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What happens when we die? Do we exist in an ethereal plane that cannot be perceived by human conscience? Are we forced to spend eternity as the background characters in another person's dreams? Do we have to exist eternally seeing ourselves from the perspectives of those who knew us when we were alive? Will we get to meet Mary Shelley?

All of these possibilities-- and quite a few more-- are posited in neuroscientist David Eagleman's delightful (and short) book of stories. Rodney discovered this book as part of another discussion club and was moved enough by it to share it with Aaron and Rebecca. The three of them are now going to share it with you.

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In 1967, Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn edited his new novel down from 96 chapters to 87 chapters in the hopes that a censored version would be more palatable to Soviet publishers. It was not.

In 1968, he was able to successfully get the novel published in Europe. It was, however, the shortened 87-chapter version.

In 1978, the full unedited version was finally published in Russia. A full English translation would not land in America until 2009.

In 2025, seeing that In The First Circle was a lengthy Russian novel about military prisons in WWII, the cast of Just In Case We Die almost vetoed it. All three of them are now grateful that they did not. This novel– long considered to be Solzhenitsyn’s masterpiece–is really something special.

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In Champaign, Illinois– the city that serves as the home base for this podcast– there is a man named Mike Trippiedi. He is an award-winning filmmaker, an accomplished stage actor and director, and the author of three novels. He also happens to be someone that Aaron has known for most of his life.

Mike’s new novel is called Abraham Lincoln’s Traveling Medicine Show. It’s a very entertaining revision of the assassination of our nation’s 16th President, as well as the ensuing aftermath. Aaron really enjoyed this novel and wanted to give Mike an opportunity to talk about the process of writing it. Along the way, they chat about being an independent filmmaker, revisionist history, Jack London, A Confederacy of Dunces, and that one horror writer that Rebecca is tired of us bringing up in every episode!

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It's June! This means that we discuss a book hand-selected from the list by Rebecca.

The last time she did this, she selected The Book of Illusions, a novel she had never read that was written by a novelist she admires. She took a wholly different approach this time: couple the desire to read a writer she had never experienced before with the realization that we almost never read books by women. The end result was Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion. Considered one of the classic "Los Angeles novels", the nihilistic content of this book certainly left us with much to discuss.

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It’s summertime!

That means beautiful weather, afternoons at the pool, and maybe some time to relax and catch up on our ever-growing TBR piles. It also means, however, that things are going to get chaotic around here– prepping for trips to Alaska, summer camp with the kids, schoolwork, jobs. Before the three of us get bogged down in real life, we decided to throw ourselves a backyard patio BBQ . . . and invite some of our favorite writers.

Each of us invited three writers to the shindig– one living, one dead, and one we’ve never discussed on our show before. That means our hypothetical backyard will be hosting nine writers from different eras and genres! What results is a fun and lively discussion in which we speculate on what all of these authors would bring to a conversation. Will a fight break out? Will Rodney’s selections surprise anyone? Will Kurt Vonnegut be sad that Aaron didn’t invite him to attend?

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The first movie released in the DVD format was the 1996 disaster film Twister.

Bullfrogs never sleep.

The nation of China is credited with the invention of ice cream.

Africa is the only continent with land in all four hemispheres.

Queen guitarist Brian May holds a PhD in astrophysics.

Aaron, Rodney, and Rebecca are going to remember these five random bits of trivia before they ever remember anything about The Expedition of Humphry Clinker.

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Remember last year when we decided to celebrate National Short Story Month by discussing six short stories hand-selected by the cast? Well, we had so much fun last year that we decided to do it again!

This year, Rodney actually chooses a short story instead of a novella, Rebecca reveals an interesting way to select material for our show, and Aaron must endure insulting words about one of his favorite writers. Also– and probably most importantly– Aaron and Rodney are once again vindicated when Rebecca is impressed by one of their favorite science-fiction authors.

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So what happened was this . . . At the end of the episode on “Les Miserables” by Victor Hugo, the random number generator gave us #355. The book corresponding to this number was “Emma” by Jane Austen. Rebecca ixnayed that itshay quicker than quick, but she then had to use the random number generator to pick a tome from her veto list. The redraw gave us A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers’ powerful 2000 memoir about caring for his younger brother after the death of his parents.

This book is hard to categorize. The Pulitzer Prize committee felt it was, in fact, a memoir when they shortlisted it for the prize. The author himself acknowledges throughout the book that some of it is fictionalized and not at all depicted the way that events actually happened. Aren’t memoirs by their very nature technically post-modern works?

Is it a comedy? Is it a drama? Is it totally fabricated? Regardless of which genre you choose, however, it cannot be denied that the book is aptly named.