Weird Studies

Written by: Phil Ford and J. F. Martel
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  • Summary

  • 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."
    © 2025 Phil Ford and J.F. Martel
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Philosophy Social Sciences
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Episodes
  • Special Release: Poltergeists, Fairies, Skeptics, and the Managerial Class

    Special Release: Poltergeists, Fairies, Skeptics, and the Managerial Class
    Feb 19 2025
    Due to scheduling conflicts and a series of unforeseen events, JF and Phil have had to push the release of the next official episode of Weird Studies back by one week. To tide you over, we're unlocking a bonus episode previously available only to our Patreon supporters. It serves as the perfect preface to Episode 184, which will be released on February 26, 2025. Apologies for the delay, and thanks for your patience.
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    33 mins
  • Episode 184: On David Lynch

    Episode 184: On David Lynch
    Feb 5 2025
    David Lynch passed away on January 15th, 2025, leaving behind a body of work that reshaped the landscape of cinema and television. Few artists have delved as deeply into the strange, the beautiful, and the terrifying as Lynch, and few have had as profound an influence on Weird Studies. His films have long been a touchstone for JF and Phil's discussions on art, philosophy, and the nature of the weird. To honor his memory, they decided to devote an episode to Lynch's work as a whole, with special attention paid to Eraserhead—the nightmarish debut that announced his singular vision to the world. A study in dread, desire, and the uncanny, Eraserhead remains one of the most disturbing and mysterious works of American cinema. In this episode, we explore what makes it so powerful and how it connects to Lynch’s larger artistic project. To enroll in JF's new Weirdosphere course, It's All Real: An Inquiry Into the Reality of the Supernatural, please visit www.weirdosphere.org. The course starts on Thursday, Feb 6, at 8 pm Eastern. A video for the piece For David Lynch is available on Pierre-Yves Martel's YouTube channel (https://youtu.be/3d73NWXWgyY?si=kHr9yZV2As9wLzSe). REFERENCES David Lynch, Eraserhead (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074486/) David Lynch: The Art Life (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1691152/) Victorian Nelson, The Secret Life of Puppets (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780674012448) Norman Mailer, An American Dream (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780812986136) Laura Adams, "Existential Aesthetics: An Interview with Norman Mailer” George P. Hansen, The Trickster and the Paranormal (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781401000820) Carl Jung, The Red Book (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780393065671) Jack Arnold (dir.), The Creature from the Black Lagoon (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046876/) Noel Caroll, The Philosophy of Horror (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780415902168) Gilles Deleuze, The Logic of Sense (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780231059831) Jack Smith, “The Perfect Filmic Appositeness of Maria Montez” (https://www.scribd.com/document/249415272/The-Perfect-Filmic-Appositeness-of-Maria-Montez) David Foster Wallace, “David Lynch Keeps his Head” in A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never do Again (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780316925280) Arthur Machen, The White People (https://shortstoryproject.com/stories/the-white-people/) William Shakespeare, Macbeth (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781451694727)
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    1 hr and 42 mins
  • Episode 183: On Hermann Hesse's 'Siddhartha'

    Episode 183: On Hermann Hesse's 'Siddhartha'
    Jan 22 2025
    Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha is one of the great novels of the twentieth century and a prime example of literature that transforms the deeply personal into something universal. For Phil and JF in this episode, the novel serves as the foundation for a discussion on spiritual journeying, the ideal of enlightenment, and the challenge of living in an ensouled universe. Sign up for JF's new Weirdosphere course on the supernatural (http://www.weirdosphere.org), starting on February 6th, 2025. Purchase tickets to the Weirdosphere screening of Aaron Poole's Dada (https://weirdosphere.mn.co/plans/1494861?bundle_token=efd897d98f0a13d7bac82f0a49af07fb&utm_source=manual) on February 1st, 2025. Support us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/weirdstudies). Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack, volumes 1 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-1) and 2 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-2), on Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com) page. Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, Cosmophonia (https://cosmophonia.podbean.com/). Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop (https://bookshop.org/shop/weirdstudies) Find us on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/Jw22CHfGwp) Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau (https://cottonbureau.com/products/can-o-content#/13435958/tee-men-standard-tee-vintage-black-tri-blend-s)! REFERENCES Herman Hesse, Siddhartha (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780553208849) Christopher Theofanidis and Melissa Studdard, Siddhartha Gustav Holst, [The Planets](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThePlanets)_ Richard Wagner, Parsifal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsifal) G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781511903608) Colin Wilson, The Outsider (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780399173103) Adam Kirsch, “Herman Hesse’s Arrested Development” (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/19/hermann-hesses-arrested-development) Dogen, Genjakoan (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780992112912) Chögyam Trungpa, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781570629570)
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    1 hr and 21 mins

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