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."
SpectreVision Radio is a bespoke podcast network at the intersection between the arts and the uncanny, featuring a tapestry of shows exploring the anomalous, the luminous, and the numinous. We’re a community for creators and fans vibrating around common curiosities, shared interests and persistent passions.
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Episode 218 — A Mighty Matter of Legend: On J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Two Towers'
mercredi 9 septembre 2026 • Durée 01:14:34
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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Mid-Hiatus Bonus: A Door in the Fourth Wall
mercredi 26 août 2026 • Durée 45:19
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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Episode 217 – Books, Spirits, and Hysteria, with Asti Hustvedt
mercredi 5 août 2026 • Durée 01:17:57
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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Episode 216 – Artworks Are People Too
mercredi 22 juillet 2026 • Durée 01:34:00
"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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Special Episode: Make Art!
mercredi 8 juillet 2026 • Durée 41:27
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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Episode 215 – Where No One Can Hear You Scream: On Ridley Scott's 'Alien'
mercredi 24 juin 2026 • Durée 01:29:15
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, 2026Transcendence 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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Episode 214 – Fortune's Fools: On Gordon White's Philosophy of Fortune-Telling
mercredi 10 juin 2026 • Durée 01:15:11
It was with heavy hearts that Phil and JF learned of Gordon White's passing. Gordon was a force to be reckoned with: as an author and podcaster on all things occult, he offered unique perspectives and provocative interpretations at every turn. In this episode, your hosts discuss Gordon's thoughts on divination—or fortune-telling, as he preferred to call it...
Click here to purchase tickets to the 2026 edition of the Lily Dale Symposium (July 23-25), organized by Shannon Taggart and closing this year with a live recording of Weird Studies.
References
Rune Soup
Fortune’s Fools Oracle Deck
Duns Scotus, Scottish priest
Marshall Sahlins, The New Science of the Enchanted Universe
Henri Bergson, Time and Free Will
Ithell Colquhoun, Taro as Colour
Lord Dunsany, The Gods of Pegana
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Episode 213 – Comics, Surf Rock, and the Weirdness of Time: On Tom Manning's 'Eric'
mercredi 27 mai 2026 • Durée 01:19:15
Tom Manning's 2018 graphic novel Eric is that rarest of gems: the self-published masterpiece. Available only on the author's website, it's the story of a washed-up surf rocker who stumbles into a cosmic conspiracy involving elite cultists, post-apocalyptic cowboys, renegade magicians, and three-eyed djinn. In this episode, Manning's work serves as a shining example of what makes comics such a unique and potent art form. There's no need to have read the book before listening—but know that you'll probably want to do when you're done. You're welcome.
Visit the Weirdosphere website to sign up for the Weird Studies Vol. 3 listening party on May 30, 2026.
Join the Weird Studies Patreon and support the show.
References
Tom Manning, ERIC
Leslie Stevens, “So So Surreal”
“Beach Bum #1”
Mike Relm, “Change the Channel”
Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, What is Philosophy?
Sarah Heston, “Magical Los Angeles: An Interview with Tom Manning”
Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics
David Mamet, On Directing Film
Richard J. Lewis (dir.), Whale Music
Joel and Ethan Coen, The Big Lebowski
Darren Aronovsky (dir.), The Wrestler
Jorge Luis Borges, “The Garden of Forking Paths”
Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time
Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea
Jean-Paul Sartre, The Transcendence of the Ego
David Lynch, Twin Peaks: The Return
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Episode 212 – Beyond Music and Back Again: On Glenn Gould
mercredi 13 mai 2026 • Durée 01:24:25
The pianist, composer and sound artist Glenn Gould once wrote: "Art on its loftiest mission is scarcely human at all." What becomes of art and humanity when they are allowed to vary independently of one another? Which serves which, and to what end? In this episode, JF and Phil discuss Glenn Gould's style and vision of music through the lens of François Girard's memorable 1993 film, Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould.
For details on the upcoming Weird Studies Volume 3 listening party, and to register for the event, go to the event page on the Weirdosphere website. The album will be released on May 22, 2026, on Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp page.
Click here to support Weird Studies on Patreon.
REFERENCES
Francois Girard (dir.), Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
Rob Reiner, This is Spinal Tap
Weird Studies, Episode 31 on Gould’s “Prospects of Recording”
"The Shining Recut"
"Glenn Gould Interviews Glenn Gould About Glenn Gould"
Phil Ford, Dig: Sound and Music in Hip Culture
Glenn Gould, "The Idea of North"
Weird Studies, Episode 124 with Duncan Barford
Francois Girard, Production of Wagner’s Parsifal
Richard Wagner, Parsifal (clip from performance conducted by Reginald Goodall)
Spear of Longinus
Header image by Ana Pismel, via Wikimedia Commons.
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Episode 211 – You've Always Been the Caretaker: On Kubrick's 'The Shining'
mercredi 29 avril 2026 • Durée 01:27:09
In this episode, Phil and JF discuss Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's novel The Shining. That they are doing this eight years after starting the podcast is weird in itself, so fundamental is Kubrick's "chamber epic" to the modern weird in general, and the hosts' specific interests in particular. Well, as the Overlook Hotel's former caretaker Delbert Grady might put it, consider the situation corrrrected.
Visit Weirdosphere to enroll in JF's upcoming course on Deleuzian philosophy, starting May 7 2026.
Support Weird Studies on Patreon
Interstitial Music: "Corridors" from Pierre-Yves Martel's Weird Studies Volume 2.
REFERENCES
Stanley Kubrick, The Shining
Jan Harlan, A Life in Pictures
Stanely Kubruck, Killer’s Kiss
Alberto Giacometti, “The Palace at 4am”
Gilles Deleuze, What is Philosophy?
Reyner Banham, “The New Brutalism”
Mark Fisher, The Weird and the Eerie
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