On this episode of Talking Strange, host Aaron Sagers is joined by Rodney Barnes — the award-winning writer behind Killadelphia, Blacula, The Boondocks, and the new hardcover collection of the Batman vs. Werewolf book, Batman: Full Moon for DC Comics (available May 13). He's also the voice of the successful narrative horror podcast Run, Fool! and will soon be taking on new stories in the 30 Days of Night universe.

Barnes discusses how growing up as a Universal Monsters kid helped shape his creative voice and love of horror, and he shares stories of how the tradition of oral storytelling — especially spooky stories told by his grandmother — deeply influenced his perspective and writing.

From the gothic shadows of Dracula to the caped crusader battling werewolves, Barnes explores the intersection of pop culture, race, and the supernatural in his work. Whether you’re a comic book fan, a lover of monster movies, or someone who grew up hearing stories that made you look twice at the dark, this conversation is for you.

Subscribe, rate, and share if you're strange like us.

More about Rodney Barnes:

Rodney Barnes is an award-winning writer, producer, and comic book creator whose vibrant, emphatic voice has established him as a Hollywood mainstay.

Barnes was most recently an executive producer and writer for HBO’s Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, chronicling the professional and personal lives of the 1980s Showtime Lakers.

His publishing imprint, Zombie Love Studios, is dedicated to storytelling through unique BIPOC perspectives, including Killadelphia—nominated for an Eisner Award, Blacula: Return of the King—an adaptation of the cult horror classic, Monarch—an apocalyptic sci-fi adventure series following a group of Compton school kids in the midst of an alien invasion, and Florence & Normandie—a collaboration with artist/entertainer Xzibit.

Additionally, Barnes hosted the Winning Time Podcast, and is host & co-creator of the Run, Fool! podcast—a collaboration between MrBallen, At Will Media, and Campside Media with 800K downloads a month and ranked 38th in true crime fiction podcasts.

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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.

If you like Talking Strange, please subscribe, leave a nice review, and share with your friends. The Talking Strange Paranormal Show is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you check out spooky content. Connect with the show community on Facebook as well.

Email us with episode ideas, guest suggestions, and spooky stories: [email protected]

Follow Host Aaron Sagers:

Twitter/X

Blue Sky

Instagram

Facebook

TikTok

Patreon

(For Q&As, livestreams, cocktail classes, and movie watches)

Until Next Time:

Be Kind.

Stay Spooky.

Keep It Weird.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this "Small Talk" minisode of Talking Strange, host Aaron shares an audience-submitted story about a paranormal road trip where they investigated six haunted locations over the course of 10 days (including Mothman's hometown of Point Pleasant, Trans Allegheny Asylum, Old Blackford County Jail, Randolph County Infirmary, Whispers Estate, and Fowler Theater. During the journey, they encountered a floating ghost torso at the Lowe Hotel, and a whistling ghost in the Farrar Elementary School. Did the journey make them more attuned to paranormal activity? And did they have hitchhiking ghosts that accumulated and joined them from one location to the next? Listen in, and share your own thoughts!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the corn…

Director Eli Craig (Tucker and Dale vs Evil) returns to the horror scene with Clown in a Cornfield — opening in theaters May 9 — a brutal, blood-soaked love letter to ‘80s slashers and the haunted heartland of America. Based on Adam Cesare’s cult YA horror novel, this new film brings back killer clowns, generational tension, and practical gore like you haven’t seen in years. Host Aaron Sagers talks to Eli about the horror DNA in the new movie, the dangers of actual cornfields vs. clowns, directing a cast of tough Gen-Z actors, and the future of the Cornfield Universe.

Clown in a Cornfield hits theaters May 9. Don’t miss this one.

Official Synopsis:

In Clown in a Cornfield, Quinn and her father have just moved to the quiet town of Kettle Springs hoping for a fresh start. Instead, she discovers a fractured community that has fallen on hard times after the treasured Baypen Corn Syrup Factory burned down. As the locals bicker amongst themselves and tensions boil over, a sinister, grinning figure emerges from the cornfields to cleanse the town of its burdens, one bloody victim at a time. Welcome to Kettle Springs. The real fun starts when Frendo the clown comes out to play. Directed by Eli Craig with a screenplay by Carter Blanchard and Eli Craig; based on the novel by Adam Cesare; starring Katie Douglas, Aaron Abrams, Carson MacCormac, Vincent Muller, Kevin Durand, and Will Sasso.

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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.

If you like Talking Strange, please subscribe, leave a nice review, and share with your friends. The Talking Strange Paranormal Show is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you check out spooky content. Connect with the show community on Facebook as well.

Email us with episode ideas, guest suggestions, and spooky stories: [email protected]

Follow Host Aaron Sagers:

Twitter/X

Blue Sky

Instagram

Facebook

TikTok

Patreon

(For Q&As, livestreams, cocktail classes, and movie watches)

Until Next Time:

Be Kind.

Stay Spooky.

Keep It Weird.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did a group of Sasquatch visit a Talking Strange listener, and warn her to stop a secret program that was harming them? That's part of the story in this week's Small Talk episode, where host Aaron reads reader-submitted tales of the strange and unusual. Mary writes in to tell of her dreamquest where Sasquatches are being harmed by something that sounds a lot like government interference with the message to "Stop Project Wildflower." What does this mean, and does it make any sense?

Listen in, offer your reactions, and share your own stories — which you can do by emailing [email protected]

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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.

If you like Talking Strange, please subscribe, leave a nice review, and share with your friends. The Talking Strange Paranormal Show is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you check out spooky content. Connect with the show community on Facebook as well.

Email us with episode ideas, guest suggestions, and spooky stories: [email protected]

Follow Host Aaron Sagers:

Twitter/X

Blue Sky

Instagram

Facebook

TikTok

Patreon

(For Q&As, livestreams, cocktail classes, and movie watches)

Until Next Time:

Be Kind.

Stay Spooky.

Keep It Weird.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host Aaron Sagers interviews actor Emeraude Toubia (Shadowhunters) and director Felipe Vargas (Milk Teeth), the star and filmmaker behind the new horror movie Rosario. Opening in theaters May 2, Rosario follows a Wall Street stockbroker, played by Toubia, who returns to her late grandmother’s apartment — only to uncover a terrifying secret. As she sorts through her grandmother’s belongings, Rosario stumbles across a hidden chamber filled with occult artifacts tied to dark generational rituals and supernatural forces rooted in real-world beliefs.

A chilling and fun mix of Evil Dead and Drag Me to Hell, Rosario blends gooey practical monster effects with a heartfelt story about immigrant families, grief, and buried trauma. Aaron talks with Toubia and Vargas about crafting a new kind of horror film, representing cultural horror stories authentically, and why real rituals sometimes make the scariest monsters.

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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.

If you like Talking Strange, please subscribe, leave a nice review, and share with your friends. The Talking Strange Paranormal Show is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you check out spooky content. Connect with the show community on Facebook as well.

Email us with episode ideas, guest suggestions, and spooky stories: [email protected]

Follow Host Aaron Sagers:

Twitter/X

Blue Sky

Instagram

Facebook

TikTok

Patreon

(For Q&As, livestreams, cocktail classes, and movie watches)

Until Next Time:

Be Kind.

Stay Spooky.

Keep It Weird.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[This episode first ran on May 31, 2023.]

Why do we like to be scared? What’s the difference in fear between a haunted house attraction and ghost hunters in a “real” haunted house? What is fearmongering, and the evolving fears of society? And what’s up with being afraid of clowns, aliens, Bigfoot, and even wide open spaces?

Margee Kerr is a sociologist and author. She earned her PhD in 2009 from the University of Pittsburgh and currently teaches and conducts research on fear — specifically how and why people engage in 'scary' experiences like haunted attractions, horror movies, and paranormal investigations. She enjoys working as a consultant for attractions and museums and is the author of SCREAM: Chilling Adventures in the Science of Fear named as a must-read by The Washington Post. And author of Ouch! Why Pain Hurts and Why It Doesn’t Have To. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Parade, Atlantic Monthly, and NPR’s Science Friday.

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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.

If you like Talking Strange, please subscribe, leave a nice review, and share with your friends. The Talking Strange Paranormal Show is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you check out spooky content. Connect with the show community on Facebook as well.

Email us with episode ideas, guest suggestions, and spooky stories: [email protected]

Follow Host Aaron Sagers:

Twitter/X

Blue Sky

Instagram

Facebook

TikTok

Patreon

(For Q&As, livestreams, cocktail classes, and movie watches)

Until Next Time:

Be Kind.

Stay Spooky.

Keep It Weird.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this wild and weird episode of Talking Strange, host Aaron Sagers shares two firsthand accounts of high strangeness — and they're both absolute head-scratchers.

First up: Alysia, a loyal Patreon supporter, recalls the unforgettable night she saw the Easter Bunny… but not the costume-clad kind. We’re talking tall, furry, lifelike, and wearing yellow shoes and a bow tie. Was it an alien? A childhood manifestation? An actual cryptid rabbit delivering baskets? We don’t know, and that’s the point.

Then we travel to Carson City, Nevada, in the Reno Tahoe Territory. At The Fox Brewery and Pub, located inside the historic and allegedly haunted St. Charles Hotel, Aaron sits down with a Nevada Deputy Attorney General who goes on the record with a chilling tale of paranormal activity and strange encounters on Lake Tahoe, involving odd entities, and maybe something in the water.

This episode is packed with high weirdness, haunted history, and the reminder that — sometimes — it’s okay to not have all the answers.

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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.

If you like Talking Strange, please subscribe, leave a nice review, and share with your friends. The Talking Strange Paranormal Show is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you check out spooky content. Connect with the show community on Facebook as well.

Email us with episode ideas, guest suggestions, and spooky stories: [email protected]

Follow Host Aaron Sagers:

Twitter/X

Blue Sky

Instagram

Facebook

TikTok

Patreon

(For Q&As, livestreams, cocktail classes, and movie watches)

Until Next Time:

Be Kind.

Stay Spooky.

Keep It Weird.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this live-recorded episode of Talking Strange, host Aaron Sagers welcomes special guest Eric Altman — cryptozoologist, paranormal researcher, and director of the Pennsylvania Cryptozoology Society — to dive deep into one of Pennsylvania’s hottest recent Bigfoot cases.

Eric, a veteran investigator with nearly three decades of fieldwork experience, shares the fascinating story behind the April 2024 Roaring Spring, PA investigation, where he and his team uncovered massive 15-inch-long tracks in the mud. Hear about the incredible discovery, the casting process, and why experts like Cliff Barackman and Dr. Jeff Meldrum believe the evidence is the real deal.

Plus, Aaron and Eric discuss the state of Bigfoot research today, media appearances, why Pennsylvania remains a hotspot for Sasquatch sightings — and his Pennsylvania Bigfoot Camping Adventure.

Get ready for an episode packed with footprints, fieldwork, and plenty of cryptid curiosity.

Learn more about Eric Altman at:

ericaltman.net

pabigfoot.com

pacryptosociety.com

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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.

If you like Talking Strange, please subscribe, leave a nice review, and share with your friends. The Talking Strange Paranormal Show is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you check out spooky content. Connect with the show community on Facebook as well.

Email us with episode ideas, guest suggestions, and spooky stories: [email protected]

Follow Host Aaron Sagers:

Twitter/X

Blue Sky

Instagram

Facebook

TikTok

Patreon

(For Q&As, livestreams, cocktail classes, and movie watches)

Until Next Time:

Be Kind.

Stay Spooky.

Keep It Weird.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Talking Strange, we pause to share a couple listener submitted stories. First up, listener Mike shares his tales from Virginia City, Nevada. After hearing our episodes about the Reno Tahoe Territory, and visiting the Washoe Club, he wanted to talk about perhaps encountering the ghost of an old cowboy.

Then, listener Chad tells about his personal connection to the UFO over Lake Oneida, New York, in 1997. Occurring just a few months after the famed Phoenix Lights, this looked remarkably similar. As if that's not strange enough, Chad's family's footage of the lights gained enough attention that he believes it is connected to a visitation of strange Men in Black-type characters, as well as his own mystery illness.

Don't forget to submit your own stories so you, too, can be included in a future episode.

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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.

If you like Talking Strange, please subscribe, leave a nice review, and share with your friends. The Talking Strange Paranormal Show is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you check out spooky content. Connect with the show community on Facebook as well.

Email us with episode ideas, guest suggestions, and spooky stories: [email protected]

Follow Host Aaron Sagers:

Twitter/X

Blue Sky

Instagram

Facebook

TikTok

Patreon

(For Q&As, livestreams, cocktail classes, and movie watches)

Until Next Time:

Be Kind.

Stay Spooky.

Keep It Weird.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What lurks in the shadows? On this episode of Talking Strange, host Aaron Sagers sits down with Derek Hayes, creator and host of the hit podcast Monsters Among Us, where real people share their spine-tingling encounters with the paranormal, cryptids, UFOs, and all things unexplained.

Derek dives into his own eerie experiences, what fuels his passion for mysteries of the unknown, and why firsthand witness accounts make Monsters Among Us so uniquely terrifying. Plus, Aaron and Derek share some favorite monster encounter calls, bringing the chills straight to the Talking Strange audience.

Are these tales of ghosts, Bigfoot, alien abductions, and bizarre beasts real? That’s for you to decide. Tune in—if you dare.

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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.

If you like Talking Strange, please subscribe, leave a nice review, and share with your friends. The Talking Strange Paranormal Show is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you check out spooky content. Connect with the show community on Facebook as well.

Email us with episode ideas, guest suggestions, and spooky stories: [email protected]

Follow Host Aaron Sagers:

Twitter/X

Blue Sky

Instagram

Facebook

TikTok

Patreon

(For Q&As, livestreams, cocktail classes, and movie watches)

Until Next Time:

Be Kind.

Stay Spooky.

Keep It Weird.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices