Talking Scared

Corporate culture is a nightmare, but getting out of the office brings its own problems in Carter Keane’s debut novella – Morsel.

 

It’s a story about monsters and eldritch beings, about killer cults and evil law-enforcement, about wellbeing scams and a boss from hell – but it’s also a springboard for a whole conversation about the cons (many) and pros (debatable) of capitalism. Carter indulges my devil’s advocacy, before we get back to the matter of strange forest disappearances and horrible shit that happens with bears.

 

It’s a whole range of ways to feel scared of the world.

 

Enjoy!

 

Other books mentioned:


The Ritual (2011), by Adam Nevill


Last Days (2012), by Adam Nevill


All the Fiends of Hell (2024), by Adam Nevill


The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion (2017), by Margaret Killjoy


Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1989), by Frederic Jameson       


Debt: The First 500 Years (2011), by David Graeber


Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist (2017), by Kate Raworth


The Cold Vanish: Seeking the Missing in North America’s Wildlands (2020), by Jon Billman


Rust Belt Femme (2020), by Rachael Anne Jolie


Night of the Grizzlies (1969), by Jack Olsen

 

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Nat and I stick around in the shadowed recesses of Black House for another half hour, to discuss all the things that Chris got right and wrong – and to make some entirely unfounded claims of our own.

 

It’s overflowing with spoilers for the whole Dark Tower series, so don’t listen if you’re a newbie. We start to ask who is the Crimson King? Would Roland and Jack have gotten along? And we get very grumpy about certain wolves in a certain town further down the road.

 

Enjoy.

 

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 [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Time to whet our appetites for the Dark Tower again – this time with an extra serving of ass cheek!

After three months away, we’re picking up with travellin’ Jack Sawyer after we left him in The Talisman. We find him in a sleepy Wisconsin town, where the dimension-hopping, child-eating Fisherman is plying his awful trade.

 

Yep… it’s time for Black House. The book in which King’s universes collide.

 

Nat, Chris and I argue – about where we see the spirit of King and Peter Straub in this story, about the believability of characters and the RIGHT amount to mourn a fallen hero. But we also agree about the beauty of theprose, the sublime depiction of the deepest horrors, and the sheer joy of one of the Dark Tower’s nastiest villains.

 

It’s as much fun as you can have with a book about so many dead kids.

 

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 [email protected]
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After seeing an early screener of Something Very Bad is Going to Happen I immediately thought it was going to be huge!

So I leapt ahead of the curve and invited writer and showrunner, Haley Z Boston to come talk scared about weddings, soulmates, David Lynch and Danish horror, and what it’s like to work with the Duffer Brothers.

This show has been my whole personality for two weeks. Ihope you watch, listen to this interview, and love it all.

 

Enjoy

 

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 [email protected]
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tamika Thompson talks me through the great American curseof the 21st Century on this week’s episode. No, not Tangerine Cthulhu … but the plague of gun deaths that is coring out the country.

 

That’s the focus of her new novel, The Curse of Hester Gardens, which asks whether the deaths gunning for the young men of an inner-city housing project are criminal, or something much weirder!

 

Yeah, that’s right. Listen to a cossetted little English guy try and keep up in an conversation about gun crimes and street life.

 

Enjoy!

 

Other books mentioned:


The Rats (1974), by James Herbert


The Ghosts of Sleath (1994),by James Herbert


Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century (2022), by Kim Fu


Mystery Lights (2024), by Lena Valencia

“How to Do Diversity When You’re Lazy, Ignorant and/or Malicious” (2018), by Tamika Thompson – Link HERE

 

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 [email protected]
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices