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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Données mises à jour le 30/09/2026
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297 – Kyle Winkler & Roll For Your “F**K You” Stats
mardi 29 septembre 2026 • Durée 01:28:31
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
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296 – Deena Helm & Horror Says Free Palestine
mardi 22 septembre 2026 • Durée 01:13:06
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
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Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com
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295 – Chris Panatier & If These Walls Could Talk
mardi 15 septembre 2026 • Durée 01:32:27
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
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294 – China Miéville & A Million Dreaming Words for Ghost
mardi 8 septembre 2026 • Durée 01:49:55
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
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293 – James Tynion IV & How to Draw a Dismembered Child
mardi 1 septembre 2026 • Durée 01:05:19
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
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292 – Chuck Wendig & Little Vulgar Hell-Babies
mardi 25 août 2026 • Durée 01:16:31
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
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291 – Natasha Pulley & No Priests Were Harmed in the Making of this Podcast
mardi 18 août 2026 • Durée 01:29:38
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
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Off Book #23 – Are We Doomed? A Cheerful Guide to Apocalypse, with Ben Bradford
vendredi 14 août 2026 • Durée 01:15:39
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
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290 – Liam Higginson & Awful Things in Lonely Farmhouses
mardi 11 août 2026 • Durée 01:14:56
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
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289 – Annie Jacobsen & Be Afraid… Be Very Afraid
mardi 4 août 2026 • Durée 01:14:45
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
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Talking Scared, podcast de Neil McRobert - Statistiques, épisodes et classements - My Podcast Data