One terrified courier, one “urgent” delivery, and one town that turns into a nonstop survival gauntlet. Dan, Leah and Ollie (OllieEatsBrains) sit down for a Zombie Book Club deep dive on Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil, and the conversation is as chaotic as the movie. We cover the tone that’s both hilarious and horrifying, the pacing with no room for a bathroom break, and a hero who plays like a horror-game player dropped into real consequences. We also settle (sort of) the great F-word count debate, then argue over whether the infection is a parasite, a virus or an “evolutionary agent.” Along the way, we rank the creature roster, from the tentacles to the Pile. We keep it MOSTLY spoiler free until the end, so you can bail before we blunder our way through it.

Underneath the gore, we dig into corporate science and externalities, who gets stuck doing the risky work, and why horror casting still defaults the way it does. We also share a Groan from the Horde: Rebecca Cuthbertson’s Waves of Undead short film, and how to support it.

Relevant Links:

• Waves of Undead by Rebecca Cuthbertson: https://www.gofundme.com/f/indie-short-film-creation-waves-of-undead
• OllieEatsBrains: https://www.instagram.com/ollieeatsbrains/
• Resident Evil (2026 film): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_Evil_(2026_film)
• Zach Cregger, director: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zach_Cregger
• Externalities, the corporate-science theme: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality

Support the show

Zombie Book Club Links

• Join us on on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/ZombieBookClub
• ZBC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zombiebookclubpodcast/
• ZBC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/710957975263518/
• Zombie Book Club Email: ZombieBookClubPodcast@gmail.com

After nearly 40 days on the road, we’re home, sick, and running on fumes, which makes this Halloween-week check-in feel more undead than usual. We start with the zombie updates: Resident Evil, an upcoming conversation about Black Zombie and the cultural history behind zombie myths, and a future look at Colony from the filmmakers who made Train to Busan. We talk about writing. Drafting Dan's first book was fast, but editing is the real monster. We talk about beta reader feedback, why we’d rather go slow than ship something half-cooked.

Then we answer the question nobody asked: could you survive a zombie apocalypse inside a Staples? We weigh the bathrooms, snacks, batteries, and comfy chairs against ring binders as forearm armor and that terrifying paper cutter thingy. Is this a bad idea, or did we just hit the easy button?

Relevant Links

• Resident Evil: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_Evil_(2026_film)
• Dead of Winter (board game): https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/150376/dead-of-winter-a-crossroads-game

Support the show

Zombie Book Club Links

• Join us on on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/ZombieBookClub
• ZBC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zombiebookclubpodcast/
• ZBC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/710957975263518/
• Zombie Book Club Email: ZombieBookClubPodcast@gmail.com

We’re recording from a hotel bed at The Saguaro Palm Springs, hungover, sun-sensitive, and happy, after driving cross-country from Vermont for our friends Eric and Joe’s wedding. Zombie stories keep telling us the same thing: the monsters are never the point, the survivor group is. The wedding felt like proof, a tight-knit chosen family where everyone looked after each other. We briefly discuss why community beats rugged individualism, and the rare superpower that holds a group together: making someone feel like the most important person in the room and meaning it. Then we ask how you build that where you already live, one friendship at a time. If you want more of Eric, he joined us earlier to zombie-proof a house Home Alone-style.

Then we thought about the hotel as a survival haven: bars on every floor, a courtyard of silent ballet in sleepwear that might be a cult, and real bunker potential.

Relevant Links

Where We Recorded

• The Saguaro Palm Springs: https://www.thesaguaro.com/palmsprings

Eric’s Previous Episode

• Home Alone in the Zombie Apocalypse with special guest EricLloydDesigns | Ep 75: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2124392/episodes/16317584-home-alone-in-the-zombie-apocalypse-with-special-guest-ericlloyddesigns-zombie-book-club-ep-75

Road Trip and Progress

• Road Trip on the Bad Road | Ep 167: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2124392/episodes/19855230-road-trip-on-the-bad-road-zombie-book-club-ep-167
• Midwest Road Trip Update | Ep 169: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2124392/episodes/19922196-midwest-road-trip-update-zombie-book-club-ep-169

Support the show

Zombie Book Club Links

• Join us on on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/ZombieBookClub
• ZBC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zombiebookclubpodcast/
• ZBC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/710957975263518/
• Zombie Book Club Email: ZombieBookClubPodcast@gmail.com

We’re recording from the least glamorous studio imaginable: a camper bed in Kansas, in full “dead bug pose,” while tornadoes, flooding, and rerouted travel plans turn the Midwest into a live weather report. Two weeks into our road trip, we’re tired enough to be incoherent and honest about it. We dig into what RV campground life is really like, from a party-heavy New York park with live music and string lights to a Kansas RV park full of oil field workers living there short-term because it’s the only affordable option.

Then comes the best stop so far: friends in Missouri. We attended a pride event, Leah got a tarot reading that wasn't so great, “tactical furries” that braved the Missouri heat, and a movie night with the low-budget apocalypse comedy Bored Games. We also talk about travel tattoos, including a Kansas piece inspired by pioneering tattoo artist Maud Wagner, and finish with a practical writing corner on beta readers, readability, and the eternal struggle of commas in dialogue.

