The 3 Best Weird Studies Podcast Episodes
1) Off-Week Bonus: On Worlds and Stories, with a Special Announcement
In this bonus episode, originally released for Listener's Tier Patreon supporters, a discussion of the books Phil and JF are reading leads to a debate about the place of plot, story, and worldbuilding...Show More
2) Episode 89: On Ishmael Reed's 'Mumbo Jumbo,' or, Why We Need More Magical Thinking
Ishmael Reed's 1972 novel Mumbo Jumbo is a conspiracy thriller, a postmodern experiment, a revolutionary tract, a celebration, and a magical working. It is a novel that, over and above prophetically d...Show More
3) Episode 57: Box of God(s): On 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'
Raiders of the Lost Ark is more than a Hollywood movie made in the summer blockbuster mold. As Phil says in his intro to this popping Weird Studies episode, the film is "a Trojan horse of the Weird, e...Show More
4) Holiday Bonus: Scavengers in the Ruins of Heaven
To tide us over as we prepare for a new season of Weird Studies, here is an "audio extra," originally recorded for our Patreon supporters, wherein we discuss imposter syndrome, the eternal inadequacy ...Show More
5) Episode 203 – Distant Early Warnings: A Return to Marshall McLuhan's 'Book of Probes'
Back in episode 112, Phil and JF devised a gimmick for a show: randomly select one of the many aphorisms in The Book of Probes, a compendium of Marshall McLuhan’s prophetic quips designed by David Car...Show More
Episode 203 – Distant Early Warnings: A Return to Marshall McLuhan's 'Book of Probes'
1:26:30 | Dec 10th, 2025
6) Episode 202 – The Human is Two: On 'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'
In this episode, JF and Phil discuss Robert Louis Stevenson’s Gothic classic, the tale that conjured the fog-shrouded London hellscape that has haunted the modern imagination ever since. Though writte...Show More
Episode 202 – The Human is Two: On 'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'
1:21:46 | Nov 26th, 2025
7) 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 oc...Show More
8) 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 discu...Show More
9) 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 revis...Show More
10) 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, Jacks...Show More