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Gil Roth & his Virtual Memories Show

@vmspod.bsky.social

1.2K followers 210 following 3.6K posts

I make a weekly podcast feat. talks w/writers, artists, cartoonists & other culture-making people, at https://chimeraobscura.com/vm Also: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-virtual-memories-show/id531173075 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/VMSpod

chimeraobscura.com

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Gil Roth & his Virtual Memories Show @vmspod.bsky.social · 6h

A pal called me out for this line: “Between this arts-/podcast-self and my pharma-self, you could say I lead a double life, though I contend they barely add up to a single life.”

I told him, “You caught me using my Automatic Undercutting Machine,” & that I appreciated him getting on me about it.

Photo of a postcard of a miner with a piece of equipment called an Automatic Undercutting Machine

Reposted by Gil Roth & his Virtual Memories Show

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 10h

Feels like this will be a useful meme for the next few years

Peacemaker looks at a mural embedding Hitler into American symbols

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Gil Roth & his Virtual Memories Show @vmspod.bsky.social · 10h

Congrats!

Reposted by Gil Roth & his Virtual Memories Show

Your Internet Friend Tom Tomorrow @tomtomorrow.bsky.social · 14h

Inexplicably, there are still people who have not yet backed the Kickstarter! Fortunately there's still time.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/tom...

Our Long National Nightmare by Tom Tomorrow

Relive the trauma of the last five years through the cartoons of Herblock Award winner and Pulitzer nominee Tom Tomorrow.

www.kickstarter.com

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Reposted by Gil Roth & his Virtual Memories Show

Dean Haspiel @deanhaspiel.bsky.social · 15h

My latest newsletter about what I learned as a self-publisher at NYCC 2025, Ed Gein, my @baltimorecomics plans + more!

deanhaspiel.substack.com/p/the-reader...

The reader is my publisher

+Ed Gein & Baltimore Comicon

deanhaspiel.substack.com

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Gil Roth & his Virtual Memories Show @vmspod.bsky.social · 18h

New #newsletter! I ramble about my 20,000th day on earth, post a new #podcast feat. @lancerichardson.bsky.social, make a little art, & more, so GO READ: buttondown.com/vmspod/archi...

20K+1

We've got a great new podcast with Lance Richardson about Peter Matthiessen, thoughts on my 20000th day on earth and the odds of doubling that, a little art, & more!

buttondown.com

Gil Roth & his Virtual Memories Show @vmspod.bsky.social · 22h

Thanks so much!

Gil Roth & his Virtual Memories Show @vmspod.bsky.social · 1d

YAY! Glad you went!

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Gil Roth & his Virtual Memories Show @vmspod.bsky.social · 1d

(And yeah, we get into the @parisreview.bsky.social story about Matthiessen, among lots of other topics)

Gil Roth & his Virtual Memories Show @vmspod.bsky.social · 1d

Go get TRUE NATURE from the publisher www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/604930... or your fave bookshop bookshop.org/a/4669/97815...

And go listen to my 2018 talk with Lance at chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-2...

cover of Lance Richardson's biography, TRUE NATURE: The Pilgrimage of Peter Matthiessen

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Gil Roth & his Virtual Memories Show @vmspod.bsky.social · 1d

Let's celebrate my 20,000th day on earth with a new #podcast! @lancerichardson.bsky.social rejoins the show to celebrate his brand-new #biography, TRUE NATURE: The Pilgrimage of #PeterMatthiessen! We talk #writing, #nature, #art, #Bigfoot, & more, so GO LISTEN: chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-6...

Episode 658 – Lance Richardson

Virtual Memories Show 658: Lance Richardson “‘Who was Peter Matthiessen?’ is one of those fractals; the closer you look, the more complicated the question becomes.” Writer L…

chimeraobscura.com

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Reposted by Gil Roth & his Virtual Memories Show

Lance Richardson @lancerichardson.bsky.social · 1d

Astounded by this stunning review.

The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 1d

The writer Peter Matthiessen traveled the world looking for elusive snow leopards and rare cranes. But a new biography shows that the genuine self he was really seeking would be much harder to find, writes John Kaag:

A Warning for the Modern Striver

A new biography of Peter Matthiessen chronicles his many paradoxical attempts to escape who the world expected him to be.

bit.ly

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Gil Roth & his Virtual Memories Show @vmspod.bsky.social · 1d

FOLLOWUP PODCAST!

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Reposted by Gil Roth & his Virtual Memories Show

Hugh Ryan @hughryan.bsky.social · 1d

It's official: MY BAD: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE QUEER 90S AND BEYOND has a cover! I love how the yellow feels like a run over hazard sign, and the mixtape is perhaps my personal 90s icon. As for those sexy statues? You'll have to read it to find out...

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Reposted by Gil Roth & his Virtual Memories Show

Dean Haspiel @deanhaspiel.bsky.social · 1d

Check out my new crowdfunding project, ANTIMATTER, a one-man comix anthology featuring my pantheon of paramours and protagonists!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/dea...

ANTIMATTER

A One-Man-thology of Dean Haspiel Deep Cuts

www.kickstarter.com

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Reposted by Gil Roth & his Virtual Memories Show

Stefan Fatsis @stefanfatsis.bsky.social · 1d

Happy pub day to me!

Also pictured, bottom to top: Webster's Third (1961); battered Webster's New World (1974; my first dictionary); Webster's Collegiate, Fifth Edition (inscribed by my immigrant father in 1949)

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Gil Roth & his Virtual Memories Show @vmspod.bsky.social · 1d

GO GET LANCE'S BOOK! (our podcast about it is coming later today)

Lance Richardson @lancerichardson.bsky.social · 1d

Eight years ago, I drove to Sag Harbor and sat down for tea with Maria Matthiessen, telling her I wanted to write a book about her late husband, Peter. She warned me against it: a Sisyphean task! I pushed on anyway. (Maria was right.) And today, miraculously, is publication day for TRUE NATURE.

Gil Roth & his Virtual Memories Show @vmspod.bsky.social · 2d

Anyone got suggestions for people I should look to record with when I’m in London/Cambridge in a few weeks?

[DO NOT TAG THEM IN YOUR REPLY, PLEASE]

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Reposted by Gil Roth & his Virtual Memories Show

Lance Richardson @lancerichardson.bsky.social · 2d

Reviewed in The New Yorker.

Peter Matthiessen Travelled the World, Trying to Escape Himself

He was a spy, a crusader, an obsessive advocate for neglected people and places—yet his work was shaped, too, by an inner crisis.

www.newyorker.com

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Reposted by Gil Roth & his Virtual Memories Show

Lance Richardson @lancerichardson.bsky.social · 3d

Early review (two days early, anyway) in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

"Beautifully written, insightful, and engaging, 'True Nature' is a tour de force depiction of a charismatic, restless, self-absorbed, immensely talented literary lion."

Review: The life of Peter Matthiessen

The only person to win a National Book Award for both non-fiction (“The Snow Leopard”) and fiction (“Shadow Country”), Peter Matthiessen...

www.post-gazette.com

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Gil Roth & his Virtual Memories Show @vmspod.bsky.social · 3d

my longtime pals from the company always spoke highly of him, for reasons like that

Gil Roth & his Virtual Memories Show @vmspod.bsky.social · 3d

Yep, it's just the pharma side they sold

Gil Roth & his Virtual Memories Show @vmspod.bsky.social · 3d

LONG gone. Sold to Catalent, which was bought by Novo Holdings, and that sight was transferred to Novo Nordisk.

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Gil Roth & his Virtual Memories Show @vmspod.bsky.social · 3d

Linky-newsletter is out! Lots of good stuff, so GO READ:
buttondown.com/vmspod/archi...

Hitting The Links: 10/12/25

We've got a bunch of great links, some post-conference recovery, your weekly BIRDY!, and more

buttondown.com

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Reposted by Gil Roth & his Virtual Memories Show

Dean Haspiel @deanhaspiel.bsky.social · 3d

Last day of NYCC 2025. Come see me in Artists Alley at table K-33!

And check out my new comix crowdfunder, ANTIMATTER:

www.kickstarter.com/projects/dea...

ANTIMATTER

A One-Man-thology of Dean Haspiel Deep Cuts

www.kickstarter.com

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