July 02, 2026

Backrooms & Liminal Space Folklore w/ Lynne McNeill

1 hour 22 minutes

Why does an empty office hallway feel scarier than a monster? Folklorist Dr. Lynne S. McNeill breaks down the psychology behind Backrooms, Severance, and the internet's obsession with liminal spaces.
If you've ever felt unsettled walking through an abandoned mall, a fluorescent-lit office at night, or scrolling past another eerie "backrooms" photo on your feed, this episode is for you. Host Aaron Sagers speaks with Dr. Lynne S. McNeill — folklore professor and Chair of the Folklore Program at Utah State University — to unpack why "liminality" has become one of horror's biggest cultural forces.
Lynne traces the concept back to anthropologist Arnold Van Gennep's work on rites of passage, then connects it straight through to Backrooms, Apple TV's Severance, Slender Man, analog horror, and the "uncanny" spaces that dominate TikTok and Reddit. They also dig into:

What "liminality" actually means — and why folklorists say it's nearly universal across cultures

How the COVID-19 pandemic supercharged our fascination with in-between, abandoned spaces

Why Gen Z and Gen Alpha are drawn to liminal horror even without nostalgia for malls or offices

The difference between "the Backrooms" as a place vs. the Backrooms as a mythology (and why that split matters)

AI, "latent space," and the unsettling folklore already forming around it (yes, they talk about Loab)

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The Talking Strange Show with Aaron Sagers is a weekly paranormal pop culture show featuring celebrity and author interviews, as well as experts in all things strange and unexplained. Talking Strange is a creation of Aaron Sagers with production help from Michael Ahr.

Host Aaron Sagers is a paranormal TV host and journalist who appears as host of 28 Days Haunted on Netflix, and on Paranormal Caught On Camera on Travel Channel, Discovery+, and MAX streaming service.

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Until Next Time:

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