Episode 206 – On Ken Russell's 'Altered States': Live at Indiana University Bloomington

This episode was recorded before a live audience at Indiana University Cinema as part of Weird Academia, a series of events that brought much high strangeness to Bloomington, Indiana, in January 2026. The discussion followed a screening of Ken Russell’s 1980 cinematic fever dream, Altered States. In it, JF and Phil explore the weird intersection of mysticism, psychedelics, and institutional science, and they close with a brief Q&A with members of the audience.

Visit Weirdosphere to enroll in Phil Ford's upcoming course, A Musical Tarot.

References

Weird Academia and the Center for Possible Minds

Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Roger Penrose, physicist and mathematician

Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy

Samuel Delaney, Dhalgren

Henri Bergson, Introduction to Metaphysics and Matter & Memory

H. P. Lovecraft, American writer

Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception

Clement Greenberg, American essayist

G. K. Chesterton, English writer

David Cronenberg (dir.), The Fly

Michael Garfield, podcaster, writer, musician

Weird Studies episode 205 on the Hierophant

Victoria Nelson, The Secret Life of Puppets

Neil Gaiman, American Gods

J. R. R. Tolkien, "On Fairy Stories"

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices