Talking Scared

Latest Episodes:

Off Book #24 – Whalefall, with Brian Duffield & Daniel Kraus Oct 16, 2026

Show notes

Happy Whalefall Weekend!

Brian Duffield’s incredible adaptation of Daniel Kraus’ novel is now in cinemas. I was lucky enough to see an early screening and even luckier to get time with Brian and Daniel to talk about how the hell they made something so audacious.

We talk daddy issues aplenty, whale stomach sets, practical FX and the toll they took on the star, Austin Abrams. And I get lost in my own rapture over a certain scene that almost made me feel a real, authentic human emotion. Unbelievable.

Enjoy!

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299 – Will Maclean & Uneasy Islands in Time Oct 13, 2026

Show notes

In Solace House, Will Maclean takes us back to the 90s for a drug-fuelled trip through some mindbending architecture. It’s a chance to get nostalgic for a more innocent time, when the clothes were baggy, the music was better, and you could spend a summer spent renovating an old asylum without needing to put in on TikTok.

It’s all fun and games until the existential terror kicks in and the fabric of reality comes unwoven.

Enjoy. This one was a good laugh.

The Apparition Phase (2020), by Will Maclean
And He Shall Appear (2025), by Kate van der Borgh
The Modern Antiquarian (1998), by Julian Cope
The Prisonhouse of Language (1972), by Fredric Jameson
The Human Evasion (1969), by Celia Green
Starmaker (1937), by Olaf Stapledon
A Short Stay in Hell (2009), by Steven L. Peck
“The Jaunt,” in Night Shift (1978), by Stephen King
The Divine Farce (2009), by Michael Graziano

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298 – Stephen King & The Final Turn of the Big Combination Oct 06, 2026

Show notes

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 Peter Straub 45 years ago.

We keep it spoiler-free, but we talk about Jack Sawyer’s journey and how it entwines with The Dark Tower. We reflect on The Talisman and Black House, on Wolf and my heartbreak. We discuss Peter’s inspiration for the story and how King summoned him to bring it to a close. And we even get some hints of what’s cooking in Steve’s brain for future projects. It seems he’s never slowing down, no matter what he say.

I hope you enjoy this.

Other books mentioned:

Julia (1975), by Peter Straub
Ghost Story (1979), by Peter Straub
Redheaded Peckerwood (2010), by Christian Patterson
King Sorrow (2025), by Joe Hill
Sleeping Beauties (2017), by Stephen and Owen King
Trad Wife (2026), by Sarah Langan

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Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com

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297 – Kyle Winkler & Roll For Your “F**K You” Stats Sep 29, 2026

Show notes

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

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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296 – Deena Helm & Horror Says Free Palestine Sep 22, 2026

Show notes

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

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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295 – Chris Panatier & If These Walls Could Talk Sep 15, 2026

Show notes

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

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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 Sep 08, 2026

Show notes

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

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Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com

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293 – James Tynion IV & How to Draw a Dismembered Child Sep 01, 2026

Show notes

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 Aug 25, 2026

Show notes

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

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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 Aug 18, 2026

Show notes

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: