This Podcast Will Change Your Life.

Never Said was published as part of the short story collection So Different Now, which was released by CCLaP in 2011. The collection represents Part Two 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). Never Said is read by Joseph G. Peterson (BIO below). INTRO/OUTRO music is Drinking of Me and was generously provided by Monkey Wrench. READER BIO Joseph G. Peterson is the author of the novel Memorandum from the Iowa Cloud Appreciation Society. https://www.tanzerben.com/blog/upstate-the-podcast

This episode stars Sari Botton (And You May Find Yourself..., Oldster Magazine, Memoir Monday, Adventures in Journalism). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Botton's home somewhere outside of New York City in November 2022.

Just Like That was published as part of the short story collection So Different Now, which was released by CCLaP in 2011. The collection represents Part Two 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). Just Like That is read by Giano Cromley (BIO below). INTRO/OUTRO music is Drinking of Me and was generously provided by Monkey Wrench. READER BIO Giano Cromley's latest novel is The Prince of Infinite Space. He's twice been a finalist for the High Plains Book Award. He is the recipient of an Artists Fellowship from the Illinois Arts Council, and recently completed a BookEnds Fellowship with Stony Brook University. He's an English professor at Kennedy-King College in Chicago, where he is chair of the Communications Department, and sits on the committee for the Center of Equity for Creative Arts. https://www.tanzerben.com/blog/upstate-the-podcast

This episode stars Mike DeCapite (Jacket Weather, Creamsicle Blue, Through the Windshield). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and DeCapite's home in... where else, the New York City in November 2022.

This episode stars Erika T. Wurth (White Horse, Crazy Horse's Girlfriend, Buckskin Cocaine). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Wurth's home in greater Denverland in December 2022.

Panties was published as part of the short story collection So Different Now, which was released by CCLaP in 2011. The collection represents Part Two 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). Panties is read by Debra Pritzker Tanzer (BIO below). INTRO/OUTRO music is Drinking of Me and was generously provided by Monkey Wrench. READER BIO Debra Pritzker Tanzer worked in advertising for 20+ years in New York and Chicago and has been married to the author for much longer than that. She somewhat grudgingly agreed to read this story, and is bemused by the author's claims that it was inspired by a date they went on to the long demolished Airport Drive-In in Johnson City, NY way back in the 1980s. https://www.tanzerben.com/blog/upstate-the-podcast

Cool, Not Removed was published as part of the short story collection So Different Now, which was released by CCLaP in 2011. The collection represents Part Two 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). Cool, Not Removed is read by Patrick Wensink (BIO below). INTRO/OUTRO music is Drinking of Me and was generously provided by Monkey Wrench. READER BIO Patrick Wensink is the bestselling author of several books, including his last novel, "Fake Fruit Factory" which was named one of the best books of 2015 by NPR. His nonfiction appears in Esquire, New York Times, Oxford American and others. He has also penned two acclaimed children's books. He currently teaches creative writing in the Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee.  https://www.tanzerben.com/blog/upstate-the-podcast

This most excellent 300th episode stars the most excellent Sara Lippmann (LECH, JERKS, Doll Palace). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Lippmann's home office in the New York City borough known as Brooklyn in December 2022.

Stevey was published as part of the short story collection So Different Now, which was released by CCLaP in 2011. The collection represents Part Two 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). Stevey is read by David Masciotra (BIO below). INTRO/OUTRO music is Drinking of Me and was generously provided by Monkey Wrench. READER BIO David Masciotra is the author of several books, including I Am Somebody: Why Jesse Jackson Matters (Bloomsbury, 2020), Mellencamp: American Troubadour (University Press of Kentucky, 2015), and a forthcoming examination of the politics of exurbia and suburbia for Melville House Publishing. He has written for the New Republic, the Progressive, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and many other publications on politics, music, and literature. He lives in Indiana, and teaches at Indiana University Northwest.  https://www.tanzerben.com/blog/upstate-the-podcast

In A Single Bound was published as part of the short story collection So Different Now, which was released by CCLaP in 2011. The collection represents Part Two 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). In A Single Bound is read by Seth Berg (BIO below). INTRO/OUTRO music is Drinking of Me and was generously provided by Monkey Wrench. READER BIO Seth Berg is a hatchet-wielding forest-dweller who digs tasty hallucinatory literature. A hot-sauce-addicted pyromaniac with an MFA from Bowling Green State University, Berg fantasizes about flight without mechanisms, alien glyph systems, and snowshoeing through your nocturnal dreamscapes. He is a professor, poet, artifact-maker, and amateur astrophysicist whose mathematically coded collections of poetry will haunt, invigorate, provoke, and inspire you. Berg's first book, Muted Lines From Someone Else’s Memory won the Dark Sky Books 2009 bo

This episode stars Coco Picard (The Healing Circling, The Chronicles of Fortune, Green Lantern Press). It was recorded over the Zoom between the This Podcast Will Change Your Life home studio in Chicago, IL and Picard's former home somewhere off on the East coast of the United States in September 2022.

So Different Now was published as part of the short story collection So Different Now, which was released by CCLaP in 2011. The collection represents Part Two 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). So Different Now is read by Donald Quist (BIO below). INTRO/OUTRO music is Drinking of Me and was generously provided by Monkey Wrench. READER BIO Donald Quist is author of two essay collections, Harbors, a Foreword INDIES Bronze Winner and International Book Awards Finalist, and TO THOSE BOUNDED. He has a linked story collection, For Other Ghosts. His writing has appeared in AGNI, North American Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Poets & Writers, The Rumpus, and was Notable in Best American Essays 2018. He is creator of the online nonfiction series PAST TEN. Donald has received fellowships from Sundress Academy for the Arts and Kimbilio Fiction. He has served as a Gus T. Ridgel f

Shooting Stick 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). Shooting Stick is read by Hosho McCreesh (BIO below). INTRO/OUTRO music is Drinking of Me and was generously provided by Monkey Wrench. READER BIO Hosho McCreesh is currently writing, painting, & making stuff in the gypsum & caliche badlands of the American Southwest. His work has appeared widely in print, audio, & online. https://www.tanzerben.com/blog/upstate-the-podcast

Life As He Had Known It 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). Life As He Had Known It is read by Alice Kaltman (BIO below). INTRO/OUTRO music is Drinking of Me and was generously provided by Monkey Wrench. READER BIO Alice Kaltman is the author of the story collection STAGGERWING, the novels WAVEHOUSE, THE TANTALIZING TALE OF GRACE MINNAUGH, and DAWG TOWNE. Her newest book ALMOST DEADLY, ALMOST GOOD,  a linked collection based on the Seven Deadly Sins and the Seven Heavenly Virtues, is out November 22, 2022. Alice's words appear in journals like Lost Balloon, The Pinch, Joyland, Hobart and BULL, and in numerous anthologies. She's not thrilled by the sound of her own voice, but you might like it. If so, you can hear her read her work at M

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 released 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 released 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