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Talking Scared

Talking Scared

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360 episodes · showing the newest 200

[From the Vault] Ronald Malfi & Can Death Do Us Part?

57 min

During my short time away from you, I reach back into the dim past of Talking Scared and unearth treasure. This From the Vault episode is from July 2021, when I first met Ronald Malfi, to talk about his supremely creepy (and weirdly lovely) novel Come With Me.   It’s a big, satisfying, chunky road novel packed full of murder, monstrosity and motel-stays in the creepier corners of the country. I recommend it to everyone. Ronald joins me to talk about the book, about writing grief and the very real tragedy that underpins Come With Me. We get into in local lore, the link between leaded petrol and serial killers, and why ecology may be the new haunting. And yes, we talk about how marriage should be a bigger theme in horror! Next time your wife, or husband, or significant other gets up in the night – think about that. What are they up to in the bathroom? Could be the usual. Could be something evil.   Enjoy.   Other books mentioned in the show include:   December Park (2014), by Ronald Malfi Snow (2010), by Ronald Malfi The Only Good Indians (2020), by Stephen Graham Jones I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (2018) by Michelle McNamara   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Let Us Palaver #11 – Hearts in Atlantis Debrief

34 min

Following the debate and disagreements of the main deep dive into Hearts in Atlantis, Nat stuck around to discuss some more spoiler-laden details. We talk about the wider impact of the Low Men, and how this book is starting to hint at a major secret that Chris can’t yet know.   We also make plans for how to bring this project home – and spend a fair bit of time just calling Chris names!   Enjoy. But for your father’s sake Do Not Listen if you haven’t read the entire Dark Tower saga!!   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Dark Tower Deep Dive #11 – Hearts in Atlantis

2 hr 48 min

Deep dives don’t go any deeper than lost Atlantis!   In this latest station of the Dark Tower readalong, we head back to the 1960s for Stephen King’s Hearts in Atlantis – a book closer to my heart than almost anything King has ever written. As such, this gets a little contentious and arguments ensue. I will not back down!!   We talk about how this capsule of the USA’s most turbulent decade links directly to the Dark Tower. We spot hints of Randall Flagg. We talk peace and love, cynicism and hope, and we celebrate one of King’s greatest ever pieces of character work. Chris meets Low Men for the first time (or is it!?) and Nat gives us his take on the anti-boomer despair at the fulcrum of this novel.   It’s a lot. Hence the 2.45 running time.   Hope you enjoy it. Koko (1988), by Peter Straub First Blood (1972), by David Morrell From a Buick 8 (2002), by Stephen King Matterhorn (2009), by Karl Marlantes The Sorrow of War (1987), by Bảo Ninh   Support Talking Scared on Patreon (say thankya!)   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

301 – Jane Schoenbrun & Trapped by the Goonies?

52 min

You may know Jane Schoenbrun as the genius behind I Saw the TV Glow and Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasm, but I’m telling you that you HAVE to check out their debut novel.   Public Access Afterworld is an epic of the inbetween. It’s about a mysterious TV signal that reveals ruptures in reality, and how all of existence is so much stranger than we know. It’s an extension of Jane’s creative obsessions and their work to date, but also entirely it’s own insane thing.   Jane and I talk about the big themes. Media and reality, identity and transformation, horror and love. We give no spoilers, we just invite you in. Come join us between the static and the signal.   Enjoy – and thanks for listening.   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

300 – Dorian Ravenscroft & Finding Love in a Hopeless Place

1 hr 18 min

The 300th author interview is here. And I’m delighted it’s with a debut author, about a truly wonderful book.   Dorian Ravenscroft’s The White North Has Thy Bones is a supreme slice of Polar Gothic and Queer Horror alike. It’s the story of a disastrous 1860 expedition to the Arctic, and the competing stories of brutality and survival told by the few who make it home. Despite all the bloodshed and … strange meat… it’s also, somehow, a moving love story.   We talk about all of those elements, as well as the weirder parts of Arctic naval history and just why the great frozen north is such a good backdrop for Queer stories. And I give my advice for how to survive being starvation on the ice.   Enjoy – and thanks for listening.   The Terror (2007), by Dan Simmons The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder (2025), by David Grann Where the Dead Wait (2023), by Ally Wilkes Coffin Moon (2025), by Keith Rosson An Immaculate Deception (2026) by Isabela Livino   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Off Book #24 – Whalefall, with Brian Duffield & Daniel Kraus

55 min

Happy Whalefall Weekend!   Brian Duffield’s incredible adaptation of Daniel Kraus’ novel is now in cinemas. I was lucky enough to see an early screening and even luckier to get time with Brian and Daniel to talk about how the hell they made something so audacious.   We talk daddy issues aplenty, whale stomach sets, practical FX and the toll they took on the star, Austin Abrams. And I get lost in my own rapture over a certain scene that almost made me feel a real, authentic human emotion. Unbelievable.   Enjoy!   Support Talking Scared and get become a Patreon subscriber.   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

