J.F. Martel
Co-Host of Weird Studies
J.F. Martel is an author, screenwriter, and film & TV director from Ottawa, Canada. His screen work includes French and English-language documentary series and features focused on culture and the arts. He is the author of Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice, a book about the nature and power of art published by Evolver Editions in 2015, and released in Spanish by Ediciones Atalanta in 2016. J.F.'s writings on art, culture and philosophy have appeared in Reality Sandwich, Metapsychosis, The Finch, Disinfo, and other online magazines.
J.F. Martel has hosted 198 Episodes.
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Episode 115: Transience & Immersion: On Brian Eno's 'Music for Airports'
Episode | February 2nd, 2022 | 1 hr 15 mins
aesthetics, buddhism, consciousness, music, politics
Phil and JF discuss the 1978 album that established the ambient music genre.
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Episode 114: On the Wheel of Fortune, the Tenth Card of the Tarot
Episode | January 19th, 2022 | 1 hr 34 mins
divination, esotericism, religion, tarot
JF and Phil continue their occasional series on the major trumps of the Tarot with a discussion on the tenth major arcanum, the Wheel of Fortune.
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Episode 113: Framing the Invisible, with Shannon Taggart
Episode | December 22nd, 2021 | 1 hr 21 mins
art, paranormal, photography, spiritualism, technology
Phil and JF talk spiritualism and photography to American artist and paranormal researcher Shannon Taggart.
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Episode 112: Readings from the 'Book of Probes': The Mysticism of Marshall McLuhan
Episode | December 8th, 2021 | 1 hr 29 mins
art, media studies, philosophy
JF and Phil discuss Marshall McLuhan and David Carson's enigmatic 'Book of Probes.'
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Episode 111: What Is Best in Life: On "Conan the Barbarian"
Episode | November 24th, 2021 | 1 hr 21 mins
cinema, fantasy, paganism, trash stratum
Phil and JF explore the ethics and metaphysics of sword and sorcery through the lends of John Milius' 1982 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Earl Jones.
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Episode 110: Monks of the Cultural Apocalypse: 'The Glass Bead Game,' Part Two
Episode | November 10th, 2021 | 1 hr 13 mins
academia, culture, literature, music
JF and Phil resume their discussion on Hermann Hesse's "The Glass Bead Game," this time with a focus on what the novel reveals about the value of culture in our times.
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Episode 109: Infinite Play: On 'The Glass Bead Game,' by Hermann Hesse
Episode | October 27th, 2021 | 1 hr 20 mins
academia, game studies, literature, philosophy
Phil and JF discuss Hesse's final novel, a quiet masterwork of science fiction about a game that encompasses all of reality.
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Episode 108: On Skepticism and the Paranormal
Episode | October 13th, 2021 | 1 hr 19 mins
occult, parapsychology, psi, skepticism
JF and Phil discuss modern skepticism in light of George P. Hansen's "The Trickster and the Paranormal."
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Episode 107: On Joy Williams' 'Breaking and Entering,' with Conner Habib
Episode | September 29th, 2021 | 1 hr 26 mins
aesthetics, guest episodes, literature, style
Writer, podcaster, and spiritual thinker Conner Habib joins Phil and JF to discuss Williams' novel and the primacy of style in literature.
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Episode 106: The Wanderer: On Weird Studies
Episode | September 1st, 2021 | 1 hr 26 mins
consciousness, podcasting, zones
JF and Phil discuss consciousness, free will, and podcasting in context of the artwork that is Weird Studies.
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Episode 105: Fire Walk with Tamler Sommers
Episode | August 18th, 2021 | 1 hr 32 mins
film, guest episode, horror
Phil and JF are joined by philosophy professor Tamler Sommers to discuss the film "Fire Walk with Me."
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Episode 104: We'd Love to Turn You On: 'Sgt. Pepper' and the Beatles
Episode | August 4th, 2021 | 1 hr 22 mins
beatles, history, media studies, music, pop culture
JF and Phil mine the weird in the Beatles' iconic 1967 album.
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Episode 103: On the Tower, the Sixteenth Card of the Tarot
Episode | July 21st, 2021 | 1 hr 16 mins
tarot, tower
Phil and JF continue their series on the major arcana of the tarot with a discussion on The Tower.
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Episode 102: On Pan, with Gyrus
Episode | July 7th, 2021 | 1 hr 18 mins
guest episodes, mythology, nature, psychology, religion, symbolism
Writer and independent scholar Gyrus joins JF and Phil to talk about Pan, the Greek god of fear and desire.
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Episode 101: Our Fear of the Dark: On Tanizaki's 'In Praise of Shadows'
Episode | June 23rd, 2021 | 1 hr 51 secs
aesthetics, literature, modernity, technology
Phil and JF discuss Jun'ichirō Tanizaki's meditation on the aesthetics of darkness.
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Episode 100: The Price of Beauty is Horror: On the Films of John Carpenter
Episode | June 9th, 2021 | 1 hr 23 mins
apocalypse, cinema, horror, john carpenter
JF and Phil discuss the themes and ideas in the films of one of the great American directors.