Episode 27 of Our First Fears is a chat with author, Aaron Starmer, about the Satanic Panic of the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. We get into our own memories of the cultural paranoia surrounding the supposed existence of murderous cults and the myriad ways talk show hosts and news reports assured us that they would corrupt our young minds . . . and SOULS.

Aaron Starmer is the author of many books for young readers including The Riverman Trilogy, the Locker 37 series, Spontaneous, Night Swimming, and A Million Views. Several of his titles have appeared on best of the year lists from Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, New York Public Library, YALSA, Bank Street College of Education, Chicago Public Library and School Library Journal. His latest, You Are Now Old Enough to Hear this, is available now . . . Find all of Aaron’s books now at your favorite local bookshop.

Dan Poblocki is the bestselling author of the recent novels Tales to Keep You Up at Night and More Tales to Keep You Up at Night, along with Ghost Hunter’s Daughter, Liars’ Room, The Stone Child, The Nightmarys and others. His picture book with James Rey Sanchez, My Brother’s Butt is Haunted, is available now from Penguin Workshop.

Follow the Our First Fears podcast on Instagram @ourfirstfears & @danpoblox and Bluesky @danpoblock.bsky.social. And feel free to reach out at ourfirstfears@gmail.com or through the website, danpoblocki.com

In Episode 26, author Mar Romasco-Moore talks about their love for the cult classic Disney film, Return to Oz and how it influenced their latest young adult novel, Deadstream. This is one of our favorite films EVER, and if you haven’t seen it, you absolutely must. It’s got Dorothy Gale escaping a psychiatric hospital, a talking chicken side-kick, the Emerald City in ruins, a headless princess with nefarious intentions, and a king made of stone who REALLY loves Dorothy’s infamous ruby slippers. We explore the whys and hows of the making of this film and the repercussions of its possibly unintentional horrors on unsuspecting young viewers, like us.

Mar Romasco-Moore is also the author of the novels I Am the Ghost in Your House, Krazyland, Some Kind of Animal, and Ghostographs: An Album. Their new book, Deadstream, hit shelves on April 1st, 2025.

Dan Poblocki is the bestselling author of the recent novels Tales to Keep You Up at Night and More Tales to Keep You Up at Night, along with Ghost Hunter’s Daughter, Liars’ Room, The Stone Child, The Nightmarys and others. His picture book with James Rey Sanchez, My Brother’s Butt is Haunted, is arriving July 29th, 2025 from Penguin Workshop. Pre-order your copy RIGHT THIS MINUTE by visiting danpoblocki.com.

Follow the Our First Fears podcast on Instagram @ourfirstfears & @danpoblox and Bluesky @danpoblock.bsky.social. And feel free to reach out at ourfirstfears@gmail.com.

Bestselling author, Grady Hendrix, joins Our First Fears for Episode 25 to talk about growing up as a cold-war kid, terrorized by constant reports in the 1980s of threats of a nuclear strike. He found strange solace in certain books and movies at that time, specifically Warday, The Steel, the Mist, and the Blazing Sun, Special Bulletin, and Threads. We chat about these titles and others, along with the primal places in pop-culture from where these stories may have burst, as well as how young people process The News, which, more and more, feels like its own horror subgenre.

Grady Hendrix is the Stoker Award winning author of Horrorstör, My Best Friend’s Exorcism, We Sold Our Souls, The Final Girl Support Group, The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, How to Sell a Haunted House, and more. His non-fiction collaboration with Will Errickson, Paperbacks from Hell, is a history of the horror fiction boom of the 1970s and 80s. His latest novel, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, came out in January of 2025.

Dan Poblocki is the bestselling author of the recent novels Tales to Keep You Up at Night and More Tales to Keep You Up at Night, along with Ghost Hunter’s Daughter, Liars’ Room, The Stone Child, The Nightmarys and others. His picture book with James Rey Sanchez, My Brother’s Butt is Haunted, is arriving July 29th, 2025 from Penguin Workshop. Pre-order your copy RIGHT THIS MINUTE by visiting danpoblocki.com.

Follow the Our First Fears podcast on Instagram @ourfirstfears & @danpoblox and Bluesky @danpoblock.bsky.social. And feel free to reach out at ourfirstfears@gmail.com.