130 - Heaven is for Real (feat. Radio Free Tote Bag)
Added 2024-03-20 06:00:05 +0000 UTCThis week, Josh and Brian are joined by Radio Free Tote Bag as they take the next direct flight straight to God’s Throne. We discuss the history of books about heaven, the Near-Death Experience community, and the many thrills of saying “Burpo” over and over again.
Want more TWOAPW? Get access to our full back catalogue of premium/bonus episodes and add your name to the masthead of our website by subscribing for $5/month at Patreon.com/worstofall!
Radio Free Tote Bag is a weekly relationship advice podcast hosted by Audrey and Donovan. Patreon // Spotify // Apple Podcasts // Twitter // Instagram
Data Transfer - Apple Podcasts // Spotify
Audrey Brehm - Twitter
Donovan Eyre - Twitter
Media Referenced in this episode:
- Where is Colton Burpo Now? - Pureflix
- Interview with Kevin Malarkey
- I Did Not Die. I Did Not Go to Heaven. - Slate Magazine
- John Wesley as Dream Reader - Pawel Rutkowski
- Colton Burpo on Ordinary Discussions
- Interview with Todd and Colton Burpo
- The Burpos on Marilyn and Sarah
- IMDb - Heaven is for Real
- Near-Death Experience Research Foundation
Comments
We read 90 minutes in heaven in driver's ed which in retrospect was kinda fucked up
Ms. Charlie
2025-04-11 15:15:15 +0000 UTCI grew up in a super Southern Baptist household as a disabled kid. There’s SO MUCH to unpack about the way disability is treated in the church. And I think Alex getting co-credits as an author on the book but never getting a dime says a lot towards that.
Emily Faye
2025-01-02 12:51:35 +0000 UTCi have had a near death experience and Saw Some Shit and now my go to description of heaven when my religious relatives ask me is "if i told you then you wouldnt want to go" and i think thats the best response to such things since it can def put some cosmic horror into your daily life which can be delightful
Lain of the Wired
2024-06-17 17:13:38 +0000 UTCYou read the poem in the same cadence of the guy reading "Half-Life Full-Life Consequences" on YouTube.
Noblesse Oblahaj
2024-04-14 17:46:08 +0000 UTCGod said if you don't pay your medical bills he's gonna make the doctor put the appendix back in
Ronin Fredricson
2024-04-03 19:23:25 +0000 UTCHey, can you make fun of the name Sonia Burpo some more? I don't think that horse is *completely* dead.
murt pie
2024-04-01 00:07:17 +0000 UTCMr. Burpo is listed as my alias on my arrest report for Public Drunkenness, Misuse of Public Facilities; and Operating a Motion Picture Show, Circus, or Carnival Without a License.
Andrew T. Wilson
2024-03-24 04:08:35 +0000 UTCAJ jump scare!
Virginia Paine
2024-03-23 15:38:30 +0000 UTCThe way one of y'all said "Present Day" made me have the sudden flash that you should do an episode on the anime Serial Experiments Lain.
Andrew T. Wilson
2024-03-23 03:54:34 +0000 UTCno joke but I was literally hospitalized this morning with kidney stones, I am so sorry for making fun of colton burpo
titus virginia
2024-03-22 17:28:10 +0000 UTCyou write your own, so no two are the same
The Worst of all Possible Worlds
2024-03-22 13:53:14 +0000 UTCThe little yellow book is the libertarian version of the little red book.
Regular Sized Horse (Small)
2024-03-22 12:30:22 +0000 UTCThe reasoning about that red markers thing, which provoked the discussion on whether or not he really bought into his own sales pitch, felt to me like it had to be a little of both. It's so baffling that I can't believe anyone could write that to consciously pull the wool over someone else, he must have convinced himself it made sense first. But that's often how it goes with that kind of extravagant lying, when you've already committed to something so far out of the sensible and have external incentives to keep it up it can be terrifying to even consider doubt. Very funny and interesting as always, lads, thank you!
Elaine Åhlfeldt
2024-03-21 20:11:54 +0000 UTCThank you, A.J., for your visitation from beyond the grave/Egyptian debtor's prison.
Tom and Joe made me give them money to play their game and now I, Teagan, am anime sickos canon. I'm gonna live forever!
2024-03-21 19:47:43 +0000 UTCpart of what always alienated me about christianity growing up was this childish conception of god and heaven. i didnt get back into it until i got the orthodox explanation where its more spiritual in a weird but interesting way.
titus virginia
2024-03-21 17:56:08 +0000 UTCAnother wonderful episode! Heaven Is For Real was filmed in my hometown. I was in highschool at the time and I remember people who say they saw Greg Kinnear walking around downtown. It is funny how Winnipeg is used as Generitic American Midwestern City in a lot of low-budget movies!
Kenzie Traill
2024-03-21 16:12:19 +0000 UTCthat's your guardian angel
Peter Paul Rubens' Muse
2024-03-21 12:14:09 +0000 UTCwoah these episodes have thumbnails
Benalish Transexual
2024-03-21 04:50:40 +0000 UTCI just unlocked Sonja Burpo in Tekken 8, her combos are insane.
