Podcast Probe finds geek-centric podcasts worth putting in your brain via your ears.

Elder Sign 

Around these parts, weird fiction of the H.P. Lovecraft variety is one of our favorite things. It’s so much our favorite that RevSF co-founder Shane Ivey and a horde of awesome folks at Arc Dream Games make eldritch horror role-playing games such as Delta Green, Wild Talents, and lots of other cool things. You’ll need to go ahead and check them out right now.

I’ll wait.

That’s an ancient website joke, but I stand by it.

While I’m waiting, I’ve been listening to Claytemple Media’s Elder Sign podcast. It’s a book club in convenient podcast form, looking at works from Robert Bloch, Clark Ashton Smith,  and Robert E. Howard (whether Crom likes it or not).

The hosts are authors Glenn McDorman and Brandon Budda, and the first episode is up now, focusing on “Lucy Comes to Stay” by Robert Bloch.

I hadn’t read this story before, so I’m all in for the hosts digging into the story, discussing Bloch’s approach to horror writing, Cold War America at the time of the story’s release,  and addressing mental illness via horror . The authors point out that Bloch wrote it before he wrote “Psycho.”

I can’t wait for the next episode. Luckily, they have conveniently revealed upcoming topics. The March 11 episode will be “The Insanity of Jones” by Algernon Blackwood. Clark Ashton Smith’s “The Planet of the Dead” is next. In April, Robert R. Chambers’ “The Repairer of Reputations” is the focus.

I feel like my readings of Robert Bloch were lacking, but now I need to dig back into his stuff. I feel smarter now. Terrified, but smarter.

Follow Claytemple Media on the Twitters. Once you’ve had your soul totally wrecked by Elder Sign, Claytemple Media produces other things for you to listen to while you stare into the yawing abyss: The Gene Wolfe Literary Podcast and Lower Decks: A Star Trek Podcast.