Weird Studies

By SpectreVision RadioSociety & Culture Arts Philosophy

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Weird Studies episodes

November 04 Episode 222 – Art is Totally Objective: On Formalism
In this episode, JF and Phi discuss formalism, a broad 20th-century movement holding that art has quantifiable structural characteristics that give it its own value and integrity, such that an artwork can be said to represent nothing but itself. The focus is on Igor Stravinsky's formalist doctrines and the essay "Formalism" by art critic Dave Hickey.
Music in this episode: "Scavenger," from PY Martel's Weird Studies Vol. 3.
For a limited time, Weirdosphere has reopened Matt Cardin's course, Writing at the Wellspring: A Course in Daemonic Creativity. For details and to enroll, visit the course page on the Weirdosphere website.
Episode art: Svanen, No. 17, by Hilma af Flint (1915).

REFERENCES

Gilles Deleuze, Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation
Dave Hickey, “Formalism,”
Igor Stravinsky, Octet for Winds
Igor Stravinsky, "Some Ideas about My Octuor”
Reinburt de Leeuw, "Liszt – Via crucis, explained"
D. H. Lawrence, English novelist

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1 hr 22 min
October 21 Episode 221 – On 'The Exorcist'
In this episode, long overdue, Phil and JF discuss one of the great American horror films: WIlliam Friedkin's 1973 adaptation of Willam Peter's Blatty's _The Exorcist_.
Music: "Nascent Red," from PY Martel's Weird Studies Vol. 1.
For details on Quentin S. Crisp's upcoming Weirdosphere talk on literature and the supernatural, visit Weirdosphere. The event takes place on October 31 at 3 pm EST.
Support Weird Studies on Patreon.
References
William Friedkin (dir.), The Exorcist
Richard Donner (dir.), The Omen
Fulton J. Sheen, On the Demonic
William Blatty, The Exorcist
Gyrus, North
Don Siegal and Clint Eastwood (dir.), Dirty Harry
Weird Studies, Episode 88 on Mr. Punch
Joe Bob Briggs, American film critic
Matt Cardin, "Teeth"
Ryan Duns, The Theology of Horror
Norman Mailer, "The White Negro"
Ray Brassier, Nihil Unbound
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man"
Thomas Ligotti, The Conspiracy Against the Human Race
John Lennon, "Imagine"

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1 hr 22 min
October 07 Episode 220: The Dream of a Ridiculous Man: Live at the Dream Mapping Symposium
On September 26, JF and Phil took part in the Dream Mapping Symposium, a three-day event organized by the Dream Mapping Project and the Dream Library Foundation, and held at the Brooklyn Public Library. Their mission was twofold. First, Phil was to read Dostoevsky's short story "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man," and then, he and JF were to have one of their conversations about it. Despite inclement weather, exploding lighting equipment and the labyrinthine NYC subway system, it went off like a dream. In this episode, we offer you the full recording of the event.
Special thanks to Alisa Minyukova and Kelly Bulkeley for a thought-provoking weekend.
To support Weird Studies, ⁠become a patron⁠ of the show.
It's not too late to sign up to Erik Davis's Weirdosphere course, Do Androids Dream of Reading PKD? The first of two live Q&As with Erik is on Sunday, October 11, 2026.
Music in this episode: "Springtime on Ganymede" from PY Martel's Weird Studies vol. 2.

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1 hr 55 min
September 23 Episode 219 – Composing the Cosmos, with Meredith Rigby
In this episode, JF and Phil are joined by their beloved assistant and invaluable collaborator Meredith Rigby (formerly Meredith Michael) to discuss her recently completed doctoral dissertation, Composing the Cosmos: 20th Century Musical Mythologies of Outer Space. Meredith explains how classical music, in the last century, became a privileged zone for exploring the meaning, threat, and promise of the starry void after the collapse of the old cosmologies.
Music: "Fogcutter" from Pierre-Yves Martel's Weird Studies Vol 3.
Support Weird Studies on Patreon.

Upcoming Events
Registration is open for Erik Davis's course on Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? , starting October 1, 2026, on Weirdosphere.
On September 26, 2026, join JF and Phil at the Brooklyn Public Library for a live recording on dreams and Dostoevsky. Part of the Dream Mapping Symposium, organized by The Dream Mapping Project and the Dream Library Foundation.
On October 3 and 4, ⁠HitchCon 26⁠ will feature talks on Hitchcock and David Lynch. Speakers include JF and Victoria Nelson.

References
Meredith Rigby, "Composing the Cosmos: 20th Century Musical Mythologies of Outer Space"
Charles Taylor, A Secular Age
Henri Bergson, Creative Evolution
Jerry Goldsmith, Theme from Star Trek: The Next Generation
Richard Strauss, Also Sprach Zarathustra
Gustav Holst, "Mars" and "Neptune" from The Planets
Lili Boulanger, "Les Sirènes"
Alan Leo, The Art of Synthesis

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1 hr 26 min
September 09 Episode 218 — A Mighty Matter of Legend: On J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Two Towers'
Having taken up the first part of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings in episode 207, Phil and JF turn to part two, The Two Towers. Together, they peel back the husk of familiarity to reveal the strange object underneath: a story about stories, about life and destiny in a storied world.
Music: "Wotan Hangs" from Weird Studies Vol. 1 and "For the Sun" from Weird Studies Vol 3.
Support Weird Studies on Patreon.
Upcoming Events:
JF's course on the metaphysics of the horror genre, The Awful Truth, starts September 17, 2026, on Weirdosphere.
Erik Davis's course on Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? starts October 1, 2026, on Weirdosphere.
Click here for details on JF and Phil's appearance at the Brooklyn Public Library on September 26, 2026. Part of the Dream Mapping Symposium, organized by The Dream Mapping Project and the Dream Library Foundation. Attendance is free.

References
J. R. R. Tolkien, The Two Towers
Viktor Schlovsky, “Art as Technique”
Arthur Machen, “A Fragment of Life”
Joshua Cutchin, Fourth Wall Phantoms
Cristina Campo “On Fairy Tales”
J. R. R. Tolkien, “On Fairy Stories”
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

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1 hr 15 min
August 26 Mid-Hiatus Bonus: A Door in the Fourth Wall
Episode 218 will drop at the end of our summer break on September 9, 2026. Today, enjoy this recent audio extra, originally released for members of the Weird Studies Patreon. In the intro, JF announces two important Weirdosphere events: a talk on language in the age of AI by Emma Stamm, and a new six-week course on the idea of truth in horror cinema and literature. To learn more and enroll, visit Weirdosphere.
The musical piece following the intro is "Hypnagogic," from PY Martel's recent album Weird Studies Vol. 3.

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46 min
August 05 Episode 217 – Books, Spirits, and Hysteria, with Asti Hustvedt
Researcher Asti Hustvedt joins Phil and JF to discuss a talk she gave at the Lily Dale Symposium this year entitled "Bibliophantoms." The question: What does it mean to "get lost" in a book? Asti's answer, drawing on her research in nineteenth-century neuroscience and spirit mediumship, amounts to a genuine weirding of the act of reading.
Asti Hustvedt is an independent scholar and writer with a PhD in French
literature. Her work examines the entangled histories of science,
psychology, literature, and the occult, with a particular focus on
hysteria and Spiritualism. She is the author of Medical Muses: Hysteria in Nineteenth-Century Paris, named an Editors' Choice by the New York Times and a Book of the Year by The Independent, and the editor of The Decadent Reader: Fiction, Fantasy and Perversion in Fin-de-Siècle France.
She is currently writing a book on hysteria and the supernatural that
examines how Eusapia Palladino and other mediums challenged—and helped shape—the emerging sciences of the mind.
New Course! To learn more on JF's upcoming online course on truth in horror literature and cinema, visit Weirdosphere.
Image: Detail of The Reader by Jacques-Émile Blanche (1861-1942)
Music: "L'Esprit d'escalier" from Weird Studies vol. 3, and "Distant Early Warning" from Weird Studies vol 2.
REFERENCES
Asti Hustvedt, Medical Muses
Jean-Martin Charcot, French physician
Pierre Janet, French physician
Lon Milo DuQuette, It’s All in Your Head
Saint Catherine of Siena, Italian mystic
Saint Augustine, Confessions
Paul Auster, American writer
Julia Kristeva, Bulgarian French philosopher
Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights
Lionel Snell, Introduction to Freya Aswynn’s Power and Principles of the Runes

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1 hr 18 min
July 22 Episode 216 – Artworks Are People Too
"Now and then, a mysterious life and potency will flicker out of an artwork and confront you." So began "Artworks Are People Too," a talk Phil presented at the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute earlier this summer. In this episode, JF and Phil discuss the implications of this idea that some artworks break the mould of the inanimate and act as persons in the world. Are artworks mere creations, or creatures too?
To enroll in Questionable Cinema, our live summer series happening in August 2026, visit Weirdosphere.

Music: "Hypnagogic," from Weird Studies Vol. 3.

References
Henri Corbin, Alone with the Alone
Alfred Hallowell, "Ojibwa Ontology, Behavior, and Worldview"
Martin Buber, I and Thou
Charles Taylor, A Secular Age
Rainer Maria Rilke, “Archaic Torso of Apollo”
Peter Sloterdijk, You Must Change Your Life
Carl Jung, “On the Relation of Analytical Psychology to Poetry”
Alejandro Jodorowsky, Pyschomagic
Dan Sperber, “The Causal Chains of Culture”
Paul Stoller, In Sorcery’s Shadow
Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky
Ishmael Reed, Mumbo Jumbo
Holly Cusack-McVeigh, Stories Find You
Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind
Ikea lamp commercial
Sam Raimi (dir.), Evil Dead II

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1 hr 34 min
July 08 Special Episode: Make Art!
Owing to circumstances preventing us from releasing a new show this week, we are offering you one from the archives. This episode was originally released on our Patreon in March 2026. In it, we discuss the splendour and squalor of Victorian London, kung-fu bobbies, the (mis)alignment of society and technology, post-apocalyptic optimism, the emancipating genius of tabletop roleplaying games, the human after AI, and a reason for creating works of art.
A new episode of Weird Studies will drop on July 22.
For more information on Questionable Cinema, Phil and JF's upcoming online course, visit Weirdosphere.
To listen to more tracks from Weird Studies Vol. 3 and purchase the download or LP, visit Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp.

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42 min
June 24 Episode 215 – Where No One Can Hear You Scream: On Ridley Scott's 'Alien'
In this episode, JF and Phil discuss Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi/horror blockbuster Alien. Together, they wipe off the patina of familiarity that beclouds the film, restoring it to its original weirdness. What is the organism that terrorizes the Nostromo? What's its relation to technology, evolution, industry? How does it differ from the monsters of older horror classics? How does one interpret without explaining away?
Music in this episode: "Hypnagogic," from Pierre-Yves Martel's Weird Studies Vol. 3.
Events
Shannon Taggart's Lily Dale Symposium (July 23-25, 2026

Transcendence in the Age of AI, a Weirdosphere chat with Michael Garfield and JF Martel, hosted by Joel Gunz - June 25, 2026
Kickstarter campaign for Artist as Astronaut: The Otherworldly Art of Ionel Talpazan from Strange Attractor Press. The campaign closes June 27!

References
Ionel Talpazan, Romanian experiencer and artist
Ridley Scott (dir.), Alien
Peter Bebergal, All Our Famous Monsters (forthcoming)
Malachi Martin, Hostage to the Devil
Vilhelm Hammershøi, Danish painter
H. R. Giger, Swiss artist
Simon-Max, French entertainer
Eric Wargo, Passion of the Space Jockey
Weird Studies, Episode 213 on “Eric”
Mel Brooks (dir.), Spaceballs
Howard and Emerson, “Hello, Ma Baby”
Beowulf
Eugene Thacker, In the Dust of This Planet
Graham Harman, Weird Reality
Pierre Schaeffer, French musician

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1 hr 30 min

About Weird Studies

From the publisher's feed

Professor Phil Ford and writer J. F. Martel host a series of conversations on art and philosophy, dwelling on ideas that are hard to think and art that opens up rifts in what we are pleased to call "reality."