In this episode, Weird Studies turns meta, reflecting on the peculiar medium that is podcasting, and how it has shaped the Weird Studies project itself. JF and Phil provide a glimpse into what it feels like to create the show from the inside, where each recording session is like a journey into an unknown Zone. The conversation also occasions sojourns into the flow state, or experience of pure durée, its implications for our conception of free will, and surprising parallels between modern materialists’ adherence to nihilism and ancient religious ascetic practices. Ultimately, JF and Phil explore the archetypal image of the wanderer as representative of Weird Studies’s existence so far, and of the kind of impact and legacy this project can have.
N.B. Weird Studies will be on a haitus for the month of September, and will return on September 29. In the meantime:
Support us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/weirdstudies):
Find us on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/Jw22CHfGwp)
Get your Weird Studies merchandise (https://www.redbubble.com/people/Weird-Studies/shop?asc=u) (t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.)
Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop (https://bookshop.org/shop/weirdstudies)
Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-1)
References
Robert Sapolsky, Interview with Pau Guinart (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihhVe8dKNSA)
Bruno Latour, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Latour) French philosopher
Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780198788607)
Peter Sloterdijk, You Must Change Your Life (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780745649221)
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780061339202)
Paul Tillich, Dynamics of Faith (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780060937133)
Nina Simone, “Feeling Good”
Robert Anton Wilson, Illuminatus (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780440539810)
Richard Wagner, Siegfried
Lewis Carol, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781954839199)
John David Ebert, American cultural critic
Patrick Harpur Daimonic Reality (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780937663097)
Marshall McLuhan, The Global Village (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780195079104)
Phil Ford, “What was Blogging?” (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01411896.2019.1601982)
Weird Studies, Episode 71 on Marshall McLuhan (https://www.weirdstudies.com/71)