Beards, Books, and Bourbon Podcast

Remember all of those scary movies from the 80's that centered around Halloween or the legends of Halloween?  Yeah, Christopher Golden does too, but when he takes that concept and runs it through his own brand of nightmare fuel, the product that you get isn't cheesy camp.  This is 80's horror with a twist and a stake through its heart to amp up the terror. It's a good thing then that Stephen and M...

What happens when you mix two guys, a bottle of bourbon, and an army of gore fiend automatons?  Either nothing good, or something funny.  Maybe both.

Once again we go downt he rabbit hole with T Kingfisher as we get sucked into her novel "The Twisted Ones".  We love Kingfisher's style of writing, her protagonists, and the masterful way she laces cosmic horror into everyday life and the banal challenges we all have to face.  But banality slips quickly into horror and madness.  To keep us safe, we're going to need the Duke himself, or at least th...

With special guest star Basil Hayden Burnt TOAST.  Because that word should always be in all caps.  Like this.  TOAST.

This week Stephen and Mark explore the slopes of Mount Ararat where, according to lore, Noah's Ark came to rest after the great flood of the world.  Their guide will be author, Christopher Golden, who delights in bringing people to some the oldest and most terrifying places.  It's said that Noah brought at least two of every creature upon the Earth.  What might tourists to the long forgotten Ark f...

We all have our favorites, don't we?  In this episode, we try some Doc Swinson bourbon while chatting about some of our favorite characters from the show and beyond.

Sometimes things fall apart, including show hosts.  Enjoy!

In this episode we explore the world of shadow magic, secrety societies, and of course...murder.  Pairing this wonderful book by Holly Black with something appropriately magical in a dark sort of manner, we will be sampling Jim Beam Double Oaked.

What do you do when you learn that you can't do everything with the time you've got?  Well, we don't know what you would do, but you can find out what we would do with Piggyback Rye.

How manage our time isn't about adopting the habits of the most effectively productive people, or working the 20 hour work week, or even finding that perfect spreadsheet to spread your data in all the best ways.  NO!  In 4,000 Weeks, we learn that managing our time is all about managing ourselves, our priorities, and our expectations. It's a deep topic this week, and we're going to need a really s...

Holy villainy, Batman!  We forgot to talk about the antagonists in "Fairy Tale" by Stephen King.  Tonight, we pair the book with with my Christmas present.  Noble Oak Double Oaked Bourbon.

Come on, all you Gen Xers out there.  It's time to get your literary D&D hats on.  Pick up your Zork lanterns at the bottom of the winding stair or else you might be eaten by a grue as we take on a classic trope by one of our favorite authors.  In tonight's episode we talk about "Fairy Tale" by Stephen King, and his take on the classic modern version of this genre.  Paired with it, we will taste C...

In this oopsisode, we discuss something we didn't get the chance to talk about during the main show.  Two words.   GHOST.  BABY.   Really, after something like that the only thing we can do to recover from this is to revisit our old friend, Smoke Wagon Bourbon.

It's Season 3, and it's time to get weird!  We start the season off with a book where ghosts are a drug, and seeing your loved ones again is an addiction.  Do you want to get haunted?  You will in "Ghost Eaters" by Clay McLeod Chapman.  We'll get even stranger with our tasting of Redwood Empire bourbon.  An amazing bourbon with a deceptively creepy illustration on the bottle.

We're so excited for Season 3 to begin, we just HAD to chat about it a bit.  Enjoy!

Just remember!  All celebrity endorsements are completely FAKE.

In the finale of Season 2, Stephen and Mark talk about what horror really is.  It's a dark conversation, and they lighten the load by engaging in the much talked about Old Fashioned Challenge with three bourbons in three cocktails for two idiots. Thanks for a great season, and we will see you again in January!

What's a good ghost story without ghosts??  Stephen and Mark discuss the supernatural elements of both "Just Like Home" by Sarah Gailey and Piggyback Rye by Whistlepig.

In this week's episode, Stephen and Mark go back home to a happy nest of murder and disfunction in the novel "Just Like Home" by Sarah Gailey.  As they polish the silver with the blood of their enemies, they will sample the dazzlingly good Uncle Nearest Tennessee Whiskey.

Stephen and Mark are getting ready for the big season 2 finale.  Also...they have high schoolers.  High school activities in the Fall are BRUUUUUUTAL.  As before, we've added on a little bit, but it's really interested to hear just how far we've come from when we got started.  ENJOY.

What would a Russian fairytale as dark as rancid tree sap be without an old shaman woman conjuring the ghosts of dead prisoners and laying them to rest on the Road of Bones??  Right, and yet we forgot to talk about her.  OOPS.  Pairing up with this, we explore New Riff once more.

With it being such a master class in fast paced cosmic horror fiction, it might be better to call it what we wished we could forget.  Some of those images are never coming out of our brains, but we loved it.  In the epsiode we will be drinking to it!

Khan once said that it is very cold in space, but he'd never been on the Road of Bones in Siberia!  In this novel by Christopher Golden, we will explore the bleakness of the coldest inhabited place on Earth, and the folklore that resides there with the people in this fast paced, hard hitting, unapologetically terrifying book!  To keep our spirits warm, we will be sampling Barrel Armida Bourbon onc...

Stephen and Mark travel to different worlds were tentacles are replaced wtih roots...and organs.  Come take a wild backwater cosmic horror ride in T. Kingfisher's "The Hollow Places".  They will explore something else wild and complex with Piggyback 100% Rye.