Episode 19 – Author Eliot Schrefer joins us to talk about James Cameron’s 1986 action/ horror classic, Aliens, which is the sequel to Ridley Scott’s Alien from 1979. We get into themes of motherhood, survival, isolation, and kick-ass female action heroes, as well as how, as kids, we reacted to the grotesque images of body horror on screen, and then, how we asked questions about what, and who, is a monster.

Eliot is a two time finalist for the National Book Award for his great ape quartet, as well as an ALA Printz honor recipient for Queer Ducks (And Other Animals). His recent novels, The Darkness Outside Us and The Brightness Between Us, are available now. Find his many, many books now at your favorite local bookshop.

Follow the Our First Fears podcast on social media @ourfirstfears. And feel free to reach out at ourfirstfears@gmail.com. Also, check out my own socials - @danpoblox on Instagram and @danpoblocki on Twitter/X.

https://www.danpoblocki.com/

On episode 18 of Our First Fears, NY Times and USA Today bestselling author, Daniel Kraus joins me in a conversation about Fangoria Magazine – the tentpole horror movie publication that debuted in the late 1970s and quickly became a shocking staple on magazine stands and in bookshops due to the gory horror makeup effects and grody titles displayed on its covers.

Daniel Kraus is the co-creator of The Shape of Water with Guillermo Del Toro, the co-author of The Living Dead with George A. Romero, and the author of the Bram Stoker Award winner They Stole Our Hearts, part two of his eery middle-grade Teddies Saga trilogy.

Daniel’s recent book, Whalefall, has been making big waves. Thrilling, grotesque, and heart-punching, it’s a science-based story about a young scuba diver who is swallowed by a whale, and what he must do if he hopes to escape. You’re gonna wanna read this one. Trust me.

Follow the Our First Fears podcast on social media sites @ourfirstfears.

And feel free to reach out at ourfirstfears@gmail.com.

Also, check out my own socials:

@danpoblox on Instagram

@danpoblocki on Twitter/X.

(Content warning: language, talk about gory magazine covers, and intense make-up effect images)

On episode 17, WE ARE BACK . . . this time, chatting with writer and horror podcast-rock-star, Neil McRobert about a movie that made him cry when he was just a wee lad - James Cameron’s 1984 science-fiction classic, The Terminator. Our conversation runs from ideas of cyborg body horror, to the trope of the unkillable thing that chases you, relentlessly. We poke around in notions of how time-travel stories work (or don't), fiction writers as prophets, and the existential terror I feel when I think too hard about the philosophy behind simulation theory.

But we have fun too! I promise!

You can listen to Neil as he interviews horror-lit luminaries every week on his podcast, “Talking Scared,” where he’s spoken to everyone from Tananarive Due and Margaret Atwood, to Stephen King and Stephen Graham Jones. His writings about horror can also be found in Esquire, The Guardian, Elle, and Slate.

Follow the Our First Fears podcast on social media @ourfirstfears.

And feel free to reach out at ourfirstfears@gmail.com.

Also, check out my own socials:

@danpoblox on Instagram

@danpoblocki on Twitter/X.

(Content warning: body horror, existential dread, the end of the world, war, adult language)