Weird Studies

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Episode 199 – On Michael Jackson, with Shannon Taggart

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Oct 15, 2025

Guest

Shannon Taggart

Shannon Taggart, a talented photographer and paranormal researcher, dives into the complex legacy of Michael Jackson. She explores him as a shamanic figure who defied societal binaries of gender, race, and age. Taggart discusses posthumous encounters and the mystical aura surrounding Jackson, likening his public persona to artistic magic. The conversation touches on his childhood and influences, linking his desire for immortality with his transformative art. Jackson’s lasting impact on culture and the younger generation is examined, revealing an ongoing fascination.

01:15:25

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insights

INSIGHT

Mask Became The Face

Unlike Bowie, Jackson's persona never clearly separated from the man; the mask became indistinguishable from the face.
That fusion makes understanding his interior life uniquely difficult and uncanny.

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ANECDOTE

Egyptian Statue Mirrors Jackson

Shannon points to a 3,000-year-old Egyptian statue in Chicago that eerily resembles post-surgery Michael Jackson, including a broken nose.
The statue's nose was historically broken off, a detail that parallels Jackson's plastic-surgery damage.

insights

INSIGHT

Contradictory Public Narratives

Jackson's public narratives host mutually contradictory beliefs (predator/protector, virile/asexual), making him plausibly 'all things' to different witnesses.
This multiplicity feeds his liminality and resists singular moral categorization.

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Origins of the Michael Jackson Project

01:56 • 3min

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Michael Jackson as a Liminal Figure

04:29 • 6min

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How the Research Began and Early Encounters

10:50 • 1min

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Posthumous Appearances and Artistic Guidance

12:14 • 3min

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The Mask, The Face, and Public Persona

15:39 • 1min

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Egyptian Statue Resonance and the Broken Nose

16:41 • 2min

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Binary Disturbances: Gender, Race, and Age

18:15 • 3min

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Appearance, Interiority, and the 'Black Box'

21:22 • 4min

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Uri Geller on Presence and Mesmerism

25:13 • 5min

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Perceived Physical 'Crackle' Around Jackson

29:53 • 2min

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Shamanic Traits and Metamorphosis Theme

31:28 • 45sec

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Insomnia, Propofol, and Death's Strange Circumstances

32:13 • 2min

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Hoaxing Persona and P.T. Barnum Influence

34:37 • 4min

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Peter Pan, Neverland, and the Desire to Be a Child

38:34 • 3min

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Animals, Companions, and Human-Animal Boundaries

41:19 • 11min

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Child-Adult Ambiguity and Ethical Complications

52:35 • 2min

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Conrad Murray, Trial Claims, and Afterlife Contact

55:01 • 3min

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Comparisons with Elvis and Posthumous Celebrity Presence

57:45 • 4min

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Binding the Soul to Work and Artistic Immortality

01:01:39 • 5min

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Cultural Persistence and Influence on Younger Generations

01:06:16 • 1min

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Kinesis, Emptying the Self into Art, and Immortality

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Photographer and paranormal researcher Shannon Taggart joins JF and Phil to explore the phenomenon that was Michael Jackson. One of the most brilliant and successful musicians of the modern era, Jackson was also a liminal figure sans pareil, a shapeshifter who defied the binary categories through which we order the human world. His art and persona together enacted a transformation that can only be called shamanic.

About Our Guest:

Shannon Taggart is a photographer and author based in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her photographs have appeared in Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal, and have been recognized by Magnum, Nikon, and the Alexia Foundation. Her monograph Séance was first published by Fulgur Press (2019) and reissued in a second edition by Atelier Éditions. Shannon is currently developing an illustrated history of SORRAT (the Society for Research on Rapport and Telekinesis) and hosts an annual symposium on the weird and the paranormal in Lily Dale, New York.

Image by Daniele Dalledonne, via Wikimedia Commons.

References

George Hanson, The Trickster and the Paranormal

Robert Chambers, The King in Yellow

Rogan Taylor, The Death and Resurrection Show

Pier Paolo Pasolini (dir.), Teorema

Phil Ford, “The View from the Cheap Seats at the UFO Show”

Michael Jackson, Moonwalker: A Memoir

J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan

Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea

Miguel Connor, The Occult Elvis

Tim Powers, Last Call

Weird Studies, Episode 186 on The Wedge

Raymond Moody, Elvis After Life

Sub Rosa, Spectra Ex Machina: A Sound Anthology of Occult Phenomena 1920-2017 Vol.2

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