Hot Zombie Nerds in Your Area! | Zombie Book Club Ep 108

In this special “get to know us” episode, Dan and Leah pull back the curtain on the Zombie Book Club. From meeting on ICQ in the internet’s dark ages to building a zombie-obsessed home in Vermont, they share their origin story, their love for all things undead, and why they use the apocalypse as a lens to talk about capitalism, climate collapse, and representation. You’ll hear about Dan’s zombie novel-in-progress, Leah’s creepy-cool zombie crowns, and the barking dogs that would absolutely blow their cover in a real outbreak.

They answer listener-submitted questions both thoughtful and ridiculous — from “Who’s the better cook?” to “Do zombies pick their noses?” — and feature an indie horror gem, Dead Awake: Collapse by Rob Ulitski. Whether you’re here for thoughtful apocalypse analysis or absurd competitions like the Evil Magic Chicken Zombie Cluck Challenge, you’re invited to join the found-family energy of the ZomBestie community. Grab a snack, your favorite blunt object, and hit play.

Elevator Pitch:

• Rob Ulitski: Dead Awake: Collapse:  

Our Next Read:

• KQ Watson: Wheelchair Seating for the Apocalypse

Transcript

Welcome to Zombie Book Club

Speaker 1 0:20

Welcome to Zombie Book Club, the only book club where the book is a podcast that Leah told me I should make about zombie books and then insisted they join me as my co-host.

Speaker 2 0:27

You're gaslighting me right now. You're gaslighting the whole universe. That's not what happened.

Speaker 1 0:32

You said, dan, I want to be on a podcast. Make a podcast just for me.

Speaker 2 0:37

I wanted to do a podcast about like our relationship. This was supposed to be your podcast, but now it's ours mine too.

Speaker 1 0:43

It's our podcast, but now it's mine too.

Speaker 2 0:44

It's our podcast, baby. Yeah, it's true, it's neither of our podcasts.

Speaker 1 0:47

I got off track with my intro. I'm Dan, and when I'm not doing the late stage capitalism shuffle, I'm writing a book about a zombie outbreak that opens the doors for men in power to seize even more power, leaving those at the bottom even more hopeless and desperate situations.

Speaker 2 1:04

It's a real pick me up like the daily news and I'm leah, and we have a lot of new listeners here who we hope will become our zombesties with benefits with benefits. What kind of benefits are you thinking of? Dan?

Speaker 1 1:17

I don't know, I don't like the sound of this not the kind that anyone's thinking of right now.

Speaker 2 1:21

I'm talking about the benefits of good zombie book recommendations.

Speaker 1 1:25

Oh, unhinged rants about our current apocalyptic capitalist hellscape.

Speaker 2 1:30

Those are the benefits that we offer I get it, I get it and also getting to be a part of um a group, a group, group activity, group activities called the book club, a book club where you get to meet indie authors and read their books. Yeah, that makes sense makes sense, and sometimes other authors' books. Yeah, and sometimes movies.

Speaker 1 1:49

Many times movies in fact. In fact, whenever we don't have time to read a book, we talk about a movie.

Speaker 2 1:55

Sometimes we talk about a movie or a.

Speaker 1 1:58

TV show. You know, the original intro that I had planned was the only book club where the book is a movie, and if a picture is worth a thousand words, then maybe a movie is worth like 10 million words. I don't know. I was workshopping it. It's not great, which is why I didn't go with it.

Speaker 2 2:19

Delete it. Delete that. This must be a good first impression for people, dan. Yeah, delete it. Delete, this would be a good first impression for people. Dan. Yeah, uh, today we are reintroducing ourselves, lifting the skirts, oh, the curtains, the skirts, yeah, so you can look under them. Oh, see what's happening. Acceptable behind the scenes design book club and answering current zombies and some new to us zombies burningies, burning questions.

Speaker 1 2:44

If questions burn for more than four hours, please see a doctor. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 2:52

If you pee and it burns, really go see a doctor.

Speaker 1 2:54

Yeah, I mean, we've all been there.

Speaker 2 2:58

Have we no, hey, no, shame.

Speaker 1 3:04

These things happen, Leah? We asked you, the listener Leah, to send in some questions that make us rethink our lives and our marriage and also makes us feel terribly awkward, or just the stupidest question you can think of and how did that come? How did that work out?

Speaker 2 3:25

You know I was kind of worried. I was like are we ready for an Ask Me Anything episode? I was like, is anybody going to ask us questions? And then they came in droves. They sure did. And they took it serious when I said stupid or make us rethink our marriage. Okay, so it's going to be good today.

Speaker 1 3:43

So this will be the last episode.

Speaker 2 3:46

Yeah, so it's going to be good today so this will be the last episode.

Speaker 1 3:47

Yep, it's going to end right here. If you're new here, we release episodes every Sunday, so sub scoop. Wow, that's a new one. I never, I never.

Speaker 2 3:56

We haven't used that one, yet I always try for a new one every week. And if you're already a ZomBestie, and especially if you're using Apple Podcasts right now, I beg of you to give us five stars and a sweet little review. You can just say y'all are cute, or stop talking about ZomBesties with benefits, whatever Just five stars.

Speaker 1 4:16

Yeah, stop making us feel uncomfortable.

Speaker 2 4:18

Stars help us grow. All the other platforms are great, but I have recently learned that most of our listeners listen to Apple Podcasts, but it's where our least reviews are, so something ain't adding up, no it's not adding up Nope.

Speaker 1 4:29

Spotify is good too, but you can't leave reviews, though.

Speaker 2 4:32

No, just the stars, which is fine, but I do think you can leave comments now on Spotify. You can. We've had some fun comments from listeners on there, yeah.

Speaker 1 4:39

Yeah, I have not, I have not partaken.

Speaker 2 4:42

Well, it doesn't notify us, which is annoying Like we have to like go and like look and see if anybody's made a comment.

Speaker 1 4:47

Yeah, We'll have to do that. Yeah, we'll have to look at every single one, every 107 episodes before this one. We'll just go through and just make sure we didn't miss any.

Speaker 2 4:58

If we did, you should email us.

Speaker 1 5:00

Yes, email us if you leave a comment.

Speaker 2 5:02

So this is our reintroduction episode. Dan, Before we get into the Ask Us Anything questions, I wanted to share with you what I think would be like our top line dating headline. Oh, okay, if we're in the olden days where there was, like the Craigslist, mail-seeking mail.

Speaker 1 5:19

What's going on Craigslist?

Speaker 3 5:20

I don't know. We're dating Misconnections.

Speaker 1 5:27

We're shopping around. Yes, for potential new ZomBesties.

Speaker 2 5:30

Swf seeking question mark. Well, I guess it's ZBC seeking G-A-N-Z, which is zombie podcast couple seeking group activities with new ZomBesties.

Speaker 1 5:40

Group activities.

Speaker 2 5:44

Who are we?

Speaker 1 5:44

Dan? Oh, you're asking. Yeah, I'm Dan, I'm a disabled vet, I'm a he-him. What's a vet?

Speaker 2 5:56

Do you care over?

Speaker 1 5:57

animals.

Speaker 1 5:58

Veteran A veteran I have not been to veterinarian school and I probably won't ever go. I'm an army vet, um, from a long time past. Uh, and also I'm writing a book, a zombie book, um, which was a lot of the reason why we started this podcast is, uh, one day I will have to get on my hands and knees and beg people to buy it, and, uh, what better place than to build your own platform from which to kneel down on and humble yourself in front of thousands of people and say, please, make me feel like not so much of a failure. So that's fun. Yeah, um, my book is a zombie book. I might have mentioned that I'm currently writing it and, oh man, I know sometimes I sound funny. My book is not going to be funny, unless, I don't know, maybe you'll laugh the whole time because you'll be like ha that's happening right now.

Speaker 2 7:03

Oh, the laughter of pain, pain, laughing.

Speaker 1 7:07

Yeah, you'll laugh from schadenfreude.

Speaker 2 7:11

And you're a truck driver by day.

Reintroducing Ourselves

Speaker 1 7:12

I am. I drive a big blue dump truck.

Speaker 2 7:16

So that's Dan in a nutshell. Also, we live in Vermont, we're married.

Speaker 1 7:20

We are.

Speaker 2 7:21

I'm Leah. I use they them pronouns you can use she, her if that's easier, but I'm moving towards they them more lately because I'm queer baby We'll start there and I have a beard. Who is my husband? Because I'm not totally straight. I don't really know what I am. I like people for their brains actually, so I guess my sexuality is zombie, zombie sexual Zombie sexual'm I'm.

Speaker 1 7:45

my sexuality is zombie zombie sexual, sexual.

Speaker 2 7:46

Yeah, I love brains, it's true of your brain. That's what gets me. Yeah, I'm also an artist, particularly obsessed recently with making a zombie art, zombie crowns, which you can look up on our Instagram If you want to check them out, and just generally like an apocalypse nerd for as long as I've been alive, I've always been like something's fucked up about this world and I don't like it, and the idea of an apocalypse always felt like possibly a good restart.

Speaker 2 8:12

Yeah, yeah, same, yeah, oh, we have two dogs, ziggy and nero. You'll hear them sometimes in the podcast tippy tapping yeah, nero, you'll hear his tippy tapping.

