The Question in Bodies Podcast, Episode 9: Health and Horror, Dignity and Disgust, with Dr. Catherine Belling

It's always somehow nastier when the gore isn't red.

Bioethicist, expert in medical humanities, horror fan and Jeopardy runner-up Dr. Catherine Belling joins me in this week's episode to talk about why horror and health are inextricably linked. Starting with the throughline between Dr. Pimple Popper and the early work of Ridley Scott, we examine a whole casebook of media – including hereditary possessions, anti-Hippocratic oaths, verminous transformations and infested Mayan ruins – and touch on dissection, infestation, plastination, cancerification and death. 

There's some pretty grim stuff mentioned in this one, so content warnings for discussion of suicide, eugenics, ablism, and that white goopy stuff that comes out of pimples and cysts. 

By the way, the anthropological text neither of us could think of the name of was Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger.

You can hear me interrogate The Question in Bodies on the fancy widget below, subscribe via your favourite podcast outlet (like Apple, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts, Google Podcasts and others) or find the archive at The Question in Bodies Podbean site. 

Want to hear episodes early? Back my Patreon. It's just one of those American dollars a month for all the stuff.

The Question in Bodies Podcast, Episode 8: The Death of the Mid-Budget Movie, with Raquel S. Benedict

The exception that proves the rule: John Wick

In episode 8, Raquel S. Benedict, most dangerous woman in speculative fiction, joins me to talk about what a mid-budget movie is, what's great about them and why they're an endangered species. Expect a discussion of the magic of The First Wive's Club, the deadly influence of the Thinkpiece-Industrial Complex, and how James Gunn became a victim of his own blob. 

Go check out Raquel's own podcast, Rite Gud (Patreon here) and here's Raquel's most recent contribution to BloodKnife.

You can hear me interrogate The Question in Bodies on the fancy widget below, subscribe via your favourite podcast outlet (like Apple, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts, Google Podcasts and others) or find the archive at The Question in Bodies Podbean site. 

Want to hear episodes early? Back my Patreon. It's just one of those American dollars a month for all the stuff.

The Question in Bodies Podcast, Episode 7: Horror on Screen vs Horror on the Page, with Montilee Stormer

Contentious adaptations of books you say?

In episode 7, horror writer, movie critic and troublemaker Montilee Stormer is here to talk about the difference between horror on the page and horror on the screen. Join us for an invigorating chat about final girls, the ascendance of the TikTok Moment, how green bubble wrap is better than crap CGI, whether the current crop of horror novels could even be novelised (and how many words of text Midsommar might actually amount to), why we all need Bad Decisions, and what makes an unfilmable book unfilmable. 

Check out this interview with Montilee at the GLAHW here and then make sure to subscribe to Movie Reelist for Montilee's regular movie reviews. 

You can listen on the fancy widget below, subscribe via your favourite podcast outlet ( like Apple, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts, Google Podcasts and others) or find the archive at The Question in Bodies Podbean site. Want to hear episodes early? Back my Patreon. It's just one of those American dollars.  

The Question in Bodies Podcast, Episode 6: We Appreciate Power, with Tamsin Davis-Langley

(Grimes and Poppy, not me and Tamsin as you might have thought)

This episode, I'm joined by queersoteric hero Tamsin Davis-Langley to talk about one of the Great Questions of our era: Grimes or Poppy? 

That's where we start, anyway. But it gives us an inroad to talking about billionaire Singularity enthusiasts, whether consciousness is an emergent phenomenon, the shocking history of sideburns and sandwiches, and how you get a banging pop tune inspired by the sort of people who want us dead. 

Stick around for the discourse, and then go and find Tamsin's book (writing as Misha Magdalene) Outside the Charmed Circle. 

You can listen on the fancy widget below, subscribe via your favourite podcast outlet ( like Apple, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts, Google Podcasts and others) or find the archive at The Question in Bodies Podbean site. Want to hear episodes early? Back my Patreon. It's just one of those American dollars.

