

Talking Scared
Neil McRobert
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.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Oct 28, 2025 • 1h 21min
260 – Joe Hill & The One About the Dragon
 Here be dragons!
 
I’m celebrating Halloween week on Talking Scared with the very cream of the bucket list. Joe Hill is finally on the show!
 
The author of Heart Shaped Box, NOS4A2, “The Black Phone” and Lock & Key is back with his first novel in nearly a decade, and it’s a beast! 
 
King Sorrow is an epic of dragons, diabolical deals, decade-spanning friendships, love and hate and everything in between. It’s bloody brilliant!
 
Joe talks about the triple inspiration of The Hobbit, The Secret History and Friends. We tackle tech-bros and trolls (literally), and the formidable role of his mother, Tabitha King. And if we disagree on certain characters in King Sorrow, we’re certainly on the same page when it comes to the role of love in life and writing.
 
This is a special one for me. A special book and a special conversation.
 
Enjoy! 
 
Other books mentioned: 
20th Century Ghosts (2005), by Joe Hill
Heart Shaped Box (2007), by Joe Hill
The Fireman (2016), by Joe Hill
The Hobbit (1937), by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Secret History (1992), by Donna Tartt
The Dead Zone (1979), by Stephen King
Cloud Atlas (2004), by David Mitchell
Old Soul (2025), by Susan Barker
The Trap (1985), by Tabitha King
“The Jewbird” (1963), by Bernard Malamud
Coffin Moon (2025), by Keith Rosson
 
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Oct 24, 2025 • 33min
Let Us Palaver #5 – ‘Salem’s Lot Debrief
 In our fifth Let Us Palaver, Nat and I dally a little longer in ‘Salem’s Lot to hunt down a few more vamps and follow up some threads mentioned in the main episode.
 
This is where we get spoilery, so this is just for those who have been to the Tower already. But we talk about Chris’s predictions for Father Callaghan, discuss the moral arc of King’s entire fictional project (no big thing right!) and even congratulate the man on his steadfast marriage.
 
Also, my wife makes an appearance bearing tea.
 
Enjoy.
 
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Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 

Oct 21, 2025 • 2h 28min
The Dark Tower Deep Dive #5 – ‘Salem’s Lot
 ‘Salem’s Lot is FIFTY years old this month. Hellfire, how did that happen? We’re gonna celebrate the bloodsucking and small town shenanigans for all they are worth!!
 
But some of you know that the Lot sits just to one side of the Path of the Beam – so this is also a key zig in our endless zagging towards The Dark Tower. You may just not know why yet? And neither does Chris, so no one tell him. 
 
So in this two-fer episode we honour a true horror classic of 20th century
literature, and we inch one step closer to the nexus of all things. Efficient!
 
Enjoy.
 
Other books mentioned:
“Jerusalem’s Lot” and “One For the Road,” both in Night Shift (1978), by Stephen King
Shitshow (2025), by Chris Panatier
The Rats (1974), by James Herbert
Dracula (1898), by Bram Stoker
The Great Gatsby (1925), by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Harvest Home (1973), by Thomas Tryon
 
As mentioned – here is my Vulture list of the Best Horror Books of 2025 (so far).
 
Support Talking Scared on Patreon
 
Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch
 
Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 

Oct 14, 2025 • 1h 21min
259 – Joe Lansdale & Our Desperate Need to Be Less Dumb
 Joe Lansdale is here to give us all a smack upside the head.
 
We are talking about The Essential Horror of Joe R. Lansdale – his brand new career-retrospective, collecting the stories that have defined him for decades as one of the most edgy, provocative writers of the grim and grotesque. 
 
We cover some of the classics, like “Bubba Ho Tep,” “Mr Weed Eater” and “On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks” – asking where the craziness came from, and finding the roots in Joe’s colourful life.
 
But we also discuss more serious matters, such as the hatred depicted in “The Night They Missed the Horror Show,” and what it means in our current puritanical, easily-outraged era. 
 
Enjoy! Beware!
 
