Episodes and Blog Entries
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Episode 106: The Wanderer: On Weird Studies
Episode | September 1st, 2021 | 1 hr 26 mins
consciousness, podcasting, zones
JF and Phil discuss consciousness, free will, and podcasting in context of the artwork that is Weird Studies.
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Episode 105: Fire Walk with Tamler Sommers
Episode | August 18th, 2021 | 1 hr 32 mins
film, guest episode, horror
Phil and JF are joined by philosophy professor Tamler Sommers to discuss the film "Fire Walk with Me."
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Episode 104: We'd Love to Turn You On: 'Sgt. Pepper' and the Beatles
Episode | August 4th, 2021 | 1 hr 22 mins
beatles, history, media studies, music, pop culture
JF and Phil mine the weird in the Beatles' iconic 1967 album.
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Episode 103: On the Tower, the Sixteenth Card of the Tarot
Episode | July 21st, 2021 | 1 hr 16 mins
tarot, tower
Phil and JF continue their series on the major arcana of the tarot with a discussion on The Tower.
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Episode 102: On Pan, with Gyrus
Episode | July 7th, 2021 | 1 hr 18 mins
guest episodes, mythology, nature, psychology, religion, symbolism
Writer and independent scholar Gyrus joins JF and Phil to talk about Pan, the Greek god of fear and desire.
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Episode 101: Our Fear of the Dark: On Tanizaki's 'In Praise of Shadows'
Episode | June 23rd, 2021 | 1 hr 51 secs
aesthetics, literature, modernity, technology
Phil and JF discuss Jun'ichirō Tanizaki's meditation on the aesthetics of darkness.
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Episode 100: The Price of Beauty is Horror: On the Films of John Carpenter
Episode | June 9th, 2021 | 1 hr 23 mins
apocalypse, cinema, horror, john carpenter
JF and Phil discuss the themes and ideas in the films of one of the great American directors.
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Episode 99: Curing the Human Condition: On 'Wild Wild Country'
Episode | May 26th, 2021 | 1 hr 30 mins
class, religion, spirituality
Phil and JF work through the differences between spirituality and religion in the context of the documentary series about Bhagwan Rajneesh.
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Episode 98: Taboo: Time and Belief in Exotica
Episode | May 12th, 2021 | 1 hr 20 mins
aesthetics, culture, exotica, history, music
JF and Phil discuss the ethics and metaphysics of the obscure musical genre known as exotica.
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Episode 97: Art in the Age of Artifice
Episode | April 28th, 2021 | 1 hr 25 mins
aesthetics, criticism, metaphysics, religion
Phil and JF discuss the ideas in JF's 2015 book, 'Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice.'
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Episode 96: Beautiful Beast: On Jean Cocteau's 'La Belle et la Bête'
Episode | April 14th, 2021 | 1 hr 20 mins
animals, cinema, fairy tales, love
JF and Phil discuss Jean Cocteau's masterful film, "Beauty and the Beast."
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Episode 95: Demon Seed: On Doris Lessing's 'The Fifth Child'
Episode | March 31st, 2021 | 1 hr 25 mins
literature, monsters, parenthood, psychology
Phil and JF discuss Nobel Prize-winning novelist Doris Lessing's unsettling story of a woman who gives birth to a monster.
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Episode 94: All is Mysterious: On the Moon Card in the Tarot
Episode | March 17th, 2021 | 1 hr 14 mins
JF and Phil continue their series on the tarot with a discussion of the eighteenth major arcanum.
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Episode 93: Living and Dying in a Secular Age: On Charles Taylor and Disenchantment
Episode | March 3rd, 2021 | 1 hr 27 mins
myth, philosophy, religion, secularism
Phil and JF discuss Charles Taylor's monumental work of philosophy, "A Secular Age."
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Episode 92: Glitch in the Matrix: A Conversation with Rodney Ascher
Episode | February 17th, 2021 | 1 hr 27 mins
cinema, guest episodes, metaphysics, simulationism
JF and Phil are joined by American filmmaker Rodney Ascher to discuss film, music, mood, and his new documentary about people who believe we are in living in a computer simulation.
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Episode 91: On Susanna Clarke's 'Piranesi'
Episode | February 3rd, 2021 | 1 hr 23 mins
JF and Phil explore the mysterious world of Susanna Clarke's incredible new novel.