Talking Scared

Trad wives are taking over horror in 2026 – but I predict none will be more frightening and more gorgeously WEIRD than Sarah Langan’s novel.

 

It’s the tale of a young woman in the dying era of journalism and the YouTube influencer who offers her hope, and much worse things…. I absolutely loved it.

 

Sarah and I talk about the trad wife phenomenon, where it comes from, what it means, and how it’s all really based in cold hard capitalism. We talk about literary influences, about sustaining extreme weirdness in fiction, and why establishing character properly is so important.

 

And we even recall the time we bonded over the gift of a mutant duck!

 

Enjoy!

 

Other books mentioned:


Pet Sematary (1983), by Stephen King


Trad Wife (2026), by Saratoga Schafer


Yesteryear (2026), by Caro Claire Burke

“The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892), by Charlotte Perkins Gilman


The King in Yellow (1985),
Robert W. Chambers


Rosemary’s Baby (1967), by Ira Levin


The Ceremonies (1984), by T. E. D. Klein


Room (2010), by Emma Donaghue


Station Eleven (2014), by Hilary St. John Mandel

 

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Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]

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Kaelyn Moore returns to talk scared, straight from the helm of Heart Starts Pounding – her mega podcast of mysteries, murder and the
macabre.

 

She watches a lot of dark documentaries for research. I asked her to come talk about a few that recently inspired her (or disturbed her). We cover serial killers, cursed objects and a relationship that will give you serious ICK!

But of course, this being Talking Scared, we also spin off into a conversation about ethics, belief and the justice system.

 

** I apologise to you as well as Kaelyn for my terrible suggestion of a documentary to watch. Hopefully my anger and self-loathing is funny.

 

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

This week is full of muck and murk and mushrooms. We flit amongst the trees, we bed on moss, we howl at the moon.

Daisy Pearce is entering her bog witch era!

The author takes us to her native Cornwall, for a story of haunting and imprisonment, small town baggage and creepy houses in the woods. We
talk about the oppressive landscape and the mythical texture of the place. We ask whether anyone in a small town can ever really leave high school behind… and we really look at the fine art of trepanation AKA – having a hole drilled in your head (and what it would feel like!)

 

Enjoy!

 

Other books mentioned:


Something in the Walls (2025), by Daisy Pearce


Water Shall Refuse Them (2019), by Lucy McKnight Hardy


A Head Full of Ghosts (2015), by Paul Tremblay


Itch (2025), by Gemma Amor


The Man From the Train : The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery (2017), by Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James


A Simple Plan (1993), by Scott Smith


From Hell (1999), by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell

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

This week we host one of the most exciting horror filmmakers of the decade – Damian McCarthy, the twisted mind behind Caveat, Oddity and
now, Hokum.

 

It’s the biggest film in Damian’s career so far, with his biggest star, Adam Scott playing Ohm, a deeply flawed American writer who travels to Ireland, to spread his parent’s ashes. Whilst staying in a creaky old hotel, he stumbled across dark human conspiracy and witchy haunting.

 

Damian is so much nicer than Ohm, and this is a cheery conversation about the cheeriest scary film I’ve seen in a while!

 

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

Cognitohazards abound this week, as Marcus Kliewer joins me for a conversation about the reality-shredding We Used to Live Here and his new novel of obsessional rules, The Caretaker.

 

In both books, there are things that should not be known, and certainly not questioned. Yet questioning is my job – so we get into the expansive and weird universe Marcus is building, and the process of playing games
and leaving clues for the reader. We talk about how his own terrors and neurodivergence informs his fiction, and I pass on a lecture from my wife that these books should come with an OCD trigger warning.

 

Plus – you get not one but TWO recommendations for true existential
horror reads.

 

Enjoy!

 

Other books mentioned:


We Used to Live Here (2025), by Marcus Kliewer


House of Leaves (2000), by Mark Z. Danielewski


The Denial of Death (1973), by Ernest Becker


A Short Stay in Hell (2009), by Steven L. Peck


The Divine Farce (2009), by Michael Graziano


Japanese Gothic (2026), by Kylie Lee Baker

 

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