Some attributes of the paranormal mind are dismissed as nonsense, but what can an exploration of pseudoscientific phenomena tell us about accepted scientific and cultural thought? In Parascientific Revolutions: The Science and Culture of the Paranormal, Derek Lee traces the evolution of psi epistemologies and uncovers how these ideas have migrated into scientific fields such as quantum physics and neurology, as well as diverse literary genres including science fiction, ethnic literature, and even government training manuals. Here, Lee is joined in conversation with Alicia Puglionesi.

Derek Lee is author of Parascientific Revolutions: The Science and Culture of the Paranormal and assistant professor of literature at Wake Forest University.

Alicia Puglionesi is a lecturer in the medicine, science, and humanities program at Johns Hopkins University and is author of Common Phantoms and In Whose Ruins: Power, Possession, and the Landscapes of American Empire and Common Phantoms: An American History of Psychic Science.

REFERENCES:

Society for Psychical Research

Roger Luckhurst

Stargate Project

Ingo Swann

Star Fire / Ingo Swann

Psitron

Adrian Dobbs

Philip K. Dick

William Butler Yeats

Joseph E. Uscinski

Praise for the book:

“Derek Lee engages the ‘pseudoscience’ moniker, that ultimate rhetorical insult, and seeks to replace it with a more accurate ‘parascience’—a place where science and that which is other than science meet and express themselves in literally global pathways as distinct as pulp and science fiction, environmental thought, Asian and Indigenous ways of knowing, U.S. secret espionage, and ethnic fiction. Lee shows all of this with consummate skill and rigor, pushing us beyond our present impasses. This thing is not going away. This is a revolution.”

—Jeffrey J. Kripal, author of How to Think Impossibly

“Derek Lee delves into the rich history of the paranormal to instigate a captivating discussion of its influence on literature and science into the twenty-first century through SF and ethnic fictions with the unproven concepts of parascience—precognition, telekinesis, clairvoyance, spectral communication, and telepathy. A classic in the making!”

—Isiah Lavender III, author of Afrofuturism Rising

Parascientific Revolutions: The Science and Culture of the Paranormal by Derek Lee is available from University of Minnesota Press. Thank you for listening.

Sasha Davis, an activist and scholar of radical environmental advocacy, brings new hope for social justice movements by looking to progressive campaigns that have found success by unconventional means. From contesting environmental abuse to reasserting Indigenous sovereignty, these movements demonstrate how people can collectively wrest control over their communities from oppressive governments and manage them with a more egalitarian ethics of care. The work is exciting, it’s messy, and it seeks to change the world. Here, Davis joins Laurel Mei-Singh and Khury Petersen-Smith in conversation about his new book, Replace the State: How to Change the World When Elections and Protests Fail.

Sasha Davis is an activist and professor in the Department of Environmental and Sustainability Studies at Keene State College in New Hampshire. He is author of Replace the State: How to Change the World When Elections and Protests Fail; Islands and Oceans: Reimagining Sovereignty and Social Change; and The Empires’ Edge: Militarization, Resistance, and Transcending Hegemony in the Pacific.

Laurel Mei-Singh is assistant professor of geography and Asian American studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

Khury Petersen-Smith is the Michael Ratner Middle East Fellow and the Co-Director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies.

REFERENCES:

J. K. Gibson-Graham

Haunani-Kay Trask

Military Geographies / Rachel Woodward

Cooperation Jackson

Michel Foucault / biopower

Praise for the book:

“As the United States is being destroyed, millions of spaces are opening up for something new to emerge. Offering urgent lessons and insights, Replace the State explores relational governance as an alternative to systems that no longer serve. Sasha Davis shows how we can move forward to create and claim a truly inclusive, sustainable world.”

—Lisa Fithian, author of Shut It Down: Stories from a Fierce, Loving Resistance

Replace the State: How to Change the World When Elections and Protests Fail by Sasha Davis is available from University of Minnesota Press. Thank you for listening.

From Get Out to The Babadook to Saint Maud: In his new book, Josh Gooch uses the horror film genre to expose the hostile conditions of life under capitalism, drawing connections between Marxist theory and contemporary narratives of psychological unease. Here, Gooch is joined in conversation with Jo Isaacson. This episode contains spoilers for multiple films (list below).

Joshua Gooch is professor of English at D’Youville University in Buffalo, New York. He is author of Capitalism Hates You: Marxism and the New Horror Film; Dickensian Affects: Charles Dickens and Feelings of Precarity and The Victorian Novel, Service Work, and the Nineteenth-Century Economy.

Johanna Isaacson is professor of English at Modesto Junior College and author of Stepford Daughters: Weapons for Feminists in Contemporary Horror.

EPISODE REFERENCES:

Sianne Ngai

Michael Löwy / “critical irrealism”

Linda Williams on Psycho, essay in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho: A Casebook

Søren Mau

Nancy Fraser

Mariarosa Dalla Costa

Silvia Federici

Amitav Ghosh

Kim Stanley Robinson

Jason W. Moore

Ruth Wilson Gilmore

Sophie Lewis

M. E. O’Brien

Kathi Weeks

Lauren Berlant

FILMS DISCUSSED:

Psycho

Dracula

Nosferatu

Candyman

Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell

Joe Lynch’s Mayhem

Robert Eggers’s The Witch

Gillian Wallace Horvat’s I Blame Society

Rose Glass’s Saint Maud

Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook

Ari Aster’s Hereditary

Jane Schoenbrun’s We’re All Going to the World’s Fair

Jordan Peele’s Get Out

Jordan Peele’s Us

Mariame Diallo’s Master

Tim Story’s The Blackening

Timothy Covell’s Blood Conscious

Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance

Romero’s Night of the Living Dead
Lamberti Bava’s Demons

The Ring

Jeremy Saulnier’s Murder Party

Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining

Praise for the book:
"Fiercely smart." —Annie McClanahan, author of Dead Pledges

"This is a book not just for fans of horror but for everyone interested in the ways films embed and communicate values, judgments, and affects." —Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, author of Gothic Things

Capitalism Hates You: Marxism and the New Horror Film by Joshua Gooch is available from University of Minnesota Press. Thank you for listening.