I love this podcast, both its choice of topics and the provocative discussions. After David Lynch died, I was hoping Phil and J. F. would pay tribute to him, and they did not disappoint. Please do an episode on Oscar Wilde’s Salome!

This podcast is obviously top-notch. I’m writing this review to suggest an episode about Ingmar Bergman’s film Persona (1966), the greatest film of all time, and which has enough material to fill hours of conversation. Persona (and Bergman in general) fit this podcast perfectly.

I have listened to almost every episode, and the score by Pierre Yves Martel is always fantastic. Perfect intersection of esoteric philosophy and artistic analysis. In my mind’s eye, Phil Ford and JF Martel look like Toby Ziegler (but with hair and tinted glasses) and Justin Trudeau (but bearded) respectively so I refuse to ever find out what they really look like.

I’d love to hear you discuss Danielewski’s House of Leaves

Very introspective show on myriad topics. My only critic is how often Phil brings up Wagner… as a student of classical music myself I must say it’s getting tedious to hear every single topic brought back to Wagner. He was a great composer but he certainly wasn’t the only one. This podcast has the opportunity to shed light on many an underserved composer.

In my top 5. Very often my number one. A glowing ember of life in a dying culture. Perhaps pointing a way forward out of the rubble, perhaps a seed from which the next one is born. Perhaps a guide to the underworld - a whisper among the disappeared, not hope, but rumor of wisdom and truth among the dark stones at the bottom of the riverbed. Thank you.

This show is a rarity. It doesn’t involve having Wikipedia articles regurgitated back to you and also manages to avoid the typical right wing conspiracy nonsense that infects so many other “weird” media outlets which obsess about imaginary left wing plots from three decades ago while conveniently ignoring the act right wing plots in broad daylight that happened just three years ago! They don’t draw imaginary connections or insult your intelligence. They’re not grifters selling people what they want to hear. The world needs more of this. The “F is for Fake” episode is one of my favorite podcast episodes ever and I’m only halfway though but I had to stop and write this review.

This is the podcast that I have been looking for-deep dives into things that are familiar and mentions of things that I never knew existed. It’s a real meat and potatoes of two people exploring what is true, what is meaningful, and all the things that the naturally curious wonder about. Love it!

Brilliant wide ranging heartfelt conversation— and very, very funny. In particular I take a curtsy to these guys for the recent episode on free expression: much more complex nuanced take on the frightening muting and policing we are seeing right now on every side. And I too (as a woman) find it creepy some lady quantified the times you had female guests/ referenced art by women — some seriously scary totalitarian shizzat. Keep on talking! 💜

Never fails to reframe things well known and introduce things exciting. I so appreciate the dialogue between the hosts - collegial without ever becoming to inside joke-y, and always open to each other’s interpretations. An absolute treasure and must listen.

No matter how far my perambulation round my room I always return home to this investigation into all things wondrous and weird.

Life changing stuff

Holy cow, these guys are dull. Make-believe smart guys blathering on endlessly about make-believe smart guy stuff. Omit needless words. Then get a job.

Very late to the podcast game & have had trouble finding programs that fit my esoteric tastes. Admittedly I’ve skipped past Weird Studies many times & have finally given it a listen. Since then it has become the only podcast I’ve ever consistently listened to. I’ve started from the 1st episode & am nearly caught up.

If you’re reading this you may as well give it a listen. You’re likely going to be a returning listener.

I heard about this on the Ezra Klein show and I love it SO much — it is my favorite new thing. Thank you Phil and JF!

5 stars

Five stars

This podcast is what I’ve been looking for, as a Seeker. It covers nearly all of the topics that I’m interested in exploring, but most importantly, it keeps me pushing forward in my journey and reminds me of things that daily life tends to efficiently erase from my moment-to-moment focus… if that makes sense. I almost didn’t write this cause you have 393 reviews and this will break that magick number. But the synch of it kept me walking towards.

It’s late-night dorm philosophizing taken to the nth degree. Mostly nonsense but entertaining if you just go with it. Martel is a likable host, Ford not so much. He’s not awful, just seems a bit full of himself. But then you’d have to be to put out a podcast like this.

Navel gazing and overly thought intellectualism. Rather than talking about the topic they digress into the most masturbatory topics where they go grossly in-depth into ideas in a droning manner without actually offering anything worth the droning conversation they just had about some obscure author or book.

There are no words to explain how much I appreciate this podcast. Thank you for creating a space for thoughtful discourse on things that actually matter!

Thank you gentlemen for introducing me to the work of heretofore hidden gem Victoria Nelson. Rabbit hole duly entered. Perhaps one day you will be able to host her in person on your excellent show.

Waited my whole life for these topics from two people who live for the intersection of weird literature, philosophy, spirituality and what it means to be human and ponder the beyond. J.F is a brilliant gem and Phil’s enthusiasm especially for film, is unmatched. I think the show is often missing an essential feminine voice and perspective. It’s highly improved when Meredith is on the show. Just as in nearly all of history, philosophy, film, music and art in general, male perspectives take center and their curiosities and expressions live in the foreground. JF and Phil discuss gaze and being perceived quite often. The male gaze of their perspectives literal and in theory, is very apparent. Check out the online classes and extra content they provide, truly exceptional! Get ready to have your brain and soul bent to new extremes!

'Nuff Said

My only regret is these episodes are as long as they are--because they fill my brain to the bursting. So many stimulating ideas! What a great podcast.

Thanks, your talks are saving me this year. First show I’ve patreoned and worth it. The content is phenomenal.

You guys are fantastic. I came here first when searching for podcasts about Tarkovsky’s Stalker. Your Stalker episode hooked me and I’ve loved all of them that I’ve listened to. Garmonbozia was also a fantastic episode. Thanks for being so erudite, interesting & engaging!

I can’t think of a lot of podcasts where Gilles Delueze might be mentioned in the same breath as the Slenderman, but this is one. The two hosts have crafted a smart take on the occult, avoiding both woo woo/conspiracy derangement and buzzkill skepticism. There’s just a single thing that annoys me about the show. I’m not against profanity but I’ve never heard two men sound more uncool saying swear words. Maybe it’s just because, despite their fascination with the macabre and edgy philosophy, these guys always come off as super wholesome, but it’s oddly distracting. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Food for my brain and imagination as I plod through lockdown

not just during this quarantine but in general. so glad to find out there are people who aren’t dismissive of the weird unexplained stuff in life and that it might just have meaning, really really indispensable meaning. thank you for this.

this podcast has been a tremendous resource and pleasure during the collapse of civilization. i particularly love the insightful film analysis and reoccurring references to Lynch’s work (which is like totally tapped in man, like more than just art you know?). its amazing to hear so many thoughts and sentiments echoed. these are valuable discussions. thank you.

Thoughtful, wide-ranging discussions about art (including the moving image), philosophy as well as psychology. Some of the best show notes I’ve seen. Would love to see more episodes about David Lynch, Tarkovsky, Kubrick. Also interested to hear your thoughts about works by Hitchcock, Buñuel, Michelangelo Antonioni and sci-fi like Alien, Blade Runner, Akira.

I don’t know if you guys take the time to read these, but I’ve been really enjoying your show. Just listened to the John Keel episode and loved it! I think Phil said Mothman prophecies was the only keel book he had read. Y’all should check out the eighth tower by him. He goes into vast detail on his ideas of the super spectrum and it will either ease your opinion of him being monistic or reinforce it, but it’s a great read either way! Keep it up fellas!

Every episode with these two very sharp thinkers is a deep dive into fascinating, stimulating, and challenging topics; challenging in terms of at times being intellectually difficult but more often in terms of pushing the bounds of the commonly accepted. That puts these conversations right in the mind space where I like to dwell. I can’t get enough, and supporting them on patreon was itself a great idea, and I don’t know why I waited so long. Lots of extra content there for even more mind-gasms.

I have professor friends who are so detached from pop culture that they have no idea how to relate to it. Not these guys Ursula Le Guin, Silence of the Lambs, Sun Ra, Stranger Things—They take these pop culture objects and view it through a weird lense, philosophy, occult theory, boxing. It’s pretty accessible and fun.

I cannot overestimate the profound incisiveness; the peeling of the onion, the inquiry into the human condition. Bravo!!

Love this podcast so much, and so so happy when I heard they will make an effort to produce more episodes during the COVID crisis. An oasis for the brain.

These dudes are awesome — check this out and then go support them on Patreon ✌🏼

I've never heard a podcast go as deep or as wide in a discussion of something as simple as a review of Ursula k. Leguin's "a wizard of Earthsea".

Every episode is a gem.

Download some episodes and listen. This podcast is a gem.

It’s like an intellectual Coast to Coast AM

A podcast of shortsighted interpretation wrapped in anthropocentric manifest destiny.

Weird Studies presents some of the most rare and deeply insightful explorations available on a medium that more typically presents shallow and impulsive gibberish. And JF and PF seem a marvelously complimentary pair re. facilitating these conversations.

Simply the best out there. I listen to them all multiple times. They are meaty and thick and require going back for more, and again more.

Really great conversations about the nature of reality and the inherent weirdness of life. I’ve listened to every episode and can’t get enough.

These guys strike the perfect balance between pulp and high brow. Their erudition is always evident but never flashy. They seem to have a personal stake in the outcome of each conversation, so you can feel them straining throughout to reach a previously undisclosed truth.

JF and Phil have the ability to take concepts that are very ambiguous, complicated and hidden and discuss them from various angles to craft digestible symbols and ideas. It’s really incredible. As each podcast unfolds, it feels like they make the invisible visible. Of course, the ideas they deal with are all so strange and undefinable that there are never clear answers to these complicated problems, but instead the podcast is like watching two grown men wrestling with some invisible creature. Each move they make gives the creature some more definition, you can see how it swings its arms and moves it legs by the way they wrestle with it, but you can never see the creature itself.

Super smart and interesting.