Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer

Hacking The Afterlife podcast

Jennifer is away from the desk for a moment or three. In the meantime, I was looking through our old interviews. These were not made for the podcast - they follow the same format, but were not meant to be shown.

The idea was that Jennifer and I would have lunch once a week and see who came forward. These recorded conversations are part of the book "Backstage Pass to the Flipside." If you haven't read any of them, it's a good place to start.

By this time, we are speaking in short hand. I know that the restaurant is noisy, but I'm not filming for broadcast. I'm just filming so I have a record of what she is saying.

This clip is part of the film "Paul Allen, Junior Seau and Dave Duerson" on YouTube (free). But this is the raw footage - the uncut version of what happened that day. I went to the restaurant with the idea that I wanted to speak to someone I'd never met before, Paul Allen - to see if it was possible to do so.

I have friends who know him - so I asked John Lennon for help because I know his son (He's in Cannes Man), I asked Anthony Bourdain for help guessing he might have met Paul and asked Steve Jobs for help. All three of these people we've interviewed in the past.

So if you're not aware of the process, or have seen our podcast, this clip won't make any sense. It will seem entirely random and all over the map. I mean at some point I ask Abraham Lincoln to come forward to clarify a point from a previous interview we'd done with him. I wanted to ask him what his favorite poem was. ("Mortality" - he knew it by heart.)

There are more jumps around the map - George Washington stops by. If you can't imagine how that can work, then start over at the first podcast to understand how it works. But since she's not available, and some are addicted to listening to her - her is 80 minutes of Jennifer.

Will Shakespeare shows up at the end. Is it really Will? I don't know. But I ask him the same questions and the answers are just as mind bending as every other one in this session.

Enjoy.