This Has Nothing To Do With Zombies (and we almost didn't upload it) | Zombie Book Club Ep 114 - Zombie Book Club

Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Welcome to the Zombie Book Club, the only book

(00:21):
club where the book is reallife.
And the people in charge want tomake everything they touch just
as broken and incompetent asthey themselves.
I'm Dan.
And when I'm not living in aChristo-fascist wet dream, I'm
writing a book about a zombieapocalypse and all the wannabe
dictators who would use thetragedy as an opportunity to
impose their will on all thesurvivors.

(00:44):
Fun.
So fun.
You know what?
I wish that I was faster atwriting because if I'd already
published this book, peoplewould be looking at it and Wow,
how did you know?
You paid attention to patterns.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (00:59):
Yeah, just like any other good dystopian novelist.

SPEAKER_01 (01:02):
What I've learned from all this is I need to learn
how to write faster.

SPEAKER_03 (01:05):
Yes, definitely.
I'm Leah.
When I'm not filled to the brimwith rage at the Trump
administration's attemptedmurder of my livelihood, and
more importantly, the entireenvironmental justice movement,
I am out watering my garden,staring up at a 16-foot tall
sunflower, and plotting myrevenge.
I didn't know

SPEAKER_01 (01:25):
our sunflowers were that

SPEAKER_03 (01:26):
tall.
They are.
They are extremely tall.
They're so tall.
And very beautiful.
And the bees love them.
Oh

SPEAKER_01 (01:32):
my God, the tomatoes.
And they give me

SPEAKER_03 (01:34):
a lot of joy.

SPEAKER_01 (01:36):
Quick aside, I made a post on threads about
tomatoes.
I did not expect it to blow upthe way that it did.
It's so many people showing mepictures of their tomatoes.
It's the simple things in life.
It's wonderful, actually.
I love talking about tomatoeswith people.

SPEAKER_03 (01:49):
We're eating a lot of our garden tomatoes right
now, and it's also one of thejoys.

SPEAKER_01 (01:53):
Oh my God.
If you haven't had a friend.
garden tomato like you you justdon't know

SPEAKER_03 (01:58):
you gotta go get one yeah or you gotta grow one if
you have any opportunity to growone which not everybody does so
that's um it's reality we'revery lucky to have space to grow
things

SPEAKER_01 (02:08):
community gardens

SPEAKER_03 (02:10):
yes make them a thing urban agriculture is the
coolest today we are doing avery long overdue casual dead
episode that uh when ioriginally slotted this in as a
casual dead episode after amarathon of zombie author
interviews.
I thought this will be fun.
So much fun.
It'll be coming out in the fallequinox.

(02:30):
That's cool.
But then I got fired.
Well, I got laid off.
So this episode starts off withsomething a little fun.
We've got a voicemail groan fromthe horde.
But then I feel like I owe it tothe community.
I don't owe you.
I am choosing to be vulnerablewith you all to share a little
bit more about why I got laidoff and our real life apocalypse

(02:50):
and why I say that Trumpmurdered my day job and is a
mass murderer.
And yes, I am saying that withmy full chest.

SPEAKER_01 (02:57):
But Leah, Trump hasn't been murdering people
with a gun on TV or anything.
How could you say such a thing?
Did

SPEAKER_03 (03:06):
Hitler directly kill all of the people, the millions
of people?
Now you're comparing him toHitler too?
Yeah.
Remember when people used to belike, that's too soon.
Don't make those comparisons.
And again, I don't think he'sthe same.
It's not the same moment intime, but it's definitely very
similar belief systems andmotives that drive his actions

(03:30):
and his entire administration'sactions and the people who vote
for him.
Not all of them, but a lot ofthem.
Well, you know what?
Both of them are talentedartists.
That's true.
One of them drew some reallygreat titties for the Epstein's
birthday.
Yeah, that's so good.
Yeah.
We release episodes everySunday, so subdivide America.
I

SPEAKER_01 (03:52):
didn't see that one coming.

UNKNOWN (03:54):
Well,

SPEAKER_03 (03:54):
It's too perfect.

SPEAKER_01 (03:55):
I did not see that one coming.

SPEAKER_03 (03:57):
Especially for a president being a real estate
mogul.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
It works on so many levels.
Yeah.
Because that's definitely whatthe administration is doing
right now.
They are all about dividing useven further.

SPEAKER_01 (04:09):
Yeah.
And fermenting hate.

SPEAKER_03 (04:11):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (04:12):
Fermented hate.

SPEAKER_03 (04:13):
But it's us radical lefties who are the violent,
horrible ones.
Yeah.
I'm violent.
It's true.
You caught me.

UNKNOWN (04:22):
You caught me.

SPEAKER_03 (04:23):
So, yeah.
Are there zombies in the movie?
this episode i you know we couldmake some stretches of
metaphorical zombies but this isa true life update episode i

SPEAKER_01 (04:30):
think yeah we're updating the things in our life

SPEAKER_03 (04:34):
yeah in the

SPEAKER_01 (04:35):
context it into an apocalypse

SPEAKER_03 (04:36):
yeah the yeah we're going we're going through a mini
apocalypse i feel like i ialways say that and i'm like it
could be so much worse it reallyreally could be and i think it
is in a broader societal globallevel much worse than my
individual circumstances whichi'm very grateful to say yeah
but why don't we have a momentof love before we get into it.
Yeah, let's levitate.

(04:58):
We have a zombest.
You sent us a voicemail.
Dan, I need to plug in the thing

SPEAKER_01 (05:02):
you do.
Oh, shit.

SPEAKER_03 (05:03):
We have a thing, everybody.
I should have done this earlier.
Yeah, well, we're neverprepared.
Everybody who's ever beeninterviewed by us is like, wait,
this is what it actually soundslike when you're recording?
And then they're like, wow,you're really good at editing.
This one is from July 23rd.
That's how long it's been sincewe've recorded.
A different world.
Casual dead, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (05:21):
I'm driving down the interstate right now.
And I just saw a gaggle ofgranny zombies cropping the road
from Shady Oak's retirementcommunity.
Is this the watch list number?
Is this the government?
Who am I calling?
I'm here to report a gaggle ofgrandmother zombies.

(05:42):
Oh, my God.
They're headed right for aconstruction site.
Oh, my God.
They got a construction worker.
Oh, they're not eating them.
Oh, I didn't expect to see themdo that.

SPEAKER_01 (05:55):
What are they doing?

SPEAKER_00 (05:56):
Well, I'm here to report it here off of the 599 up
here in Washington.
I'm seeing the zombies.
They're doing something with theconstruction workers.
It's not eating them.
Well, they're not eating theirbrains.
I'll say that.
But please get over here quick.

(06:16):
Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_01 (06:17):
Okay, we're on our way.
Wow.
I mean, we'll probably get ontime, right?
Yeah, I think it's, I mean, what

SPEAKER_03 (06:24):
were they eating?
It sounds scandalous.
Also, good friend, you didn'tleave your name for us.
I love that we're the watch, arewe the zombie watch list number?
I think so.
For the government?

