Episodes and Blog Entries
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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.
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Episode 159: Three Songs, with Meredith Michael
Episode | December 6th, 2023 | 1 hr 30 mins
buddhism, control, guest episode, memory, meredith michael, music, politics, religion, song swap, time
Music scholar Meredith Michael joins Phil and JF to discuss songs by Vienna Teng, Lili Boulanger, and Iron & Wine.
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Episode 158: As Above, So Below: On Plato's 'Timaeus'
Episode | November 22nd, 2023 | 1 hr 36 mins
cosmopolitics, metaphysics, philosophy, plato
JF and Phil discuss Plato's speculative retelling of the creation of the universe.
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Episode 157: Long Live the New Flesh: On David Cronenberg's 'Videodrome'
Episode | November 8th, 2023 | 1 hr 14 mins
cinema, horror, media theory, metaphysics, politics
Phil and JF discuss David Cronenberg's 1983 masterpiece of body horror.
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Episode 156: The Only Possible End: On Donna Tartt's 'The Secret History'
Episode | October 25th, 2023 | 1 hr 32 mins
crime, fate, literature, paganism
JF and Phil discuss Donna Tartt's classic debut novel.
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Episode 155: Dispatches From the Inside: On Planet Weird's 'The Unbinding'
Episode | October 11th, 2023 | 1 hr 30 mins
cinema, ethics, investigation, magic, paranormal
Phil and JF discuss Planet Weird's latest paranormal documentary, "The Unbinding."
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Episode 154: Into the Night Land, with Erik Davis
Episode | September 26th, 2023 | 1 hr 23 mins
fantasy, literature, metaphysics, science fiction
JF and Phil are joined by Erik Davis to discuss William Hope Hodgson's masterfully weird 1912 novel.
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Episode 153: Celestial Machine: On the Temperance Card in the Tarot
Episode | September 13th, 2023 | 1 hr 19 mins
angelology, art, cybernetics, religion, technology
Phil and JF discuss the fourteenth arcanum, traditionally known as Temperance.
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Summer Bonus #2: Art and AI
Episode | September 8th, 2023 | 51 mins 6 secs
aesthetics, bonus episodes, creativity, technology
Another Patreon bonus, released for your listening pleasure as we prepare the first episode of the new season, which begins on September 13th.
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Summer Bonus: On Affectation, with a Special Announcement
Episode | August 15th, 2023 | 49 mins 46 secs
affectation, bonus episodes, courses, patreon extras
Phil and JF discuss the virtues of affectation in this bonus episode, previously available only to Patreon members.
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Episode 152: The Science of Things Spiritual: Live in Lily Dale
Episode | August 1st, 2023 | 1 hr 48 mins
live recording, metaphysics, parapsychology, spiritualism
JF and Phil discuss Frederic Myers, founding member of the Society for Psychical Research, at the 2023 Science of Things Spiritual Symposium in Lily Dale, New York.
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Episode 151: The Real and the Possible: Live at the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute, with Jacob G. Foster
Episode | July 19th, 2023 | 1 hr 15 mins
art, epistemology, metaphysics, pragmatism, science
Jacob G. Foster joins Phil and JF to discuss art, science, and the reality of the possible.
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Episode 150: Sacramental Reality: On Arthur Machen's "A Fragment of Life"
Episode | July 5th, 2023 | 1 hr 25 mins
JF and Phil discuss Machen's masterful writing craft in his novella "A Fragment of Life."
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Episode 149: Song Swap: On Judee Sill's 'The Kiss' and Wilco's 'Jesus, Etc.'
Episode | June 21st, 2023 | 1 hr 19 mins
music, prophecy, song swap, time
Phil and JF explore the musicological, philosophical, and prophetic dimensions of two good tunes.
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Episode 148: Mythos of the Moment: On 'Twin Peaks,' Season 3
Episode | June 7th, 2023 | 1 hr 17 mins
aesthetics, cinema, late style, metaphysics, myth, twin peaks
JF and Phil discuss the aesthetics and metaphysics of David Lynch's landmark series.
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Episode 147: You Must Change Your Life
Episode | May 24th, 2023 | 1 hr 33 mins
aesthetics, ethics, metaphysics, poetry, religion
Phil and JF discuss the famous poem "Archaic Torso of Apollo" by Rainer Maria Rilke.