Oh, we might as well have some of the music, I suppose. Here's a playlist.

The Question in Bodies Podcast, Episode 5: Neurodiversity and Horror, with Joanna Swan

Annalynne McCord in Excision; Angela Bettis in May.

It's Monday, and it's another instalment in Season 1 of the Question in Bodies Podcast. In episode 5, I'm joined by actor Joanna Swan to talk about the horror of being neurodiverse in a neurotypical world, why the best depictions of neurodiversity in cinema are in horror, and to do some deep dives into the movies Excision (2012) and May (2002).

Check it out on your favourite podcast outlet (and maybe you know, subscribe), or just listen on the handy widget below. Or if you want to get episodes early, back me on my Patreon.

The Question in Bodies Podcast, Episode 4: Return to the House of Psychotic Women, feat. Kier-La Janisse

Emma Roberts in The Blackcoat's Daughter (2015)

In this episode I talk with festival programmer, writer and editor, and award-winning director of Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror Kier-La Janisse, about the imminently released new edition of her hugely influential book House of Psychotic Women. We talk about how Kier-La created a genre, her favourites of the films that have been made since, and just how much bigger the new edition is – which you can order at fabpress.com/hopw-expanded-edition-hardcover.html

The Question in Bodies Podcast, Episode 3: Bodies in Space, with Gwendolyn Kiste

It's episode 3! I'm super honoured to have with me multiple award winning author, Perky Goth style icon and official Nicest Person in Horror Gwendolyn Kiste. I talk with Gwendolyn – writer of The Rust Maidens, Boneset and Feathers, And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe and others – about the modern Gothic, the relationship of the human body to its environment and some other stuff, because we like digressions, like what an ambry is.

You should totally go and look at gwendolynkiste.com: her new novel, Reluctant Immortals, has just come out, so make sure you get on that. 

Listen on your favourite podcast outlet, or visit thequestioninbodies.podbean.com for all the episodes. 

The Question in Bodies Podcast, Episode 2: The Good For Her Cinematic Universe, with Eve Elizabeth Moriarty

We got as far as episode 2!

In this week's episode, I'm joined in a flurry of tripartite author names by my pal Eve Elizabeth Moriarty, to talk about the Good For Her Cinematic Universe: the "girl bossification" of horror, bad takes about The Witch (2015), Midsommar (2019) and Promising Young Woman (2020), and how all these things reflect more than just dodgy critique. 

Eve's take on Midsommar can be found here.

The podcast is gradually populating the usual podcast venues – Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, Spotify, Audible and others – but you can find the podcast site here.

Want to get episodes a couple of weeks early? Back my Patreon. It's literally only one American dollar a month. 

The Question in Bodies podcast, Episode 1: Hope, Joy and Storytelling, with Dr Monique Lacoste

 

(But what sort of Doctor are you?)

It's the beginning, and the moment has been prepared for. 

For the next nine weeks, we're going to be putting out Season One of the Question in Bodies podcast, a catalogue of inconclusive conversations about culture, gender, bodies, literature, movies and horror. In this first episode I'm joined by the first of a wide cast of friends, colleagues and co-conspirators, Dr. Monique Lacoste, to talk about what representation looks like, whether we can imagine a different world, and whether or not we can find genuine hope and joy in a storytelling environment saturated with capitalist realism. When the only show in town is the MCU, where is the genuine chance to have hope, joy and, dare we say it, love? 

Expect lots of questions, and few answers, but the getting there is entertaining.

We shout out to Raquel Benedict at Rite Gud in the course of this, which is our favourite podcast right now. Raquel is going to guest in a future episode (spoilers). 

Over the next few days, you'll be able to find The Question on the usual podcast sources – it's already gone to Spotify and Amazon; Google and Apple are soon to follow. 

Thanks to Steve Horry for our logo, and the banging theme tune.