Weird Studies

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

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, both starring Boris Karloff. The conversation touches on Gnosticism, alchemy, modern techno-hubris, the Gothic, and much more. Peter's new online course, Hacking the Invisible: At the Intersection of Technology and Magic, begins on November 20th, 2025, and runs for three weeks on Weirdosphere. Visit the Weirdosphere website [https://www.weirdosphere.org] for details and to enroll. References James Whale (dir.), Frankenstein [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021884/%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Tobe Hooper (dir.), Texas Chainsaw Massacre [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072271/%E2%81%A0%20%C2%A0] James Whale (dir.), The Bride of Frankenstein [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026138/%E2%81%A0%20%C2%A0] Justin Sledge, Esoterica [https://www.justinsledge.com/esoterica%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Henry Bergson, Introduction to Metaphysics [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9789351287582%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780415289795%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Mary Shelley, Frankenstein [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780141439471%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] John the Apostle, The Apocryphon of John [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781804216378%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Stuart Gordon (dir.), Stuck [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0758786/%E2%81%A0%20%C2%A0] Jennifer Kent (dir.), The Babadook [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2321549/%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Stephen T. Asma, On Monsters [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780195336160%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Thomas Paine, “The Age of Reason” [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781539127703%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Jean Gimpel, Medieval Machine [https://www.amazon.com/Medieval-Machine-Industrial-Revolution-Middle/dp/0140045147%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

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

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 [https://megaphone.link/IMP6940714316]. Earlier this week, JF and Phil joined Conner Habib on his podcast [https://www.patreon.com/posts/against-everyone-142237882] to talk all about horror. It was a great conversation and we hope you'll give it a listen. Image: Photo of doll from Auckland War Memorial Museum, via Wikimedia Commons [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Doll_(AM_1970.273-2).jpg]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Episode 200 – On 'The Call of Cthulhu'

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 knowledge” that mirrors the work of Lovecraft’s own bewildered protagonists. Image by Antoni Espinosa via Wikimedia Commons [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cthulhu_blood.png.]. Upcoming Events: Peter Bebergal teaches on Weirdosphere [https://weirdosphere.org/course/hacking-the-invisible/%20] starting November 20, 2025 JF Martel speaks at Back to Haunt Us [https://verdur.in/event/back-to-haunt-us/?srsltid=AfmBOoo9NGa5xKSgvYGJG7a1lsV1ws7LYe-aZWCrj1unFKK9krx_hE-M] in East London on November 8, 2025 Phil Ford speaks at the Durations Festival [https://dice.fm/event/bbyrkv-durations-philosophy-and-magic-w-mitch-horowitz-phil-ford-and-maeg-keane-upstairs-7th-nov-public-records-new-york-tickets?lng=en-CA] in NYC on November 7, 2025 Phil Ford hangs out at Archestratus [https://archestrat.us/pages/aboutus] Books and Food on November 8, 2025 References H. P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu  [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781835622759%C2%A0] Weird Studies, Episode 2 on Garmonbozia  [https://www.weirdstudies.com/2%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy  [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781554815548%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Phil Ford, “The Wanderer” [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01411896.2023.2287422#d1e67%C2%A0] H. P. Lovecraft, "Nyarlathotep" [https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/n.aspx] Weird Studies, Episode 74 on Jung [https://www.weirdstudies.com/74%C2%A0] Phil Ford, Jacob Foster, and J. F. Martel, “Care of the Dead”  [https://direct.mit.edu/daed/article/154/1/166/127931/Care-of-the-Dead-Ancestors-Traditions-amp-the-Life%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Weird Studies, Episode 110 on The Glass Bead Game  [https://www.weirdstudies.com/110%C2%A0] Weird Studies, Episode 101 on Tanizaki  [https://www.weirdstudies.com/101%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Graham Harman, Weird Realism: Lovecraft and Philosophy  [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781780992525%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Weird Studies, Episode 156 on Donna Tartt  [https://www.weirdstudies.com/156%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Episode 199 – On Michael Jackson, with Shannon Taggart

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 together enacted a transformation that can only be called shamanic. About Our Guest: Shannon Taggart is a photographer and author based in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her photographs have appeared in Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal, and have been recognized by Magnum, Nikon, and the Alexia Foundation. Her monograph Séance was first published by Fulgur Press (2019) and reissued in a second edition by Atelier Éditions. Shannon is currently developing an illustrated history of SORRAT (the Society for Research on Rapport and Telekinesis) and hosts an annual symposium on the weird and the paranormal in Lily Dale, New York. Image by Daniele Dalledonne, via Wikimedia Commons [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michael_Jackson_(20589951783)_(cropped).jpg]. References George Hanson, The Trickster and the Paranormal [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781401000820%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Robert Chambers, The King in Yellow [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781464213717%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Rogan Taylor, The Death and Resurrection Show [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781917516211%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Pier Paolo Pasolini (dir.), Teorema [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063678/%E2%81%A0]   Phil Ford, “The View from the Cheap Seats at the UFO Show”  Michael Jackson, Moonwalker: A Memoir [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780307716989%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780147508652%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780547722023%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Miguel Connor, The Occult Elvis [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9798888501351%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Tim Powers, Last Call [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780062233271%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Weird Studies, Episode 186 on The Wedge [https://www.weirdstudies.com/186%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Raymond Moody, Elvis After Life [https://www.amazon.com/Elvis-After-Life-Experiences-Surrounding/dp/B010EX3E6E%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Sub Rosa, Spectra Ex Machina: A Sound Anthology of Occult Phenomena 1920-2017 Vol.2 [https://subrosalabel.bandcamp.com/album/spectra-ex-machina-a-sound-anthology-of-occult-phenomena-1920-2017-vol-2%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

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

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 symbolizes duality, contemplation, and manifestation. * Support Weird Studies on ⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠ [https://www.patreon.com/weirdstudies]. * Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack, volumes ⁠⁠1⁠⁠ [https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-1] and ⁠⁠2⁠⁠ [https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-2], on Pierre-Yves Martel's ⁠⁠Bandcamp⁠⁠ [https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com] page. * Visit the Weird Studies ⁠⁠⁠Bookshop⁠⁠⁠ [https://bookshop.org/shop/weirdstudies] * Find us on ⁠⁠⁠Discord⁠⁠⁠ [https://discord.com/invite/Jw22CHfGwp] * Get the T-shirt design from ⁠⁠⁠Cotton Bureau⁠⁠⁠ [https://cottonbureau.com/products/can-o-content#/13435958/tee-men-standard-tee-vintage-black-tri-blend-s]. * Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, ⁠⁠Cosmophonia⁠⁠ [https://cosmophonia.podbean.com/]. REFERENCES Our Known Friend, Meditations on the Tarot [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781585421619%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Plancia Magna [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plancia_Magna%E2%81%A0%C2%A0], Roman priestess Aleister Crowley, The Book of Thoth [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780877282686%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Leigh McCloskey, The Tarot Revisioned [https://www.leighmccloskey.com/TarotRev.html%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Henri Bergson, Matter and Memory [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780486434155%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Moina Mathers [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moina_Mathers%E2%81%A0%C2%A0], French occultist Sallie Nichols, Tarot and the Archetypal Journey [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781578636594%E2%81%A0%C2%A0] Rachel Pollack, Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781578636655%E2%81%A0%20%C2%A0] Yoav Ben-Dov, The Marseille Tarot Revealed [https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780738752280%C2%A0] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]