Fifteen years after its release, Zone One by Colson Whitehead hits differently. We dig into the novel's fractured, nonlinear structure; where corporate-funded sweeper crews reclaim a zombie-plagued Manhattan, and unpack why Whitehead uses the apocalypse not as an ending, but as a mirror. From skels and stragglers to Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder, we explore how the book blurs the line between the living and the already dehumanized, and what it means that most of our book club didn't even finish it.

We talk about the racist hidden meaning buried in Mark Spitz's nickname, the novel's unflinching critique of capitalism and "post-racial" mythmaking published during Obama's first term, and why the scariest thing in the book isn't zombies; it's everyone rushing to rebuild the exact world that made people disposable in the first place. If catastrophe forces a reset, shouldn't we be building toward something better?

Colson Whitehead

• Official site: colsonwhitehead.com

Zone One — relevant links

• Interview Magazine interview (source used in episode): interviewmagazine.com/culture/colson-whitehead-zone-one
• Zone One on Goodreads: goodreads.com
• GradeSaver study guide: gradesaver.com/zone-one

Support the show

Zombie Book Club Links

• Join us on on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/ZombieBookClub
• Join the Brain Muncher’s Zombie Collective: https://discord.gg/rn3nPDa4CB
• ZBC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zombiebookclubpodcast/
• ZBC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/710957975263518/
• Zombie Book Club Voicemail: (614) 699-0006‬
• Zombie Book Club Email: ZombieBookClubPodcast@gmail.com

We invited zombie author Sarah Lyons Fleming back to Zombie Book Club to tackle the most skipped-over survival problem in the genre: waste management. From bucket toilet setups and compost toilets to venting methane and humanure composting, Sarah brings the same practical, prepper-brained logic she builds into her fiction; because a believable survivor community has to solve what comes in and what goes out.

We critique the worst toilet solutions in zombie TV, shout out the books that actually get it right, and put Sarah through a gauntlet of Poo-Pocalypse scenarios; including being trapped in a public bathroom with zombies and a very urgent biological need. Whether you're a writer, a zombie fan, or just someone who has finally started appreciating modern plumbing, this one will change how you look at every post-apocalyptic story you've ever loved.

👤 Guest Contact & Links — Sarah Lyons Fleming

• Website: sarahlyonsfleming.com
• Facebook: facebook.com/SarahLyonsFleming
• Amazon Author Page: amazon.com/stores/author/B00DXFM03O
• Audible: audible.com/author/Sarah-Lyons-Fleming/B00DXFM03O

🔗 Links Relevant to Topics Discussed

• History of TV Bathrooms (EW/CNN): ew.com/tv/watch-evolution-of-tv-bathrooms-cnn-history-sitcom/
• Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead trailer: imdb.com/video/embed/vi571654937/
• Zombie Poop Recipe (Instructables): instructables.com/ZOMBIE-POOP/
• Reddit thread — Do Zombies Poop? (r/thewalkingdead): reddit.com/r/thewalkingdead/comments/137mkv/do_zombies_poop/
• The Zombie Poop Song: youtube.com/watch?v=cRtmc7hCMQ8
• Sarah's book series in order: bookseriesinorder.com/sarah-lyons-fleming/

Support the show

Zombie Book Club Links

• Join us on on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/ZombieBookClub
• Join the Brain Muncher’s Zombie Collective: https://discord.gg/rn3nPDa4CB
• ZBC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zombiebookclubpodcast/
• ZBC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/710957975263518/
• Zombie Book Club Voicemail: (614) 699-0006‬
• Zombie Book Club Email: ZombieBookClubPodcast@gmail.com

Meta just patented an AI that keeps your social media account posting, liking, and DMing after you die, and we have questions. A lot of them. We dig into the Necro Feed™ and what it really means when a corporation trains a language model on your entire digital life, then deploys it to simulate you indefinitely; with your family, your followers, and anyone willing to engage. We trace the booming grief tech industry (death bots, ghost bots, etc) from its more sincere corner cases to the obvious business incentive hiding in plain sight: more engagement, more data, more 'active users', and who exactly profits when your grief never gets to reach its conclusion.

Then we get real. Why are we still on Facebook, and what would it actually take to leave? We walk through our own tangled reasons for staying; local groups, family, the diner that only updates its hours on its page — and map out realistic exit strategies: Patreon, newsletters, owning your own corner of the internet. We share hard-won lessons from moving audiences across platforms, why it's always harder than it looks, and why your voice (in life and in death) should belong to you, not an algorithm designed to monetize your memory.



Relevant Links

Meta Patent & Coverage

• Business Insider — Meta AI/LLM bot patent: https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-granted-patent-for-ai-llm-bot-dead-paused-accounts-2026-2
• Malwarebytes — Legal analysis of the patent: https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/ai/2026/02/meta-patents-ai-that-could-keep-you-posting-from-beyond-the-grave
• Reddit thread (r/technology): https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1r6n7es/meta_patents_ai_that_takes_over_a_dead_persons/

Previous Zombie Book Club Episodes Referenced

• Ep. 13 — Billionaire Bunkers: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2124392/episodes/13186425
• Ep. 27 — Mark Zuckerberg is building a $270M bunker to escape the ZombdeerPocalypse: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2124392/episodes/14304244

Support the show

Zombie Book Club Links

• Join us on on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/ZombieBookClub
• Join the Brain Muncher’s Zombie Collective: https://discord.gg/rn3nPDa4CB
• ZBC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zombiebookclubpodcast/
• ZBC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/710957975263518/
• Zombie Book Club Voicemail: (614) 699-0006‬
• Zombie Book Club Email: ZombieBookClubPodcast@gmail.com

What if the zombie apocalypse looked like a group hug? Pluribus imagines a world where 99.9% of humanity has joined a blissful, all-knowing hive mind, and only 13 people are left to decide whether individuality is worth fighting for. We're joined by media scholar and Texas Tech professor Dr. David D. Perlmutter to unpack why this "happy horde" story is more unsettling than any brain-eater we've encountered: from the alien signal and government hubris that started it all, to the strikingly different choices made by survivors like Carol, Manousos, Koumba, and Kusimayu; each a window into what humans value when civilization quietly dissolves around them.

Together we dig into the show's deeper provocations: Is the hive a form of colonization? A euthanasia of the species dressed up as harmony? And why does the collective feel so uncomfortably like AI; endlessly accommodating, hungry for prompts, incapable of genuine creation? Whether Pluribus qualifies as a zombie narrative at all turns out to be one of its sharpest questions. By the end, we're not asking how to survive the apocalypse, we're asking whether a life without art, love, risk, and the friction of being yourself is a life worth saving.

Guest Contact & Relevant Links

Dr. David D. Perlmutter

• Website: davidperlmutter-research.com
• Texas Tech Faculty Page: depts.ttu.edu/comc/faculty/dperlmutter

Support the show

Zombie Book Club Links

• Join us on on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/ZombieBookClub
• Join the Brain Muncher’s Zombie Collective: https://discord.gg/rn3nPDa4CB
• ZBC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zombiebookclubpodcast/
• ZBC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/710957975263518/
• Zombie Book Club Voicemail: (614) 699-0006‬
• Zombie Book Club Email: ZombieBookClubPodcast@gmail.com

Dia VanGunten joins us to crack open Pink Zombie Rose, her decade in the making magical realism series where zombies don't eat brains; they walk off the job, listen to trees, and fall in love. Structured like a tarot deck, Pink Zombie Rose: Major Arcana is a rhizomatic, genre-defying mashup of queer love stories, Cotard's delusion, anti-capitalist rage, and prose so alive it hurts. Dia reads from "Sweetest Kill", a glitter factory that sells sentiment while poisoning the earth, and we dig into the real history behind the fiction: enclosures, anatomy theaters, and the radical power of simply putting your hands in your pockets and stopping.

We also get into the making of Major Arcana and its collaboration with illustrator Beppi, the confrontational magic of writing in second person, what the Detroit auto industry has to do with the undead, and Dia's upcoming comic project Little Gores.

Guest Links

Dia VanGunten

• Website: diavangunten.com
• Instagram: @pinkzombierose
• Linktree (all links): linktr.ee/diavangunten

Support the show

Zombie Book Club Links

• Join us on on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/ZombieBookClub
• Join the Brain Muncher’s Zombie Collective: https://discord.gg/rn3nPDa4CB
• ZBC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zombiebookclubpodcast/
• ZBC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/710957975263518/
• Zombie Book Club Voicemail: (614) 699-0006‬
• Zombie Book Club Email: ZombieBookClubPodcast@gmail.com

This week indie comics creators Laurie Calcaterra (Path of the Pale Rider) and Brandon Starocci (Avalon Comic) join us to unpack Boner Temple™; our affectionate nickname (stolen from Wicked Words Book Club) for the newest entry in the 28 Years Later saga "The Bone Temple". Through Spike’s childlike perspective, we examine how spectacle becomes belief, belief becomes control, and why Sir Jimmy Crystal’s myth collapses the moment doubt enters the room. We also debate the film’s moral center: a doctor honoring the dead, an infected alpha learning restraint, and whether survival means curing humanity or redefining it.

