Podcast Episodes

The Acid Queen, with Susannah Cahalan

Best known as the wife and partner of Timothy Leary, Rosemary Woodruff was in fact a central figure in the psychedelic movement in her own right—a political radical, underground fugitive, and neglect…

Published on 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Here Be Shrubs: On Algernon Blackwood's 'The Willows'

In this episode, JF and Phil paddle into the marshlands of Algernon Blackwood’s 1907 masterpiece The Willows, a tale Lovecraft once called the finest weird story of all time. They explore how a narra…

Published on 4 months, 1 week ago

Care of the Dead, with Jacob G. Foster

Episode 189

In this episode, JF and Phil are joined by Jacob G. Foster—sociologist, physicist, and researcher at Indiana University Bloomington and the Santa Fe Institute—for a conversation about their recent co…

Published on 4 months, 3 weeks ago

Pioneers of the Untimely: On the Hermit Card in the Tarot

Episode 188

In this continuation of their non-linear journey through the tarot, Phil and JF discuss the ninth Arcanum: the Hermit. Walking through darkness with his lantern and staff, the Hermit invites us to br…

Published on 5 months, 1 week ago

The Affirmation of Imagination: On John Crowley's 'Little, Big,' with Erik Davis

Episode 187

John Crowley’s Little, Big is, at once, a family saga, a fairy tale, an occult thriller, an idyll, a dystopia, as well as a meditation on myth and history, the real and the fantasy, memory a…

Published on 5 months, 3 weeks ago

Meeting at the Center: The Wedge, Part Two

Episode 186

In this episode, JF and Phil continue their conversation on the wedge, their figure for the epistemological divide between approaching reality from the heart and exploring it with the mind. …

Published on 6 months ago

Intuition and Reality: The Wedge, Part One

Episode 185

"The Wedge" is a key concept for Phil and JF. When exploring weird phenomena—from artworks to ghosts, and everything in between—one tends to emphasize one or the other "end" of the event. At…

Published on 6 months, 3 weeks ago

Special Release: Poltergeists, Fairies, Skeptics, and the Managerial Class

Due to scheduling conflicts and a series of unforeseen events, JF and Phil have had to push the release of the next official episode of Weird Studies back by one week. To tide you over, we'r…

Published on 6 months, 4 weeks ago

On David Lynch

Episode 184

David Lynch passed away on January 15th, 2025, leaving behind a body of work that reshaped the landscape of cinema and television. Few artists have delved as deeply into the strange, the bea…

Published on 7 months, 1 week ago

On Hermann Hesse's 'Siddhartha'

Episode 183

Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha is one of the great novels of the twentieth century and a prime example of literature that transforms the deeply personal into something universal. For Phil and JF…

Published on 7 months, 3 weeks ago