Best J F Martel Podcasts (2025)

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Episode 201 – On James Whale's 'Frankenstein' and 'Bride of Frankenstein,' with Peter Bebergal 1:10:52

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5d ago1:10:52

1:10:52

In this episode, Phil and JF are joined by independent scholar Peter Bebergal, author of Strange Frequencies, Season of the Witch, and other books on the intersections of culture, religion, and the occult. The topic is Frankenstein—not Guillermo del Toro's latest but James Whale's 1931 talkie along with its 1935 sequel, The Bride of Frankenstein, b…

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Halloween Special: A Reading of Arthur Machen's "The White People" 1:39:55

16d ago1:39:55

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Originally released in 2018 but remixed for your listening pleasure, here's Phil reading Arthur Machen's classic weird tale, "The White People." Happy Halloween! Machen's "The White People" was discussed all the way back in ⁠Weird Studies episode 3⁠. Earlier this week, JF and Phil joined Conner Habib on his podcast to talk all about horror. It was …

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Episode 200 – On 'The Call of Cthulhu' 1:27:34

18d ago1:27:34

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For their 200th episode, JF and Phil turn their attention to H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu,” a story foundational not only to modern horror fiction but to the very idea of the Weird. In revisiting this tale of forbidden knowledge and cosmic ambiguity, the hosts reflect on Weird Studies itself as a “slow piecing together of dissociated know…

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Episode 199 – On Michael Jackson, with Shannon Taggart 1:15:25

1M ago1:15:25

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Photographer and paranormal researcher Shannon Taggart joins JF and Phil to explore the phenomenon that was Michael Jackson. One of the most brilliant and successful musicians of the modern era, Jackson was also a liminal figure sans pareil, a shapeshifter who defied the binary categories through which we order the human world. His art and persona …

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Episode 198 – Breaking the Frame: On the High Priestess in the Tarot 1:19:45

2M ago1:19:45

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Since 2020, Phil and JF have been creating an on-again, off-again series on the major trumps, or "arcana," of the tarot. In this episode, they continue the series with a discussion of the second arcanum: the High Priestess, also known as la Papesse, the female pope. One of the most enigmatic and powerful cards in the deck, the High Priestess symbol…

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Episode 197 - Sounding the Otherworld: On Bryn Chainey's 'Rabbit Trap' 1:10:31

2M ago1:10:31

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In a rare surfacing in the contemporary world, JF and Phil discuss a film that has just been released. Bryn Chainey’s Rabbit Trap is psychological horror in the tradition of Repulsion, Jacob’s Ladder, and Angel Heart. But it is more: a metaphysical film exploring the mystery of sound and the Otherworld of Faerie—an excursion into that weird country…

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Weird Studies Trailer 2:00

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Mid-Break Bonus: On Trust 57:06

3M ago57:06

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We're breaking up our late-summer pause with an audio extra originally recorded for our Patreon supporters. This episode also includes an essay JF wrote on the philosophy of Henri Bergson. A whole course on Bergson's philosophy begins on Weirdosphere later this month. Weird Studies will be back with a brand-new episode on September 17th. Learn more…

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Episode 196 – Lost and Never Found: On 'The Blair Witch Project' 1:32:13

3M ago1:32:13

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Of all the flavors of horror, few are as dreadful as that of being lost in the wilderness. In this episode, JF and Phil revisit The Blair Witch Project, the classic 1999 found-footage film that inspired a thousand imitators. What makes this film so gripping, they argue, is the way it lingers over the subtle stages of disorientation in a hostile pla…

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Episode 195 – On John Keel: Live at the Lily Dale Symposium, with Erik Davis 1:51:21

3M ago1:51:21

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This marks the third year that Weird Studies is honoured to open the Lily Dale Symposium, organized each summer by photographer Shannon Taggart in the upstate New York community famed for its roots in Spiritualism. While J.F. wasn’t able to attend this year, Erik Davis joined Phil on stage for a conversation about the life and work of John Keel, th…

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Episode 194: Animal Songs, with Meredith Michael 1:23:02

4M ago1:23:02

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In this episode, Phil and JF are joined by Meredith Michael—musicologist, podcaster, and Weird Studies production assistant—for a conversation about animal songs. The phrase is intentionally slippery. Are we talking about songs about animals, or songs by animals? Both, as it turns out. Beginning with three very different human compositions—The Beat…

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Episode 193: On Conversion, or Arousing the Bodhi-Mind 1:28:54

4M ago1:28:54

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How do you become religious? What is a conversion experience? Does it happen all at once or gradually? What's the point of religion, anyway? These are questions that JF (a Catholic) and Phil (a Zennist) have often been asked since starting Weird Studies, and in this episode they attempt some answers. Image: "Small Candle Flame" by Le Priyavrat, via…

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Episode 192 - A Dream of Landscape: On Walking 1:13:43

5M ago1:13:43

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Phil and JF first explored the mysteries of walking back in episode 59. That episode felt like a mere introduction—a tentative first step on a long and winding path. Now, 133 episodes later, they return to the theme as they prepare to lead a six-week course on the art of walking and its affinity with the Weird. This conversation touches on meditati…

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Special Episode: Theory, Philosophy, and Uranus 1:02:29

5M ago1:02:29

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This conversation was originally recorded in August 2024 and released for our Patreon supporters. Weird Studies will be back with a new episode on June 25, 2025. What is cultural theory? How is philosophy "a preparation for death?" What sort of planet is Phil Ford from? These burning questions and more find answers in this free-wheeling conversatio…

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Special Episode: Myth, History, and Form 46:55

5M ago46:55

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This special release is a Patreon extra we’re making available to all listeners, in lieu of the official episode originally scheduled for today. As explained in the introduction, we will be back with a full episode later in the month. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy this conversation about how art transforms experience, making the mundane mythic…

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Episode 191 — The Acid Queen, with Susannah Cahalan 1:28:01

6M ago1:28:01

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Best known as the wife and partner of Timothy Leary, RosemaryWoodruff was in fact a central figure in the psychedelic movement in her own right—a political radical, underground fugitive, and neglected architect of the counterculture. In this episode, Phil and JF speak with journalist and author Susannah Cahalan about Woodruff Leary’s life and legac…

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Episode 190 – Here Be Shrubs: On Algernon Blackwood's 'The Willows' 1:15:04

6M ago1:15:04

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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 narrative in which almost nothing happens can conjure a cosmic dread more potent than a legion of monsters, and how Blackwood’s genius lies in revealing the…