Matriarchs of Horror

Hello, Matriarchs!
This week, author Cynthia Gomez joins the podcast to discuss her new novel, Muñeca which is a haunting exploration of identity, class, race, and the price women pay for inheriting legacies they never chose. We also dive into what it means to be third-generation Mexican American, the complexities of navigating two cultures at once, and the feeling of existing in a cultural limbo where you're never quite "enough" of either.

Hello, Matriarchs!
Single mothers have long occupied a complicated place in horror, often portrayed as unstable or even monstrous. In this new episode, I unpack the history of the "single mom" trope, exploring how the genre has used motherhood and societal fears to shape some of its most memorable characters.
Later I'm joined by author Emma Cleary to discuss her creepy debut novel, After Birth. We dive into postpartum horror, the pressures of modern motherhood, and why maternal fears make such fertile ground for the genre. See what I did there?! Whether you're a horror fan or just fascinated by the cultural anxieties horror reflects back at us, this episode is for you.

In this episode I’m getting into the “good guy” trope in horror and why it never really feels as safe as it’s supposed to. I talk about how horror keeps showing us this familiar figure: the man who seems kind, steady, “different from the others”… until he isn’t. And how often that image is less about who he actually is, and more about what we want to believe about him. Later on I sit down with author CJ Leede to talk about her new novel Headlights as well as her debut novel, Maeve Fly. We get into femininity, violence, and what it means when women are written as both vulnerable and terrifying at the same time.

Hello, Matriarchs! In this episode, I’m diving into the horror of aging as a woman in Hollywood and the cultural fear that surrounds it. Using films like Sunset Boulevard and The Substance as a lens, I explore why aging men in film are often granted complexity and continued desirability, while aging women are pushed toward invisibility and ridicule.

Why do men rape women? It’s a question people have been asking for years and one that still doesn’t have an easy answer. In this episode, I’m digging into how we actually learn to recognize consent and how often that understanding is shaped by implication instead of clear communication. I start with a recent CNN article that exposed an online network of men sharing and encouraging content about drugging and assaulting their partners while they’re unconscious, and use it as a jumping-off point to look at how these ideas are circulating in plain sight. From there, I break down what the data really says about sexual assault, and why simply knowing what consent is doesn’t always mean people respect it. Later, I’m joined by Hailey Piper, author of A Game in Yellow, to talk about kink, communication, and what those dynamics can teach us about consent and intimacy.