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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.

arts books

All Episodes

133:50

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

Talking Scared ·

2025/08/05

Time for a side quest. Yes, this is the Dark Tower Readalong… you are not mistaken. But there are other worlds, and other books, and some of them have to be read for the fullest, most satisfying experience of Stephen King’s great saga. In this first (of what will be many) diversions from the Ka-Tet’s quest, Nat, Chris and I turn to The Stand – the titanic tale of two tribes going to war. It’s a big big book, so this had to be a two-part thing. Here in episode one, we introduce Stu, Frannie,

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71:48

248 – Scott Carson & The Anticipation of the Bang!!

Talking Scared ·

2025/07/29

After we spent last week in the muck and mire, this episode takes us up where skies are blue. Just watch for the mushroom clouds. The guest is Scott Carson, pseudonym of thriller writer, Michael Koryta, and author of The Chill (2020), Where They Wait (2021), and last year’s phenomenal Lost Man’s Lane. His new novel, Departure 37 is something totally different – it has Cold-War conspiracy, AI anxiety, tech-terror and nuclear brinkmanship. Y’know, it’s like the news … but fun! Scott

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75:09

247 – Daniel Kraus and Sentenced to Death

Talking Scared ·

2025/07/22

Daniel Kraus has never lacked for ambition in his fiction – but Angel Down may be the most audacious horror book of the year. It’s the story of broken men and a fallen angel in the trenches of the First World War. Oh … and it’s told in one long 300 page sentence. Cos Daniel can. It’s not a gimmick, nor pretentiousness. No, this week, you’ll hear how the medium is very much the message. As well as our conversation about angels in horror, capturing the particular nightmare of 1914, and all the

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85:42

246 – Wendy Wagner & Scooby Doo On Mushrooms

Talking Scared ·

2025/07/15

Back on the trails for a mind-melting trip this week.Wendy Wagner is in the hot-seat, playing shaman as we discuss The Girl in the Creek – her brand new novel of fungoid-terror, eco-thrills and psychedelic strangeness. It’s a beautiful, bewildering hallucination of a book. Wendy’s inspirationsrange from cutting edge science to the antics of Scooby Doo and the gang, along with a sprinkle of Lovecraft, and a hint of self-hypnosis. We cover it all, along with a discussion of eco-grief, higher

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73:53

245 – Giano Cromley & Our Friends in the Forest

Talking Scared ·

2025/07/08

This week we’re talking about my Roman Empire. BIGFOOT!!But this time I have good reason to get geeky – my guest is Giano Cromley, hairy-hominid enthusiast, certified wildlife tracker, and author of the deeply charming American Mythology. It’s the story of a group of lost souls, joined in their search for the fabled ‘squatch of the North American woods. It’s spooky for sure, but just as concerned with wonder and friendship as it is with fear. Giano and I talk at length about Bigfoot –

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79:13

244 – Rose Keating & Rotting As We Go

Talking Scared ·

2025/07/01

I’m coming to you from the heatwave from hell – and I’ve never been more burdened by my body.And that is exactly the topic that this week’s guest has written all about. Rose Keating is an Irish writer, whose debut collection, Oddbody, presses enquiring fingers deep into the bizarre meat of our lives. These stories are about the inherent disgust of bodies and their processes. There are women who lay eggs each morning, dads who turn into tapeworms, and ghosts who are toxically obsessed with

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84:53

243 – S.A. Cosby & The Gospel of the Dispossessed

Talking Scared ·

2025/06/24

Time to talk righteous violence!S.A. Cosby is a writer on a meteoric rise. After the insane success of Razorblade Tears, and the Gothic horrors of All the Sinners Bleed, he’s back with a fresh crime epic of titanic brutality. King of Ashes is the tale of a family under threat from criminal forces, and the shocking depths they will go to in their fight back. It’s a challenging book, full of unexpected character arcs, Shakespearean intrigue, and a candid exploration of kink. It’s also

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69:43

242 – Caroline Fraser & Masculinity Most Toxic

Talking Scared ·

2025/06/17

Sometimes monsters are real!This week’s episode is a foray into non-fiction, but no less scary for it. I’m talking to Pulitzer-winning Caroline Fraser about Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers This is no grotesque revelling in death and sadism,however. Murderland examines the extreme violence that plagued her native Pacific Northwest in the late 20th century – and posits a link with the environmental damage of heavy industry in the region. It’s a compelling

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79:41

Episode 241 – V.E. Schwab & Women Just Taste Better

Talking Scared ·

2025/06/10

Vampirism is time travel. It’s also tragedy and freedom and Queerness, and sex and death. We talk about all of these thing with V.E. Schwab, when we sink our teeth into her new epic novel, Bury our Bones in the Midnight Soil. It’s the story of three women who lead complicated, violent, sensual lives across the centuries. The interconnect. They love. They kill. It wasn’t the book I was expecting…and I loved it. I think you’ll love this conversation too. Enjoy! Other books

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42:45

Let Us Palaver #3 – The Waste Lands Debrief

Talking Scared ·

2025/06/06

The third Let Us Palaver minisode (though this one is not so mini) – in which Nat and I reflect on The Waste Lands in full spoiler mode…and say REALLY mean things about Chris and his hurtful opinions. If you’ve been to the Tower before, I hope you dig this. Unless you agree with Chris about [redacted], in which case you’re dead to us. Support Talking Scared on Patreon Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on

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134:36

The Dark Tower Deep Dive #3 – The Waste Lands

Talking Scared ·

2025/06/03

We’re finally on the path of The Beam. The Dark Tower Readalong reaches the land of wonder and ruination, in Book 3, The Waste Lands. Accompanied by Nat and Chris, we battle the great bear, get dirty in the speaking ring, and brave the streets of Lud. But we also have the first quake in our Ka-tet, when Chris offers the most egregiously wrong opinion that anyone could offer on these books. You may agree with him… but if you do, we have a problem. I have never cursed or yelled so much on

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93:28

240 – John Connolly & Detective Gothic: The Charlie...

Talking Scared ·

2025/05/27

John Connolly is, in my opinion, the greatest living writer working in the overlap of crime and horror. His long-running series of novels—focused on the Strange cases of his haunted detective, Charlie Parker—is now over twenty books strong. The latest, The Children of Eve is a pivotal instalment, so this seemed a good time to get John on the show, to grill him about this saga’s many mysteries, and hideous horrors. We talk about creating iconic villains, writing violence against the vulnerable,

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74:51

239 – Sarah Pinborough & What Are Ghosts But Lies...

Talking Scared ·

2025/05/20

It’s a week of sadness and hilarity on Talking Scared.The happy stuff comes courtesy of Sarah Pinborough, author of Weird domestic gothics, like Behind Her Eyes and the brand new ghost story (or is it?) We Live Here Now. We talk about confounding expectations, about the rules of the psychological thriller, about the British horror scene then and now, and about the dark truth that we all lie to each other. The sadness... well you’ll hear that in the outro if you want to stick around for

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65:13

238 – The Frozen Frontier: Ally Wilkes and Michelle...

Talking Scared ·

2025/05/13

Talking Scared goes live!In April I was invited to chair a conversation between Michelle Paver and Ally Wilkes at the Oxford Literary Festival. I duly leapt on a train and bundled my way there – to ask the two survival horror queens about their stories of haunting and isolation in the coldest parts of the world. We talk about handling the Victorian attitudes of exploration horror, the unique properties of fear in the vast open, and how their law careers led them to write such wild

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50:08

Off Book #9 – Eli Craig & Clown in a Cornfield

Talking Scared ·

2025/05/09

Send in the clowns!In this Off Book episode I talk to Eli Craig, director of cult-classic Tucker and Dale vs Evil, and the man who put Clown in a Cornfield up on the big screen. After crowbarring my way into his press day, I asked him what drew him to the project, what else there is to ‘do’ with scary clowns and slashers in cinema, and what this movie has to say about Middle America right now. We go deeper than you’d expect for a movie about clowns chasing kids with

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73:51

237 – Joe Abercrombie & The International Brotherhood...

Talking Scared ·

2025/05/06

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

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79:17

236 – Brian Keene & Living in the Splatter

Talking Scared ·

2025/04/29

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

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94:12

235 – Nat Cassidy & Emotional Doomsday Prepping

Talking Scared ·

2025/04/22

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

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56:28

Off Book #8 – Kyle McConaghy & Dead Mail

Talking Scared ·

2025/04/18

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

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79:54

234 – Katherine Arden & The Devil’s Train Timetable

Talking Scared ·

2025/04/15

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

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290 results

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