Weird Studies

Art and philosophy at the limits of the thinkable

About the show

Professor Phil Ford and writer J. F. Martel host a series of conversations on art and philosophy, dwelling on ideas that are hard to think and art that opens up rifts in what we are pleased to call "reality."

Weird Studies on social media

Episodes and Blog Entries

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Episode 4: Exploring the Weird with Erik Davis

    Episode  |  March 7th, 2018  |  1 hr 21 mins
    erik davis, techngosis, uncanny, weird

    Scholar, author and journalist Erik Davis joins Phil and JF to talk about Weird Sh*t.

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    Episode 3: Ecstasy, Sin, and "The White People"

    Episode  |  February 21st, 2018  |  1 hr 19 mins
    arthur machen, ecstasy, faerie, sin, the white people

    JF and Phil discuss key themes and ideas from Arthur Machen's weird story, "The White People."

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    Weird Stories: Arthur Machen's "The White People"

    Episode  |  February 19th, 2018  |  1 hr 36 mins
    audiobooks, machen, the white people, weird fiction

    A complete reading of Arthur Machen's 1904 novella, "The White People," by co-host Phil Ford. This reading accompanies the upcoming episode of the Weird Studies podcast where J.F. and Phil plumb the imaginal depths of the classic weird tale.

  • No one understands you

    Article  |  February 16th, 2018
    identity, intellectual history, politics

    Phil dusts off a decade-old blog post on an epistemic dead end in identity politics

  • Weird Studies Exists

    Article  |  February 7th, 2018
    podcast, weird studies

    JF announces the launch of Weird Studies on his Reclaiming Art blog -- reposted here.

  • Birth of the Weird

    Article  |  February 7th, 2018
    flaneur, modernity, oscar wilde, the weird

    Phil's "hello world" post for Weird Studies

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    Episode 2: Garmonbozia

    Episode  |  February 1st, 2018  |  1 hr 26 mins
    atomic bomb, cold war, demons, twin peaks

    Phil and JF use Twin Peaks mythos to try to understand what it was that the detonation of atomic bomb brought into the world. Our answer: garmonbozia and plenty of it.

  • Episode 1: Introduction to Weird Studies

    Episode  |  January 31st, 2018  |  32 mins 18 secs
    art, fortean phenomena, nightmares, philosophy, weird studies

    Phil and J.F. attempt to explain the non-existent field of Weird Studies.