What's Kraken with Jo Szewczyk

Jo Szewczyk
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Society & Culture
  • Updated Biweekly

Twenty minutes. One guest. No script. What's Kraken? is Empty Hell's interview series, hosted by bestselling author Jo Szewczyk (the Scarlet Mysteries series, Surviving Gen X) — raw conversations with the filmmakers, musicians, writers, activists, comedians, and elected officials shaping culture right now. The stories, the struggles, and the process behind the work. New episodes drop regularly on YouTube and everywhere you get your podcasts. Subscribe and join us.

  1. 2d ago

    Juan 'Bean' Romero — Thirty Years

    Bean is the friend who's been in the hot seat since 1996 — the one who drove Jo everywhere, fronted the better motel, and shows up in Surviving Gen X because he was actually there. For Jo's birthday they go back through all of it: the AOL messages that started it, the two-for-a-dollar Big Macs, the sofa they kept shaking down for taco money, and the motel in LA that turned out to be an old brothel that wasn't nearly as 'not currently a brothel' as advertised. Key Moments The sofa that kept giving — flip it, shake it, and there's a dollar in change for tacosA motel booked sight unseen that was still very much in business, and stairs he had to crab-walk upThe landlord who called about the gardener working on a Sunday. It was Bean. Mowing his own lawn.Why he stuck around when Jo was blacked out for the first few years of the friendshipThe Takeaway Bean's version: anyone who dismisses Jo has their blinders on. Jo's version: he wouldn't be here without him. Thirty years, one taco split two ways, and neither of them ever went without. Links Jo's crime mystery Scarlet Shadows, book one of the Scarlet Mysteries: https://amzn.to/4wJk4cc Jo's memoir Surviving Gen X, where Bean shows up as himself: Surviving Gen X As an Amazon Associate, Empty Hell earns from qualifying purchases. Buying through our links costs you nothing extra and helps keep the show running. Everything Empty Hell: https://linktr.ee/Emptyhell

    Juan 'Bean' Romero — Thirty Years

  2. 5d ago

    Rob Gutro — Pet Mediumship, Ghosts vs. Spirits, and the Physics of the Afterlife

    Jo Szewczyk talks with Rob Gutro — a pet medium and award-winning paranormal author who spent his career as a meteorologist, working for the Weather Channel, NOAA, and NASA before retiring after 25 years. Rob uses the law of conservation of energy to explain what he thinks happens after death, draws a hard line between ghosts and spirits, and talks about what animals communicate back to the people who loved them. KEY MOMENTS - The physics pitch: energy can't be destroyed, only transformed — so where does yours go? - Ghosts are earthbound and running down like a battery; spirits crossed over. The difference matters. - A dog who wouldn't stop mentioning Taylor Swift, and the pet parent who explained why - Why dreams are the easiest channel — your logical mind is asleep and finally out of the way THE TAKEAWAY Believe more in yourself. Don't doubt yourself, because you can do anything. He went back to school three times to get there. ROB GUTRO robgutro.com (also petspirits.com) Books on Amazon Jo's new book Scarlet Shadows can be found here (Pre order till 15 Oct 2026) As an Amazon Associate, Empty Hell earns from qualifying purchases. Buying through our links costs you nothing extra and helps keep the show running. Everything Empty Hell: https://linktr.ee/Emptyhell

    Rob Gutro — Pet Mediumship, Ghosts vs. Spirits, and the Physics of the Afterlife

  3. Sep 27

    Tonya Todd — Banned Books and Re-Visioning Dracula

    Tonya Todd identifies as an author, actress and activist, and when she stepped off the board of the Henderson Writers Group she decided the third A needed work. So she built a banned books series — seven books a year, seven different panels, and a new episode every day of Banned Books Week. Jo and Tonya get into who actually does the banning, how the fear of it is already changing what publishers will take on, and the rage-read of Dracula that turned into her own novel. Key Moments It's usually one or two people who never read the book — and then nobody else gets to eitherWriters are now being accused of AI for using the rule of three and em dashes. Those bots got their punctuation from us (sorry bots!)Mina Murray solves the entire case, and they pat her on the head and send her to bed — so Tonya is writing her sideWrite first thing in the morning. It's not selfish; it's the oxygen maskThe Takeaway What she'd tell her younger self: You are capable of this. She didn't start sooner because she never saw anyone who looked like her doing it, so she assumed it wasn't an option. And for anyone worried about representation--you don't owe your art to your identity. Write whatever your muse moves you to write. Guest Links MsTonyaTodd.com — website and newsletter @MsTonyaTodd across social media Tonya's books on Amazon: https://link.amazon/B07cqCan1 Jo's crime mystery Scarlet Shadows, book one of the Scarlet Mysteries: https://amzn.to/4wJk4cc As an Amazon Associate, Empty Hell earns from qualifying purchases. Buying through our links costs you nothing extra and helps keep the show running. Everything Empty Hell: https://linktr.ee/Emptyhell

