one that's noton on this list Target.
Yep, target is like a perfectexample of that.
We're like a year ago, you knowyou could, you'd go there to
get all your pride swag, but nowthey've completely gotten rid
of their dei and there's a lotof information coming out now
(31:48):
that uh suggests that target wasnever really doesn't really
make their money from sellinggoods to people.
They make it by spying on youwhen you go to their store.
They sell data of you and theymake dossiers on everybody that
walks through the front door,everybody who hangs out outside,
(32:08):
and they report that to lawenforcement and the government.
It's messed up.
So they are a thinly veiledsurveillance company that
masquerades as a departmentstore.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
At this point, most large corporations that we're
buying things from are also orjust using, like Google, being
quote unquote free.
They are harvesting from us.
We are a factory of informationthat they use to make money.
Amazon we have kicked ourAmazon habit.
We got rid of Prime, which isheartbreaking because we were in
the middle of watching thesecond season of In the Flesh,
which is so good, but our Primemembership that we had canceled
(32:44):
officially ran out and we justhad to look at each other and be
like I guess we're not going toknow.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Yeah, also, I utilized all of my uh, all of my
credits in audible um, becausewhen you cancel your your you
know your audible subscription,you don't keep the credits, they
disappear, they're jerks um.
You keep all the books that youbuy with the credits, but those
(33:09):
credits disappear.
So I had like seven credits so Ibought uh, I think I bought
like four books from um courtney, constantine, yep, wow,
babysitter of the apocalypse soexcited to read that one and
then one from, uh, her newerseries, I think, um, and then I
bought some, a couple sarahlyons plumbing books and, uh,
(33:33):
maybe something else along theway, I'm not sure, but I used up
all those credits.
I was like they are not gettingmy fucking credits.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
That's good, and it's actually this is a good.
I'm glad you said that, becauseI have seen some interesting
stuff around Kindle and indieauthors saying, hey, like,
boycott everything else, butcould you not boycott us?
And I think that that's veryfair, because this is the main
model for indie writers to gettheir books out there and for us
to read them.
So that's like the one place Ido still have my kindle
unlimited.
I don't think that's necessarybecause I want to support indie
(34:02):
authors and a lot of those folksare not yet in libraries.
But the other place I'm goingfor books that are, um, widely
available is libby, a libraryapp I think I've used libby like
once you also can haveaudiobooks from lib.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Yeah, I think that's why I got it.
I don't remember what Ilistened to.
It was a long time ago, though.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Yeah, so keep supporting indie authors in the
ways that we have available, butthey often have websites and
you can often buy physicalcopies.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Yeah, I use Amazon right now as a search engine, so
I search all the things that Iwant to buy and then I look up
all of the companies that areselling the things that I want
to buy and I go directly totheir website.
I did that with a few things, Afew of well.
Actually, that's what I didwhen I bought our survival
rations.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
You looked on Amazon and bought it directly.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Yeah, I love that.
I found Augustine Farms righton Amazon and then I'm like I'm
going to your website, clickAugustine Farms right on Amazon,
and then I'm like I'm going toyour website, click, click,
click.
And I mean it took longer.
I couldn't just click on thingsand check out like I was I
would normally do on Amazon,which is a bummer.
But also it means that I'm notlike impulse buying shit from
Amazon and now I just do thatfrom AliExpress.
(35:13):
I don't know enough about them,aliexpress.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
I don't know enough about them.
And then the other part aboutthis too is divesting from the
search engines, divesting fromGoogle Maps, gmail, google
Search.
Like I've had to retrain mybrain because I've been saying
you know, there's even a website, wwwgooglethatcom.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
For people you know, and I'd send my mom to that when
she'd ask me how to dosomething that I would also have
to.
Google, but I'm now trying toreplace that word with search,
which is actually what it is.
They've branded my brain andI'm trying to use alternative
things for search engines, forbrowser apps and for maps, and
it's hard.
I've been used to that stufffor a long time, but it's not
(35:56):
like end of the world hard.
Yeah, it's just a little bit ofa reshift and I got to give YK
Reborn on Instagram that's theirhandle Some credit.
You should go check them out.
They have a whole series aboutwhat your other options are.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Yeah, like a good example.
I use Google Maps all the timeat work because, like 90% of the
time, I don't know where I'mgoing.
So I have to follow Google Mapsto get to where I'm going and
that's just been my default.
I haven't even thought aboutany other ways because I mean, I
tried a few but they didn'treally do the job, especially
(36:31):
for truck driving.
Some trucks aren't allowed todrive on a lot of roads Not that
Google helps a lot with that,but just like it was a better
experience than other things.
Anyways, my point is um, nowI'm gonna have to, like, start
using ways instead, um, and hopethat ways has come a long way
since the last time I tried themso I hate to tell you that ways
(36:53):
is also still not on the goodlist, fuck um.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
but there are other ones and I don't have them open
because I didn't know I wouldtalk about this right now.
That's why I'm going to justput a link to YK Reborn on
Instagram and you can seeeverything there.
You can also support them onPatreon, which I do too, because
they have really amazinginformation around tech justice
specifically, and they provideda lot of really great content
around, like what search enginesyou want to use, what different
(37:18):
maps there are.
There's so many that I can'tlike just name off the top of my
head right now with certainty.
So check that link out.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
Waze is on the no-go list.
I forget why.
I think it was bought out bysomebody.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
That sounds about right.
On the same note, like, it'salso important to like, educate
yourself about, like about yourdata security, because there's
so many things that'll just kindof leech data from you and all
of that information can be usedagainst you.
It doesn't matter if you'vedone anything wrong or not.
It will be used against you insome way.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Yeah, I think also getting a one password kind of
an app, something has a moresecure passwords is really key
in this time, um, having anykind of security around your
identity, because all of thatavailable, all that information,
is now just like hanging outwith some, some incel yeah, I
wasn't gonna say that but some,some young people who are
enamored with musk yeah probablyI mean to be frank the age that
(38:17):
they are.
I think I was not a fan ofeinrand by the time I was in my
like 20s, but definitely when Iwas like 16 I thought that
objectivism was the shit.
And if somebody like musk hadcome up to me and been like you
can help me, atlas, shrug let'sall the powerful, smart people
who making this world's function.
What if we all shrug and takeaway our power and magic,
(38:38):
they'll realize how important weare.
Whatever, I don't know ifyou've read Atlas Shrugged, I'm
just.
This is basically the argument.
It's very stupid.
I don't think I need.
I'm not going to go on a rantabout why it's stupid, but if
you want a rant about why I hateAtlas Shrugged and I'm ranned
(38:59):
let me know, I'd be happy tosupply one.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
Yeah, I'd like to hear it you would.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
I have not read atlas shrugged.
Oh, um, but um, not today.
We'll have a future one onatlas shrugged if other people
want to hear it.
My point is is that I was.
I had that same mentality, andso, like I get why they're doing
it, I just think it'sunfortunate that they never had
any other exposure.
That which is why I'm not notan objectivist anymore and not
an Ayn Rand fan, but I was.
I have to be honest.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Also important lesson just because it's in a book
doesn't mean it's right.
No, some people will readsomething in a book and think
that books are like holy.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
Yeah, there is a tradition of that in this
country.
There is, yeah, holy books,just one specifically.
Um, yeah, there's a traditionof that in this country.
There is, yeah, holy books,just one specifically.
Must be interpreted veryliterally, but only some parts.
Let's disregard a lot of others.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
yeah, you know, because, because you know,
things like kindness and um anduh, compassion, uh, they're just
, they're just so behind thetimes.
You, you know, that's just oldnews.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
Yeah, oh.
Jesus would roll in his graveif he wasn't resurrected, I
guess.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Could we harness the energy from Jesus rolling in his
grave?
Speaker 2 (40:10):
But he's not in a grave, he's a zombie, he is a
zombie.
So this brings me back to whoshould have been president.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
Zombie Jesus.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
No, what's his name?
The guy who wears the boot onhis hat, on his head?
Speaker 1 (40:22):
vermin love supreme.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
We wanted to use zombies for clean energy.
That's what we could use zombieJesus for, yeah he's out there,
let's find out they're angry.
I think we just offended atleast one person listening to
this.
I also want to have one caveat,which is like, if you don't
have any other options, you livein a food apartheid, meaning
like you just can't get thingsnear you that you need and your
(40:45):
best and cheapest option is oneof these things.
Then I understand it.
Yeah.
I also want to be clear that,like all of this shit we're
doing now, we should have beendoing a long time ago, and I'm
embarrassed to say that it tookthis for me to get there.
Yeah, but I'm here now.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Sometimes it does take a catastrophe to make you
start planning for thecatastrophe that just happened.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
Yeah, and I think you know we've been in a position
of revelative privilege in a lotof ways, and so these were
things like I was boycottingsome stuff and not other stuff.
But I think this has just madeit very starkly clear that we
need to get away from these uhsystems that they make us think
that we need them, and towardsmore community stuff like a tool
library, which is one of themany things I'm going to be
pitching at our hoa meeting thisyear.
(41:28):
Yeah, dan, what do you thinkabout signal?
Speaker 1 (41:32):
signal, um, signal's great.
You should.
You should use Signal insteadof texting.
Yes, because you know why?
Because everyone can see yourtext messages.
Your phone company, yourinternet service provider, they
can all access that data veryeasily, and that's just through
legal means.
(41:52):
People who use less legal meanscan also access them very
easily.
Signal is encrypted andencrypted, and the only people
who can see that message is youand the person who messaged you.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Unless you leave it on your phone.