299 – Will Maclean & Uneasy Islands in Time

1 hr 24 min

In Solace House, Will Maclean takes us back to the 90s for a drug-fuelled trip through some mindbending architecture. It’s a chance to get nostalgic for a more innocent time, when the clothes were baggy, the music was better, and you could spend a summer spent renovating an old asylum without needing to put in on TikTok.   It’s all fun and games until the existential terror kicks in and the fabric of reality comes unwoven.   Enjoy. This one was a good laugh. The Apparition Phase (2020), by Will Maclean And He Shall Appear (2025), by Kate van der Borgh The Modern Antiquarian (1998), by Julian Cope The Prisonhouse of Language (1972), by Fredric Jameson The Human Evasion (1969), by Celia Green Starmaker (1937), by Olaf Stapledon A Short Stay in Hell (2009), by Steven L. Peck “The Jaunt,” in Night Shift (1978), by Stephen King The Divine Farce (2009), by Michael Graziano   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

298 – Stephen King & The Final Turn of the Big Combination

1 hr 0 min

This episode needs no attempt at a witty introduction. Stephen King is back to talk about Other Worlds Than These – the concluding volume of The Talisman saga, begun with Peter Straub 45 years ago.   We keep it spoiler-free, but we talk about Jack Sawyer’s journey and how it entwines with The Dark Tower. We reflect on The Talisman and Black House, on Wolf and my heartbreak. We discuss Peter’s inspiration for the story and how King summoned him to bring it to a close. And we even get some hints of what’s cooking in Steve’s brain for future projects. It seems he’s never slowing down, no matter what he say.   I hope you enjoy this.   Other books mentioned: Julia (1975), by Peter Straub Ghost Story (1979), by Peter Straub Redheaded Peckerwood (2010), by Christian Patterson King Sorrow (2025), by Joe Hill Sleeping Beauties (2017), by Stephen and Owen King Trad Wife (2026), by Sarah Langan   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

297 – Kyle Winkler & Roll For Your “F**K You” Stats

1 hr 28 min

Leaning into absolute high geekery this week – with Kyle Winkler’s novel of how family game night can go badly wrong!   The Ship of Death is about a cursed (and I mean CURSED!) tabletop role-playing game and the unlucky couple who choose to play it. Or, as Kyle describes it “Dark Jumanji.”   It prompts a conversation about games in life and fiction. Epistolary structure and found-fiction. We discuss his relationship with the bizarre, his love for mysteries without answers, we consider who is really responsible for the world-building in a story, and we pay a lot of respect to cosmic horror influences beyond Lovecraft.   It’s was a delight to record. Hope you enjoy listening.   Other books mentioned: Grasshands (2024), by Kyle Winkler Boris Says the Words (2022), by Kyle Winkler The Nothing That Is (2020), by Kyle Winkler Borne (2017), by Jeff VanderMeer Zothique (1970), by Clarke Ashton Smith The Dying Earth (1950), by Jack Vance Enduring Love (1997), by Ian McEwan Negative Space (2020), by B.R. Yeager True Crime (2020), by Samantha Kolesnik The House Next Door (1978), by Anne River Siddons My Dark Places (1996), by James Ellroy Penpal (2012), by Dathan Auerbach Mockingbird (1980), by Paul Tevis The Blacktongue Thief (2021), by Christopher Buehlman   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

296 – Deena Helm & Horror Says Free Palestine

1 hr 13 min

This week’s episode shows what a good haunted house can do.   Deena Helm is a mixed American-Palestinian author, who’s debut novel, Our Cut of Salt, puts all the power of the Gothic to use in framing the occupation and oppression of Palestine. It takes place before the ongoing genocide, but offer a chance to consider how horror fiction can play its part in framing that obscenity.   That all sounds heavy, and it rightfully is – but this book also has a frightening, tragic and murderous house at its core… so there’s (our kind) of fun to be had as well.   This is an important episode for the show. I hope you listen and enjoy.   Other books mentioned:   White is for Witching (2009), by Helen Oyeyemi Tell Me I’m Worthless (2021), by Alison Rumfitt Frankenstein in Baghdad (2013), by Ahmed Saadawi Mornings in Jenin (2006), by Susan Abulhawa Behind You is the Sea (2024), by Susan Muaddi Darraj Gentle Things (2026), by Danielle Giles Hungerstone (2025), by Kat Dunn   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

295 – Chris Panatier & If These Walls Could Talk

1 hr 32 min

Home is where the horror is this week, with Chris Panatier and Worry Box!   This latest offering from Panatier’s uniquely strange mind is a complete revision of the haunted house as we know it. It’s a house that means well, but understands little. Couple that with a family in flux and a child suffering intrusive thoughts, and you have a recipe for terrible, no-good disaster.   In short, it’s 400 pages of slowly tightening dread! I hope you enjoy.   Other books mentioned: The Redemption of Morgan Bright (2024), by Chris Panatier This House isn’t Haunted but We Are (2025), by Stephen Howard Our Cut of Salt (2026), by Deena Helm Pet Semetary (1983), by Stephen King The Library at Mount Char (2015), by Scott Hawkins Gideon the Ninth (2019), by Tamsyn Muir Gormenghast (1950), by Mervyn Peak Angel Down (2025), by Daniel Kraus Chimera Skin (2026), by Johnny Compton The Butcher of Nazareth (2026), by David Scott Hay   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

294 – China Miéville & A Million Dreaming Words for Ghost

1 hr 49 min

There are big books and big books. This week we cover a HUGE book. China Miéville is the guest. The award-winning author of Perdido Street Station, Embassytown, The City & the City, and other modern speculative classics – and he’s back with a book two decades in the making.   The Rouse is an epic of true proportions, a 1300-page saga of the twentieth century, rife with war, atrocity, tragedy, and a secret war fought with ghosts?? That’s the premise but it barely touches the sides of this ginormous undertaking.   This is not just a conversation, it’s a search for answers – in which we plumb the personal, political, and supernatural influences behind this story of shady military conspiracy and ghosts of many strange kinds.   I hope you enjoy, ‘cos I worked my ass off for this one!   Other books mentioned: King Rat (1999), by China Miéville The City & The City (2009), by China Miéville Ducks, Newburyport (2019), by Lucy Ellman Gravity’s Rainbow (1973), by Thomas Pyncheon Against the Day (2006), by Thomas Pyncheon House of Leaves (2000), by Mark Z. Danielewski “The Ash Tree” (1904), by M.R. James A Dark Corner (1971), by Celia Dale   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

293 – James Tynion IV & How to Draw a Dismembered Child

1 hr 5 min

James Tynion IV is a modern master of the horror comic. He’s the maniac behind so many contemporary classic series, but perhaps none are such pop-culture behemoths as Something is Killing the Children. I mean… with a title like that, how could it fail? With the new omnibus collection out right now, and an in-world novel (co-authored with Kiersten White) coming in October, I thought now was a good time to get James on the show and talk monsters, masks, mythology and the most baddass hero in graphic novels.   Enjoy!   Other books mentioned: The Woods (2014-2017), by James Tynion IV Memetic (2014-2015), by James Tynion IV Hide (2022), by Kiersten White At the Mountains of Madness (2019), by Gau Tenabe Monster (1994-2001), by Naoki Urusawa   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

292 – Chuck Wendig & Little Vulgar Hell-Babies

1 hr 16 min

Wendig is here!! The man my wife refers to as “Chuck Apples” (as opposed to “Chuck Fight Club) is back to talk about his most fun, yet nastiest book to date. The Calamities is what would happen if The Godfather had cenobites, if Logan Roy had made a pact with monsters, it prompts me to ask the questions “who’s your favourite demon Chuck?”   That kinda book.   Chuck tells us how the study of demonology has underpinned almost his entire writing career. We discuss the increasingly tight links between his novels, the influence of D&D structure, and the challenge of making the reader care about some of the worst-behaved characters in the world.   And I drop the C-bomb for the first time on air. That damn baby deserves it.     Enjoy!   Other books mentioned: Staircase in the Woods (2024), by Chuck Wendig Daytide (2026), by Chris Panatier The Three Body Problem (2008), by Cixin Liu Books of Blood (1984-88), by Clive Barker Cabal (1988), by Clive Barker Pandemonium: A Visual History of Demonology (2021), by Ed Simon Blacktail (2026), by Scott Hawkins   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

291 – Natasha Pulley & No Priests Were Harmed in the Making of this Podcast

1 hr 29 min

No one let the Pope listen to this week’s episode.   Our guest is Natasha Pulley, genre-defying author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, The Bedlam Stacks, The Kingdoms, and now, in the The Salt King she pits the Vatican and Catholic Doctrine against something much, much older, lurking in the salt mines of the world.   It leads us to a conversation about faith of many kinds, about reality-adjacent fiction, the horrid truth of Sodom and Gomorrah, dark representations of the Catholic Church, and the challenge of fusing folk horror and global apocalypse.   There are also some holy dick pics.   Enjoy!   Other books mentioned: Gentle Things (2026), by Danielle Giles Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2024), by Susanna Clarke The Hill in the Dark Grove (2026), by Liam Higginson The Name of the Rose (1980), by Umberto Eco Foundation (1951), by Isaac Asimov A Canticle for Liebowitz (1959), by Walter M. Miller Jr Father Alberto and the Flying Girl (2026), by Timothy X Atack   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Off Book #23 – Are We Doomed? A Cheerful Guide to Apocalypse, with Ben Bradford

1 hr 15 min

Happy Friday! Let’s talk about the end of the world.   Our guest is Ben Bradford, creator and host of Are We Doomed? – the new hit podcast examining the existential risks facing humanity. “Dammit Neil”, I hear you say “Are we not suffering enough.” To you I reply … sure, Ben and I make talk nukes and rogue AI, climate change and supervolcanoes, but believe me, you’ll feel more optimistic at the end of this episode!   Somehow, the general answer to Are We Doomed seems to be “no, not if we don’t want to be.” So have faith, listen, and have a great weekend.   Enjoy!   Support Talking Scared and get become a Patreon subscriber.   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

290 – Liam Higginson & Awful Things in Lonely Farmhouses

1 hr 14 min

Finally, we dare venture to the darkest land of all. Wales! After years of avoiding the terror of the Valleys, Liam Higginson takes us to The Hill in the Dark Grove – his debut novel of isolation, folk-memory, and things unearthed from the soil of a mountain farm. We talk about the link between folklore and nationalism, about marriage and madness (not linked) and why it’s always men who go barmy in these situations. This is up there with my favourite books of the year. Enjoy!   Other books mentioned: The Shining (1977), by Stephen King Incidents Around the House (2024), by Josh Malerman The Salt King (2026), by Natasha Pulley Small Gods (1992), by Terry Pratchett Meet Me at the Surface (2024), by Jodie Matthews Boss in the Wall: A Treatise on the House Devil (1998), by Avram Davison and Grania Davis North Woods (2023), by Daniel Mason Country People (2026), by Daniel Mason   Support Talking Scared on Patreon  Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

