It’s a collegial week on Talking Scared. ‘Cos I’m talking dark, occult academia with someone very local to me.   Kate van... more

Welcome back and Happy New Year. 2025 looms ahead. Frightening. Uncertain. Crazy!!   Our first guest of the year has written the... more

Send us a text How else to end 2024 than with an entirely subjective list of the best things I’ve read... more

Send us a text It’s that time of year again. When I celebrate the winter solstice by getting some horror authors... more

Send us a text … and we’re back! Just in time for this seasonal tradition. The State of the Horror Nation... more

Send us a text This is the last way-back episode before the show returns with a scream next week.   But this is... more

Send us a text A chance to revisit one of my favourite books and favourite ever conversations this week.   Zakiya Dalila Harris’s... more

Send us a text I’m feeling Gothic this week. Must be the weather.  In lieu of a new episode, I searched the... more

Send us a text This From the Vault episode is not quite so dusty. Gemma and I recorded this in 2022,... more

Send us a text Still on a break – still releasing episodes “From the Vault.”   But this week’s was carefully chosen. In... more

Send us a text I’m on a break – but couldn’t resist releasing something.    Especially on today of all days, when lovers... more

Send us a text Halloween has finally arrived. I’m marking it in grim, macabre style.   For this Off Book Samhain Special, I’m... more

Send us a text Things are heating up as we approach Halloween.   I’m joined by a good friend of Talking Scared –... more

Send us a text As we gear up for Halloween, we get all gussied up in Gothic.   Del Sandeen joins me to... more

Send us a text Things get disinhibited on Talking Scared this week, when CJ Leede joins us for a conversation about... more

Send us a text Hold hands, we need to stick together.   This week’s episode plunges us into the impossible and endless dark,... more

Send us a text I started Off Book so that I could speak to some of the brightest dark stars in... more

Send us a text Release your inner child!    …I mean through reading, not by letting it burst out of your stomach like... more

Send us a text More devilish fun on Talking Scared this week when an old friend returns to talk about god,... more

Send us a text Keith Rosson is our first guest to be personally recommended by Stephen King!    And the praise doesn’t stop... more

Send us a text Laird Barron is on the podcast. This feels like cause for celebration.    Not only is Laird Barron a... more

Send us a text Are you a Weenie? Don’t be offended. I am.    Weenies are the curious-but-nervous. Those of us who love... more

Send us a text Anna Bogutskaya is one of the UK’s most prominent film critics, with a penchant for horror. She... more

Send us a text Send in the clowns. Tell them not to forget their crossbows and chainsaws.   This week our guest is... more

Send us a text Literary or genre fiction? Dumb question.   This week’s guest showcases just how dumb! With her debut collection of... more

Send us a text This week’s guest on Talking Scared: Off Book scares children.   I mean… that’s not his main job or... more

Send us a text Finally, Gabino Iglesias is on the show.    I tried, and failed, to get him for his break-out Stoker-winning... more

Send us a text Remember those books you read in the summer when you were young? Kids fighting evil in their... more

Send us a text Why is Adam Nevill so scary?    I don’t know. Do you? He’s a nice guy – as you’ll... more

Send us a text Part One was epic. Part Two is just as good. In that way, it’s much better than... more

Send us a text What’s your favourite Stephen King story? Everyone has one.   Hot off the back of the recent interview with... more

Send us a text Stephen King is back!   What other intro do you need?   Okay, fine. He talks to me about the stories... more

Send us a text 200 episodes! Madness. Who knew there could be so much to say about horror?    I knew. You knew.... more

Send us a text My unpaid cohost returns. Josh Malerman ladies and gentlemen.   Josh has been on the show many times before,... more

Send us a text In the second Off Book episode we get out of our armchairs and go on a real... more

Send us a text Paul Tremblay returns to Talking Scared on a long orbit, like that fabled Planet X that’s going... more

Send us a text Elle Nash’s Deliver Me ruined my week. In the best possible way.   This book, about a woman so... more

Send us a text Todd Keisling can write the hell out of a short story. So well, in fact, that they... more

Send us a text Something new for me this week. A bold venture into uncharted territory.    The graphic novel!!   As is proper, I’ve... more

Send us a text Believe it or not, there is more to life than just books. Very little, granted… but there... more

Send us a text We return to Australia for the second time in a month, to find that (once again), home... more

Send us a text A charming man approaches. With dark secrets to tell you.   Yeah, that L.P. Hernandez. Author of the novella... more

Send us a text Opinions are like assholes, they say. Everybody has one.   The subtext of that, is that you shouldn’t show... more

Send us a text Ah the madhouse. The loony bin. The ASYLUM!!   A classic horror location. One of my favourites, but problematic... more

Send us a text We all love a good spooky house. And most of us enjoy a terrifying home-invasion ordeal (or... more

Send us a text I bite off a lot this week, in a five-way conversation with editors and contributors to the... more

Send us a text I’m in literary hero territory again … at least this time it’s sunny!   My guest is Scarlett Thomas,... more

Send us a text Carrie White turns 50 years old today!   April 5th, 1974 – the day King’s debut came out, and... more

Send us a text Alas, we come to the end!   Stephen Graham Jones’s The Angel of Indian Lake brings the most important... more

Send us a text Chi-Town!!   We’re heading to the midwestern metropolis this week, for a conversation with Cina Pelayo – all about... more

Send us a text Never mind the floor is lava. This week the ground has teeth.   Joshua Hull is our guest, to... more

Send us a text Time to get liminal and haunted.    Gwendolyn Kiste comes back to Talking Scared for another high-concept twist on... more

Send us a text Sometimes you meet someone who just gets you.   Like Tim Lebbon. A man who writes riotously good adventure-horror... more

Send us a text Back from a too-short break, but ready to delve into the greatest haunted house of them all!... more

Send us a text Yes I put sex in the title to make you download it. Did it work?   It shouldn’t be... more

Send us a text Are you hungry?    If so we have a chewy, salty, deeply flavoured feast for you this week. Ally... more

Send us a text The first new book coverage of 2024 – and it starts us off on suitably horrific footing.   Jenny... more

Send us a text To kick off a new year of Talking Scared, I’ve gone and hooked us a big guest,... more

Send us a text Another year done. We squeaked through without another plague or a nuclear apocalypse (don’t tempt fate Neil!!)... more

Send us a text Dickens said that Christmas Eve was a time for ghost stories, and who am I to argue?   It... more