Podcast Episodes

Providence of Evil: On Robert Eggers' 'Nosferatu'

Episode 182

In this episode, JF and Phil examine the myth of the vampire through the lens of Robert Eggers' latest film, Nosferatu, a reimagining of F. W. Murnau's German Expressionist masterpiece. Topi…

Published on 8 months, 1 week ago

Holiday Bonus: Waiting for the Next Sentence

With the next flagship show set to drop on January 8, 2025, we thought we'd tide you over with this conversation on the art and craft and writing, originally recorded for Listener's Tier pat…

Published on 8 months, 4 weeks ago

On 'The X Files,' with Meredith Michael

Episode 181

Chris Carter's The X-Files is weird on its face: a dramatic series that, from the start, presented itself as more than drama, an exploration of the reality of the paranormal using the tools …

Published on 9 months, 1 week ago

The Player: On the Magician Card in the Tarot

Episode 180

The Magician card likely graces more front covers of books on the tarot than any of the other major arcana. In many ways, it symbolizes the tarot itself, or the individual who has mastered t…

Published on 9 months, 4 weeks ago

The Final Frontier, with Lionel Snell

Episode 179

One of the great rewards of "weirding" the world is learning that boredom may be a kind of ethical transgression—the world is simply too strange to allow for it, and if you're bored, you're …

Published on 10 months, 1 week ago

Edge of Reality: On John Carpenter's 'In the Mouth of Madness'

Episode 178

Earlier this month, Phil and JF recorded a live episode at Indiana University Cinema in Bloomington following a screening of John Carpenter's film In the Mouth of Madness. Carpenter’s cult c…

Published on 10 months, 3 weeks ago

Riddles in the Dark: On Fairy Tales, Interpretation, and 'Rapunzel'

Episode 177

Fairy tales are among the most familiar cultural objects, so familiar that we let our kids play with them unsupervised. At the same time, they are also the most mysterious of artifacts, thei…

Published on 11 months, 1 week ago

On Charles Burns' 'Black Hole' and the Medium of Comics

Episode 176

Comics, like cinema, is an eminently modern medium. And as with cinema, looking closely at it can swiftly acquaint us with the profound weirdness of modernity. Do that in the context of a di…

Published on 11 months, 3 weeks ago

Mid-Break Bonus: The Quiet Earth

Every off-week, listeners who have chosen to support Weird Studies by joining our Patreon at the Listener's Tier get to enjoy a bonus episode. These episodes are different from the flagship …

Published on 1 year ago

Don't Look Now: Live at Lily Dale

Episode 175

Daphne du Maurier was a prolific English writer of novels, plays, and short stories resonant with what she termed "a sense of unreality." In this episode, JF and Phil discuss her great short…

Published on 1 year, 1 month ago