On this episode of Staying Alive, hosts Jon Gabrus and Adam Pally sit down with the excellent Elna Baker (This American Life, The Moth, Pretty Sure I Can Fly) to talk about cults, weight loss, her extensive therapeutic drug use, and, due to a clerical error, Alzheimer’s, despite no one here being an expert in it. Plus, you’ll hear Gabrus’ famous sandwich story, cut from This American Life, and the debut of Jim Jones In The Morning.

Follow Elna @elnabaker on Insta

Elna’s new book Pretty For A Day will be out next year, press release HERE

Full video episodes available HERE

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This episode was recorded March 13, 2025 at SiriusXM studios in New York City

Special thanks to Jared O’Connell

Staying Alive is produced by Devon Torrey Bryant and Anne Harris

Engineered and edited by Devon Torrey Bryant, who also wrote the music

Associate producer and video editor is Maddie McCann

Executive produced by Jon Gabrus, Adam Pally, Sean Hayes, Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, Bernie Kaminski, and Rich Korson

Keywords for this episode: chicken parm, infrared sauna, Alzheimer’s, psychedelics, Mormonism, Prop 8, Dungeons & Dragons, hot yoga, Bessel van der Kolk, EMDR, Ozempic, scientology, ketamine, frog poison, Rickbit, ayahuasca, Rumspringa, scleroderma, How I Met Your Mother, Westworld, mannequins, Nothing But Trouble, Las Culturistas, David Copperfield, salvia, DMT, Kim Cattrall, MDMA, Cambo, Enzo’s

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