289 – Annie Jacobsen & Be Afraid… Be Very Afraid

1 hr 14 min

This may be my scariest episode ever!   We’ve covered non-fiction before, but rarely is the truth more frightening than the stories we tell. This week it just might be… cos Annie Jacobsen is here with Biological War: A Scenario.   It unveils a narrative of speculative reality, in which an engineered pathogen escapes a lab, and runs rampant through our civilisation. Cities fall, millions die, the lights go out.   I dared myself to read it. I dare you to listen to Annie tell us about her research, and the stuff she found that scares the hell out of her.   Enjoy (sort of!)   Other books mentioned: Nuclear War: A Scenario (2024), by Annie Jacobsen “A Modest Proposal” (1729), by Jonathan Swift World War Z (2006), by Max Brooks The Deluge (2023), by Stephen Markley A Brief History of the Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters (2021), by Andrew H. Knoll   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Let Us Palaver #10 – Wolves of the Calla Debrief

41 min

In our main Wolves of the Calla Deep Dive, we came within touching distance of the Dark Tower’s biggest secret yet. Chris doesn’t know what to think, which is just where Nat and I want him.  So we stuck around to talk in full-spoiler terms about all the stuff Chris is yet to discover, and our own thoughts on books to come, on choice lines from Calla, and just what that reveal in the final pages really means for the nature of Roland’s world.   Enjoy. But for your father’s sake Do Not Listen if you haven’t read the entire Dark Tower saga!!   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Dark Tower Deep Dive #10 – Wolves of the Calla

2 hr 30 min

Hallelujah, come commala, we’re back together!   Finally, after stopping for side missions with Jack Sawyer, and a pair of stories of Roland’s younger days, we’re back in Midworld’s here-and-now to push on towards the Dark Tower. It’s time for Wolves of the Calla, a novel of old friends, new enemies…and a quite surprising amount of boobs.   This is also where certain things start to get REAL!! We’re on the precipice of great discovery and you can hear Chris Panatier try to deal with it.   Enjoy folken!   Support Talking Scared on Patreon (say thankya!)   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

288 – Danielle Giles & A Spoonful of Skulldust (Makes the Medicine Go Down)

1 hr 11 min

Time for a horrid history lesson.   Daniell Giles is the author of medieval gothic Mere (2025), and the brand-new Restoration horror-show, Gentle Things. In this episode she talks about the nightmare of research, the similarities between the 1660s and our own sh**ty decade, and how much we both love Sarah Waters.   But mostly it’s a guided tour of a dirty period in history, of murder, misogyny and… medicinal cannibalism! Yes, it’s a thing, and it’s nasty.   Enjoy   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

287 – Megan Bontrager & The Cave of Cosmic Narcissism

1 hr 15 min

I hope you have your headtorch this week – cos we’re going to some deep, dark places.   Megan Bontrager’s debut novel, The Sea Hides its Dead, is a story of a mysterious cave, an unprepared expedition, and the monstrous secrets they find within. It’s shadowed by Lovecraft, it has big freaky monsters, and a whole deep mythology to unpick.   In short it’s my kinda story. The exact level of geekery I like to discuss.   Discuss we do. Meghan and I talk about video game inspirations, global sea cults, monsters and mysteries in The Bible, and worst of all – sleazy academics.   Plus, I give my honest opinion on spelunking! (It’s not favourable)   Enjoy   Other books mentioned: The Eye of Ouroboros (2024), by Megan Bontrager The Caretaker (2026), by Marcus Kliewer The Fisherman (2017), by John Langan The Ruins (2006), by Scott Smith Babylon, South Dakota (2026), by Tom Lin The Faceless Thing We Adore (2025), by Hester Steel   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

286 – Chuck Tingle & Kill the Vegan Rockstars

1 hr 21 min

Love is very very real on this week’s episode. The man, the myth, Chuck Tingle returns for a conversation about his latest novel, Fabulous Bodies – a story of body horror, influencer culture, artistic integrity and glam rock graverobbing.   We talk about all of that, as well as the different rules for famous people, combining humour and extreme violence, we get some nuggets of info about Chuck’s youth, and I rant about how I hate Coldplay.   Chuck is a force for good in the world. Hear his words. Read his books.   Enjoy.   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

285 – Paul Tremblay & Eternity at Bernie’s

1 hr 11 min

This week we’re putting the boot right into the ribs of the AI Industry, but doing it in horrific style, with Paul Tremblay and Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep.   It’s a story of a young gamer, tasked with piloting a man’s comatose body across the United States using AI tech. But deep inside, the man is still conscious, and what he’s experiencing is nightmarish.   Dark stuff, but surprisingly fun, maybe even funny. Paul and I talk about the humour and the human indignity of his story. He discusses the challenges of writing such a bodily novel, the horrific potential of endless virtual suffering, and we hear notes from the frontline of his legal case against ChatGPT.   Always a joy to have Paul on the show!   Enjoy.   Other books mentioned:   The Sister’s Brothers (2011), by Patrick DeWitt “No, Artificial Intelligence is Not Conscious” (2026), by Ted Chiang – in The Atlantic Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (2003), by Mary Roach The Deluge (2023), by Stephen Markley The Feeling of Life Itself: Why Consciousness Is Widespread But Can't Be Computed (2019), by Christof Koch “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” (1967), by Harlan Ellison The Loop (2020), by Jeremy Robert Johnson A Short Stay in Hell (2009), by Stephen L. Peck The Flayed Man (2026), by Chloe Lauter Tillinghast (2026), by Clare Cavenagh Trad Wife (2026), by Sarah Langan Babylon, South Dakota (2026), by Tom Lin The Rouse (2026), by China Mieville Desert Radio (2026), by Pamela Durgin   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Off Book #22 – Scaredy Boys & The Coward’s Guide to Horror Movies (Part 2)

1 hr 36 min

Part Two of my Scaredy Boy special, in which I quiz my friends in fear, Damo, Sean and To—AKA the Scaredy Boys themselves—about what they’ve seen and suffered through in their podcasting mission to conquer horror movies.   We talk number one examples of dread, disgust and despair. We pick our favourite horror villains. We talk about the films we’ll never watch again and those we’re too scared to watch in the first place.   Consider this a viewing guide for the brave and the frightened alike.   Enjoy!   Support Talking Scared and get become a Patreon subscriber.   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

284 – Tom Lin & Who Wants to Live Forever?

1 hr 25 min

Would you rather die or live on and on and on and on…   That’s one of the questions at the heart of Tom Lin’s Babylon, South Dakota. It’s a novel about a Chinese family who inherit an American farm, and whose lives are forever changed when the US military build strange missile silos on their land. It’s weird, inexplicable, deep, epic, sad and joyful and all the other things that make a good book.   But it’s also dark. It prompts questions that might keep you awake in the warm depths of the summer night. And Tom and I talk about all of it.   Enjoy.   Other books mentioned: The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu (2021), by Tom Lin “On Exactitude in Science” (1947), by Jorge Luis Borges “The Library of Babel,” (1941), by Jorge Luis Borges Her Smoke Rose Up Forever (1990), by James Tiptree Jr. End of Days: Ruby Ridge, the Apocalypse and the Unmaking of America (2026), by Chris Jennings   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Off Book #21 – Scaredy Boys & The Coward’s Guide to Horror Movies (Part 1)

1 hr 20 min

The first of a two-part special with the Scaredy Boys, my brothers-in-cowardice from Down Under. Damo, Tom and Sean are famously and unashamedly terrified of horror movies, and started a podcast to face their fears. Since 2020 they’ve been watching and analysing a horror movie every week – so now they’ve probably seen more than most of us.   I got them onto Talking Scared to discuss their insane project, their changing attitudes to horror, and ask them some specific questions about what they’ve learned to love and fear along the way.   Episode Two is out next Friday, or available right now for Patreon subscribers   Enjoy!   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

283 – Naomi Kritzer & It Could Happen Anywhere

1 hr 5 min

I dunno if this week’s episode is a dystopian nightmare or just a realist thriller.   Naomi Krtizer, multi-award winning author of sci-fi and horror, join me for a conversation about her new novella, Obstetrix. It follows the struggles of doctor, kidnapped by a cult to work as their in-house OBGYN. What follows is a balance between personal survival and the obligation to the women in her care.   Naomi and I talk about the state of healthcare and reproductive rights in America, which is never not a serious conversation. But we try to lighten the mood with some chat about the respite of reading (and re-reading), and the working definition of cults.   Enjoy.   Other books mentioned:   “Monster” (2020), by Naomi Kritzer American War (2017), Omar El Akkad The Midnight Shift (2025), by Cheon Seon-Ran Nestlings (2023), by Nat Cassidy The God of Endings (2023), by Jacqueline Holland   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

282 – CJ Leede & Peeling Back the Skin of the World

1 hr 19 min

Horror’s reigning Queen of Extreme returns to the show!   CJ Leede is the author of Maeve Fly and American Rapture, and if you’re abreast of contemporary horror you’ve heard of her twisted take on Americana.   She’s back to talk about her third novel, Headlights, in which people are waking up from fugue-like states, to find themselves draped in the flayed skins of other people. What’s going on? Who’s doing it? Is it human or supernatural? Does it have anything at all to do with Stephen King’s The Shining? And where does the songwriting magic of John Denver come into things?   CJ answers these and many other similarly weird questions. There’s so much to cover, we barely even talk about the act of skinning someone alive.   Enjoy.   Other books mentioned: The Shining (1977), by Stephen King Doctor Sleep (2013), by Stephen King How to Disappear Completely (2027), by Liz Kerin   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

281 – Melissa Albert & The Howling Strangeness

1 hr 16 min

Melissa Albert’s novel may be called The Children, but it’s certainly not for kids.   This is a story about the dark creativity behind bright make-believe, about the pretty lies of childhood and the brutal truths of growing up. It’s about writers and writing and as you’ll hear me point out, it does for fantasy fiction what Stephen King’s Misery did for Gothic romance.   And by god do we talk about all of that. As well as celebrating a character that I believe to be one of the best “bad-mothers” in recent fiction (and the secret hero of the book!)   But maybe that’s just me. I’m twisted.   Enjoy.   Other books mentioned: The Hazel Wood (2018), by Melissa Albert The Magicians (2009), by Lev Grossman Daytide (2026), by Chris Panatier When You Reach Me (2009) by Rebecca Stead Fangirl (2013), by Rainbow Rowell This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me (2026), by Ilona Andrews   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Off Book #20 – Petrified, with Peter Dunne

1 hr 10 min

Off to Old Dublin Town to have creepy tales pumped direct into our earholes this week. I’m joined by Peter Dunne, the writer and director of Petrified — Ireland’s premier horror drama podcast.   It’s a horror show with a vein of Irish humour, but it’s not afraid to get really nasty when the chance arises. Across dozens of episodes, Peter and the team have offered serial killing parents, haunted lighthouses, doomed housing estates and possessed call centres. And now and then they shatter the fourth wall to curse the audience!   And despite being surely the busiest man in podcasting, Peter talks to me all about it.   Enjoy!   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

280 – Neena Viel & Go Heinous or Go Home

1 hr 16 min

Disgust, despair and belly laughs on the show this week – with Neena Viel and her new novel, I’ll Watch Your Baby.   It’s a dense, troubling tale of child theft, social horror and demons, with plenty of putrid feet to give you a summertime ick! But if the book is a sickener, the author is a delight. Neena makes me do a proper full-on guffaw (has anyone EVER guffawed?), whilst we talk about urban-vs-rural horror, reprehensible acts and problematic protagonists, and the abiding lie of the Welfare Queen trope.   Enjoy. Laugh. Even learn (up to you!)   Other books mentioned: Listen to Your Sister (2025), by Neena Viel The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth (2019), by Josh Levin On Sundays She Picked Flowers (2026), by Yah Yah Schofield The Night Pool (2026), by Lauren Lee Smith Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Let Us Palaver #9 – The Wind Through the Keyhole Debrief

36 min

A little more chat as the last of the starkblast fades.   In this bonus Palaver episode, Nat and I stick around to dissect Chris’s disproportionate love for The Wind Through the Keyhole. We talk about what, if any conclusions can be drawn from this book, and then we get onto King’s intersections with Lovecraft and Tolkien – and some deep cut Dark Tower references elsewhere in the canon.   Enjoy. But Do Not Listen if you haven’t read the entire Dark Tower saga!!   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Dark Tower Deep Dive #9 – The Wind Through the Keyhole

2 hr 19 min

Whilst the wind and world howls outside, we can all hunker indoors for the latest Dark Tower Deep Dive into King’s 2012 novel-of-stories, The Wind Through the Keyhole.   To some, this could be an inessential pitstop, a mere nostalgic coda, written long after the climax of the main saga. To others it’s a testament to Stephen King’s raw storytelling chops, which shed a little more purpling light on Roland’s failing, fading world.   You’ll have to listen to find out where we each stand. But I promise there will be talk of story structure, and Billy Bumblers, and certain Randall Flagg. And you’ll also hear how Chris Panatier has been trolling kind old uncle Stevie on social media. Boo Hiss!!   Enjoy folks!   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

279 – Sarah Langan & The Mask Eats the Face

1 hr 17 min

Trad wives are taking over horror in 2026 – but I predict none will be more frightening and more gorgeously WEIRD than Sarah Langan’s novel.   It’s the tale of a young woman in the dying era of journalism and the YouTube influencer who offers her hope, and much worse things…. I absolutely loved it.   Sarah and I talk about the trad wife phenomenon, where it comes from, what it means, and how it’s all really based in cold hard capitalism. We talk about literary influences, about sustaining extreme weirdness in fiction, and why establishing character properly is so important.   And we even recall the time we bonded over the gift of a mutant duck!   Enjoy!   Other books mentioned: Pet Sematary (1983), by Stephen King Trad Wife (2026), by Saratoga Schafer Yesteryear (2026), by Caro Claire Burke “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892), by Charlotte Perkins Gilman The King in Yellow (1985), Robert W. Chambers Rosemary’s Baby (1967), by Ira Levin The Ceremonies (1984), by T. E. D. Klein Room (2010), by Emma Donaghue Station Eleven (2014), by Hilary St. John Mandel   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Off Book #19 – Dark Documentaries, with Kaelyn from Heart Starts Pounding

1 hr 35 min

Kaelyn Moore returns to talk scared, straight from the helm of Heart Starts Pounding – her mega podcast of mysteries, murder and the macabre.   She watches a lot of dark documentaries for research. I asked her to come talk about a few that recently inspired her (or disturbed her). We cover serial killers, cursed objects and a relationship that will give you serious ICK! But of course, this being Talking Scared, we also spin off into a conversation about ethics, belief and the justice system.   ** I apologise to you as well as Kaelyn for my terrible suggestion of a documentary to watch. Hopefully my anger and self-loathing is funny.   Enjoy   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

278 – Daisy Pearce & Bog Witches of the World Unite!

1 hr 19 min

This week is full of muck and murk and mushrooms. We flit amongst the trees, we bed on moss, we howl at the moon. Daisy Pearce is entering her bog witch era! The author takes us to her native Cornwall, for a story of haunting and imprisonment, small town baggage and creepy houses in the woods. We talk about the oppressive landscape and the mythical texture of the place. We ask whether anyone in a small town can ever really leave high school behind… and we really look at the fine art of trepanation AKA – having a hole drilled in your head (and what it would feel like!)   Enjoy!   Other books mentioned: Something in the Walls (2025), by Daisy Pearce Water Shall Refuse Them (2019), by Lucy McKnight Hardy A Head Full of Ghosts (2015), by Paul Tremblay Itch (2025), by Gemma Amor The Man From the Train : The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery (2017), by Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James A Simple Plan (1993), by Scott Smith From Hell (1999), by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Off Book #18 – Hokum, with Damian McCarthy

54 min

This week we host one of the most exciting horror filmmakers of the decade – Damian McCarthy, the twisted mind behind Caveat, Oddity and now, Hokum.   It’s the biggest film in Damian’s career so far, with his biggest star, Adam Scott playing Ohm, a deeply flawed American writer who travels to Ireland, to spread his parent’s ashes. Whilst staying in a creaky old hotel, he stumbled across dark human conspiracy and witchy haunting.   Damian is so much nicer than Ohm, and this is a cheery conversation about the cheeriest scary film I’ve seen in a while!   Enjoy   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

277 – Marcus Kliewer & Rules Help Control the Fun

1 hr 19 min

Cognitohazards abound this week, as Marcus Kliewer joins me for a conversation about the reality-shredding We Used to Live Here and his new novel of obsessional rules, The Caretaker.   In both books, there are things that should not be known, and certainly not questioned. Yet questioning is my job – so we get into the expansive and weird universe Marcus is building, and the process of playing games and leaving clues for the reader. We talk about how his own terrors and neurodivergence informs his fiction, and I pass on a lecture from my wife that these books should come with an OCD trigger warning.   Plus – you get not one but TWO recommendations for true existential horror reads.   Enjoy!   Other books mentioned: We Used to Live Here (2025), by Marcus Kliewer House of Leaves (2000), by Mark Z. Danielewski The Denial of Death (1973), by Ernest Becker A Short Stay in Hell (2009), by Steven L. Peck The Divine Farce (2009), by Michael Graziano Japanese Gothic (2026), by Kylie Lee Baker   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

276 – Kylie Lee Baker & Swords Make Everything Worse

1 hr 8 min

A conversation about codes of honour and the rules of haunting in this week’s episode – as I’m joined by Kylie Lee Baker, author of 2025’s incredible Bat Eater, and the brand-new Japanese Gothic.   It’s the story of a very particular haunted house, a brutal samurai family, and a murderer who can’t remember his crime. It’s exhilaratingly weird and Kylie leads me through its many strange rooms.   We talk about her own dual heritage, it’s role in the story, and links to the very real historical Samurai. We discuss the meanings of Gothic in her work, the art of writing puzzling fiction, and Timothy Chalamet's role in inspiring the novel.   Enjoy!   Other books mentioned: Bat Eater (2025), by Kylie Anne Baker Mexican Gothic (2020), by Silvia Moreno-Garcia So Thirsty (2024), by Rachel Harrison Rekt (2025), by Alex Rodriguez Man of Wind and Moss (2026), by Alex Rodriguez Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

275 – Caroline Bicks & The Stuff Too Dark for Even Stephen King

1 hr 34 min

When Stephen King tells you to have a guest on your podcast – you listen!   That’s how I came to meet Caroline Bicks, the inaugural Stephen E. King Chair at the University of Maine, and author of the Monsters in the Archive – the first full-length study of the King literary collection.   It’s part memoir, part literary biography, part granular exploration of King’s editorial process – but ALL fun. I’m a nerd on this subject, and I found out plenty that I didn’t know.   As well as discussing our own relationship with King’s early work, we also talk about the stuff that never made it to print. The exploding vampire babies, the Kaiju-sized Carrie and the original ending of The Shining that is so much darker than you could bear.   Enjoy!   Other books mentioned: Carrie (1974), by Stephen King ‘Salem’s Lot (1975), by Stephen King The Shining (1977), by Stephen King Night Shift (1978), by Stephen King Pet Semetary (1983), by Stephen King On Writing (2000), by Stephen King North Woods (2023), by Daniel Mason Ulverton (1992), by Adam Thorpe   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Off Book #17 – Undertone, with Ian Tuason and Nina Kiri

51 min

Listen at your own peril this week.   I spoke with Ian Tuason and Nina Kiri, the director and star of Undertone – billed as “the scariest movie you’ll ever hear!”   It’s the story of an isolated podcaster, who makes the terrible mistake of listening to some very unnerving audio files…which then start to bleed into her own life. You can imagine the number it did on me!   Ian and Nina talk about the movie’s roots in Ian’s own experience of late-life care for his parents, and the responsibility of portraying that on screen. We discuss how the film weaponises sound, how the internet is a scary, fascinating place, and even a little exclusive heads up about more to come in this universe.   Enjoy   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

274 – Carter Keane & Working Ourselves to Death!!

1 hr 22 min

Corporate culture is a nightmare, but getting out of the office brings its own problems in Carter Keane’s debut novella – Morsel.   It’s a story about monsters and eldritch beings, about killer cults and evil law-enforcement, about wellbeing scams and a boss from hell – but it’s also a springboard for a whole conversation about the cons (many) and pros (debatable) of capitalism. Carter indulges my devil’s advocacy, before we get back to the matter of strange forest disappearances and horrible shit that happens with bears.   It’s a whole range of ways to feel scared of the world.   Enjoy!   Other books mentioned: The Ritual (2011), by Adam Nevill Last Days (2012), by Adam Nevill All the Fiends of Hell (2024), by Adam Nevill The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion (2017), by Margaret Killjoy Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1989), by Frederic Jameson        Debt: The First 500 Years (2011), by David Graeber Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist (2017), by Kate Raworth The Cold Vanish: Seeking the Missing in North America’s Wildlands (2020), by Jon Billman Rust Belt Femme (2020), by Rachael Anne Jolie Night of the Grizzlies (1969), by Jack Olsen   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Let Us Palaver #8 – The Black House Debrief

