Episode 82: On The I Ching
The Book of Changes, or I Ching, is more than an ancient text. It's a metaphysical guide, a fun game, and -- to your hosts at least -- a lifelong, steadfast friend. The I Ching has come up more than o...
16 Sep 20201h 30min
Episode 81: Gnostic Lit: On M. John Harrison's 'The Course of the Heart'
The British writer M. John Harrison is responsible for some of the most significant incursions of the Weird into the literary imagination of the last several decades. His 1992 novel The Course of the ...
2 Sep 20201h 17min
Episode 80: The Pit and the Pyramid, or, How to Beat the Philosopher's Blues
Your hosts' exploration of mysticism and vision in pop music continues with two powerful pieces of popular music: Radiohead's "Pyramid Song" from the 2001 album Amnesiac, and Fran Landesman and Tommy ...
19 Aug 20201h 18min
Episode 79: Love, Death, and the Dream Life
In this episode of Weird Studies, an improvised analysis of two pop songs -- Nina Simone's version of James Shelton's "Lilac Wine" and Ghostface Killah's visionary "Underwater" -- becomes the occasi...
5 Aug 20201h 5min
Episode 78: On John Keel's 'The Mothman Prophecies'
At the time The Mothman Prophecies' was released in 1975, and again when he penned an afterword for the 2001 edition, John Keel appeared to have made up his mind about the "ultraterrestrials" that he ...
22 Jul 20201h 14min
Episode 77: What a Fool Believes: On the Unnumbered Card in the Tarot
"What a fool believes he sees, no wise man can reason away." This line from a Doobie Brothers song is probably one of the most profound in the history of rock-'n'-roll. It is profound for all the reas...
8 Jul 20201h 9min
Episode 76: Below the Abyss: On Bergson's Metaphysics
According to the French philosopher Henri Bergson, there are two ways of knowing the world: through analysis or through intuition. Analysis is our normal mode of apprehension. It involves knowing what...
24 Jun 20201h 19min
Bonus: The Duke of Ellington
When the quarantine began, professors around the world raced to put their classes online, and for the Jacobs School's big undergraduate music history course (M402 represent!) Phil created a series of ...
18 Jun 20201h 4min
