RISK! Podcast
Episode: Scary Stories #17: Bone-Chilling!
Date: October 28, 2025
Host: Kevin Allison

Overview

This 17th installment of the RISK! “Scary Stories” Halloween special series maintains the show’s signature blend of raw, jaw-dropping, and often darkly humorous storytelling. Host Kevin Allison introduces a lineup of true, uncensored tales that dig into supernatural experiences, brushes with mortality, and close encounters with very real danger. This episode features stories from Robert Oakes, Joanna Stein, Jason Shaw, and music by Fixie (Fix Invictus), along with brief, atmospheric interludes from Jeff Barr. The tone moves seamlessly from eerie and suspenseful to tragicomic, reflecting both the psychological mysteries of fear and the unpredictability of real-life horror.

Key Discussion Points and Segments

1. Introduction & Halloween Special Context

• [00:00–04:28]
  • Kevin Allison warmly welcomes listeners, announcing the 17th edition of the RISK! Halloween “Scary Stories” special, “Bone-Chilling!”
  • He reflects humorously on RISK!’s long-running Halloween tradition, likening its longevity to The Simpsons:

    “Now I feel like we’re the Simpsons or something. Our old friend Marc Maron is such a quitter.” (Kevin Allison, 02:39)

  • Allison encourages listeners to submit their own scary stories for future specials.

2. “Do You Know My Name?” by Robert Oakes

[04:28–32:21]

Main Storyline

• Robert Oakes, a ghost tour guide in western Massachusetts and an author of supernatural tales, recounts his journey from skepticism to a reluctant belief in ghosts, interwoven with personal memories of his late father and a chilling paranormal experience during a tour.

Highlights & Key Moments

• Edith Wharton’s Ghost Stories: Oakes explains how his English studies hadn’t prepared him for Wharton’s history with ghost stories—a genre she used as metaphors for regret and the past haunting the present.
• Personal Skepticism vs. Family History:

  “I have a very, you know, very well developed sense of skepticism. So my doubting mind goes into action whenever something is told to me or I see something and it tries to find some explanation, some reason. But at the same time, I believe all of it. I know that I know this. I know that I've known this my whole life.” (Robert Oakes, 09:00)

• Childhood Ghostly Encounter: He describes witnessing a shadowy apparition in his childhood home after attending a neighbor’s funeral, leaving him with “more questions than answers.” (11:20)
• The Midnight Phone Call:
  • Oakes’s father receives a horrifying, thin-voiced call from someone saying they're his deceased grandmother “calling from the grave.” The family is left shaken.

    “The thing that scared me the most was seeing him so scared, seeing him so speechless.” (Robert Oakes, 16:10)

• Performing After Loss: Oakes recalls feeling his father’s presence most when performing or telling stories shortly after his death, especially at The Mount’s haunted Halloween event.
• Paranormal Investigation:
  • Leads a special tour for psychics and mediums, culminating in an EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) session in the pitch dark, where he tentatively asks: “Do you know my name?”
  • On playback, a mysterious voice answers, “Sam.”

    “To try to speak to them directly means believing that they're there. Do I really want to find out if it's real?” (Robert Oakes, 28:00)

Notable Quote

• “As time went on leading ghost tours at the mound, I came to see myself as really more of a storyteller, someone who guided people through these stories and invited them to open up to the possibility of having an experience themselves. But I didn't think of myself as the person having the experience.” (Robert Oakes, 21:30)

3. “A World of Corpses” by Joanna Stein

[40:44–51:48]

Main Storyline

• Writer Joanna Stein humorously explores her childhood fixation on finding dead bodies, which is unexpectedly validated one summer day in Manitoba when she discovers a real corpse in the river behind her house.

Highlights & Key Moments

• Macabre Imagination:

  “Every space that I saw—attics, porta potties, garbage bags by the side of the road—all of them were fair game for my corpse-filled imagination.” (Joanna Stein, 41:39)

• Social Dramas of Preteen Life: In a comedic aside, she details feuds with friends over who invented “number one and number two,” and orchestra camp misadventures.
• Discovery of the Body:
  • At age 12, she persuades her father to investigate what appears to be a human head floating in the river—leading the river patrol to pull out the corpse of an elderly neighbor.

