Mauritius is “an island where people love to go to die”, Randall Kennedy tells Joe Wilcox, who is taken aback by concept “suicide tourism”. Randall is an American expat living in the country located about 700 miles off the coast of Madagascar. During Episode 86, he describes new trend “tourists who come here for the explicit purpose of ending their lives in paradise”. It’s mainly a European-resident thing, among people who visited the island, returned to their dark, gloomy countries, and were depressed by the contrast. They come back to Mauritius to never leave—alive. “It’s frustrating, because the hotels have to deal with the bodies!” Randall extols. For the staff, it’s “‘not another stiff who stiffed us on the bill!’”

Speaking of going to paradise to die, the podcasters spend time discussing the season finale of HBO’s “Westworld”. For Joe, Dr. Robert Ford’s exit is inconsistent with his being God over the robots. “He’d rather die than lose control of this thing”, Randall rebuts, calling the move a “big middle finger to the board of directors”. 

“As speculated, we were dealing with two timelines, not one”, Joe says about the plot twist regarding the man in black. Both men wonder what to expect from Season 2, expressing concerns convoluted, contradictory plot lines will spill the series like they did “Battlestar Galactica”, “Lost”, or “Revolution”.

Joe and Randall also discuss a shooting at the #PizzaGate restaurant, leading to some tense discussion about God, atheism, and conservatism. That interchange sets up our theme of good and evil, which applies offhandedly to the suicide tourism and Westworld discussions and banter that follows about Wall Street Journal’s 708-percent price increase (both men agree that’s evil); throwing cats out windows (again, evil); or barbie dolls (yup, evil), among other topics.

Photo Credit: Craig Cloutier