There's an option to autodelete messages, which I
recommend as well, and it's alsoa nonprofit that's open source,
yeah, so that made me feelreally good about it, and I've
been.
That's one of my things is,I've just been telling people
like you want to talk to me,you're going to have to come on
to Signal because I'm not doingit anywhere else.
And these are all things that Istill think to myself.
Am I being paranoid?
And I decided no, nope, no, ifsomeone can get arrested for
(42:35):
basically saying saying likewhat you're doing is not okay,
taking away a priorauthorization from me and my
family I forget what thatwoman's name was.
It was right after luigimangione.
Oh yeah, I shouldn't.
Well, you know, it's allegedwhatever.
Right after the ceo killerincident yeah she.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
She said, uh, denied offend, depose yes On the phone
that you arrested her.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
Yeah, so like if you're sending, like Ooh,
Luigi's so hot and his greensweater means I saw one going
around that says my favoritemurderer, which made me laugh,
Cause also there's the podcastand favorite murder.
But anyways, if you're doingthat and you enough other stuff
that you're texting like thatcould be enough one day to get
(43:23):
you in trouble.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
That's the world we're in, so let's not be doing
that.
Let's not give them anything touse against us.
Yeah, don't give them anything.
Also, don't talk to cops ever.
No, you know, if they'retalking to you, you just shut
your fucking mouth.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Also border guards.
They're basically cops.
So you, you tell them theminimum amount of information
you need.
I've learned that don't evertalk back to them.
That's's also a bad time.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Don't joke with them.
No, don't be nice to them.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
I mean, that's a privileged position that we can
say because we have passportsand are white.
So some people that might notbe the smartest advice.
To be me, I don't think any.
I don't really think actuallyit's good advice to be not nice
to a border guard you'd be.
Speaker 1 (43:54):
You'd be polite, I mean more like you don't.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
You don't have to go out of your way to like help
them yeah, or be nice to them,yeah, dan, do you want to tell
us why you want to buy a handgun, or do you want to just skip
that?
Speaker 1 (44:06):
um, I mean real brief .
First of all, we have guns, but, um, we'd look really weird
walking around town toting a 12gauge under our arm and I just
see the direction that thingsare going and I think it's going
to be one day possibly verydangerous just to exist in this
(44:29):
country, and I think that's theintention and I think that,
especially as much time as Ispend away from home, I think I
need it to possibly get out ofreally bad scenarios that I
might be put into in the future.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
This one's a hard one for me, because I don't want
more guns and I definitely don'twant a world where you need
guns.
And I also worry about a worldwhere you have one on you and
you're on high alert and thenyou make a choice that you
regret later.
Um, because that is a that's areal thing, that has happened
and can happen, and I I knowthat you are a veteran, no,
(45:06):
you're very skilled with a gun,um, but there's always added
risk, in a way, if you'recarrying one.
So part of me is like, okay, I,I'm okay with you getting, but
not using, like not having it onyou right now.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
Yeah, that defeats the purpose.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
Well, it's available if stuff gets there.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
Yeah, that would lead into my secondary reasoning is
that if things get really badand we need to escape, it's
easier to escape if you canconceal your weapon and not look
like a threat.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone.
It's such a weird conversation.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Well, I mean this is not something new that we've
considered is the possibilitythat the United States might be
so messed up that we would haveto leave.
What I'm saying is, if it gotthat bad, we would probably need
to be armed for a little while,and we would have to then do so
(46:04):
in a way that didn't look likewe were armed.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
The irony of that is, if we're trying to escape to
Canada, they're not going to letus across the border.
With your handgun, I'd throw it.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
I'd toss it out at the border.
Speaker 2 (46:14):
I wonder if you could just hand it to them and say I
don't need this now.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
I don't think that they have an amnesty policy.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
I guess we have to look into this A couple miles
before the border.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
We could just toss it in a trash can.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
So this is what I mean by that locus of control
and what things are on thehorizon and what things are
possibly a little bit furtherout.
I think full lockdown and likecomplete authoritarian
government, where we have noagency and there's full chaos,
is a little ways out if it getsthere, and so I prefer if we
focused on what we can do to besustaining here and now, like
(46:54):
our garden, um, like thecommunity stuff that we keep
talking about, like youcontinuing to protest, like
calling your representatives,because I did learn it makes a
difference.
Even republicans are quietlyasking for money to get released
, uh, to their state, becausepeople are calling and saying,
hey, there's all this moneythat's supposed to come to us
for these things and they'reit's not and some of the money
(47:14):
is getting released.
It's not fair how it'shappening, but it is happening
and that's because people aremaking phone calls.
So I hear you about the desirefor a gun, and I'm sure there's
other people listening to this.
I think it's like a reallycontentious topic and it's
really confusing, because in aworld that I want to live in, we
don't need a gun.
But the weird thing aboutliving in america is it's like,
um, because more and more peoplehave guns, and particularly
(47:37):
people who are opposed to theexistence of everybody but
themselves have a lot of guns,like I see why it becomes
necessary, but I'm veryuncomfortable with it,
especially being, like, thefirst thing that we do.
I'd rather focus on otherthings personally, like debt
repayment.
That's also a big thing we'retalking about and doing.
I realize a lot of stuff Idon't need, so I'm not buying it
(47:59):
and we're trying to get asdebt-free as we can so that if
one of us loses our job, we cankeep our house.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
Yeah, In general, it's uncomfortable to talk about
why I feel like I need afirearm especially when I
already have them.
I need a firearm, especiallywhen I already have them.
I also don't want to live in aworld where I feel like it's
necessary to carry one.
I just feel like that's wherewe're heading, and I don't
(48:25):
necessarily want to be caughtunaware when that time comes.
That's my feeling, and that'sthat.
Speaker 2 (48:32):
Yeah, and I respect that.
I just feel scared of a worldwhere we're talking about this
to other people who are alsogoing to make decisions that are
similar or not similar, and theweight of what either of us
have to say about it scares me.
Yeah, I think it's also a realconversation, so that's why I
wanted to have it on the pod.
At the end of the day, I do somany things in the last six
(48:53):
months that I've said that Inever thought I would say I am
in Well, I can barely say it.
I am in support of you gettinga handgun.
I'm not ready for you to bewalking around with it.
That's where I'm at and I knowI don't have control over that
because you're your own person,but that's where that's like my
personal comfort level at thistime.
Yeah, and it's just confusingout there.
Speaker 1 (49:17):
I don't like that.
We're even talking about it.
Yeah, I get that and you knowlet's, I've I've tried not to be
reactionary about it.
So, um, I do, I do hear whatyou're saying, um, and I think
what you're saying is logical,uh, which is why I've kind of uh
focused on other things that Ihave that are a little bit less
dangerous and a little bit morein my control, like working on
(49:39):
this vertical garden.
Speaker 2 (49:41):
Yeah, that's really exciting.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
It is and it feels really good.
So I just recently got a 3Dprinter.
But I've been a 3D artist for along, long time, so I have a
lot of power when it comes toprinting and knowing what to do.
So I've just been playingaround with it and I printed a
(50:04):
couple planters.
I'm going to need a lot more,but it's really cool and it
makes me feel like I'm doingsomething.
And I also like the plastic thatyou use in a 3D printer.
It's called PLA and it's notactually petroleum-based plastic
(50:26):
.
It's a plant-based polyethylene.
You don't want to eat thisstuff but at the same time, it
does decompose, given enoughtime.
It's not harmful to you.
It doesn't have a lot of toxinsthat'll seep into your blood
and kill you over time.
So I like that.
(50:47):
I can use this material that'srelatively safe comparatively to
what is also available out onthe market is also available out
on the market.
And, no matter what, I havethese files and as long as I can
get my hands on some plastic, Ican make these things and have
a little bit more control overwhether or not we're able to eat
(51:08):
in the future.
And plus, I've always wanted totry vertical farming.
I think it's really cool.
Speaker 2 (51:13):
You've been talking about it for years.
But the systems are soexpensive, so are we able to
make it ourselves.
They are for a couple of parts,like it's going to be a
fraction of the cost, yeah.
And for folks who sometimes ourbodies aren't working so great,
to have access to somethingthat can be in the house, even
with a grow light, uh, is alsoreally game changing.
So I'm really grateful that wehave all these options, yeah.
Speaker 1 (51:33):
And I really love automated stuff too, like I like
to automate.
Speaker 2 (51:37):
Yeah, if you had all the time in the world, I can
only imagine the cool things youwould have done by now around
our property.
Speaker 1 (51:43):
Yeah, I'd like, I'd like to think so yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:47):
The other thing is I want to say don't panic, but
also panic enough to keep doingstuff.
I don't know, it's a hard time.
I had a really intenseconversation with, uh, my
co-worker.
My internet wasn't working, sowe ended up being on the phone
and we just started getting intoit.
They're in texas, um, and itwas interesting to realize that
(52:09):
we're talking about the samethings with our own networks and
that we have the opportunity tohelp each other from many
states apart.
And, um, for her, theconversation was really
validating because she was likeokay, I feel like I'm not crazy
anymore, like I feel like I,these are things that make sense
for you doing.
I was like, yeah, in texasespecially, yes, you should be
doing everything, um that youneed to, and she knows I have
(52:31):
her back and I think that thatlike she was like that means a
lot because she's like I don'tknow where I would go if things
get bad here.
And I was like I know Vermont'sfar away and I know it's super
white.
She's a black woman, but we'rehere.
I'm not saying it's necessarilyanybody's first choice If
you're a person of color up here, like it's got its own issues,
but it's close to Canada andit's not Texas.
(52:54):
Yeah, so the big thing is it'snot texas.
