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, and elsewhere. With co-host J. F. Martel he is working on a book titled Weirding, to be published by Strange Attractor Press.
Phil is a pianist, rabid Wagnerite, crap Buddhist, degenerate fight fan, and avid consulter of the I Ching. He wishes that just for once he had an enthusiasm that he didn't have to apologize for or explain to his academic peers.
Phil Ford has hosted 176 Episodes.
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Episode 137: Brute Force: on Sunn O)))'s 'Life Metal'
Episode | December 14th, 2022 | 1 hr 14 mins
avant garde, brutalism, impermanence, music
JF and Phil discuss Sunn O)))'s eighth album, released in 2019
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Episode 136: The Things That Were And Shall Be Again: On 'Evil Dead II'
Episode | November 30th, 2022 | 1 hr 7 mins
animism, baroque, cinema, comedy, horror, puppets
Phil and JF discuss Sam Raimi's "splatstick" classic, Evil Dead II.
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Episode 135: On 'The Secret Life of Puppets,' with Victoria Nelson
Episode | November 16th, 2022 | 1 hr 3 mins
art, guest episodes, hermeneutics, imagination, platonism, religion
Independent scholar and novelist Victoria Nelson joins JF and Phil to discuss her masterpiece of weird studies, The Secret Life of Puppets.
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Episode 134: On Federico Campagna's 'Technic and Magic'
Episode | November 1st, 2022 | 1 hr 32 mins
epistemology, magic, metaphysics, politics
Phil and JF discuss Campagna's proposal of a new reality system rooted in the idea of "magic."
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Episode 133: On Weirding, and the Virtues of Unknowing Everything
Episode | October 19th, 2022 | 1 hr 11 mins
book project, courses, epistemology, global weirding, methodology
JF and Phil discuss making things weird as a survival strategy for the Weird Age.
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Episode 132: Art Is an Alien Technology: Live at the Supernormal Festival
Episode | October 5th, 2022 | 1 hr 21 mins
archeology, art, cinema, live recordings, werner herzog
Phil and JF discuss Werner Herzog's "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" at the 2022 Supernormal Festival in England.
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Off-Week Bonus: On Worlds and Stories, with a Special Announcement
Episode | September 27th, 2022 | 57 mins 16 secs
bonus episodes, literature, storytelling, worldbuilding
After announcing a new online course they will be teaching together, JF and Phil talk storytelling and worldbuilding.
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Episode 131: Knocking on the Abyssal Door: Live at the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute
Episode | September 21st, 2022 | 1 hr 11 mins
intelligence, live recording, magic, metaphysics, science, synchronicity
Phil and J.F. talk about magic, synchronicity, and prophecy to an audience composed of scientists, scholars, and artists at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
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Episode 130: Holiday Memories
Episode | September 7th, 2022 | 1 hr 16 mins
academia, epistemology, festivals, politics
Phil and JF discuss their recent adventures in the United Kingdom.
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Episode 129: Luminous Miasma: On Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher"
Episode | August 3rd, 2022 | 1 hr 33 mins
JF and Phil visit the House of Usher.
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Episode 128: Demon Workshop: On Victoria Nelson's 'Neighbor George'
Episode | July 19th, 2022 | 1 hr 27 mins
gothic, grotesque, literature, metaphysics, monsters, psychology
Phil and JF discuss Victoria Nelson's novel of psychological horror.
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Episode 127: Leaving the Mechanical Dollhouse: On Abeba Birhane's "The Impossibility of Automating Ambiguity"
Episode | July 6th, 2022 | 1 hr 16 mins
artificial intelligence, ethics, metaphysics, politics, science fiction, technology
JF and Phil discuss Abeba Birhane's essay on the ethical, psychological, and political cost of universal automation.
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Episode 126: The Daemon Speaks, with Matt Cardin
Episode | June 22nd, 2022 | 1 hr 21 mins
horror, literature, mysticism, religion, teaching
Matt Cardin joins JF and Phil to discuss daimonic reality and the idea of dark enlightenment.
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Episode 125: Strange Brews: Weird Studies Live at Illuminated Brew Works
Episode | June 8th, 2022 | 1 hr 36 mins
alchemy, beer, metaphysics, occult, tea, witchcraft
Phil, Meredith, and JF discuss ritual and potion-making in a live recording hosted by Illuminated Brew Works in Chicago.
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Episode 124: Dark Night Radio of the Soul, with Duncan Barford
Episode | May 25th, 2022 | 1 hr 27 mins
meditation, occult, psychology
Spiritual practitioner Duncan Barford joins JF and Phil to talk about the Dark Night of the Soul.
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Episode 123: Off-Week Patreon Bonus: On Modern Miracles
Episode | May 18th, 2022 | 39 mins 53 secs
metaphysics, miracles, science, spirals, technology
A free Patreon episode exploring more of the affordances of a spiral universe.