Join our Patreon to unlock 25+ full-length bonus episodes, ad-free weekly episodes, mp3 downloads of our original songs, exclusive Discord access, and more! You can also support the show by getting a head start on holiday shopping at bit.ly/lezmerch & picking up Lez-ssentials songs on Bandcamp. Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that is not afraid to admit to being afraid of death. This week, co-hosts Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out with Elizabeth Earley (@therealelizabethearley), author and host of the popular Substack series (and podcast), Queering Reality, and the author of two novels: A Map of Everything and Like Wings, Your Hands. Her new nonfiction essay collection, Little Deaths All in a Row: Essays on Sex and Death, was released in September. We chat with Elizabeth about some super casual, lighthearted topics like the link between the female orgasm and the moment of birth or death, the age-old question of what happens after we die, how birth and death open channels to freely give and receive love, and the philosophical debate over whether humans can ever experience true reality.  Elizabeth wrote Little Deaths All in a Row in the aftermath of a near-fatal motorcycle accident that sent her mind into a panicked state while her body was in the literal process of dying. Although she survived this brush with death, Elizabeth was determined to examine her fear and attempt to overcome it so that the next time she met death, she’d be able to pass on gracefully. She explains that while she did not have a “near death experience” of the other side like some people do in terrible accidents, she does believe state of mind during the moment of death has an impact on what comes after. In order to get more intimate with death, Elizabeth began doing energy healing work on hospice patients. She expected to heal her fear of dying, but instead healed something she had not realized she was afraid of; a fear of love (she still fears death as does every human whether they want to admit it or not).  Pick up a copy of Elizabeth’s essay collection, Little Deaths All in a Row from Jaded Ibis Press [x] for more musings on the nature of reality, love, philosophy, sex, mortality, and what, if anything, comes after death.  Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay on Instagram and follow along on Facebook, TikTok, and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Email us @lezhangoutpod@gmail.com. Connect with us individually: Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices