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 (https://amzn.to/4wJk4cc), Surviving Gen X (https://amzn.to/4xXKeZJ)) — 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 (https://www.youtube.com/@empty_hell) and everywhere you get your podcasts. Subscribe (https://linktr.ee/Emptyhell) and join us.
Randi-Lee Bowslaugh Interview (2026): Goodbye Too Soon, Book to Screen
Award-winning author, mental health advocate and Write or Die Show host Randi-Lee Bowslaugh joins Jo Szewczyk to talk about turning Goodbye Too Soon, her book about losing her brother Brandon to a drug overdose, into her first feature film. She gets into what survives the jump from page to screen, why ‘based on a true story’ gives a writer room to move, and what it’s like to cast actors to play your own family, and yourself.
Key Moments
Why a chapter of statistics works in a book and dies on screen
‘Based on’ doing real work: the pool-store phone call becomes a canal walk with her dog
Writing the flashback where Brandon’s manipulation shows, and the line she refused to cut
Casting her family and herself with producer Haley, two autistic collaborators who skip the soft lead-in
The Takeaway
‘You were not meant to fit in, you were meant to fit out.’ It’s the heart of the letter Randi-Lee wrote to her younger self, and diagnosed with autism in her thirties, she says it’s the thing that finally made her whole life make sense.
Guest Links
Website: rbwriting.ca
Write or Die Show: facebook.com/writeordieshow
Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube: @randileebowslaugh
Jo’s novel Scarlet Shadows: https://amzn.to/4wJk4cc (https://amzn.to/4wJk4cc)
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/Emptyhell (https://linktr.ee/Emptyhell)
23 Oct 2026
John Haas Interview (2026): Lunatics, Camp Nightmare, and the Not-Yet File
Writers of the Future winner John Haas joins Jo Szewczyk to talk about writing three novels in a year while holding down a day job, plotting chapter by chapter, and building his Midnight Library stand-alones (Stay Out, Lunatics, Camp Nightmare) to read like movies. He also explains how a review calling his story racist became the seed of a prequel, and why a few of his best ideas are waiting until he’s good enough to write them.
Key Moments
How a Writers of the Future win and a reader’s favorite side character pulled John into Lovecraftian horror
His outline process: know the start, know the end, plot chapter by chapter and let the characters overrule him
Turning a review that called his story racist into a prequel led by the very character it singled out
The ‘not yet’ file: fifty story ideas, a few parked until his craft catches up to them
The Takeaway
Write because you love it, not because you have to, and start with short stories. That’s where you learn to tell a story, and it hurts a lot less when one doesn’t work out. Then don’t quit.
Guest Links
Website: https://johnhaas.ca/ (https://johnhaas.ca/)
Lunatics: https://buy.bookfunnel.com/eav4dxk1ou (https://buy.bookfunnel.com/eav4dxk1ou)
Instagram: https://instagram.com/johnhaasauthor (https://instagram.com/johnhaasauthor)
X: https://twitter.com/JohnHaas11 (https://twitter.com/JohnHaas11)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/John-Haas-Author-112977303905449 (https://www.facebook.com/John-Haas-Author-112977303905449)
Scarlet Shadows by Jo Szewczyk: https://amzn.to/4wJk4cc (https://amzn.to/4wJk4cc)
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/Emptyhell (https://linktr.ee/Emptyhell)
20 Oct 2026
Carla Matthes Interview: Footloose Church to Finding Herself
Carla Matthes is a memoirist shopping her first book, and she tells her story the way she wrote it: with dark humor and zero interest in looking good. On this What’s Kraken with Jo Szewczyk, she covers a dad who ghosted her before ghosting had a name, a stepfather’s Independent Fundamental Baptist church that banned pants, movies and eventually even clapping, and a senior year spent making up for lost time. Then comes the long road from mimicking everyone around her to finally, at 40, feeling like herself.
Key Moments
The church that banned pants, movies, beats in the hymns and, eventually, clapping for the singer
Years as ‘Skirt Girl’ Carla Pickard, then a senior-year name change nobody fell for
The night before graduation week: the whole senior class arrested at a theater party, and her lie about being 17
Her father-in-law telling her husband ‘You let her be her’, the moment she finally accepted herself
The Takeaway
Carla wouldn’t change a thing, because the bad choices are what made her. Her one note to her younger self: take notes, because you’re going to write about it one day.
Guest Links
Find Carla as Carla Tells All on TikTok and Facebook.
Jo’s book, Scarlet Shadows: https://amzn.to/4wJk4cc (https://amzn.to/4wJk4cc)
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/Emptyhell (https://linktr.ee/Emptyhell)
Who has been a guest on What's Kraken?
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Fayge
Jack LaFountain
Phil Giunta
John Bukowski
Dan Henk
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
18,234
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 45 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
49
Social presence
0
YouTube
72
Engagement
27
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Guest appearances
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Questions about What's Kraken?
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Jo and Jo Szewczyk host the show. Published by Jo Szewczyk.
How often do new episodes come out?
The show publishes weekly, based on its RSS feed.
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