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PODCAST

Talking Scared

Conversations with the biggest names in horror fiction. A podcast for horror readers who want to know where their favourite stories came from . . . and what frightens the people who wrote them.

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All Episodes

68:29

[From the Vault] Tananarive Due & Black Girls Doing...

Talking Scared ·

2025/11/04

Time for a classic haunted house. I’m on a short break from the show, to recoup, read without pressure and generally try not to implode. So we’re heading into the vault for some older conversations that new listeners may have missed and long-termers may enjoy anew. Where better to start that in a haunted house with a Queen of 21st century horror – Ms Tananarive Due! This was our first conversation together, back in May of 2021 – and we explored her bad-place archetype, The Good House,

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80:31

260 – Joe Hill & The One About the Dragon

Talking Scared ·

2025/10/28

Here be dragons!I’m celebrating Halloween week on Talking Scared with the very cream of the bucket list. Joe Hill is finally on the show! The author of Heart Shaped Box, NOS4A2, “The Black Phone” and Lock & Key is back with his first novel in nearly a decade, and it’s a beast! King Sorrow is an epic of dragons, diabolical deals, decade-spanning friendships, love and hate and everything in between. It’s bloody brilliant! Joe talks about the triple inspiration of The Hobbit, The

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33:10

Let Us Palaver #5 – ‘Salem’s Lot Debrief

Talking Scared ·

2025/10/24

In our fifth Let Us Palaver, Nat and I dally a little longer in ‘Salem’s Lot to hunt down a few more vamps and follow up some threads mentioned in the main episode.This is where we get spoilery, so this is just for those who have been to the Tower already. But we talk about Chris’s predictions for Father Callaghan, discuss the moral arc of King’s entire fictional project (no big thing right!) and even congratulate the man on his steadfast marriage. Also, my wife makes an appearance bearing

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148:14

The Dark Tower Deep Dive #5 – ‘Salem’s Lot

Talking Scared ·

2025/10/21

‘Salem’s Lot is FIFTY years old this month. Hellfire, how did that happen? We’re gonna celebrate the bloodsucking and small town shenanigans for all they are worth!! But some of you know that the Lot sits just to one side of the Path of the Beam – so this is also a key zig in our endless zagging towards The Dark Tower. You may just not know why yet? And neither does Chris, so no one tell him. So in this two-fer episode we honour a true horror classic of 20th century literature, and we inch

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80:57

259 – Joe Lansdale & Our Desperate Need to Be Less Dumb

Talking Scared ·

2025/10/14

Joe Lansdale is here to give us all a smack upside the head.We are talking about The Essential Horror of Joe R. Lansdale – his brand new career-retrospective, collecting the stories that have defined him for decades as one of the most edgy, provocative writers of the grim and grotesque. We cover some of the classics, like “Bubba Ho Tep,” “Mr Weed Eater” and “On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks” – asking where the craziness came from, and finding the roots in Joe’s

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60:00

Off Book #12 – Ben Leonberg and Good Boy

Talking Scared ·

2025/10/10

Mine isn’t the only Good Boy released into the world this week. You may have heard of a little film that shares my books name. I joke – Ben Leonberger’s Good Boy is everywhere, and rightly so. It’s a haunted house movie told from the POV of Ben’s dog Indy (playing himself). It’s a magic trick of filmmaking and puppy eyes. Ben came on the show for a generous chat about making the movie. He tells us about the technical hurdles to be jumped, the mammoth 400 day shoot, the portrayal of fear

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90:51

258 – Neil McRobert & My Four-Legged Ode to Bravery &...

Talking Scared ·

2025/10/09

Ah the arrogance of writers. Now I am one, officially, I thought I’d better do something fitting. So I set up a whole episode of my podcast to talk about my own book – Good Boy! My debut novella about small English towns, the bonds between men and dogs, and a battle between bravery and monsters. Thankfully, I have friends who will facilitate this type of nonsense, so thanks to Nat Cassidy and Rachel Harrison for asking me questions and flattering my ego. We talk about literary and

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69:02

257 – Northern Weird (Part Two), with Matt...

Talking Scared ·

2025/10/08

Another day, another episode about the weird-arse end of nowhere! We remain in the North of England for this second part of a weeklong celebration of the Northern Weird Project – six novellas published by Wild Hunt Books (including one by yours truly!). This time it’s conversation with Matt Wesolowski, about his train-bound folkloric horror, Don’t Call Mum, Jodie Robins, with her magical seaside lament for lost youth, The Off Season, and Stephen Howard, who has sent the uncanny home into a

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80:03

256 – Northern Weird (Part One), with Gemma...

Talking Scared ·

2025/10/07

It’s grim up North. But thankfully, it’s also weird. Deliciously, darkly, disturbingly weird! This week we are celebrating the Northern Weird Project – six novellas published by Wild Hunt Books (including one by yours truly!). In this first roundtable, I’ve gathered two of the writers and the genius behind the project, Ariell Cacciola, to talk about Northern literary culture in the North, haunted landscapes, isolated oddness, and the North/South divide. Gemma Fairclough brings The

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77:37

255 – Michael Wehunt & What If A Horror Film Broke...