SPEAKER_01 (06:33):
Yeah.
I guess so.

SPEAKER_03 (06:37):
A gaggle of granny zombies.
This sounds like another artproject for me.
Now that I'm unemployed, I gottime.
Yeah.
Maybe I should attempt to draw agaggle of granny zombies
crossing the road from ShadyOaks retirement community.
And doing something.
Something to construct Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (06:57):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (07:15):
Your podcast is terrible.
Oh.
I hate it.
It's so badly edited, and you'renot funny, and your faces are
stupid.
And also, nobody wants to hearany more chicken clucks.
No more.
Or anthropology facts.
That's too woke.
Too woke! Get

SPEAKER_02 (07:36):
out of here.

SPEAKER_00 (07:37):
Yeah, I'm going to call the police

SPEAKER_01 (07:39):
on you, because you're too woke.

SPEAKER_02 (07:41):
Will the cops come for that?

SPEAKER_00 (07:42):
Yeah.

UNKNOWN (07:45):
It's a big Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 (07:49):
Actually, we're just leaving this voicemail because
nobody's leaving us voicemails,which means that it's at risk of
being deleted.

SPEAKER_01 (07:56):
Yeah, don't delete our voicemails.

SPEAKER_02 (07:58):
Yeah, I mean, I know people have been sending us
quality audio via recordings toour email.
We appreciate that.
They

SPEAKER_01 (08:05):
are very high

SPEAKER_02 (08:05):
quality.
Sometimes we want a grainy voicemessage.

SPEAKER_03 (08:08):
This goes on for a long time.
We're going to pause there.
Apparently, we gave ourselves analmost three-minute voice
message from March 3rd.
So who was it?
It was us, Dan.
But

SPEAKER_01 (08:21):
we're here.
It's called the magic of time.
I don't get it.
So if we're here now, how couldwe also be making a phone call?
Because

SPEAKER_03 (08:31):
recording devices have bridged the time distance
continuum.
Whoa.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (08:38):
So it's like four dimensional technology.

SPEAKER_03 (08:40):
Yeah.
Like right now we are makingthis podcast, but then somebody
will be listening to it.
And I don't know, we've had somecool new places popping up on
our podcast.
list uh yeah what's one of themdan i don't know uh falkirk
falkirk florianopolis santacarina yeah somebody there's
listening to this wow a week anda half from now but we're with

(09:01):
them hello i hope you're havinga lovely day or evening wherever
you are yeah

SPEAKER_01 (09:06):
this

SPEAKER_03 (09:06):
is where you're from lovely i think it must be we've
got some really fun locations igotta say it's one of the most
fun parts of like looking at ourpodcast stats is like all the
places people are listening tous

SPEAKER_01 (09:17):
yeah i do like that too I love it when a country
pops up that I don't alwaysexpect.

SPEAKER_03 (09:24):
Yeah, there's quite a few in here.
I'm like, I don't know wherethis is.
Sometimes I Google them.
Tanzania

SPEAKER_01 (09:28):
is one of them.

SPEAKER_03 (09:31):
Mount Mangunui.
I'm so sorry if I'm butcheringthat.
Bay of Plenty.
Oh, yeah.
The Bay of Plenty.
I don't know where that is.
Hounslow.
Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
I don't know how to say thateither.
Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.
So many good ones.
Leeds.
Hello, Leeds.
Hi, Leeds.
Bolton.
Yeah, lots of cool places.

(09:51):
Hi, Dublin.
That's fun.
I love seeing Dublin on here.
But I think I'm stalling.
I think I'm avoiding what we're

SPEAKER_01 (09:59):
about

SPEAKER_03 (09:59):
to talk about.

SPEAKER_01 (10:00):
We are stalling.
Is there any

SPEAKER_03 (10:01):
more

SPEAKER_01 (10:02):
groans, Leah?
No.
Oh, that's it?
Yeah.
Okay.
We're

SPEAKER_03 (10:06):
saving other ones that are less anonymous for
future episodes so that theywon't have to be on the episode
that calls itself Trump is amass murderer and other zombie
life updates because we feltthat that wasn't really fair to
other people.

SPEAKER_01 (10:19):
um life updates leah yeah let's talk about us for a
change fun let's do it uh soi've been making nazis big mad
by exercising my first amendmentright

SPEAKER_03 (10:34):
really what's been happening

SPEAKER_01 (10:35):
well you see um i'm not gonna get into it because
you know it's it's all over thenews uh what's leo what's what's
your life update

SPEAKER_03 (10:45):
uh well i've been um unemployed officially for nine
days as of this recording andeverything I'm going to talk
about in this episode is my ownopinion and in no way represents
any organization I have workedfor or ever will work for and in
fact every episode that is thecase I've only ever spoken for

(11:06):
myself and I've deliberately notbrought in my last name or the
places I've worked because Iwant this to be a space of
expression just for me but I'mgoing to say that just in case
because I do know some of myformer colleagues may be
listening Uh, or futurecolleagues.
That would be funny.
Maybe I'll have a job again.
So I want to be clear aboutthat.

(11:27):
Yeah.
Um, so yeah, I lost my job.
I've, I've been in a, been atailspin.
I knew I'd lost my job.
They kind of gave us two weeksnotice.

SPEAKER_01 (11:34):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (11:35):
So I've had time.

SPEAKER_01 (11:36):
And it's also something that's been building
for a long time too.

SPEAKER_03 (11:40):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (11:40):
Like it's, it's one of those looming things that
it's like, it's coming.

SPEAKER_03 (11:44):
Yeah.
When Trump was elected lastNovember, which is two months, a
little less than two months.
from when we're recording this,I remember looking at you and
saying, like everybody was like,oh my God,

SPEAKER_01 (11:54):
are you going to be okay?
Two months from the one yearanniversary.

SPEAKER_03 (11:56):
Yeah, like it's September now, it's two months
from, so it's like 10 months nowTrump has been elected as the
president.
And you asked me, people askedme like, what do you think is
going to happen to your job?
Because you know that my job isthe antithesis of everything
that the Trump administrationstands for.
And I said, I think I've gotabout a year before shit starts
to get really bad.
And I was overly optimistic byBy a very long shot.

(12:21):
You know, I remember on day oneand two, his executive orders.
And then I was like, fuck.
And then it just kept gettingworse.
And yeah, now I'm here.
Now I'm unemployed.

SPEAKER_01 (12:31):
Yeah.
So what, what did, what did youdo without like, you know,
without giving too much away, ofcourse?

SPEAKER_03 (12:40):
Yeah.
I worked for a nationalnonprofit that was advocating
for clean energy across thestates.
So we did legislation andregulated to make clean energy,
specifically solar, moreaffordable and accessible for
regular people as analternative, obviously, to
fossil fuels for lots ofreasons, all the reasons you
would want to have clean energy.

(13:00):
And my job specifically wasabout bringing people together
into coalitions to fight forpolicy that would actually make
their lives better.
So bringing together frontlinecommunity organizations, clean
energy groups, politicaldecision makers to build policy
that would result in a worldwhere everybody had access to

(13:21):
abundant clean energy that theycould afford.
At the end of the day, that'swhat I did.
So the goal of my specific jobwas to make sure that the people
who were most affected byracism, poverty, other forms of
oppression across the UnitedStates were the people who had
the leading voices and say andwhat kind of policy or what
clean energy rollout should looklike so that it wasn't just for

(13:43):
rich people, basically.
And that they were actuallybenefiting from it instead of
our current system which is thatall of the pollution not all of
it but like the pollutingindustries are typically in the
backyards of black brown nativecommunities and poor communities
and rural communities and theysuffer the worst

SPEAKER_01 (14:02):
and literally in their backyard

SPEAKER_03 (14:04):
yes

SPEAKER_01 (14:04):
like sometimes like they're they're dumping waste
literally in the lot next doorto somebody's house

SPEAKER_03 (14:10):
yeah so it's really about justice it's about having
folks who've been the mostimpacted saying what does what
does clean energy need to looklike for us.
Because if you don't do that, ifwe had just focused on, let's
get as much solar up aspossible, that's cool, but it
would have just reinforced theoppressive structures that exist

(14:32):
today.
And that's a whole other thingto get into.
But for example, if you don'tbother to ask, like, hey, do you
want solar in your backyard?
Guess where the solar is notgoing to be?
Not in the rich white people'sbackyards.

SPEAKER_01 (14:43):
Yeah, it's going to be the people that are living
paycheck to paycheck, trying tokeep up with their power Yeah.
And

SPEAKER_03 (14:52):
it might be located in places that are sacred lands
for native nations, for example.
So it's really important thatthe people who have experienced
the first and worst of pollutionthrough the fossil fuel industry
are at the highest risk forclimate change impacts because
of weather patterns changing.
All of those things who havebeen disinvested in, those
communities deliberatelyexcluded from investments all

(15:14):
across the country, and thembeing a thriving place should be
the ones who say, how we do thisbecause otherwise it's just,
it's more of the same.
It's just now solar.
So that was my job.

SPEAKER_01 (15:24):
There's, there was a story that I remember you
telling, like, this was likewhen you were first applying to,
to work for this company, thestory of the people, I think it
was just outside of Detroit who,

SPEAKER_03 (15:37):
yeah,

SPEAKER_01 (15:39):
their, their whole neighborhood or their whole
community was basically just,they just had their electricity
turned off by the power company.
And the power company is like,We're taking our streetlights.
We're taking your power.
We don't care.
You haven't paid your bills.

SPEAKER_03 (15:53):
Basically.
I mean, that's a very simplifiedexplanation, but yeah.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (15:56):
Well, we need simple sometimes.

SPEAKER_03 (15:58):
Yes.

SPEAKER_01 (15:58):
And instead of like, I mean, you know this story
better than I do, but this is myunderstanding.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but theidea was like, why should we
fork over more money to thepower company when we could
spend that money on communitysolar and be rid of these
fucking assholes?
Monopoly utilities.

UNKNOWN (16:18):
Yeah.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (16:18):
Yeah, if you're getting your power from a
utility company, odds arethey're a monopoly utility.
And if you didn't know this,whether they make their money is
convincing the Public UtilitiesCommission in your state that
they need to make moreinvestments in typically gas
plants, oil plants, otherpolluting things or nuclear,

(16:39):
which is extremely expensive andtakes forever to get online.
And then obviously, I don't evenneed to get into the pollution
impacts of that.
If I do, I guess that's anotherpodcast.
That's how they They make money.
They make money by spending yourmoney.
And then they get a return onequity.
So how much money they have putin.
That's how they make money.
They don't make money by givingyou better service, by being

(17:00):
more effective at their jobs.
They don't get more money bybeing equitable in how they
distribute their resources.
None of that.

SPEAKER_01 (17:07):
So they're the only game in town.
So they're a monopoly.

SPEAKER_03 (17:10):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (17:11):
You have to have them because that's the
expectation.
They can set their rates towhatever they want based on what
they claim their needs are.

SPEAKER_03 (17:21):
It's not to whatever they want.
That's part of what theorganization I worked for did
was they would, uh, it's calledintervening.
It's really wonky.
Um, but basically you, a lot ofthe time you'd have to have a
lawyer.
So you had to be able to afforda lawyer to intervene in these
proceedings where the utilitywould say, we need X millions of
dollars to invest in the grid,uh, to do these things, to make

(17:43):
sure we have enough power andenergy.
And then our organization wouldbe like, uh, No, you don't.
And also, have you consideredsolar?
It's more affordable.
It's more distributed.
It creates better things likemicrogrids, where just because
one neighborhood loses itspower, you're not going to have
mass power outages.
There's all kinds of benefits.

(18:04):
So that's one thing that we did.
There's so much.
I think the combination of thestress I've been under and the
fact that it was already a verytechnical topic, it's hard to
talk about in detail.
But I would just say at the endof the day, it was about...
My job was about not justutilities making more money and
polluting more, but communitieshaving affordable access to

(18:26):
power and clean energy so thatthey weren't experiencing more
pollution and that they also hadthings like backup batteries and
microgrids, smaller grids thatallowed them to be more
resilient when there would betropical storms that otherwise
would knock out their communityforever.

SPEAKER_01 (18:40):
Well, not forever, but for a long time.
Yeah, a decentralization ofpower, which the people in power
hate.

SPEAKER_03 (18:47):
God, that was such a bad explanation.
But hey, hope it made somesense.
You can, Dan, edit me to make memake sense.
Okay, I will.
Great.

SPEAKER_01 (18:54):
You're welcome.
So that brings us to you, Leah.
Why did you have to go?
Why did they have to get rid ofyou?

SPEAKER_03 (19:04):
Well, they got rid of 20% of us, to be clear.
It wasn't just

SPEAKER_01 (19:06):
me.
It wasn't just you.
Okay.

SPEAKER_03 (19:08):
And honestly, there's been thousands and
thousands of layoffs.
I think we were at, last Ichecked, like 10 million layoffs
this year in the United States.
But ultimately, I lost my job.
because trump won the presidencyuh and in 2025 he came in and
within days put in a bunch ofexecutive orders uh that gutted

(19:29):
clean energy initiativesanything environmental injustice
environmental justice related ordiversity equity inclusion
related called them allextremist and uh basically
clawed back every single federalprogram that promoted those
things

SPEAKER_01 (19:43):
so because you wanted to advocate for people
getting solar panels on theirroof uh, terrorism.

SPEAKER_03 (19:51):
Yeah.
Terrorist.
That's the very shortestexplanation.
Yes.
And, um, in particular, one ofthe biggest death knells was
that through, um, the inflationreduction act that was passed
during COVID from presidentBiden, there were these$7
billion in solar for all grants.
And those grants werespecifically about getting

(20:11):
millions of people who wouldotherwise never be able to
afford solar solar.
And, um, basically they laid offthousands of workers at the
Environmental Protection Agencyand the Department of Energy.
When they canceled those solarfor all grants, that was$7
billion that was disinvestedfrom all 50 states.
These were programs that werealready underway and were about

(20:32):
to actually start going.
People put years into makingsure that they were really good
programs in those

SPEAKER_01 (20:38):
states, so all the states have lost.
People started solarinstallation companies because
they were going to beinstalling.

SPEAKER_03 (20:47):
I mean, that's beyond solar for Well, it
enabled

SPEAKER_01 (20:50):
those companies to start.
So people were gainfullyemployed and starting businesses
because these opportunities werethere.

SPEAKER_03 (20:58):
Yeah.
There was also the 30% taxcredit, which is why we have
solar on our house.
Yeah.
That was clawed back.
All kinds of other things wereclawed back and are no longer
going to exist after the end of2025, basically.
And especially things like whatI did, which was about building
power with the community's mostharmed by racism, pollutionism,

(21:23):
and poverty were calledextremists and said that they
were bad.
And so what that means is whilemy organization, I did not
receive direct federal funding,a lot of the funders who do this
kind of work started slashingbudgets for organizations like
mine.
Back in February, there were aton of nonprofits that had

(21:44):
expected federal dollars thathad huge layoffs.
lost a ton of their workers, hadto close their doors, had to
pull back from all theseprojects because they weren't
getting the money they'resupposed to be, and eventually
trickled down economics in thewrong way.

SPEAKER_01 (22:02):
Oh, it's trickling.

SPEAKER_03 (22:03):
There's a lot of crisis.
There's too many crises forthese non-profit philanthropic
entities to address.
And so organizations like minegot significantly less funding
than they were expecting, andthey had to cut their staff to
survive.
And I was one of those staff

SPEAKER_01 (22:18):
If you do something or say something that Trump just
disagrees with, like cleanenergy is good, for example,
that means that you aredangerous and your livelihood
should be cut off entirely.

SPEAKER_03 (22:37):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (22:37):
Because you're an extremist.
You extremely want the oppositeof what Trump wants.

SPEAKER_03 (22:44):
Yeah.
I'm going to briefly explain howracism is directly related to
the power industry and energy,because I think it's important.
I'm not just like throwing thesewords around.
So have you heard of redliningDan?

SPEAKER_01 (22:56):
I feel like I just recently heard this word
described.
Um, but no,

SPEAKER_03 (23:02):
basically back in the day, uh, banks and
governments literally drew redlines on maps to deny black
families, loans, and insuranceto buy homes.
So in particular, after worldwar two, there was this, that's
kind of when mortgages werebecame like a real thing.
in order to have folks who cameback from the war get a house.
But they instituted these reallyracist mapping exercises that

(23:27):
basically made it so that if youwere in a quote-unquote black
community, which is just oneblack family moving into a
community, all of a sudden youget redlined and the value of
your property gets tanked.
And it makes it very difficultfor you to get a mortgage.

SPEAKER_01 (23:40):
This is tied to sayings like, there goes the
neighborhood.

SPEAKER_03 (23:44):
Yes.

SPEAKER_01 (23:45):
Where a black family moves into your neighborhood and
you're like, well, there goesthe value of my house.

SPEAKER_03 (23:50):
And that's exactly where things like white flight
happened because one blackfamily would move into a
neighborhood and they'd be like,oh no, there goes our property
values.
Yeah.
Very, very fucked up.
Those same neighborhoods thathad red lines, black
neighborhoods were the sameneighborhoods who got highways
running through them, pollutingfactories and power plants

(24:11):
dropped on them because whitepeople didn't want any of that
shit.

SPEAKER_01 (24:14):
Yeah.
Not in their

SPEAKER_03 (24:14):
backyard.
Not in their backyard.
Yeah.
And today this continues becauseutility companies responsible
for getting the power to ourhomes literally just like don't
invest as much money into thosesame communities as they do for
middle class and wealthierneighborhoods.
So the grid, meaning all thethings that the wires and the
magical do hickeys that get thepower to your home.

(24:37):
You've seen those are veryfrequently in poor
neighborhoods, blackneighborhoods, black and brown
neighborhoods, extremely underinvested in and absolute shit.
So say you actually have theability um like you've got the
money you want to put solar inyour house but you're in that
neighborhood the cost to you asthe consumer you actually have
to pay for the upgrade to thegrid to get solar uh like how

(25:00):
much of the it can be veryexpensive uh slash maybe even
impossible because you're thenyou're putting out in a whole
there's a whole interconnectionqueue it's very complicated but
what i'm saying is it's evenmore difficult even say you have
the money to get solar theymight say to you we can't do it
like so for example when we gotmore solar on our route And same
with the first time they have tocontact the utility to make sure

(25:22):
the grid is set up to actuallyreceive the power that we are
going to get from solar.
Otherwise we would have beenresponsible to pay for upgrades
if we wanted

SPEAKER_01 (25:30):
it.
So like if the transformers inour neighborhood just weren't
set up to

SPEAKER_03 (25:33):
the magical

SPEAKER_01 (25:34):
do receive the power from our roofs, we'd have to buy
new transformers for theneighborhood.

SPEAKER_03 (25:39):
Yeah,

SPEAKER_01 (25:39):
I get it.
I see what you're saying.
I was in my mind.
I was imagining like this giantpower relay hanging up.
across like a single widetrailer and they're like, you
have to buy that 100 foot tallpower line.
Yeah,

SPEAKER_03 (25:58):
basically.
And now I'm going to add moreinsult to injury.
Your power bills are higher inneighborhoods like this a lot of
the time because theinfrastructure is so poor.

SPEAKER_01 (26:07):
Wow.

SPEAKER_03 (26:08):
So you're looking at bills that are higher than white
middle class neighborhoodsnearby.

SPEAKER_01 (26:12):
Sounds super fair.

SPEAKER_03 (26:14):
This is, I'm going to be really clear, this is the
most basic off-the-cuffexplanation.
And if you want to understandmore, my friend Farood Amil
wrote an incredible reportcalled Wiring the Divide, The
Impact of Redlining on ElectricInfrastructure, and it's going

(26:35):
to be linked in the show notes.
I highly recommend you read itbecause it walks all of this out
for you in a way that isirrefutable and evidence-based.
So this is just me off-the-cuffexplaining one example of the
way Racist policies continue toharm people to this day.

SPEAKER_01 (26:50):
And also, it's me barely understanding what Leah's
talking about.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'm going to have to checkthat out because I haven't read
that.

SPEAKER_03 (26:59):
There's also a documentary called The House
We...
Well, there's a whole series ofdocumentaries from PBR called
Race, The Power of an Illusion.
And one of them is called TheHouse We Live In.
And if you want to learn moreabout redlining and listen to
interviews from both black andwhite folks living in that time
trying to to figure out how tonavigate this racist housing

(27:21):
policy, you can watch thatdocumentary.
I think it's free on PBS, right?
Not PBR, sorry.
Not the alcohol.
I was going to say, Pabst BlueRibbon is putting out
documentaries.
It is wild.
It is absolutely wild to watch.

SPEAKER_01 (27:36):
Yeah, let's watch it.

SPEAKER_03 (27:38):
Yeah, God, okay.
I used to show it in the classthat I taught, but I'll watch it
again.

