Pop Apocalypse

• Gnostic Myth in Film - A Talk with Fryderyk Kwiatkowski

  For episode 15 of Pop Apocalypse, we welcome assistant professor, Fryderyk Kwiatkowski, on to discuss the relationship between ancient Gnostic myth and modern cinema. Fryderyk takes us through the impact European intellectuals 20:29 Carl Jung, Hans Jonas, and Eric Voegelin on popular conceptions of Gnosticism. We then dive into analyses of the Gnostic elements in films 34:34 like the Matrix, Dark City, Truman Show, and more recent cinema like Free Guy, Chappie, and the television series Silo.BIOFryderyk Kwiatkowski is an Assistant at AGH University of Krakow. He earned a joint doctoral degree from the University of Groningen and the Jagiellonian University in 2023 with a thesis entitled Gnosticism in Hollywood: From European Academia to American Popular Culture. His research interests encompass the cultural reception of late antique esoteric traditions, their intersections with discourses on utopias and dystopias, and the (not-so-obvious) intertwinement of popular media, philosophy, and religion. He is currently developing a project on the role of imagination in contemporary technoculture, with a focus on the feedback loops between transhumanism, science fiction, and esotericism. He has published his research in venues such as Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies, CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, Journal of Religion and Film.NOTESFryderyk KwiatkowskiAcademia.eduGnosticism in Hollywood: From European Academia to American Popular Culture"Eric Voegelin and Gnostic Hollywood""How to Attain Liberation from a False World? The Gnostic Myth of Sophia in Dark City."

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• Madness, Mysticism, and Philosophy – A Talk with Wouter Kusters

  For episode 14 of Pop Apocalypse, we welcome the linguist and philosopher Wouter Kusters. Kusters is the author of Pure Madness (2004) and A Philosophy of Madness (2014), both of which won the Dutch Socrates Award for best philosophy book of the year. We discuss (5:26) how the experience of psychotic thinking challenges and illuminates our notions of language, philosophy, and mysticism. Along the way, we touch on the similarities between mystical and mad experiences, apophatic and psychotic uses of language, the phenomenology of time, and the impact of Kusters’ books on mental health specialists.Wouter Kusters, PhD, is a linguist and philosopher based in the Netherlands. Two of his books received the Dutch Socrates Award for the best and most inspiring philosophy book of the year: Pure Madness (2004) and A Philosophy of Madness (2014). The English version of this latter work was released in 2020 by MIT Press. In 2022, an Arabic version was released, and a Chinese translation is expected this year. Kusters writes on a range of themes in various outlets that explore perennial questions of meaning, madness, mysticism, and language.LINKSWouter Kusters' homepageA Philosophy of Madness

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• Photographing the Invisible: A Talk with Shannon Taggart

  For Episode 13 of Pop Apocalypse, we welcome Shannon Taggart, an American photographer, writer, researcher, and curator known for exploring how photography can navigate boundaries between the seen and unseen. Her book, Séance (Fulger Press, 2019), offers hundreds of photographs documenting contemporary Spiritualism across the U.S. and Britain. We discuss (3:26) what sparked Shannon’s interests in Spiritualism, the intersecting histories of photography and Spiritualism, ectoplasm, what inspires people to become mediums, and the techniques she developed for photographing the invisible.Shannon TaggartWebsiteSeánceLily Dale Symposium, 2025CSWR EventsMay 1, 6-8pm EDT: Peripheries Launch Event, Volume 7May 15-17: Thinking with Plants and Fungi Conference

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• Black Metal and Orthodox Christianity - A Talk with Haela Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix of Liturgy

  For our 12th episode, we welcome the philosopher, artist, and musician Haela Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix. Haela is best known as the songwriter and singer behind the black metal band, Liturgy, which has released 1 EP and 6 full-length albums. We discuss Haela’s early relationships to Christianity and metal music, the growth of her philosophical interests, and her recent conversion to Orthodox Christianity. In the second part of our chat (42:33), we explore her philosophical system of Transcendental Qabalah and how it informs records such as H.A.Q.Q., Origin of the Alimonies, and 93696.LINKSHaela Ravenna Hunt-HendrixSubstackYouTube Channel"Transcendental Black Metal essay"Liturgy recordsH.A.Q.Q.Origin of the Alimonies93696ReferencesMeditations on the Tarot: A Journey Into Christian HermeticismDeleuze and Guattari, Anti-OedipusSergius Bulgakov, The Sophiology of Death

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• Women, Art, and the Spirit World - A Talk With Jennifer Higgie, Author of The Other Side

  For Episode 11 of Pop Apocalypse, we welcome Jennifer Higgie. Jennifer is the author of several books, including Bedlam, a novel about the artist Richard Dadd; The Mirror and the Palette, a history of women’s self-portraits; and The Other Side: A Story of Women in Art and the Spirit World, a beautiful and personal study of the relationship between spiritual experience and art in the lives of modern women. In this career-spanning chat, Jennifer and I discuss her early career in painting, what inspired her to write Bedlam, and how the art world changed during her time at Frieze magazine. Then we dive into Jennifer’s latest book, The Other Side: A Story of Women in Art and the Spirit World. We discuss the spiritual and artistic lives of women like Georgiana Houghton (20:35), Hilma af Klint (34:06), Ithell Colquhoun (46:09), and Hildegard of Bingen (52:53). Along the way, we touch on topics like fairies, Spiritualism, gardening, Carl Jung, spiritual ecology, Theosophy, ascended masters, angels, and much else.LINKSJennifer HiggieThe Other Side: Women, Art, and the Spirit WorldThe Mirror and the Palette: Revolution, Rebellion, Resistance: 500 Years of Women's Self-PortraitsBedlamOthersGeorgiana Houghton's Evenings at Home in Spiritual SeánceAmy Hale's Ithell Colquhoun: Genius of the Fern Loved GullyJulia Voss's Hilma af Klint: A Biography

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