Hacking the Afterlife with Jennifer Shaffer Redux episode Robert Towne, Luana Anders, Charles Grodin, Napoleon
Hacking The Afterlife podcastShow Notes
While Jennifer is on a parent student weekend, am replaying one of our more popular episodes... over 4500 folks have seen it - it is second part of an interview with Robert Towne, the screenwriter, on the flipside (my old boss) and a discussion of Napoleon and a visit with Charles Grodin and Luana Anders. Here's the original liner notes from a year ago in August of 2024...
First; Jennifer's got another one of her Uncorked events in Manhattan Beach - tickets are available, for sixty bucks one gets a glass of wine, two hours with her and others who all get spoken to. The events are fun and easy to attend. UncorkedWineShops.com https://uncorkedwineshops.com/medium-monday-tickets/ For ticket info: JenniferShaffer.com This is a continuation of our conversation with Robert Towne, my old boss who left the stage last week. Jennifer mentions how she was walking on the beach the other day and Robert (and his dog Hira) appeared walking next to her... Jennifer did a number of sessions with Robert and so she's used to communicating with him. In this episode, I'm continuing with my list of questions to ask him about - people that we spoke with before, people offstage and if he has messages for people onstage. In this case, Robert was doing a rewrite or polish for a script about Napoleon (I don't know if it was his own, or it was for someone else, like Ridley Scott as Robert wrote "Days of Thunder" for his brother Tony. Comes to mind - when his brother Tony passed, we were doing this research, and Robert asked me about his passing, so we did a session asking Tony what happened. It's in the book BACKSTAGE PASS TO THE FLIPSIDE. Either way - I want to point something out. We accessed Napoleon and his friend Betsy Balcombe in a previous session - it might be in print instead of in the podcast list - that would be in BACKSTAGE PASS TO THE FLIPSIDE 1, 2 or 3 - and in that instance, she identified herself as Napoleon's friend, and when asked whether he died of natural causes or was "poisoned" we heard her say it was poison. (or not from natural causes). In this episode, I ask Robert if he's had a chance to ask Napoleon about the accuracy of that, and the answer is the word "wife." For those paying attention, that could be the wife of Napoleon (who was having an affair back in Paris, had two children with that fellow and married him) that could be the wife of Balcombe, but his family left St. Helena before Napoleon died, it could be "Fanny" the wife of one of his lieutenants he made a pass at, and nearly jumped off a ship at the thought of being stuck on St. Helena with him - or it could have been any number of wives on the island, as apparently, he'd have flings with quite a few. Wild and crazy guy. But in reading the A. Robert's autobiography of him, it's clear that he died of stomach cancer. The doctors did an autopsy, it's the same disease his father died of - and it's clear to me that is what he died of. "It was a miracle he didn't die from it earlier." In terms of this kind of research, asking questions and getting answers, because I've been doing this for 8 years weekly, I have to allow that it's possible I was asking the wrong question, it's possible that Napoleon was trying to steer the conversation to another topic (like "It was my wife Josephine that caused me to have agita which turned into stomach cancer") or it could be that the word "wife" meant something else altogether. It's important to note this - because I'm asking leading questions and I could be leading the medium into an area where they are trying to answer my questions based on what they're getting from the flipside. (I've seen people do this, and likely I have done it before as well.) Jennifer says what she hears, senses, or visualizes. Why he answered "wife" is subject to more questions - because I could revisit the conversation and point out that it was cancer that took his life, so what's he pointing to a wife or his wife, or someone else's wife? Eithe
More from Hacking The Afterlife podcast
Another mind bending podcast. Amelia Earhart is in the news - and came through to talk about what the expedition means to her. She then was followed by the screenwriter, my old boss Robert Towne who wanted to weigh in on Tom Cruise's performance in the film "DIGGER." Robert worked with Tom often, and he gave it a rave. And then - both Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel stopped by - whom we interviewed before in BACKSTAGE PASS TO THE FLIPSIDE BOOK THREE, and they gave their thumb reviews. Mind bending stuff all the way around. The recent book SHE WAS NEVER LOST: The Amelia Earhart Saga is available everywhere.