Speaker 1 8:18

You'll hear his heavy breathing sometimes, and then ziggy, sometimes you'll hear him just go off the rails and punish us with his voice.

Speaker 2 8:27

Yeah, when he's mad. Yeah, so when our book club podcast is not Nero barking. What is Zombie Book Club about, dan?

Speaker 1 8:37

So Zombie Book Club. It's a weekly show about zombie books, mostly zombie books. We like to talk to authors and help share some of our spotlight with them. Even if it's an incandescent candle powered spotlight sometimes, and other times Big old beam, we like to share it because that's the thing to do. We also talk about movies. I have a few times mentioned games. It is not a major focus.

Speaker 2 9:10

We did have james s cole here that's true game, yeah survival infection, which is a great game yeah, it has such great illustrations.

Speaker 1 9:17

I kind of forgot it was a game and I I have it stored in my brain as like a graphic novel.

Speaker 2 9:24

Well, he does also have a coloring book. It's a whole experience.

Speaker 1 9:26

Yeah, I think that's what it is, because I see the coloring book all the time. It's in our living room.

Speaker 2 9:31

Yeah, we also talk a lot about the real life apocalypse that is happening in our world in various ways, times and places. Neither of us really think that it's that great out there. Yeah, it could be better. Better, I guess, is what we're saying. And, uh, we do talk a lot about how we are relatively privileged in our position yeah, it's true as two white folks living in vermont.

Speaker 1 9:51

We live jobs. We live in the country, out in the woods. Um, we have a really nice garden thanks to leah, um and uh, we got to pick them up truck, we got. We got so many things that are great if you live in the in the apocalypse yeah, we're very lucky.

Speaker 2 10:07

One of the things we've learned the last few years is that sometimes the apocalypse is slow and boring and feels like everyday life, because that's basically fascism right now. And that's why we like to explore zombie stories, specifically as a lens for the hard stuff, because it's at least a different world. So it allows you to suspend, um for a minute, the cares and worries about this world and immerse yourself in one where zombies will also eat you, but it's also still capitalist a lot of the time. Racism is out there, climate collapse is occurring as we speak. We talk a lot about media representation and why it's important to have folks from all walks of life and backgrounds be main characters. Otherwise, uh, it gets kind of boring and it's not representative of the world, and so we kind of balance I don't know a little bit of humor, a little bit of seriousness. You don't know what you're going to get with us, except for you'll like it yeah, we've been described as thoughtful yet unhinged.

Speaker 1 11:02

yeah, those, those two things can work together, I guess.

Speaker 2 11:10

We're also like a found family in a way, which is one of the best zombie book tropes.

Speaker 1 11:13

It really is.

Speaker 2 11:14

In fact, today I was texting two of our Zombesties at the same time separately Whoa, I know and I accidentally texted one, not the other. They instantly knew who I was talking to, though, from my accidental text, that's hilarious.

Speaker 2 11:26

You know who you are if you're listening to this. So there really is like this community that has grown organically from this podcast and that's all thanks to the people who have found us and decided that they want to stick around and be a part of this, and that's the best part. And we want more ZombiCity to do group activities with.

Speaker 1 11:44

Group activities yeah, and that's the best part.

Speaker 2 11:45

And we want more zombies to do group activities with group activities yeah, um yeah, we want to talk with you about like big stuff, but also be nerds and also make really stupid jokes, specifically dick jokes. Yeah, we got to fit one in every episode, every episode green man a newer it's on bestie that we met actually at living dead weekend has requested at least seven. We barteredtered, they had a higher number and we landed on seven.

Speaker 1 12:08

So you guys start checking, I think we can do it taking them off um cock I'm amy also.

Speaker 2 12:19

Uh, one of our favorite things to scream about is how annoying cis white male power fantasies are in the zombie genre and the apocalypse genre in general.

Speaker 1 12:27

I mean they got, they have their place right, but it's kind of like, it's kind of like fast food and we want those like deeper stories yeah you can have one of those but, like for every one of those, I need 12 of something else.

Speaker 2 12:39

Yeah, well, you'll hear when you're listening to our show is a lot of great book club conversations. We always, always, let people know what we're reading and you can follow along. You can send us notes about what you think about a book that we're reading or a question you want to ask an author. We also do audio book pitches from indie authors, so almost every episode where it's just the two of us, there will be somebody talking about their book, which we'll have in a minute.

Speaker 1 13:00

Yeah, usually.

Speaker 2 13:01

And Dan, what do you think about our absurd competitions? What should people know about that? Oh, boy.

Speaker 1 13:07

I mean, we had the Evil Magic Chicken Cluck competition challenge that lasted.

Speaker 2 13:16

I feel like several years.

Speaker 1 13:18

When we were recording every two weeks, I was starting to hear people's chicken cluck impressions in my nightmares people's chicken cluck impressions in my nightmares. Recently we did the apocalyptic chopped challenge, which was that was a fun time.

Speaker 2 13:31

We also have A lot of listener generated. Same with the zombie chicken clucks.

Speaker 1 13:35

We also have our annual zombie ween.

Speaker 2 13:40

Yep people compete for the crown. Think the crown I make specifically the zombie crown. Think a combination of like RuPaul's Drag Race snatch game with Family Feud maybe.

Speaker 1 13:52

Yeah, a little bit of that. Yeah, a little bit of Hollywood Squares.

Speaker 2 13:56

Yeah, there's not really trivia. It's more like you're bouncing around a bouncy castle with your kids and the zombie apocalypse breaks out. Yeah, how do you use the bouncy castle to survive? It's ridiculous stuff like that.

Speaker 1 14:10

You know it's like the dating game. Yeah, it's the dating game, but zombie apocalypse.

Speaker 2 14:15

I actually was thinking as we were writing this intro and like, having the dating theme of like, wouldn't it be fun if we actually had a dating game? Yeah, if single zombie besties wanted wanted to come on and meet each other through our show. If you want that, you want to hook up with another ZomBestie? This?

Speaker 1 14:30

is the place? A hot ZomBestie in your area? A hot zombie nerd.

Speaker 2 14:33

yeah, there's many of us.

Speaker 1 14:39

You know, I found my hot ZomBestie in my area.

Speaker 2 14:42

Well, we were four hours away from each other, but we're going to get into that, because one of the questions we're going to answer today is how did we meet?

Speaker 1 14:48

Oh, I forgot we were answering questions.

Speaker 2 14:51

So why should people join the Zombestie crew Dan?

Speaker 1 14:54

Oh, I mean first of all, if you like, talking about the zombie apocalypse. You know, when we started this thing, this is exactly what I was looking for and it didn't totally exist, so we had to make it Um. But also, this is, this is a place for people who have certain feelings about, uh, about social justice and want to build community in that area, like we're. We're trying, we're we're looking at the inclusive sides of the zombie apocalypse genre which we didn't know really existed until we started this podcast, because it's the.

Speaker 2 15:36

The stereotype is like zombie apocalypse genre is the white male power fantasy. It is super right wing, um, and what we've learned is that that's not the case. There's a whole community of us that are really progressive. Folks want to see justice in the world where everyone can thrive and live a good life and, oddly, are all attracted to the zombie apocalypse. So that's that's our community in a nutshell. Also very fun people.

Speaker 1 16:00

You know when? When we first started this thing, I had no idea. You know, when we first started this thing I had no idea, like I thought that what I was writing was absolutely going to totally shake up the whole zombie apocalypse genre. Because I'm like, all I'm seeing is cis, white, male, conservative, heteronormative, power trip fantasies. Is anyone even going to read my book? And then I realized that there is a lot of people that are looking for exactly this.

Speaker 2 16:34

Yeah, I remember you were asking that question, like is there anything else out there, and so I started Googling it.

Speaker 1 16:39

Yeah.

Speaker 2 16:39

And I found all kinds of amazing authors we've had on the show, from all kinds of different backgrounds and points of view. That is way more interesting than just one white military dude perspective after another. Again, those are great, but it should be one of many. It is time now for us to do our very first elevator pitch. For anybody who is new, oh, we have an author pitch and then we're going to get into our Ask Us Anything questions. So hopefully we've convinced you to come hang out with us. I hope so, besties, be a part of the group yeah, otherwise you know what are you still doing here?

Speaker 1 17:10

yeah, are you still here?

Speaker 2 17:12

hello. So if you're new around here, you're gonna know something a little bit different. We don't have all the time in the world to be reading books because, sadly, we have full-time jobs. Yeah, although I happen to happen to like my job, dan likes his less, but at the end of the day, like if I was a trillion billionaire, I would probably not be doing that job.

Speaker 1 17:33

I solidly hate my job.

Speaker 2 17:35

Yeah, dan hates his, so we can't read as fast as some people and we also just realistically can't interview everybody. So what we do is we do these author elevator book pitches, where we ask folks, as the first thing that they send with us, if they're introducing themselves to us like if you're a zombie book writer right now and you're like, how do I get on this podcast, the first thing you do is send us a short audio pitch that we share on the show, up to three minutes, and it's really a way to introduce your story and share it with our audience. And a lot of people love the audio pitches because they're a cute, fun thing. You get featured on our Instagram that week and, um, it's just a good time learning about a lot of people I would never know about if it wasn't for the audio pitch.

Speaker 1 18:15

Yeah, um, yeah. So if you're listening and you've written a zombie novel and you're wondering how do I get my novel to people, you can just send us a pitch and we'll play it. And I think it's actually a really great way, because it's just a really short little snippet up to three minutes and that's your opportunity to tell people that your book exists and I think people like it.

Speaker 2 18:40

Yeah, and your undead might be exactly the new kind of undead our audience needs, because, as we've learned, the undead are just as diverse as humans in origin speed ability.

Speaker 1 18:51

Some of them are chickens.

Speaker 2 18:53

That's true.

Dead Awake: Sleep-Induced Zombies

Speaker 2 18:54

And not in the metaphorical sense, definitely zombie cocks. I mean, there were a lot of those in 28 Years Later. Yeah, spoiler. A lot of those in 28 years later. Yeah, spoiler, if you haven't seen it yet. The big swinging dicks of 28 years later will go down in history. Our pitch for today is from rob ulitsky for a book called dead awake collapse. It's part of a series. Rob is a uk-based horror writer uh, and they have a background in film directing, producing. He started his writing journey in 2020. Was it the pandemic rob? We need to know. And when he's not crafting nightmares, he's watching 90s movies. I hope they're 90s thrillers. Those are my favorite Baking cakes Interesting, I want a cake. I want cake, but it's probably really stale and or rotting but I'm going to have cake later or haunting local bookstores. So let's hear about Rob's book, dead Awake.

Speaker 1 19:43

Yeah, let's hear it, I'm going to hit the elevator button.

Speaker 2 19:46

Yes, which floor are we going to go to now?

Speaker 1 19:48

I think it's fitting for this episode to go to floor 108.

Speaker 2 19:52

Okay, sounds good. It's a tall building Ding.

Speaker 3 19:59

Ding In my new book series, dead Awake. The bite infects you, but sleep seals your fate. Let me introduce you to Egglemore, a coastal UK city turned on its head by a new sleeping drug, noxidone. Noxidone was meant to be a miracle drug to help shorten the sleep cycle and unlock more hours in the day, but something went very wrong. Those who have taken Noxidone are trapped in a violent hallucinatory state, attacking other residents in increasingly brutal ways. Worse yet, the infection is transmitted through bodily fluids activating when victims fall asleep.

Speaker 3 20:28

Trapped in the midst of this chaos are a journalist on a last-ditch effort to save her career, a survivalist mother trying to protect her ailing daughter and an introverted shut-in faced with the world outside his window. The barricades are going up, escape less likely with every passing minute. When it takes just one mistake to become infected, how many second chances can you afford? The first entry in the Dead Awake series, dead Awake Collapse, offers a twist on the traditional zombie outbreak, with action-packed set pieces, fast infected and flawed characters doing whatever it takes to stay alive and awake. Dead Awake Collapse is book one in a six book series releasing monthly, with the next one scheduled for July 25th, available for 99p or 99 cents, and the whole series will also be on Kindle Unlimited. If you come into contact with the infected, do not go to sleep.

Speaker 1 21:19

That's horrifying. I think that that is the most realistic zombie outbreak origin I've ever heard, because if all I did was go to work and then they cut off my sleep hours and I had to go to work without getting enough sleep, I would become a zombie and I would become violent and I would just start mauling people, I think.

Speaker 2 21:40

Yeah, well, in this case, it's a drug you're taking to not sleep, which, by the way, that is such a like dystopic. Is this dystopic a word? I'm?

Speaker 3 21:48

making it one.

Speaker 2 21:49

A dystopic reality, or like reflection of our reality right now, because capitalism is like be productive, never rest. Rest is for losers, basically.

Speaker 1 21:59

Obey your corporate masters. Don't sleep too much.

Speaker 2 22:02

Work as much as possible to make that money and I can see people taking this drug. But I got to tell you I love sleeping. I would never take this drug. Sleep is my favorite.

Speaker 1 22:13

It also feels like a super realistic, like dystopic, but it feels like something that would actually happen. It's like everyone's like yeah, you know, I just got to get more hours in. Actually happen is like everyone's like yeah, you know, I just gotta get more hours in. Like you know, I go home and I sleep like five hours and I could be spending that five hours at work, yeah, or doing other things.

Speaker 2 22:34

Yeah, it would become like on our instagram ads. All of a sudden be like do you wish you could sleep less? Do you wish there were more hours in the day? Well, let us tell you. But what's really scary to me is that, like, if you're infected, you just have to stay awake to not become a zombie. So, like, how long can you force yourself?

Speaker 1 22:50

oh, so you become a zombie when you fall asleep? Yeah, oh, this is. This is like.

Speaker 2 22:54

These are ambient zombies well, ambient, has been jumped up some weird side effects it's true.

Speaker 1 23:01

Yeah, you know, like I said, this sounds very plausible yeah, it is an awesome concept.

Speaker 2 23:06

I can't wait to read it Now. Apparently, there's two books out as of the release of this episode on August 10th, so go check it out. And, rob, thank you so much for sending your pitch. I would like you to add a musical intro here.

How We Met and Our Zombie Origins

Speaker 1 23:31

Ask us anything. That's what the musical was for. Yeah, oh, I just thought I was doing it for fun. No, all right, that's. That's what we're doing now, so we got a lot of questions.

Speaker 2 23:37

We're going to get through as many as we can today. If we have more, we'll do a future ask us anything episode and get to those in the next one. Yeah, but we wanted to start with some basics for the folks who maybe don't know us or have known us for a while but don't know some of our origin stories, like Lori Calcaterra, author and creator of Path of the Pale Rider, asks a really simple but important one how did we meet Dan?

Speaker 1 23:58

Yeah, I mean this could be a very long question which we found out when Joe Salazar asked us the same exact question, and then we sat there for four hours telling them everything about ourselves. That was you. Yes, I listened. That's what happens to me, but the short version is we met on the internet when we were kids Before it was cool.

Speaker 1 24:20

Yeah, In fact it was very uncool back then, Like you had to kind of keep it a secret that you had friends on the Internet because they'd be like you're a fucking loser. And now I got an ICQ flower tattooed on my arm. So who's the loser now? Possibly steal us.

Speaker 2 24:38

I know some people that hate matching tattoos, but like it's something we've wanted for a really long time yeah, nobody ever knows what this is no, and it's, it's.

Speaker 1 24:46

Uh, the reality is, even if you and I weren't together, icq changed our lives yeah, icq was an instant messaging um uh program because we didn't call them apps back then. Uh, around the time of, like aol Messenger, dial-up internet, I think Yahoo Instant Messenger was a very new thing. Yahoo Instant Messenger was the Facebook to our.

Speaker 2 25:12

MySpace. I didn't have access to those things as a Canadian. There was no AOL Instant Messenger for us. That's right.

Speaker 1 25:16

America Online. If I went with everybody else who was getting on AOL, we would have never talked.

Speaker 2 25:24

That is so sad. Yeah, I don't like that. I don't want to even think of that. Alternate reality is not allowed to exist. So, lori, basically we were teenagers, we were lonely because we were weirdos Unsurprising now that we have Zoanibook Club podcast. We were weirdos, weirdo teens, rural towns, yeah, where we were not like one of these things is not like the other, and it was us, yeah. So we started talking online and then we fell in love and then there was a lot of years before we actually got together. We got together twice. One time I fucked it up, but also we were both stupid at that age.

Speaker 2 25:59

I was like 25, 26 and then we got together again when I was 35 and you were 36, so a decade later, yeah, pretty much or maybe a little less than any.

Speaker 1 26:08

I think it was eight years, like it might have been closer to nine years yeah, we've been together ever since.

Speaker 2 26:14

Yeah, 2019, officially. Uh, this is a great follow-up question from rebecca cuthbertson. Offer of offer. Author. Author of waves of undead. Were you both zombie fans before you met, or did one of you lead the other down the path? Well, rebecca, never on my bucket list was to make a crown made out of body parts. Uh, before dan, in my life, yeah, and I casually enjoyed zombies, like I loved the walking dead. Um, I had read world war z, but that was, and I'd watched 28 days later. I loved all of that, but I wasn't like it wasn't so much of my identity. Now, yeah, now I'm starting to become known as the zombie person in my family and friend life. So, yeah, yeah um.

Speaker 1 27:02

For me it was like around the time that I was in Afghanistan in 2005 that I started having zombie apocalypse dreams Very, very stressful dreams. But it's weird because as stressful and horrifying as it was, I would wake up and be like I want to go back, which maybe there's something there that a therapist could get out of me if we talked about that enough. But I became obsessed over the years and it just became this thing where I couldn't get enough and I really love the Walking Dead because before then you had like a couple movies that would come out every couple of years and a lot of times they were awful and they did not satisfy the urge. And I started reading zombie novels Because I discovered one at a safe house in Afghanistan, right in Kabul.

Speaker 1 28:01

There was just this book rack that was collapsed because of the weight of all the books on it just made it collapse and there was just books all over the floor and there was this book called Zombies and the zombie was spelled with an X and I read that and it was stressful because their zombies were reanimated on a cellular level. You couldn't kill them. If you ground it up into ground meat, the ground meat would try to come after you.

Speaker 2 28:30

That's disgusting.

Speaker 1 28:32

Unsuccessfully, but it would like pulsate towards you, ew, but like, as you could imagine, they were very difficult to deal with and they were everywhere.

Speaker 2 28:41

So your first exposure to zombies was not old Romero films. No, it was it was it was.

Speaker 1 28:47

I saw Dawn of the Dead when I was a kid, loved it because I was a little gun psycho. When I was a kid I loved every gun.

Speaker 2 28:57

Dan also loved to play with dead rabbit heads in his off-grid cabin under the age of five.

Speaker 1 29:01

Yeah, I played with rabbit heads.

Speaker 2 29:04

What do you?

Speaker 1 29:05

want. Don't judge me. We all play with dead rabbit heads.

Speaker 2 29:10

So your first exposure was dawn of the dead, do you think?

Speaker 1 29:13

Yeah and um, I saw a night of the living dead when I was in the army. Um, I did not watch them in order. I started with the dawn of the dead and uh and yeah, like over over the over the years, I'd seen them, but it wasn't until like afghanistan that I was just like I need, I need this. It's like a drug just pump it into my, into my veins. I need, I need more stories. I needed stories that were being told that I felt like I could relate to, like there's a lot of really campy stories that I'm just like this is too fucking stupid for me to enjoy. And then, like the walking dead comes along and it's like gritty and realistic and it's a long form story. You're seeing like a group of people surviving and that like actually surviving in the apocalypse. And that's when I was just like, oh, thank god, it's like every, it's like a zombie. A new zombie movie is coming out every week.

Speaker 2 30:04

Yeah, I would wait for it every week, like like, oh my God, once again, and the intro was so scary. Yeah, now I'm desensitized, yeah.

Speaker 1 30:11

When the doorknob starts turning.

Speaker 2 30:12

Yeah, my first exposure to zombies was probably and I don't even think I knew it was zombies. But now, with my aficionado levels to I don't know, do I get to call myself, yeah, a zombie aficionado at this point? You've seen 108. I have not every single one. I haven't, but I feel like I know a lot. Okay, you know, I'm not, I'm not aficionado, but I'm like I'm.

Speaker 2 30:32

I'm in grade 10, you're like an intermediate level yeah, but anyways, uh, evil dead would have been my first exposure without calling it zombies, and we still need to do an episode on evil Dead. I was obsessed with that movie as a kid and then it really wasn't, until I read World War Z and then Walking Dead came out and I remember the first time around we were dating in 2010 that you had the Walking Dead comics and I was like what the fuck is this? But also I was very judgy of comics at that time and honestly, just had like really been uh brainwashed into thinking that like some things are cool and some things aren't, and that's stupid. It's like whatever you like and enjoy, but I was very narrow-minded back then, if you can believe it, folks I mean, that's, that's what happens when you're, when you're young, is you?

Speaker 1 31:19

you believe a lot of things until a certain point, like, uh, I feel like a lot of young people have like preconceived notions of like adulthood and they just like fit into a norm that they think is adulthood. It's not until, like, you get to like your third, your late 30s, where, like that was all bullshit, I should have been enjoying my life.

Speaker 2 31:37

It's true, just live it. Uh, joe salazar, author of the dead weight, wants to know what is your favorite episode, and why, of the walking dead? No, of our book club oh, that's a hard one.

Speaker 1 31:51

It is very hard. Yeah, um, you know the, the um, the living dead weekend episode I really enjoyed because, like it brought beds back so many. It was so many memories. But also, um, you know the around those episodes in that range like celebrating 100 episodes and Living Dead Weekend, it was mostly just people telling us how great we were. And, yeah, I mean you do something for so long, thinking that you're kind of just speaking into the ether for a while, like you have to be your biggest fan for a long time when you're doing something like this.

Speaker 3 32:32

Yeah.

Speaker 1 32:32

You just have to pretend that people are listening. And when you start to realize that people are listening and then they start talking back to you, it's a very good feeling.

Speaker 2 32:40

It is, and that's sort of what makes it worth it to me, which I would say we've had a really good audience almost since the beginning.

Speaker 1 32:48

Yeah.

Speaker 2 32:48

And then finally, apparently, I asked why you were listening to us and people started answering, which was funny. My favorite episode. I think if I was going to do like an, I would go with like an old school option and then a new school. So old school, meaning before a hundred episodes, would probably be an early one. The Amazon a hundred dollar challenge I like that. That was a favorite, just because I got to shock Dan.

Speaker 1 33:12

Yeah, challenge, that was a favorite just because I got to shock Dan with my answers of how I spent a hundred dollars to survive. Yeah, I was being very serious and Leah was being very not serious.

Speaker 2 33:18

Do you think Nero's fart was just picked up on our audio? I hope so. Well, now you know it wasn't us, which is mostly why I brought it up in case it does.

Speaker 1 33:27

I'm always proud of him when he does that.

Speaker 2 33:30

I'm glad that you're proud. Would you be proud of me if I farted?

Speaker 1 33:33

No, when Nero does it, it's special.

Speaker 2 33:37

Oh, Dan, actually nobody asks us this, but one of Dan's favorite things is to watch Nero poop.

Speaker 1 33:43

Yeah, it's very satisfying for you. It brings a lot of joy to me it must be because you have a prostate.

Speaker 2 33:50

I wonder if male dogs have prostates.

Speaker 1 33:52

Yeah, they have to, but they also have tails too. But you know, I just see him out there. He points his tail straight as an arrow, he hunches over. It looks like he's putting a lot of work into it and then he gets the reward of pooping. Yeah, and it's.

Speaker 2 34:07

It's just a wonderful thing to witness yeah, uh, the other new schooler ish, I guess it was before. 100 episodes would be the ones around resisting tyranny those also were very good um, of course I forget what number those are yeah, they were relatively recent yeah, well, probably in the 90s. Yeah, brian from zompocalypse wants to know what was your imaginary friend. Did you have an imaginary friend, dan?

Speaker 1 34:32

I tried to have an imaginary friend. We briefly mentioned that when I was a kid, I lived in an off-grid cabin, and I mean like really off-grid, not like we didn't have like lights or whatever. Like we lived in a cabin three miles in the woods on a logging trail. We didn't have electricity, we didn't have running water. We had an outhouse. All all of our baths were cold, cold water from a, from a hand pump. Um, what was I being asked again? Oh, imaginary friend. Yeah, I tried to have an imaginary friend named johnny, because I thought johnny was a really cool name and I wanted to be named Johnny. And my parents told me that I couldn't change my name to Johnny. So I'm like well then I'll just make an imaginary friend because I'm so lonely out here. And yeah, try as I might. I'm like Johnny, things aren't working out because you're invisible and you don't talk to me. So I broke up with my imaginary friend.

Speaker 2 35:29

That was never there in the first place. He wasn't a good friend. I love how you thought Johnny was like the coolest name ever. I know, yeah, what a moment in our time. Like Johnny Depp. Yeah, I did not have an imaginary friend. What I did have was an adult telling me that if I didn't fall asleep fast enough, that the mugwumps would come get me and I would live in fear of that and I would hear like the thumping of my heart in my own ears because I'd have like nighttime anxiety and I was convinced that it was the mugwumps coming down the hall to eat me. So those are my imaginary friends?

Speaker 1 36:06

yeah, I'm.

Speaker 2 36:06

I'm sure that didn't cause any long-term trauma maybe there's a reason why I still wake up in the middle of the night feeling anxious for a long time, also because I read a lot of vampire stuff. I I could not sleep unless the blanket was like right up under my chin so that my neck was not available yeah, because that's what happens.

Speaker 1 36:24

Is the vampires? If they can see your neck, they bite just like. Just like any other number of creatures that might be living in your bedroom If your toes are showing under the blankets or if your foot goes off the side of the bed Also very risky.

Speaker 2 36:39

Do not do that. That's when they get you.

Speaker 1 36:41

They can't get you any other way because blankets are magic, I guess.

Speaker 2 36:46

Well, they're at least like one step of a barrier, you know.

Speaker 1 36:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 36:50

I never got to the point where I put garlic in my window as a kid, but I was reading a lot of Anne Rice way too early, so I was very afraid of vampires. Lori Calcaterra also wants to know who is better at cooking.

Speaker 1 37:02

Yeah, speaking of garlic or Dan.

Speaker 2 37:05

I'm going to just I think you were trying to ask us this one to make it a fight, possibly to tear apart our marriage story I will happily say Dan's a better cook, because that means I don't have to do it as often, but frankly, out of our little commune, Simon is the best cook. Yeah, that's true. And for those of you who are new, Simon is Dan's brother and he lives in our zombie commune with us.

Speaker 1 37:26

Yeah, when I go on social media, all I see is horrible current events that are going on. When Simon logs into social media, all Simon sees is recipes for new ways to make tofu delicious.

Speaker 2 37:38

Yeah, he's also always telling me about ways I could make things from scratch, and I just look at him like do you think I have time for that? You don't either, simon. I know that's the dream, simon. We're not making our own yogurt. Although he does, he doesn't make his own yogurt, it is excellent um. Another, possibly marriage. Ending question from laurie which person would the dogs choose between us? Oh, they'd choose you. Are you okay with that?

Speaker 1 38:01

I, I mean, I get it, you're. You're here more often and like during the summertime, nero and Ziggy, when they see me, I'm just like covered in asphalt and I'm like incapable of communication and I just like I eat and then I fall asleep. Their experience with me is not great.

Taking Over a City in the Apocalypse

Speaker 2 38:21

They love you so much though. Yeah, I think it's just that. So my dogs are inherited from my first marriage. My dogs are inherited from my first marriage and, uh, dan is a way better daddy than my ex um, who would never have called herself a daddy, but in my head it was funny to think of them that way for a minute anyways, um, but uh, our household is much more calm than my last marriage, so I know that they love you because they don't have the stress of yelling uh in our home because of you. So they might listen to me. I definitely have more authority, yeah, but they definitely choose to put their butt on you before they choose to put their butt on me.

Speaker 1 38:56

And that's how you know. If your dog puts their butt on you, that is the highest compliment they can give.

Speaker 2 39:03

And nobody else does this. But if we had our dogs and it was the apocalypse, we would not survive. They fucking love to bark. Yeah, if we had our dogs and it was the apocalypse, we would not survive. They fucking love to bark. Yeah, they bark all the time. Oh, so much. I need intervention. If any of you is a dog trainer, but like a nice one, not the one, I don't want any punishment ones.

Speaker 1 39:16

Like we went to one who didn't have the best advice.

Speaker 2 39:20

Yeah, and it's kind of scarred, nero a little bit.

Speaker 1 39:27

So do you need your dog to behave? Have you?

Speaker 2 39:29

tried beating him. God, no, not our style. Another question from Joe Salazar. She asks what are some other podcasts you like to listen to or are inspired by? Oh, I'm going to go with some non zombie ones. First, I got to give shout outs to our zombie podcast friends because they're all excellent. We've talked about them a lot on the show. We've got Listeners of the Dead with Stephanie Really one of the most well-read, well-versed zombie people Very polarizing episode about 28 years later recently and feelings about it. We have Brian from Zompocalypse Very fun survival, zombie survival show. And then we have the Undead Symphony with Darren and michael, and they have probably watched more zombie movies and talked with them than any other podcast, so, if you want, I think they've watched every single one yeah, if you want zombie wrecks, I would go there.

Speaker 2 40:20

But what I want to talk about really is telepathy tapes. I'm obsessed. Um, basically, you know what I feel like if I tell people about it, they'll be like I'm not listening to that. Yeah, that sounds insane. It does sound insane, but you should listen to it. If you I'll put it this way if you are a highly skeptical person of telepathic abilities, listen to it. If you've had some experiences, like I have, that are not explainable by the materialist worldview of science that currently exists, and you want to see what kind of research is being done on telepathy, go listen. It's blown my mind. I'm obsessed with it. I also love how to Survive the End of the World, which is literally that. It's actually about our real-time apocalypse. I don't think I've heard about that one. Oh, it's so good. Yeah, we haven't talked about it before. Most recently, we've become friends with the Wicked Words Book Club folks and they also had a really great 28 years later bonus episode and talked about Jurassic Park lately. That was fun. What about you, dan?

Speaker 1 41:18

A lot of my podcasts are really Doom-focused, shocker, informing me of all the horrible, horrible things that are happening. Informing me of all the horrible, horrible things that are happening. And then, when I crash out, I need something irreverent and I usually go to Smosh Reads, reddit Stories and, most recently, two Hot Takes. Same premise for both of them. They read Reddit Stories and respond to them and they are fucking wild. Some some of the stories that are on reddit are are crazy. They make me feel better about my own life you know what?

Speaker 2 41:58

that's why I watch reality tv. Yeah, it's like it's judgment free judging zone. I don't go online and judge these people. I do watch the tiktoks of other people judging people on reality tv shows, but I don't do it myself. Uh, I feel like smosh reads reddits is also like that a little bit.

Speaker 1 42:15

I I'm actually really surprised. When I first started listening, I was really surprised at how much like genuinely good advice comes out of it, because they're very well balanced individuals and they know how to um deal with conflict and uh, and how to have healthy relationships with people. So a lot of times the stories that you read on reddit are just like yeah, so, uh, I'm not communicating with my wife and I think she's a bitch, am I the asshole? And they're like, yeah, you should communicate with your wife. And they're like, yeah, you're the asshole, because you're not communicating, you should probably get a divorce and you should probably never, uh, date again have you applied any any uh advice in our marriage um small streets reddits?

Speaker 1 43:03

you know, I I haven't needed to uh find a way to mitigate a situation where we are going to our wedding day and your sibling wears white, a white wedding dress to our wedding while I'm wearing the same white wedding dress.

Speaker 2 43:28

Exactly the same white wedding dress.

Speaker 1 43:29

And then your sister gets mad at me and says that it's because I can't tell that it's actually sage and not white. Wow, but it's clearly white. Them's fighting choices clothing. So that exact scenario hasn't come up yet, but when it does, I'll be prepared.

Speaker 2 43:49

Yeah, we'll be ready for it, because that will definitely happen in our future, even though we're already married and we eloped, it's true we haven't had the ceremony yet which we promised back in 2020 that we would eventually. No, okay, we've got some really fun zombie apocalypse would-you-rathers.

Speaker 1 44:07

Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 44:08

This one is from Zelinda morrison. In fact they gave us a couple that are very funny. You go on a supply, run past mobs of zombies, dan. Who would you prefer to have as your colleague? A clumsy, clueless build-a-bear employee or a skillful and competent war veteran who has chronic bad flatulence?

Speaker 1 44:26

oh yeah, I don't know. I'm gonna pick flatulence. Oh yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 2 44:30

I'm going to pick flatulence, because just because you fart a lot doesn't mean it smells all the time. It's true, nero farts a lot and his mostly don't smell.

Speaker 1 44:40

Yeah, they are basically describing Nero. I guess it depends on his attitude towards his bad flatulence. You know, sometimes there's like gross dudes that are just like they'll like lift their leg and make a big show out of it oh, or like, try and like, come really close to you and then be like pull my finger, yeah, and then they fart on your leg yeah, no, that would be like I'd pick a bit like yeah, then, then I'd be like I'm I'm just gonna go out and die, yeah there's also perks of the clumbly, clumbly, clumsy, cless Build-A-Bear employee, because they'll just die first.

Speaker 2 45:11

They could be a good diversion. What I?

Speaker 1 45:13

think is more important. But I guess, between the choice of somebody who's really terrible in a situation and somebody who is really good in a situation but might be a gross dude, I'll go with the gross dude, I guess he can't help it.

Speaker 2 45:42

Maybe he's vegan like us and he eats a lot of beans. That could be I mean, I would be just as flatulent probably.

Speaker 1 45:47

I want to know his backstory. Let us know more.

Speaker 2 45:55

Yes, linda tell could be. I mean, I will be just as flatulent, probably. I want to know his backstory. Let us know more. Yes, linda, tell us who is this person. Yeah, we've got a much uh, an interesting one that I think we could take another time in more depth from sylvester barzy, a prolific author and zom bestie. Author of planet dead, which is a whole series. Author of um young bloods, young blood not blood.

Speaker 1 46:08

There's no plural.

Speaker 2 46:09

I you know I do that every time yeah, author of dead soil, author of camp lanier, and they were an award-winning book that they recently got an award from um very cool dude. Oh yeah, zombie ween king. How could I forget so?

Speaker 1 46:21

I'm so sorry.

Speaker 2 46:22

Winner of 2024 of the accolades yes, uh, but they asked us a very fun question. For people like us, maybe not for others how do you picture the world ending? And if you were to take over an entire city, how would you do it? For educational purposes, of course oh boy let's start with how would you picture the world ending?

Speaker 1 46:41

the way it currently is the, the, uh, the, the top gear, full throttle action that we're doing with multiple venues at the same time to reach maximum apocalypse, both by just rampant disease outbreaks, climate disaster, social breakdown, economic collapse, economic collapse, nuclear threat, uh, I mean, the list goes on. I mean we've half of half of my testicles are plastic, it's true, you know, like if you didn't know that?

Speaker 2 47:21

study folks there's microplastics in every man's testicles, yeah, and also in our brain. Apparently it's like a teaspoon of microplastics in our brain. Sounds like more than you want.

Speaker 1 47:32

So, yeah, that's how I picture the world ending. I like thinking about the zombie apocalypse because I feel like it's the better alternative to what we're already doing. The zombie apocalypse happens, wipes out all the humans. Nature can reclaim and fix all the bullshit that we broke, and then, uh, and then everything goes back to normal.

Speaker 2 47:55

Return to normalcy yeah, I mean, the end is always a new beginning, which is actually what I'm most interested in with the apocalypse is the opportunity for the new um. But I don't think I disagree with your your view on how it's gonna end. I think the most annoying part is just how boring it is and how slow it is. I think that's the other part of the zombie apocalypse.

Speaker 1 48:13

It's often very fast. It's just such a lame apocalypse.