From hybrid theory and infected carriers to the soundtrack, psychology, and franchise endgame predictions, this episode balances horror analysis with big-picture storytelling. We also tackle box office fatigue, marketing misfires, and why word-of-mouth might decide the trilogy’s fate.

Guest Links:

• Laurie Calcaterra
  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauriecalcaterra
  • Comic: Path of the Pale Rider — https://www.pathofthepalerider.com
  • Issue 8 Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pathofthepalerider/path-of-the-pale-rider-issues-1-8
    
    
• Brandon Starocci
  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brandonstarocci
  • Avalon Comic Website: https://avaloncomic.com
  • Avalon Comic Socials: https://www.instagram.com/avaloncomic

Support the show

Zombie Book Club Links

• Join us on on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/ZombieBookClub
• Join the Brain Muncher’s Zombie Collective: https://discord.gg/rn3nPDa4CB
• ZBC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zombiebookclubpodcast/
• ZBC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/710957975263518/
• Zombie Book Club Voicemail: (614) 699-0006‬
• Zombie Book Club Email: ZombieBookClubPodcast@gmail.com

In this episode of Zombie Book Club, we sit down with writer and death doula Sara Wuillermin of Bury Me in New Jersey Community to explore the emotional and human heart of 28 Years Later, a film that uses its post-apocalyptic world not just to terrify, but to ask what it means to grieve, to love, and to carry loss forward in community. From Spike’s perilous journey to save his ailing mother to the rituals communities invent to honor their dead, we unpack how zombie stories reflect real-world grief, shared resilience, and the surprising spaces where care and resistance intersect.

We talk about how death doula work and mutual aid reshape our understanding of “survival,” how potlucks, Signal groups, and ordinary solidarity can be tools of connection. Whether you’re here for deep takes on grief, film, or community care, this conversation makes room for both the pain and tenderness of living in a world shaped by loss.

Guest Info

• Bury Me in New Jersey Community
  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bury_me_in_nj
  • Website / Podcast info: https://burymeinnj.com

Support the show

Zombie Book Club Links

• Join us on on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/ZombieBookClub
• Join the Brain Muncher’s Zombie Collective: https://discord.gg/rn3nPDa4CB
• ZBC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zombiebookclubpodcast/
• ZBC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/710957975263518/
• Zombie Book Club Voicemail: (614) 699-0006‬
• Zombie Book Club Email: ZombieBookClubPodcast@gmail.com

What if the best survival manual for a zombie apocalypse was written tens of thousands of years ago into our biology? This week on Zombie Book Club, we’re joined by Andie from Ancestral Habits to explore how our Paleolithic past still shapes the way humans cooperate, address unfairness, care for the vulnerable, and rebuild after collapse. From egalitarian small groups and complementary cognition to food sharing, justice, and ritual, we unpack why humans aren’t wired for lone-wolf survival, and never have been.

Using zombies as a pressure test, we talk through real post-collapse questions: how groups of 25 might organize, why cooperation often outperforms violence, how circadian rhythms and time perception reset without modern schedules, and what archaeology could someday reveal about us through our bones, teeth, and fire pits. The core takeaway? You’re not broken; your environment changed faster than your evolution. And under stress, humans tend to rediscover connection, fairness, and shared value.

Guest Contact & Relevant Links

Andie – Ancestral Habits

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ancestralhabits
• Substack: https://ancestralhabits.substack.com
  
  

Topics & References Discussed

• Civilized to Death by Christopher Ryan: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Civilized-to-Death/Christopher-Ryan/9781451659115

Support the show

Zombie Book Club Links

• Join us on on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/ZombieBookClub
• Join the Brain Muncher’s Zombie Collective: https://discord.gg/rn3nPDa4CB
• ZBC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zombiebookclubpodcast/
• ZBC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/710957975263518/
• Zombie Book Club Voicemail: (614) 699-0006‬
• Zombie Book Club Email: ZombieBookClubPodcast@gmail.com