It's our annual Halloween special! For this year, the script kind of wrote itself. We look at the way our current, actual horror is likely to affect our future fictional horror through the lens of the genre's past distinct historical eras.

Plus: A new study that seems to say that horror fans were better prepared for the pandemic than the wimpy rest of us were.

And: Every year on this show, for no particular reason, we look specifically at some classic horror movie that's celebrating its 40th anniversary. Two years ago, it was Halloween. Last year, it was Alien. This year, it's Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.

And finally: The always-spooky staff endorsements.

Note: This podcast version of the show is nearly four full minutes longer than the show as it's airing on WNPR. We couldn't fit all the good stuff into the constraints of radio, so we present to you here the show as we really wanted to make it.

GUESTS:

• Carmen Baskauf - A producer for Where We Live on Connecticut Public Radio
• James Hanley - Co-founder of Cinestudio at Trinity College
• Betsy Kaplan - Our senior producer
• Ryan Caron King - Visuals journalist for Connecticut Public
• Megan McCluskey - A reporter for Time magazine
• Carlos Mejia - Digital audience manager for Connecticut Public
• David Mikics - The author of Stanley Kubrick: American Filmmaker
• Ali Oshinskie - A reporter covering the Naugatuck River Valley for Connecticut Public Radio
• Coltan Scrivner - A PhD candidate in the Department of Comparative Human Development at The University of Chicago
• Catie Talarski - Senior director of storytelling and radio programming for Connecticut Public

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.