Episodios

  • Episode 210 – Angels & Daimons, with Cristina Campo and M.C. Richards

    Episode 210 – Angels & Daimons, with Cristina Campo and M.C. Richards
    Apr 8 2026
    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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Más Menos
    1 h y 33 m
  • Episode 209 – At Home in the Labyrinth, with Murakami and Borges

    Episode 209 – At Home in the Labyrinth, with Murakami and Borges
    Mar 25 2026
    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. Joe Leduc's Blood Oath 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Más Menos
    1 h y 33 m
  • Episode 208 – Unbridled Creation: On Kenneth Batcheldor's Theory of the Paranormal

    Episode 208 – Unbridled Creation: On Kenneth Batcheldor's Theory of the Paranormal
    Mar 11 2026
    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, “Notes on the Elusiveness Problem in Relation to a Radical View of Paranormality,” ed. Patric Giesler, The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 88, no. 2 (1994): 90-116. 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Más Menos
    1 h y 20 m
  • Episode 207 – Magic Mirror: On J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Fellowship of the Ring'

    Episode 207 – Magic Mirror: On J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Fellowship of the Ring'
    Feb 25 2026
    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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Más Menos
    1 h y 32 m
  • Episode 206 – On Ken Russell's 'Altered States': Live at Indiana University Bloomington

    Episode 206 – On Ken Russell's 'Altered States': Live at Indiana University Bloomington
    Feb 11 2026
    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" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Más Menos
    1 h y 21 m
  • Episode 205 – Discipline and Delight: On the Hierophant Card in the Tarot

    Episode 205 – Discipline and Delight: On the Hierophant Card in the Tarot
    Jan 28 2026
    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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Más Menos
    1 h y 33 m
  • Episode 204 – The Perilous Realm: J.R.R. Tolkien's 'On Fairy Stories'

    Episode 204 – The Perilous Realm: J.R.R. Tolkien's 'On Fairy Stories'
    Jan 14 2026
    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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Más Menos
    1 h y 16 m
  • Holiday Bonus: Scavengers in the Ruins of Heaven

    Holiday Bonus: Scavengers in the Ruins of Heaven
    Dec 31 2025
    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). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Más Menos
    33 m