SPEAKER_01 (27:43):
Yeah, let's watch it.

SPEAKER_03 (27:44):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (27:44):
2025, there was a lot.
Like, it almost feels like a badword in my mouth.
2025.
I don't like saying

SPEAKER_03 (27:53):
it.
I

SPEAKER_01 (27:54):
don't like saying 2025.
But what happened specificallyin 2025 that was so bad for your
work?

SPEAKER_03 (28:01):
If people would like, I have a one-pager ready
of all of the executive orderswith links.
It's too many to put in the shownotes.
But if people would like them, Ihave a one-pager that explains
those executive orders, links tothem, as well as the big,
beautiful bill that really justwas the...
fucking cherry on top and therevoking of the seven billion

(28:21):
dollars of solar for all thatgets us here but there were
seven executive orders andbasically rapid fire uh what
those seven executive orders didwas they revoked every and any
climate and environmentaljustice rule that the federal
government had they basicallywere like very explicitly said
we are handing power over to thefossil fuel companies like we
are making fossil fuels ourfirst priority in energy we're

(28:44):
going to end any kind ofdiversity equity and inclusion
programming which is in someways what I did.
We are going to make it so thatstates are no longer in control
of their energy policy, which isa huge change.
Yeah.
As I said, that what I used todo was entirely at the state
level regulations.

SPEAKER_01 (29:01):
It's a huge change even from Trump's own first term
policies, which was we're goingto let the states figure it out.

SPEAKER_03 (29:07):
Yeah.
And then they murdered cleanenergy funding just as it was
about to reach the neighborhoodsthat needed it the most via the
solo for all program.
So as I said before, they, that,resulted in absolute chaos, a
lot of people losing their jobs,including me, and a huge gap in
funding that philanthropicorganizations could never fill.
And that's just in the cleanenergy, environmental justice,

(29:31):
climate justice world.
We're not even talking, aseverybody listening here knows,
about every other horrifyingattack the United States federal
government has done to people.
So this is just in one place.
So it's just chaos.
And nonprofits who are in thesekinds of industries are most
affected are scrambling just tosurvive right now.

(29:51):
And unfortunately, that meanspeople like me lose my job.
And I want to be clear, forthose who are listening that
maybe worked with me, I do thinkthe organization I worked for
did it as humanely as possibleoverall, and that I'm in a much
better position than otherswere.
I did get a little bit ofseverance.
There was another organization,I'm going to just say it because
it's in the news, Posigen, laidoff hundreds of workers with no

(30:14):
notice and no severance.
Wow.
Nothing.

SPEAKER_01 (30:19):
That'd be really rough.

SPEAKER_03 (30:20):
Yeah.
And it's also in the cleanenergy industry.
So it could be worse.
I could be in a much worsesituation.
And that's why I say that it'sreally an attempted murder of
the entire environmental justicemovement that people have been
fighting for for fuckingdecades.
They're trying to destroy it allovernight.
But we're not going to let them.

(30:40):
I want to be clear about that.
This is a huge setback.

SPEAKER_01 (30:43):
But

SPEAKER_03 (30:43):
people have fought for these things unfunded,

SPEAKER_01 (30:46):
without

SPEAKER_03 (30:46):
organizations.
that exist like we have today orhad uh for decades and they're
not going to stop fightingincluding myself in the ways
that i can

SPEAKER_01 (30:54):
yeah i think that's something that uh the the
current administration reallyunderestimates and doesn't
understand is that you knowthey're always talking about
like oh well these theseprotesters are funded by george
soros and the thing is the thetruth of it is we don't need to
be paid to fight fascism nobecause Yeah.

(31:18):
No, I mean, we are watching mass

SPEAKER_03 (31:47):
murder in slow motion in so many facets of
what's happening with the Trumpadministration.
But specifically, in thiscircumstance in environmental
justice, we were at a potentialturning point.
The reality is that the actionsof the federal administration
are going to kill so manypeople.
Already, oil and gas pollutionkills around 90,000 Americans a

(32:09):
year.
It gives more than 200,000children asthma.
Black children are twice aslikely to suffer as white
children.
And no, it's not because race isreal.
It's not.
It's not biologically real.
If you don't know that, again,listen or watch the
documentaries Race the Power ofan Illusion.
It's not real.
We've made it real throughpolicy.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (32:28):
We're all homo sapiens.

SPEAKER_03 (32:29):
Yes.
And there's more, literally moregenetic material that makes us
similar than different acrossso-called races.
Side tangent.
It's different because they putpolluting industries in black
people's, native people's, andbrown people's backyards because
they are already oftendisenfranchised and don't have
the power to fight back.
and white wealthy neighborhoodsare always not in my backyarding

(32:50):
it.

SPEAKER_01 (32:51):
That's right.

SPEAKER_03 (32:51):
And so that's why it's twice as bad, not because
there's something else happeningthere genetically.
There's a place called CancerAlley.
Have you heard of that, Dan?

SPEAKER_01 (33:00):
You've mentioned it to me, but could you explain
Cancer Alley?

SPEAKER_03 (33:03):
Briefly, it's an 85 mile stretch of the Mississippi
between Baton Rouge and NewOrleans that has 150 to 200
petrochemical plants, all inblack and low income
neighborhoods.
And the cancer risks there are10%.
10 times higher than thenational average.
10 times higher.

SPEAKER_01 (33:20):
I've seen some of these places because I did
cross-country truck driving,Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
It seemed like there was justsmokestacks everywhere.

SPEAKER_03 (33:30):
Yeah.
And that's my point is thatthese policies, the policies
that we were fighting for thatwe're getting forward momentum
on, we're helping people livegood, healthy lives.
That was the goal.
It's not about how much solar ison people's roofs or whatever.
That's not Yeah.

(34:17):
Yeah.
And for

SPEAKER_01 (34:19):
anyone who's been paying attention, you know that
this is, like we said before,just a fraction of what the
administration's doing.

SPEAKER_03 (34:30):
Yeah, we're only talking about one thing right

SPEAKER_01 (34:33):
now.
Yeah.
and industry losses that arehappening right now because of
his stupid fucking ideas wellit's not really his ideas are

(34:56):
they they're not but they itcomes out of his mouth and I
give him credit for that

SPEAKER_03 (35:00):
yeah and I don't want to end it on that like
brutal note because I do want tosay like we've been here before
and I think about groups likethe Black Panthers and their
incredible community programs Iknow we've talked about them on
previous episodes there is goingthe fight is not over.
People are going to continue tofight back.
I think the thing that is reallyimportant to remember over and

(35:23):
over and over again is thatwhether or not this shit is in
your backyard, it's coming foryou and you should be fighting
too.
And we should not be justresting on our laurels and
waiting for the people who arealready in the highest amount of
struggle to figure this shit outand have no support, no backing.
We need to be standing 10 toesdown behind them, following

(35:44):
their leadership.
And no matter what job I do fora living that's something that
will drive me until the end ofmy days because liberation
doesn't happen overnight andit's a constant struggle and
we're just in a really fuckingbleak period right now but we
have a lot of leaders to followand we have a lot of incredible
people to pay attention to andso that's what's keeping me
going is knowing that thefight's not over

SPEAKER_01 (36:05):
yeah also like it's not just coming to people's
backyards it's going to becoming to their national parks
yeah it's going to be coming tothe natural monuments of our
country.
If you look at everything that'shappening with the
administration, we're not faroff from just filling the Grand
Canyon with garbage.

