Phil Ford
Co-Host of Weird Studies
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.
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Episode 145: Waiting for the Miracle: On Vanessa Onwuemezi's "Dark Neighbourhood"
Episode | April 26th, 2023 | 1 hr 29 mins
death, literature, poetry, politics, science fiction, ufos
JF and Phil discuss the title story from Vanessa Onwuemezi's debut collection of short fiction from Fitzcarraldo Press.
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Episode 144: On Clive Barker's 'Hellraiser' and 'The Hellbound Heart,' with Conner Habib
Episode | April 12th, 2023 | 1 hr 42 mins
cinema, clive barker, conner habib, guest episode, horror, literature
Conner Habib joins Phil and JF to discuss Clive Barker's classic horror film, and the novella it was based on.
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Episode 143: On UFOs
Episode | March 29th, 2023 | 1 hr 29 mins
metaphysics, paranormal, psychology, ufos
JF and Phil discuss the UFO phenomenon in light of ongoing government disclosures.
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Episode 142: The Music of the Spheres: On Jóhann Jóhannsson's "Last and First Men"
Episode | March 15th, 2023 | 1 hr 21 mins
brutalism, cinema, extinction, music, science fiction
Phil and JF discuss the Icelandic's composer posthumous science fiction film.
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Episode 141: Actual Magic: On Ramsey Dukes' SSOTBME
Episode | February 28th, 2023 | 1 hr 24 mins
magic, metaphysics, ramsey dukes, science
JF and Phil discuss Dukes' seminal essay on modern magic.
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Episode 140: That Ain't Plot: On Hayao Miyazaki's 'Spirited Away,' with Meredith Michael
Episode | February 15th, 2023 | 1 hr 20 mins
animation, cinema, fiction, guest episode, meredith michael, narrativity
Meredith joins Phil and JF to discuss the 2001 Studio Ghibli masterpiece.
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Episode 139: Sex, Money, and Power are YOURS with our SECRET Art-Power Formula!
Episode | February 1st, 2023 | 1 hr 33 mins
aesthetics, art, ethics, formalism, politics
You must change your life.
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Episode 138: Yours and Yours Alone: On the Death Card in the Tarot
Episode | January 18th, 2023 | 1 hr 15 mins
death, impermanence, symbolism, tarot
Phil and JF continue their occasional series of episodes on the major arcana of the tarot with a discussion on arcanum XIII, Death.
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The Weird Studies Christmas Special
Episode | December 25th, 2022 | 37 mins 54 secs
Phil and JF discuss why seeing twinkling lights in the dark is so Christmassy
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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.