Why do some buildings feel unnerving, unsettling or just somehow wrong? Is it the location, the design, the geometry, or are there other forces at work? Why are we spooked by a house that doesn't feel like a home? What do the conventions and tropes of horror fiction and horror films reveal about our deepest anxieties about home? Why are we spooked by the echoes of former occupation in abandoned buildings? Is Birmingham city centre haunted by the ghost of Telly Savalas?To discuss these and many other questions, Stephen and Hannah meet up with the wonderful Leila Taylor to discuss ideas from Leila's excellent book - Sick Houses: Haunted Homes and the Architecture of Dread.Leila (she/they) is a Brooklyn-based writer, speaker, and designer whose work focuses on the intersection of history, horror and the gothic in contemporary art, media, and culture. Author of Sick Houses: Haunted Homes and the Architecture of Dread and Darkly: Black History and America’s Gothic Soul, her work has appeared in Lapham’s Quarterly, The Repeater Book of the Occult, Us: The Complete Annotated Screenplay, and the graphic novel Bitter Root. She’s given talks on the eerie and the esoteric for the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies, Morbid Anatomy, The International Gothic Association, The Collective for Radical Death Studies, and The Occult Humanities Conference. By day, she is the Creative Director for Brooklyn Public Library. You can find out more about Leila's work on Bluesky and Instagram.Works referenced in this podcast:Taylor, L. (2025), Sick Houses: Haunted Homes and the Architecture of Dread. Pliny the Younger, Epistulae (Letters), Book VII, Letter 27.Anson, J. (1977), The Amityville Horror.Antosca, N., & Zion, L (Creators), (2021), Brand New Cherry Flavor [TV series].Lowery, D. (Director), (2017), A Ghost Story [Film].Soderbergh, S. (Director), (2024), Presence [Film].Kiersch, F. (Director), (1984). Children of the Corn [Film].Lanthimos, Y. (Director), (2009), Dogtooth [Film].Golden, C. (2023), “The Importance of a Tidy Home” in Christmas and Other Horrors: A Winter Solstice Anthology, ed. Ellen DatlowHaynes, T. (Director), (1987), Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story [Film].Baim, H. (Director) (1981), Telly Savalas Looks at Birmingham

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