Why Are We Morbidly Curious - The Paranormal Podcast 902

The Paranormal Podcast

Jim Harold

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.5 • 4.9K Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Why do we slow down to stare at accidents, binge horror movies, or devour true crime podcasts? What draws us toward the dark and disturbing even when it frightens us? To explore this fascinating question, I’m joined by Dr. Colton Scrivner, a behavioral scientist and the world’s leading expert on morbid curiosity. His new book, Morbidly Curious: A Scientist Explains Why We Can’t Look Away, digs into the psychology behind our obsession with danger, horror, and the macabre. We discuss: Why our brains are wired to pay attention to danger How horror movies and haunted houses safely feed our fears Why true crime is especially popular with women The evolutionary roots of fear — and how morbid curiosity can actually help us Morbidly Curious releases October 7, 2025, wherever you buy books. Here is the link to buy at Amazon: https://amzn.to/3KAizdZ Thanks Dr. Scrivner! -- LORAIN PUBLIC LIBRARY EVENT Join Jim at the Lorain Public Main Library on the evening of October 8th for “An Evening Around The Campfire” with Jim Harold. You can register here: https://www.lorainpubliclibrary.org/programs?action=show&id=44596 -- JIM’S MAUSOLEUM OF MERCHSupport the shows! Get spooky gear from Jim’s Mausoleum of Merch: https://jimharoldsmausoleum.etsy.com/ JIM’S SPOOKY STUDIO PLUS CLUBGet access to the entire back catalog of Jim Harold’s Campfire, The Paranormal Podcast & exclusive Plus ONLY shows. That’s over 2,500 episodes. Join today here: https://jimharold.com/plus--- For more information on our podcast data policy CLICK HERE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Why are we morbidly curious? We'll find out today on the paranormal podcast.
0:19.3	Welcome to the paranormal podcast. I'm Jim Harold. So glad to be with you today. Now, have you
0:23.9	often wondered, why do we rubberneck when there's a car accident? Why do we turn on that
0:31.6	gory horror movie? Why can't we turn away when the worst things happen?
0:38.3	I mean, it's the way we're wired, I think.
0:41.1	We're going to find out today we've got a great guest with a new book out that kind of perfectly fits this theme.
0:46.6	It is called Morbidly Curious.
0:49.0	A scientist explains why we can't look away, and our guest today is Dr. Colton Scrivener. He is a behavioral
0:55.8	scientist and horror entertainment producer. We're going to ask him about those dual roles there.
1:01.5	That's interesting. He's the world's leading expert on the science behind morbid curiosity
1:05.6	and the appeal of frightening entertainment. He is also the executive director of the
1:10.6	Nightmare in the Ozarks
1:11.8	film festival and the Eureka Springs Zombie Crawl, one of the largest gatherings of zombies in the
1:18.5	world. And we're so glad to have him with us. Dr. Scribner, thank you for joining us. I appreciate it.
1:25.4	Yeah. Thank you for having me on. So first of all, I've got to ask,
1:30.0	how does a behavioral scientist become a horror entertainment producer? Maybe I should ask that
1:36.9	the other way around. How did that happen for you? Yeah, I mean, a scientist came first,
1:42.8	and I think when you study something as maybe niche
1:47.1	as why we're interested in scary things, then sometimes, you know, industry leaders that
1:55.0	want to know something about why we're interested in scary things will hire you to consult with them.
2:00.4	And if you do it enough,
2:01.6	you get enough knowledge about it, then you kind of start hosting your own stuff. So that's how I came
	...

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