Episodios
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Let’s get grim and dark with Lord Grimdark!
Perhaps the greatest benefit of having a book podcast like mine is the opportunity to speak to my very favourite authors. I’ve been reading Joe Abercrombie’s violent, world-weary dark fantasy for TWENTY years! And now he’s on the show.
Consider me excited.
His new book may be called The Devils, and it may contain werewolves, vampires, necromancers and oceans of blood – but it’s quite a cheery affair for Joe. I have never laughed so much in preparation for an interview.
We talk writing the most anti of antiheroes, gender-flipping the catholic church, and why you shouldn’t sleep with people who own swords.
It’s a lot of fun.
Enjoy!
Other books mentioned:
A Game of Thrones (1996), by George R. R. Martin
Wizard of Earthsea (1968), by Usula K. Le Guin
LA Confidential (1990) by James Ellroy
Blood Meridian (1995), by Cormac McCarthy
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Brian Keene has written so many damn books!
…and I had never read any of them.
This absolute horror faux-pas (and my embarrassment) is the reason that it’s taken so long to get Brian on the show. But I set a week aside and read as many Keene books as I could and here we are… on a leisurely stroll through Brian’s life and career,both of which he has devoted to stories of really nasty s*** happening to undeserving people.
We talk abouthis bleak coming-of-age novel, Ghoul, his story of a homicidal nightfrom hell, The Complex, and his sombre study of mortality and writing inthe 21st century, The End of the Road.
And between all that we cover hope and nihilism, we ask if horror could help shore up the failing centre, and Brian talks me through all the great writers I missed when I wasn’t paying enough attention to horror.
Enjoy!
Other books mentioned:
The Rising (2003), by Brian Keene
Entombed (2011), by Brian Keene
Ghoul (2007), by Brian Keene
End of the Road (2020), by Brian Keene
The Cellar (1980), by Richard Laymon
The Beast House (1986), by Richard Laymon
The Island (1995), by Richard Laymon
A Writer’s Tale (1998), by Richard Laymon
The Girl Next Door (1989),
by Jack Ketchum
Survivor (2002), by J.F. Gonzalez
A Choir of Ill Children (2007) by Tom Piccirilli
“Sticks” (1974), by Karl Edward Wagner
“West Of Matamoros, South of Hell” (2017), by Brian Hodge
(in Best Horror of the Year, Volume 10, edited by Ellen Datlow)
The Day of the Door (2024),
by Laurel Hightower
The Better To Eat You With (2024), by Wesley Southard
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I’ve been looking forward to releasing this one…
Nat Cassidy comes to Talk Scared about When the Wolf Comes Home, his new novel that I –and people like me – are already calling out as one of the Best Books of the Year™.
It’s a shaggy, undisciplined, sprinting beast of a book that obeys no rules. You may think it’s a werewolf novel, and you may be right... but also very wrong. It’s a book about transformations of many kinds, about fatherhood and the very nature of fear itself. But it’s also funny, scary and sad as hell.
You’ll love the damn thing, and this conversation.
Enjoy!
Other books mentioned:
Mary: An Awakening of Terror (2022), by Nat Cassidy
Nestlings (2023), by Nat Cassidy
Play Nice (forthcoming, 2025), by Rachel Harrison
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Back to the 80s this week for one of the most singular horror movies of the year – now streaming on Shudder.
Dead Mail is an ode to the era, but there are no neon fonts or leg warmers (or Olivia Newton Johns) here. Instead we’re in the drear of the decade, for a story about a synth-obsessed man who keeps his business partner captive in his flock-wallpapered bathroom. The poor victim’s only hope is the investigative ‘Dead Mail’ department of his local post office.
If that sounds mad… well, it is. And I’m joined by Kyle McConaghy, one half of the writing/directing duo behind the movie.
We talk about scripting the crazy, about the hands-on reality of low-budget filmmaking, replicating 80s aesthetics, and a big bucket full of rubber rats.
Enjoy!
Dead Mail is streaming on Shudder from Friday 18th April
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In the week that the world changed, we’re talking about the last time things got this crazy.
Katherine Arden is the author of The Warm Hands of Ghosts — a novel set in the trenches of the First World War and on the borderline between horror and fantasy. It’s a Faustian pact made in No-Man’s Land, where our memories are the price we pay for keeping ourselves alive.
In this episode we talk a lot about history, about inflection points and moments of no-return. We talk about how systems of power can seem so complex that they lead only to ruin – but we also talk devils and fairies and angels and brave, brave nurses with scarred hands.
It’s a joy of a conversation, about the most hideous time to be alive.
Enjoy!
Other books mentioned:
The Bear and the Nightingale (2017), by Katherine Arden
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter (2025), by Stephen Graham Jones
Wasteland: The Great War and the Origin of Modern Horror (2018), by W. Scott Pool
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2004), by Susanna Clarke
The Master and the Margarita (1940), by Mikhail Bulgakov
Lud in the Mist (1926), by Hope Mirrlees
Ghosts Have Warm Hands: A Memoir of the Great War (1968), by Will R. Bird
Between Two Fires (2012), by Christopher Buehlman
Ghost Eaters (2022), by Clay McLeod Chapman
Wake Up and Open Your Eyes (2025), by Clay McLeod Chapman
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This week we go from Edinburgh, Scotland to Nashville, Tennessee, in the company of crime author Tariq Ashkanani.
Tariq’s The Midnight King is a tricky, quasi-metafictional murder mystery about cursed manuscripts, familial secrets and the most heinous murders. It’s also a love letter to the kind of occult-tinged American crime epics that both he and I grew up loving.
We talk about the challenge of writing about serial killing without exploitation, about the unstable boundary between crime and horror fiction, about the allure of Hannibal Lecter and the pressure of a good twist.
But mostly we just pay homage to the messy, bloodsoaked myth of America that inspired us so much over the years.
Enjoy!
Other books mentioned:
Welcome to Cooper (2021), by Tariq Ashkanani
Red Dragon (1981), by Thomas Harris
Galveston (2010), by Nic Pizzolatto
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper (2019), by Hallie Rubenhold
The Devil All the Time (2011), by Donald Ray Pollock
Uzumaki (2000), by Junji Ito
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Time to throw ourselves around. We’re covering Punk Goes Horror.
The anthology of stories inspired by punk and alternative rock songs came out just a few weeks back. It brings together a mosh-pit full of authors, both new and established, to transmute their favourite songs into nasty little stories.
I invited the anthology editor, William Sterling, and two of his contributors, Wendy Dalrymple and Brian McCauley, to talk about punk, and horror and the affinity between the two.
We get into our favourite ever gig experiences, the creepy assumptions behind certain emo-songs, and why punk (and music generally) is such an important light in dark times.
Enjoy!
Other books mentioned:
Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk (2024), by Kathleen Hanna
Victorian Psycho (2025), by Virginia Feito
Blood on her Tongue (2025), by Johanna van Veen
Credenza (2025), by Wendy Dalrymple
Breathe in, Bleed Out (2025), by Brian McCauley
Poisoned Soup for the Macabre, Depraved and Insane: An Anthology of Nostalgic Terrors (2025), edited by Wendy Dalrymple and Grace R. Reynolds
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The second Let Us Palaver minisode – in which Nat Cassidy dig into the things we couldn't say about The Drawing of the Three, and give MAJOR SPOILERS about whole Dark Tower series.
We're really start to wonder if Chris is punking us.
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The Ka-tet picks up exactly where we left off: on the beaches of Midworld, with Roland Deschain. (If none of that makes any sense to you, go listen to episode one of the Dark Tower Deep Dive immediately)
Nat Cassidy, Chris Panatier and I gather for a long, philosophical, expletive-littered conversation about Book 2: The Drawing of the Three. We get further into the character of Roland and his quest, and spend some time with the gaggle of oddballs he meets along his scenic tour of the coast. The seafood is particularly tasty!
It’s good to be talking Tower again.
Enjoy.
Nnedi Okorafor's article on Odetta/Detta
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It’s always great when Stephen Graham Jones comes to Talk Scared with us – but for once we aren’t talking about slashers!
No, this time, we’re talking vampires! Or are we?
Stephen’s new novel, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, is his best yet. Or at least the one that I love the most. It’s an epic and brutal saga of American history and shame, told through three very distinctive voices, speaking across the centuries. There are monsters with fangs AND with flags.
We talk about Stephen’s relationship with so-called Indian stories…about his use and misuse of animals in fiction, and the white-knuckle, red-hot writing style that leads to some truly crazy things.
Enjoy!
Other books mentioned:
Ledfeather (2008), by Stephen Graham Jones
The Only Good Indians (2020), by Stephen Graham Jones
The Babysitter Lives / Killer on the Road (2025), by Stephen Graham Jones
Ceremony (1977), by Leslie Marmon Silko
Riddley Walker (1980), by Russell Hoban
A Game of Thrones (1996), by George R. R. Martin
The Devils (2025), by Joe Abercrombie
I Am Legend (1954), by Richard Matheson
Dark Places (2009), by Gillian Flynn
Dubliners (1914), by James Joyce
Angel Down (2025), by Daniel Kraus
The Warm Hands of Ghosts (2024), by Katherine Arden
Victorian Psycho (2025), by Virginia Feito
Curse of the Reaper (2022), by Brian McCauley
Breathe in, Bleed Out (2025), by Brian McCauley
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Saddle up for a weird west week on Talking Scared. The start of a loose trilogy of sorts.