Other books mentioned: 
The Thicket (2013), by Joe R. Lansdale
Paradise Sky (2015), by Joe R. Lansdale
The Nightrunners (1987), by Joe R. Lansdale
“A Rose For Emily” (1930), by William Faulkner
“Cannibalism in the Cars” (1868), by Mark Twain
“Duel” (1971), by Richard Matheson
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), by Mark Twain
Neither Beg Nor Yield: Stories With an S&S Attitude (2024), edited by Jason M. Waltz
Swords in the Shadows (2025), edited by Cullen Bunn
The Only Good Indians (2020), by Stephen Graham Jones
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter (2025), by Stephen Graham Jones
The Gunfighters: How Texas Made the West Wild (2025), by Bryan Burrough
Lonesome Dove (1985), by Larry McMurtry
 
Support Talking Scared on Patreon
 
Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch
 
Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com 
 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 

Oct 10, 2025 • 60min
Off Book #12 – Ben Leonberg and Good Boy
 Mine isn’t the only Good Boy released into the world this week. You may have heard of a little film that shares my books name.
 
I joke – Ben Leonberger’s Good Boy is everywhere, and rightly so. It’s a haunted house movie told from the POV of Ben’s dog Indy (playing himself). It’s a magic trick of filmmaking and puppy eyes.
 
Ben came on the show for a generous chat about making the movie. He tells us about the technical hurdles to be jumped, the mammoth 400 day shoot, the portrayal of fear through a dog’s eyes… but mostly we talk about his bond with Indy and why we both believe dogs are the ultimate horror movie heroes.
 
This is a dog-lover’s delight. Happy Friday!
 
Enjoy
 
Support Talking Scared on Patreon
 
Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch
 
Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 

Oct 9, 2025 • 1h 31min
258 – Neil McRobert & My Four-Legged Ode to Bravery & Joy
 Ah the arrogance of writers. Now I am one, officially, I thought I’d better do something fitting.
 
So I set up a whole episode of my podcast to talk about my own book – Good Boy! My debut novella about small English towns, the bonds between men and dogs, and a battle between bravery and monsters.
 
Thankfully, I have friends who will facilitate this type of nonsense, so thanks to Nat Cassidy and Rachel Harrison for asking me questions and flattering my ego.
 
We talk about literary and personal inspirations, about what I’ve learned from 5 years of interviewing authors, about local folklore and the composition of monsters… and of course, about dogs! 
 
This was the greatest pleasure for me. I hope you enjoy it half as much. 
 
Other books mentioned: 
IT (1986), by Stephen King
From a Buick 8 (2002), by Stephen King
The Fisherman (2016), by John Langan
Any Human Heart (2002), by William Boyd
The October Film Haunt (2025), by Michael Wehunt
 
Support Talking Scared on Patreon
 
Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch
 
Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com 
 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 

Oct 8, 2025 • 1h 9min
257 – Northern Weird (Part Two), with Matt Wesolowski, Jodie Robins & Stephen Howard
 Another day, another episode about the weird-arse end of nowhere!
 
We remain in the North of England for this second part of a weeklong celebration of the Northern Weird Project – six novellas published by Wild Hunt Books (including one by yours truly!). 
 
This time it’s conversation with Matt Wesolowski, about his train-bound folkloric horror, Don’t Call Mum, Jodie Robins, with her magical seaside lament for lost youth, The Off Season, and Stephen Howard, who has sent the uncanny home into a whole new paroxysm of sorrow, withThis House is Not Haunted But We Are.
 
We moan about the weather. About trains. About southerners. It’s all very northern and grim.
 
But there are also ghosts, monsters, mad circuses and VAMPIRE RABBITS!!!
 
Other books mentioned: 
Wuthering Heights (1847), by Emily Brönte
“Rawhead Rex”, in Books of Blood Volume 3 (1986), by Clive Barker
Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962), by Ray Bradbury
The Iceman Cometh (1940), by Eugene O’Neill
White is for Witching (2009), by Helen Oyeyemi
Mr Fox (2011), by Helen Oyeyemi
Skin Thief: Stories (2023), by Suzan Palumbo
Nowhere Burning (2026), by Catriona Ward
Quest for the Hexham Heads (2012), by Paul Screeton
 
Support Talking Scared on Patreon
 
Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch
 
Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 

Oct 7, 2025 • 1h 20min
256 – Northern Weird (Part One), with Gemma Fairclough, Katherine Clements & Ariell Cacciola
 It’s grim up North. 
 
