Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Very Bad Wizards
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
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| Episode 320: Forgive Me (Kafka's "A Hunger Artist") | 11 Nov 2025 | 01:29:19 | |
David and Tamler return to one of their favorites, Frans Kafka, this time on his beautiful and distressing short story "The Hunger Artist," a story that brims with metaphorical possibilities but also implores us to accept it on its own mysterious terms. Plus gooning. The Goon Squad by Daniel Kolitz [harpers.org] "Gooning" definition [urbandictionary.com] A Hunger Artist [wikipedia.org] A Hunger Artist (full text) [kafka-online.info]
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| Episode 319: The Shadow of the Object (Freud's "Mourning and Melancholia") | 28 Oct 2025 | 01:35:10 | |
David and Tamler transfer their libidinal energy to Freud's 1917 article "Mourning and Melancholia," in which he tries to understand what's going on with depression, attempts to distinguish it from normal grief, and arrives at some ideas that laid the groundwork for his later theory of normal human development. Plus, another blind ranking segment--this time Tamler gives David a list of rappers to rank blindly. Finally, in between segments we make an announcement about the topic of our next bonus series (it's gonna be epic). Freud's "Mourning and Melancholia" [wikipedia.org]
The Odyssey (translated by Emily Wilson) [amazon.com affiliate link] | |||
| Episode 310: Bayes, Brains, and Buddhists | 10 Jun 2025 | 01:14:45 | |
David and Tamler try to wrap their heads around the predictive processing theory of the mind and brain function and talk about a paper that applies the framework to meditation practices. But first a new Psychological Science article expresses skepticism about the existence of people who have no inner voice. So is David a new kind of human or is he just making up this condition to get attention? Assistant Editor's note: When Tamler says he doesn't talk to his dog "weirdly often," he is lying. Lind, A. (2024). Are There Really People With No Inner Voice? Commentary on Nedergaard and Lupyan (2024). Psychological Science, 09567976251335583. Laukkonen, R. E., & Slagter, H. A. (2021). From many to (n) one: Meditation and the plasticity of the predictive mind. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 128, 199-217. | |||
| Episode 223: The Hopeless Dream of Being (Bergman's "Persona") | 19 Oct 2021 | 01:28:28 | |
David and Tamler dive into Ingmar Bergman's 1966 masterpiece Persona, a film about two (?) women, Elisabet, a famous stage actress who has stopped speaking, and Alma the chatty young nurse assigned to care for her at an island cottage. What happens when the roles we play as parents, spouses, friends, and colleagues start to feel like dishonest performances, an endless series of desperate lies? Can we escape to an inner sanctum of truth and authenticity? Or is that putting on another mask, playing yet another part, telling a different set of lies? We offer some tentative interpretations of this rich and baffling film. Get that boy a normal sized sheet! Plus we share some thoughts about the Chappelle special… Sponsored By:
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| Episode 222: Choosing Sartre for All Mankind | 05 Oct 2021 | 01:37:49 | |
David and Tamler don black turtlenecks and light up a couple of Gauloises to talk about Jean Paul Sartre's classic essay "Existentialism is a Humanism." Why are choices so fundamental to our experience? What does Sartre mean when he says that "existence precedes essence"? Why does he try to shoehorn universalizability into a view that's clearly hostile to it? Plus, how much free time is good for you? Is that even the right question? Sponsored By:
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| Episode 221: Granite Cocks vs Robot Overlords | 21 Sep 2021 | 01:50:55 | |
David and Tamler wind their way through the long-requested "Meditations on Moloch" by Scott Alexander, a comprehensive account of the coordination problems (personified by Allan Ginsberg's demon-entity Moloch) that lead to human misery and values tossed out the window. Does Alexander's rationalist conception of human nature ignore the work of VBW favorites like Joe Henrich and Robert Frank? Is he a little too friendly to the neo-social Darwinism view of some guy named Nick Land? And oh no, why does he have to go transhumanist at the end?! Plus, we talk about the unique comic vision of Norm Macdonald and why we loved him. Sponsored By:
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| Episode 220: On Your Marx | 07 Sep 2021 | 01:50:45 | |
In honor of Labor Day, David and Tamler dive into two works by Karl Marx - "The Communist Manifesto" and "Estranged Labor." What is Marx's theory of historical change? Why does capitalism produce an alienated workforce? What role does philosophy play in maintaining the status quo? Plus, fraudulent data in a famous study about dishonesty and former guest Dan Ariely is under investigation. Sponsored By:
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| Episode 219: Multiplied by Mirrors | 17 Aug 2021 | 01:45:10 | |
It's a Borges bonanza! David and Tamler dive into two stories: "Emma Zunz" and "Borges and I." The first seems like a straightforward daughter revenge story (Tamler's favorite genre), but Borges being Borges there are layers of doubt and fuzziness about what exactly is going on. "Borges and I" may be less than a page, but it has us questioning our identity, the relationship between private and public selves, and what happens to when you release a work out into the world. Plus, back to social psychology. Are you a picky eater? Then people think you suck at sex. We are not sure who is recording this podcast. Sponsored By:
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| Episode 218: ...But You Can't Hide (Michael Haneke's "Caché") | 03 Aug 2021 | 01:59:24 | |
David and Tamler go deep on Michael Haneke's unnerving psychological thriller Caché. An upper middle class French intellectual couple receives mysterious videotapes of the exterior of their house, forcing them to confront their past and present. Can we run from our history? Or will it always find a way to break through? And who's sending the tapes? Plus, VBW does conceptual analysis - what does it mean to be "corny"? Sponsored By:
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| Episode 217: Dropping Paradigms (Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions") | 20 Jul 2021 | 02:06:00 | |
David and Tamler hit the books and cram for their beloved Patreon listener-selected episode – this time on Thomas Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions." David thinks Kuhn is a great sociologist of science but recoils at the relativistic tenor of the final chapters. Tamler loves anything that makes David recoil. Plus, should we give more weight to the advice of people on their deathbed? Or should we nod politely and get back to working for that promotion… Sponsored By:
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| Episode 216: Oral Judgments | 06 Jul 2021 | 01:40:56 | |
We've promised you for years that we would do an episode on apologies and never got to it until today. So we both want to say from the bottom of our hearts: we're sorry. We recognize we've let so many of our listeners down, and we feel just awful if you were offended by the delay. We hope this episode will be just one small step towards regaining your trust. Plus, of all the evo-psych articles in the world, this one might be the evo-psychiest: "Oral Sex as Infidelity Detection." Sponsored By:
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| Episode 215: Touch My Pink Monkey | 22 Jun 2021 | 01:37:52 | |
David and Tamler argue about the philosopher L.A. Paul's ideas on "transformative experiences" – big life decisions that will change you and your values so much that our normal decision-making models break down. Tamler is fully on board and hopeful for philosophy, but David sees Paul's view as a threat to his precious rationality. Plus, we tackle the greatest existential threat to human civilization in history: critical race theory. Why are people on all sides so intent on misunderstanding it? Sponsored By:
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| Episode 214: You Shouldn't Feel Bad (Except You Should) | 08 Jun 2021 | 01:20:42 | |
Tamler welcomes social psychologist David Pizarro of Cornell University to the podcast to talk about his recent article (along with Raj Anderson, Shaun Nichols, and Rachana Kamtekar) on "false-positive emotions." When agents commit accidental harms, we typically tell them they shouldn't feel too guilty, it's not their fault, it was out of their control, and so forth. At the same time, we don't want them to let themselves off the hook right away either. They shouldn't feel guilty, but also they…should. What's behind these mixed messages and attitudes? Are we looking for information about their character? What kind? Plus, a new algorithm can predict someone's political orientation with 72% accuracy based on one profile photo (either from Facebook or a dating app). Is Big Brother around the corner? Sponsored By:
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| Episode 309: Dissolving Into the One | 27 May 2025 | 01:23:21 | |
David and Tamler heed the call to journey into the realm of Joseph Campbell. What are the unifying elements shared by myths and religions across time and culture? Does myth give us a portal into the hidden cosmic forces of the universe? Can it take us into depths of our unconscious and the nature of our own being? What is the legacy of Campbell's thought today? We're Experts in Fascism. We're Leaving the U.S. | NYT Opinion [youtube.com] Joseph Campbell [wikipedia.org] The Hero with a Thousand Faces [wikipedia.org] The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell [amazon.com affiliate link] | |||
| Episode 213: What Is It Like To Be a Robot Fish Man? (with Ted Chiang) | 25 May 2021 | 01:57:49 | |
