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  • 280 – Neena Viel & Go Heinous or Go Home

    280 – Neena Viel & Go Heinous or Go Home
    2026/05/26
    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
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    1 時間 16 分
  • Let Us Palaver #9 – The Wind Through the Keyhole Debrief

    Let Us Palaver #9 – The Wind Through the Keyhole Debrief
    2026/05/22
    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
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    37 分
  • The Dark Tower Deep Dive #9 – The Wind Through the Keyhole

    The Dark Tower Deep Dive #9 – The Wind Through the Keyhole
    2026/05/19
    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
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    2 時間 20 分
  • 279 – Sarah Langan & The Mask Eats the Face

    279 – Sarah Langan & The Mask Eats the Face
    2026/05/12
    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
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    1 時間 17 分
  • Off Book #19 – Dark Documentaries, with Kaelyn from Heart Starts Pounding

    Off Book #19 – Dark Documentaries, with Kaelyn from Heart Starts Pounding
    2026/05/08
    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
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    1 時間 35 分
  • 278 – Daisy Pearce & Bog Witches of the World Unite!

    278 – Daisy Pearce & Bog Witches of the World Unite!
    2026/05/05
    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
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    1 時間 19 分
  • Off Book #18 – Hokum, with Damian McCarthy

    Off Book #18 – Hokum, with Damian McCarthy
    2026/05/01
    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
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    55 分
  • 277 – Marcus Kliewer & Rules Help Control the Fun

    277 – Marcus Kliewer & Rules Help Control the Fun
    2026/04/28
    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
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    1 時間 20 分