Podcasts by My Very Last Life

My Binge Diary part 2 from 2022-01-07T10:52:42

Managed to fast all day yesterday, that’s a 38 hour fast, all total, and am deliberating whether to continue to lunch or have breakfast - but who am I kidding, breakfast is waiting in the kitche...

My Binge Diary Part 1 from 2022-01-05T08:35:48

MY BINGE DIARY Part 1

From Christmas on – actually from Thanksgiving on – I hav ew been eating like there’s no tomorrow. Yesterday I started fasting again and will fast (intermittently) u...

Something ... Something ... Cowboy Hat from 2021-12-19T20:32:33

Been thinking about what makes a man a man and came to the conclusion that it’s all about the hat. It was.a little late when I recorded this and I had been drinking the kind of whisky that makes...

Unthankful on Thanksgiving – Chapter 42 from 2021-11-25T12:53:11

I’ve been telling myself for some weeks now that I don’t have that much to be thankful for on Thanksgiving … so I sat down and wrote a list of things I was not thankful for … then I took another...

Reading the Iliad – also, Kyle Rittenhouse from 2021-11-21T21:01:29

Reading Iliad, I had to think about heroes and heroic moral values … then Kyle Rittenhouse happened. 

My Very Last Life Chapter 41.

The Emptiness of God – Chapter 40 from 2021-11-14T19:17:11

Look at the vastness of space – look at the empty space inside our molecules – what are the chances that you tried out to be a thing and not part of the Great Empty?

When Becoming Your Father is the not the Worst ThingThat Can Happen from 2021-10-24T21:20:56

I have begun five inner journeys in my life – and hope I will conclude at least one or two of them before I die. 

Also, the Dad question. 

My Holy Grail – My Very Last Life Chapter 38 from 2021-10-10T23:22:20

One meaningful relationship – it seems to me that no man should die without one – but I don’t know how to do it, or with whom. 

Revisiting T.S. F*cking Elliot or, Retiring the 3 Jokes the Defined My Life from 2021-09-26T20:16:37

Funny how certain thoughts, loves, jokes, anecdotes, comments come to define certain sections of your life – I find myself increasingly bored with and rejecting the stuff that has defined me for...

I Hate All Activists – Chapter 36 from 2021-09-12T21:14:33

  I worked as a journalist all my life and learning how to write to include what is important taught me also to notice when the important things re being left out –   My Very Last Life Chapte...

Walking for Happiness – Chapter 35 from 2021-09-06T11:32:20

I actually wanted to talk about how walking regularly in the open air has made me much happier and less depressed, even surprisingly so, but then I lost focus and went off on a wild rant about d...

Watching my cats watching me from 2021-08-29T19:23:21

Sometimes I turn around and see my cat watching me … and I wonder: How long has she been doing that? And why? And what does she know that I don’t?   My Very Last Life Chapter 34   Check ou...

My Patterns of Self-Defeating Behavior – Chapter 33 from 2021-08-15T21:39:03

I’ve begun writing them down …      

I Don't Know What My Own Book is About – Chapter 32 from 2021-08-08T21:06:02

Lanikai – the title of my autobiographical crime story … it’s about my life, but but I don’t know what it’s about. 

1 down and 19 to Go – Chapter 31 from 2021-07-03T07:39:36

My 61st birthday –

one year into my Very last Life and as per schedule I decide what I am going to do with the last 20 years (now 19) of my life ...

the entire plan, the boozey par...

Night Falls on Möbel Höffner – Chapter 30 from 2021-06-27T18:44:51

One year down and 19 to go – next week I turn 61. So of course I sat down in the display furniture in the dark parking lot of Möbel Höffner and talked about it to myself. I was not alone.

Night Falls on Möbel Höffner – Chapter 30 from 2021-06-27T18:44:51

One year down and 19 to go – next week I turn 61. So of course I sat down in the display furniture in the dark parking lot of Möbel Höffner and talked about it to myself. I was not alone.

The Sexiest Man in the World is Dead – My Very Last Life Chapter 29 from 2021-06-21T01:10:08

He is dead – the man me and Ralf have tried to make a video about for more than a year now is dead – Ziona his name, polygamy was his game and he played the game well. I doff my hat to the passi...

Feminism is Capitalism for Girls from 2021-06-06T20:57:39

Playing the brilliant game "The Last of Us II," I realized that modern feminism is really about women taking on the same masculine values that pretend to despise. Is the woman of the future a ma...

My Useless Generation – Chapter 27 from 2021-05-23T21:56:41

There was the Greatest Generation, then the Hippie Generation, then me. 

Young Man with Hammer – Chapter 26 from 2021-05-16T23:19:25

A Hawaiian Highway at night, Bonnie Tyler singing Vampire Rock Opera, there is a time in everyone's life when they hold all of life in their hands like a basketball. 

My Very las...

To My Dead Mom on Mother's Day – Happy Mother's Day, Mom from 2021-05-09T23:18:16

It’s Mother’s Day and I have to say the truth about my mother – she was a woman who did her fucking best and are you doing your fucking best? 

My Very last Life Chapter 25.

To My Dead Mom on Mother's Day – Happy Mother's Day, Mom from 2021-05-09T23:18:16

It’s Mother’s Day and I have to say the truth about my mother – she was a woman who did her fucking best and are you doing your fucking best? 

My Very last Life Chapter 25.

Viktor Frankl vs. The Cat from 2021-05-02T21:36:24

The only refuge from depression and whiney self-pity is purpose – but there are two kinds of purpose - big metaphysical and small amygdala versions.

And someday when I am dead – Chapter 23 from 2021-04-19T00:23:37

When I think of heaven, or even just of the bar I want to spend time in, the bar of eternity, I think of the stable where five or six medieval writers sat around getting drunk. That's where I wa...

The Crisis is never over. Chapter 22. from 2021-04-12T00:32:31

Okay so I got vaccinated and for me the crisis is over - but it doesn't feel like it's over. It doesn't even feel like it ever can be over. 

The Act of Self-Creation: Chapter 21 from 2021-04-06T00:00:59

You start out a little worm without scales, claws or teeth; then as soon as you are aware of yourself you start making plans for who you want to be; then in the middle you realize you failed and...

My George Constanza Moment: Chapter 20 from 2021-03-21T23:33:03

There’s this definition of insanity: You keep repeating the same action in the hopes of getting a different result. 

I’ve known this saying forever, but only recently realized I was doing...

Chapter 19: A Frenzy of Exultations from 2021-03-14T22:55:57

I have lived more life in the dark realm of dream and imagination and myth than in the real world.

Chapter 18: The Opportunity of Retirement from 2021-03-07T23:43:23

Retirement offers an opportunity – to find meaning, purpose, to find fulfillment ... 

Chapter 17: Is Life Really Sacred? from 2021-02-28T19:47:28

Is all Life Really Sacred? 

Does a bug have the same rights as a proud early flying high? Is the life of Hitler as valuable as that of Jesus. I had to hink about this recently.

Chapter 16: My Journey from Cynicism to Sincerity Part 2 from 2021-02-21T21:45:35

By "Cynicism" I mean Truth," and by "Sincerity" I mean "Truth." Two different things.

#WritingCommunity #writer #writerslife #writercommunity #writing Listen

Chapter 9: Resolutions from 2021-01-03T23:02:37

On New Years Eve, not long before midnight, Astrid said to me the most beautiful thing I think I ever heard.

And: New Year's Resolutions, but not really resolutions, more like work-around...

Chapter 8: Looking to 2021 from 2020-12-31T07:58:52

Just Drunk Eric rambing on about the end of the year ...

Trading in the horrible year 2020 for just about anything, really anything better in 2021 …

and yet, I refuse to let 2020...

Chapter 8: Looking to 2021 from 2020-12-31T07:58:52

Just Drunk Eric rambing on about the end of the year ...

Trading in the horrible year 2020 for just about anything, really anything better in 2021 …

and yet, I refuse to let 2020 g...

Chapter 7: Learning from Claus from 2020-12-20T22:57:41

Still thinking of Claus, dead a week now - warm-hearted but arrogant and selfish, funny and honest but ... well arrogant. But there is a thing I want to learn from him, carry around inside me in...

Chapter 6: Claus is Dead from 2020-12-13T22:53:48

Claus died – one of my best friends, a writer, we went drinking nearly every Saturday and bullshitted about life ... he took with him a thing I had that I can never replace ... a part of myself ...

Chapter 5: The Business from 2020-12-06T19:32:07

I've been struggling all year to get an online project off the ground and not even my friends thought there was money to be made in it. This week, I wrote my first invoice. 

Chapter 5: The Business from 2020-12-06T19:32:07

I've been struggling all year to get an online project off the ground and not even my friends thought there was money to be made in it. This week, I wrote my first invoice. 

  Listen

Chapter 4: The Great Books from 2020-12-02T23:18:05

If I had to name some of the things that really had meaning in my life it would be love, family and friends, God or some kind of search for meaning, my cats, American and German and then on that...

Chapter 3: Why Did I Come Here? Or: Erasing Myself from 2020-11-30T00:41:16

If you've gotten this far, you have the distance to look back on the decisions you made in life and ask yourself: What was I thinking? 

I came to Germany, I stayed here. Whart was I think...

Chapter 2: The Thanksgiving Rant from 2020-11-27T10:42:09

You want to know what I'm thankful for on Thansgiving? I'll tell you what I'm thankful for – I'm thankful for one goddamned minute of peace and quiet without something going wrong or the wife ne...

Chapter 1: The Last Leg from 2020-11-20T23:52:08

How I came to seek a "last life," a final self-invention, upon turning 60, what I hope to accomplish in my next and last 20 years of life, and how. Wish me luck! 

My thanks to Trump for his service; what I want from Biden from 2020-11-07T22:51:41

Late night rant after it became clear that Biden had won the election – I thought I was going to be more mjoyful than I was, and there are reasons why ... maionly because the central problem of ...

Guten Rutsch! from 2019-12-31T06:30:50

Last Episode of Great German Words –

Over 2019, I discussed 52 Great Germans Words, sometimes funny, sometimes insightful, all of them words I love. It was a pleasure and an honor to be a...

Weihnachten from 2019-12-19T15:22:36

To Christmas, the verb

Minne from 2019-12-12T15:18

Eskimos have 50 words for snow ... why do we only have one word for love?    

Papier ist geduldig from 2019-12-05T14:46:04

Can paper be happy? Sad? In Love? Frustrated? Impatient? In Germany it is geduldig.    

Freibier from 2019-11-28T16:28:02

Every culture has sacred words that reverberate in the soul more than normal words. The Germans have free beer.

Gutmensch from 2019-11-21T11:53:47

Political correctness is not an American invention – it was the Germans who did it.

The darkest prefix from 2019-11-14T16:17:09

The only prefix a man like me can truly love.

Gefühlt from 2019-11-07T08:34:53

You may think you're a great guy – or you might be a gefühlt great guy ...

Bejahung from 2019-10-31T16:56:35

1. What's a Frankenstein word?

2. What's the most beautiful word in any language?

Morgenröte from 2019-10-24T15:49:51

The poetyof everyday speech – the blush of the new day.

Angst from 2019-10-17T16:34:32

German Angst is the best Angst!

F**k dich ins Knie from 2019-10-10T15:47:01

There is only one expression Americans do not use "f**k" with - and the Germans found it.

Ich kann nicht soviel fressen, wie ich kotzen möchte! from 2019-10-03T15:50

Doch! from 2019-09-26T15:50:09

Only the Germans can fit "Yes" and "No" into the same word! 

Getue from 2019-09-19T23:00

Yes, there is a difference between doing and doingness!

Punkt from 2019-09-12T15:37:01

You never forget the very first German world you fall in love with.

Du (not you) from 2019-09-05T15:37:04

Why the German word "Du" means so much more to me than the English "you."

Dämmerung from 2019-08-29T08:36:42

Welcome to the Twilight of the Gods!

Absacker from 2019-08-22T11:30:44

In Germany, the last drink of the night is the first drink of the night...

Aussitzen from 2019-08-15T11:37:03

Sometimes, your job is just to keep sitting in your chair. 

Ausdiskutieren from 2019-08-08T15:53:08

Are you ready for the most terrifying word in the German language?

Selbstausbeutung from 2019-08-01T09:11:48

Americans exploit others – Germans exploit themselves. 

Besserwisser from 2019-07-25T08:56:10

Americans know it all – but Germans know it better.

Pipapo from 2019-07-18T23:00

If Nabokov had been German, he would have named her "Pipapo"

Fressen from 2019-07-11T23:00

American animals eat – German animals freat.

Sehnsucht from 2019-07-04T10:45:22

For some, yearning is a small thing; for Germans, yearning can kill you

Dumm! from 2019-06-27T09:29:17

Before Germans came, Americans were just "stupid" – thanks to them, we can now also be "dumb".

Flucht nach vorn from 2019-06-21T15:01:44

Germans never surrender, they just retreat in the wrong direction

Schere im Kopf from 2019-06-13T14:37:22

What do Germans do when they have a thought that is not allowed? They cut it out with scissors.

Schweinehund from 2019-06-06T16:24:11

Americans have the Bigfoot, Germans have the Pigdog.

Schnickschnack from 2019-05-16T11:43:12

Life is a delivery system for Schickschnack.

Die Freundschaft kündigen from 2019-05-09T14:40:31

Germans take friendship very seriously. How serious? This is how serious. 

Mitgefangen, mitgehangen from 2019-05-02T15:20:20

Sometimes you just run wit the wrong crowd ... and you end up with the wrong president.

Treppenwitz from 2019-04-25T14:23:13

You know that one time you didn't know what to say until it was too late? Germans have a word for that. 

Den Ball flach halten from 2019-04-18T10:32:37

Americans like their balls big and round and full of air – Germans like theirs flat.

Mitläufer from 2019-04-11T18:32:04

Americans say: Are you a leader or a follower? Germans say: Do you run, or do you run with?

Musse from 2019-04-04T23:00

We all must .... but when can we unmust?

Weird, wonderful, disturbing, challenging, funny – the video and podcast series Great German Words (on iTunes & Podbean) presents words everyone n...

Halbwissen from 2019-03-28T07:56:23

When you know enough to convince everyone else you know everything, but not so much that you actually know anything.

Grosskotz from 2019-03-21T15:33:56

Who's the Big Vomit? Are you the Big Vomit? Do you know the Big Vomit? Do you want to?

Leistungsgesellschaft from 2019-03-14T10:06:17

Germans love to criticize, and some of the words they invent – like Leistungsgesellschaft – contain inherent criticism of the very foundations of their own society.

Arschgeige from 2019-03-07T11:44:46

If you think Germans just aren't funny – try insulting them. "A****geige" - so funny you'll laugh until some guy slugs you in the face.

Es fällt mir ein from 2019-02-28T07:56:01

Where do ideas come from? They fall from the sky right into your head. Sometimes, it hurts.

Kaufreue from 2019-02-21T08:32:30

Americans have consumer culture, but Germans have consumer regret.

Es ist zum Mäuse melken from 2019-02-14T15:58:49

Is it possible to milk mice? Americans herd cats, Germans milk mice! (Spoiler alert: it really is possible.)

Angst vor der eigenen Courage from 2019-02-07T08:22:52

Americans have "nothing to feat but fear itself" – Germans are "afraid of their own courage." If you know what it means, it's great.

Lust vs. "Lust" from 2019-01-31T16:43:03

When Americans feel lust, it's a sin. Germans feel lust for everything, all the time.

Glück from 2019-01-24T15:28:36

We think of happiness as universal, but is it possible that different cultures understand it differently? It may be true for Germans, whose word for it, Glück, has two meanings that seem to cont...

Wie die Faust aufs Auge from 2019-01-17T15:51:59

Sometimes you get what you deserve even if you don't like it. Like a fist to the eye.

Lieb vs. Love from 2019-01-10T15:13:35

"Liebe" means "love," but what does "lieb mean? And is it better to be loved or to be liebed?

Leidenschaft from 2018-12-27T09:31:16

Forget everything you know about passion - the Germans know it's the ability to suffer! 

Enttäuschen from 2018-12-27T09:30:33

To de-deceive – If you've been deceived, you need to be de-deceived. Sounds like a good thing, but is it?

Enttäuschen from 2018-12-27T09:30:33

To de-deceive – If you've been deceived, you need to be de-deceived. Sounds like a good thing, but is it?

Gedöns from 2018-12-27T09:28:46

What a buncha Gedöns!