Jordan Y Clementi
2024-03-21 01:01:17 +0000 UTCEvery time I've been under anesthesia I've had a vision of Snoop Dogg sitting in the recovery room with me, maybe that's what heaven is
Ray of F---ing Sunshine
2024-03-21 00:58:12 +0000 UTCHang on. Margo Martindale? Tod? Secretariat? Greg Kinnear? What is this? A cross over episode.
Chris Smith
2024-03-20 23:33:01 +0000 UTCVery funny interesting episode. Thank you.
misterr
2024-03-20 22:03:00 +0000 UTCAnother awesome episode where so many of the anecdotes are so eerily similar to my lived experience that I get to have an out of body experience at the gym
Brandon Chinn
2024-03-20 21:15:20 +0000 UTCGormless Burpo had me in fucking tears
Ryujin713
2024-03-20 21:08:10 +0000 UTCJust an interesting cultural comparison these sorts of stories are quite big in Buddhism but the person usually goes to hell https//www.shambhala.com/a-guided-tour-of-hell-3534.html
Zipzapzop
2024-03-20 21:06:40 +0000 UTCAs someone who walked around with a burst appendix for 3 weeks that doctors also refused to diagnose as appendicitis lemmie just say OOF
SuzyLee
2024-03-20 19:02:44 +0000 UTCThis is heroic podcasting but I cannot *believe* that you guys mentioned The Living Bi-Bal without AJ! It should have a drop
Morgan Byrd
2024-03-20 16:32:46 +0000 UTCEvery media object is at least two people removed from a TWOAPW episode. Amazing
Josiah Sutton of the Fruitless Podcast
2024-03-20 16:07:32 +0000 UTCThe intriguing part is thinking about all the other kids there, thinking the same thing, sharing the same space in their minds, all inhabitants of the same grey waste until one of them screws up the courage to rise
Typhoon Jim
2024-03-20 15:54:03 +0000 UTCDamn, most folks are only going for 7 minutes. legendary
Typhoon Jim
2024-03-20 15:51:46 +0000 UTCJesus has the eyes of Ibad! Bi-lal kaifa!
Typhoon Jim
2024-03-20 15:37:59 +0000 UTCHOMOS FOR SARAH might be one of the funniest things I've ever heard
Grouchiest Marxiest
2024-03-20 15:21:29 +0000 UTCI don't think I ever attended a church with people rolling around, but there was one with a flag that would get waved sometimes over peoples heads and it was supposed to be the Holy Ghost or something. Tongue babbling was just a normal church thing for me. So strange to look back at all the crazy shit
Dergon
2024-03-20 14:48:35 +0000 UTCLong ago, I had a crush on a Pentecostal girl at my high school and (foolishly, foolishly) agreed to attend a church service with her as a date. Even decades later, I can still vividly recall my Lovecraft-protagonist level feelings of disbelief and horror when everyone around me started speaking in tongues and holy-rolling.
Kyle Cassidy
2024-03-20 14:45:33 +0000 UTCAs a high school theology teacher, I realized that most of my students were exposed to this movie in elementary school. Exposing the truth was. . . entertaining.
Samuel E McConnell
2024-03-20 14:37:49 +0000 UTCYou guys are just jealous you never had the experience of someone putting their hand on your forehead (at least mine wasn't a fivehead, BRIAN) and then praying loudly before shoving you backwards, and you pretend to be unconscious because whatever Jesus magic was supposed to happen didn't, but you didn't want to be the only one it didn't work on, so you fall down like expected, lying there eyes squinched up, worrying God hates you, until you hear someone else get up first, then walk back to your seat feeling like a spiritual failure. Good times
Dergon
2024-03-20 14:13:34 +0000 UTCOMFG Struggling homeschooled Pentecostal kid? That was my life! Love hearing that struggling socially and academically with that sort of background is common lol
Dergon
2024-03-20 14:09:27 +0000 UTCThe Swedenborg is formed when all the Burpos put their fiveheads together.
Dergon
2024-03-20 13:59:00 +0000 UTCBurpo sounds like a long lost Marx brother
vercingix
2024-03-20 12:44:15 +0000 UTC"Heaven is totes real, yo"
chris
2024-03-20 12:08:08 +0000 UTC"Did you hear that Smithers? Burpo is coming!"
BarFly
2024-03-20 10:49:13 +0000 UTCi never get tired of yall crazy ass stories from your college years
BrianAlflordIsGoodActually
2024-03-20 09:33:05 +0000 UTCI remember when this book passed through my house. I hate this supernatural affirmation, faith-healing bullshit. It came up in my family more personally this year in an ongoing dire situation and the intense, sincere, false hope it gives is alienating and awful.
im so daddy i havent slept in a year
2024-03-20 08:34:48 +0000 UTCI'm pretty sure my parents and/or grandparents had 90 minutes in heaven
By Tove!
2024-03-20 07:09:33 +0000 UTC