We've done deep dives on three of his stories, and now THE MAN HIMSELF, multi-award winning science fiction author Ted Chiang, joins us to explore the post-apocalyptic world of the video-game SOMA. You play Simon Jarrett, a man who goes for a brain scan in Toronto and wakes up a 100 years later in an underwater research facility, the last remaining hope to preserve human consciousness from extinction. Pizarro confronts his worst nightmare, a first-person experience of stepping into a transporter-style scenario. We talk about how video games can make philosophical problems come alive, what "fission-cases" tell us about personal identity (Tamler's note: this really should count as our Parfit episode), what it's like to be conscious without a body, the problem with thought experiments, and lots more. Plus, a new evo-psych study on why bullshitting is adaptive – convince people you're smart and save energy while you do it! Special Guest: Ted Chiang. Sponsored By:
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| Episode 212: Follow Your Nose (with Yoel Inbar) | 11 May 2021 | 01:45:11 | |
Canada's leading Russian literature scholar Yoel Inbar joins us to try to make sense of Gogol's 1836 short story "The Nose." A nose goes missing from a Russian official's face and winds up in the barber's loaf of bread. A few hours later, the nose has rocketed up the social hierarchy and denies his connection to the official. What's going on? Is Madame Alexandra Grigorievna up to something? Plus we can't say how but we got access to submitted abstracts for the new Journal of Controversial Ideas. We read a few of them in the opening segment, and let's just say this journal is living up to its name. Special Guest: Yoel Inbar. Sponsored By:
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| Episode 211: To Live and Die in Kurosawa's "Ikiru" | 20 Apr 2021 | 01:46:03 | |
"Sometimes I think of my death," Akira Kurosawa said, "I think of ceasing to be...and it is from these thoughts that Ikiru came." David and Tamler explore what it means to truly live in Kurosawa's 1952 masterpiece about a bureaucrat in postwar Japan who learns that he will die from stomach cancer within six months. Plus a new study provides evidence for what every pet owner knows: dogs get jealous. And a shocking revelation about Harvard legends Kohlberg, Rawls, and Nozick. Sponsored By:
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| Episode 210: The Priming of the American Mind (with Jesse Singal) | 06 Apr 2021 | 02:01:09 | |
Journalist, podcaster, and rapper Jesse Singal joins us to talk about his new book The Quick Fix, positive psychology (scam?), cancel culture in the media and academia (overblown?), Substack incentives, and lots more. Plus David and Tamler argue about the epistemology of ghosts. Special Guest: Jesse Singal. Sponsored By:
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| Episode 209: Basic Instincts (with Paul Bloom) | 23 Mar 2021 | 01:36:57 | |
VBW favorite Paul Bloom joins us to talk about William James' account of instinct and its parallels to the nativism/empiricism debates in developmental psychology today. Also discussed: Richard Dawkins trolling philosophy, the ghost in Tamler's kitchen, and why William James' 130 year-old writings make psychologists sad about the present state of their field. PLUS - do you wish you were closer to your non-romantic partners? Well, strap on your gloves, grab a washcloth, it's time for exactly 15 minutes of orgasmic meditation. Note: we had to use backup audio for Tamler and Paul in the second segment. The sound quality isn't as good as normal, sorry about that. Special Guest: Paul Bloom. Sponsored By:
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| Episode 208: Dream Theater | 09 Mar 2021 | 01:42:13 | |
We’ve always had nothing but praise for neuroscientists and their work, and today is no exception. We talk about a fantastically rich and ambitious essay by Erik Hoel that offers a theory of dreams and connects it to storytelling, the self, and the importance of maintaining a distinction between art and entertainment. So eat shit MCU - Martin Scorsese was right! [ed. note: this statement not endorsed by David]. Plus another first segment wasted on Twitter culture war nonsense. Does adapting an MLK quote trivialize the civil rights movement? And it’s Adam and Eve, not gender fluid Potato Head and another gender fluid Potato Head. Or something. We don’t fucking know. Sponsored By:
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| Episode 207: Sometimes a Paper Tray is Just a Paper Tray | 23 Feb 2021 | 01:28:36 | |
David and Tamler wander through the maze of Room 237, the great documentary by Rodney Ascher about five people and their views about what Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" is really about. When do interpretations become conspiracy theories? Why does Ascher never show us the faces of the interpreters? What is about Kubrick that invites obsessive and confident theorizing on the meaning of his movies? Sometimes a paper tray is just a paper tray. Or is it? Plus Tamler vents about the winter storm and mass power outages in Texas last week… Sponsored By:
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| Episode 206: Angel Chasing (Ted Chiang's "Hell is the Absence of God") | 09 Feb 2021 | 01:37:53 | |
David and Tamler return to the TCU (Ted Chiang Universe) to talk about his short story "Hell is the Absence of God." How would we behave if we had unequivocal proof of God, heaven, hell, and angels? Would that answer our questions about meaning and purpose and justice? Or would those same questions reappear in a different guise? Plus, the hard problem of breakfast, Jewish Space Lasers, and more… Sponsored By:
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| Episode 205: Making Your Nervous System Your Ally (William James on "Habit") | 26 Jan 2021 | 01:32:58 | |
Ever wonder why you're still listening to VBW all of these years? Or why you check your phone 50 times a day? Or why you put on your pants the same way every morning? (If you still wear pants these days.) David and Tamler talk about William James' essay on habits, why they're so powerful, and how you can make your nervous system your ally instead of your enemy. Plus, a shocking new neuroscience study reveals that we remember and share funny stories more than boring ones. Sponsored By:
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| Episode 204: Happy Freedom Day! (with Lauren Anderson) | 12 Jan 2021 | 01:36:42 | |
The legendary Houston Ballet dancer Lauren Anderson joins us to talk about the Atlanta Episode "Juneteenth" (Season 1, Episode 9), a hilarious exploration of race, class, identity, and carrying around your sister's underwear. But first David and Tamler share some thoughts on the topic on everyone's mind right now…Bean Dad. Oh yeah and the Capitol riot. Pour yourself a Hennessy or some Emancipation Eggnog and enjoy. Special Guest: Lauren Anderson. Sponsored By:
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| Bonus Episode: Va Va Boom (Robert Aldrich's "Kiss Me Deadly") | 20 May 2025 | 01:14:48 | |
We kick off our Bonus "Noir Summer" series with Robert Aldrich's "Kiss Me Deadly" (1956). While the rest of the bonus series will be for Patreon subscribers only, the first is free to all. | |||
| Episode 203: Gorgias, Tell Me Something I Don't Know (with Agnes Callard) | 22 Dec 2020 | 01:34:58 | |
Philosopher Agnes Callard joins us to talk about Plato and his dialogue the Gorgias. Why did Plato write dialogues – are they the best way of presenting arguments? Is Plato cheating when characters contradict themselves by making dumb concessions, or is this part of his method - inviting readers to participate in the debates? Why does the Gorgias end on such a sour note, with Socrates giving long speeches after saying that long speeches shouldn't be allowed? Plus we talk about Agnes' recent op-ed in the New York Times, and David and Tamler tackle a new construct: The Tendency for Interpersonal Victimhood. Sponsored By:
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| Episode 202: Not as It Ought to Be (H.P. Lovecraft's "The Colour Out of Space") | 08 Dec 2020 | 01:31:36 | |
A phosphorescence casts a pale sickly glow on David and Tamler as talk only in verbs and pronouns about H.P. Lovecraft's 1927 story "The Colour Out of Space." What is this creature or substance that has color only by analogy, that spreads through earth and water driving man, animal, and vegetation into a madness, not as they ought to be…? What gives the story its terrifying power and its avenues for endless interpretation? Plus, does meditation make you a spiritual narcissist? We talk about a new social psychology article that even David can't defend. Sponsored By:
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| Episode 201: Very Bad Lizard People | 24 Nov 2020 | 01:56:52 | |
David and Tamler dive deep into the psychology and epistemology of conspiracy theories. What makes people so prone to believe in complex malevolent plots that require meticulous organization and utter secrecy at the highest levels of power? Are some conspiracies like [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] more plausible than [REDACTED] give [REDACTED] for? And what about [REDACTED]? Do [REDACTED] mislead [REDACTED] by making us think [REDACTED]? How are we supposed to [REDACTED]? Plus, we do some navel gazing, reflecting on what we love and have struggled with over 200+ hundred episodes of [REDACTED]. Sponsored By:
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| Episode 200: Our 200th Episode Spectactular | 03 Nov 2020 | 01:44:36 | |
David and Tamler celebrate their 200th episode with bourbon and a return to their potty humor roots. First we talk about holes, zoom dicks, and the election. Then we relitigate our bitter debate (from episode 45) over gender, toys, and balanced play diets. Have we matured over all these years? Well it's not for us to say… Sponsored By:
