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Behind the Cosmic Curtain: On Stanislaw Lem's 'The New Cosmogony,' with Meredith Michael
Episode 119
Over the last several centuries, there has been one thing on which science and religion have generally agreed, and that is the fixity of the…
3 years, 9 months ago
The Unseen and the Unnamed, with Meredith Michael
Episode 118
In this episode, Phil and JF are joined by music scholar and Weird Studies assistant Meredith Michael to discuss two strange and unsettling …
3 years, 9 months ago
Time is a Child at Play: On the Mystery of Games
Episode 117
The topic of games and play has fascinated JF and Phil since the launch of Weird Studies. Way back in 2018, they recorded back-to-back episo…
3 years, 10 months ago
On 'Blade Runner'
Episode 116
In his 1978 bestseller The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins described humans as "survival machines" whose sole purpose is the replication of ge…
3 years, 10 months ago
Transience & Immersion: On Brian Eno's 'Music for Airports'
Episode 115
Soft, soothing, and understated as a rule, ambient music may seem the least weird of all musical genres. Not so, say JF and Phil, who devote…
3 years, 11 months ago
On the Wheel of Fortune, the Tenth Card of the Tarot
Episode 114
Season five kicks off with a new installment in the ongoing series on the Tarot's twenty-two major arcana. This time, your hosts overcome th…
3 years, 11 months ago
Framing the Invisible, with Shannon Taggart
Episode 113
Shannon Taggart's book Seance is a landmark in art photography and the history of psychical research. Taggart spent years photographing prac…
4 years ago
Readings from the 'Book of Probes': The Mysticism of Marshall McLuhan
Episode 112
The Book of Probes contains a assortment of aphorisms and maxims from the work of the Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan, each one set…
4 years, 1 month ago
What Is Best in Life: On "Conan the Barbarian"
Episode 111
A wish-fulfilment fantasy for pubescent boys of all ages, or a subtle disquisition on the ethics of a sorcerous world? John Milius' Conan th…
4 years, 1 month ago
Monks of the Cultural Apocalypse: 'The Glass Bead Game,' Part Two
Episode 110
In the current "attention economy," which has resulted in plummeting literacy rates and the almost wanton neglect of various cultural practi…
4 years, 2 months ago