Episodes and Blog Entries
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Episode 167: The Hand of Ithell, with Amy Hale
Episode | April 17th, 2024 | 1 hr 28 mins
aesthetics, art, celticism, goes episodes, occult, scholarship, surrealism
Independent scholar Amy Hale joins Phil and JF to discuss the life and work of esoteric artist Ithell Colquhoun.
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Episode 166: Make Believe: On the Power of Pretentiousness
Episode | April 3rd, 2024 | 1 hr 13 mins
creativity, criticism, culture, methodology
JF and Phil discuss pretentiousness as both an occupational hazard and a virtue of creative work.
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Episode 165: Tatters of the King: On Robert Chambers' 'The King in Yellow'
Episode | March 20th, 2024 | 1 hr 26 mins
cosmic horror, decadence, literature, religion
Phil and JF discuss four stories from Robert W. Chambers' pioneering work of weird fiction.
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Episode 164: Towards a Weird Materialism: On Expressionism in Cinema
Episode | March 6th, 2024 | 1 hr 29 mins
aesthetics, cinema, expressionism, literature, metaphysics, music, visual art
JF and Phil discuss the expressionist sensibility in the history of film.
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Episode 163: The Source of All Abysses: On the Devil Card in the Tarot
Episode | February 21st, 2024 | 1 hr 10 mins
divination, esotericism, evil, religion, tarot, the devil
Phil and JF continue their occasional series on the major trumps of the tarot with a discussion on the fifteenth Arcanum, the Devil.
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Episode 162: The Incarnation of Meaning: Greenwich Village After the War
Episode | February 7th, 2024 | 1 hr 18 mins
america, art, cities, decadence, film, history, literature
JF and Phil discuss post-war Greenwich Village, by way of Anatole Broyard's "Kafka Was the Rage" and John Cassavetes' "Shadows."
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Episode 161: Scene of the Crime: On Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's 'From Hell'
Episode | January 24th, 2024 | 1 hr 30 mins
comics, history, occult, politics, true crime
Phil and JF discuss Victorian London through the lens of Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's occult reimagining of Jack the Ripper.
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Mid-Hiatus Bonus: On Horror and the Retail Experience
Episode | January 10th, 2024 | 54 mins 20 secs
bonus episodes, horror, patreon extra, shopping
A bonus episode, previously exclusive to our Patreon supporters.
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Episode 160: The Way of All Flesh: On John Carpenter's 'The Thing'
Episode | December 20th, 2023 | 1 hr 15 mins
body horror, cinema, horror, john carpenter, metaphysics
JF and Phil discuss the great 1982 horror film starring Kurt Russell.
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Episode 159: Three Songs, with Meredith Michael
Episode | December 6th, 2023 | 1 hr 30 mins
buddhism, control, memory, music, politics, religion, song swap, time
Music scholar Meredith Michael joins Phil and JF to discuss songs by Vienna Teng, Lili Boulanger, and Iron & Wine.
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Episode 158: As Above, So Below: On Plato's 'Timaeus'
Episode | November 22nd, 2023 | 1 hr 36 mins
cosmopolitics, metaphysics, philosophy, plato
JF and Phil discuss Plato's speculative retelling of the creation of the universe.
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Episode 157: Long Live the New Flesh: On David Cronenberg's 'Videodrome'
Episode | November 8th, 2023 | 1 hr 14 mins
cinema, horror, media theory, metaphysics, politics
Phil and JF discuss David Cronenberg's 1983 masterpiece of body horror.
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Episode 156: The Only Possible End: On Donna Tartt's 'The Secret History'
Episode | October 25th, 2023 | 1 hr 32 mins
crime, fate, literature, paganism
JF and Phil discuss Donna Tartt's classic debut novel.
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Episode 155: Dispatches From the Inside: On Planet Weird's 'The Unbinding'
Episode | October 11th, 2023 | 1 hr 30 mins
cinema, ethics, investigation, magic, paranormal
Phil and JF discuss Planet Weird's latest paranormal documentary, "The Unbinding."
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Episode 154: Into the Night Land, with Erik Davis
Episode | September 26th, 2023 | 1 hr 23 mins
fantasy, literature, metaphysics, science fiction
JF and Phil are joined by Erik Davis to discuss William Hope Hodgson's masterfully weird 1912 novel.
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Episode 153: Celestial Machine: On the Temperance Card in the Tarot
Episode | September 13th, 2023 | 1 hr 19 mins
angelology, art, cybernetics, religion, technology
Phil and JF discuss the fourteenth arcanum, traditionally known as Temperance.