This Podcast Will Change Your Life.

This episode stars Jackson Bliss (Dream Pop Origami, Counterfactual Love Stories, Amnesia of June Bugs). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Bliss' home in the City of Angels in September 2022.

Pac-Man Fever was published as part of the short story collection Repetition Patterns, which was released by CCLaP in 2008. The collection represents Part One 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). Pac-Man Fever is read by Mark R. Brand (BIO below). INTRO/OUTRO music is Drinking of Me and was generously provided by Monkey Wrench. READER BIO Mark R. Brand is a Chicago-based fiction writer and English professor. His work includes both creative and critical writing and his courses have won awards for their focus on digital literacies as well as incorporating video games as texts and tackling subjects like virtual reality, augmented reality, and atmospheric media. His previous novels and fiction collections include Life After Sleep, The Damnation of Memory, and Long Live Us, and he is currently working on a nonfiction book examining narratives of parenting in the Great Recession. http

Change Of Plans was published as part of the short story collection Repetition Patterns, which was released by CCLaP in 2008. The collection represents Part One of the linked short story collection UPSTATE re-released in 2020 by Tortoise Books (and originally released under the title The New York Stories released by CCLaP in 2015). Change Of Plans is read by Christopher Bowen (BIO below). INTRO/OUTRO music is Drinking of Me and was generously provided by Monkey Wrench. READER BIO Christopher Bowen is the author of the chapbook We Were Giants, the novella When I Return to You, I Will Be Unfed, and the non-fiction Debt. He was a semi-finalist in the 2017 Faulkner-Wisdom Novella Competition and honorable mention in the 45th New Millennium Writing Awards in the non-fiction category. https://www.tanzerben.com/blog/upstate-the-podcast

This episode stars former (and forever) guest Giano Cromley (The Prince of Infinite Space, What We Build Upon the Ruins, The Last Good Halloween). It was recorded live and on a walk along Division Street in Chicago, IL that started and concluded at Rite Liquors in September 2022.

What We Thought We Knew was published as part of the short story collection Repetition Patterns, which was released by CCLaP in 2008. The collection represents Part One 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). What We Thought We Knew is read by Tom Williams (BIO below). INTRO/OUTRO music is Drinking of Me and was generously provided by Monkey Wrench. READER BIO Tom Williams has published three books of fiction: The Mimic’s Own Voice, Don’t Start Me Talkin’, and Among the Wild Mulattos and Other Tales. Tom is the Dean of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at the University of Central Arkansas. He lives in Conway, Arkansas with his wife and two children, but wishes he lived a little bit closer to Mr. Tanzer, as every time they’ve been together the fun did not stop. https://www.tanzerben.com/blog/upstate-the-podcast

The Gift was published as part of the short story collection Repetition Patterns, which was released by CCLaP in 2008. The collection represents Part One 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). The Gift is read by Serena Makofsky (BIO below). INTRO/OUTRO music is Drinking of Me and was generously provided by Monkey Wrench. READER BIO Serena spends her time writing 10-minute plays, constructing pop culture altars, and translating street rhymes into Spanish. https://www.tanzerben.com/blog/upstate-the-podcast

This episode stars Ashley Marie Farmer (Dear Damage, Beside Myself, The Women). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Farmer's home in the Salt Lake City in August 2022.

The Babysitter was published as part of the short story collection Repetition Patterns, which was released by CCLaP in 2008. The collection represents Part One 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). The Babysitter is read by Cyn Vargas (BIO below). INTRO/OUTRO music is Drinking of Me and was generously provided by Monkey Wrench. READER BIO Cyn Vargas is the author of the short story collection On the Way, which made Newcity Lit’s Top 5 Fiction Books by Chicago Authors, Chicago Book Review’s Favorite Books of 2015, Bustle’s 11 Short Story Collections Your Book Club Will Love, and Chicago Writers Association 2015 Book of the Year, Honorable Mention. Her prose and essays have been published in the Chicago Reader, Word Riot, Split Lip Magazine, Hypertext Magazine, Midnight Breakfast, Bird’s Thumb, among others. She received a Top 25 Finalist and Honorable Mention in two of Glimmer Train's

Repetition Patterns was published as part of the short story collection Repetition Patterns, which was released by CCLaP in 2008. The collection represents Part One 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). Repetition Patterns is read by Judy Tanzer (BIO below). INTRO/OUTRO music is Drinking of Me and was generously provided by Monkey Wrench. READER BIO Being the mother of the author of UPSTATE, Judy Tanzer was around for most of the time period Ben was writing about. However, it has been illuminating to her how people of different ages, that is Ben and herself, and different perspectives remember so differently, or at least somewhat differently, events that occurred. Judy had a psychotherapy practice when Ben was growing up, so the influence of wanting to understand why and how things happen, runs in the family. https://www.tanzerben.com/blog/upstate-the-podcast

This episode stars Jerry Stahl, yes that Jerry Stahl (Permanent Midnight, I, Fatty, Nein, Nein, Nein!). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Stahl's home in the City of Angels in September 2022.

This episode stars Andrew Farkas (The Great Indoorsman, The Big Red Herring, Sunsphere and Self-Titled Debut). It was recorded in-person, yes, you read that correctly, at Longman & Eagle in Chicago, IL in July 2022.

This episode stars Eileen Joyce Donovan (Promises) on the occasion of the release of her new book A Lady Newspaperman's Dilemma. It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Donovan's home on the island of Manhattan in September 2022.

This episode stars Jonathan Papernick (There is No Other, The Book of Stone, I Am My Beloveds). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Papernick's now former Massachusetts home in June 2022.

This episode stars Kacy Tellessen (Freaks of a Feather). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Tellessen's office somewhere off in the great Northwest in July 2022.

This episode stars Elizabeth Coffey and Mark Wish (Coolest American Stories). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Coffey and Wish's home in the City of New York in June 2022.

This episode stars Brad Listi (Be Brief and Tell Them Everything, Board, Attention.Deficit.Disorder., Otherppl with Brad Listi). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Listi's home studio in the City of Angels in June 2022.   BONUS MUSIC (for the Listi):   Short Metal Blast by Alexander Nakarada | https://www.serpentsoundstudios.com Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This episode stars Jason Fisk (Sub Urbane, Sadly Beautiful, Salt Creek Anthology) on the occasion of the release of his debut novel The Craigslist Incident. It was recorded in-person, yes, you read that correctly, at Moody's Pub in Chicago, IL in June 2022.

This episode stars Christine Marie Eberle (Finding God in Ordinary Time) on the occasion of the release of her new book Finding God Abiding: Daily Meditations. It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Eberle's home in Pennsylvania in May 2022 (where she encourages you to read only one meditation per day).

This episode stars Angelique Pesce on the occasion of the release of her debut novel American Pastime. It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Pesce's home in Connecticut, also the home of ESPN, which seems appropriate in May 2022.

This episode stars Jared Yates Sexton (The Hook and The Haymaker, The Man They Wanted Me to Be, American Rule: How a Nation Conquered the World but Failed Its People and many more). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Sexton's home in the increasingly purple state of Georgia in April 2022.