(36:25):
We're not far off from puttingan oil derrick on the top of
Mount Rushmore.

SPEAKER_03 (36:35):
Don't even get me started.
Mount Rushmore is one of themost racist things ever.

SPEAKER_01 (36:39):
Yeah.
And yeah, they just want todestroy everything.
And that actually what they'redoing it's not my opinion it's
what they're doing

SPEAKER_03 (36:51):
yeah

SPEAKER_01 (36:52):
they're tearing it all down and they're not
replacing it with anything good

SPEAKER_03 (36:55):
and like any apocalypse the only silver
lining is that we have to fightour like a fucking we have never
fought before if I'm speaking toa fellow white folks who have
not felt the need to fight asmuch as others have but we got
to fight apologies to everyblack and brown person listening
for the complete lack of supporty'all have been given by white

(37:17):
folks slash just white Nazis.

SPEAKER_01 (37:22):
Sorry for the Charlie Kirks among us.

SPEAKER_03 (37:25):
Yeah, basically.
And I feel like I'm just reallyfilled with rage.
My point is, we gotta fight.
If it hasn't touched you yet,it's going to.
I'm evidence of that.
I got all the privileges, baby.
I'm English speaking.
I'm white.
I got nice green eyes.

SPEAKER_01 (37:41):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (37:44):
Got that light skin tone.

SPEAKER_01 (37:46):
You went to...
I got a university

SPEAKER_03 (37:48):
degree.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (37:50):
You got all the things and still here we are.

SPEAKER_03 (37:53):
Yeah.
And again, I'm still incrediblyprivileged in comparison to many
people through no fault of myown, just some luck in terms of
my birth location and parents.

SPEAKER_01 (38:04):
So there's one little bit of hope that I have
in this very bleak moment isthat in everything being torn
down and destroyed and madeworse objectively throughout our
entire country and throughoutthe world is that we will
finally, maybe not all of us,but we will finally see

(38:25):
everything for what it is andmake changes that make America
what it was always promised tobe.
I almost thought you were goingto say that.
Right again?
Well, let me put on my otherhat.
That's my hope.

(38:46):
I don't know if it'll happen.
I don't know if it's evenrealistic, but that's my hope is
that, you know, as more and moreof us, our eyes are open to the
horrors because it is on ourfront step that we're witnessing
it, that we all collectively sayenough of this horse shit.
We don't want this.
We want the thing that youpromised this to be because I'm

(39:08):
a veteran and it was beaten intomy head.
Almost literally, uh, the ideasof like freedom and democracy
and These are what you'refighting for.
And it never was.
We were fighting for oil.
We were fighting for fuckingrich people to be more rich is
what happened.
So whenever somebody is like,oh, thank you for your service.

(39:29):
I just want to be like, no, Ididn't do anything.
I didn't help you any.
All I did is went to anothercountry and brutalized them so
that billionaires could havemore oil and then charge us more
for that oil.

SPEAKER_03 (39:43):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (39:44):
Like the oil didn't even get cheaper.
Yeah.
The gas prices went up.
Anyways, my point is that Ithink that we need to demand
that the things that Americaclaims to be is what we make it
in the future.
Like when they're talking aboutfreedom and democracy and
liberty and the pursuit ofhappiness and being the freest

(40:09):
country and being the best.
Oh my

SPEAKER_03 (40:11):
God.
Could we not be so obsessed withbeing the best and be more
obsessed with everybody acrossthe entire I don't know.

(40:46):
Wild, wild.
Yeah.
I'm going to take like, I wantto take like two minutes to be
like, what do we want?
I want universal basic income.
I want everybody to have enoughmoney to house themselves, feed
themselves, close themselves andgo on a vacation once a year.
I want everybody to have atleast a month off from work.

(41:08):
I want a 20 hour work weekbecause hello, the technology we
have today, we're moreproductive than ever.
Everybody deserves that.
I want universal health care.
I want decent education.
I want the removal Yeah, that's

SPEAKER_01 (41:25):
a big one.

SPEAKER_03 (41:26):
Yeah.
And exploitation of other placesso that, again, we do, yes, I
absolutely benefit from thatexploitation with cheap goods,
but I think we could all livewith a lot less and be a lot
happier if we had that.

SPEAKER_01 (41:40):
Yeah.
I mean, it's a big ask becausethat would require a complete
restructuring of the entirety ofAmerica.
Well-

SPEAKER_03 (41:50):
being decimated.
So it's like, this is anapocalypse of what, uh, how the
United States functioned and wasstructured.
And like, this is theopportunity.
Can we please not just be like,let's have, we want to like claw
back what we had and make it thesame.
No, this is our opportunity tomake it better.

SPEAKER_01 (42:05):
Yeah.
Um, let's, let's bring this backto the here and now because the,
the reality is, is that becauseof the administration and their,
uh, their own, uh, purpose,Purposeful violence against the
people of this country.
You are now unemployed.

SPEAKER_03 (42:28):
Yay.

SPEAKER_01 (42:29):
What's it been like?

SPEAKER_03 (42:35):
Well, I've cried a lot.
I've wondered about whether wecan keep our house and for how
long.
I have grieved the loss of thebest job I've ever had.
That's the other thing I want tosay.
I think that there is a riskthat it could come off
white-savory what I've beensaying, like what my work was.
And I want to be clear that Iwas one small cog in a giant

(42:57):
wheel of people following theleadership of Black, Brown, and
Native people to do this work.
And I was paid well to do it.
I had good benefits.
I worked 40 hours a week, whichfrankly is a myth and a lot of
salary jobs like ones I've hadbefore.
And so I had a good job.
I was doing work that I caredabout and believed in, and I was

(43:17):
really happy.
So to lose that overnight was...
devastating.
It is devastating.
There's a lot of projects that Iwas working on that I felt
really passionately about andfelt really humbled to be a part
of, and I'm not a part of themin that way anymore.
So that's been heartbreaking andscary.

SPEAKER_01 (43:34):
Yeah.
I think also the way that thecountry is going and how many
industries are being completelygutted and how much unemployment
is on the rise.
It's a scary thing to have thatrug pulled out from under you.

SPEAKER_03 (43:50):
Yeah, for both of us.

(44:20):
Unemployment is going tobasically cover our ability to
keep our house and our lightson.
It doesn't cover things likethis podcast.
And at the end of the day, thereare many, many important things
that people could be puttingtheir money towards.
And if you don't have a ton ofmoney right now, put it towards
your own stuff you need.
If there's other things that yougot a little bit of money and

(44:43):
you want to donate it to placesthat really need it, I'm
probably not your first choiceas the podcast.
But if you are in a positionlike IU, where a few bucks, 20
bucks, five bucks is not goingto hurt you to throw towards the
podcast so we can continue aplace of art and creativity and
space and connection andamplifying indie zombie authors,

(45:05):
talking about justice, thinkingabout how do we create a better
world, then that would beawesome through our GoFundMe.

SPEAKER_01 (45:11):
Yeah, and we've talked a little bit about this
on social media and stuff.
This is the first time we'retalking about it on the podcast.

SPEAKER_03 (45:18):
Yeah, if you found value in the podcast And you've
got money jangling around yourpocket that is not allocated
anywhere.
And if we had a Patreon, youwould have thrown us some money
anyways, then we would reallyappreciate some help right now
because I don't want to stopselling book club podcast.
But we would have tosignificantly reduce what we
were doing and or end it as of2026.

(45:39):
If we don't get support, we'relooking for six months of all of
the fees.
It's$183 a month to run thispodcast and hard subscription
costs.
And if I get six months of that,then we can confidently plan for
our 2026 season.

SPEAKER_01 (45:53):
Yeah.
And people have been telling usfor a long time that we should
have some sort of crowdfundingoption because there's so many
costs involved.
And for a long time, we didn'treally care about that because
we had the money to throw at it.
And we were just happy to havethis platform to talk to zombie

(46:14):
authors and help them grow anddo the same for us.
Yeah.
it's at that point where it'slike oh now we kind of need it

SPEAKER_03 (46:24):
yeah and that's really like as someone who I
mean there's definitely beentimes where I've had no money
I've lived without power I'vebeen a couch surfer and not had
a home for a while like we'veyou've been there too like we've
both been on the brink in ourearlier life and like I would
say the last three years fouryears it's been really nice to
be comfortable for a minute

SPEAKER_01 (46:45):
it's the most comfortable time of my entire
adult life

SPEAKER_03 (46:49):
same and so for that to be gone is also
psychologically like it's a blowlike to be like I can't afford
to donate I was donating moneyto a farm sanctuary Tom 10 farm
and sanctuary every month it wasactually my don't buy a horse
fund because it was helpingother horses because honestly I
couldn't afford a horse when Ihad a horse yeah so not being

(47:10):
able to do that having to belike I can't pay for these
things that I used to enjoyanymore is humbling but I want
to be again like the reality iswe were really privileged
financially for a few years andnow we're not.
We just have to adjust.
Yeah.
But it's hard.

SPEAKER_01 (47:27):
Yeah.
But you know what?
Everything's going to be okay.

SPEAKER_03 (47:29):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (47:30):
In the end, everything will be okay.

SPEAKER_03 (47:32):
Yeah.
At this point, I've decided thatit's not about making as much
money as I was making.
It's about making enough money,finding a job that makes enough
money that I really enjoy andthat I find meaningful or not.
If I got to take a job that Ihate to pay the bills, I will,
but I'd prefer not to.

UNKNOWN (47:49):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (47:50):
Because I have ADHD and I've learned that if it's
not a job that I care about, Iam bad at it.
If I care about it, then you'regoing to get every part of me.
But if I don't care, it's likesomebody is nails on a
chalkboard beside my earconstantly trying to get me to
do work.
I also want to say thank you.

(48:11):
A number of people have alreadysupported who are Zombesties of
ours.
I'm just going to read the listbriefly.
Okay.
You want to go back and forth?
Yeah.
You go first.
Dan.

SPEAKER_01 (48:21):
Lori Calcaterra, creator of Path of the Pale
Rider.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Zombesty.

SPEAKER_03 (48:27):
Marta Tomic.
I love you.
Thank you.
You know who you are.
John Alvarez.
We've met John at Living DeadWeekend.
Yeah.
One of the best moments ofLiving Dead Weekend was getting
to be, I hope, one day friendswith John.

SPEAKER_01 (48:41):
And actually, the note here says, thank you so
much.
Meeting you was one of the bestthings to come out of Living
Dead Weekend.
I probably should have read thatfirst.

SPEAKER_03 (48:48):
Jamie Lee Strollo.
You're a dream.
You have our undying love.
Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 (48:53):
Uh, Stephanie Grant, listeners of the dead, another
podcaster.
Um, uh, thank you.
Podcast best TV.
Love you.

SPEAKER_03 (49:01):
Sarah Woolerman, another podcaster, Liz fellow
podcasters coming out of thewoodwork to help.
Cause they know what this shitcosts.
Uh, bury me in New Jersey.
Also who we met at living deadweekend.
Oh, I didn't listen to thispodcast.
Sarah is freaking brilliant.
And it's, um, really a powerfulpodcast.
Thank you so much, Sarah

SPEAKER_01 (49:18):
James.
Who's, james

SPEAKER_03 (49:21):
they didn't use their last name so i didn't put
it there okay

SPEAKER_01 (49:24):
uh james no last name just james um thank you so
much you gorgeous zombie fan uhwe appreciate you thanks for
donating thank you so much

SPEAKER_03 (49:34):
ding it shouldn't be making a sound because it's not
on it I gotta fix it sorry NailaKing oh Naila you know I friggin
adore you and I really there areno words to describe my love for
you the fact that you also giveus a little bit of cash thank
you really really appreciate itso glad that you're in our life

(49:56):
look out for her slasher andother horror books coming soon

SPEAKER_01 (50:00):
yeah also thanks for doing the write-ins every week
yeah come join Join us.
If it weren't for yourwrite-ins, I wouldn't get any
progress done during the workseason.
Candice Vandenberg, our undeadhearts are beating for you.
Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 (50:17):
Jack Callahan, author of Zombie Nerd and the
Half-Term Harrowing, Lover ofBeans.
Our lives would be incompletewithout you.
Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 (50:25):
Thank you, Jack.
Cordae Constantine, author ofBabysitter of the Apocalypse,
the whole series.

SPEAKER_03 (50:32):
And the Sundown series.

SPEAKER_01 (50:33):
And the Sundown series.
Your friendship means more thanyou could possibly know.
Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_03 (50:39):
Jill Davies, author of Dead North and many other
books.
Also, this is not cast directly,but shared some audio book codes
with us so we could listen toher books.
Oh.
Which I'm really excited about.
And those things help becauseAudible is one of the things we
have to pay for.
Yeah.
Because neither of us can readwith our eyes very well.

SPEAKER_01 (50:57):
I have a especially hard time while I'm driving.
Also, there was a few others whodidn't leave their names, but
Thank you as well.
Greatly appreciate it, yourandom

SPEAKER_03 (51:09):
randos.

(51:34):
this happened it means way morethan you know and again we do
not expect a monetary donationit does not that does not mean
more than the other ways yousupport us support us in
whatever ways you can and youare able to we appreciate you
this community is the reason thepodcast still has a pulse

SPEAKER_01 (51:53):
yeah if you weren't here neither would be

SPEAKER_03 (51:57):
yeah uh

SPEAKER_01 (51:57):
what what what does what does this mean for the
future of the podcast what'swhat's our plans going forward

SPEAKER_03 (52:05):
well right now thanks to all those people we
just listed we have about threemonths of our subscription costs
covered so we're looking tocover at least another three
months so that means that wehave podcast plan to the end of
the year and one of the thingsthat's coming up in our next
couple episodes is actually acrossover episode with the
amazing wicked words book cluband podcast Sarah and Greg yeah

(52:28):
they're really nice mutualfriends with Joe Salazar yeah
see it's all connected here it'samazing.
And we're actually going to havetwo episodes with them about
Warm Bodies, the book and themovie.

