Episode 201 – On James Whale's 'Frankenstein' and 'Bride of Frankenstein,' with Peter Bebergal

Episode 201 – On James Whale's 'Frankenstein' and 'Bride of Frankenstein,' with Peter Bebergal

Author: SpectreVision Radio November 12, 2025 Duration: 1:10:52
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 occult. The topic is Frankenstein—not Guillermo del Toro's latest but James Whale's 1931 talkie along with its 1935 sequel, The Bride of Frankenstein, both starring Boris Karloff. The conversation touches on Gnosticism, alchemy, modern techno-hubris, the Gothic, and much more. Peter's new online course, Hacking the Invisible: At the Intersection of Technology and Magic, begins on November 20th, 2025, and runs for three weeks on Weirdosphere. Visit the Weirdosphere website for details and to enroll. References James Whale (dir.), Frankenstein Tobe Hooper (dir.), Texas Chainsaw Massacre James Whale (dir.), The Bride of Frankenstein Justin Sledge, Esoterica Henry Bergson, Introduction to Metaphysics David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order Mary Shelley, Frankenstein John the Apostle, The Apocryphon of John Stuart Gordon (dir.), Stuck Jennifer Kent (dir.), The Babadook Stephen T. Asma, On Monsters Thomas Paine, “The Age of Reason” Jean Gimpel, Medieval Machine 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
Episode 193: On Conversion, or Arousing the Bodhi-Mind [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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Episode 192 - A Dream of Landscape: On Walking [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:13:43
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Special Episode: Theory, Philosophy, and Uranus [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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This conversation was originally recorded in August 2024 and released for our Patreon supporters. Weird Studies will be back with a new episode on June 25, 2025. What is cultural theory? How is philosophy "a preparation…
Special Episode: Myth, History, and Form [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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Episode 191 — The Acid Queen, with Susannah Cahalan [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:28:01
Best known as the wife and partner of Timothy Leary, Rosemary Woodruff was in fact a central figure in the psychedelic movement in her own right—a political radical, underground fugitive, and neglected architect of the c…
Episode 190 – Here Be Shrubs: On Algernon Blackwood's 'The Willows' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:15:04
In this episode, JF and Phil paddle into the marshlands of Algernon Blackwood’s 1907 masterpiece The Willows, a tale Lovecraft once called the finest weird story of all time. They explore how a narrative in which almost…
Episode 189: Care of the Dead, with Jacob G. Foster [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:35:47
In this episode, JF and Phil are joined by Jacob G. Foster—sociologist, physicist, and researcher at Indiana University Bloomington and the Santa Fe Institute—for a conversation about their recent collaboration in Daedal…
Episode 186: Meeting at the Center: The Wedge, Part Two [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:29:19
In this episode, JF and Phil continue their conversation on the wedge, their figure for the epistemological divide between approaching reality from the heart and exploring it with the mind. As the discussion unfolds, the…