Speaker 2 48:18

Yeah, like fascism, like we're dealing with in the United States right now. Also looks like us going for breakfast every Saturday still, which is great. I don't want to lose the Heartland Diner't. I want to be clear. I don't actually want a zombie apocalypse, but it would be nice if we had the opportunity to really dig down and shift some systems without so much just like heinous destruction and pain of people and, um, I guess zombies would still be heinous destruction and pain yeah, but a different kind.

Speaker 2 48:44

So how are we taking over an entire city, that's the one where I'm like, oh, this would be a great episode.

Speaker 1 48:49

I'm assuming that this is a zombie apocalypse we're talking about Sure, okay, boy, I don't know if I'd want to. I mean, it'd have to be a pretty small city. I don't want a whole big city. So that's why you didn't ask if you wanted it. I just have to do it.

Speaker 2 49:06

Yeah, you've got to do it. I'm being tasked Because this is an educational opportunity. Also, this podcast is very educational. Yeah, so for the people how might they take over a city?

Speaker 1 49:17

I'm going to do it with heavy equipment, very large bulldozers. I'm going to basically up-armor them, make a fleet of killdozers which are a bulldozer, where you weld really thick steel plates on it so that they're bulletproof, and then you just ram all the cars out of the road and you run over anything that looks like any kind of opposition. You make a lot of noise, you hit the air horns a lot and you bring all the zombies out into the street and you just flatten them Behind the killdozer. You just, you just drag tankers of fuel and you just, you just keep going night and day until you've wiped everything off of the streets. And then then you set up. You set up your, your headquarters and the most secure building at the center, and you use the remaining zombies that are inside the buildings to basically be your barricade against the living have you thought about this?

Speaker 2 50:16

yeah I can't say what book I'm reading right now because it would be a spoiler, but I got to read a sneak preview of a book and there's there's a backstory on how a city was taken over and it's impressive. Oh yeah, that's all I can say. I don't have a better idea than you. I think my way of taking over a city would be more soft power. So soft power story to get. Well, whatever Hot zombie nerds here Thinking about Foucault right now and the idea of hard power meaning like violence, physical enforcement, and soft power meaning influence.

Speaker 2 50:48

Yeah, you're a hard power guy, I'm a soft power guy and, um, that would mean like, uh, using my diplomatic skills, my conflict resolution abilities, I'm taking a conflict transformation course right now. It's actually quite interesting. I would use all of my hard-earned social skills and the ability to build relationships and trust with people to slowly work my way to the top until I became a dictator Perfect.

Speaker 1 51:14

Yeah, yeah, if you need a few kill dozers.

Speaker 2 51:18

Yeah, we're actually a perfect team. I can be the charismatic leader. Yeah, oh, actually you're a pretty charismatic leader too.

Speaker 1 51:24

I can be the charismatic leader of the kill dozer squad. But what I really need is a puppet, puppet though, because I don't actually want to be the charismatic leader. I think that there's people who are better suited than that.

Speaker 2 51:35

Oh, so you need to prop me up as the strong man?

Speaker 1 51:36

yes, and I'm behind the scenes, pulling the strings and making decisions so I I like jump out of my killdozer with my machine gun and I shoot in the air and I'm like, yeah, I'm the president of this bitch.

Speaker 2 51:45

And then yeah, I'm like um the people who wrote Project 2025 from the Heritage Foundation.

Speaker 1 51:50

Yeah.

Speaker 2 51:51

That's who I am. I'm like the architect behind the scenes. I'm Wizard of Oz. Yeah, that would be my attempt. Perfect, I love this. Yeah, although I would obviously not write Project 2025. To be clear for new listeners not a fan, I mean we need a new year first of all. Yeah.

Speaker 1 52:11

Why don't we have our own project 2025? Where the fuck is our unified vision? I heard of something like that, but I don't know the details.

Speaker 2 52:14

I think it was mostly just hot air. Ah, interesting. Uh, let's go into a lighter, uh sort of hypothetical question again from zalinda morrison do you think zombies pick their noses, or does that require higher brain function, dan?

Speaker 1 52:27

I can tell you that some zombies pick their noses and there's evidence to support my theory. Um, if you watch fall fall out, you'll notice that the ghouls have picked their noses clear off their face. If you see a zombie with a nose, that is not a nose picking zombie, but if you see one with a gaping hole in the middle of their face, that is a nose zombie. Okay, so it depends on the type of zombie the middle of their face.

Speaker 2 52:49

That is a nose-picking zombie. Okay, so it depends on the type of zombie, the species of zombie, that's fair. So, linda morrison, actually our next author pitch is going to be from them.

Speaker 1 52:57

Oh, they wrote a book called harsh light, so that sounds like in our next casual dead episode that sounds like what happens every time the sun comes up for me. Yeah, and I don't have my sunglasses on.

Speaker 2 53:09

Yeah, you have some eye sensitivity from being out in the desert for so long. Yeah, I think I'd also be remiss to say we didn't mention this earlier. We kind of divide our episodes up between the ones where we're interviewing folks and then casual deads. This is technically a casual dead because it's just Dan and I chatting with each other. I'm basically in my underwear. It's not hot as in. I'm basically in my underwear. It's not hot as in. I'm not hot right now. I'm hot, we have air conditioning and I'm a mess, but it's just chill.

Speaker 1 53:34

I'm burning up. Are you really? I'm a thousand degrees over here. Well, you are a hottie.

Speaker 2 53:39

So we got a couple of questions that indicated that some people really hope that they are our most, our best Zom bestie and I'm not sure how we're going to answer them, but from an anonymous person don't know who it is. They asked why is Ollie Eats Brains our favorite guest?

Speaker 1 54:01

That's an interesting question, and I think that Ollie Eats Brains is our favorite guest. Well, I think it's just something we've always believed to be true. We probably heard it somewhere first, and then you hear something. Enough times, it becomes true.

Speaker 2 54:15

That's how it works.

Speaker 1 54:16

Yeah.

Speaker 2 54:17

That's science? Yeah, oh, you mean, we heard that Ollie is our favorite guest. Yeah, oh.

Speaker 3 54:22

We heard it.

Speaker 2 54:23

I have an answer for this. Ollie is my favorite guest because they're kind of in my brain brain an informal co-host and less of a guest. They have helped us with some episodes. They interviewed you about your book last year, which was pretty great. They were here for our end of the year recap episode and really what's been keeping Ollie from hanging out on the show more is time and time zones.

Speaker 1 54:46

Yeah.

Speaker 2 54:46

Although they live a little, at least one, they only live one hour behind us now, instead of three.

Speaker 1 54:49

Ollie has solved some of the time zone problem.

Speaker 2 54:53

Yeah.

Speaker 1 54:54

Some of it.

Speaker 2 54:55

Yeah, but the work schedules not conflicting. But Ollie is also our favorite movie night, movie party night on Discord.

Speaker 1 55:05

Yeah, very good, definitely.

Speaker 2 55:07

Ollie also has an incredible uh spreadsheet it's intimidating yeah it made me realize I could only read zombie books and never get done. Naela king, one of our zombesties, who is also, uh, somebody who dan writes with every week at naela king's carnival yeah, the, the ghost, the ghost, ghost, carnival. Ghost carnival yeah, she decided to get fucking messy Naila and wants to know who is our favorite zombie-ween game show winner Sylvester Barzee, zombie king of 2024, or Lori Calcaterra, zombie queen of 2023.

Speaker 1 55:42

I have an answer for this. Okay, the next one, oh.

Speaker 2 55:47

Which actually could be one of them.

Speaker 1 55:48

It could be. It could be either one, because they're coming back. Yeah, it could be somebody else.

Speaker 2 55:51

Yeah, I don't pick favorites. That's my answer, except for Ollie. Ollie, you're my favorite.

Speaker 1 55:57

Yeah, but you're not a zombie. Winged kinder queen, because we heard it somewhere before.

Speaker 2 56:01

Yeah, we were told, and then we got a question also from an anonymous person. Why is Zompocalypse Podcast your favorite podcast?

Speaker 1 56:13

I think I got targeted ads about this and yeah, so it's just been showing up on my feed and it's just like Zompocalypse Podcast is your favorite podcast, I'm like, well, it must be true then.

Speaker 2 56:26

Well, it is very fun. Brian is great, he's silly, he's got a great logo and he's got really cute kids that sometimes come on the podcast, which is fun.

Speaker 1 56:35

He did an episode about bluey yeah, uh, brian is like super dad. Yes, also a welder yeah.

Speaker 2 56:44

But overall I would say don't make us pick favorites. How dare you?

Speaker 1 56:48

if we have favorites, we'll never tell yeah, it's true, we'll only give you snarky answers yeah, another person asked us when is the movie coming out?

Speaker 2 56:57

what movie?

Speaker 3 56:58

wait what? What are you talking about?

Speaker 2 57:00

28 years later, the sequel, which movie?

Speaker 1 57:03

I don't know, I gotta assume that, uh, what they're talking about is the evil magic chicken zombie movie, oh, of which I've made an audio trailer for I don't know, I have no plans for that, because movies cost money or time and effort, and I have none of those things or time and effort and I have none of those things. You know, I feel like if this was me back in 2013 or 2014, I would have been like this is my life mission, to make this movie.

Speaker 2 57:39

You know, maybe we should do. I want to actually hear from folks. Would you help us with like a micro Kickstarter of sorts where we could pay Dan's brother, who's a professional animator, to animate the Evil Magic Chicken Zombie trailer? I mean if it's animation.

Speaker 1 57:56

Micro isn't going to do it.

Speaker 2 57:59

Well, just for the trailer, not the whole movie.

Speaker 1 58:01

That trailer would probably take like.

Speaker 2 58:04

You think for 500 bucks he wouldn't do it.

Speaker 1 58:07

It'd be like 500 hours of work.

Speaker 2 58:09

You think so? Yeah, yeah, I don't think so. Yeah, simon would slap me.

Speaker 1 58:13

Just ask simon, okay, I mean just for the trailer you've got 24 frames in a second, so that's 24 images you need to create per second of footage that you're trying to I'm thinking more simplified though I'm, I'm not thinking like really detailed. Wow.

Speaker 2 58:31

I feel like if we could raise 500 bucks he might do like a bare-bones version and it would still be funny.

Speaker 1 58:36

Yeah, like one frame every four seconds.

Speaker 2 58:41

Yeah, I mean that feels appropriate for that movie trailer. And if you have not listened to or heard the Evil Magic Chicken Zombie zombie trailer, you can listen to the very end of episode 100 where dan released it. And special shout out to our friend eric, who is the voice of many people in that trailer.

Speaker 1 58:57

Yeah, I'm also the voice of a few people in that trailer and leah is the voice of one person in that trailer because there's only one role for a person with a uterus.

Speaker 2 59:07

That's right on that.

Speaker 1 59:08

Yeah, that's how we made it. There can only be one. Yeah, we wanted to be true to the genre this is a good follow-up to the movie question.

Speaker 2 59:16

When are you going to be a video podcast? Never, sorry y'all. Yeah, I got dan to compromise and say he would make more reels with his face.

Speaker 1 59:24

Yeah um, I'm okay with that. It, you know it's a, it's a lot of, it's a lot of work to make a podcast, especially when you're working 60 hours a week yeah, you know, 55 to 65, typically, I've never really been a fan of just adding video to something because people are like you'll get more subscribers if you do that, because I used to do YouTube and honestly I did fine until I started giving in to those types of whims and doing face cam and stuff, because I think it's just an extra layer that took brain power away from what I was doing to be like I got to make my face do something for these people.

Speaker 2 1:00:11

Um, then you've got lighting setups, you've got your, you got you got to make a set like, um, like we're, we're just, we're just getting by with our mouths barely sometimes I mean right now our podcast bunker that we're in has a lot of different dog beds for different things, because nero is our old boy he's 13 and a half now, yeah and he has lots of different feelings.

Speaker 2 1:00:34

He wants to have multiple options for his old bones then there's like four beds, clothes on the floor because he changes in here in the morning. Then we have six, uh five gallon containers full of rice and beans because the apocalypse we have a chest freezer. Uh, we have the stuff we still haven't unpacked from living dead weekend. Yes, we are those people in a box and, um, some weird lights and, uh, canvases.

Speaker 1 1:01:00

It's a mess in here yeah, a giant container of tang behind you yeah, oh, that's also part of the apocalypse, yeah it's, it's a, it's a disaster.

Speaker 2 1:01:10

Our yes, our apocalypse bunker is experiencing its own apocalypse yeah, we got to get a behind the scenes look of joe salazar's um prep, prepping work and it was very impressive and I would pay her to come here and help us, except I'd be too embarrassed for her to see the state of this room right now, which leads me to a question from Chris Wootner. He asks is there a zombie chicken farm in our podcast Bunker?

Speaker 1 1:01:35

there isn't um, because turning chickens into zombies would be very not vegan. It's true we would have a zombie chicken rescue. Yeah, and you know we we check Facebook Marketplace from time to time for zombie chickens that need homes, but realistically there's not any good space for them in the bunker.

Speaker 2 1:01:56

No, they would definitely live outside in their own little coop.

Speaker 1 1:01:59

Yeah, and also Janeway would probably destroy them.

Speaker 2 1:02:03

Yes, janeway is Simon's dog, who you will not hear on the podcast because she's living in the other part of her house with Simon. Yeah, and Nero would bark a lot, but I don't think he's catching a zombie chicken anytime soon. No, in his heyday he was very good at catching rats and squirrels.

Speaker 2 1:02:18

They're like river rats and I don't mean like special, like rats like muskrats, I just mean rats that live by the river. Um, that would that lived under a tree in the backyard in georgia and he was very good at catching them, but then he would torture them. Yeah, and it was my job to kill them because he would not. It was a great time. Same with squirrels. I have some very disturbing memories, that's all I'm gonna say. Dan's just staring at me like what the fuck? Um, let's see what else we got here. We have. Hold on. We have one, two, three, four, five questions left. Do we want to just do them? Yeah, let's do them all right. Another question from zalinda morrison, author of harsh light you have limited space in a supply closet during a zombie apocalypse, would you rather have a box of adrenaline injectors or a fluffy pair of slippers? I would say, after listening to the book pitch we just did where a drug makes zombies because it's helping them not sleep.

Speaker 1 1:03:09

I don't want adrenaline injectors and I do want the fluffy pair of slippers is the idea behind the adrenaline injectors, the uh, the atropine auto injectors is what we would, we would use in the army. Is the idea that I'm going to inject myself these things?

Speaker 1 1:03:25

yeah, tell me more. Okay, so it's for a chemical attack. So if you breathe sarin or VX nerve gas, first of all you're going to have big problems no matter what. But you have about 30 seconds to take one of these auto injectors and stab yourself in the thigh with it. If you breathe too much of these chemical agents, they might have to stab you in the heart with one. So you're you're like I'll stab myself in the leg before I need to be stabbed in the heart and be revived.

Speaker 1 1:04:00

Um, but it's essentially um, it's a. It's it's a um. It simulates adrenaline. Oh, um, we were, we have, we have these training ones which have blue tips on them. So when you're training, it's like all right, these are the motions that you go through. Here's your auto-injector, put it in your thigh. Wow, that's so scary. And it doesn't have a needle in it. It's marked with blue tape. It's like this is just for practicing. It's marked with blue tape. It's like this is just for practicing.

Speaker 1 1:04:32

Well, one of my NCOs, who was a bit older than all the other NCOs he was in his 50s and he grabs one and he's like what you're going to want to do is you're going to want to grab this atropine injector, put it in your leg, and then he stops and he pulls it out and you see that there's a needle in it and it was not a training syringe, oh shit. And he's like I need somebody to take me to the hospital Because it's not stuff you want to fuck around with. So would you pick that in your closet? What I'm wondering is is the intention that I'm going to shoot myself up with this stuff, grab whatever weapon I can and just go dual wielding in the hallway and just start smashing zombie heads? Or am I just doing this for fun?

Speaker 2 1:05:16

I'm going to assume it's the first one.

Speaker 1 1:05:18

Yeah, or fluffy slippers to wait it out in the closet Right. Yeah, that's the other option. I'm fluffy slipper in it. Oh boy, this is tough because you know you might die in that closet with your fluffy slippers. They might never go away, and I feel like the best time to do something about a scenario like that is when you have the energy, you have the nutrition, you have the rest and the physical well-being to be able to handle it.

Speaker 2 1:05:49

This is why I think you'd survive and I would be um.

Speaker 1 1:05:52

I mean, I'll die so useful but if you're there with me, you might be able to escape with your fluffy slippers, go somewhere else that has food, while I'm just like just running at them like a berserker. I would run at them with you if we were gonna.

Speaker 2 1:06:06

If the world's coming crashing down and we're together, I am going into the fire with you.

Speaker 1 1:06:09

All right, so we both adrenaline up. Yeah, we become berserkers.

Speaker 2 1:06:15

Does this help us take over?

Speaker 1 1:06:15

the city it does, because we fight our ways to the killdozers. And then we're still on that adrenaline high and the killdozer and we just like ram it into full throttle and we're just like, ah, we're listening to heavy metal, I into full throttle, and we're just like we're listening to heavy metal?

Speaker 2 1:06:37

I would not be, and it's just like you. Just, you just hear like like constant double bass drums, just like pumping from inside the killdozer I'd be listening to, don't worry, be happy by bob marley while killdozing.

Speaker 1 1:06:41

That'd be my vibe and you're, you're on your adrenaline high and you're like, don't worry, be happy. Don't worry, be happy that'd be me so yeah, I guess you know what I'm gonna go out in the blaze of glory. You know, I don't want to. I don't want to die of starvation, even if I have fluffy slippers topic change.

Speaker 2 1:07:01

Brian wants to know why haven't we visited wisconsin yet? I have you, just we didn't know you yet, brian yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 1:07:07

Why didn't? Why didn't you come out to meet me when I was driving trucks in wisconsin six years ago?

Speaker 2 1:07:12

yeah, brian, why yeah? What's that all about? Uh, when are we going to record a reaction episode to the degrassi episode of the feminist horror movie?

Speaker 1 1:07:24

it creeps um, I don't know a whole lot about this, but I know that you talked with Naila about this. Yes, I've never watched Degrassi.