    Tonya Todd — Banned Books and Re-Visioning Dracula

  4. Sep 25

    Eric Miller: Sometimes the Light Is a Train

    Screenwriter, publisher, and Horror Writers Association member Eric Miller joins What's Kraken? with Jo Szewczyk to talk about his first novel, Whatever Happened to Uncle Ed? It's a horror-comedy where a washed-up high school basketball star inherits a fortune, a haunted mansion, and a family curse played out in magical games against shapeshifting demons. Eric's spent three decades in Hollywood writing SyFy creature features and running his own small press, and he breaks down why character comes before plot, why horror needs comedy breaks, and why he refuses to leave a reader in the dark without a way out. Key Moments - The Uncle Ed setup: a missing uncle who looks 40 at 90, a nephew named Max, and whatever the hell is going on in that basement - Character first, always: if you don't care who's in the room, the plot doesn't save you - Horror with comedy breaks vs. comedy with horror: cleansing the palate so you can go a step darker - Screenplay vs. novel: in a novel, there's nobody to yell cut The Takeaway Go as dark as the story demands, but always show the reader the path out. There's a light at the end of the tunnel, and yes, sometimes the light is a train. Either way, there's a way through. Guest Links Website: https://www.ericmillerwrites.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ragingeric/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RagingEricMiller Big Time Books: https://www.bigtimebooks.com/ Whatever Happened to Uncle Ed?: https://amzn.to/4hrf6Nx Jo's novel, *Scarlet Shadows*: https://amzn.to/4wJk4cc Empty Hell is an Amazon Associate. Links above may be affiliate links, which means we earn a small commission on qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. All our links in one place: https://linktr.ee/Emptyhell

    Eric Miller: Sometimes the Light Is a Train

  5. Sep 22

    Raymond Creamer on Goody Goody, Horror, and the Soul of Filmmaking

    Raymond Creamer, the writer-director of Goody Goody, a Shudder original about a home birth that goes very wrong in a snowbound cabin, joins What's Kraken? with Jo Szewczyk on press day for his feature debut. We get into festival whiplash, why Kill Bill: Volume 1 taught him cinema can hold everything, directing Samantha Robinson in dance terms, and the reshoot where the cast threw his pages away and made the scene better. Key Moments - Press day is its own skill set: five festivals in April, and a Shudder rep pulling him out of line for The Furious twice. - Cinema can hold everything: Kill Bill was samurai film, Western, anime and horror at once, and horror gives him room a relationship drama can't. - Directing in dance terms: choreographing Samantha Robinson's physicality, the glissade that stumped the cast, and why casting is 80% of directing. - Throw the pages away: the day-three reshoot with cinematographer Tristan Noelle, and the jet-lag fight that was pure ad-lib. The Takeaway Stay the course. The weird books are fine. You're building you. And the point of writing a book isn't to have a book; it's to find yourself in the making of it. Guest Links Goody Goody is streaming on Shudder: https://www.shudder.com/ Jo's novel, Scarlet Shadows: https://amzn.to/4wJk4cc Empty Hell is an Amazon Associate. Links above may be affiliate links, which means we earn a small commission on qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. All our links in one place: https://linktr.ee/Emptyhell