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| Episode 199: When Philosophy Goes Sideways | 20 Oct 2020 | 01:39:44 | |
David and Tamler check out some recent work in metaphysics and applied ethics. Does playing a Nina Simone song sideways show that Einstein was wrong about spacetime? Does a Dali painting nailed to the wall backwards have intrinsic value (see figure 1)? Is childhood bad for children? Do you have to be a child before you're an adult? Are we kidding? Is this a joke? We don't know but don't play this podcast sideways or it may lose its aesthetic value. Sponsored By:
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| Episode 198: Is Mental Illness a Myth? (Thomas Szasz's "The Myth of Mental Illness") | 06 Oct 2020 | 01:32:16 | |
David and Tamler explore Thomas Szasz's provocative and still relevant 1961 book "The Myth of Mental Illness," the topic selected by our beloved Patreon supporters. When we think of mental disorders as "diseases," are we making a category mistake? Are we turning ordinary "problems in living" into pathologies that must be treated (with pills or psychoanalysis)? Does this model rob us of our autonomy in direct or indirect ways? Plus, with VBW 200 only 2 episodes away we give our top 3 dream guests, and David dons his punditry cap to break down the first presidential debate, which already seems like six months ago. Sponsored By:
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| Episode 197: The Long Slow Death That Is Life | 22 Sep 2020 | 01:52:50 | |
The psychologist Yoel Inbar has always tried to imbue his work with a sort of interiority, and now he joins us for a deep dive into Charlie Kaufman's baffling and distressing new film "I'm Thinking of Ending Things." Why does Jessie Buckley's name and career keep changing? What's going on with the dog? Why are the parents unstuck in time? Don't worry you'll get home, we have tire chains in the trunk. Plus, aliens, open science, and the illuminati. It's all connected. Special Guest: Yoel Inbar. Sponsored By:
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| Episode 196: The Loneliest Paper in Philosophy | 08 Sep 2020 | 01:49:59 | |
She's beautiful, smart, funny, and head over heels in love with you. There's only one problem – she's from a possible world, not the actual one. What we thought would be a funny opening segment idea turns into a semi-serious discussion of Neil Sinhababu's 2008 article "Possible Girls." Plus David and Tamler share some thoughts on teaching in normal times and today. Sponsored By:
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| Episode 195: Jesus on Trial (Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov") | 25 Aug 2020 | 01:55:33 | |
David and Tamler dive into the most celebrated and philosophically rich scenes in Dostoevsky's masterpiece "The Brothers Karamazov." Alyosha gets in the middle of a rock-fight, Ivan Karamazov makes a devastating moral case against God, and the Grand Inquisitor convicts Jesus Christ of heresy against the church. (Note: this segment is the second of an upcoming five episode VBW miniseries on The Brothers Karamazov – more info on that to come very soon!) Plus one of us has a milestone birthday... [Special note from Peez: Stick around after the closing music to hear VBWs most frequent guests Paul Bloom and Yoel Inbar talk to David about Tamler behind his back.] Sponsored By:
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| Episode 194: God Has No Mother (with Chris Matheson) | 11 Aug 2020 | 01:53:34 | |
David and Tamler welcome special guest Chris Matheson - co-writer of the "Bill and Ted" movies and author of "The Story of God" and "The Buddha's Story" - to talk about religion, immortality, comedy, Freud, and why the secret ingredient to good satire is love. Plus David and Tamler do a conceptual analysis of stoner movies and discuss their favorites. Special Guest: Chris Matheson. Sponsored By:
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| Episode 308: The Gray Man who Dreamed (Borges' "Shakespeare's Memory") | 06 May 2025 | 01:14:50 | |
David and Tamler return to their happy place and talk about two pieces by JL Borges – the story "Shakespeare's Memory" and the [essay/story/poem/literary sketch??] "Everything and Nothing." What would it mean to have the memory of a supreme artist like Shakespeare? Would it help us understand his work, or how he was able to produce masterpiece after masterpiece What does it mean to have our own memories? How does all this connect to our sense of self? Plus cancel culture comes to Cornell, but don't worry it's about that one thing it's fine to cancel people over. Cornell President's NYT Op-Ed March 31, 2025 "Universities like the one I run aren't afraid to let people argue" Kehlani speaks out after Cornell cancels her Slope Day appearance over 'hateful views' [cnycentral.com] Cornell Musicians Oppose Kehlani's Cancellation [cornellsun.com] Shakespeare's Memory by Jorge Luis Borges [wikipedia.org] Everything and Nothing by Jorge Luis Borges [dilipsimeon.blogspot.com] | |||
