Phil is an associate professor of musicology at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He is the author of the book Dig: Sound and Music in Hip Culture (a cultural history of hipness from the 1930s through the 1960s), the long-running blog Dial 'M' for Musicology, and various essays that have appeared in Representations, Journal of Musicology, Musical Quarterly, Daedalus, North American Review, and elsewhere. With co-host J. F. Martel he is writing a book titled Weirding, to be published by Strange Attractor Press.
Phil is also a classical pianist, meditator, assistant teacher at Open Mind Zen Indiana, lapsed magician, and avid consulter of the I Ching.
Phil Ford has hosted 201 Episodes.
-
Episode 174: Magick and Enlightenment, with Alan Chapman and Duncan Barford
Episode | July 24th, 2024 | 1 hr 29 mins
enlightenment, magic, metaphysics, occult, religion
Magical practitioners Duncan Barford and Alan Chapman join JF and Phil to talk about magic, truth, and the Holy Guardian Angel.
-
Episode 173: By Heart: On Memory, Poetry, and Form
Episode | July 10th, 2024 | 1 hr 18 mins
aesthetics, formalism, literature, memory, poetry
JF and Phil try to recite classic poems by heart in this discussion on the magic of memory.
-
Episode 172: Head Over Heels: On the Hanged Man of the Tarot
Episode | June 26th, 2024 | 1 hr 19 mins
archetypes, occult, psychology, religion, tarot
Phil and JF continue their series on the tarot with a discussion of the twelfth major arcanum.
-
Episode 171: The Beauty and the Horror
Episode | June 13th, 2024 | 1 hr 8 mins
aesthetics, beauty, cinema, literature, metaphysics, music
JF and Phil discuss the interplay between beauty and horror in art, examining how each enhances the other.
-
Episode 170: Art is Another Word for Truth: On Orson Welles's 'F for Fake'
Episode | May 29th, 2024 | 1 hr 25 mins
aesthetics, art, cinema, forgery, magic
JF and Phil discuss Orson Welles's 1973 film essay on the strange overlap of fraud, art, and truth.
-
Episode 169: On Free Expression
Episode | May 15th, 2024 | 1 hr 37 mins
art, philosophy, politics
Phil and JF tackle the thorny issue of freedom of expression in politics, academia, and the arts.
-
Episode 168: Visions of the Wasteland: On George Miller's 'Mad Max' Films
Episode | May 1st, 2024 | 1 hr 20 mins
apocalypse, cinema, civilization, science fiction
JF and Phil find glimmers of the Weird in George Miller's post-apocalyptic outback.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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."
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.