This first instalment features Alex Grecian, talking about his fantastical vision of the Old West (and East) in 2023’s Red Rabbit and the brand-new follow-up, Rose of Jericho.
We cover western inspirations, the melancholia of ghosts, Kansas legends and surprising witches. There’s also a nerdy little cryptid section thrown in there too cos you know I can’t resist.
It’s a charmer this week. With a glint in its eye.
Enjoy!
Other books mentioned:
The Yard (2012), by Alex Grecian
Lonesome Dove (1985), by Larry McMurtry
The Staircase in the Woods (forthcoming 2025), by Chuck Wendig
The Summer People (2015), by Kelly Link
“Skinders Veil,” in White Cat, Black Dog (2023), by Kelly Link
Knock Knock, Open Wide (2023), by Neil Sharpson
Pet Semetary (1983), by Stephen King
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No one is doing dystopia right now like Agustina Bazterrica.
After Tender is the Flesh made us all consider vegetarianism, now she’s back for a long hard look at patriarchy, religion and populism in The Unworthy.
It’s a quiet end of the world, set almost entirely in the confines of a strange convent, and the cult who will do anything to maintain their power.
We talk about how Agustina finds the necessary voice of her characters, why love is just another form of madness, how science-fiction just can’t look away from misogyny, and how she once read five books to find a new word for penis.
Enjoy!
Other books mentioned:
Tender is the Flesh (2017), by Agustina Bazterrica
The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), by Margaret Atwood
Caliban and the Witch (2004), by Silvia Federici
Dune (1965), by Frank Herbert
A Canticle For Liebowitz (1959), by Walter M. Miller Jr.
Silent Spring (1962), by Rachel Carson
Fever Dream (2014), by Samanta Schweblin
Los Demenios En El Convento (1985), by Fernando Benitez
Brat (2024), by Gabriel Smith
The Perfect Nanny (2016), by Leila Slimani
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The latest Off Book episode has me facing my demons.
My guest is Scott Derrickson, one of the best horror movie makers to ever do it. He scared us with Sinister, moved us with The Black Phone, marvelled us with Doctor Strange, and ruined my life with The Exorcism of Emily Rose.
He’s back with The Gorge, a mad genre mashup, starring Anya-Taylor Joy and Miles Teller, currently streaming on Apple+.
Scott joins me for a leisurely conversation about making that artistically-inclined ‘drive-in’ movie, as well as a tour through the highs (and lows) of his filmography.
We get into the beauty and terror of super 8 film, his relationship with Joe Hill, and the challenge of the substantial, character led horror film. All complemented with blasts of lilting birdsong from Scott’s LA garden.
Plus, a little hint of what to expect from The Black Phone 2!
Enjoy!
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Ready to hear a conversation about some devastatingly dark things?
Sophie White and I have got you covered!
In this expansive chat, we talk about her calculatingly distressing novel, Where I End – in which an isolated island community plays host to the worst, cruellest kind of loneliness. And that books is a springboard for others things, psychosis, weaponised empathy, real-life atrocity and the way that all that darkness can seep into a place forever.
But then we also have a good old chat about books we love, and we swear a lot… so there’s a bright side.
This is a key conversation for me. A pivotal episode.
Enjoy!
Other books mentioned:
Recipes For a Nervous Breakdown (2016), by Sophie White
Corpsing: My Body and Other Horror Shows (2020), by Sophie White
Apt Pupil (1982), by Stephen King
The Yellow Wallpaper (1892), by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Girl Next Door (1989), by Jack Ketchum
Sharkheart: A Love Story (2023), by Emily Habeck
The Lamb (2025), by Lucy Rose
Tender is the Flesh (2017), by Augustina Bazterrica
Lunar Park (2005), by Bret Easton Ellis
Our Wives Under the Seas (2022), by Julia Armfield
Follow Me To Ground (2018), by Sue Rainsford
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The title speaks volumes this week. It’s a mission statement.
Kirsty Logan is the master of certain kind of edgy, on-the-margins fiction, Queer in every meaning of the word. She can be witchy and folkloric, or contemporary and cutting edge – and all of that range is showcased in her new collection, No & Other Love Stories.
We talk about female desire and monstrous fantasy, formal experimentation and the personal logic of stories…and some reassuringly unsettling focus on the erotics of human flesh and menstruation.
Don’t say we shy away here at Talking Scared.
Enjoy!
Other books mentioned:
Things We Say in the Dark (2019), by Kirsty Logan
The Unfamiliar: A Queer Motherhood Memoir (2023), by Kirsty Logan
“Skeleton,” by Ray Bradbury (1945), by Ray Bradbury
Carrion Crow (2025), by Heather Parry
“Tiptoe,” in Not a Speck of Light (2024), by Laird Barron
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Time to misbehave.
Virginia Feito’s new novel, Victorian Psycho, is all about good behaviour, positive standards and polite conduct…and what happens when you flout all that, by – I dunno – slaughtering a houseload of people.
It’s a much buzzed about book that takes the psychopathy of American Psycho back to the straightlaced, be-corseted world of the 19th Century, then let’s rip. We talk about glorious violence, the humour of extremity, Charles Dickens and Bret Easton Ellis…and have a deeply amusing conversation about infanticide.
Queen Victorian would be appalled.
Enjoy!
Other books mentioned:
Mrs March (2021), by Virginia Feito
American Psycho (1991), by Bret Easton Ellis
A Christmas Carol (1843), by Charles Dickens
Nightmare Abbey (1818), by Thomas Peacock
The Secret Garden (1911), by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Lamb (2025), by Lucy Rose
Come Closer (2003), by Sara Gran
The Fate of Mary Rose (1981), by Caroline Blackwood
David Copperfield (1850), by Charles Dickens
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Are you hungry?
Depending on your…erm… tastes, the next hour of conversation will do strange things to your appetite. Our guest is Lucy Rose, whose debut novel, The Lamb renders muscle and fat and sorrow down into a rich stew of cannibalism and rural Gothic.
We talk about how rooted this book is in the landscape, history and folklore of Northern England – and we also talk a lot about eating people. How to make it sound gross… how to make it sound weirdly poetic.
This is a book that’s gonna get people talking.
Enjoy!
Other books mentioned:
Tender is the Flesh (2017), by Augustina Bazterrica
No & Other Love Stories (2025), by Kirsty Logan
The Tryst (2017), by Monique Rossey
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Here is the first Let Us Palaver minisode – in which Nat Cassidy and I kick Chris off the call, and get to grips with the inner workings of The Dark Tower, without spoiling anything for him, or any of you on your first trip through these books.
If you still listen after this spoiler warning and the two I give in the first few minutes of the episode… well, you only have yourself to blame.
But for seasoned ‘slingers. I hope this is fun.
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“The man in black fled across the desert, and the podcaster followed…”
Welcome to the start of what is sure to be an epic journey. Step by step, over more than a dozen episodes, Talking Scared will be following the beam all the way to the Dark Tower – that mad edifice at the heart of Stephen King’s opus. Maybe it’s the heart of every story ever told… time will tell.
Unlike Roland Deschain, I don’t go alone. I’m joined by author and fellow King-nut, Nat Cassidy (Mary, Nestlings, When the Wolf Comes Home) and absolute newbie, Chris Panatier (The Phlebotomist, The Redemption of Morgan Bright) and in this first ever episode we tussle with the tricky, dusty, thorny opening that is Book One: The Gunslinger.
What follows dives deep into the book, but is 100% spoiler free about anything beyond it. So if you’ve only read The Gunslinger, you’re good to go.
I hope you enjoy our wanderings. I hope you tinct. I hope you darkle.
Other books mentioned:
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2000), by Stephen King
It (1986), by Stephen King
The Jerusalem Man (1988), by David Gemmell
The Book of the New Sun (series, 1980-1987), by Gene Wolfe
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The latest Off Book episode takes you out to the American desert and leaves you there, cold, alone and confused.
We’re speaking with Dutch Marich, the surprisingly lovely mind behind the most terrifying found footage I’ve seen in years – The Horror in the High Desert series.
These films are full of a particular kind of fear. Never obscure, but always hidden – leaving you as fascinated as you are scared. It’s the kind of weird, collective storytelling that used to set internet forums alight!
In this 100% spoiler-free conversation, Dutch and I talk about withholding answers, we discuss the scary side of Nevada and his fascination with unexplained disappearances. And he even tell us the tenuous connection between his movies and Stephen King’s Desperation.
Plus, if you’re a fan of these movies, you’ll find out a little info on what’s coming in the next instalment.
Enjoy!
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