Talking Scared ·

2025/09/30

What’s even real anymore?Some of the best horror writer’s ask that question. Some, like Michael Wehunt, live in the spaces in between. Michael’s new novel, The October Film Haunt bends reality in fascinating ways, in a story about online legend, digital demons and analog horror – all the stuff that keeps me awake at night. We talk about all of it, as well as formative found-footage movies, and whether we need a new ethics for online storytelling. It’s a deep, intelligent chat (just

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127:47

254 – Philip Fracassi & The Fresh Young Heart of...

Talking Scared ·

2025/09/23

This week brings a bumper episode, cos Philip Fracassi never stops.Since he and I last spoke, in 2022, he’s published a wealth of amazing, terrifying, heartfelt horror, emerging as a major voice, and one of my favourite writers. First we spend a good hour on Philips’ new novel, The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre – talking about geriatric slashers, elderly protagonists and how Phil’s own loss transformed the novel. Then we take a tour through some of his other books, including the

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66:55

Episode 253 – Keith Rosson & The Real V-Word

Talking Scared ·

2025/09/16

Do you like your vampires slick and suave or rugged and raging? If it’s the latter, you’ll very much enjoy KeithRosson’s Coffin Moon. It’s a 70s-set bareknuckle revenge road trip of a book, with some of the meanest vampires you’ll ever meet (and love). Keith is back in the show for the second time in a year, to talk all about it. We get into his problem with ‘classic’ vampires aesthetics, the lure of backstory, taking hard advice from editors, and violence… a whole lotta violence! This is

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64:55

Off Book #11 – JT Mollner & The Long Walk

Talking Scared ·

2025/09/12

It’s walk or die this week on Talking Scared, as we’re joined by the screenwriter of The Long Walk. JT wrote and directed 2024’s cult-hit Strange Darling, and now he’s brought his pen to bear, in finally bringing Stephen King’s beloved early novel to the screen. Along with director, Francis Lawrence, JT has created one of the best King adaptations EVER(!!) and he joins me to talk about exactly how they got this shuffling monster over the finish line. JT tells us all about his journey from

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89:17

Episode 252 – John Langan & Water, Water Everywhere

Talking Scared ·

2025/09/09

School is back in session. Professor Langan is here! No-one gives good literary conversation like John Langan – and this week he returns to Talking Scared to discuss the watery influences, metafictional experimentation, and snake-legged women in his new collection: Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions. It’s my favourite collection of John’s so far, and as ever, he merely used it for a jumping-off point into a cosy fireside conversation about all the books and stories that he keeps in his

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75:19

251 – Kailee Pedersen and The Silence of the Foxes

Talking Scared ·

2025/09/02

Ready for some rough rural Gothic? Kailee Pederson’s Sacrifical Animals was one of my top horror novels of 2024. I missed Kailee first time round, but now the book is out in paperback, I jumped at the chance to speak to her. I was NOT prepared for how highbrow this would go though. From a story about toxic families, American Gothic and Chinese mythology, we found our way to opera, classic Latin texts, and more. But we also talk about violence and sex and evil. So it really does cover all

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134:10

250 – The End of the World As We Know It: Further...

Talking Scared ·

2025/08/26

And so this infected Summer of the Stand comes to an end. With Part Two of The End of the World As We Know It – more conversations between contributors to this epic anthology, each expanding King’s OG novel innew ways. This time around we have 8 guests, each armed with a story, pitted together in four short burst of conversation. I’m not saying who, cos that would spoil the fun… but there are BIG names. We discuss sadness and hope, evil birds and heroic dogs, varied visions of the far far

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56:31

Off Book #10 – Mick Garris and Adapting The Stand ...

Talking Scared ·

2025/08/22

No full treatment of The Stand would be complete without a look at Mick Garris’ landmark television adaptation. In 1994 he put together an adjacent epic, transforming 1300 pages into 8 hours of prime-time viewing.It was my introduction to Stephen King. It is one of my fondest memories with my dad. So it’s a true honour to get Mick on the show to talk about how it all came together. The scriptwriting with King, the killer cast, the Hollywood gossip, and the traffic-stopping shoot. Plus,

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102:41

249 – The End of the World As We Know It: Further...

Talking Scared ·

2025/08/19

The Summer of The Stand continues!We may have reached the final pages of the novel, but the power of its story expands ever outwards. Now we turn to the brand-new anthology of stories set in King’s plague-shocked world In The End of the World as We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand, editors Brian Keene and Christopher Golden have pulled together 36 of the biggest and brightest names in horror, and charged them with expanding Captain Trips and the good-versus-evil battle to new

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50:12

Let Us Palaver #4 – The Stand Debrief

Talking Scared ·

2025/08/15

The fourth Let Us Palaver Nat is all about The Stand and Randall Flagg, and how it all connects to The Dark Tower – all the stuff that Chris (and you virgin listeners) could not, should not, yet know.We also get especially geeky (even by OUR standards) about all the easter eggs and Tower references that Nat has packed into his short story for the forthcoming expanded Stand anthology. If you’ve been to the Tower before, enjoy this. If not, stay away or the Dark Man will get you! Support

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147:56

The Dark Tower Deep Dive #4 – The Stand (Part Two)

Talking Scared ·

2025/08/12

So, the circle closes… for now. Here is the second and final part of our deep dive into Stephen King’s The Stand – the first of many major diversions on our way to The Dark Tower. Last time we introduced the plague and the all-American heroes who survive it; this time we meet some of the weirder folk from the fringes of this apocalypse. And we finally tangle with Randall Flagg, the Dark Man, the Walking Dude – our link to Mid-World and the travails of Roland Deschain. We are loving

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290 results

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