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 places like Representations, Journal of Musicology, Musical Quarterly, etc. He's turning out new essays on occult themes and assembling them into ... something. A book of some sort.
Phil is a pianist, rabid Wagnerite, crap Buddhist, Philip K. Dick cultist, degenerate fight fan, promulgator of the Twin Peaks mythos, 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 117 Episodes.
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Episode 19: Intermezzo
Episode | June 20th, 2018 | 1 hr 8 mins
art, ontology, phenomenology, religion
A discussion on the past and future of the podcast, and the nature of the conversation unfolding therein.
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Episode 18: Does 'Consciousness' Exist? - Part Two
Episode | June 13th, 2018 | 1 hr 1 min
consciousness, pansychism, philosophy, william james
Phil and JF continue (begin?) their discussion of William James's essay "Does Consciousness Exist"?
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Episode 17: Does 'Consciousness' Exist? - Part One
Episode | June 6th, 2018 | 47 mins 35 secs
consciousness, idealism, materialism, william james
JF and Phil do everything in their power to delay the moment where they will actually discuss William James' essay, "Does 'Consciousness' Exist?".
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Episode 16: On Dogen Zenji's 'Genjokoan'
Episode | May 30th, 2018 | 1 hr 11 mins
dogen, genjokoan, metaphysics, religion, zen buddhism
Phil and JF discuss a classic work of Zen metaphysics.
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Episode 15: On Tarkovsky's 'Stalker' - Part Two
Episode | May 23rd, 2018 | 1 hr 4 mins
chernobyl, liminality, samuel delany, stalker, tarkovsky
The second part of Phil and JF's conversation about Andrei Tarkovsky's masterpiece, "Stalker."
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Episode 14: On Tarkovsky's 'Stalker' - Part One
Episode | May 15th, 2018 | 41 mins 3 secs
cinema, genre, stalker, tarkovsky, zone
The first part of JF and Phil's conversation on Tarkovsky's 1979 masterpiece, "Stalker."
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Episode 13: The Obscure: On the Philosophy of Heraclitus
Episode | May 9th, 2018 | 1 hr 21 mins
death, dreams, greek philosophy, heraclitus, sleep, soul
Phil and JF riff on randomly generated fragments from the work of a truly weird philosopher, Heraclitus of Ephesus.
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Episode 12: The Dark Eye: On the Films of Rodney Ascher
Episode | May 2nd, 2018 | 1 hr 28 mins
documentary, horror films, rodney ascher, sleep paralysis, the shining
Phil and JF discuss the work of American filmmaker Rodney Ascher, contemporary master of the weird documentary.
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Episode 11: Art is a Haunting Spirit
Episode | April 25th, 2018 | 1 hr 15 mins
aesthetics, mezzotint, mr james, walter benjamin
A discussion of M. R. James' ghost story "The Mezzotint" turns into a disquisition on the nature of art in the modern age.
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Weird Stories: M. R. James' "The Mezzotint"
Episode | April 23rd, 2018 | 27 mins 34 secs
mezzotint, mr james, story readings, weird fiction
An unabridged reading of M. R. James' classic ghost story, "The Mezzotint," read by Weird Studies co-host, Phil Ford.
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Episode 10: Philip K. Dick: Adrift in the Multiverse
Episode | April 18th, 2018 | 1 hr 23 mins
multiverse, parallel universes, philip k dick, time
JF and Phil discuss Philip K. Dick's seminal essay, "If You Find this World Bad, You Should See Some of the Others."
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Episode 9: On Aleister Crowley and the Idea of Magick
Episode | April 11th, 2018 | 1 hr 16 mins
aleister crowley, magick, occult
JF and Phil talk about Aleister Crowley's 1924 work, Magick in Theory and Practice.
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Episode 8: On Graham Harman's "The Third Table"
Episode | April 4th, 2018 | 1 hr 12 mins
idealism, lovecraft, materialism, panpsychism, philosophy, zen
JF and Phil discuss Graham Harman's essay "The Third Table" and discover that even the most commonplace objects, seen in the right light, are strange to the core.
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Episode 7: The Unspeakable Mystery at the Heart of Boxing
Episode | March 28th, 2018 | 1 hr 5 mins
bloodsport, boxing, martial arts, sublime, violence
JF and Phil wrestle with philosophical issues surrounding violent sports.
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Episode 6: Dungeons & Dragons, or the Reality of Illusions
Episode | March 21st, 2018 | 1 hr 18 mins
d&d, fantasy, imaginal, roleplaying games
Phil and JF use D&D as a lens to locate the vanishing point where fantasy converges with the real.
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Episode 5: Reading Lisa Ruddick's "When Nothing is Cool"
Episode | March 13th, 2018 | 1 hr 8 mins
critique, essence, lisa ruddick, nihilism, soul
Phil and JF do their best to weird the cultural politics of the postmodern academy.