Horror Neurobiology (WATCHING SCARY STUFF) with Austin Lim

October 9, 2026 · 2 hr 17 min

Thrills. Chills. Hiding behind your hands. It’s officially SPOOKTOBER month with a huge, fascinating (and I promise, mellow) episode on why humans watch horror, and what’s happening in your brain. Not only do we have the author of “Horror on the Brain: the Neuroscience Behind Science Fiction,” neuroscientist Dr. Austin Lim, but this also features CUTS from other episodes to FLESH it all out. Enjoy the political sociology of zombies vs. vampires, feminist body horror, horror as anti-war art, liminal spaces, the best blood in the business, goosebumps and Goosebumps, evolutionary mismatches, why clowns unsettle you, and if horror is having its moment. (Note: it is.)

Also, we had to cap this at 2+ hours so if we don’t cover *your* favorite movie or series and you yell at me about it, I will roll my eyes so hard that I will die and then I will haunt you by hiding your car keys.

Visit Dr. Lim’s website and follow him on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube

Buy his book, Horror on the Brain: The Neuroscience Behind Science Fiction

A donation went to Homes For Animal Heroes and Homeboy Industries

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More episode sources and links

Other episodes you may enjoy: Spooktober: Topics to Startle and Love, Serpopsychology (WHAT’S CREEPY?), Fearology (FEAR), Teratology (MONSTERS), Vampirology (VAMPIRES), Mnemonology (MEMORY), Obsessive-Compulsive Neurobiology (OCD), The OCD Experience with a Neurobiologist, Trolleyology (MORAL DILEMMAS + THE TROLLEY PROBLEM), Desairology (MORTUARY MAKE-UP), Taphology (GRAVESITES), Metropolitan Tombology (PARIS CATACOMBS), Disgustology (REPULSION TO GROSS STUFF), Osteology (SKELETONS/BODY FARMS)