Episode 71: The Medium is the Message - a podcast by Phil Ford and J. F. Martel

On the surface, the phrase "the medium is the message," prophetic as it may have been when Marshall McLuhan coined it, points a now-obvious fact of our wired world, namely that the content of any medium is less important than its form. The advent of email, for instance, has brought about changes in society and culture that are more far-reaching than the content of any particular email. On the other hand, this aphorism of McLuhan's has the ring of an utterance of the Delphic Oracle. As Phil proposes in this episode of Weird Studies, it is an example of what Zen practitioners call a koan, a statement that occludes and illumines in equal measures, a jewel whose shining surface is an invitation to descend into dark depths. Join JF and Phil as they discuss the mystical and cosmic implications of McLuhan's oracular vision.
REFERENCESMcLuhan, [Understanding Media](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UnderstandingMedia)_The Playboy interview (https://nextnature.net/2009/12/the-playboy-interview-marshall-mcluhan)
McLuhan and Quentin Fiore, [The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheMediumIstheMassage)
Graham Harman (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Harman), American philosopherClement Greenberg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clement_Greenberg), American critic
Dale Pendell, [Pharmako/Poeia: Plant Powers, Poisons, and Herbcraft](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1556438052/ref=dbsadefrwtbiblvppii2)
Brian Eno (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Eno), British composerMarshall and Eric McLuhan, The Laws of Media: The New Science (https://utorontopress.com/ca/laws-of-media-1) _
Jonathan Sterne, _The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction (https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-audible-past)Eric McLuhan and Frank Zingrone (editors), The Essential McLuhan (https://www.amazon.com/Essential-McLuhan-Eric/dp/0465019951)
Charles A. Reich, [The Greening of America](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheGreeningofAmerica)_
David Fincher (director), The Social Network (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1285016/) _Gilles Deleuze, _Cinema I (https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/cinema-1) _and _Cinema II (https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/cinema-2)
Jean Gebser, The Ever-Present Origin (https://www.amazon.com/Ever-Present-Origin-Part-Aperspectival-Manifestations/dp/0821407694)Eric Havelock,_ Preface to Plato (https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674699069)_
Walter J. Ong (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_J._Ong), American theoristPlato, [Republic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic(Plato))_

Further episodes of Weird Studies

Further podcasts by Phil Ford and J. F. Martel

Website of Phil Ford and J. F. Martel