SPEAKER_01 (52:40):
Yeah.
I'm almost done with the book.
Oh, you haven't finished thebook?
Not yet.

SPEAKER_03 (52:44):
I thought you finished it.

SPEAKER_01 (52:45):
It was a rough week.

SPEAKER_03 (52:47):
Oh,

SPEAKER_01 (52:47):
well, yeah.
I'm like a quarter...
I have a quarter of the bookleft.

SPEAKER_03 (52:54):
I will be honest and say I wasn't sure about it when
I started and I fucking love itnow.
Yeah, it was a good book.
It's really good.
So if you have not read WarmBodies and you would like to...
be a part of that conversationwith us and hearing about it,
when we think about it, youshould go pick it up.
You can actually get a 13%discount from Death by TBR Books
by using the code WICKED insteadof buying it from Amazon thanks

(53:16):
to Wicked Words Book Club.
Fancy.
Yeah.
And if you don't know whatWicked Words is all about, like
I said, it's hosted by Greg andSarah.
They're a very fun couple likeus who run the Sinner Social
Club.
They call their communitysinners, which I quite enjoy.
I'm a sinner.
I don't know about you, Dan.
I've sinned A few times.
They cover horror, thrillers,sci-fi, and then dive into the

(53:38):
film or TV adaptations.
They do really fun things likemake cocktails to go with the
books they're reading andplaylists.
There's a whole audio.
If I was not listening to theaudio book of Warm Bodies, I
could have been reading it to aplaylist that Sarah herself made
for like mood vibes.
Oh.
About Warm Bodies, which is justepic.

(53:58):
And they ask the very bestquestions when they do reviews.
Is it ass or does it fuck?

SPEAKER_01 (54:03):
Those are...
Important questions.

SPEAKER_03 (54:06):
So these are the things that you're supporting by
listening to and supporting ZionBook Club podcast.
Not every episode is going to bea downer like this one is.
We just wanted to be real withyou.
So we've got that coming up.
If you like Zion Book Clubpodcast, you will love Wicked
Words.
They're open hearted, smart,lots of horror nerd energy.
And just like us, they standwith our trans LGBTQ plus

(54:28):
community, black, brown andnative folks, women and all
marginalized communities.
And they hex the patriarchy.
So So obviously this is a matchmade in heaven.
They are.

SPEAKER_01 (54:37):
Okay, good.

SPEAKER_03 (54:38):
Yeah.
So the two episodes that arecoming out with them is on
September 28th is the warmbodies book review.
And then October 12th is ourmovie discussion of warm bodies
and even more cool.
They have set up a meet andgreet with Isaac Marion, the
author of warm bodies onSeptember 26th at 6 30 PM
Eastern time on their discord.
And they're doing a watch party,which we're going to be at for

(55:00):
warm bodies movie on October 3rdat 8 PM Eastern all on their
discord

SPEAKER_01 (55:04):
i'm learning this right now

SPEAKER_03 (55:06):
yeah me and sarah are texting buddies um dan and
greg are busy working too much

SPEAKER_01 (55:11):
yeah

SPEAKER_03 (55:12):
so so sarah and i have been doing most of this and
sarah is in charge of all thereally awesome promotions so
thank you and shout out to youfor doing that sarah but it's
going to be some fun episodesthen we have some more stuff
coming up like zombie ween gameshow season three yeah yeah

SPEAKER_01 (55:27):
we're gonna have

SPEAKER_03 (55:28):
a third king or queen or repeat we got sylvester
and laurie you'll hear very soonwho the other contestants are,
it's gonna be vicious,everybody.
Will Brandon Starocki be therefrom Summerween Slamdown?
Will he show up?
I don't know.
We'll see.
Maybe.
And there's lots of other stuffhappening.

(55:48):
I am in the process of thinkingthrough what the 2026 season
could be, and I'm just feeling alittle bit hesitant right now to
be actively planning that, butwe will be soon.

SPEAKER_01 (56:00):
Yeah, we will be.
We've also got some interviewslined up.
I won't go into details, butthere's some interesting ones in
there.

SPEAKER_03 (56:09):
Yeah.
2025, the rest of 2025, we arefunded and we are going to go
balls out.

SPEAKER_01 (56:14):
Yeah.
Get your balls out.

SPEAKER_03 (56:16):
Pussy and balls.

SPEAKER_01 (56:17):
Yeah.
Bring them out.
Yep.

SPEAKER_03 (56:20):
Bring your innies and outies.

SPEAKER_01 (56:23):
Well, what

SPEAKER_03 (56:23):
a fun episode, Leah.
So fun.
I mean, it got more fun at theend.
It did.
You know, that's how

SPEAKER_01 (56:28):
a good story works.
Should we have put this at

SPEAKER_03 (56:29):
the beginning and then you had the sob story?

SPEAKER_01 (56:31):
No.

SPEAKER_03 (56:32):
Okay.

SPEAKER_01 (56:33):
Probably not.
I don't know.
Um, thanks everybody for joiningthe zombie book club.
Uh, you know, we talked aboutways that you can support us.
We've mentioned, we mentionedthe, uh, go find me, but you can
also give us a rating or review.
Um, you can also send us avoicemail like the, the, the

(56:53):
unnamed person earlier who toldus about the grandmas and the
construction gaggle of grannyzombies, gaggle of granny
zombies.
Yeah.
Uh, you can, you can call us atsix one four six nine nine zero
zero zero six.
You can sign up for ournewsletter and one day I'll send
one out.
I should probably take that oversince I got time.

(57:13):
You can also stay in touch withus if you follow us on Instagram
at Zombie Book Club Podcast.
We spend a lot of time there,actually.
And you can join the BrainMantras Collective Discord.
All the links are down there inthe description area that you
can click on and you can go tothose things that I just Hey,

SPEAKER_03 (57:34):
Dan.

SPEAKER_01 (57:35):
Yes, sir.
Since

SPEAKER_03 (57:36):
I'm unemployed and depressed, would you sing the
outro?

SPEAKER_01 (57:38):
No.

SPEAKER_03 (57:39):
Oh, my God.
Really?
Not even now?
I don't like the singing outro.
What would you do for our outro?
The thing that we've alwaysdone.
Where I sing it?
No.
Bye-bye, everybody.
Bye-bye.
The end is nigh.
Baby, bye, bye, bye.
No! Don't die.
Unless you're somebody I reallyhate.

UNKNOWN (58:00):
No.

SPEAKER_03 (58:02):
Then it's okay.
Bye.
Bye.
You gotta keep that.

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This Has Nothing To Do With Zombies (and we almost didn't upload it) | Zombie Book Club Ep 114

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}This Has Nothing To Do With Zombies (and we almost didn't upload it) | Zombie Book Club Ep 114