Weird Studies
- Episodes
- 245
- Released
- every two weeks
- Latest episode
- Nov 4, 2026
About the podcast
Professor Phil Ford and writer J. F. Martel host a series of conversations on art and philosophy, dwelling on ideas that are hard to think and art that opens up rifts in what we are pleased to call "reality." SpectreVision Radio is a bespoke podcast network at the intersection between the arts and the uncanny, featuring a tapestry of shows exploring the anomalous, the luminous, and the numinous. We’re a community for creators and fans vibrating around common curiosities, shared interests and persistent passions. spectrevisionradio.com linktr.ee/spectrevision
Episodes 245
Episode 222 – Art is Totally Objective: On Formalism
In this episode, JF and Phi discuss formalism, a broad 20th-century movement holding that art has quantifiable structural characteristics that give it its own value and integrity, such that an artwork can be …
Show notes
In this episode, JF and Phi discuss formalism, a broad 20th-century movement holding that art has quantifiable structural characteristics that give it its own value and integrity, such that an artwork can be said to represent nothing but itself. The focus is on Igor Stravinsky's formalist doctrines and the essay "Formalism" by art critic Dave Hickey.
Music in this episode: "Scavenger," from PY Martel's Weird Studies Vol. 3.
For a limited time, Weirdosphere has reopened Matt Cardin's course, Writing at the Wellspring: A Course in Daemonic Creativity. For details and to enroll, visit the course page on the Weirdosphere website.
Episode art: Svanen, No. 17, by Hilma af Flint (1915).
REFERENCES
Gilles Deleuze, Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation
Dave Hickey, “Formalism,”
Igor Stravinsky, Octet for Winds
Igor Stravinsky, "Some Ideas about My Octuor”
Reinburt de Leeuw, "Liszt – Via crucis, explained"
D. H. Lawrence, English novelist
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Episode 221 – On 'The Exorcist'
In this episode, long overdue, Phil and JF discuss one of the great American horror films: WIlliam Friedkin's 1973 adaptation of Willam Peter's Blatty's _The Exorcist_. Music: "Nascent Red," from PY Martel's …
Show notes
In this episode, long overdue, Phil and JF discuss one of the great American horror films: WIlliam Friedkin's 1973 adaptation of Willam Peter's Blatty's _The Exorcist_.
Music: "Nascent Red," from PY Martel's Weird Studies Vol. 1.
For details on Quentin S. Crisp's upcoming Weirdosphere talk on literature and the supernatural, visit Weirdosphere. The event takes place on October 31 at 3 pm EST.
Support Weird Studies on Patreon.
References
William Friedkin (dir.), The Exorcist
Richard Donner (dir.), The Omen
Fulton J. Sheen, On the Demonic
William Blatty, The Exorcist
Gyrus, North
Don Siegal and Clint Eastwood (dir.), Dirty Harry
Weird Studies, Episode 88 on Mr. Punch
Joe Bob Briggs, American film critic
Matt Cardin, "Teeth"
Ryan Duns, The Theology of Horror
Norman Mailer, "The White Negro"
Ray Brassier, Nihil Unbound
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man"
Thomas Ligotti, The Conspiracy Against the Human Race
John Lennon, "Imagine"
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Episode 220: The Dream of a Ridiculous Man: Live at the Dream Mapping Symposium
On September 26, JF and Phil took part in the Dream Mapping Symposium, a three-day event organized by the Dream Mapping Project and the Dream Library Foundation, and held at the Brooklyn Public Library. Their …
Show notes
On September 26, JF and Phil took part in the Dream Mapping Symposium, a three-day event organized by the Dream Mapping Project and the Dream Library Foundation, and held at the Brooklyn Public Library. Their mission was twofold. First, Phil was to read Dostoevsky's short story "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man," and then, he and JF were to have one of their conversations about it. Despite inclement weather, exploding lighting equipment and the labyrinthine NYC subway system, it went off like a dream. In this episode, we offer you the full recording of the event.
Special thanks to Alisa Minyukova and Kelly Bulkeley for a thought-provoking weekend.
To support Weird Studies, become a patron of the show.
It's not too late to sign up to Erik Davis's Weirdosphere course, Do Androids Dream of Reading PKD? The first of two live Q&As with Erik is on Sunday, October 11, 2026.
Music in this episode: "Springtime on Ganymede" from PY Martel's Weird Studies vol. 2.
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Episode 219 – Composing the Cosmos, with Meredith Rigby
In this episode, JF and Phil are joined by their beloved assistant and invaluable collaborator Meredith Rigby (formerly Meredith Michael) to discuss her recently completed doctoral dissertation, Composing the …
Show notes
In this episode, JF and Phil are joined by their beloved assistant and invaluable collaborator Meredith Rigby (formerly Meredith Michael) to discuss her recently completed doctoral dissertation, Composing the Cosmos: 20th Century Musical Mythologies of Outer Space. Meredith explains how classical music, in the last century, became a privileged zone for exploring the meaning, threat, and promise of the starry void after the collapse of the old cosmologies.
Music: "Fogcutter" from Pierre-Yves Martel's Weird Studies Vol 3.
Support Weird Studies on Patreon.
Upcoming Events
Registration is open for Erik Davis's course on Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? , starting October 1, 2026, on Weirdosphere.
On September 26, 2026, join JF and Phil at the Brooklyn Public Library for a live recording on dreams and Dostoevsky. Part of the Dream Mapping Symposium, organized by The Dream Mapping Project and the Dream Library Foundation.
On October 3 and 4, HitchCon 26 will feature talks on Hitchcock and David Lynch. Speakers include JF and Victoria Nelson.
References
Meredith Rigby, "Composing the Cosmos: 20th Century Musical Mythologies of Outer Space"
Charles Taylor, A Secular Age
Henri Bergson, Creative Evolution
Jerry Goldsmith, Theme from Star Trek: The Next Generation
Richard Strauss, Also Sprach Zarathustra
Gustav Holst, "Mars" and "Neptune" from The Planets
Lili Boulanger, "Les Sirènes"
Alan Leo, The Art of Synthesis
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Episode 218 — A Mighty Matter of Legend: On J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Two Towers'
Having taken up the first part of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings in episode 207, Phil and JF turn to part two, The Two Towers. Together, they peel back the husk of familiarity to reveal the strange …
Show notes
Having taken up the first part of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings in episode 207, Phil and JF turn to part two, The Two Towers. Together, they peel back the husk of familiarity to reveal the strange object underneath: a story about stories, about life and destiny in a storied world.
Music: "Wotan Hangs" from Weird Studies Vol. 1 and "For the Sun" from Weird Studies Vol 3.
Support Weird Studies on Patreon.
Upcoming Events:
JF's course on the metaphysics of the horror genre, The Awful Truth, starts September 17, 2026, on Weirdosphere.
Erik Davis's course on Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? starts October 1, 2026, on Weirdosphere.
Click here for details on JF and Phil's appearance at the Brooklyn Public Library on September 26, 2026. Part of the Dream Mapping Symposium, organized by The Dream Mapping Project and the Dream Library Foundation. Attendance is free.
References
J. R. R. Tolkien, The Two Towers
Viktor Schlovsky, “Art as Technique”
Arthur Machen, “A Fragment of Life”
Joshua Cutchin, Fourth Wall Phantoms
Cristina Campo “On Fairy Tales”
J. R. R. Tolkien, “On Fairy Stories”
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
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Mid-Hiatus Bonus: A Door in the Fourth Wall
Episode 218 will drop at the end of our summer break on September 9, 2026. Today, enjoy this recent audio extra, originally released for members of the Weird Studies Patreon. In the intro, JF announces two …
Show notes
Episode 218 will drop at the end of our summer break on September 9, 2026. Today, enjoy this recent audio extra, originally released for members of the Weird Studies Patreon. In the intro, JF announces two important Weirdosphere events: a talk on language in the age of AI by Emma Stamm, and a new six-week course on the idea of truth in horror cinema and literature. To learn more and enroll, visit Weirdosphere.
The musical piece following the intro is "Hypnagogic," from PY Martel's recent album Weird Studies Vol. 3.
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Episode 217 – Books, Spirits, and Hysteria, with Asti Hustvedt
Researcher Asti Hustvedt joins Phil and JF to discuss a talk she gave at the Lily Dale Symposium this year entitled "Bibliophantoms." The question: What does it mean to "get lost" in a book? Asti's answer …
Show notes
Researcher Asti Hustvedt joins Phil and JF to discuss a talk she gave at the Lily Dale Symposium this year entitled "Bibliophantoms." The question: What does it mean to "get lost" in a book? Asti's answer, drawing on her research in nineteenth-century neuroscience and spirit mediumship, amounts to a genuine weirding of the act of reading.
Asti Hustvedt is an independent scholar and writer with a PhD in French literature. Her work examines the entangled histories of science, psychology, literature, and the occult, with a particular focus on hysteria and Spiritualism. She is the author of Medical Muses: Hysteria in Nineteenth-Century Paris, named an Editors' Choice by the New York Times and a Book of the Year by The Independent, and the editor of The Decadent Reader: Fiction, Fantasy and Perversion in Fin-de-Siècle France. She is currently writing a book on hysteria and the supernatural that examines how Eusapia Palladino and other mediums challenged—and helped shape—the emerging sciences of the mind.
New Course! To learn more on JF's upcoming online course on truth in horror literature and cinema, visit Weirdosphere.
Image: Detail of The Reader by Jacques-Émile Blanche (1861-1942)
Music: "L'Esprit d'escalier" from Weird Studies vol. 3, and "Distant Early Warning" from Weird Studies vol 2.
REFERENCES
Asti Hustvedt, Medical Muses
Jean-Martin Charcot, French physician
Pierre Janet, French physician
Lon Milo DuQuette, It’s All in Your Head
Saint Catherine of Siena, Italian mystic
Saint Augustine, Confessions
Paul Auster, American writer
Julia Kristeva, Bulgarian French philosopher
Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights
Lionel Snell, Introduction to Freya Aswynn’s Power and Principles of the Runes
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Episode 216 – Artworks Are People Too
"Now and then, a mysterious life and potency will flicker out of an artwork and confront you." So began "Artworks Are People Too," a talk Phil presented at the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute earlier …
Show notes
"Now and then, a mysterious life and potency will flicker out of an artwork and confront you." So began "Artworks Are People Too," a talk Phil presented at the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute earlier this summer. In this episode, JF and Phil discuss the implications of this idea that some artworks break the mould of the inanimate and act as persons in the world. Are artworks mere creations, or creatures too?
To enroll in Questionable Cinema, our live summer series happening in August 2026, visit Weirdosphere.
Music: "Hypnagogic," from Weird Studies Vol. 3.
References
Henri Corbin, Alone with the Alone
Alfred Hallowell, "Ojibwa Ontology, Behavior, and Worldview"
Martin Buber, I and Thou
Charles Taylor, A Secular Age
Rainer Maria Rilke, “Archaic Torso of Apollo”
Peter Sloterdijk, You Must Change Your Life
Carl Jung, “On the Relation of Analytical Psychology to Poetry”
Alejandro Jodorowsky, Pyschomagic
Dan Sperber, “The Causal Chains of Culture”
Paul Stoller, In Sorcery’s Shadow
Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky
Ishmael Reed, Mumbo Jumbo
Holly Cusack-McVeigh, Stories Find You
Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind
Sam Raimi (dir.), Evil Dead II
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Special Episode: Make Art!
Owing to circumstances preventing us from releasing a new show this week, we are offering you one from the archives. This episode was originally released on our Patreon in March 2026. In it, we discuss the …
Show notes
Owing to circumstances preventing us from releasing a new show this week, we are offering you one from the archives. This episode was originally released on our Patreon in March 2026. In it, we discuss the splendour and squalor of Victorian London, kung-fu bobbies, the (mis)alignment of society and technology, post-apocalyptic optimism, the emancipating genius of tabletop roleplaying games, the human after AI, and a reason for creating works of art.
A new episode of Weird Studies will drop on July 22.
For more information on Questionable Cinema, Phil and JF's upcoming online course, visit Weirdosphere.
To listen to more tracks from Weird Studies Vol. 3 and purchase the download or LP, visit Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp.
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Episode 215 – Where No One Can Hear You Scream: On Ridley Scott's 'Alien'
In this episode, JF and Phil discuss Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi/horror blockbuster Alien. Together, they wipe off the patina of familiarity that beclouds the film, restoring it to its original weirdness. What …
Show notes
In this episode, JF and Phil discuss Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi/horror blockbuster Alien. Together, they wipe off the patina of familiarity that beclouds the film, restoring it to its original weirdness. What is the organism that terrorizes the Nostromo? What's its relation to technology, evolution, industry? How does it differ from the monsters of older horror classics? How does one interpret without explaining away?
Music in this episode: "Hypnagogic," from Pierre-Yves Martel's Weird Studies Vol. 3.
Events
Shannon Taggart's Lily Dale Symposium (July 23-25, 2026
Transcendence in the Age of AI, a Weirdosphere chat with Michael Garfield and JF Martel, hosted by Joel Gunz - June 25, 2026Kickstarter campaign for Artist as Astronaut: The Otherworldly Art of Ionel Talpazan from Strange Attractor Press. The campaign closes June 27!
References
Ionel Talpazan, Romanian experiencer and artist
Ridley Scott (dir.), Alien
Peter Bebergal, All Our Famous Monsters (forthcoming)
Malachi Martin, Hostage to the Devil
Vilhelm Hammershøi, Danish painter
H. R. Giger, Swiss artist
Simon-Max, French entertainer
Eric Wargo, Passion of the Space Jockey
Weird Studies, Episode 213 on “Eric”
Mel Brooks (dir.), Spaceballs
Howard and Emerson, “Hello, Ma Baby”
Eugene Thacker, In the Dust of This Planet
Graham Harman, Weird Reality
Pierre Schaeffer, French musician
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Episode 214 – Fortune's Fools: On Gordon White's Philosophy of Fortune-Telling
It was with heavy hearts that Phil and JF learned of Gordon White's passing. Gordon was a force to be reckoned with: as an author and podcaster on all things occult, he offered unique perspectives and …
Show notes
It was with heavy hearts that Phil and JF learned of Gordon White's passing. Gordon was a force to be reckoned with: as an author and podcaster on all things occult, he offered unique perspectives and provocative interpretations at every turn. In this episode, your hosts discuss Gordon's thoughts on divination—or fortune-telling, as he preferred to call it...
Click here to purchase tickets to the 2026 edition of the Lily Dale Symposium (July 23-25), organized by Shannon Taggart and closing this year with a live recording of Weird Studies.
References
Duns Scotus, Scottish priest
Marshall Sahlins, The New Science of the Enchanted Universe
Henri Bergson, Time and Free Will
Ithell Colquhoun, Taro as Colour
Lord Dunsany, The Gods of Pegana
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Episode 213 – Comics, Surf Rock, and the Weirdness of Time: On Tom Manning's 'Eric'
Tom Manning's 2018 graphic novel Eric is that rarest of gems: the self-published masterpiece. Available only on the author's website, it's the story of a washed-up surf rocker who stumbles into a cosmic …
Show notes
Tom Manning's 2018 graphic novel Eric is that rarest of gems: the self-published masterpiece. Available only on the author's website, it's the story of a washed-up surf rocker who stumbles into a cosmic conspiracy involving elite cultists, post-apocalyptic cowboys, renegade magicians, and three-eyed djinn. In this episode, Manning's work serves as a shining example of what makes comics such a unique and potent art form. There's no need to have read the book before listening—but know that you'll probably want to do when you're done. You're welcome.
Visit the Weirdosphere website to sign up for the Weird Studies Vol. 3 listening party on May 30, 2026.
Join the Weird Studies Patreon and support the show.
References
Tom Manning, ERIC
Leslie Stevens, “So So Surreal”
Mike Relm, “Change the Channel”
Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, What is Philosophy?
Sarah Heston, “Magical Los Angeles: An Interview with Tom Manning”
Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics
David Mamet, On Directing Film
Richard J. Lewis (dir.), Whale Music
Joel and Ethan Coen, The Big Lebowski
Darren Aronovsky (dir.), The Wrestler
Jorge Luis Borges, “The Garden of Forking Paths”
Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time
Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea
Jean-Paul Sartre, The Transcendence of the Ego
David Lynch, Twin Peaks: The Return
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Episode 212 – Beyond Music and Back Again: On Glenn Gould
The pianist, composer and sound artist Glenn Gould once wrote: "Art on its loftiest mission is scarcely human at all." What becomes of art and humanity when they are allowed to vary independently of one …
Show notes
The pianist, composer and sound artist Glenn Gould once wrote: "Art on its loftiest mission is scarcely human at all." What becomes of art and humanity when they are allowed to vary independently of one another? Which serves which, and to what end? In this episode, JF and Phil discuss Glenn Gould's style and vision of music through the lens of François Girard's memorable 1993 film, Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould.
For details on the upcoming Weird Studies Volume 3 listening party, and to register for the event, go to the event page on the Weirdosphere website. The album will be released on May 22, 2026, on Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp page.
Click here to support Weird Studies on Patreon.
REFERENCES
Francois Girard (dir.), Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
Rob Reiner, This is Spinal Tap
Weird Studies, Episode 31 on Gould’s “Prospects of Recording”
"Glenn Gould Interviews Glenn Gould About Glenn Gould"
Phil Ford, Dig: Sound and Music in Hip Culture
Glenn Gould, "The Idea of North"
Weird Studies, Episode 124 with Duncan Barford
Francois Girard, Production of Wagner’s Parsifal
Richard Wagner, Parsifal (clip from performance conducted by Reginald Goodall)
Header image by Ana Pismel, via Wikimedia Commons.
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Episode 211 – You've Always Been the Caretaker: On Kubrick's 'The Shining'
In this episode, Phil and JF discuss Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's novel The Shining. That they are doing this eight years after starting the podcast is weird in itself, so fundamental is …
Show notes
In this episode, Phil and JF discuss Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's novel The Shining. That they are doing this eight years after starting the podcast is weird in itself, so fundamental is Kubrick's "chamber epic" to the modern weird in general, and the hosts' specific interests in particular. Well, as the Overlook Hotel's former caretaker Delbert Grady might put it, consider the situation corrrrected.
Visit Weirdosphere to enroll in JF's upcoming course on Deleuzian philosophy, starting May 7 2026.
Support Weird Studies on Patreon
Interstitial Music: "Corridors" from Pierre-Yves Martel's Weird Studies Volume 2.
REFERENCES
Stanley Kubrick, The Shining
Jan Harlan, A Life in Pictures
Stanely Kubruck, Killer’s Kiss
Alberto Giacometti, “The Palace at 4am”
Gilles Deleuze, What is Philosophy?
Reyner Banham, “The New Brutalism”
Mark Fisher, The Weird and the Eerie
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Special Episode: M.C. Richards's "Wrestling with the Daimonic," read by Phil Ford
We regret that we were unable to release a new episode this week. Episode 211 will drop on Wednesday, April 29, and will be devoted to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, a film we have long wanted to revisit in …
Show notes
We regret that we were unable to release a new episode this week. Episode 211 will drop on Wednesday, April 29, and will be devoted to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, a film we have long wanted to revisit in depth. In the meantime, we are pleased to offer Phil’s spirited reading of M. C. Richards’ essay “Wrestling with the Daimonic,” discussed in our previous episode and available only to Patreon members until now.
This recording is shared with kind permission from Wesleyan University Press. Visit their website for details on The Crossing Point and other works by M.C. Richards.
To support Weird Studies and get access to exclusive essays and bonus episodes, visit our Patreon page.
And go to Weirdosphere to learn more about JF's upcoming course on Deleuzian philosophy, which starts on May 7th, 2026.
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Episode 210 – Angels & Daimons, with Cristina Campo and M.C. Richards
In this episode, JF and Phil bring together two visionary essays on the daimonic and the imaginal: Cristina Campo’s “On Fairy Tales” and M.C. Richards’s “Wrestling with the Daimonic.” What emerges is a …
Show notes
In this episode, JF and Phil bring together two visionary essays on the daimonic and the imaginal: Cristina Campo’s “On Fairy Tales” and M.C. Richards’s “Wrestling with the Daimonic.” What emerges is a conversation about imagination, personhood, and a world shot through with meaning. Notably, this episode opens with a discussion of what your hosts mean by "imaginal."
Phil’s reading of Richards’s essay can be found on our Patreon page. Thanks to Wesleyan University Press for permission to share this with our listeners.
Go to Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp page to preorder his marvellous new album, Weird Studies Volume 3.
Click here to sign up for JF's seminar on Henri Bergson, happening on the Mutations learning platform on Saturday, April 11, 2026.
Click here for details on JF's upcoming Weirdosphere course, "What is Philosophy?".
Music in this Episode
"Scavenger," from Weird Studies Vol. 3
"Domes and Spires," from Weird Studies Vol. 2
References
M. C. Richards, American artist and philosopher
Cristina Campo, Italian poet and essayist
M. C. Richards, “Wrestling with the Daimonic”
Cristina Campo, “On Fairy Tales”
Henri Bergson, Matter and Memory
William Blake, “Auguries of Innocence”
Weird Studies, Episode 8 on Graham Harmon
Susan Chang, The Tarot Podcast
Ramsey Dukes, The Little Book of Demons
“The Boy Who Knew No Fear,” fairy tale
Una Voce, Catholic movement
Franz Liszt, Hungarian Pianist
Walter Benjamin, The Storyteller
William Shakespeare, Othello
M. C. Richards, Centering
Robert Duncan, American poet
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Episode 209 – At Home in the Labyrinth, with Murakami and Borges
In this episode, Phil and JF discuss Haruki Murakami’s “Cream,” from First Person Singular, alongside Jorge Luis Borges’s classic tale, “The Garden of Forking Paths.” Together, these two stories occasion a …
Show notes
In this episode, Phil and JF discuss Haruki Murakami’s “Cream,” from First Person Singular, alongside Jorge Luis Borges’s classic tale, “The Garden of Forking Paths.” Together, these two stories occasion a meditation on time, perplexity, and the strange possibility that meaning isn't found at the end of the maze, but discovered only in the course of wandering it.
Photo by DMzlC via Wikimedia Commons.
Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp page, home of Weird Studies Vol. 3 (to be released May 22, 2026).
Joel Plaskett's website and Substack
References
Geoffrey Cornelius, “Chicane: Double-Thinking and Divination among the Witch-Doctors,” in Divination: Perspectives for a New Millennium, ed. Patrick Curry (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010), 119– 42.
Jorge Luis Borges, “The Garden of Forking Paths”
Haruki Murakami, “Cream”
Marc Augé, Non-Places
Federico Campagna, Technic and Magic
Phil Ford, “The View from the Cheap Seats at the UFO Show”
Nicholas of Cusa, “On the Quadrature of the Circle”
Ethan Weed, “A Labyrinth of Symbols”
Kids in the Hall, “Premise Beach”
David Lynch, Twin Peaks: The Return
David Lynch, Lost Highway
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Don Giovanni
Weird Studies, Episode 66 on “Diviner’s Time”
Gottfried Leibniz, Theodicy
Quentin Meillasoux, After Finitude
Alejandro Jodorowsky, The Way of Tarot
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Episode 208 – Unbridled Creation: On Kenneth Batcheldor's Theory of the Paranormal
Kenneth Batcheldor was a British clinical psychologist who, during the final two decades of his life, investigated the paranormal through direct experiments in table-turning. The final fruit of that work was an …
Show notes
Kenneth Batcheldor was a British clinical psychologist who, during the final two decades of his life, investigated the paranormal through direct experiments in table-turning. The final fruit of that work was an essay, compiled from Batcheldor’s notebooks by Patric Giesler, entitled “Notes on the Elusiveness Problem in Relation to a Radical View of Paranormality.” Published in the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research in 1994, it remained unknown to JF and Phil until Shannon Taggart called their attention to it quite recently. Since the theory Batcheldor presents here with admirable lucidity is deeply attuned to ideas they have been discussing on Weird Studies for nearly a decade, they decided to devote an episode to it. The core idea is by far the weirdest of all—in a sense, it is the weird itself.
Read Batcheldor's essay on the Weird Studies Patreon.
Visit Weirdosphere to enroll in Phil's upcoming 5-week course, "A Musical Tarot."
Pierre-Yves Martel's Weird Studies: Volume 3 will be available for preorder on March 13. Visit his Bandcamp page for details.
REFERENCES
K. M. Wehrstein, “Kenneth Batcheldor” in Psi Encyclopedia
Kenneth Batcheldor, “Contributions to the Theory of PK Induction from Sitter-Group Work,” Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 78 (1984): 105-122.
George P. Hansen, The Trickster and the Paranormal
Quintin Meillassoux, After Finitude
Joshua Ramey, “Contingency Without Reason: Speculation after Meillassoux”
Kenneth Batcheldor, Videos of Table Tipping
Weird Studies, Episode 24 with Lionel Snell
David Lynch, Wild at Heart
William James, The Principles of Psychology
Tom Cheetham, Imaginal Love
A. Irving Hallowell, Ojibwa Ontology, Behavior, and World View
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Episode 207 – Magic Mirror: On J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Fellowship of the Ring'
This is the first of three episodes on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings to be released in the course of the next several months. Focusing here on The Fellowship of the Ring, our hosts discuss the first …
Show notes
This is the first of three episodes on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings to be released in the course of the next several months. Focusing here on The Fellowship of the Ring, our hosts discuss the first leg of Frodo's journey into darkness, paying special attention to Tolkien's prose style, his modernism, his commitment to a truly magical realism, and his penchant for the weird and the tragic.
Image: "Lothlorien" by Tessa Bronsky, via Wikimedia Commons.
References
J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
Algernon Blackwood, English writer
Weird Studies, Episode 204 on “On Fairy Stories”
Peter Jackson (dir.), The Lord of the Rings
Ursula K. LeGuin, A Wizard of Earthsea
Friedrich Nietzsche, History in the Service and Disservice of Life
Milan Kundera, The Art of the Novel
Kenneth Burke, A Grammar of Motives
Carl Jung, The Red Book
Lord Dunsaney, The King of Elfland’s Daughter
Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto
David Foster Wallace, “E Unibus Pluram”
Steven Chow (dir.), Kung Fu Hustle
Donna Tartt, The Secret History
Lost Lakes, YouTube Channel
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Episode 206 – On Ken Russell's 'Altered States': Live at Indiana University Bloomington
This episode was recorded before a live audience at Indiana University Cinema as part of Weird Academia, a series of events that brought much high strangeness to Bloomington, Indiana, in January 2026. The …
Show notes
This episode was recorded before a live audience at Indiana University Cinema as part of Weird Academia, a series of events that brought much high strangeness to Bloomington, Indiana, in January 2026. The discussion followed a screening of Ken Russell’s 1980 cinematic fever dream, Altered States. In it, JF and Phil explore the weird intersection of mysticism, psychedelics, and institutional science, and they close with a brief Q&A with members of the audience.
Visit Weirdosphere to enroll in Phil Ford's upcoming course, A Musical Tarot.
References
Weird Academia and the Center for Possible Minds
Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Roger Penrose, physicist and mathematician
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
Samuel Delaney, Dhalgren
Henri Bergson, Introduction to Metaphysics and Matter & Memory
H. P. Lovecraft, American writer
Herman Melville, Moby-Dick
Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception
Clement Greenberg, American essayist
G. K. Chesterton, English writer
David Cronenberg (dir.), The Fly
Michael Garfield, podcaster, writer, musician
Weird Studies episode 205 on the Hierophant
Victoria Nelson, The Secret Life of Puppets
Neil Gaiman, American Gods
J. R. R. Tolkien, "On Fairy Stories"
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Episode 205 – Discipline and Delight: On the Hierophant Card in the Tarot
In this episode of Weird Studies, we turn to the fifth Major Arcanum, the Hierophant, symbolizing tradition, instruction, and the exoteric aspect of spiritual practice. Drawing on Meditations on the Tarot and …
Show notes
In this episode of Weird Studies, we turn to the fifth Major Arcanum, the Hierophant, symbolizing tradition, instruction, and the exoteric aspect of spiritual practice. Drawing on Meditations on the Tarot and other sources, we question the easy opposition between tradition and revolution, exploring instead how inherited forms can foster genuine inner growth, and how an interior revolutions may renew traditions from within.
To reserve seats for Weird Academia events, visit the website of the Center for Possible Minds.
References
Johann Sebastian Bach, F# minor Fugue from The Well Tempered Clavier Book 1 (played by Rosalyn Tureck)
Richard Wilhelm (trans.), The I Ching
J. R. R. Tolkein, The Lord of the Rings
P. D. Ouspensky, The Symbolism of the Tarot
The Catechism of the Catholic Church
Our Known Friend, Meditations of the Tarot
Plato, "The Seventh Letter"
Alejandro Jodorowsky, The Way of Tarot
Dogen, Instructions for the Cook
Gilles Deleuze, Difference and Repetition
Weird Studies, Live at Illuminated Brew Works
Franz Liszt, Hungarian pianist
G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographia Literaria vol. 1
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Episode 204 – The Perilous Realm: J.R.R. Tolkien's 'On Fairy Stories'
For Tolkien, fairy stories are not stories about fairies, but stories that take place in Faerie. And in doing so, they make Faerie present. They are not escapist fantasies but disclosures of a real mode of …
Show notes
For Tolkien, fairy stories are not stories about fairies, but stories that take place in Faerie. And in doing so, they make Faerie present. They are not escapist fantasies but disclosures of a real mode of being and invitations to live in that mode. In this episode, Phil and JF explore the great writer’s radical claims about the nature of story, life, and reality.
Upcoming Events
Erik Davis and JF's six-week course on Herman Melville's Moby-Dick begins on January 20th. For details and to enroll, visit the Weirdosphere.
For information on the upcoming Weird Academia events in Bloomington (Jan 27-29), visit the symposium web page at the Center for Possible Minds.
Music in this Episode
"What a Load of Gnosis," from Weird Studies: Music from the Podcast, Volume I
"Springtime on Ganymede," from Weird Studies: Music from the Podcast, Volume II
References
J. R. R. Tolkein, “On Fairy Stories”
Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea
Franz Liszt, Transcendental Etude No. 4: Mazeppa (played by Lazar Berman)
Dogen, "Instructions for the Cook"
Jeff Kripal, Mutants and Mystics
Eric Wargo, From Nowhere
J.F. Martel, Review of “From Nowhere” for Journal of Scientific Exploration
Richard Wagner, Parsifal
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Holiday Bonus: Scavengers in the Ruins of Heaven
To tide us over as we prepare for a new season of Weird Studies, here is an "audio extra," originally recorded for our Patreon supporters, wherein we discuss imposter syndrome, the eternal inadequacy of the …
Show notes
To tide us over as we prepare for a new season of Weird Studies, here is an "audio extra," originally recorded for our Patreon supporters, wherein we discuss imposter syndrome, the eternal inadequacy of the intellect, the perils of playing with swords, and the role of trust in creation.
A new episode will drop on Wednesday, January 14th, 2026. Happy New Year to all.
To join our Patreon, go to www.patreon.com/weirdstudies
To enroll in the upcoming Moby Dick course starting on January 20th, visit www.weirdosphere.org.
For information on the Weird Academia conference in Bloomington, Indiana, visit www.possibleminds.org/weird-academia
Episode image: Caspar David Friedrich, Abtei im Eichwald (1808-1810).
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Episode 203 – Distant Early Warnings: A Return to Marshall McLuhan's 'Book of Probes'
Back in episode 112, Phil and JF devised a gimmick for a show: randomly select one of the many aphorisms in The Book of Probes, a compendium of Marshall McLuhan’s prophetic quips designed by David Carson, and …
Show notes
Back in episode 112, Phil and JF devised a gimmick for a show: randomly select one of the many aphorisms in The Book of Probes, a compendium of Marshall McLuhan’s prophetic quips designed by David Carson, and see what happens. It proved lively enough that they’re trying it again nearly a hundred episodes later. The resulting conversation touches the weird across a range of themes: tourism, the two kinds of truth, advertising, Kubrick’s marketing savvy, technology, orality versus literacy, and much more. A fitting feast for the mind as the year draws to a close.
From all of us at Weird Studies, happy holidays.
• Sign up for JF Martel and Erik Davis's upcoming course on Moby-Dick.
• Join Phil, JF, and composer Pierre-Yves Martel for Weirdosphere's Solstice Story Hour on December 21.
• For dates, venues, and the full slate of Weird Academia events in Bloomington this January, visit the Centre for Possible Minds website.
• To participate in the Weird Academia Colloquium, email organizers Emma Stamm and Michael Garfield at [email protected]
Header Image: NASA.
REFERENCES
Marshall McLuhan, Distant Early Warning Deck
Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain
Plato, The Seventh Letter
Marshall McLuhan, The Book of Probes
Toronto School of Communication Theory
Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy
Paul Kingsnorth, Against the Machine
Charles Taylor, A Secular Age
Plato, The Republic
Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media
Jonathan Crary, 24/7
H. P. Lovecraft, The Color out of Space
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Episode 202 – The Human is Two: On 'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'
In this episode, JF and Phil discuss Robert Louis Stevenson’s Gothic classic, the tale that conjured the fog-shrouded London hellscape that has haunted the modern imagination ever since. Though written as a …
Show notes
In this episode, JF and Phil discuss Robert Louis Stevenson’s Gothic classic, the tale that conjured the fog-shrouded London hellscape that has haunted the modern imagination ever since. Though written as a quick “Christmas crawler” to earn a bit of money, the novella has exerted an incalculable influence on art and literature. It also proved strangely prophetic, anticipating Freud and others who would soon make the fragmentation of the human psyche a defining concern of the new century.
"The human is two" is a recurring refrain in the work of the scholar of religious thought, Jeffrey J. Kripal.
References
Dan Ericson, Severance
Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
David Lynch (dir.), Mullholland Drive
John Frankenheimer (dir.), The Manchurian Candidate
Galen Strawson, British philosopher
Juan Eduardo Cirlot, A Dictionary of Symbols
Jeff Kripal, How to Think Philosophically
Rouben Mamoullian (dir.), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Weird Studies, Episode 161 on “From Hell”
Sigmund Freud, “The Ego and the Id”
Arthur Machen, Hieroglyphics
Arthur Machen, “The White People”
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Episode 201 – On James Whale's 'Frankenstein' and 'Bride of Frankenstein,' with Peter Bebergal
In this episode, Phil and JF are joined by independent scholar Peter Bebergal, author of Strange Frequencies, Season of the Witch, and other books on the intersections of culture, religion, and the occult. The …
Show notes
In this episode, Phil and JF are joined by independent scholar Peter Bebergal, author of Strange Frequencies, Season of the Witch, and other books on the intersections of culture, religion, and the occult. The topic is Frankenstein—not Guillermo del Toro's latest but James Whale's 1931 talkie along with its 1935 sequel, The Bride of Frankenstein, both starring Boris Karloff. The conversation touches on Gnosticism, alchemy, modern techno-hubris, the Gothic, and much more.
Peter's new online course, Hacking the Invisible: At the Intersection of Technology and Magic, begins on November 20th, 2025, and runs for three weeks on Weirdosphere. Visit the Weirdosphere website for details and to enroll.
References
James Whale (dir.), Frankenstein
Tobe Hooper (dir.), Texas Chainsaw Massacre
James Whale (dir.), The Bride of Frankenstein
Justin Sledge, Esoterica
Henry Bergson, Introduction to Metaphysics
David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
John the Apostle, The Apocryphon of John
Stuart Gordon (dir.), Stuck
Jennifer Kent (dir.), The Babadook
Stephen T. Asma, On Monsters
Thomas Paine, “The Age of Reason”
Jean Gimpel, Medieval Machine
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Halloween Special: A Reading of Arthur Machen's "The White People"
Originally released in 2018 but remixed for your listening pleasure, here's Phil reading Arthur Machen's classic weird tale, "The White People." Happy Halloween! Machen's "The White People" was discussed all …
Show notes
Originally released in 2018 but remixed for your listening pleasure, here's Phil reading Arthur Machen's classic weird tale, "The White People." Happy Halloween!
Machen's "The White People" was discussed all the way back in Weird Studies episode 3.
Earlier this week, JF and Phil joined Conner Habib on his podcast to talk all about horror. It was a great conversation and we hope you'll give it a listen.
Image: Photo of doll from Auckland War Memorial Museum, via Wikimedia Commons.
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Episode 200 – On 'The Call of Cthulhu'
For their 200th episode, JF and Phil turn their attention to H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu,” a story foundational not only to modern horror fiction but to the very idea of the Weird. In revisiting this …
Show notes
For their 200th episode, JF and Phil turn their attention to H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu,” a story foundational not only to modern horror fiction but to the very idea of the Weird. In revisiting this tale of forbidden knowledge and cosmic ambiguity, the hosts reflect on Weird Studies itself as a “slow piecing together of dissociated knowledge” that mirrors the work of Lovecraft’s own bewildered protagonists.
Image by Antoni Espinosa via Wikimedia Commons.
Upcoming Events:
Peter Bebergal teaches on Weirdosphere starting November 20, 2025
JF Martel speaks at Back to Haunt Us in East London on November 8, 2025
Phil Ford speaks at the Durations Festival in NYC on November 7, 2025
Phil Ford hangs out at Archestratus Books and Food on November 8, 2025
References
H. P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
Weird Studies, Episode 2 on Garmonbozia
Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy
Phil Ford, “The Wanderer”
H. P. Lovecraft, "Nyarlathotep"
Weird Studies, Episode 74 on Jung
Phil Ford, Jacob Foster, and J. F. Martel, “Care of the Dead”
Weird Studies, Episode 110 on The Glass Bead Game
Weird Studies, Episode 101 on Tanizaki
Graham Harman, Weird Realism: Lovecraft and Philosophy
Weird Studies, Episode 156 on Donna Tartt
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Episode 199 – On Michael Jackson, with Shannon Taggart
Photographer and paranormal researcher Shannon Taggart joins JF and Phil to explore the phenomenon that was Michael Jackson. One of the most brilliant and successful musicians of the modern era, Jackson was …
Show notes
Photographer and paranormal researcher Shannon Taggart joins JF and Phil to explore the phenomenon that was Michael Jackson. One of the most brilliant and successful musicians of the modern era, Jackson was also a liminal figure sans pareil, a shapeshifter who defied the binary categories through which we order the human world. His art and persona together enacted a transformation that can only be called shamanic.
About Our Guest:
Shannon Taggart is a photographer and author based in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her photographs have appeared in Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal, and have been recognized by Magnum, Nikon, and the Alexia Foundation. Her monograph Séance was first published by Fulgur Press (2019) and reissued in a second edition by Atelier Éditions. Shannon is currently developing an illustrated history of SORRAT (the Society for Research on Rapport and Telekinesis) and hosts an annual symposium on the weird and the paranormal in Lily Dale, New York.
Image by Daniele Dalledonne, via Wikimedia Commons.
References
George Hanson, The Trickster and the Paranormal
Robert Chambers, The King in Yellow
Rogan Taylor, The Death and Resurrection Show
Pier Paolo Pasolini (dir.), Teorema
Phil Ford, “The View from the Cheap Seats at the UFO Show”
Michael Jackson, Moonwalker: A Memoir
J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan
Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea
Miguel Connor, The Occult Elvis
Tim Powers, Last Call
Weird Studies, Episode 186 on The Wedge
Raymond Moody, Elvis After Life
Sub Rosa, Spectra Ex Machina: A Sound Anthology of Occult Phenomena 1920-2017 Vol.2
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Episode 198 – Breaking the Frame: On the High Priestess in the Tarot
Since 2020, Phil and JF have been creating an on-again, off-again series on the major trumps, or "arcana," of the tarot. In this episode, they continue the series with a discussion of the second arcanum: the …
Show notes
Since 2020, Phil and JF have been creating an on-again, off-again series on the major trumps, or "arcana," of the tarot. In this episode, they continue the series with a discussion of the second arcanum: the High Priestess, also known as la Papesse, the female pope. One of the most enigmatic and powerful cards in the deck, the High Priestess symbolizes duality, contemplation, and manifestation.
- Support Weird Studies on Patreon.
- Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack, volumes 1 and 2, on Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp page.
- Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop
- Find us on Discord
- Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau.
- Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, Cosmophonia.
REFERENCES
Our Known Friend, Meditations on the Tarot
Plancia Magna, Roman priestess
Aleister Crowley, The Book of Thoth
Leigh McCloskey, The Tarot Revisioned
Henri Bergson, Matter and Memory
Moina Mathers, French occultist
Sallie Nichols, Tarot and the Archetypal Journey
Rachel Pollack, Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom
Yoav Ben-Dov, The Marseille Tarot Revealed
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