This is a rerun of a podcast from two years ago - it didn't have subtitles but I've included them now. This was an unusual podcast just based on the folks who showed up to chat with us. Jennifer and I had taken a trip to the Chateau Marmont on Sunset Blvd, and we had a group of folks who stopped by to say hello. At some point John Belushi talked about "ghost watching" - not to show up in the hotel to watch people onstage, but to watch "the other ghosts wandering around." Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson showed up to talk about early exits - people who leave the stage early for whatever reason. And that brought a bunch of people forward, from JFK to Elvis, to Matthew Perry, Robin Williams and others... the point they were making is that people leave the stage in all different fashions, and it's about focusing on who they were while they were onstage, and not how they left it. We had a brief chat with Gene Hackman again - to clarify what happened in light of the police reports... and he made a joke about it. I try to repeat the advice that these folks are available to anyone if they take the time to ask them questions. But be prepared for them not being all that interested in questions that relate to our journey and not theirs. I asked my old pal Charles Grodin about what it was like to see his old friend Gene, and then we shifted to an event that happened later in the day. While dining at Musso and Frank's in Hollywood two members of my group saw "a ghostly figure" sitting in the corner of the room. They didn't know who it was or could be, but said he "looked like the actor Robert Downey Jr." (And even then they didn't know his name either, and asked questions about someone named "Downey") They also heard him talking about "table #1" to them - so I invited the waiter to stop by the table and simply asked about any ghosts people might have seen in the restaurant. He said "Charlie Chaplin" and I asked where table #1 was - and he mentioned the table that I had lunch with Jonathan Winters - which was table #1 - and how that's where Charlie liked to dine. We asked Charlie about why he was seen "scribbling notes" and he said it was the place he liked to have good ideas and good food, but also said in this instance, he showed up so that members of my group would see him, and that would inspire me to invite him to chat on our podcast. I don't know how else to put it - but Jennifer and I have been doing this weekly for ten years. Not everyone who shows up in our conversations is a celebrity - but because of my 40 years in the business, and Luana Ander's 300 TV shows and movies (my friend who moderates our podcast from the Flipside, who passed in 1996) I'm not surprised when people do show up that we can recognize. Jennifer's father Jim also stopped by to clarify some things, and I must say - the topic of leaving the stage early came up - if someone is in need of help or counseling, there is help - and one should reach out to 988 and the counselors there from any telephone. But in my desire to not use the S word in the podcast, I tried to leave it out of the conversation, as the algorithms will generally not want it to be discussed - but the important point was made by people offstage - that is to realize that life goes on no matter what happens, and that everyone onstage signed up to be onstage, and should see what things might occur or happen that we could not be aware of. Oh, and Robin Williams showed up to not only discuss the same topic, but to confirm that during a recent guided meditation, this woman saw him in her "classroom in the afterlife" - and he confirmed that it was him BEFORE I COULD ASK THE QUESTION. Anyways, all of it is mind bending, and hopefully whomever needs to hear what they are talking about is able to hear what they're trying to say. Thanks for tuning in!
THIS IS A PODCAST WE DID ON THIS DATE TWO YEARS AGO IN 2024. Before the book SHE WAS NEVER LOST came out... but the story remains the same. This version has subtitles for the hard of reading, but the sound is the same for the hard of hearing! xo
Today's episode begins with a discussion about talking to people on the flipside - Jennifer describes the over 200 people that she read recently, and gives an account of one of the stories where someone came through and flipped out their family when the grandmother said "I'm so glad you didn't get that tattoo!"
Another mind bending podcast... Elvis introduced Jennifer to his friend Dolly Parton. I had an inkling she would show up this week - as the day she passed I heard her voice say "I'd love to be on your show Richard" or something to that effect. I know I was thinking about something else at the time, so was suprised to hear it. And for the next couple of days it felt like we were having a conversation - me hearing Dollyisms (as a jaded blues music player, Dolly was not on any of my play lists, although I admired her voice and writing skills). So for a couple of days, I kept hearing funny comments and remarks - and then nothing the past few days, so I wasn't sure if she'd show up or not. But she did. Jennifer is a huge fan, and becomes emotional while repeating what Dolly asks her to say. Jennifer wasn't aware of the duet "Islands in the Stream" with Kenny Rogers, but Dolly made her aware of that. I asked her the same questions I ask all of our guests; who greeted her? (Husband Carl). Was that a surprise? (No, because he'd been standing by for her since he left). She spoke about her mediumship abilities - something I'd read about prior to the session. Other tidbits of fun - and observation about what it's like on the other side, and how musicians hang out together. She was and is a fan of Aretha's - and brought her along with... We spoke briefly with my pal Charles Grodin about the premiere of the documentary on TCM about him last friday night "Rebel With a Cause" and he mentioned to Jennifer his work with getting people out of prison (she hasn't seen the documentary, so it's not something she would know about). Anyways, just another day at the office. Enjoy.