The vampire didn’t rise from Transylvania — it crawled out of the Balkans.

Forget Count Dracula — before Stoker’s gothic horror came centuries of chilling folklore, blood-soaked superstition, and very real vampire panics. In this spine-tingling episode, travel writer and award-winning author Nick Jubber joins Paul Bavill to rage against the myth that vampires were born in Transylvania.

From Serbian graveyards and Croatian legends to the age of Enlightenment and Hammer Horror, Nick traces how fear, politics, and imagination turned the undead into one of history’s most enduring monsters. Discover how the printing press helped spread vampire hysteria, how priests profited from graveyard rituals, and why monsters mirror humanity’s deepest desires and darkest fears.

Whether you’re a folklore fan or just love a good supernatural tale, this episode will have you rethinking everything you thought you knew about the vampire myth.

🎙️ In This Episode

• The real Balkan origins of the vampire legend
• How Enlightenment science and superstition collided
• Why Bram Stoker didn’t invent Dracula’s fangs — he borrowed them
• What connects Byron, Polidori, and the birth of gothic horror
• Why monsters never die — they just evolve with us

👤 Guest: Nick Jubber

Nick Jubber is a writer, traveller and author of Monsterland, a journey through history, folklore, and our fascination with monsters. His work has taken him across continents exploring how stories shape societies.

📚 Buy his book: Monsterland: A Journey Around the World’s Dark Imagination

https://uk.bookshop.org/a/10120/9781915590299

🌐 Website: www.nickjubber.com

📸 Instagram: @NickJubber

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