Links

• Maud Wagner, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maud_Wagner
• Bored Games, IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31851933/
• Ozark PrideFest: https://ozarkspridefest.com/

Support the show

Zombie Book Club Links

• Join us on on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/ZombieBookClub
• ZBC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zombiebookclubpodcast/
• ZBC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/710957975263518/
• Zombie Book Club Email: ZombieBookClubPodcast@gmail.com

What if the apocalypse isn't a sudden event, but the slow breakdown of the systems we depend on to survive? In this episode, we look at what climate collapse could mean for ordinary people by 2050: failed crops, flooded roads, extreme heat, wildfire smoke, and a power grid that can't keep up. We dig into the 1.5°C target, climate tipping points, and the quiet loss of predictable seasons, then ask why, if this is a crisis, we're all still living like it's a normal Tuesday.

Imagine Dan and Leah at 66 and 67 on a Vermont hilltop, with a well, aging solar panels, and a roof that needs replacing. Survival depends less on grit and more on medicine, repairs, supply chains, and other people. That brings us to community resilience and mutual aid, why rugged individualism is a myth, and the hard truth that renewable energy has to come with consuming less. It's dark, sometimes grimly funny, and it ends with one question: what do you hope the humans in our 2050 climate-apocalypse movie have figured out?

Links:

• WHO, Climate Change and Health: https://www.who.int/health-topics/climate-change
• 2024 State of the Climate report (BioScience): https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/74/12/812/7808595
• Climate Vulnerability Index map (U.S. only): https://map.climatevulnerabilityindex.org/map/cvi_overall/usa
• Futurism, UN failure to stop severe climate change: https://futurism.com/science-energy/united-nations-failed-stop-severe-climate-change
• NPR, UN climate change threshold: https://www.npr.org/2026/09/02/g-s1-141595/united-nations-climate-change-threshold

Support the show

Zombie Book Club Links

• Join us on on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/ZombieBookClub
• ZBC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zombiebookclubpodcast/
• ZBC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/710957975263518/
• Zombie Book Club Email: ZombieBookClubPodcast@gmail.com

Zombie Book Club is hitting the bad road for real. Dan and Leah are heading cross-country in their camper to a wedding in Palm Springs, with senior dog Ziggy, Rod Zombie riding shotgun, tiny chaos agents Lil D and Harmony Bear. They break down the route, the remote-work realities of camper life (antennas, solar, lithium batteries), and how they'll keep the podcast alive with bulk recording and shorter road updates.

Along the way, the road trip opens the door to bigger conversations: growing up with casual homophobia, reclaiming "gay" as joy, and the legend of Fairy Jane, the traveling doll who vanished at a festival. Plus, the annual Zombie Ween game show is becoming a cooperative, tabletop RPG-style "Giving Ween," with listeners helping decide who shines.

Support the show

Zombie Book Club Links

• Join us on on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/ZombieBookClub
• ZBC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zombiebookclubpodcast/
• ZBC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/710957975263518/
• Zombie Book Club Email: ZombieBookClubPodcast@gmail.com

Dan got his zombie novella, The Bad Road, back from a beta reader with thousands of tracked edits and lived to talk about it. We talk through the real, unglamorous mechanics of revision; accepting changes one at a time and building the instinct to write clean sentences from the start. We talk about why feedback stings, why "genius" is a myth, and why taking ego out of the equation is what actually turns a decent draft into a publishable book.

Relevant links:

• ZBC Epizode 16 "Let's talk about writing": https://www.buzzsprout.com/2124392/episodes/13412031
• The Bad Road playlist: https://tidal.com/playlist/0bc984a4-381f-43af-b416-715d7d4f6e50

Resources Dan should have read:

• Beta readers 101: https://blog.reedsy.com/beta-reader/
• Dialogue punctuation rules: https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Punctuation.html
• Editor vs. proofreader, explained: https://kindlepreneur.com/book-editor-vs-proofreader/
• What ARC readers are and how to use them: https://kindlepreneur.com/arc-readers/

Support the show

Zombie Book Club Links

• Join us on on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/ZombieBookClub
• ZBC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zombiebookclubpodcast/
• ZBC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/710957975263518/
• Zombie Book Club Email: ZombieBookClubPodcast@gmail.com

Bestselling zombie author Kate L. Mary returns to the podcast to talk through what a realistic survival plan might actually look like, how you'd know it's really happening, and why a slow, confusing outbreak is scarier than the instant-chaos version we usually see in movies. We talk about getting family together, avoiding major roads and cities, and heading for the coast to escape by sailboat.

From there, we get into the practical side of life at sea: what a boat actually needs to function long-term (fresh water, fuel, navigation without GPS), why the Caribbean (specifically Grenada) is Kate's pick for a long-term destination. We also touch on how her experience writing apocalyptic fiction shapes the way she thinks through these scenarios.

Guest Links:

• Website: katelmary.com
• Facebook: facebook.com/KateLMaryauthor
• Instagram: @zombieauthormom
• Amazon Author Page: amazon.com/Kate-L-Mary/e/B00K48N5EQ

Support the show

Zombie Book Club Links

• Join us on on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/ZombieBookClub
• ZBC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zombiebookclubpodcast/
• ZBC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/710957975263518/
• Zombie Book Club Email: ZombieBookClubPodcast@gmail.com