I sat down with my friend Joy Owings for a Halloween special: horror movies, Halloween trivia, and the time she walked into a cadaver lab and found nothing but a head on a table.

Joy is a nurse practitioner who teaches nursing at Belmont, and she's my best friend's girl and my girl's best friend. She's also the biggest horror fan I know. We get into her top picks of the season (Obsession, Backrooms, Hokum), why horror is having a moment, why a nurse who isn't squeamish about blood and guts is scared to death of mold, and why she doesn't like candy (it makes her face go numb). Plus multiple-choice trivia, Halloween jokes that did not land, a jump scare from Adam, and an appearance by Polly the poodle in her Elphaba costume.

Recorded at Treehouse HQ, Nashville.

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0:00 – Welcome, Joy Owings

1:30 – Best & Worst Halloween Costumes (Polly the K9)

3:35 – Can You Get Arrested in a Cop Costume?

5:12 – Halloween Plans: New York & Lord Farquaad

7:00 – The 15-Foot Skeleton Question

7:43 – Halloween Trivia, Round 1

11:53 – The Severed Head: A Cadaver Lab Story

18:31 – Back to Trivia: Before Candy Was Candy

21:10 – The Poisoned Candy Myth & the 1974 "Candy Man" Case

23:49 – Should We Scare Kids? Haunted Houses

26:50 – Watching Horror Alone: Obsession & Backrooms

29:49 – Joy's Top Horror Movies of the Season

33:37 – Joy's Backrooms Theory

36:42 – Why Horror Works: Suspiria, Black Swan, A Quiet Place & Get Out

43:11 – Midterms, Three Days After Halloween

44:00 – Is Being Scared of Halloween Really a Phobia?

45:34 – Polly Joins + What We're Spending This Year

48:02 – Candy Trivia (From Someone Who Doesn't Like Candy)

51:07 – Ranking the Worst Halloween Candy

52:28 – Why Chocolate Costs So Much This Year

54:43 – Not Squeamish About Blood & Guts… But Afraid of Mold

58:27 – Why Joy Doesn't Eat Candy

1:02:00 – Halloween Jokes (Tough Crowd)

1:04:16 – Adam's Jump Scare

1:06:53 – Hot Take: New Horror Beats Old Horror

1:07:57 – Joy's Horror Movie Recommendations

1:12:17 – Wrap Up

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Joy's picks: The Silence of the Lambs, Parasite, Late Night with the Devil, Fresh, Hereditary, Get Out, Us, A Quiet Place, Black Swan

Follow Joy Owings:

📸 Instagram: @almonddjoyyy

🎬 Letterboxd:

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