Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Art and philosophy discussions • Weird fiction and horror themes • Film analysis • Tarot and mysticism • Creative processes • Cultural analysis • Parapsychology and metaphysics
This podcast, titled "Weird Studies," offers a series of conversations hosted by Professor Phil Ford and writer J. F. Martel on art, philosophy, and culture. The episodes frequently delve into complex and unconventional topics, aiming to illuminate ideas that challenge established notions of reality. Discussions often center on various forms of art and their philosophical implications, exploring how they act as conduits to unsettling truths and expand our understanding of the world.
Recurring themes in the podcast include the examination of horror and its aesthetic value, exemplified through analyses of cinema, literature, and other artistic mediums. Works by directors like John Carpenter and David Cronenberg are dissected for their ability to blur the boundaries between fiction and reality and to explore themes like madness and revelation. The podcast also dives into historical movements and their influence on modern narratives, such as expressionism in cinema and the role of fairy tales in cultural imagination.
Philosophical discussions weave through many episodes, addressing topics like free expression, the nature of magic, and the interplay between art and reality. The hosts engage with materials from a wide range of thinkers, from Aleister Crowley and Federico Campagna to Carl Jung and Gilles Deleuze, in order to examine mystical and esoteric ideas. Episodes highlight the importance of various forms of artistic and cultural expression, from the gritty storytelling in comics to the symbolic narratives found in tarot cards and poetry.
Overall, "Weird Studies" presents a platform for interdisciplinary exploration, inviting listeners to reconsider the nature of reality through the lenses of art and philosophy, while uncovering the weird and mysterious elements that pervade cultural and artistic expressions.
Episodes:
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Episode 178: Edge of Reality: On John Carpenter's 'In the Mouth of Madness'
2024-Oct-23
72 minutes
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Episode 177: Riddles in the Dark: On Fairy Tales, Interpretation, and 'Rapunzel'
2024-Oct-09
87 minutes
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Episode 176: On Charles Burns' 'Black Hole' and the Medium of Comics
2024-Sep-25
81 minutes
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Mid-Break Bonus: The Quiet Earth
2024-Aug-21
61 minutes
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Episode 175: Don't Look Now: Live at Lily Dale
2024-Aug-07
118 minutes
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Episode 174: Magick and Enlightenment, with Alan Chapman and Duncan Barford
2024-Jul-24
89 minutes
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Episode 173: By Heart: On Memory, Poetry, and Form
2024-Jul-10
78 minutes
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Episode 172: Head Over Heels: On the Hanged Man of the Tarot
2024-Jun-26
79 minutes
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Episode 171: The Beauty and the Horror
2024-Jun-14
68 minutes
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Episode 170: Art is Another Word for Truth: On Orson Welles's 'F for Fake'
2024-May-29
85 minutes
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Episode 169: On Free Expression
2024-May-15
97 minutes
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Episode 168: Visions of the Wasteland: On George Miller's 'Mad Max' Films
2024-May-01
80 minutes
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Episode 167: The Hand of Ithell, with Amy Hale
2024-Apr-17
88 minutes
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Episode 166: Make Believe: On the Power of Pretentiousness
2024-Apr-03
73 minutes
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Episode 165: Tatters of the King: On Robert Chambers' 'The King in Yellow'
2024-Mar-20
86 minutes
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Episode 164: Towards a Weird Materialism: On Expressionism in Cinema
2024-Mar-06
89 minutes
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Episode 163: The Source of All Abysses: On the Devil Card in the Tarot
2024-Feb-21
70 minutes
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Episode 162: The Incarnation of Meaning: Greenwich Village After the War
2024-Feb-07
78 minutes
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Episode 161: Scene of the Crime: On Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's 'From Hell'
2024-Jan-24
90 minutes
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Mid-Hiatus Bonus: On Horror and the Retail Experience
2024-Jan-10
54 minutes
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Episode 160: The Way of All Flesh: On John Carpenter's 'The Thing'
2023-Dec-20
75 minutes
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Episode 159: Three Songs, with Meredith Michael
2023-Dec-06
90 minutes
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Episode 158: As Above, So Below: On Plato's 'Timaeus'
2023-Nov-22
96 minutes
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Episode 157: Long Live the New Flesh: On David Cronenberg's 'Videodrome'
2023-Nov-08
74 minutes
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Episode 156: The Only Possible End: On Donna Tartt's 'The Secret History'
2023-Oct-25
92 minutes
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Episode 155: Dispatches From the Inside: On Planet Weird's 'The Unbinding'
2023-Oct-11
90 minutes
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Episode 154: Into the Night Land, with Erik Davis
2023-Sep-27
83 minutes
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Episode 153: Celestial Machine: On the Temperance Card in the Tarot
2023-Sep-13
79 minutes
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Summer Bonus #2: Art and AI
2023-Sep-08
51 minutes
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Summer Bonus: On Affectation, with a Special Announcement
2023-Aug-15
49 minutes
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Episode 152: The Science of Things Spiritual: Live in Lily Dale
2023-Aug-01
108 minutes
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Episode 151: The Real and the Possible: Live at the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute, with Jacob G. Foster
2023-Jul-19
75 minutes
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Episode 150: Sacramental Reality: On Arthur Machen's "A Fragment of Life"
2023-Jul-05
85 minutes
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Episode 149: Song Swap: On Judee Sill's 'The Kiss' and Wilco's 'Jesus, Etc.'
2023-Jun-21
79 minutes
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Episode 148: Mythos of the Moment: On 'Twin Peaks,' Season 3
2023-Jun-07
77 minutes
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Episode 147: You Must Change Your Life
2023-May-24
93 minutes
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Episode 146: An Air of Great Power: On the Chariot in the Tarot
2023-May-10
77 minutes
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Episode 145: Waiting for the Miracle: On Vanessa Onwuemezi's "Dark Neighbourhood"
2023-Apr-26
89 minutes
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Episode 144: On Clive Barker's 'Hellraiser' and 'The Hellbound Heart,' with Conner Habib
2023-Apr-12
102 minutes
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Episode 143: On UFOs
2023-Mar-29
89 minutes
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Episode 142: The Music of the Spheres: On Jóhann Jóhannsson's "Last and First Men"
2023-Mar-15
81 minutes
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Episode 141: Actual Magic: On Ramsey Dukes' SSOTBME
2023-Feb-28
84 minutes
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Episode 140: That Ain't Plot: On Hayao Miyazaki's 'Spirited Away'
2023-Feb-15
80 minutes
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Episode 139: Sex, Money, and Power are YOURS with our SECRET Art-Power Formula!
2023-Feb-01
93 minutes
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Episode 138: Yours and Yours Alone: On the Death Card in the Tarot
2023-Jan-18
75 minutes
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The Weird Studies Christmas Special
2022-Dec-25
37 minutes
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Episode 137: Brute Force: on Sunn O)))'s 'Life Metal'
2022-Dec-14
74 minutes
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Episode 136: The Things That Were And Shall Be Again: On 'Evil Dead II'
2022-Nov-30
67 minutes
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Episode 135: On 'The Secret Life of Puppets,' with Victoria Nelson
2022-Nov-16
63 minutes
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Episode 134: On Federico Campagna's 'Technic and Magic'
2022-Nov-02
92 minutes
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Episode 133: On Weirding, and the Virtues of Unknowing Everything
2022-Oct-19
71 minutes
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Episode 132: Art Is an Alien Technology: Live at the Supernormal Festival
2022-Oct-05
81 minutes
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Off-Week Bonus: On Worlds and Stories, with a Special Announcement
2022-Sep-27
57 minutes
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Episode 131: Knocking on the Abyssal Door: Live at the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute
2022-Sep-21
71 minutes
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Episode 130: Holiday Memories
2022-Sep-07
76 minutes
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Episode 129: Luminous Miasma: On Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher"
2022-Aug-03
93 minutes
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Episode 128: Demon Workshop: On Victoria Nelson's 'Neighbor George'
2022-Jul-19
87 minutes
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Episode 127: Leaving the Mechanical Dollhouse: On Abeba Birhane's "The Impossibility of Automating Ambiguity"
2022-Jul-06
76 minutes
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Episode 126: The Daemon Speaks, with Matt Cardin
2022-Jun-22
81 minutes
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Episode 125: Strange Brews: Weird Studies Live at Illuminated Brew Works
2022-Jun-08
96 minutes
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Episode 124: Dark Night Radio of the Soul, with Duncan Barford
2022-May-25
87 minutes
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Episode 123: Off-Week Patreon Bonus: On Modern Miracles
2022-May-18
39 minutes
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Episode 122: Spirals and Crooked Lines: On the Star Card in the Tarot
2022-May-11
80 minutes
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Episode 121: Dream Theater: On 'Mandy' and 'The Band Wagon'
2022-Apr-27
63 minutes
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Episode 120: On Radical Mystery
2022-Apr-13
77 minutes
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Episode 119: Behind the Cosmic Curtain: On Stanislaw Lem's 'The New Cosmogony,' with Meredith Michael
2022-Mar-30
67 minutes
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Episode 118: The Unseen and the Unnamed, with Meredith Michael
2022-Mar-16
76 minutes
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Episode 117: Time is a Child at Play: On the Mystery of Games
2022-Mar-02
68 minutes
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Episode 116: On 'Blade Runner'
2022-Feb-16
88 minutes
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Episode 115: Transience & Immersion: On Brian Eno's 'Music for Airports'
2022-Feb-02
75 minutes
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Episode 114: On the Wheel of Fortune, the Tenth Card of the Tarot
2022-Jan-19
94 minutes
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Episode 113: Framing the Invisible, with Shannon Taggart
2021-Dec-22
81 minutes
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Episode 112: Readings from the 'Book of Probes': The Mysticism of Marshall McLuhan
2021-Dec-08
89 minutes
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Episode 111: What Is Best in Life: On "Conan the Barbarian"
2021-Nov-24
81 minutes
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Episode 110: Monks of the Cultural Apocalypse: 'The Glass Bead Game,' Part Two
2021-Nov-10
73 minutes
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Episode 109: Infinite Play: On 'The Glass Bead Game,' by Hermann Hesse
2021-Oct-27
80 minutes
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Episode 108: On Skepticism and the Paranormal
2021-Oct-13
79 minutes
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Episode 107: On Joy Williams' 'Breaking and Entering,' with Conner Habib
2021-Sep-29
86 minutes
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Episode 106: The Wanderer: On Weird Studies
2021-Sep-01
86 minutes
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Episode 105: Fire Walk with Tamler Sommers
2021-Aug-18
92 minutes
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Episode 104: We'd Love to Turn You On: 'Sgt. Pepper' and the Beatles
2021-Aug-04
82 minutes
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Episode 103: On the Tower, the Sixteenth Card of the Tarot
2021-Jul-21
76 minutes
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Episode 102: On Pan, with Gyrus
2021-Jul-07
78 minutes
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Episode 101: Our Fear of the Dark: On Tanizaki's 'In Praise of Shadows'
2021-Jun-23
60 minutes
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Episode 100: The Price of Beauty is Horror: On the Films of John Carpenter
2021-Jun-09
83 minutes
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Episode 99: Curing the Human Condition: On 'Wild Wild Country'
2021-May-26
90 minutes
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Episode 98: Taboo: Time and Belief in Exotica
2021-May-12
80 minutes
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Episode 97: Art in the Age of Artifice
2021-Apr-28
85 minutes
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Episode 96: Beautiful Beast: On Jean Cocteau's 'La Belle et la Bête'
2021-Apr-14
80 minutes
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Episode 95: Demon Seed: On Doris Lessing's 'The Fifth Child'
2021-Mar-31
85 minutes
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Episode 94: All is Mysterious: On the Moon Card in the Tarot
2021-Mar-17
74 minutes
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Episode 93: Living and Dying in a Secular Age: On Charles Taylor and Disenchantment
2021-Mar-03
87 minutes
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Episode 92: Glitch in the Matrix: A Conversation with Rodney Ascher
2021-Feb-17
87 minutes
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Episode 91: On Susanna Clarke's 'Piranesi'
2021-Feb-03
83 minutes
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Episode 90: 'The Owl in Daylight': On Philip K. Dick's Unwritten Masterpiece
2021-Jan-20
69 minutes
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Episode 89: On Ishmael Reed's 'Mumbo Jumbo,' or, Why We Need More Magical Thinking
2021-Jan-06
79 minutes
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Holiday Bonus: Magic, Madness, and Sadness
2020-Dec-21
50 minutes
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Episode 88: On Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean's 'Mr Punch'
2020-Dec-09
79 minutes
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Episode 87: Glyphs, Rifts, and Ecstasy: On Arthur Machen's Vision of Art
2020-Nov-25
67 minutes
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Episode 86: On E. T. A. Hoffmann's "The Sandman," and Freud's Sequel to It
2020-Nov-11
83 minutes
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Episode 85: On 'The Wicker Man'
2020-Oct-28
76 minutes
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Episode 84: Mona Lisa Smile: On the Empress, the Third Card in the Tarot
2020-Oct-14
79 minutes
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Episode 83: On David Lynch's 'Lost Highway'
2020-Sep-30
78 minutes
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Episode 82: On The I Ching
2020-Sep-16
89 minutes
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Episode 81: Gnostic Lit: On M. John Harrison's 'The Course of the Heart'
2020-Sep-02
77 minutes
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Episode 80: The Pit and the Pyramid, or, How to Beat the Philosopher's Blues
2020-Aug-19
77 minutes
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Episode 79: Love, Death, and the Dream Life
2020-Aug-05
64 minutes
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Episode 78: On John Keel's 'The Mothman Prophecies'
2020-Jul-22
73 minutes
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Episode 77: What a Fool Believes: On the Unnumbered Card in the Tarot
2020-Jul-08
68 minutes
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Episode 76: Below the Abyss: On Bergson's Metaphysics
2020-Jun-24
78 minutes
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Bonus: The Duke of Ellington
2020-Jun-18
64 minutes
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Episode 75: Our Old Friend the Monolith: On Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey'
2020-Jun-10
86 minutes
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Episode 74: A Luminous Parasite: Jung on Art, Part Two
2020-May-27
71 minutes
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Episode 73: Carl Jung and the Power of Art, Part One
2020-May-13
64 minutes
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Episode 72: Morning of the Mutants: On the Castrati
2020-Apr-29
73 minutes
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Episode 71: The Medium is the Message
2020-Apr-15
84 minutes
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Episode 70: Masks All the Way Down, with James Curcio
2020-Apr-01
76 minutes
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Episode 69: Special Episode: On Some Mental Effects of the Pandemic
2020-Mar-25
59 minutes
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Weird Stories: "On Some Mental Effects of the Earthquake" by William James
2020-Mar-23
22 minutes
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Episode 68: On James Hillman's 'The Dream and the Underworld'
2020-Mar-18
75 minutes
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Episode 67: Goblins, Goat-Gods and Gates: On 'Hellier'
2020-Mar-04
83 minutes
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Episode 66: On Diviner's Time
2020-Feb-19
91 minutes
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Episode 65: Touched by that Fire: On Visionary Literature, with B. W. Powe
2020-Feb-05
79 minutes
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Episode 64: Dreams and Shadows: On Ursula Le Guin's 'A Wizard of Earthsea'
2020-Jan-22
77 minutes
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Episode 63: Faculty X: On Colin Wilson's 'The Occult'
2020-Jan-08
79 minutes
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Episode 62: It's Like 'The Shining', But With Nuns: On 'Black Narcissus'
2019-Dec-18
93 minutes
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Episode 61: Evil and Ecstasy: On 'The Silence of the Lambs'
2019-Dec-04
66 minutes
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Episode 60: Space is the Place: On Sun Ra, Gnosticism, and the Tarot
2019-Nov-20
85 minutes
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Episode 59: Green Mountains Are Always Walking
2019-Nov-06
79 minutes
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Episode 58: What Do Critics Do?
2019-Oct-23
59 minutes
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Episode 57: Box of God(s): On 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'
2019-Oct-09
90 minutes
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Episode 56: On Jean Gebser, with Jeremy D. Johnson
2019-Sep-25
78 minutes
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Episode 55: The Great Weird North: On Algernon Blackwood's 'The Wendigo'
2019-Sep-11
82 minutes
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Episode 54: Lobsters, Pianos, and Hidden Gods
2019-Aug-28
77 minutes
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Episode 53: Astral Jet Lag: On William Gibson's 'Pattern Recognition'
2019-Aug-14
62 minutes
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Episode 52: On Beauty
2019-Jul-31
75 minutes
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Episode 51: Blind Seers: On Flannery O'Connor's 'Wise Blood'
2019-Jul-17
95 minutes
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Episode 50: Demogorgon: On 'Stranger Things'
2019-Jul-03
96 minutes
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Episode 49: Out of Time: Nietzsche on History
2019-Jun-19
82 minutes
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Episode 48: Walking the Tightrope with Erik Davis
2019-Jun-05
84 minutes
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Episode 47: Machines of Loving Grace: Technology and the Unabomber
2019-May-22
67 minutes
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Episode 46: Thomas Ligotti's Angel
2019-May-08
89 minutes
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Episode 45: Jeffrey J. Kripal on 'Flipping' Out of Materialism
2019-Apr-24
69 minutes
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Episode 44: Doomed to Enchantment: The Psychical Research of William James
2019-Apr-09
93 minutes
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Episode 43: On Shirley Jackson
2019-Mar-27
75 minutes
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Episode 42: On Pauline Oliveros, with Kerry O'Brien
2019-Mar-13
63 minutes
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Episode 41: On Speculative Fiction, with Matt Cardin
2019-Feb-27
59 minutes
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Episode 40: On Jonathan Glazer's 'Under the Skin'
2019-Feb-13
77 minutes
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Episode 39: The Challenge of the Paranormal, with Jeffrey J. Kripal
2019-Jan-30
62 minutes
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Episode 38: Style as Analysis
2019-Jan-16
70 minutes
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Episode 37: Entities, with Stuart Davis
2019-Jan-02
74 minutes
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Christmas Bonus: Hyperstition Addendum
2018-Dec-25
24 minutes
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Episode 36: On Hyperstition
2018-Dec-19
73 minutes
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Episode 35: Whirl Without End: On M.C. Richards' 'Centering'
2018-Dec-05
61 minutes
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Episode 34: The Weird Realism of Robert Aickman
2018-Nov-21
55 minutes
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Episode 33: The Fine Art of Changing the Subject: On Duchamp's 'Fountain'
2018-Nov-07
59 minutes
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Episode 32: Orbis Tertius: Borges on Magic, Conspiracy and Idealism
2018-Oct-31
70 minutes
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Episode 31: Scarcely Human at All: On Glenn Gould's 'Prospects of Recording'
2018-Oct-24
76 minutes
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Episode 30: On Stanley Kubrick's 'Eyes Wide Shut'
2018-Oct-14
66 minutes
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Episode 29: On Lovecraft
2018-Oct-09
75 minutes
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Episode 28: Weird Music, Part Two
2018-Oct-02
64 minutes
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Episode 27: Weird Music, Part One
2018-Sep-26
78 minutes
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Episode 26: Living in a Glass Age, with Michael Garfield
2018-Sep-19
78 minutes
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Episode 25: David Cronenberg's 'Naked Lunch'
2018-Sep-12
80 minutes
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Episode 24: The Charlatan and the Magus, with Lionel Snell
2018-Aug-28
58 minutes
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Episode 23: On Presence
2018-Aug-15
103 minutes
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Episode 22: Divining the World with Joshua Ramey
2018-Aug-01
69 minutes
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Episode 21: The Trash Stratum - Part 2
2018-Jul-13
65 minutes
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Episode 20: The Trash Stratum - Part 1
2018-Jul-04
75 minutes
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Episode 19: Intermezzo
2018-Jun-20
68 minutes
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Episode 18: Does 'Consciousness' Exist? - Part Two
2018-Jun-13
61 minutes
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Episode 17: Does 'Consciousness' Exist? - Part One
2018-Jun-06
47 minutes
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Episode 16: On Dogen Zenji's 'Genjokoan'
2018-May-30
71 minutes
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Episode 15: On Tarkovsky's 'Stalker' - Part Two
2018-May-23
64 minutes
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Episode 14: On Tarkovsky's 'Stalker' - Part One
2018-May-16
41 minutes
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Episode 13: The Obscure: On the Philosophy of Heraclitus
2018-May-09
81 minutes
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Episode 12: The Dark Eye: On the Films of Rodney Ascher
2018-May-02
88 minutes
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Episode 11: Art is a Haunting Spirit
2018-Apr-25
75 minutes
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Weird Stories: M. R. James' "The Mezzotint"
2018-Apr-23
27 minutes
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Episode 10: Philip K. Dick: Adrift in the Multiverse
2018-Apr-18
83 minutes
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Episode 9: On Aleister Crowley and the Idea of Magick
2018-Apr-11
76 minutes
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Episode 8: On Graham Harman's "The Third Table"
2018-Apr-04
72 minutes
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Episode 7: The Unspeakable Mystery at the Heart of Boxing
2018-Mar-28
65 minutes
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Episode 6: Dungeons & Dragons, or the Reality of Illusions
2018-Mar-21
78 minutes
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Episode 5: Reading Lisa Ruddick's "When Nothing is Cool"
2018-Mar-13
68 minutes
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Episode 4: Exploring the Weird with Erik Davis
2018-Mar-07
81 minutes
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Episode 3: Ecstasy, Sin, and "The White People"
2018-Feb-21
79 minutes
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Weird Stories: Arthur Machen's "The White People"
2018-Feb-19
96 minutes
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Episode 2: Garmonbozia
2018-Feb-01
86 minutes
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Episode 1: Introduction to Weird Studies
2018-Jan-31
32 minutes
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