But thankfully, it’s also weird. Deliciously, darkly, disturbingly weird!
 
This week we are celebrating the Northern Weird Project – six novellas published by Wild Hunt Books (including one by yours truly!). In this first roundtable, I’ve gathered two of the writers and the genius behind the project, Ariell Cacciola, to talk about Northern literary culture in the North, haunted landscapes, isolated oddness, and the North/South divide.
 
Gemma Fairclough brings The Retreat, her story of creepy wellness culture in the Lake District, and Katherine Clements has written a psycho-geographic haunting of the Yorkshire moors in Turbine 34. Yet whilst displaying the diversity of northern weirdness, these two novellas are twinned and entwined in fascinating ways.
 
Enjoy – there’s more coming all week.
 
Other books mentioned: 
Bear Season (2024), by Gemma Fairclough
The Coffin Path (2018), by Katherine Clements
Every Day is Mother’s Day (1985), by Hilary Mantel
Beyond Black (2005), by Hilary Mantel
A Place of Greater Safety (1992), by Hilary Mantel
Dark Matter (2010), by Michelle Paver
The Night Ocean (2017), by Paul LaFarge
 
Support Talking Scared on Patreon
 
Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch
 
Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com 
 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 

Sep 30, 2025 • 1h 18min
255 – Michael Wehunt & What If A Horror Film Broke Into Your House?
 What’s even real anymore?
 
Some of the best horror writer’s ask that question. Some, like Michael Wehunt, live in the spaces in between.
 
Michael’s new novel, The October Film Haunt bends reality in fascinating ways, in a story about online legend, digital demons and analog horror  – all the stuff that keeps me awake at night.
 
We talk about all of it, as well as formative found-footage movies, and whether we need a new ethics for online storytelling. It’s a deep, intelligent chat (just like the book).
 
Enjoy. Don’t open strange emails or watch unmarked VHS
tapes.
WhiteFace Explained - Bloody Disgusting
I'm A Search and Rescue Office For the US Forest Service...
 
Other books mentioned: 
Greener Pastures (2016), by Michael Wehunt 
Wake Up and Open Your Eyes (2025), by Clay McLeod Chapman
Last Days (2012), by Adam Nevill
Horror Movie (2024), by Paul Tremblay
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995), by Carl Sagan
If You Knew Me (2025), by S.P. Miskowksi
Support Talking Scared on Patreon
 
Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch
 
Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 

Sep 23, 2025 • 2h 8min
254 – Philip Fracassi & The Fresh Young Heart of Old-School Horror
 This week brings a bumper episode, cos Philip Fracassi never stops.
Since he and I last spoke, in 2022, he’s published a wealth of amazing, terrifying, heartfelt horror, emerging as a major voice, and one of
my favourite writers.
 
First we spend a good hour on Philips’ new novel, The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre – talking about geriatric slashers, elderly protagonists and how Phil’s own loss transformed the novel. Then we take a tour through some of his other books, including the modern classic Boys in
the Valley and the nasty demonic desk romp, Gothic. 
 
Plus, a lot of info about future books and movie adaptations.
 
Enjoy! Phil is fantastic company.
 
Other books mentioned: 
 
St Joseph's Orphanage - Buzzfeed Article
Boys in the Valley (2021), by Philip Fracassi
Gothic (2022), by Philip Fracassi
A Child Alone With Strangers (2022), by Philip Fracassi
No One Is Safe (2024), by Philip Fracassi
The Third Rule of Time Travel (2025), by Philip Fracassi
Serafina (2026), by Philip Fracassi
The Thursday Murder Club (2020), by Richard Osman
Fahrenheit-182 (2025), by Mark Hoppus
“The Veldt” (1950), by Ray Bradbury
Daytide (2026), by Chris Panatier
The Reformatory (2023), by Tananarive Due
Your Favorite Scary Movie: How the Scream Films Rewrote the Rules of Horror (2025), by Ashley Cullins
 
EVENT LINKS
Good Boy Book Launch, with Gemma Amor (October 10th) – Tickets
Powerhouse of Horror Party (October 24th) – Tickets
Creepaway Summer Camp (June 29th – July 3rd 2026) – Tickets
 
 
Support Talking Scared on Patreon
 
Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch
 
Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 


