Talking Scared

298 – Stephen King & The Final Turn of the Big Combination

This episode needs no attempt at a witty introduction. Stephen King is back to talk about Other Worlds Than These – the concluding volume of The Talisman saga, begun with

297 – Kyle Winkler & Roll For Your “F**K You” Stats

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

296 – Deena Helm & Horror Says Free Palestine

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

295 – Chris Panatier & If These Walls Could Talk

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 hau

294 – China Miéville & A Million Dreaming Words for Ghost

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

293 – James Tynion IV & How to Draw a Dismembered Child

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 Som

292 – Chuck Wendig & Little Vulgar Hell-Babies

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 Calamiti

291 – Natasha Pulley & No Priests Were Harmed in the Making of this Podcast

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 King

Off Book #23 – Are We Doomed? A Cheerful Guide to Apocalypse, with Ben Bradford

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 ri

290 – Liam Higginson & Awful Things in Lonely Farmhouses

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 – hi

289 – Annie Jacobsen & Be Afraid… Be Very Afraid

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…

Let Us Palaver #10 – Wolves of the Calla Debrief

In our main Wolves of the Calla Deep Dive, we came within touching distance of the Dark Tower’s biggest secret yet. Chris doesn’t know what to think, which is just where

The Dark Tower Deep Dive #10 – Wolves of the Calla

Hallelujah, come commala, we’re back together!   Finally, after stopping for side missions with Jack Sawyer, and a pair of stories of Roland’s younger days, we’re back

288 – Danielle Giles & A Spoonful of Skulldust (Makes the Medicine Go Down)

Time for a horrid history lesson.   Daniell Giles is the author of medieval gothic Mere (2025), and the brand-new Restoration horror-show, Gentle Things. In this episod

287 – Megan Bontrager & The Cave of Cosmic Narcissism

I hope you have your headtorch this week – cos we’re going to some deep, dark places.   Megan Bontrager’s debut novel, The Sea Hides its Dead, is a story of a mysteriou

286 – Chuck Tingle & Kill the Vegan Rockstars

Love is very very real on this week’s episode. The man, the myth, Chuck Tingle returns for a conversation about his latest novel, Fabulous Bodies – a story of body horror

285 – Paul Tremblay & Eternity at Bernie’s

This week we’re putting the boot right into the ribs of the AI Industry, but doing it in horrific style, with Paul Tremblay and Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep.   I

Off Book #22 – Scaredy Boys & The Coward’s Guide to Horror Movies (Part 2)

Part Two of my Scaredy Boy special, in which I quiz my friends in fear, Damo, Sean and To—AKA the Scaredy Boys themselves—about what they’ve seen and suffered through in

284 – Tom Lin & Who Wants to Live Forever?

Would you rather die or live on and on and on and on…   That’s one of the questions at the heart of Tom Lin’s Babylon, South Dakota. It’s a novel about a Chinese family

Off Book #21 – Scaredy Boys & The Coward’s Guide to Horror Movies (Part 1)

The first of a two-part special with the Scaredy Boys, my brothers-in-cowardice from Down Under. Damo, Tom and Sean are famously and unashamedly terrified of horror movie