| Episode 193: Free Wanting (Frankfurt's "Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person") | 21 Jul 2020 | 01:28:16 | |
David and Tamler want to go old school and discuss a classic Frankfurt paper on free will. But do they want to want that? Are they free to want what they want to want? Are they free to will what they want to will or to have the will they want? And if that's not Dr. Seuss enough for you, shouting "FUCK" increases pain tolerance but what about shouting "TWIZPIPE"? Sponsored By:
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| Episode 192: Postmodern Wet Dreams (Borges' "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote") | 07 Jul 2020 | 01:36:54 | |
David and Tamler dive into "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote," a very funny Borges story that also raises deep questions about authorship, reading, and interpretation. What would it mean for the same text to be written by two different authors more than three hundred years apart? Is this story the post-modernist manifesto that literary critics like Roland Barthes believed it to be? Or is the narrator in the story just a delusional sycophant, a victim of Menard's practical joke – and the story by extension, a practical joke by Borges on the post-modernist movement to come? Plus, My Little Pony fans finally confront their Nazi problem. Sponsored By:
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| Episode 191: All the Rage | 23 Jun 2020 | 01:36:57 | |
A lotta anger out there right now, but does it do more harm than good? Is anger counterproductive, an obstacle to progress? And even when it is, can anger be appropriate anway? We talk about two excellent articles by the philosopher Amia Srinivasan criticizing anger's critics. Plus we express some counterproductive anger of our own at the IDWs response to the protests. Sponsored By:
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| Episode 190: We Pod. We Pod-Cast. We Podcast. (Frankfurt's "On Bullshit") | 09 Jun 2020 | 02:01:27 | |
David and Tamler talk about police violence, the protests, and Harry Frankfurt's journal article turned bestseller "On Bullshit." Plus we dive into a comic masterpiece of late capitalism: the University of Oregon's brand guidelines. Sponsored By:
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| Episode 189: The Anality of Evil (Freud's "Civilization and its Discontents") | 26 May 2020 | 01:37:42 | |
David and Tamler dive into Sigmund Freud's world of unconscious drives, death instincts, and thwarted incestuous urges in his classic text "Civilization and its Discontents." If society has made so much progress, why are human beings perpetually dissatisfied? Can religion help us or is it a big part of the problem? What's really going on when you piss on a fire to put it out? Also: how seriously should we take Freud today given some of his wackier ideas? And is he a psychologist, a philosopher, or something else entirely? Plus we select the finalists from a huge list of suggested topics for the Patreon listener-selected episode! Sponsored By:
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| Episode 188: Conceptual Mummies (Nietzsche's "Twilight of the Idols") | 12 May 2020 | 01:42:25 | |
Socrates was ugly and tired of life, so he made a tyrant of reason. Philosophers are mummies who hate the body and the senses. Reason is a tricky old woman. Morality is a misunderstanding. Kant is a sneaky Christian. And don't even get Nietzsche started on "free will" or the "self" - just excuse for priests to punish people, a hangman's metaphysics. David and Tamler dive into Friedrich Nietzsche's Twilight of the Idols, a fascinating set of aphorisms brimming with passion, provocation, questions without answers. Plus, a professor is sanctioned for sex talk with his students - fair or coddling foul? Sponsored By:
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| Episode 187: More Zither | 21 Apr 2020 | 01:40:38 | |
With a global pandemic and a collapsing economy upon us, it's time to ask ourselves some tough questions. Sex robots or platonic love robots - what are you more excited for? If you walked in on your partner with one of them, which would make you more jealous? Are you male or female? Can evolutionary psychology explain sex-linked preferences for sensitive, empathetic Alexas? We then dive into the shadowy echo-filled streets of post-war Vienna - and talk about one of our favorite movies, a true noir classic: The Third Man. Links: | |||
| Episode 186: The One with Peter Singer | 07 Apr 2020 | 01:29:41 | |
The legendary Peter Singer joins us to talk about effective altruism, AI, animal welfare, esoteric morality, future Tuesday indifference, and more. I mean, it's Peter freakin' Singer - what more do we need to say? Plus, the explosive 'one or two spaces after a period' debate: has science resolved it? Special Guest: Peter Singer. Sponsored By:
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| Episode 185: The Devil's Playground | 24 Mar 2020 | 01:25:00 | |