Yeah, so the big thing is it'snot texas.
Yeah, sorry, laurie.
Yeah, and james, who we justtalked to, all right, james too.
Yeah, oh man, it's scruffythere.
I you know, I feel like I'mreally struggling in this
episode to say things because Idon't actually know what the
right thing is to do yeah and Idon't think of us do, and that's
(53:17):
why it's like you said, Danjust pick something, do
something that makes you feellike you're in a little bit of
control.
Speaker 1 (53:22):
Yeah, feel a little bit in control and for me that
was, um, you know, having alittle bit of security over our
food.
You know, buying reserve food.
I'm also going to startshopping on Webster on store.
I'm also going to startshopping on Webster on store.
It's a website whererestaurants buy bulk food from
at a much lower price.
Yeah, I'm going to, I'm going tostart getting like some really
(53:45):
like some staples from there,like a 50 pound bag of of beans
or something I don't know, andthat should, that should help a
lot because, like, if we can notonly like to have a reserve of
food food but also spend lessmoney and also just having a
large amount of food available,we're not like, oh, don't use
(54:06):
that, because we need that forSunday.
It's like, if you have a50-pound bag of it, it's like,
yeah, use whatever you want.
I guess I'm going on a rant.
My point is that, taking alittle bit of control over that,
something that gives me a lotof anxiety is what happens when
all of the US's trading partnersare back out and don't want
(54:29):
anything to do with us, while wealso don't have enough
workforce to do farming inAmerica and suddenly there's a
huge food shortage yeah um, andyou know doing, doing some
little things like this thatmight help it might.
Speaker 2 (54:46):
I mean, canadians are so pissed at us.
Let's just end there.
Yeah, my family came to visitand they were like we are not
spending one penny in thiscountry.
Yeah, and also, let me knowthat we could live there, which
I was like.
I know it's already already mybackup plan.
I'm aware of how lucky I am tohave my canadian passport.
Still, I am not letting.
Actually, I should look up theexpiration date.
I'm making sure I always haveone on hand.
(55:07):
Yeah, very lucky to have thatoption.
Hope you're safe out there.
Um, if you're feeling confused,let us know.
If you've got other ideas ofthings you're doing, let us know
.
Like this, this episode is asmuch for dan and I just talk
shit through as it is foranybody listening, and we're
certainly not experts.
We're just muddling our wayalong and hoping you're doing
okay, yeah, take control of thethings that you can.
(55:27):
Yeah, and let us know whatthose are.
Speaker 1 (55:29):
If you feel like sharing and it's safe to share
work on your cyber security,work on your food security, I I
don't know Some other things.
Speaker 2 (55:37):
Talk to your neighbors.
Speaker 1 (55:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (55:39):
That's a typical one, but also talk to your coworker.
That was a wild conversation Idid not expect to have with my
coworker and now we're on eachother's signal.
That's how it happens.
Thanks for joining us.
Thanks for joining us on thebook club.
Speaker 1 (55:53):
Thanks guys.
Speaker 2 (55:54):
You can support us by leaving a rating or review.
We love reviews and ratings.
Yeah, we eat them up.
Speaker 1 (56:00):
I love them a lot.
They really help us out too.
Speaker 2 (56:02):
Yeah, and if you want to talk about what you're doing
or how you're feeling at thistime, you can send us a
voicemail at 614-699 0006 orsend us an email at
zombiebookclubpodcast atgmailcom uh, you can also find
us on instagram.
Speaker 1 (56:15):
Zombie book club podcast.
Uh, on on instagram.
I know it's owned by meta, butyou know we also built our
entire fucking following there.
But also I'm on blue sky.
You want to look me up, dan,the zombie writer?
I'm, uh, I'm posting some stuffon behalf of myself and zombie
book club.
Speaker 2 (56:35):
Yeah, and then combined account you can always
hang out with us at brainmunchers zombie collective.
Speaker 1 (56:40):
I've also set up an email list.
I'm gonna put the link in thedescription.
It's really important,especially right now, as we just
mentioned.
Instagram's owned by meta andall of our entire thing has been
Instagram such thus far.
We don't want to be reliant onthings like these in the future,
(57:01):
like that sway our opinions tolike stay on a platform just
because that's where people knowwhere to find us.
So if you sign up on ournewsletter, the email list, we
can stay in contact with youeven if everything goes to hell
yeah, the email list and discordare two great ways to stay
connected and a ham radio oneday.
(57:23):
But for now made of ham.
Speaker 2 (57:25):
Might sound crazy, but the end is nigh, baby.
Bye, bye, bye.
Oh my god, don't die, don't die, don't die bye.
Welcome to the Zombie Book Club, the only book club
where the book is a copingmechanism during an age of
growing fascism, and sometimesit doesn't work so well.
I'm Dan and when I'm not coping, as best as I know how, by
hyperventilating in the basementeating Fritos.
I'm writing a book about afuture where fascism controls
our entire governing body andrampant corruption and corporate
(00:47):
authoritarian interestscompletely hobbles every social
safety net, just in time for azombie outbreak to wipe us all
out.
I do want to point out thatI've been writing this book for
like more than a decade, so I'llsee you in court, gop uh, I'm
leah and I'm here.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I'm alive.
I play way too much katanlately.
That is my main copingmechanism oh yeah, the katans
yeah, uh, and today's a casualdead.
Thank god I love our interviews, but sometimes I just need to
rant at you.
Oh yeah, from across ourpodcast table in our zombie
bunker yeah, I feel like.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Uh, we used to have casual deads, as like every
episode, for like the beginningyeah, we were just talking to
each other.
Yeah, and whoever was listeningum, but yeah, I also.
I also much, much love thecasuals yeah, it's a nice.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
It's a nice change and also, I think, especially in
this time, like it, it doesfeel weird to go about business
as usual and be like get thiszombie book, but we do actually
still want you to get the zombiebooks.
It's just strange to have theselike expansive periods of time,
or two whole weeks, which justfeels very like a lot happens
right now in two weeks.
Two weeks or two years, yeah,two weeks, sometimes three weeks
(01:54):
if we've got lots of interviews.
You want to make sure we getout where we just like not
talking to you about the realshit, the real apocalypse, um,
that we're living through.
So that's what we're doingtoday.
But we also have some funthings to chat about, like
vending a living dead weekendthis summer, and some not so fun
things to chat about, likeresistance strategies under
fascism.
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
And, on another high note, an elevator pitch from a
fellow zombie creator, StevenUrena Zombie Date Night.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
We'll be talking about that in a little bit.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, that'll be in there.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
It'll be in here somewhere.
It'll be coming shortly.
Yes, and it's really great.
It's interesting.
We had a bit of a quiet period,with elevator pitches, and then
January came and all of asudden we've got a bunch.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
What is it about?
Speaker 2 (02:36):
January.
People are no longer drinkingand eating and being merry.
They're trying to do stuff, Iguess I guess so that must be it
.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
eating and being married, they're trying to do
stuff, I guess I guess, so thatmust be it.
Uh, we release episodes everysunday, so sub scuba dive yeah,
I wrote that.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, I think it's because I'm trying to um tell
you something about what I mightlike for my birthday you want
to go scuba diving for yourbirthday?
Speaker 1 (02:59):
I do.
I thought you wanted an artcart.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
At this point I want another hundred pounds of food
supplies or like a bunch ofstuff for our garden, yeah, but
I would love to learn how toscuba dive.
Life updates Leah, yeah, we'realso calling this segment how
we're coping.
How are we coping?
How are you all coping outthere Eating Fritos?
Speaker 1 (03:20):
in the basement.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
That's a lie.
Dan is not eating.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Well, have you eaten?
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Actually, you know what Maybe you have?
Do I need to see?
Speaker 1 (03:28):
where the Fritos are in the bunker.
Here's the thing.
You know, all that emergencyfood that we bought yeah, I
actually ate it, and I've beenhiding Fritos inside of the
buckets that I don't tell youabout.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Wow, I mean Fritos would probably stick around for
a long time.
We could start saving them.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
They don't, though, because I've been eating them
Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Is there a secret stash of Fritos in this house?
No, Darn it.
I was about to be like let'shave some Fritos.
Nobody tell me about the Fritos.
Although who makes Fritos?
Because I have a feeling it'sabout to be on our band list
(04:12):
fritos makes it well, no fritolays.
Okay, well, who owns?
Who owns?
Frito lays?
This is like my part-time job.
Pepsi co.
Of course.
Well, yeah, we shouldn't.
We shouldn't be consuminganymore.
We shouldn't be consuminganything.
It's true um only only wateryeah, because Cause the Pepsi
supports the Israel war.
Yeah, israel war with Hamas.
And quotation marks AKAgenocide.
And yes, there's a ceasefireright now.
Maybe there isn't when you'relistening to this.
I don't, don't hold me, I'm not.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
This is not the news.
The Israel versus innocentcivilians war.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah, um, but yeah, pepsi's is on our list of of
no-goes, but uh, he's on ourlist of no-goes, but uh, how,
how are we coping?
Um, I don't think I am coping.
I think you're doing better.
I think, since you went to thatprotest, which was, I think,
our last casual dead, you'redoing a little bit better.
You're writing again yeah, um,but otherwise I don't know.
You're making me really tastyfood every day that's how,
(05:01):
that's the.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Is that coping?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
um, you're turning to me in the middle of the night
and saying, Leah, we need ahandgun immediately.
And I had to be like I love youand I understand that urge, but
I don't think that that is theactual thing we need right at
this moment.
I think we need other things.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
I heard you say yes.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
I said yes.