Speaker 2 1:07:32

Degrassi, degrassi, degrassi, degrassi. Stop saying it like an American. Degrassi, degrassi. It's Mazda grassy pasta, not pasta. Mazda grassy. It's also sorry, not sorry, yeah right.

Speaker 2 1:07:48

Okay. Oh right, I forgot to say I was Canadian. Now you know if you're new to the podcast. Yeah, this is actually my meet queue with Naila. I remember being in the pool last year. I've been following her casually. I mean, like this person seems cool. I was hanging out in our little blow-up pool Don't think we're fancy folks. It was not in-ground, it's on the ground Anyhow. And Naila tagged me in a post about like maybe there was this zombie movie that was made by the actors in the show as part of the show. Turns out there's no zombies in it, which is probably why we haven't done it yet, but it is like a really powerful feminist episode of Degrassi. It's the original 90s Degrassi. So, nayela, we do need to have that chat. Maybe it can be a bonus episode for the fall.

Speaker 1 1:08:37

Yeah, maybe we can also rope in there the zombie episode from Community.

Speaker 2 1:08:42

That would be great yeah.

Speaker 1 1:08:43

You do both, you do a twofer.

Speaker 2 1:08:45

I love that. Speaking of films, Days Worth Living, the creators of Days Worth Living, a free online comic you can go read right now. Rowan and Erica asked us like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, what other film would you like to see a zombie version of?

Speaker 1 1:09:01

I mean that's a terrible example, because it wasn't very good. Well, we never watched the movie, we read the book.

Speaker 2 1:09:07

I feel like the movie could be good.

Speaker 1 1:09:10

I doubt. It is um so like a, like an adaptation of, uh, of a movie that could. That would be a good zombie story. I think we could spend an afternoon hypothesizing, because my firm belief is that a good, a good zombie movie is one that doesn't need the zombies to be good.

Speaker 2 1:09:31

I would go with Legally Blonde.

Speaker 1 1:09:33

Legally Blonde and zombies yeah, why not?

Speaker 2 1:09:35

Yeah, what else I would go. Shawshank Redemption could definitely have zombies.

Speaker 1 1:09:41

Yeah, because they escape, they escape.

Speaker 2 1:09:43

They escape to zombies. Yeah, that could have been the sequel, actually.

Speaker 1 1:09:47

Yeah, I mean that prison could have been, uh, under siege by zombies what about, um the little mermaid, little mermaid and zombies?

Speaker 2 1:09:57

I guess I'm trying to think what else I'd want to watch with with zombies, I will say we watch a lot of shows and like, if there's any kind of ominous feeling, I'm always waiting for the zombie to show up. There was that french canadian. He watched I forget the name of yeah, and it really felt like zombies are coming any moment now and they never did and it was disappointing.

Speaker 1 1:10:15

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:10:16

Missed opportunity?

Speaker 1 1:10:18

Yeah, I mean, nothing super comes to mind immediately. But what if? What if? Like the, the show that we watched with Eric when he was here, fuck, why can't I think of the name? Twin Peaks, twin Peaks, twin Peaks and Zombies.

Speaker 2 1:10:37

That would be pretty awesome yeah. But, we don't know, maybe there are. We know something's wrong with the owl. That's as far as we got in that show you can't trust the owls.

Speaker 1 1:10:44

Yeah, that's all we know.

Speaker 2 1:10:45

Have you watched Twin Pe, twin peaks? I've watched enough of it to know that I probably don't want to keep watching it, but I have appreciation for how it's influenced our culture. Now, yeah, because I do like a twin peaks vibe show that's like mysterious and kind of spooky, but it's got to be faster paced and less characters too many people to keep track of I I want to keep watching it, but only when eric comes to visit that'll never know what the fuck is going on.

Speaker 2 1:11:08

Uh, last question from green man, whose name. I don't know their real name, but they go by green man on instagram. Uh, if you had to choose your favorite artist to come on your show, who would it be? Oh well, we had james s cole, who's an amazing zombie artist, on our show already yeah, they have to be an art artist I don't, they just said artists, so you can pick whoever you want.

Speaker 2 1:11:29

I would definitely go with emily haynes from metric, although I'd probably just call cry the whole time and it would not be a very good episode because I love her so much. Metric is a canadian band.

Speaker 1 1:11:39

If you've not heard of them before yeah, um, I don't know if I have a good answer for this, because I don't. I don't want to meet my heroes.

Speaker 2 1:11:46

Yeah, I've been told not to yeah, well, green man, you're an amazing artist. They draw zombies. Oh, yeah, they should was a really hilarious zombie drawing when we were actually at living dead weekend. That's how we met. We were bonding over my um zombie cartoons and then they showed me what they make. It's very cool. Yeah, I'll have to see it.

Speaker 2 1:12:03

Yeah, um, but I I think if I was going to go for like an all-time favorite artist, I love psychedelic art. So alex gray's art, um, if people ever listen to nine inch now I'm not nine inch now, how dare I? Tools album lateralis all of the art is alex gray's art and it makes you feel like you're on mushrooms even when you're not so. But I wouldn't again, I don't want them on the show, I just want more of their stuff. Yeah, make us art. Um, there's another. A lot of my artists that I love are actually like album cover artists. Smashing this is so dating me right now, but Smashing Pumpkins Machina album had an amazing artist named Vasily Kafanov that I still love to this day. Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 1 1:12:43

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:12:44

Who? Who should we talk to? Green man, you tell us. And also, is Green man a reference to the pagan Green man? Because that's really cool. And if it's not, that's also cool. You just let us know.

Speaker 1 1:12:53

Is it a reference to the typo negative song Green man, which is a reference to the pagan Green man? Yeah, is it a reference to the Jethro Tull song Green man? Are all of these references too?

Speaker 2 1:13:05

old for you, because I feel like we are ancient compared to Green man.

Speaker 1 1:13:08

I don't know for sure how old he is or they are.

Speaker 2 1:13:10

I just know that we're older and Green Man's just like no, I just like green.

Speaker 1 1:13:15

That's a good color.

Speaker 2 1:13:17

But that was it. Those were the questions. They were really good ones that got us thinking. I hope it helped you get to know us a little bit better and let us know. What else do you wonder now as a heads up?

Speaker 2 1:13:31

What we're reading next is a short story by kq watson called wheelchair seating for the apocalypse. You can get it on kindle unlimited or just kindle in general. That's going to be our next episode, so you should definitely check that out. And then we have a very special thing coming up for you all a summer ween showdown, smackdown, slamdown tbd what is being called where a author, friend of ours, creator of Avalon, brandon Starocki, has challenged the original zombie, wean weaner, lori Calcaterra, for her zombie crown and they're going to face off and that's coming out August 24th. And last and not least, the next thing on our horizon is the dead weights second book, resistance, by Joe Salazar. That is going to come out on August 24th and just a few days later, is going to come out on August 24th, and just a few days later is going to be when the book officially releases. But you can pre-order that book right now, baby, and I am reading it at this moment. You should, yeah, get it.

Speaker 1 1:14:19

Yeah, it's going to be great, you need it.

Speaker 2 1:14:20

And if you haven't read the Dead, wait the first one. What are you doing?

Speaker 1 1:14:23

Yeah, do that first, yeah, thanks, uh, thanks for joining the zombie book club. Really appreciate it. Uh, you can support this podcast by leaving a rating or review, especially on apple podcasts.

Speaker 2 1:14:38

Uh, like we mentioned earlier, you should just download apple podcasts and give us a review and then delete it yeah, no, we'll delete apple. Don't delete the review no, delete the podcast platform if you don't like it.

Speaker 1 1:14:50

You can also send us a three-minute voicemail up at 614-699-0006. That could also be an elevator pitch.

Speaker 2 1:14:59

We have a voicemail. Should we end with it? No, okay. Next time.

Support the Show and Join Our Community

Speaker 1 1:15:04

We don't have enough time, it's so good though, okay, or you can follow us on Instagram on Zombie Book Club Podcast.

Speaker 2 1:15:13

Oh, we have a Facebook group too. We're not very good at it. Yeah, but if you're only on Facebook, you can come find us at Zombie Book Club Zombesties, I think, is what it's called, but just search Zombie Book Club. Each word is a word on its own. Book Club is not one word.

Speaker 1 1:15:26

Yeah, links are in the description. I'll have to include the facebook one in the description too, because I've totally forgot about it.

Speaker 2 1:15:34

We learned all these gen xers who follow us are not on instagram but are on facebook. So we finally caved.

Speaker 1 1:15:39

We caved you happy. Um, you can also join the uh brain munchers collective on discord. That's ollie's Discord that we hang out on all the time, and there's a lot of zombie creators there, many that we mentioned in this episode. Yeah, all the links are in the show notes, the end.

Speaker 2 1:16:01

I hope this was a great first date for you. Let us know, did we knock it out of the park or are you going to? Which way do they swipe when they don't like us Left Up? Swipe up, gonna. Which way do they swipe when they don't like us left up? Swipe up. Um, yeah, or you know down, uh, yeah. Are you gonna ghost us, are you gonna? Come back is basically what I'm asking don't ghost us. Well, we'll never know, because they'll just ghosted. But the end is not, don't die.