    “And I point to the bobbing head in the water. My dad squints. 'That’s just driftwood,' and he turns to leave. I beg him to look again.” (Joanna Stein, 45:25)

• Aftermath/Sibling Rivalry: While expecting recognition, she instead witnesses the neighborhood’s interest drift to a newer, more grotesque body found up the river.
• Lingering Life Lesson:

  “I wasn’t weird for thinking dead bodies were everywhere. It turns out I was right all along...There is a world of corpses out there and those bodies aren’t going to find themselves. That’s why I keep looking. It’s also why I had my ears pierced. Can’t be too prepared.” (Joanna Stein, 51:38)

4. “Hunter of New Experiences” by Jason Shaw

[53:07–76:12]

Main Storyline

• Jason Shaw recalls his near-fatal misadventure as a young man working the streets as a male sex worker. What begins as an encounter based on harmless fetishes turns into a terrifying ordeal involving deception, physical restraint, and the real possibility of not escaping alive.

Highlights & Key Moments

• Initial Setup: Shaw’s friend connects him with escort work, which quickly leads him to work the street after disappointing gigs.
• The Encounter:
  • A client hires Jason for a “tickling” session for $150, requiring Jason to travel far from the city to a suburban garage.
  • He is tied to a St. Andrew’s Cross, initially in a playful way, but finds himself increasingly restrained—blindfolded and gagged with a rubber bone.
• Escalation to Terror:
  • The client reveals his true intentions with a menacing whisper:

    “Nobody knows where you are and nobody can hear you scream.” (Jason Shaw, 64:31)

  • Jason sees a table covered in torture implements and realizes the gravity of his situation as the client threatens, “I’m never gonna let you leave. You’re never getting out of there. You belong to me.” (Jason Shaw, 74:09)
• Release and Aftermath:
  • After the client climaxes and releases Jason, he is left shaken and traumatized but ultimately alive.
  • Reflects on the lasting psychological impact, a tense interplay of survivor’s wisdom, strange gratitude, and the lifelong allure of new experiences.
  • Notable insight:

    “What I went through with that person was the closest you can get to believing that you are going to die without dying. So it makes sense to me. I mean, I will never be able to repeat that. I would never want to repeat that. My point is the experience in itself is something that I think few people experience.” (Jason Shaw, 76:00)

5. Musical & Poetic Interludes

• Fixie / Fix Invictus [76:51–77:51]:
  • Delivers an atmospheric, poetic piece about darkness and desire, contributing to the haunted mood of the episode.

    “Sweetest Beast pal / non gentle breezing / more bitter than the Taista one / In love with dark / in love with death...” (Fixie, 76:51)

• Allison Callery’s “Dark Winged Sparrow” [78:01]:
  • Song plays in the background as the episode transitions to Kevin’s workshop promotion.

Notable Quotes by Timestamp

• “At the beginning, I think that I was a little bit doubtful of all of this... isn’t it convenient that it’s in this old house in the Berkshires that was once the home of an author who told stories about ghosts? ...Is the reality behind all this, or is it just a story?”
  — Robert Oakes, 06:00

• “Your grandmother? …Where are you calling from? The grave.”
  — Robert Oakes (retelling his father’s story), 14:15

• “I mean, I’m not a lawyer, but even at 12, I know the finders keepers rule.”
  — Joanna Stein, 41:50 & callback at 47:00

• “Nobody knows where you are and nobody can hear you scream.”
  — Jason Shaw’s client, 64:31

• “You don’t know what fear is, but you’re not there yet. This is not even the height of terror...”
  — Jason Shaw, 74:10

Important Timestamps

| Segment | Description | Timestamp | |---------|----------------------------------------------|--------------| | Intro & context (Kevin Allison) | [00:00–04:28]| | “Do You Know My Name?” (Robert Oakes) | [04:28–32:21]| | “A World of Corpses” (Joanna Stein) | [40:44–51:48]| | “Hunter of New Experiences” (Jason Shaw) | [53:07–76:12]| | Fixie’s Poem ("Sweetest Beast") | [76:51–77:51]| | Allison Callery’s “Dark Winged Sparrow” | [78:01] |

Conclusion / Tone

With chilling sincerity, dark humor, and gut-clutching honesty, “Scary Stories #17: Bone-Chilling!” showcases the breadth of RISK! as a platform for stories that blur the line between psychological, supernatural, and all-too-human terror. The emotional range of this episode— moving from the haunted nostalgia of Robert Oakes, through Joanna Stein's mordant childhood humor, to Jason Shaw’s real-life brush with inspired evil—delivers truly bone-chilling impact. The underlying message? Fear is as personal and unpredictable as the stories we tell.