Episode 126: The Daemon Speaks, with Matt Cardin

Episode 126: The Daemon Speaks, with Matt Cardin

Author: SpectreVision Radio June 22, 2022 Duration: 1:22:37
Returning guest Matt Cardin is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose focus on numinous horror places him in the literary lineage as Arthur Machen and Algernon Blackwood. His new book, What the Daemon Said, collects two decades' worth of meditations on literature, cinema, mysticism, philosophy, and the weird. He joins Phil and JF to talk about a range of topics including dark enlightenment, the idea that fear and trembling are the only sensible reactions to direct exposure to cosmic truth. Header image: detail of cover design for What the Daemon Said, by Dan Sauer Design. Listen to volume 1 and volume 2 of the Weird Studies soundtrack by Pierre-Yves Martel Support us on Patreon Find us on Discord Get the new T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau! Get your Weird Studies merchandise (t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.) Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop REFERENCES Matt Cardin's website Matt Cardin, What the Daemon Said: Essays on Horror, Fiction, Film and Philosophy Matt Cardin, Dark Awakenings Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way Morning Pages Journal Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones The Gospel of Thomas Matt Cardin, Dark Awakenings Robert Frost, “The Figure a Poem Makes” John Horgen, Rational Mysticism Weird Studies, Episode 41 with Matt Cardin Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for his Highest Weird Studies ep. 124: Dark Night Radio of the Soul, with Duncan Barford Theodore Roszak, American scholar M. C. Richards, Centering Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols Huston Smith, American religious scholar Martin Buber, I and Thou John Lee Hancock (dir.), The Rookie (2002) Eckart Tolle, German spiritual teacher Richard Wagner, Parsifal Peter Berger, The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion Alan Watts, English writer and teacher Richard Rose, After the Absolute: The Inner Teachings of Richard Rose Special Guest: Matt Cardin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the heart of Weird Studies, a podcast from SpectreVision Radio, you’ll find long-form conversations between Professor Phil Ford and writer J. F. Martel. Their discussions aren’t simple reviews or straightforward analyses; instead, they wander through the tangled undergrowth where art and philosophy meet, giving generous time to concepts that resist easy understanding and to creative works that fracture our ordinary sense of the world. This podcast deliberately lingers in that ambiguous space, treating the “weird” not as a genre but as a particular mode of experience-one that reveals the cracks in what we comfortably assume is real. Each episode feels like joining a deep, meandering dialogue between two friends who are both deeply knowledgeable and endlessly curious, covering a vast terrain that includes literature, film, music, and esoteric thought. It’s a show for anyone who suspects that the most profound truths are often found in the shadows, the anomalies, and the strangely beautiful. As part of the SpectreVision Radio network, which specializes in content that explores the uncanny edges of creativity, Weird Studies builds a unique community of listeners who are eager to think differently. You won’t find pat answers here, but you will encounter compelling questions and a shared sense of exploration that makes each installment a distinctive journey.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 230

Weird Studies
Podcast Episodes
Halloween Special: A Reading of Arthur Machen's "The White People" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:39:55
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…
Episode 200 – On 'The Call of Cthulhu' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:27:34
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 f…
Episode 199 – On Michael Jackson, with Shannon Taggart [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:15:25
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 limina…
Episode 197 - Sounding the Otherworld: On Bryn Chainey's 'Rabbit Trap' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:10:31
In a rare surfacing in the contemporary world, JF and Phil discuss a film that has just been released. Bryn Chainey’s Rabbit Trap is psychological horror in the tradition of Repulsion, Jacob’s Ladder, and Angel Heart. Bu…
Weird Studies Trailer [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:00
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mid-Break Bonus: On Trust [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:06
We're breaking up our late-summer pause with an audio extra originally recorded for our Patreon supporters. This episode also includes an essay JF wrote on the philosophy of Henri Bergson. A whole course on Bergson's phi…
Episode 196 – Lost and Never Found: On 'The Blair Witch Project' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:32:13
Of all the flavors of horror, few are as dreadful as that of being lost in the wilderness. In this episode, JF and Phil revisit The Blair Witch Project, the classic 1999 found-footage film that inspired a thousand imitat…