2025 was a great year for talks but it’s hard to catch them all! Here are the top ten most-watched new talks of 2025. Did you catch them? What was your favourite talk this year? Share it and give it some love!
10) An Introduction to Radio Gothic with Alexia Ainsworth
The radio Gothic is something I knew very little about before this talk but Alexia’s tour gave me a place to start exploring. She introduces a range of important series and discusses some fascinating details of production!
9) The Horror of Hair with L. Marie Wood
How horrifying can a little hair be? As L. Marie Wood explores, there’s plenty of horror to be found in hair (on and off-screen!) This is a snappy little talk at just under 15 minutes if you don’t have much time to scare but want to watch something both fun and thought-provoking!
8) Dracula as Survival Cannibal: Shipwrecks, Starvation and Blood-Drinking at Sea with Emma Probett
This talk explores the history of blood-drinking and cannibalism at sea as a context for Dracula. It is, and I do not exaggerate, absolutely fascinating history and it might having you rereading Dracula in new ways!
7) Evangelical Horror and Christian Nationalist Themes in The Conjuring I and II with Zachary Dorion
This talk explores the Evangelical politics and demonology informing the (seemingly Catholic) Conjuring series. It’s a really interesting exploration (and goes a lot deeper into some of the thoughts that I had watching the first film). It’s all a bit too timely.
6) We Have Been Here Before: Haunted Houses in Time with Dan Pietersen
Dan is a Romancing the Gothic regular and his talks are always excellent. This is the latest in his series on Haunted Houses (there’s a Dan playlist on the channel here if you want to catch up with the rest!)
5) A Hellhole in Derbyshire with Sophie Sawicka-Sykes
We were joined by Sophie Sawicka-Sykes for a deep-dive into the folklore and history around Elden/Eldon hole in Derbyshire, the inspiration for her latest book! It’s a fascinating dive into some fairly wild history but brace yourself if you’re afraid of the dark, small holes, or people getting stuck forever!
4) ‘Thakumar Jhuli’ – The Ghost Stories of Bengali Folklore with Arya Ray
Whether you’re familiar with the stories explored here or whether it’s a completely new topics, Arya Ray offers an illuminating exploration of the tales under discussion, their history and their current manifestations
3) Negative Virtue, Natural Vice and Gothic Sensibility in Ann Radcliffe’s Romance of the Forest with Sam Hirst
This was a talk by yours truly and I think we all know that with a title like that there was algorithmic magic at play to get it into the top 3. It doesn’t mean it’s not interesting though (admittedly… I may be biased). Come explore libertine philosophers, men with missing spines, and the kind of heroism any heroine could live without!
2) An Introduction to Asexuality in Horror with Vicky Brewster
Asexuality still gets little scholarly attention in the fields of film and literature studies so it was great to see this illuminating talk starting to pick away at some of the ways in which asexuality and horror mix!
1) Women and the Early Gothic with Sam Hirst
In this talk, I explore women theorising, developing, popularising, writing, publishing and reading the Gothic!
What was your favourite talk this year?
Romancing the Gothic 