Eventually I said let's get ourgarden set up and let's work
more on the community buildingstuff we want to do, because
it's not the time for the gun um, agree to disagree.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Uh yeah, writing has been a little bit better.
I haven't.
I haven't been writing anythingnew.
That's the thing.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Um, I've been going through all of my old stuff
which needs to happen this isall the stuff you you mouth
wrote this summer while you weredriving yeah, last summer.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Well, it's also everything I've written before
that.
So everything, um and yeah,like getting all of that sorted
and like make, make thebeginning make sense, that's,
that's priority number one,because I cannot write anymore
until I get things.
Uh.
So what I have now, after thepast couple weeks of just like
(06:07):
re-editing old stuff, is I nowhave like five chapters that I
would feel comfortable sendingto an editor.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
This is a live update , because last I checked it was
four, so that's great.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
I miscounted.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Oh, okay, I was going to say that was like two days
ago.
You told me that, yeah, butthat's very exciting.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
I'm going chapter by chapter whenever I get a chance
and I will get a chance latertoday because we're going to be
doing Naila's write-in.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, naila King, who we had on the show a couple
weeks ago, a zombie bestie ofours has a Discord called
Naila's Ghost Carnival, Ibelieve, and every weekend
almost, we have had to miss acouple because of a snowstorm in
my family.
Um, or no, you did participatelast week with my family here,
didn't you?
I don't know, I think you didand I remember you trash talking
my mom to naila maybe.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Yeah, you know what now it's coming, it's coming
back to me.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
This is why I tell my mother to never listen to the
podcast anyways.
Um yeah, she has weeklywrite-ins.
They're really fun.
Dan and I both do it.
I usually write Zombie BookClub podcast emails and Dan
writes.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Some other things I've done to cope is trying to
take control of our destiny alittle bit in this very
uncertain time.
One of those things is weordered a bunch of shelf-stable
food, not an unlimited supply,but 100 pounds, so that's
something.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
It would last the three of us about 30 days.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yeah, that's a really good start actually, and that
could mean the differencebetween life and death.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
sometimes it could mean the difference between
keeping our house or getting ittaken.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Yeah, true, and also- .
Speaker 2 (07:43):
To be clear, sorry, I'm just going to say we are not
at risk of losing our houseright now, but these are things
we think about in these times.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
They can have it over my cold dead body.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Okay, this is why he wants a handgun, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Also, I've been using my 3D printer brand new 3D
printer.
I've been printing a lot ofthings and I'm printing pieces
for, like, a vertical garden,which we'll probably talk about
later.
Yeah, we'll talk about thisstuff in more detail.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
That's our whole Fashions and Apocalypse Survival
Update segment.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
I bring it up because it's how I'm coping.
I think it's important to namethat because taking control of
little, tiny things in your lifewill make you feel like you're
doing something to you know,stave off the all the horrible
news.
Well, it is going to theprotest, felt like it felt like
(08:35):
I did something yeah, it isreally important to feel like
you have that internal.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
It's called the internal locus of control
according to psychotherapy, andright now we're being barraged
so violently and part of thepsychological effort of that is
to feel like you have no control, so you'll just concede.
So anything you can do rightnow that feels like you are
doing something towards a betterworld, a safer world for
yourself and for others, isgoing to make, is going to help.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Yeah yeah, um, how have you been coping, leah?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
well, um, I remember when the election happened and I
said oh, you know, I'm likereally into my chanting right
now.
I've been meditating a lot.
My yoga practice is like onlock.
None of that's happening rightnow.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Oh, seems like a drastic shift.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Yeah, hard, hard pendulum swing yeah, I mean I'm
still doing yoga a little bit.
Lenswing yeah, I mean I'm stilldoing yoga a little bit.
I sometimes chant a little bitin my head if I'm like waiting
in line somewhere or something,but I've definitely fully just
like fallen out of all of mypractices that are healthy
coping mechanisms and I havedove really deep into a game
(09:39):
called Catan.
Let me know if you're also aplayer of Catan, because then
you can come play it with me onCatan Universe online, which is
where I'm spending most of mytime.
In fact, it's an obsession thatis so intense that I have to
actively choose to work insteadof play it.
Uh, dan has listened to me.
Just wander around the houselike in between meetings, being
like I cannot play katan rightnow.
I need to work.
(10:00):
I have to finish this document.
So that's been very seriousdissociation.
I've also watched like fourdifferent international seasons
of love is blind, a bunch of 90day fiance and all the spinoffs
um, oh, and I've been going toget acupuncture and I've
discovered melatonin is reallygreat.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
So that's where I'm at yeah, the, the acupuncture
I've been very happy hearingabout from you yeah, it's made a
difference so far.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Yeah, it makes me really sleepy after, which I
guess is normal.
And also, the person that I'mgoing to is not just an
acupuncturist, but also I forgetwhat their degree is, but they
have some degree in like what.
Is it Not a kinesiology?
I think is what it is.
It's like sports medicine oh solike a physical therapist.
(10:55):
They're not a physical therapist, but, for the first time ever,
no one has ever explained to methe mechanics of how plantar
fasciitis happens in the waythat he has.
So he has me doing some thingsthat I'm hopeful, for the first
time in a long time, couldcontinue to put me on my
recovery journey, which is veryup and down all over the place.
So that's nice yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
And you also had a really bad issue with your leg
where it was going numb.
Yeah, and how long did thattake to clear up after going to
acupuncture?
Speaker 2 (11:16):
It was two sessions I went on a Wednesday and a
Friday and it was basically gone.
Then I had a slight relapsewhen I sat on a very hard chair
all day playing games with mymom when she was visiting.
But it was very slight and Ihaven't really had issues since.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
So that's good.
Yeah, I, I always, I alwaysthought that like acupuncture
was just one of those things,that it's like um placebo, yeah,
like a placebo a thing.
But like you know, we've we'vegotten it for our dog who has a
back problem.
And now you've, you've had itand you can report on like how
(11:52):
effective that was, and I thinkit's really amazing it's a lot
gentler than a lot of the otherthings that I've done.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Yeah, you know, um, but I like.
I think why I like this inparticular is because I'm doing
exercises and stretches, uh,that are different from ones
I've been told to do before,which is kind of wild.
Sometimes, because you have achronic illness, you get so many
different perspectives andexpert opinions, so this is a
different expert opinion I'mtrying out, so I like that.
He does both and who knows,maybe it's placebo, maybe it's
(12:20):
not, but I have seen it help ourdog and I have seen it help our
horse before he passed awayYears ago.
He had some back issues and hegot acupuncture made a big
difference for him.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
I'd like to see an acupuncturist in a zombie
apocalypse story.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
That's interesting.
I will have to bring that up tomy acupuncturist.
What would you do in a zombieapocalypse?
That's what I'm going to comein how you in a zombie
apocalypse that's what I'm gonnacome how would you help people?
He's gonna say, how are youdoing how's?
How's your leg numbness?
And I'll be like, uh, I don'twant to talk about that.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
I'm gonna pay you to tell me what you do in the
apocalypse?
Yeah, because I mean, I don'treally know a whole lot about
acupuncture, but I know thatthere's like a wide range of
things that you can treatthrough acupuncture.
Um, when I was first goingthrough my VA disability claims,
uh, like a year and a half agothe the one that I'm currently
waiting on um, one of the firstpeople I talked to, um, she
(13:14):
wasn't an acupuncturist anymore,uh, but she used to be a
licensed practicingacupuncturist and told me a lot
of interesting things.
Um, I had, I had, I had no idea, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Well, I mean, it is a medicine tradition that's been
around for thousands of years,and I think Western medicine
sometimes believes that there'sa hierarchy where, like, that's
the best way to do things andhow I know everything, and I
just don't think that that'strue.
So I'm trying it.
We'll see what happens.
Worst case scenario after asession, as I'm extremely
relaxed, which I think hasactually helped me feel a little
more centered the last fewweeks, but I can't even say a
(13:50):
few weeks.
It's been like a month sincethe inauguration, but like the
last week has been, it feelslike years.
Yeah, and I also want to talkabout some things that we're
grateful for before we get intosome of the harder stuff.
Yeah, I'm grateful for thewrite-ins with naela me too,
I've something to look forwardto every week.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Yeah, yeah, um, and I , and I hope that we continue
this well into my summer workseason because, yeah, I get, I
get a lot done when I'm.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
When I do it, it's really great yeah, I'm grateful
for this podcast because itgives me something to do, and I
remarked to dan recently westarted it, I don't know a few
months after atlas, our horsedied, and I think this podcast
podcast takes approximately theexact same amount of time that
having a horse did, but andthere's still some expenses but
much less expensive than a horse.
(14:37):
So thanks for being my newhobby.
Yeah, um, and I'm mostly reallygrateful that, like, while
things are bad, I keepremembering that we have power,
we have a house, we have twosweet dogs that love us, I've
got a really wonderful partnerand I currently am employed and
can feed myself and groceryprices while they have been
going up or not out of the parkfor us to be able to afford
(14:59):
right now, and so this is theprime time to like, just look
around and be grateful for whatyou do have, if you do have any
of those things, yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
And you know I I'm grateful that I have a job to go
to at the end of the winter.
Not that I want to go to it,but you know, while it's like
the best case scenario that my,my disability claim goes through
without a hitch, you knowthere's the possibility that it
doesn't A strong possibilityeven as the VA gets fucking
(15:30):
gutted.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
By.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Fuckfaces.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
By the space cadet and his fuckboy team, but I
don't think that my job isreally under threat for the most
part.
I think there's going to besome things that are going to be
challenging.
