This Podcast Will Change Your Life.

This special AWP 2024 episode stars John Reed (The Never End, Snowball's Chance, Tales of Woe, and many more). It was recorded in-person at AWP 2024 in Kansas City, MO in February, wait for it...2024.

This episode stars Lisa Niver (Brave-ish, One Breakup, Six Continents and Feeling Fearless After Fifty). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Niver's City of Angels home in January 2024.

This episode stars Diego Báez (Yaguareté White). It was recorded in-person at Báez's City Colleges of Chicago office on the north side of The Jewel of the Midwest in January 2024.

This episode stars Dana Kaye (Kaye Publicity). It was recorded in-person at Kaye's home office on the north side of Chicago, IL in January 2024.

This episode stars Eugenio Volpe (I, Caravaggio). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Volpe's El Lay home in January 2024.

This episode stars John Noltner (Lessons on the Road to Peace, A Peace of My Mind). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and wherever Noltner is hanging his hat these days in December 2023.

This episode stars Jacob Budenz (Tea Leaves). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Budenz's Charm City home in December 2023.

This episode stars Christina Olson (The Anxiety Workbook, The Last Mastodon) & Ben Drevlow (The Book of Rusty, Ina-Baby: a love story in reverse). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Olson and Drevlow's home in the Peach State, otherwise known as Georgia, in November 2023.

This episode stars JJ Starr (The Mother I Knew: Race to Thunder Bay And The Battle For The Commons). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Starr's home in the Commonwealth of Virginia in November 2023.

This episode stars Elizabeth Strauss Friedman (The Lost Positive, The Eggshell Skull Rule, Gathered Bones are Known to Wander). It was recorded in-person at Strauss Friedman's home on the north side of Chicago, IL in October 2023.

This episode stars SpiderMeka (SpiderMeka Portraits).  It was recorded in-person at the SpiderMeka Portraits studio on the north side of Chicago, IL in October 2023.

This episode stars Jennifer Banash (The Rise and Fall of Ava Arcana, Silent Alarm, White Lines). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Banash's home in the city that never sleeps in September 2023.

This episode stars Shawn Samuelson Henry (Made in Maine). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Henry's home in the Tar Heel state, also known as North Carolina, and not Maine, in September 2023.

This episode stars Matt Micheli (Two Minutes With The Devil, Scratched, The White). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Micheli's home in the Republic of Texas in August 2023.

This episode stars Daniel Cooney, Andrew Fredericks, Gabriel Joffe, Karla Murthy & Jamie Diaz (Love, Jamie, Daniel Cooney Fine Art). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and a variety of locations across the country in July 2023.

Things Start was published as part of the short story collection After the Flood, which was released by CCLaP in 2014. The collection represents Part Three of the linked short story collection UPSTATE re-released in 2020 by Tortoise Books (and originally released under the title The New York Stories by CCLaP in 2015).

Things Start is the final chapter of UPSTATE: The Podcast.

Things Start is read by Sara Lippmann (BIO below).

INTRO/OUTRO music is Drinking of Me and was generously provided by Monkey Wrench.

READER BIO
Sara Lippmann is the author of the novel Lech (Tortoise Books) and the story collections Doll Palace (re-released by 7.13 Books) and Jerks (Mason Jar Press.) Her fiction has been honored by the New York Foundation for the Arts, and her essays have appeared in The Millions, The Washington Post, Catapult, The Lit Hub and elsewhere. With Seth Rogoff, she is co-editing the anthology Smashing the Tablets: Radical Retellings of the Hebrew Bible for SUNY Press. She is a founding member of the Writing Co-Lab and lives with her family in Brooklyn. For more, visit https://www.saralippmann.com/.

https://www.tanzerben.com/blog/upstate-the-podcast

This episode stars Laura Carney (My Father's List). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Carney's home in the great state of New Jersey in June 2023.

Something Like This was published as part of the short story collection After the Flood, which was released by CCLaP in 2014. The collection represents Part Three of the linked short story collection UPSTATE re-released in 2020 by Tortoise Books (and originally released under the title The New York Stories by CCLaP in 2015).

Something Like This is read by Clayton Smith (BIO below).

INTRO/OUTRO music is Drinking of Me and was generously provided by Monkey Wrench.

READER BIO
Clayton Smith is an award-winning author, a professor, and a podcaster whose work includes the novels Apocalypticon, Na Akua, and Anomaly Flats, and the comedy podcast Is This a Ghost? He is head of the Marketing program at Columbia College Chicago, where he teaches courses in digital media strategy and emerging platforms. He currently lives with his wife and two daughters just outside of Chicago, and he is very good at whiskey. You can find his work at StateOfClayton.com.

https://www.tanzerben.com/blog/upstate-the-podcast

Night Swimming was published as part of the short story collection After the Flood, which was released by CCLaP in 2014. The collection represents Part Three of the linked short story collection UPSTATE re-released in 2020 by Tortoise Books (and originally released under the title The New York Stories by CCLaP in 2015).

Night Swimming is read by Mike Smolarek (BIO below).

INTRO/OUTRO music is Drinking of Me and was generously provided by Monkey Wrench.

READER BIO
Mike Smolarek writes from Riverside, Illinois, just outside of Chicago. He has been published in Train River Short Stories, Two With Water, and Daddy Cool, an anthology of writing by and for dads edited by Ben Tanzer. He has been part of several reading series, including Two With Water/Curbside Splendor and Essay Fiesta. His favorite color is green and he can be found at http://msmolarek.blogspot.com//.

https://www.tanzerben.com/blog/upstate-the-podcast

Longing was published as part of the short story collection After the Flood, which was released by CCLaP in 2014. The collection represents Part Three of the linked short story collection UPSTATE re-released in 2020 by Tortoise Books (and originally released under the title The New York Stories by CCLaP in 2015).

Longing is read by Paula Bomer (BIO below).

INTRO/OUTRO music is Drinking of Me and was generously provided by Monkey Wrench.

READER BIO
Paula Bomer is the author of the novels Tante Eva and Nine Months, the story collections Inside Madeleine and Baby and other Stories, and the essay collection, Mystery and Mortality. She grew up in South Bend, Indiana and has lived for over 30 years in Brooklyn. Her work has appeared in The Cut, Bomb Magazine, The Mississippi Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, TalkSpace and elsewhere.

https://www.tanzerben.com/blog/upstate-the-podcast