NOW ENROLLING
The Rebirth of Language
LLMs as a Lens on Style
With Emma Stamm
Writer, educator, and podcaster
Thursday, September 3, 2026
Event Description
AI-generated text used to be easy to spot. It was unpolished, awkward, and it often made no sense. These days it not only passes as human, it can seem better than the real thing. Across the world, people are turning to tools like ChatGPT and Claude for friendship, therapy, and romantic connection. In this context, widespread beliefs about what makes speech and writing meaningful start to seem doubtful. If we can be deeply affected by machines that have no feelings themselves, we're forced to ask: where does meaning come from in the first place?
“The Rebirth of Language: LLMs as a Lens on Style” explores this provocation from several angles. First, we use game-based thought experiments to clarify our assumptions about how communication and intention work, and what’s going on when they break down. From there, an interactive lecture adds context to the discussion, emphasizing historical and current research from philosophers, cultural theorists, cognitive scientists, and technologists. Our touchstone is the ongoing “AI culture wars,” where being “pro” or “anti” AI takes on political importance. Giving credit to both sides of the debate, we conclude with remarks on style as a primary vector of meaning. An extended version of a seminar first delivered in person earlier this year, "The Rebirth of Language" is for those who work with AI, have strong feelings about it, or don’t know how to begin thinking about it. By the end, we’ll have a new conceptual toolkit to help us stay grounded and clear-headed as this technology evolves.
Format
The event consists of one live Zoom session, approx. 2 hours long, and a dedicated space on Weirdosphere where the presenter and participants can post thoughts, share links, and engage in discussion before and after the event. A recording of the event will be made available after the Zoom call and will remain available in the event space for all registrants.
The evening will unfold in three parts. At the beginning, participants are guided through structured thought experiments. These can be done with others or as a solo exercise, and participants have the option to share their answers or not. We will then have an interactive presentation built around big-picture questions related to AI, language, and communication. We end with a candid conversation about how AI is impacting creativity, relationships, and work, making connections to ideas and examples explored throughout the evening.
Schedule
The event will be held on Thursday, September 3, 2026, at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT, and will take place over Zoom via the Weirdosphere learning platform. A video recording of the session will be made available to registrants after the event concludes.
Scroll to the bottom of the page to purchase.
* * *
NOW ENROLLING
JM105: The Awful Truth
The Real Revealed in the Art of Horror
With J.F. Martel
Co-host of Weird Studies and author of Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice
Starts September 17, 2026
Course Description
In this six-week course, JF Martel will explore the horror genre in search of what it can reveal to us about the nature of truth. Truth, it should be said, is a fraught word today, defanged in some quarters, weaponized in others. How did we come to this "post-truth" age? A close reading of horror suggests that it has less to do with relativism or cynicism than it does with a fear of certain truths we already know.
Works of horror fiction and cinema often hinge on the gradual revelation of a terrible truth, something the protagonists begin by doubting, only to be forced to reckon with it as the story unfolds. On the surface, this truth may seem to be nothing more than the ghost, vampire, or demon at the centre of the narrative. But in the most memorable instances, the monster merely embodies a deeper truth, that of an entire world which, through the monster, replaces the illusory world the characters have so far inhabited. In accepting the truth, the characters realize, paradoxically, that they are living in a horror story. To survive, they must "become fictitious" themselves, submitting to a total inversion of fact and make-believe, reason and superstition.
But this course is more than an exercise in literary and film criticism. Horror is a genre that belongs fully to our secular age, and in it the problem of the modern is perhaps most fully articulated. Why does a culture that has stopped believing in spirits insist on paying to be frightened by them, and why does that fright, at some level, feel more like being reminded of something than being told something new? Is the secular, disenchanted self we take for granted really a neutral baseline, or is it a construction, built for purpose? Is horror an ongoing rehearsal for the toppling of this edifice?
Course sessions will pair primary horror texts and films—everything from The King in Yellow and Nosferatu to Stephen King and John Carpenter—with a range of philosophical, psychoanalytic, sociological, and comparative-religious material, including work by Julia Kristeva, Martin Heidegger, Tzvetan Todorov, Octave Mannoni, Sigmund Freud, Max Picard, Mircea Eliade, George Steiner, Charles Taylor, and Victoria Nelson.
Format
The course consists of six weekly lectures, each 90 minutes long, and as many “office hours” sessions, where students can ask J.F. questions and contribute their own ideas to the evolving discussion. The course includes a dedicated feed where the instructor and students can post thoughts, share links, and engage in discussion between Zoom sessions.
Schedule
The course begins on Thursday, September 17, 2026, and ends with a final group discussion on Saturday, October 24. All meetings take place over Zoom via the Weirdosphere learning platform.
Lecture Hall sessions will take place on Thursdays, at 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET. These meetings are recorded to allow students in more distant time zones to attend asynchronously.
Office Hours sessions will be held as follows:
Sundays on September 20, 27, Oct 4, 18, at 12 p.m. PT / 3 p.m. ET.
Saturdays on October 10, 24, at 12 p.m. PT / 3 p.m. ET.
This time slot is chosen to allow students from as many time zones as possible to attend live. Like the lectures, these sessions will be recorded. All recorded sessions will remain available to registered students after the course is over, in video and audio format.
Scroll to the bottom of the page to purchase.
* * *
On the very notion of a Weirdosphere
At a certain point, Phil Ford and J.F. Martel started to realize they weren't just two guys with a podcast (Weird Studies), but members of a community of thinkers, artists, and writers all drawn to the same chaotic, terrible, beautiful zone — the Weird. This community could be called the intellectual sphere of the weird, or, to coin a term, the intellectual Weirdosphere.
But how could such an imaginal entity manifest on the material plane, they asked? What institution could serve as a makeshift home to the Weird? Where would J.F., Phil, and their friends be able to establish the conversations they wanted to have?
This site to which fate has steered you—our community on Mighty Networks at Weirdosphere.mn.co—is home to all the conversations we ever wanted to have with our colleagues. And you are our colleague, even if we haven't yet met. Welcome to Weirdosphere.