Like any, biden pushed throughthat gave a lot of money to
(16:07):
States to rebuild theirinfrastructure and we're still
doing that, and I don't thinkthat they can take it away, but
at the same time, we didn'tthink that they would do any of
the things that they're doing.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
So I mean that same bill is the same bill that
they've frozen all the funds forthe things that I do with
environmental justicecommunities around solar and
clean energy.
So, yes, they can, but theywere able to do that
specifically with the work thatI do and the folks that I work
with because, news flashed allof you environmental justice
organizations are extremistsaccording to this new government
(16:43):
.
So that was why and it was partof the DEI diversity, equity
and inclusion executive order.
So that's why those kinds ofthings are frozen.
But I agree, like road building, maybe not so much.
This was supposed to be a listof things we're grateful for See
how immediately it just goesdown.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
But you know, I'm grateful that I have what I have
, yeah, because it gives someamount of security that a lot of
people right now don't have.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
It's wild Like the number of folks who have lost
their jobs at the federalgovernment, the number of folks
who have job insecurity nowbecause funding from the federal
government that was going to doreally amazing projects that
are now considered extremistthat part's scary to me.
I also feel really grateful tohave a job because the market is
going to be flooded with a lotof professionals who are highly
(17:30):
skilled, who hopefully are goingto band together with us and
kick some ass in other ways.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
My mom lost her job.
Well, she got the resignationrequest and she took it because
she wanted to retire this yearanyway.
I hope that that works out forher.
I have my doubts, but theDepartment of the Army claimed
(17:55):
that it should not affect herability to retire after the
period of time of theresignation.
I hope so.
Fingers crossed yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
I hope so.
Let's do something happy justfor a minute.
Yeah, let's talk about theliving dead weekend.
Okay, yeah that's happy it isbecause we are going to be
vending there.
It's our first experiencevending in monroville,
pennsylvania.
June's I want to say june 6thto 9th, but I should probably
look at a calendar.
Yep, I got it right June 6th to8th.
(18:29):
Okay, yeah, hold on, let mere-say that so you can fix it.
It's going to be the weekend ofJune 6th to 8th, right near
Peppa, that place Right nearPittsburgh, so it's a long drive
for us.
My mom and her partner haveagreed to look after the dogs,
which is a big thing becausethey're old and have special
needs and we're going to meet somany Zom besties.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Yeah, I mean, it's kind of overwhelming a little
bit.
I don't love huge crowds, but Ifeel like if I have to pick a
crowd, I'm going to pick the onethat loves zombie stuff crowd.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
I'm gonna pick the one that loves zombie stuff.
Yeah, I think it's gonna be agood crowd of people.
A lot of really awesome authorswe admire are gonna be their
creators.
Um, who knows who else we'regonna run into.
It's gonna be interesting andwe're gonna have a little booth
where we basically ask peoplezombie ween questions and they
get to answer them and be on thepodcast yeah, that'll be a
tough episode to edit.
Well, we'll just pick the clipswe like yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
That's true, and we're also going to bring Rod
zombie, our life size zombie,and he's going to hold a sign
that tells people to come andtalk to us.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Yeah, We'll see how that goes.
It's all depending on Rodzombie.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah, what if no one talks to?
Speaker 1 (19:41):
us, then I guess we'll just be lonely.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Yeah, we'll just have to talk to each other.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
I guess.
So yeah, we can make an episodeabout how nobody talked to us
at Living Dead Weekend.
How everybody treated us likeliteral zombies.
I don't think that's what'sgoing to happen.
But the other thing I wanted toannounce is we actually have,
because of my stupidity, twofree tickets to Living Dead
weekend.
And I was thinking about doingcompetition but then I was like
you know, we're a lovely smallcommunity.
(20:10):
If you would like a ticket toliving dead weekend or two
tickets, they're just sitting inmy inbox.
I don't have any use for themlet me know.
We would love to be surprisedwith some additional zombesties.
We know it's a long drive formany folks, or a plane ride,
which I don't recommend.
Yeah, um, that's our paranoia.
Some people probably fine withit, but, uh, yeah, if you're
(20:34):
interested, let me know.
Send us an emailzionbookclubpodcasts at gmailcom
.
The first people to claim itget it.
That's my competition.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
First come, first serve.
The only thing about it isyou're probably going to have to
come meet up with me becauseit's in my name, so hopefully
that's not too awkward for you,but I'd like to meet you.
They're like oh, like that'show your face moves, leo, and
you talk.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Yeah, it is.
My face doesn't move when Italk at all, so prepare yourself
for that.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
We also got a really nice new review on Apple
podcasts.
Oh, let me read it to you.
Yeah, read me this review.
It's from Jacob, hi, jacob.
So Jacob very nicely gave usfive stars and said we're fun
and clear.
Clear exclamation mark.
Love the podcast.
I love when leah goes on asmall anthropology lesson.
Thank you, jacob.
(21:27):
That's a really nice outlet todo that.
On the podcast they go on tosay they sound, the sound is
clear and that goes a long wayfor me.
I love hearing two people thatI feel like are on the same
wavelength as me.
Best of luck for y'all.
Exclamation point Thanks, jacob, thanks.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Jacob.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
And Jacob actually gave us a shout out on their
podcast, which is called Viva LaFestiva I did it like an
American which is called Viva LaFestiva podcast.
I'm sure I put the wrongemphasis on a syllable there,
but we will have it in the shownotes.
You should definitely check itout.
They gave us a shout out attheir Blobfest episode, which
was a few episodes ago, fromJanuary 21st.
(22:03):
Yeah, I'm going to have tocheck that out.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Yeah, you know, an appreciator of clear audio, I
feel like that is a podcast Ishould listen to, because I also
like when podcasts sound clearand audible.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
It is.
It's you know the way it should, be Also well edited.
Thank you, dan.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Thank you.
Thank you, Leah, foracknowledging my great skills.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
And the other bit of awesome news, before we get into
the depressing but importantstuff, is a elevator pitch from
Steven Urena, who is the creatorof Zombie Date Night, a zombie
romance comedy, and the sequelto their first comic is coming
out, and they've got aKickstarter going on right now
that we just backed, actually,because it's really an awesome
(22:47):
story.
We've read the first one, orI've read the first one.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
I still need to read it.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
And also they have really cool T-shirts and I was
like I absolutely have to getthis T-shirt as well as the
comic.
What floor do we want to go?
Speaker 1 (23:02):
on to listen to this elevator pitch.
I feel like it's the 14th floor, the 14th, yeah, okay.
Yeah, I'll hit the button, allright.
All right, this elevator takesforever.
Yeah, any good movies lately Idon't remember.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Oh, we're here.
Okay, are you ready?
I'm ready, I'm so ready.
Give it a listen, folks.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Hey, zombie Book Club .
What makes a blind date evenmore awkward?
Zombies, of course.
My name is Steve Urena and I'mthe author of the critically
acclaimed zombie rom-com ZombieDate Night.
This comic book series tellsthe tale of two people who meet
up for a blind date that thatgets interrupted by a zombie
invasion.
Will love prevail or is lovedead?
Right now, I'm currentlyrunning a campaign on
Kickstarter to help fund thesecond issue and could use your
(23:41):
help.
For all the zombie lovers outthere.
We've got something foreverybody All the best zombie
shirts, zombie posters, thefirst issue if you want to get
caught up, and even zombievalentines If you're looking for
a horror comic that's got somebite.
Say yes to Zombie Date Night.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Yes, that's got some bites.
Say yes to Zombie Date Night.
Yes, yes, I would love to go ona date with you on Zombie Date
Night.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
I love the premise of this.
What do you love most about it?
I've always said that thezombie apocalypse is like a
perfect place to tell any storythat you want, and the idea of a
zombie apocalypse happeningduring a blind date is hilarious
and also has a lot of room totell a great story yeah, the
(24:25):
first issue is really really fun.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
The art is amazing, which is always like a big one
for me.
You can look at it and knowwhat's happening without even
reading, and it's got a reallygreat unique cast of characters.
Some I've like never, just likepeople I would never have
expected to see in a story, butshould be.
I guess that's how I'm gonnasay without spoiling it yeah, um
, some very funny characters.
(24:47):
I feel like I'm being supervague right now.
One of them is storing pee umin jars.
Yeah, yeah, before theapocalypse yeah, so you can see
how your daydime might begetting ruined if you're running
into somebody who stores pee.
Yeah, but it's pretty great.
Definitely recommend checkingit out and we'll have the
Kickstarter in the show notesand highly recommend you back it
(25:09):
, because we really want to getthis next issue and I need the
shirt.
So, people, please, let's makesure this gets to the goal and
beyond please, let's make surethis gets to the goal and beyond
yeah, get leah a shirt.
Yeah, I gotta have thisshirtless over here.
She's got no shirts.
That sounds so scandalous.
I am indeed wearing a shirt.
Um, what would you do if Iwasn't?
(25:29):
I'd be cool with it.
Good, that's very feminist ofyou.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
I'm glad, okay yeah, don't, don't feel like you need
to wear a shirt on my account.
I'm a feminist.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
You know it's really funny because it's legal to be
topless as a woman in Canada.
Well, I actually I don't knowthe whole country, but
definitely Ontario was years agolike probably coming on 20
years ago that this waslegalized.
But you don't really see itvery often still.
It just shows you, like, thepower of culture and societal
norms where folks don't feelcomfortable doing that because
you're likely still going to getleered at, unfortunately.
(26:04):
Yeah, it's like the instagramnipple.
Is it a male nipple or a womannipple?
Speaker 1 (26:08):
one of them's sexy one of them, apparently, is just
fine yeah, you know, if, if, uh, if instagram gets you for
having the wrong kind of nipples, just cut and paste somebody
else's nipples over your nipplesand that's how you get past the
terms and conditions of ofinstagram work every time.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
I don't know how we got here from zombie date night,
but we did it's just that kindof day.
It is, it is and we want tomake it to naela's write-in.
That's happening in 30 minutes,so we, we're going to focus now
on a very uninteresting If youhave a better segment title for
this, which is just Fascism,apocalypse, survival, update
(26:44):
Things we're dealing yeah that's, we could make it a thing.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
What do you call them when you make a word out of the
letters of a sentence?
Anyways, it's Fu.
This is our fasu update.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Yeah, I can never remember the word acronym you
know I miss the days when wewould have the night of the
living misogyny, capitalistic,uh.
I don't even remember it allanymore.
Yeah, living dead.
Homophobic living dead,transphobic living dead.
That was fun.
Now we're just talking aboutreal things that suck, uh.
So we have a list of thingswe've been up to.
I really want to hear whatother folks have been up to and,
(27:23):
uh, we're just going to getinto it.
The number one thing I wouldsay is I hope you're doing stuff
now.
Yeah, what are you out theredoing?
What are you up to?
I'd like to know what you cantell us.
Are you preparing?
Speaker 1 (27:34):
are you?
Are you uh filling up yourzombie bunkers?
Speaker 2 (27:38):
yeah, but also, are you like out there helping fix
the problems that are alreadyvery clearly here?
Because something I readrecently was really profound for
me, which is this part of thisshock and awe.
Psychology is also to just bedistracting you on a million
different issues, and there's awhole bunch of things that
they're throwing out there thatmaybe they can do and maybe they
can't do, and some of them willstick and some of them won't.
Yeah, but the reality is like,right now there are unhoused
(28:01):
people who need help.
Right now, uh, there are peoplewho need abortions, who can't
get them.
Like all of this stuff wasalready happening, and so it's
like where can you help rightnow?
Yeah, and then for what youthink is most likely to come
next, prepare for.
So that's what I've beenthinking a lot about is like,
instead of getting distracted byeverything, is like what's the
thing I can do right now forpeople who need help now?
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Yeah, um people need help everywhere.
Yeah, you don't have to go toofar to find people who need help
.
Um greatest country in theworld.
They said people, you know you.
They said people, you know you.
You drive.
(28:42):
Drive five minutes, you seesome person's mansion and then,
right down the road, peoplestruggling america.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
I'm looking for uh, speaking of like things we're
doing, I'm looking for acommunity shared agriculture
membership a csa is what theycall it, or community supported
agriculture depends on the groupwhich s they use in that, in
that acronym speaking ofacronyms and there's one that's
about an hour from us.
That was really inspiring.
It's too far from us to get ourproduce from, but what I loved
about it was that they have avery clear policy which is
(29:07):
basically no one's turned away.
They already have veryaffordable rates, like it's
cheaper to buy from them than itis to go to the grocery store,
and they have a policy that'sjust like if you can't afford
this, tell us what you can, andif you can't afford anything, we
will still give you somethingto eat.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
That is great.
That's like a food bank.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Yeah, and that's the kind of community that we need
to be building more of.
So I'm going to try and findsomething like that here, and my
dream would be that we have arobust enough garden that we
share our produce in that way aswell.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Yeah, you know, building community, you know it
sounds like a daunting task but,like, sometimes I can just be
joining a CSA, like you don'thave to start the CSA, you could
just join one and you becomepart of that CSA community.
Yeah, and those communitiesbecome really important when
things get bad.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Yeah, that's where.
It's where our food comes from,which is so abstracted from so
many of us in the world that welive in.
And I want to acknowledge also,we're in a privileged location
where there's CSAs all around us.
We just get to choose one, andI would pick the one that's an
hour away purely for its ethics,except for the fact that
logistically it's just notviable for us to do so, you know
.
And then on the flip side oflike, where we want to buy stuff
(30:15):
, there's also just been areally concerted effort from us
and I know many others toboycott, boycott, boycott.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Yeah, all the terrible, terrible people,
because corporations are people.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Now, I mean, yeah, they have been for a while, for
a while.
And the people who run them andI don't mean the people who are
working for shit wages, yeah,the CEOs.
So we're moving away fromgoogle, google, wow, like you
really disappointed me, google II could go on a tirade just
about that.
Like really, really, google,yeah, really, you took away
block history month and women'shistory month and every single
(30:47):
other month on your calendarsand you got rid of your ai uh
promise to not use it forfucking weapons, let alone the
gulf of mexico.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Change like this is just a couple of examples way to
way to just roll right over forfascism, fascism, fascism
showed up and rang the doorbelland they just rolled onto their
back and they're like come on in.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Yeah, because they never gave a shit about people
in the first place.
That's what this is uh, veryenlightening and makes me think
about the z word by lindsey kingmill, how you know.
There's that like corporatepride and this.
These are all examples of likethey're friendly when they want
to be, but they don't actuallycare about us.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Yeah, they're just.
They're just there for themoney.
Yeah, you know one that's noton on this list Target.
Yep, target is like a perfectexample of that.
We're like a year ago, you knowyou could, you'd go there to
get all your pride swag, but nowthey've completely gotten rid
of their dei and there's a lotof information coming out now
(31:48):
that uh suggests that target wasnever really doesn't really
make their money from sellinggoods to people.
They make it by spying on youwhen you go to their store.
They sell data of you and theymake dossiers on everybody that
walks through the front door,everybody who hangs out outside,
(32:08):
and they report that to lawenforcement and the government.
It's messed up.
So they are a thinly veiledsurveillance company that
masquerades as a departmentstore.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
At this point, most large corporations that we're
buying things from are also orjust using, like Google, being
quote unquote free.
They are harvesting from us.
We are a factory of informationthat they use to make money.
Amazon we have kicked ourAmazon habit.
We got rid of Prime, which isheartbreaking because we were in
the middle of watching thesecond season of In the Flesh,
which is so good, but our Primemembership that we had canceled
(32:44):
officially ran out and we justhad to look at each other and be
like I guess we're not going toknow.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Yeah, also, I utilized all of my uh, all of my
credits in audible um, becausewhen you cancel your your you
know your audible subscription,you don't keep the credits, they
disappear, they're jerks um.
You keep all the books that youbuy with the credits, but those
(33:09):
credits disappear.
So I had like seven credits so Ibought uh, I think I bought
like four books from um courtney, constantine, yep, wow,
babysitter of the apocalypse soexcited to read that one and
then one from, uh, her newerseries, I think, um, and then I
bought some, a couple sarahlyons plumbing books and, uh,
(33:33):
maybe something else along theway, I'm not sure, but I used up
all those credits.
I was like they are not gettingmy fucking credits.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
That's good, and it's actually this is a good.
I'm glad you said that, becauseI have seen some interesting
stuff around Kindle and indieauthors saying, hey, like,
boycott everything else, butcould you not boycott us?
And I think that that's veryfair, because this is the main
model for indie writers to gettheir books out there and for us
to read them.
So that's like the one place Ido still have my kindle
unlimited.
I don't think that's necessarybecause I want to support indie
(34:02):
authors and a lot of those folksare not yet in libraries.
But the other place I'm goingfor books that are, um, widely
available is libby, a libraryapp I think I've used libby like
once you also can haveaudiobooks from lib.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Yeah, I think that's why I got it.
I don't remember what Ilistened to.
It was a long time ago, though.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Yeah, so keep supporting indie authors in the
ways that we have available, butthey often have websites and
you can often buy physicalcopies.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Yeah, I use Amazon right now as a search engine, so
I search all the things that Iwant to buy and then I look up
all of the companies that areselling the things that I want
to buy and I go directly totheir website.
I did that with a few things, Afew of well.
Actually, that's what I didwhen I bought our survival
rations.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
You looked on Amazon and bought it directly.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Yeah, I love that.
I found Augustine Farms righton Amazon and then I'm like I'm
going to your website, clickAugustine Farms right on Amazon,
and then I'm like I'm going toyour website, click, click,
click.
And I mean it took longer.
I couldn't just click on thingsand check out like I was I
would normally do on Amazon,which is a bummer.
But also it means that I'm notlike impulse buying shit from
Amazon and now I just do thatfrom AliExpress.
(35:13):
I don't know enough about them,aliexpress.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
I don't know enough about them.
And then the other part aboutthis too is divesting from the
search engines, divesting fromGoogle Maps, gmail, google
Search.
Like I've had to retrain mybrain because I've been saying
you know, there's even a website, wwwgooglethatcom.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
For people you know, and I'd send my mom to that when
she'd ask me how to dosomething that I would also have
to.
Google, but I'm now trying toreplace that word with search,
which is actually what it is.
They've branded my brain andI'm trying to use alternative
things for search engines, forbrowser apps and for maps, and
it's hard.
I've been used to that stufffor a long time, but it's not
(35:56):
like end of the world hard.
Yeah, it's just a little bit ofa reshift and I got to give YK
Reborn on Instagram that's theirhandle Some credit.
You should go check them out.
They have a whole series aboutwhat your other options are.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Yeah, like a good example.
I use Google Maps all the timeat work because, like 90% of the
time, I don't know where I'mgoing.
So I have to follow Google Mapsto get to where I'm going and
that's just been my default.
I haven't even thought aboutany other ways because I mean, I
tried a few but they didn'treally do the job, especially
(36:31):
for truck driving.
Some trucks aren't allowed todrive on a lot of roads Not that
Google helps a lot with that,but just like it was a better
experience than other things.
Anyways, my point is um, nowI'm gonna have to, like, start
using ways instead, um, and hopethat ways has come a long way
since the last time I tried themso I hate to tell you that ways
(36:53):
is also still not on the goodlist, fuck um.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
but there are other ones and I don't have them open
because I didn't know I wouldtalk about this right now.
That's why I'm going to justput a link to YK Reborn on
Instagram and you can seeeverything there.
You can also support them onPatreon, which I do too, because
they have really amazinginformation around tech justice
specifically, and they provideda lot of really great content
around, like what search enginesyou want to use, what different
(37:18):
maps there are.
There's so many that I can'tlike just name off the top of my
head right now with certainty.
So check that link out.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
Waze is on the no-go list.
I forget why.
I think it was bought out bysomebody.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
That sounds about right.
On the same note, like, it'salso important to like, educate
yourself about, like about yourdata security, because there's
so many things that'll just kindof leech data from you and all
of that information can be usedagainst you.
It doesn't matter if you'vedone anything wrong or not.
It will be used against you insome way.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Yeah, I think also getting a one password kind of
an app, something has a moresecure passwords is really key
in this time, um, having anykind of security around your
identity, because all of thatavailable, all that information,
is now just like hanging outwith some, some incel yeah, I
wasn't gonna say that but some,some young people who are
enamored with musk yeah probablyI mean to be frank the age that
(38:17):
they are.
I think I was not a fan ofeinrand by the time I was in my
like 20s, but definitely when Iwas like 16 I thought that
objectivism was the shit.
And if somebody like musk hadcome up to me and been like you
can help me, atlas, shrug let'sall the powerful, smart people
who making this world's function.
What if we all shrug and takeaway our power and magic,
(38:38):
they'll realize how important weare.
Whatever, I don't know ifyou've read Atlas Shrugged, I'm
just.
This is basically the argument.
It's very stupid.
I don't think I need.
I'm not going to go on a rantabout why it's stupid, but if
you want a rant about why I hateAtlas Shrugged and I'm ranned
(38:59):
let me know, I'd be happy tosupply one.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
Yeah, I'd like to hear it you would.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
I have not read atlas shrugged.
Oh, um, but um, not today.
We'll have a future one onatlas shrugged if other people
want to hear it.
My point is is that I was.
I had that same mentality, andso, like I get why they're doing
it, I just think it'sunfortunate that they never had
any other exposure.
That which is why I'm not notan objectivist anymore and not
an Ayn Rand fan, but I was.
I have to be honest.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Also important lesson just because it's in a book
doesn't mean it's right.
No, some people will readsomething in a book and think
that books are like holy.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
Yeah, there is a tradition of that in this
country.
There is, yeah, holy books,just one specifically.
Um, yeah, there's a traditionof that in this country.
There is, yeah, holy books,just one specifically.
Must be interpreted veryliterally, but only some parts.
Let's disregard a lot of others.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
yeah, you know, because, because you know,
things like kindness and um anduh, compassion, uh, they're just
, they're just so behind thetimes.
You, you know, that's just oldnews.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
Yeah, oh.
Jesus would roll in his graveif he wasn't resurrected, I
guess.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Could we harness the energy from Jesus rolling in his
grave?
Speaker 2 (40:10):
But he's not in a grave, he's a zombie, he is a
zombie.
So this brings me back to whoshould have been president.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
Zombie Jesus.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
No, what's his name?
The guy who wears the boot onhis hat, on his head?
Speaker 1 (40:22):
vermin love supreme.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
We wanted to use zombies for clean energy.
That's what we could use zombieJesus for, yeah he's out there,
let's find out they're angry.
I think we just offended atleast one person listening to
this.
I also want to have one caveat,which is like, if you don't
have any other options, you livein a food apartheid, meaning
like you just can't get thingsnear you that you need and your
(40:45):
best and cheapest option is oneof these things.
Then I understand it.
Yeah.
I also want to be clear that,like all of this shit we're
doing now, we should have beendoing a long time ago, and I'm
embarrassed to say that it tookthis for me to get there.
Yeah, but I'm here now.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Sometimes it does take a catastrophe to make you
start planning for thecatastrophe that just happened.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
Yeah, and I think you know we've been in a position
of revelative privilege in a lotof ways, and so these were
things like I was boycottingsome stuff and not other stuff.
But I think this has just madeit very starkly clear that we
need to get away from these uhsystems that they make us think
that we need them, and towardsmore community stuff like a tool
library, which is one of themany things I'm going to be
pitching at our hoa meeting thisyear.
(41:28):
Yeah, dan, what do you thinkabout signal?
Speaker 1 (41:32):
signal, um, signal's great.
You should.
You should use Signal insteadof texting.
Yes, because you know why?
Because everyone can see yourtext messages.
Your phone company, yourinternet service provider, they
can all access that data veryeasily, and that's just through
legal means.
(41:52):
People who use less legal meanscan also access them very
easily.
Signal is encrypted andencrypted, and the only people
who can see that message is youand the person who messaged you.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Unless you leave it on your phone.
There's an option to autodelete messages, which I
recommend as well, and it's alsoa nonprofit that's open source,
yeah, so that made me feelreally good about it, and I've
been.
That's one of my things is,I've just been telling people
like you want to talk to me,you're going to have to come on
to Signal because I'm not doingit anywhere else.
And these are all things that Istill think to myself.
Am I being paranoid?
And I decided no, nope, no, ifsomeone can get arrested for
(42:35):
basically saying saying likewhat you're doing is not okay,
taking away a priorauthorization from me and my
family I forget what thatwoman's name was.
It was right after luigimangione.
Oh yeah, I shouldn't.
Well, you know, it's allegedwhatever.
Right after the ceo killerincident yeah she.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
She said, uh, denied offend, depose yes On the phone
that you arrested her.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
Yeah, so like if you're sending, like Ooh,
Luigi's so hot and his greensweater means I saw one going
around that says my favoritemurderer, which made me laugh,
Cause also there's the podcastand favorite murder.
But anyways, if you're doingthat and you enough other stuff
that you're texting like thatcould be enough one day to get
(43:23):
you in trouble.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
That's the world we're in, so let's not be doing
that.
Let's not give them anything touse against us.
Yeah, don't give them anything.
Also, don't talk to cops ever.
No, you know, if they'retalking to you, you just shut
your fucking mouth.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Also border guards.
They're basically cops.
So you, you tell them theminimum amount of information
you need.
I've learned that don't evertalk back to them.
That's's also a bad time.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Don't joke with them.
No, don't be nice to them.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
I mean, that's a privileged position that we can
say because we have passportsand are white.
So some people that might notbe the smartest advice.
To be me, I don't think any.
I don't really think actuallyit's good advice to be not nice
to a border guard you'd be.
Speaker 1 (43:54):
You'd be polite, I mean more like you don't.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
You don't have to go out of your way to like help
them yeah, or be nice to them,yeah, dan, do you want to tell
us why you want to buy a handgun, or do you want to just skip
that?
Speaker 1 (44:06):
um, I mean real brief .
First of all, we have guns, but, um, we'd look really weird
walking around town toting a 12gauge under our arm and I just
see the direction that thingsare going and I think it's going
to be one day possibly verydangerous just to exist in this
(44:29):
country, and I think that's theintention and I think that,
especially as much time as Ispend away from home, I think I
need it to possibly get out ofreally bad scenarios that I
might be put into in the future.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
This one's a hard one for me, because I don't want
more guns and I definitely don'twant a world where you need
guns.
And I also worry about a worldwhere you have one on you and
you're on high alert and thenyou make a choice that you
regret later.
Um, because that is a that's areal thing, that has happened
and can happen, and I I knowthat you are a veteran, no,
(45:06):
you're very skilled with a gun,um, but there's always added
risk, in a way, if you'recarrying one.
So part of me is like, okay, I,I'm okay with you getting, but
not using, like not having it onyou right now.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
Yeah, that defeats the purpose.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
Well, it's available if stuff gets there.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
Yeah, that would lead into my secondary reasoning is
that if things get really badand we need to escape, it's
easier to escape if you canconceal your weapon and not look
like a threat.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone.
It's such a weird conversation.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Well, I mean this is not something new that we've
considered is the possibilitythat the United States might be
so messed up that we would haveto leave.
What I'm saying is, if it gotthat bad, we would probably need
to be armed for a little while,and we would have to then do so
(46:04):
in a way that didn't look likewe were armed.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
The irony of that is, if we're trying to escape to
Canada, they're not going to letus across the border.
With your handgun, I'd throw it.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
I'd toss it out at the border.
Speaker 2 (46:14):
I wonder if you could just hand it to them and say I
don't need this now.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
I don't think that they have an amnesty policy.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
I guess we have to look into this A couple miles
before the border.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
We could just toss it in a trash can.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
So this is what I mean by that locus of control
and what things are on thehorizon and what things are
possibly a little bit furtherout.
I think full lockdown and likecomplete authoritarian
government, where we have noagency and there's full chaos,
is a little ways out if it getsthere, and so I prefer if we
focused on what we can do to besustaining here and now, like
(46:54):
our garden, um, like thecommunity stuff that we keep
talking about, like youcontinuing to protest, like
calling your representatives,because I did learn it makes a
difference.
Even republicans are quietlyasking for money to get released
, uh, to their state, becausepeople are calling and saying,
hey, there's all this moneythat's supposed to come to us
for these things and they'reit's not and some of the money
(47:14):
is getting released.
It's not fair how it'shappening, but it is happening
and that's because people aremaking phone calls.
So I hear you about the desirefor a gun, and I'm sure there's
other people listening to this.
I think it's like a reallycontentious topic and it's
really confusing, because in aworld that I want to live in, we
don't need a gun.
But the weird thing aboutliving in america is it's like,
um, because more and more peoplehave guns, and particularly
(47:37):
people who are opposed to theexistence of everybody but
themselves have a lot of guns,like I see why it becomes
necessary, but I'm veryuncomfortable with it,
especially being, like, thefirst thing that we do.
I'd rather focus on otherthings personally, like debt
repayment.
That's also a big thing we'retalking about and doing.
I realize a lot of stuff Idon't need, so I'm not buying it
(47:59):
and we're trying to get asdebt-free as we can so that if
one of us loses our job, we cankeep our house.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
Yeah, In general, it's uncomfortable to talk about
why I feel like I need afirearm especially when I
already have them.
I need a firearm, especiallywhen I already have them.
I also don't want to live in aworld where I feel like it's
necessary to carry one.
I just feel like that's wherewe're heading, and I don't
(48:25):
necessarily want to be caughtunaware when that time comes.
That's my feeling, and that'sthat.
Speaker 2 (48:32):
Yeah, and I respect that.
I just feel scared of a worldwhere we're talking about this
to other people who are alsogoing to make decisions that are
similar or not similar, and theweight of what either of us
have to say about it scares me.
Yeah, I think it's also a realconversation, so that's why I
wanted to have it on the pod.
At the end of the day, I do somany things in the last six
(48:53):
months that I've said that Inever thought I would say I am
in Well, I can barely say it.
I am in support of you gettinga handgun.
I'm not ready for you to bewalking around with it.
That's where I'm at and I knowI don't have control over that
because you're your own person,but that's where that's like my
personal comfort level at thistime.
Yeah, and it's just confusingout there.
Speaker 1 (49:17):
I don't like that.
We're even talking about it.
Yeah, I get that and you knowlet's, I've I've tried not to be
reactionary about it.
So, um, I do, I do hear whatyou're saying, um, and I think
what you're saying is logical,uh, which is why I've kind of uh
focused on other things that Ihave that are a little bit less
dangerous and a little bit morein my control, like working on
(49:39):
this vertical garden.
Speaker 2 (49:41):
Yeah, that's really exciting.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
It is and it feels really good.
So I just recently got a 3Dprinter.
But I've been a 3D artist for along, long time, so I have a
lot of power when it comes toprinting and knowing what to do.
So I've just been playingaround with it and I printed a
(50:04):
couple planters.
I'm going to need a lot more,but it's really cool and it
makes me feel like I'm doingsomething.
And I also like the plastic thatyou use in a 3D printer.
It's called PLA and it's notactually petroleum-based plastic
(50:26):
.
It's a plant-based polyethylene.
You don't want to eat thisstuff but at the same time, it
does decompose, given enoughtime.
It's not harmful to you.
It doesn't have a lot of toxinsthat'll seep into your blood
and kill you over time.
So I like that.
(50:47):
I can use this material that'srelatively safe comparatively to
what is also available out onthe market is also available out
on the market.
And, no matter what, I havethese files and as long as I can
get my hands on some plastic, Ican make these things and have
a little bit more control overwhether or not we're able to eat
(51:08):
in the future.
And plus, I've always wanted totry vertical farming.
I think it's really cool.
Speaker 2 (51:13):
You've been talking about it for years.
But the systems are soexpensive, so are we able to
make it ourselves.
They are for a couple of parts,like it's going to be a
fraction of the cost, yeah.
And for folks who sometimes ourbodies aren't working so great,
to have access to somethingthat can be in the house, even
with a grow light, uh, is alsoreally game changing.
So I'm really grateful that wehave all these options, yeah.
Speaker 1 (51:33):
And I really love automated stuff too, like I like
to automate.
Speaker 2 (51:37):
Yeah, if you had all the time in the world, I can
only imagine the cool things youwould have done by now around
our property.
Speaker 1 (51:43):
Yeah, I'd like, I'd like to think so yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:47):
The other thing is I want to say don't panic, but
also panic enough to keep doingstuff.
I don't know, it's a hard time.
I had a really intenseconversation with, uh, my
co-worker.
My internet wasn't working, sowe ended up being on the phone
and we just started getting intoit.
They're in texas, um, and itwas interesting to realize that
(52:09):
we're talking about the samethings with our own networks and
that we have the opportunity tohelp each other from many
states apart.
And, um, for her, theconversation was really
validating because she was likeokay, I feel like I'm not crazy
anymore, like I feel like I,these are things that make sense
for you doing.
I was like, yeah, in texasespecially, yes, you should be
doing everything, um that youneed to, and she knows I have
(52:31):
her back and I think that thatlike she was like that means a
lot because she's like I don'tknow where I would go if things
get bad here.
And I was like I know Vermont'sfar away and I know it's super
white.
She's a black woman, but we'rehere.
I'm not saying it's necessarilyanybody's first choice If
you're a person of color up here, like it's got its own issues,
but it's close to Canada andit's not Texas.
(52:54):
Yeah, so the big thing is it'snot texas.
Yeah, so the big thing is it'snot texas.
Yeah, sorry, laurie.
Yeah, and james, who we justtalked to, all right, james too.
Yeah, oh man, it's scruffythere.
I you know, I feel like I'mreally struggling in this
episode to say things because Idon't actually know what the
right thing is to do yeah and Idon't think of us do, and that's
(53:17):
why it's like you said, Danjust pick something, do
something that makes you feellike you're in a little bit of
control.
Speaker 1 (53:22):
Yeah, feel a little bit in control and for me that
was, um, you know, having alittle bit of security over our
food.
You know, buying reserve food.
I'm also going to startshopping on Webster on store.
I'm also going to startshopping on Webster on store.
It's a website whererestaurants buy bulk food from
at a much lower price.
Yeah, I'm going to, I'm going tostart getting like some really
(53:45):
like some staples from there,like a 50 pound bag of of beans
or something I don't know, andthat should, that should help a
lot because, like, if we can notonly like to have a reserve of
food food but also spend lessmoney and also just having a
large amount of food available,we're not like, oh, don't use
(54:06):
that, because we need that forSunday.
It's like, if you have a50-pound bag of it, it's like,
yeah, use whatever you want.
I guess I'm going on a rant.
My point is that, taking alittle bit of control over that,
something that gives me a lotof anxiety is what happens when
all of the US's trading partnersare back out and don't want
(54:29):
anything to do with us, while wealso don't have enough
workforce to do farming inAmerica and suddenly there's a
huge food shortage yeah um, andyou know doing, doing some
little things like this thatmight help it might.
Speaker 2 (54:46):
I mean, canadians are so pissed at us.
Let's just end there.
Yeah, my family came to visitand they were like we are not
spending one penny in thiscountry.
Yeah, and also, let me knowthat we could live there, which
I was like.
I know it's already already mybackup plan.
I'm aware of how lucky I am tohave my canadian passport.
Still, I am not letting.
Actually, I should look up theexpiration date.
I'm making sure I always haveone on hand.
(55:07):
Yeah, very lucky to have thatoption.
Hope you're safe out there.
Um, if you're feeling confused,let us know.
If you've got other ideas ofthings you're doing, let us know
.
Like this, this episode is asmuch for dan and I just talk
shit through as it is foranybody listening, and we're
certainly not experts.
We're just muddling our wayalong and hoping you're doing
okay, yeah, take control of thethings that you can.
(55:27):
Yeah, and let us know whatthose are.
Speaker 1 (55:29):
If you feel like sharing and it's safe to share
work on your cyber security,work on your food security, I I
don't know Some other things.
Speaker 2 (55:37):
Talk to your neighbors.
Speaker 1 (55:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (55:39):
That's a typical one, but also talk to your coworker.
That was a wild conversation Idid not expect to have with my
coworker and now we're on eachother's signal.
That's how it happens.
Thanks for joining us.
Thanks for joining us on thebook club.
Speaker 1 (55:53):
Thanks guys.
Speaker 2 (55:54):
You can support us by leaving a rating or review.
We love reviews and ratings.
Yeah, we eat them up.
Speaker 1 (56:00):
I love them a lot.
They really help us out too.
Speaker 2 (56:02):
Yeah, and if you want to talk about what you're doing
or how you're feeling at thistime, you can send us a
voicemail at 614-699 0006 orsend us an email at
zombiebookclubpodcast atgmailcom uh, you can also find
us on instagram.
Speaker 1 (56:15):
Zombie book club podcast.
Uh, on on instagram.
I know it's owned by meta, butyou know we also built our
entire fucking following there.
But also I'm on blue sky.
You want to look me up, dan,the zombie writer?
I'm, uh, I'm posting some stuffon behalf of myself and zombie
book club.
Speaker 2 (56:35):
Yeah, and then combined account you can always
hang out with us at brainmunchers zombie collective.
Speaker 1 (56:40):
I've also set up an email list.
I'm gonna put the link in thedescription.
It's really important,especially right now, as we just
mentioned.
Instagram's owned by meta andall of our entire thing has been
Instagram such thus far.
We don't want to be reliant onthings like these in the future,
(57:01):
like that sway our opinions tolike stay on a platform just
because that's where people knowwhere to find us.
So if you sign up on ournewsletter, the email list, we
can stay in contact with youeven if everything goes to hell
yeah, the email list and discordare two great ways to stay
connected and a ham radio oneday.
(57:23):
But for now made of ham.
Speaker 2 (57:25):
Might sound crazy, but the end is nigh, baby.
Bye, bye, bye.
Oh my god, don't die, don't die, don't die bye.
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