Morbidly Curious Book Club Podcast - Details, episodes & analysis

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Morbidly Curious Book Club Podcast

Morbidly Curious Book Club®

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Frequency: 1 episode/20d. Total Eps: 33

The Morbidly Curious Book Club® is an 18+ non-fiction book club diving into the darker macabre parts of your library, with a passion for learning more about what may be too niche for your family gatherings. What started in 2021 as a dream quickly became a reality, and as of mid-2024, we have over 16,000 global members worldwide with localized chapters sprouting up around the world.

The podcast started in 2024 as a way to give the members a little bit more by chatting with the authors themselves about their books. There are also bonus episodes where I chat with the books subjects or updates regarding the books topics, and 'archive' episodes where I chat with authors from previous book club picks.

Join the book club today at themorbidlycuriousbookclub.com

Thank you for being a part of this weird, incredible book club. Enjoy the podcast!

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S2E10: "GHOSTLAND" with the author Colin Dickey

Season 2 · Episode 10

Friday, October 24, 2025 • Duration 01:08:20

Join the Morbidly Curious Book Club Today: themorbidlycuriousbookclub.com

Early and ad-free for Patreon members! https://www.patreon.com/cw/TheMorbidlyCuriousBookClub

Our October 2025 pick was “Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places" by Colin Dickey, our 2nd repeat author!

"From the author of The Unidentified, an intellectual feast for fans of offbeat history that takes readers on a road trip through some of the country’s most infamously haunted places—and deep into the dark side of our history. Colin Dickey is on the trail of America’s ghosts. Crammed into old houses and hotels, abandoned prisons and empty hospitals, the spirits that linger continue to capture our collective imagination, but why? His own fascination piqued by a house hunt in Los Angeles that revealed derelict foreclosures and 'zombie homes,' Dickey embarks on a journey across the continental United States to decode and unpack the American history repressed in our most famous haunted places. Some have established reputations as 'the most haunted mansion in America,' or 'the most haunted prison'; others, like the haunted Indian burial grounds in West Virginia, evoke memories from the past our collective nation tries to forget. With boundless curiosity, Dickey conjures the dead by focusing on questions of the living—how do we, the living, deal with stories about ghosts, and how do we inhabit and move through spaces that have been deemed, for whatever reason, haunted? Paying attention not only to the true facts behind a ghost story, but also to the ways in which changes to those facts are made—and why those changes are made—Dickey paints a version of American history left out of the textbooks, one of things left undone, crimes left unsolved. Spellbinding, scary, and wickedly insightful, Ghostland discovers the past we’re most afraid to speak of aloud in the bright light of day is the same past that tends to linger in the ghost stories we whisper in the dark."

About the author! Colin Dickey grew up in San Jose, California, a few miles from the Winchester Mystery House, the most haunted house in America. As a writer, speaker, and academic, he has made a career out of collecting unusual objects and hidden histories all over the country. He's a regular contributor to the LA Review of Books and Lapham's Quarterly, and is the co-editor (with Joanna Ebenstein) of The Morbid Anatomy Anthology. He is also a member of the Order of the Good Death, a collective of artists, writers, and death industry professionals interested in improving the Western world's relationship with mortality. With a PhD in comparative literature from the University of Southern California, he is an associate professor of creative writing at National University.

Articles: https://newrepublic.com/authors/colin-dickey

Website: https://colindickey.com/

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BONUS: Live Recording of "Morbidly Curious" with the author Coltan Scrivner

Season 2

Friday, October 10, 2025 • Duration 01:12:57

Join us if you're curious: themorbidlycuriousbookclub.com

Early + Ad-free for Patreon members: https://www.patreon.com/c/TheMorbidlyCuriousBookClub

"Not everyone has a strong impulse toward morbid curiosity. Why, then, are some of us powerfully drawn to content that portrays evil, violence, and suffering? Is and interest in the darker side of life a sign of a moral bankruptcy? In my experience, this isn't an accurate assessment. I've met with and studied morbidly curious people all over the world, form haunted attractions to horror conventions to university classrooms. Anecdotally and empirically, morbidly curious people are just as moral, empathetic, and kind a anyone else. If you attend a horror convention or an oddities expo, you won't run into a deranged psychopaths waiting to catch you alone in a dark hallway. Instead, you'll find a genuine community of people with skin thickened from years of side-eyes and hushed comments. You'll find people with dark minds but soft hearts."

I was asked by the owners of my amazing local bookstore Fred & June's to moderate a conversation with Coltan Scrivner! Why not the Morbidly Curious Book Club chat with the expert in Morbid Curiosity?! I recorded the event as a bonus podcast episode!

Purchase the book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/705578/morbidly-curious-by-coltan-scrivner-phd/

About the book: The leading expert on the science behind morbid curiosity explains our spooky, gory, and macabre fascinations! What makes us peek at a car wreck or binge-watch true crime shows late into the night? Why are some of us drawn to horror movies while others shudder at the thought? In Morbidly Curious, scientist Coltan Scrivner takes readers on a thrilling journey into the psychology of morbid curiosity, uncovering why we can’t resist the macabre. From grisly serial killers to spine-chilling paranormal stories, Scrivner reveals the psychological forces that compel us to explore our darkest fears—and explains how this proclivity is more than just a quirk. It’s a powerful survival instinct, helping us mentally prepare for real-world threats, all from the safety of our imaginations. Blending fascinating insights and cutting-edge research at haunted houses across the world, Scrivner makes a powerful argument for the value of playing with fear and embracing the gruesome. Whether you’re a horror fan yourself or just want to better understand the true crime craze, will open your eyes to the hidden benefits of exploring the dark side of human nature.

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S2E9: "In the Mouth of the Wolf" with the author Katherine Corcoran

Season 2 · Episode 9

Friday, September 26, 2025 • Duration 01:00:49

Join the Morbidly Curious Book Club Today: themorbidlycuriousbookclub.com

Our September 2025 pick was “In the Mouth of the Wolf: A Murder, a Cover-Up, and the True Cost of Silencing the Press" by Katherine Corcoran.

Early and ad-free for Patreon members! Join the Patreon today to get exclusive goodies, including the Morbidly Curious Fiction Edition book club: https://patreon.com/TheMorbidlyCuriousBookClub?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink

“Regina dove in, focusing on the marginalized people who made the news at the time only in positive stories about government handouts that said nothing about the conditions in which the people lived. She interviewed the indigenous, the peasants, and the union workers, all of whom had never had a voice in the traditional press. Regina's reporting was legendary among her colleagues – so much so, that when I first heard of it, I was sure it must be an exaggeration, an assassinated journalist being lionized by her peers. In death, people become at least a small bit mythological. And the quality of journalism in the provinces was marginal at best, the standards by which they reported even more questionable.”

Former AP Mexico bureau chief Katherine Corcoran's pulsating investigation into the murder of a legendary woman journalist on the verge of exposing government corruption in Mexico. Regina Martínez was no stranger to retaliation. A journalist out of Mexico's Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, Regina's stories for the magazine Proceso laid out the corruption and abuse underlying Mexican politics. She was barred from press conferences, and copies of Proceso often disappeared before they made the newsstands. In 2012, shortly after Proceso published an article on corruption and two Veracruz politicians, and the magazine went missing once again, she was bludgeoned to death in her bathroom. The message was clear: No journalist in Mexico was safe. Katherine Corcoran, then leading the Associated Press coverage of Mexico, admired Regina Martínez's work. Troubled by the news of her death, Corcoran journeyed to Veracruz to find out what had happened. Regina hadn't even written the controversial article. But did she have something else that someone didn't want published? Once there, Katherine bonded with four of Regina's grief-stricken mentees, each desperate to prove who was to blame for the death of their friend. Together they battled cover-ups, narco-officials, red tape, and threats to sift through the mess of lies-and discover what got Regina killed. A gripping look at reporters who dare to step on the deadly “third rail,” where the state and organized crime have become indistinguishable, In the Mouth of the Wolf confronts how silencing the free press threatens basic protections and rule of law across the globe.

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BONUS: "Replaceable You" with the author Mary Roach

Tuesday, September 16, 2025 • Duration 01:09:10

Join us if you're curious: themorbidlycuriousbookclub.com

Early + Ad-free for Patreon members: https://www.patreon.com/c/TheMorbidlyCuriousBookClub

"Over time, devices migrated inside the body -- masticators gave way to dentures, glasses to contact lenses, toupees to hair transplants. Replacements became more integrated, more complex, more expensive. False teeth and prosthetic limbs can now be screwed into bones, artificial lenses surgically implanted. Of late, the buzz is for regeneration: bits and pieces grown from one's own cells. Stem cells and gene editing have landed us on the brink of a medical revolution. When it comes to regenerating entire complex body parts, however, it is a wide brink, with plenty of open terrain for hype."

Order "Replaceable You" here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/replaceable-you-adventures-in-human-anatomy-mary-roach/43877f72ed2db635?ean=9781324050629&next=t&aid=87301&listref=the-morbidly-curious-book-club-picks

Welcome to a very special BONUS episode! To celebrate the release of her new book, "Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy" I had the chance to sit down with Mary Roach and gush about her to her, but also to dive into some wonderfully weird science. (Huge thanks to W.W. Norton & Company for sending me an early copy!) We also touched on her other highly ubiquitous book, and our previous book club pick, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers.

Mary Roach is the author of the New York Times bestsellers STIFF, SPOOK, BONK, GULP, GRUNT, FUZZ, and PACKING FOR MARS. Her new book, REPLACEABLE YOU: Adventures in Human Anatomy, debuts in September 2025. Mary has written for National Geographic, Wired, and The New York Times Magazine, among others, and her TED talk made the TED 20 Most Watched list. She has been a guest editor for , a finalist for the Royal Society's Winton Prize, and a winner of the American Engineering Societies' journalism award, in a category for which, let's be honest, she was the sole entrant.

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S2E8 - "Briefly Perfectly Human" with the author Alua Arthur

Season 2 · Episode 8

Friday, August 29, 2025 • Duration 50:04

Join the Morbidly Curious Book Club Today: themorbidlycuriousbookclub.com

Our August 2025 pick was “BRIEFLY PERFECTLY HUMAN: Making an Authentic Life by Getting Real About the End" by death doula Alua Arthur.

Reminder: the May episode with Mary Roach is coming in September, and my July episode with Lindsay Fitzharris is coming sometime next year!

About the book: "For her clients and everyone who has been inspired by her humanity, Alua Arthur is a friend at the end of the world. As our country’s leading death doula, she’s spreading a transformative message: thinking about your death—whether imminent or not—will breathe wild, new potential into your life. Warm, generous, and funny AF, Alua supports and helps manage end-of-life care on many levels. The business matters, medical directives, memorial planning; but also honoring the quiet moments, when monitors are beeping and loved ones have stepped out to get some air—or maybe not shown up at all—and her clients become deeply contemplative and want to talk. Aching, unfinished business often emerges. Alua has been present for thousands of these sacred moments—when regrets, fears, secret joys, hidden affairs, and dim realities are finally said aloud. When this happens, Alua focuses her attention at the pulsing center of her clients’ anguish and creates space for them, and sometimes their loved ones, to find peace. This has had a profound effect on Alua, who was already no stranger to death’s periphery. Her family fled a murderous coup d’état in Ghana in the 1980s. She has suffered major, debilitating depressions. And her dear friend and brother-in-law died of lymphoma. Advocating for him in his final months is what led Alua to her life’s calling. She knows firsthand the power of bearing witness and telling the truth about life’s painful complexities, because they do not disappear when you look the other way. They wait for you. is a life-changing, soul-gathering debut, by a writer whose empathy, tenderness, and wisdom shimmers on the page. Alua Arthur combines intimate storytelling with a passionate appeal for loving, courageous end-of-life care—what she calls 'death embrace.' Hers is a powerful testament to getting in touch with something deeper in our lives, by embracing the fact of our own mortality. 'Hold that truth in your mind,' Alua says, 'and wondrous things will begin to grow around it.'"

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S2E6 - "Trail of the Lost" with the author Andrea Lankford

Season 2 · Episode 6

Friday, June 27, 2025 • Duration 49:26

Join the Morbidly Curious Book Club Today: themorbidlycuriousbookclub.com

Our June 2025 pick was “TRAIL OF THE LOST: The Relentless Search to Bring Home the Missing Hikers of the Pacific Crest Trail" by Andrea Lankford.

Reminder: the May episode with Mary Roach is coming later this year!

"From an award-winning former law enforcement park ranger and investigator, this female-driven true crime adventure follows the author’s quest to find missing hikers along the Pacific Crest Trail by pairing up with an eclectic group of unlikely allies. As a park ranger with the National Park Service's law enforcement team, Andrea Lankford led search and rescue missions in some of the most beautiful (and dangerous) landscapes across America, from Yosemite to the Grand Canyon. But though she had the support of the agency, Andrea grew frustrated with the service's bureaucratic idiosyncrasies and left the force after twelve years. Two decades later, however, she stumbles across a mystery that pulls her right back where she left off: three young men have vanished from the Pacific Crest Trail, the 2,650-mile trek made famous by Cheryl Strayed's Wild, and no one has been able to find them. It’s bugging the hell out of her. Andrea’s concern soon leads her to a wild environment unlike any she’s ever encountered: missing person Facebook groups. Andrea launches an investigation, joining forces with an eclectic team of amateurs who are determined to solve the cases by land and by screen: a mother of the missing, a retired pharmacy manager, and a mapmaker who monitors terrorist activity for the government. Together, they track the activities of kidnappers and murderers, investigate a cult, rescue a psychic in peril, cross paths with an unconventional scientist, and reunite an international fugitive with his family. Searching for the missing is a brutal psychological and physical test with the highest stakes, but eventually their hardships begin to bear strange fruits—ones that lead them to places and people they never saw coming. Beautifully written, heartfelt, and at times harrowing, TRAIL OF THE LOST paints a vivid picture of hiker culture and its complicated relationship with the ever-expanding online realm, all while exploring the power and limits of determination, generosity, and hope. It also offers a deep awe of the natural world, even as it unearths just how vast and treacherous it can be. On the TRAIL OF THE LOST, you may not find what you are looking for, but you will certainly find more than you seek."

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ARCHIVES: "Scarred" with the author Sarah Edmondson

Season 2

Saturday, May 31, 2025 • Duration 59:01

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https://themorbidlycuriousbookclub.com/

Welcome to another archives episode! Where I speak to a previously selected book club pick author.

In 2024, I launched this podcast to delve deeper into our book club's nonfiction selections by engaging directly with the authors, the experts behind these compelling works.

Over the years, our club has explored some exceptional books, and today, I got the chance to speak with Sarah Edmondson about her book, "SCARRED: The True Story of How I Escaped NXIVM, the Cult that Bound My Life," a book we read in 2022!

This episode is being released on a special day: around this time marks the 8-year anniversary of Sarah and her husband Nippy leaving the cult!

About the book: "Scarred is Sarah Edmondson's compelling memoir of her recruitment into the NXIVM cult, the 12 years she spent within the organization (during which she enrolled over 2,000 members and entered DOS—NXIVM's 'secret sisterhood'), her breaking point, and her harrowing fight to get out, to expose Keith Raniere and the leadership, to help others, and to heal. Complete with personal photographs, Scarred is also an eye-opening story about abuses of power, female trust and friendship, and how sometimes the search to be 'better' can override everything else."

Sarah Edmondson is a Canadian actress who has starred in the CBS series Salvation and more than twelve films for the Hallmark Channel and Lifetime. She is also a well-established voice-over artist for popular series such as Transformers: Cybertron and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. In 2005, when NXIVM, a personal and professional development company, promised to provide the tools and insight Sarah needed to reach her potential, she was intrigued. Over her twelve-year tenure, she went from student to coach and eventually operated her own NXIVM center in Vancouver. Questions kept coming up about the organization’s rules and practices, which came to a head in 2017 when she accepted an invitation from her best friend to join DOS, a “secret sisterhood” within NXIVM.

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BONUS: "Little Bosses Everywhere" with the author Bridget Read

Season 2

Sunday, May 25, 2025 • Duration 01:08:26

Join us if you're curious: themorbidlycuriousbookclub.com

"There is a common, nebulous understanding among Americans that MLM is off and exploitative. But a shrug goes along with it, too, as one does with Scientology, or other factions of this country's colorful fringe. It is one of our many freak sideshows, falling somewhere between a cult, a crime, and a joke. Something to gawk at, pity, or ignore."

Order "Little Bosses Everywhere" here: https://bookshop.org/lists/morbidly-curious-non-fiction-recommendations

Welcome to a special BONUS episode, where I chat with an author about their nonfiction book that is morbidly curious book club adjacent, but it hasn't been a pick. Thus, a bonus episode!

Here is my conversation with Bridget Read on her book, "LITTLE BOSSES EVERYWHERE: How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America."

Companies like Amway, Mary Kay, and Herbalife advertise the world’s greatest opportunity: the chance to be your own boss via an enigmatic business model called multilevel marketing, or MLM. They offer a world of pink Cadillacs, white-columned mansions, tropical vacations, and—most precious of all—financial freedom. If, that is, you’re willing to shell out for expensive products and recruit everyone you know to buy them, and if they recruit everyone they know, too, thus creating the 'multiple levels' of MLM. Overwhelming evidence suggests that most people lose money in multilevel marketing, and that many MLM companies are pyramid schemes. Yet the industry’s origins, tied to right-wing ideologues like Ronald Reagan, have escaped public scrutiny. MLM has slithered in the wake of every economic crisis of the last century, from the Depression to the pandemic, ensnaring laid-off workers, stay-at-home moms, and teachers—anyone who has been left behind by rising inequality. In Little Bosses Everywhere, journalist Bridget Read tells the gripping story of multilevel marketing in full for the first time, winding from sunny postwar California, where a failed salesman started a vitamin business, through the devoutly religious suburbs of Michigan, where the industry built its political influence, to stadium-size conventions where today’s top sellers preach to die-hard recruits. MLM has enriched powerful people, like the DeVos and Van Andel families, Warren Buffett, and President Donald Trump, all while eroding public institutions and the social safety net, then profiting from the chaos. Along the way, Read delves into the stories of those devastated by the majority-female industry: a veteran in Florida searching for healing; a young mom in Texas struggling to feed her children; a waitress scraping by in Brooklyn. A wild trip down an endless rabbit hole of greed and exploitation, Little Bosses Everywhere exposes multilevel marketing as American capitalism’s stealthiest PR campaign, a cunning grift that has shaped nearly everything about how we live, and whose ultimate target is democracy itself."

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ARCHIVES: "Unmask Alice" with the author Rick Emerson (PART 2/2)

Season 2

Friday, May 16, 2025 • Duration 01:47:03

Part 2/2 of my conversation with Rick Emerson on his book, Unmask Alice. Listen to part 1 before this one!

Join the book club, subscribe to the book box, buy a shirt, and more...

https://themorbidlycuriousbookclub.com/

Welcome to another archives episode! Where I speak to a previously selected book club pick author.

In 2024, I launched this podcast to delve deeper into our book club's nonfiction selections by engaging directly with the authors—the experts behind these compelling works.

Over the years, our club has explored some exceptional books, and today, I am finally releasing my 2 part episode covering "Unmask Alice: LSD, the Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World's Most Notorious Diaries" by Rick Emerson. This is one of my favorite books of all time, and easily one of the best podcast episodes I've been a part of.

About the book: "In 1971, Go Ask Alice reinvented the young adult genre with a blistering portrayal of sex, psychosis, and teenage self-destruction. The supposed diary of a middle-class addict, Go Ask Alice terrified adults and cemented LSD's fearsome reputation, fueling support for the War on Drugs. Five million copies later, Go Ask Alice remains a divisive bestseller, outraging censors and earning new fans, all of them drawn by the book's mythic premise: A Real Diary, by Anonymous. But Alice was only the beginning. In 1979, another diary rattled the culture, setting the stage for a national meltdown. The posthumous memoir of an alleged teenage Satanist, Jay's Journal merged with a frightening new crisis—adolescent suicide—to create a literal witch hunt, shattering countless lives and poisoning whole communities. In reality, Go Ask Alice and Jay's Journal came from the same dark place: Beatrice Sparks, a serial con artist who betrayed a grieving family, stole a dead boy's memory, and lied her way to the National Book Awards. Unmask Alice: LSD, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World's Most Notorious Diaries is a true story of contagious deception. It stretches from Hollywood to Quantico, and passes through a tiny patch of Utah nicknamed 'the fraud capital of America.' It's the story of a doomed romance and a vengeful celebrity. Of a lazy press and a public mob. Of two suicidal teenagers, and their exploitation by a literary vampire."

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ARCHIVES: "Unmask Alice" with the author Rick Emerson (PART 1/2)

Season 2

Friday, May 16, 2025 • Duration 01:24:04

Join the book club, subscribe to the book box, buy a shirt, and more...

https://themorbidlycuriousbookclub.com/

Welcome to another archives episode! Where I speak to a previously selected book club pick author.

In 2024, I launched this podcast to delve deeper into our book club's nonfiction selections by engaging directly with the authors—the experts behind these compelling works.

Over the years, our club has explored some exceptional books, and today, I am finally releasing my 2 part episode covering "UNMASK ALICE: LSD, the Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World's Most Notorious Diaries" by Rick Emerson. This is one of my favorite books of all time, and easily one of the best podcast episodes I've been a part of.

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