The Night Crew Podcast

What do a stolen Colonel Sanders statue, a legendary blues guitarist, and two of history's greatest violinists have in common? Apparently, the devil has an excellent marketing department. In Episode 5 of the Cursed Objects series, horror author Brad Ricks takes a break from haunted dolls and deadly artifacts to explore some of history's strangest, funniest, and most unexpectedly tragic curses. Fir...

In this episode of The Night Crew Podcast, Brad Ricks sits down with horror author, screenwriter, and filmmaker Shane McKenzie for a wildly entertaining conversation about extreme horror, splatterpunk, KillerCon, horror movies, gross-out fiction, and the strange career path that took Shane from short stories to writing for Hollywood. Shane talks about cutting his teeth in horror anthologies, disco...

Can a movie, a role, or even a centuries-old play actually be cursed? In Episode 4 of the Cursed Objects series on The Night Crew Podcast, Brad Ricks leaves haunted dolls and cursed artifacts behind and heads straight into Hollywood and the theater to investigate three of entertainment history’s most enduring supernatural legends: the Superman Curse, the Poltergeist Curse, and the Curse of Macbeth...

In this episode of The Night Crew Podcast, Brad Ricks sits down with horror author Angel Ramon to talk about creature horror, zombies, cryptids, psychological horror, and the long road from writing his first novel to becoming known as the Frogmaster. Angel shares how he started publishing horror in 2017, rebuilt his writing career after Hurricane Maria, explored historical fiction under a separate...

Some cursed objects are blamed for bad luck. These ones have something darker attached to them: real deaths, real tragedy, and a body count. In Episode 3 of the Cursed Objects series on The Night Crew Podcast, Brad Ricks explores five infamous objects whose legends are tied to documented deaths, accidents, fires, and human suffering. From Busby’s Stoop Chair, supposedly cursed to kill anyone who s...

What makes an urban legend truly scary? Maybe it’s the tiny possibility that it actually happened. In this episode of The Night Crew Podcast, Brad Ricks sits down with horror writer M. Lee Goodson to talk about urban legends, cryptids, psychological horror, and the strange path that led her from inspirational writing to stories where things tend to go considerably darker. M. Lee discusses her love...

What’s worse than a cursed object bringing bad luck? A cursed object that seems to know you’re there. In Episode 2 of the Cursed Objects series, Brad Ricks dives into three of the most infamous supposedly haunted objects in modern paranormal lore: Annabelle, Robert the Doll, and the Dybbuk Box. First, forget the creepy porcelain face from The Conjuring. The real Annabelle doll is a seemingly harml...

Can an object actually be cursed—or are we just very good at turning tragedy into a story? In the first episode of a brand-new Cursed Objects series on The Night Crew Podcast, Brad Ricks digs into six of the most famous allegedly cursed artifacts in history: the Hope Diamond, the Koh-i-Noor, the Curse of Tutankhamun, the mysterious Basano Vase, the Delhi Purple Sapphire, and the Black Orlov Diamon...

Lilith may get all the attention, but she was never the only queen ruling the darkness. In this bonus episode of The Night Crew Podcast, Brad Ricks steps into the shadowy world of Jewish mysticism, Kabbalah, and the Sitra Achra to uncover the three demon queens who stood beside Lilith: Naamah, Agrat Bat Mahlat, and Eisheth Zenunim. Each queen rules a different territory of human fear. Naamah corru...

In this episode of The Night Crew Podcast, Brad Ricks sits down with horror author Kayla Frederick to talk about turning nightmares, trauma, and a love of 1980s horror into unforgettable dark fiction. Kayla shares the journey behind her Rituals of the Night series, including Dead by Morning, Alive at Sunset, and the upcoming Survive at Midnight, which she describes as Heathers meets A Nightmare on...

In this episode of The Night Crew Podcast, Brad Ricks sits down with Elizabeth DeVecchi to talk about her journey into horror writing, the strange sparks that turn into terrifying stories, and how fear itself can become creative fuel. Elizabeth shares how a quirky rescue dog inspired her debut novel A Whisper in the Dark, how her dark imagination started young, and why horror became the perfect ge...

In part four of this chilling Succubus series on The Night Crew Podcast, Brad Ricks brings the legend into the modern world. This episode explores the terrifying connection between succubus folklore and sleep paralysis, breaking down what happens in the brain when you wake up frozen, feel a weight on your chest, and sense something evil in the room. Brad also digs into modern succubus encounter re...

In this episode of The Night Crew Podcast, Brad Ricks sits down with Andrew Najberg for a deep dive into horror writing, indie publishing, and the passion it takes to keep dark stories alive. Andrew talks about his journey from poetry and fiction to publishing novels like The Mobius Door, Gollitok, Extinction Dream, The Neverborn Thief, and Eat the Light, while also helping shape the horror landsc...

In part three of this chilling Succubus series on The Night Crew Podcast, Brad Ricks explores the darkest turn in the legend’s history: the moment the succubus stopped being folklore and became part of the machinery of fear, theology, and execution. This episode dives into medieval demonology, the church’s obsession with incubi and succubi, the bizarre theology behind demon reproduction, and the h...

In this episode of The Night Crew Podcast, Brad Ricks sits down with Cassandra O’Sullivan Sachar to talk about teaching horror writing, building a life as an author and scholar, and why horror gives writers the freedom to explore both the grotesque and the deeply human. They discuss Cassandra’s work as an English professor, her popular horror writing class, her love of Edgar Allan Poe, and the ins...

In part two of this chilling Succubus series on The Night Crew Podcast, Brad Ricks takes listeners on a terrifying global tour of the world’s most haunting night demons and succubus-like creatures. From Lamia and Empusa in ancient Greece to the Manananggal in the Philippines, the Pontianak in Southeast Asia, Yuki-onna in Japan, the Rusalka in Slavic folklore, and the Shtriga in Albanian legend, th...

In this episode of The Night Crew Podcast, Brad Ricks sits down with Megan Stockton to talk about her writing journey, her love of horror fiction, and why she prefers to break the rules rather than follow them. They dive into Megan’s approach to self-publishing, writing in multiple dark genres, and creating stories that range from crime thrillers and atmospheric horror to extreme horror, splatterp...

The succubus has been turned into a Halloween costume, a video game boss, and a punchline — but the original version? She's older than vampires, older than werewolves, older than the word demon itself. Tonight, the Night Crew launches a brand-new series on the world's oldest night-predator, and we start where every good monster story starts: at the very beginning. In Episode 1 of the Succubi serie...

n this episode of The Night Crew Podcast, Brad Ricks sits down with Danielle Muething, the narrator of The Night Crew 2, for a deep dive into the world of horror audiobook narration. They talk about how Danielle got started as a professional actor turned audiobook narrator, what it takes to voice a full cast of characters, how she builds fear and tension using only her voice, and what it’s like br...

In this episode of The Night Crew Podcast, Brad Ricks sits down with S.E. Howard for a fun, insightful, and creepy conversation about her journey from paranormal romance to psychological horror, the craft of writing unsettling fiction, and her chilling latest novel, What Lies Unseen. They talk about haunted abilities, communicating with the dead, building dread, writing believable fear, surviving...

What happens when hunger becomes something far worse than survival? In this chilling episode of The Night Crew Podcast, Brad Ricks dives deep into the terrifying legend of the Wendigo, one of the most haunting creatures in Native American and First Nations folklore. This episode explores the Algonquin origins of the Wendigo myth, its connection to winter, isolation, cannibalism, and the horrifying...

In this episode of The Night Crew Podcast, Brad Ricks sits down with Ali Toothman to talk about her writing journey, her emotionally raw revenge horror novel Libby Lives, and how horror became both an escape and a form of healing. Ali opens up about starting with poetry and flash fiction, battling imposter syndrome, navigating the indie horror world, and why writing dark, violent, and psychologica...

Is The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde secretly a werewolf story? In this chilling episode of The Night Crew Podcast, Brad Ricks heads into Victorian London, gothic horror, and the dark psychology of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novella to explore the beast hiding beneath respectability. From duality, transformation horror, and the fear of the monster within, this episode connects Jeky...

Tonight on the Night Crew Podcast, Brad Ricks heads deep into the dark legends of the American Southwest to explore the terrifying myth of the Skinwalker. Rooted in Navajo folklore, the Skinwalker is not your typical monster — it’s a shape-shifting witch tied to taboo, fear, voice mimicry, and stories so disturbing they make the classic werewolf legend feel almost safe. From the meaning of yee naa...

What happens when French werewolf legends cross the Atlantic and sink into the Louisiana swamp? They become the Rougarou. In this episode of The Night Crew Podcast, Brad Ricks continues the werewolf deep dive, moving from the Beast of Gévaudan and the Beast of Bray Road into Cajun country to explore the terrifying legend of the Rougarou (also spelled Loup-Garou or Roux-Ga-Roux) — Louisiana’s curse...