David and Tamler begin by talking about the question on everyone's mind right now – are we obligated to be pansexual? Then, since many of us have more free time on our hands these days, we thought it might be a good idea to revisit Bertrand Russell's essay (published in Harper's Magazine) "In Praise of Idleness." How did workaholism become the norm? Why do we see working insanely long hours as a virtue, a moral duty rather than a necessity? Would more leisure make us more fulfilled and creative or just bored? We also discuss Daniel Markovits' book "The Meritocracy Trap" - when life is a non-stop hyper-competitive grind from preschool to retirement even among the elites, is anyone happy? Sponsored By:
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| Bonus Episode: Top 5 Deadwood Characters | 17 Mar 2020 | 01:26:37 | |
Here's something that might help with the Coronavirus blues: we're releasing our latest Patreon bonus episode for everyone. In this (unedited) episode, Tamler and David talk about their Top 5 Deadwood characters. If you've seen the show, let us know if you agree or disagree, or if we should go fuck ourselves. And if you haven't watched it yet, you might have some time on your hands for the next month or two - there's almost no better way to spend it than watching Deadwood. Enjoy! | |||
| Episode 307: What's in the BOX? | 22 Apr 2025 | 01:16:37 | |
David and Tamler talk about two famous puzzles that for different reasons have bedeviled the rationalist community – The Monty Hall Problem and Newcomb's "paradox." Why is it so hard for people to see that a 66% chance of winning a car is better than a 33% chance? Why do famous mathematicians struggle with this problem? And David and Tamler split on the Newcomb case – can you guess which one of us is the one boxer? Plus since we're basically a TV recap podcast now, some thoughts on White Lotus Season 3. The White Lotus [imdb.com] Monty Hall Problem [wikipedia.org] Numberphile on the Monty Hall Problem [youtube.com] Newcomb's "Paradox" [wikipedia.org] Nozick, R. (1969). Newcomb's problem and two principles of choice. In Essays in honor of carl g. hempel: A tribute on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday (pp. 114-146). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. | |||
| Episode 184: Tainted Glove | 10 Mar 2020 | 01:25:15 | |
David and Tamler start off talking about the infamous Richard Dawkins eugenics tweet. What does it mean for eugenics to "work"? And given the sensitive nature and horrific history of eugenics, is it wrong to raise the topic even if you're just focused on the science? Hey we're just asking questions, man… Then, huge baseball fan that he is, David insists that we talk about the massive Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal and cheating in sports more generally. When is bending the rules just part of the game ("if you ain't cheatin' you ain't tryin'") - and when is it really wrong? Why does the use of technology make cheating seem more dishonorable? Why weren't the Astros players punished since they were the driving force behind the scandal? And why are apologies so hard on twitter? Sponsored By:
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| Episode 183: Accept the Mystery (with Paul Bloom) | 25 Feb 2020 | 01:39:20 | |
VBW favorite Paul Bloom takes a short break from his Sam Harris duties to help us break down the Coen Brothers' ode to uncertainty, A Serious Man. Does inaction have consequences? Can you understand the cat but not the math? Why are there Hebrew letters carved into the back of a goy's teeth? Dybbuk or no Dybbuk? Why does God make us feel the questions if he's not gonna give us any answers? Plus, Paul defends the psych establishment against critiques from the podcast peons at Two Psychologists Four Beers and Very Bad Wizards. Special Guest: Paul Bloom. Sponsored By:
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| Episode 182: The Paper That Launched a Thousand Twitter Wars (With Yoel Inbar) | 11 Feb 2020 | 01:58:11 | |
Podcasting legend Yoel Inbar (from Two Psychologists Four Beers) joins us to break down Tal Yarkoni's "The Generalizability Crisis," the paper that launched a thousand Twitter wars. Psychologists make verbal claims about the world, then conduct studies to test these claims - but are the studies actually providing evidence for those claims? Do psychological experiments generalize beyond the the strict confinments of the lab? Are psychologists even using the right statistical models to be able to claim that they do? Does this debate boil down to fundamental differences in the philosophy of science - induction, Popper, and hypothetico-deductive models and so forth? Will David and Tamler ever be able to talk about a psych study again without getting into a fight? Plus ahead of tonight's New Hampshire primary, expert political analysis about what went down in Iowa. Special Guest: Yoel Inbar. Sponsored By:
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