    Raymond Creamer on Goody Goody, Horror, and the Soul of Filmmaking

  6. Sep 22

    Mark Blacknell — From Marine to Zen Priest

    Mark Blacknell grew up in working-class Philly in the '70s — the son of an atheist socialist union organizer who had him reading Mao at eight. He ran bets for guys named Little Sween and Big Sween, joined the Marines to spite his father, and got out of boot camp just in time for Saddam Hussein to invade Kuwait. Then came a master's degree, a band, a job with the governor of Pennsylvania, two years on a kibbutz on the Lebanon border, five on Maui, and finally a Soto Zen practice he's since stripped down to one instruction: sit down and stare at a wall. Jo and Mark get into the long road between all of it, and why he stopped using Buddhist words altogether. Key Moments - 'Did you join the F-ing Marines? You tell your mother.' — enlisting to rebel against his dad, right before the Gulf War - An ornithologist on TV sent him to a kibbutz on the Lebanon border for two years — and the IRS still found him there - Why he dropped words like dharma and emptiness, called it silent prayer, and got in hot water with the Zen establishment - The practice: no teacher, no breathing exercise, no clearing your mind — face a wall and start with five minutes The Takeaway Don't expect your family or your peers to appreciate your practice. Lose the appreciation. Appreciate yourself, and other people start appreciating you naturally — balance leads to balance. Guest Links stareatthewall.org Stare at the Wall: Living the Universe From Where You Sit His documentary: Woke Up Alive in Israel Jo's crime mystery Scarlet Shadows, book one of the Scarlet Mysteries: https://amzn.to/4wJk4cc As an Amazon Associate, Empty Hell earns from qualifying purchases. Buying through our links costs you nothing extra and helps keep the show running. Everything Empty Hell: https://linktr.ee/Emptyhell

    Mark Blacknell — From Marine to Zen Priest

  7. Sep 18

    Camille Ellis on Grief, Choice, & Thriving

    Grief coach Camille joins Jo Szewczyk on What's Kraken? for one of the most open conversations this show has had. After losing her youngest son to suicide in 2010, Camille refused the victim role and built a practice out of what she learned — helping people rebuild an identity after loss instead of waiting for grief to end. Jo opens up about his own father's death and the shoulda-coulda-woulda that follows. It's heavy, it's funny in places, and it's genuinely useful. TAKEAWAY: 'I would lose him a million times over just to have that experience.' Camille didn't make her grief smaller — she changed the story she tells about it. 'I lost my son' became 'I had my son,' and the weight moved. Key Moments * Why Camille refused to be a victim after her son's death, and chose to thrive instead * The one-word flip: 'I lost my son' becomes 'I had my son' * Why there are no stages of grief for the people left behind — that model was written for the dying * The client whose son was murdered, and the question Camille asked her instead * Twenty pull-ups at 61, and what that has to do with healing Guest: Coach Camille — grief and trauma coaching Website: https://yourcoachcamille.com Phone: 831-246-1038 (business line) First session is a free 30-minute consult. This episode discusses suicide and the loss of a child. If you're struggling, please reach out to someone you trust or a local crisis line. Jo's crime mystery Scarlet Shadows, book one of the Scarlet Mysteries: https://amzn.to/4wJk4cc As an Amazon Associate, Empty Hell earns from qualifying purchases. Links in our notes may be affiliate links, which cost you nothing extra. Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/Emptyhell

    Camille Ellis on Grief, Choice, & Thriving

  8. Sep 15

    Mark Steven Porro — His First Kid Was 89

    Mark Steven Porro was a carefree LA bachelor — never married, no kids — when his mother stopped eating at 89 and hospice was called in. He moved from Los Angeles into the New Jersey house he grew up in and became a first-time parent at 50, to his own mother. A Cup of Tea on the Commode came out of that, and he's now eighty percent through a second book about his father. Jo and Mark get into the rituals he invented to give her back her dignity, what an actor's training is actually good for, and the trip to a 200-person village in southern Italy that started the whole thing. Key Moments - Day of Beauty — the wardrobe, the nails, and parking her in front of the mirror to ask 'Who is this pretty girl?' - She forgot his name, so he taped it to the ceiling in block letters where she'd look up and find it - The night he lost his temper, turned off the light, and came back to a clean plate - Sixteen days in Italy with his dying father, and a photograph of a man knocking on his own father's door The Takeaway It sounds like he went back and rescued his mother. Looking at it again, he thinks she rescued him — one last teaching moment, handing him the most important thing he'd ever do. Guest Links cupofteaonthecommode.org YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok — search 'A Cup of Tea on the Commode' Paperback, large print, ebook, and the audiobook Mark narrated himself Jo's crime mystery Scarlet Shadows, book one of the Scarlet Mysteries: https://amzn.to/4wJk4cc As an Amazon Associate, Empty Hell earns from qualifying purchases. Buying through our links costs you nothing extra and helps keep the show running. Everything Empty Hell: https://linktr.ee/Emptyhell

    Mark Steven Porro — His First Kid Was 89
See All (83)

About

Twenty minutes. One guest. No script. What's Kraken? is Empty Hell's interview series, hosted by bestselling author Jo Szewczyk (the Scarlet Mysteries series, Surviving Gen X) — raw conversations with the filmmakers, musicians, writers, activists, comedians, and elected officials shaping culture right now. The stories, the struggles, and the process behind the work. New episodes drop regularly on YouTube and everywhere you get your podcasts. Subscribe and join us.

Information