33 min

Nat and I stick around in the shadowed recesses of Black House for another half hour, to discuss all the things that Chris got right and wrong – and to make some entirely unfounded claims of our own.   It’s overflowing with spoilers for the whole Dark Tower series, so don’t listen if you’re a newbie. We start to ask who is the Crimson King? Would Roland and Jack have gotten along? And we get very grumpy about certain wolves in a certain town further down the road.   Enjoy.   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social  on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Dark Tower Deep Dive #8 – Black House

2 hr 29 min

Time to whet our appetites for the Dark Tower again – this time with an extra serving of ass cheek! After three months away, we’re picking up with travellin’ Jack Sawyer after we left him in The Talisman. We find him in a sleepy Wisconsin town, where the dimension-hopping, child-eating Fisherman is plying his awful trade.   Yep… it’s time for Black House. The book in which King’s universes collide.   Nat, Chris and I argue – about where we see the spirit of King and Peter Straub in this story, about the believability of characters and the RIGHT amount to mourn a fallen hero. But we also agree about the beauty of theprose, the sublime depiction of the deepest horrors, and the sheer joy of one of the Dark Tower’s nastiest villains.   It’s as much fun as you can have with a book about so many dead kids.   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Off Book #16 – Something Very Bad is Going to Happen, with Haley Z. Boston

55 min

After seeing an early screener of Something Very Bad is Going to Happen I immediately thought it was going to be huge! So I leapt ahead of the curve and invited writer and showrunner, Haley Z Boston to come talk scared about weddings, soulmates, David Lynch and Danish horror, and what it’s like to work with the Duffer Brothers. This show has been my whole personality for two weeks. Ihope you watch, listen to this interview, and love it all.   Enjoy   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 273 – Tamika Thompson & The Shadow of the Gun

1 hr 19 min

Tamika Thompson talks me through the great American curseof the 21st Century on this week’s episode. No, not Tangerine Cthulhu … but the plague of gun deaths that is coring out the country.   That’s the focus of her new novel, The Curse of Hester Gardens, which asks whether the deaths gunning for the young men of an inner-city housing project are criminal, or something much weirder!   Yeah, that’s right. Listen to a cossetted little English guy try and keep up in an conversation about gun crimes and street life.   Enjoy!   Other books mentioned: The Rats (1974), by James Herbert The Ghosts of Sleath (1994),by James Herbert Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century (2022), by Kim Fu Mystery Lights (2024), by Lena Valencia “How to Do Diversity When You’re Lazy, Ignorant and/or Malicious” (2018), by Tamika Thompson – Link HERE   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

272 – Annie Neugebauer & The Colour of a Terrible Thought

1 hr 15 min

Some stories just boggle your mind and boil your imagination.   Such are the ideas in Annie Neugebauer’s You Have to Let Them Bleed, and her logic-shattering novella The Extra. The Uncanny Valley, obsessional thoughts, dangerous knowledge, mothers who aren’t mothers and a camping group that destroys the workings of math and memory… these are just some of the inexplicabilities we discuss in this week’s episode.   If this episode gives you an existential crisis, ontological collapse, or just plain migraine nightmares – well, I can’t and won’t be held responsible. You’re all adults.   Enjoy!   Other books mentioned: “If Those Ragged Feet Won’t Run” (2018), by Annie Neugebauer Things We Say in the Dark (2019), by Kirsty Logan Silent Nightmares: Haunting Stories to Be Told on the Longest Night of the Year (2026), edited by Chuck Palahniuk and Michael C. Bailey There is No Antimemetics Division (2025), by qntm House of Leaves (2000), by Mark Z. Danielewski Delbert Judd (2014), by Dan Hammond Jr. Incidents Around the House (2024), by Josh Malerman   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

271 – Avery Curran & The Naughtiest Ghosts in School

1 hr 30 min

Time for sex and seances this week on Talking Scared.   Our guest is Avery Curran and her debut novel Spoiled Milk. It’s a story of spiritualism and sapphic desire, set in a 1920s boarding school where death, rot, haunting and much worse things (patriarchy!) runs rampant.   Avery is a specialist in the history of spiritualism (with a brand new PhD to her name) and this conversation is a deep and deeply enjoyable route through all of her books haunted classrooms.   It’s one of those episodes when we ALL learn something, listeners.   Enjoy!   Other books mentioned: The Wells of Loneliness (1928), by Radclyffe Hall “The Female World of Love and Ritual” (2006,) by Carroll Smith-Rosenberg Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire (1985), by Eve Kososfky-Sedgewick IT (1986), by Stephen King The Haunting of Alma Fielding (2021), by Kate Summerscale Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower (2020), by Tamsyn Muir A Canticle for Liebowitz (1959), by Walter M. Miller Jr   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Off Book #15 – Dolly, with Rod Blackhurst

55 min

This Off Book episode is a trip into the deep dark woods, for a very special playdate!   Our guest is Rod Blackhurst, director and co-writer of the new retro horror movie, Dolly. It’s a film about a very scary house in the woods and the even scarier person who lives inside…and who wants nothing so much as a new toy of her own.     Rod and I talk about the tone, gore and influences behind the movie – from 16mm classics to New French Extremity. We discuss the pathos of a truly great horror monster, and the physical performance that brings Dolly to terrifying life.   I’m really cheering for this movie. It was so much more than I expected.   Enjoy   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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