Shows / Very Bad Wizards
Very Bad Wizards
Very Bad Wizards is a podcast featuring a philosopher (Tamler Sommers) and a psychologist (David Pizarro), who share a love for ethics, pop culture, and cognitive science, and who have a marked inability to distinguish sacred from profane. Each podcast includes discussions of moral philosophy, recent work on moral psychology and neuroscience, and the overlap between the two.
Episodes
Very Bad WizardsThe Lotus Eaters Episode 13: An Odyssey Dream Cast [unlocked]
In the final episode of The Lotus Eaters, Tamler and David make their casting decisions (any actors across history) for their dream "Odyssey" film. We then end…
- Very Bad Wizards
Episode 343: Culture and the Concept of a Person
How would you a describe a friend or a co-worker? Would you list their personality traits like generous, aggressive, principled, or stubborn? Or would you give…
Very Bad WizardsThe Lotus Eaters Episode 12: Reunited in Ithaca [unlocked]
As foretold in the prophecies, Tamler and David unite in Ithaca to cover the final chapters (23 & 24) of The Odyssey, in which Odysseus passes Penelope's final…
Very Bad WizardsThe Lotus Eaters Episode 11: Cleaning House [unlocked]
Tamler and David discuss books 20, 21, & 22 of The Odyssey. Beginning with omens and portents and ending with merciless slaughter (with a bow contest in…
- Very Bad Wizards
Episode 342: A Boy's Best Friend (Hitchcock's "Psycho")
David and Tamler steal some of Laurie Santos' podcast money (she'll never miss it), drive to LA, and pull over in the rain to spend the night in the Bates…
Very Bad WizardsThe Lotus Eaters Episode 10: Like-Minded [unlocked]
Tamler and Dave devote a full episode to Book 19 of The Odyssey. In what is one of the most emotionally intense chapters of the story so far, Odysseus…
Very Bad WizardsThe Lotus Eaters Episode 9: An Ode to Argos [unlocked]
Tamler and David discuss The Odyssey books 17 & 18, in which Telemachus and Odysseus, back at home, continue their deception and put everyone to the test…
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Episode 341: Psychology Ranked (With Paul Bloom)
David and Tamler welcome Paul Bloom back to the show for a definitive ranking of classic psychology experiments. Will the shocking results of the Milgram…
Very Bad WizardsThe Lotus Eaters Episode 8: Home and Homelessness [unlocked]
In this episode, Tamler and David discuss The Odyssey Books 15 & 16, in which father and son (and father figure and son) are reunited, and in which the…
Very Bad WizardsThe Lotus Eaters Episode 7: Lying Odysseus [unlocked]
Tamler and David discuss Books 13 & 14 of The Odyssey. Odysseus finally makes it to Ithaca and meets up with Athena, gets a disguise, and has a chat with his…
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Episode 340: The Sublime Folly of Hope
Why do baseball players have so many superstitious rituals compared to athletes in other sports? How does this relate to the magic rituals of the Trobriand…
Very Bad WizardsThe Lotus Eaters Episode 6: Psyches [unlocked]
David and Tamler discuss The Odyssey's iconic books 11 & 12, in which our hero visits the ghosts of the dead, hears the call of the sirens, and survives a…
Very Bad WizardsThe Lotus Eaters Episode 5: Circe, Cyclops, and Psychedelics (Oh My!) [unlocked]
Tamler and David discuss the action-packed books 9 & 10 of The Odyssey, in which Odysseus makes some questionable choices, the crew encounters cannibal giants…
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Episode 339: Is Analytic Philosophy Truthmaxxing?
Since well before the big bang, people have been bitching about Tamler's chosen field. We talk about Bernard Williams' (qualified) defense of analytic…
Very Bad WizardsThe Lotus Eaters Episode 4: I Am Odysseus [unlocked]
Tamler and David discuss books 7 & 8 of The Odyssey--while at Alcinous' palace in Phaeacia, Odysseus listens to poetry, plays some games, cries some more, and…
Very Bad WizardsThe Lotus Eaters Episode 3: The Halfway House to Humanity [unlocked]
Tamler and David discuss books 5 & 6 of The Odyssey, where we follow Odysseus as he finally leaves Calypso's Island and returns to the realm of the human. We…
Very Bad WizardsThe Lotus Eaters Episode 2: Intangible as Wind [unlocked]
Welcome to The Lotus Eaters! This is part 2 of our 12 part series on Homer's Odyssey that will be released every Thursday. The series was supported by our…
Very Bad WizardsThe Lotus Eaters Episode 1: The Journey Begins [unlocked]
Welcome to The Lotus Eaters! This is part 1 of our 12 part series on Homer's Odyssey that will be released every Thursday. The series was supported by our…
- Very Bad Wizards
Episode 338: The Lotus Eaters (Nolan's "The Odyssey")
Dropping this a week early - after completing a 12-part series on Homer's Odyssey for our beloved Patreon supporters, we now dive into Christopher Nolan's…
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Episode 337: First Contact? (Tarkovsky's "Solaris")
First it was a book, then it was a groundbreaking movie… that's right it's Solaris. After having discussed the Stanislaw Lem novel in the previous episode…
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Episode 336: That Oceanic Feeling (Stanisław Lem's "Solaris")
David and Tamler tackle the first half of the VBW Madness topic tournament winner, Stanislaw Lem's science fiction masterpiece, Solaris, about a mysterious…
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Episode 335: The Wright Stuff
The great Robert Wright returns to the podcast to talk about his new book The God Test: Artificial Intelligence and Our Coming Cosmic Reckoning. We debate the…
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Episode 334: Let's Get Metaphysical
What are the legitimate ways to inquire about the nature of the universe? We have science, metaphysics, phenomenological inquiry, but what about mystical and…
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Episode 333: P-hacking the Mind
David and Tamler do another tier ranking--this time on philosophical thought experiments, so as not to further alienate our chemistry-adjacent listeners. We…
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Episode 332: Talking to Myself ("The Other" by Jorge Luis Borges)
David and Tamler talk about Jorge Luis Borges' disorienting short story "The Other." A 70-year-old Borges sits on a bench by the Charles River and who should…
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Episode 331: Who's Your Law Daddy? (Plato's "Crito")
In another Back 2 Basics episode, David and Tamler talk about Plato's "Crito," a dialogue that takes place two days before Socrates' death by hemlock. His…
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Episode 330: A Fact-Based Podcast (Gogol's "The Overcoat")
David and Tamler return to the strange world of Nikolai Gogol and discuss his absurdist masterpiece "The Overcoat," a story that both calls for and steadfastly…
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Episode 329: Why We Suffer
David and Tamler return to the work of Richard Shweder and colleagues, focusing this time on his foundational paper "The "Big Three" of Morality (Autonomy…
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Episode 328: Weapons Free
David and Tamler cross the border into Denis Villeneuve's taut and propulsive thriller Sicario, the story of an FBI agent who gets pulled into a task force…
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Episode 327: You Ain't So Smart (Flannery O'Connor's "Good Country People")
David and Tamler return to the Southern Gothic well and talk about Flannery O'Connor's short story masterpiece "Good Country People." A nihilistic atheist…
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Episode 326: The Most Important Episode of Your (Academic) Life
Are you a college student or about to be one? Do you have friends or family in college? This is the most important episode of your life. David and Tamler do…
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Episode 325: It Is Happening Again
David and Tamler return to Mircea Eliade's The Sacred and Profane and discuss the chapter "Sacred Time and Myths." How does viewing time as circular give us a…
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Episode 324: Irruption of the Sacred
David and Tamler consecrate their podcast with a discussion of "The Sacred and the Profane" by Mircea Eliade. We focus on the first chapter on sacred spaces…
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Episode 323: Debate Me 'Phro
David and Tamler dive into Plato's Euthyphro, part of our intermittent Back 2 Basics series. A young cocksure priest, confident in his holiness, bumps into…
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Episode 322: A Theater of Simultaneous Possibilities (William James' "The Stream of Thought")
David and Tamler return to William James' monumental "Principles of Psychology", this time wading through his famous chapter "The Stream of Thought." We talk…
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Episode 321: The Journey Begins (Plus Blind Ranking Philosophers)
David and Tamler begin their long journey home to Homer's Odyssey, the tale of king Odysseus' 10 year journey home after the Trojan war (maybe the greatest…
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Episode 320: Forgive Me (Kafka's "A Hunger Artist")
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…
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Episode 319: The Shadow of the Object (Freud's "Mourning and Melancholia")
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…
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Episode 318: A PTA Meeting
David and Tamler share some brief thoughts about Paul Thomas Anderson's latest masterpiece One Battle After Another before going deep on his most underrated…
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Episode 317: For Shame
What is the psychology of shame? Is the experience of shame a human universal? How can we investigate the nature of shame across cultures? David and Tamler…
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Episode 316: A Four-Letter Man (Hemingway's "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber")
David and Tamler go big game hunting and explore their first Hemingway short story "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber." We dig into his characteristic…
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Episode 315: Ceaseless Striving (Schopenhauer's Pessimism)
David and Tamler tackle the topic chosen by our beloved Patreon supporters in the first VBW madness tournament – Schopenhauer. We discuss his essays "On the…
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Episode 314: The In-Betweeny Place
David and Tamler go long on McDonagh's 2008 masterpiece "In Bruges." We talk about the terrific performances and all the weighty themes - sin, guilt…
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Episode 313: The Spontaneous Eruption of Now
David and Tamler try to wrap their heads around the metaphysics of past and future via the Borges essay(s) "A New Refutation of Time." What does it mean to be…
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Episode 312: MechaSkeptic
David and Tamler return to David Hume's somewhat slippery brand of skepticism, this time focusing Chapter 12 of his Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding…
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Episode 311: The Way to Dusty Death (Shakespeare's "Macbeth")
David and Tamler screw their courage to the sticking place and talk about their first Shakespeare play – The Tragedy of Macbeth. Plus we select 16 topics for…
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Episode 310: Bayes, Brains, and Buddhists
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…
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Episode 309: Dissolving Into the One
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…
Very Bad WizardsBonus Episode: Va Va Boom (Robert Aldrich's "Kiss Me Deadly")
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…
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Episode 308: The Gray Man who Dreamed (Borges' "Shakespeare's Memory")
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…
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Episode 307: What's in the BOX?
David and Tamler talk about two famous puzzles that for different reasons have bedeviled the rationalist community – The Monty Hall Problem and Newcomb's…
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Episode 306: What to Expect When You're Expecting (David Lynch's "Eraserhead" with Barry Lam)
David and Tamler welcome Barry Lam back to the show. In the first segment we violate one of our own rules by talking about his new book "Fewer Rules, Better…
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Episode 305: Emile Is the Name of the Goat (with Paul Bloom)
VBW favorite Paul Bloom joins us to break down the Severance season finale and season 2 in general. We all agree that it's a much-needed return to form and…
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Episode 304: The Planes Don't Land
What has four thumbs and can effortlessly glide from the a priori to the a posteriori in a single episode? These guys. In the first segment we tackle a brand…
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Episode 303: Measure This
Everyone knows Tamler hates numbers but he's not the only one who worries about them. We talk about the philosopher C. Thi Nguyen's excellent paper "Value…
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Episode 302: Metaphysical Edging
What makes something weird? What makes something eerie? David and Tamler wander into Mark Fisher's The Weird and the Eerie to learn more about these concepts…
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Episode 301: Believing is Seeing?
It's Back 2 Basics: Psychology edition! Do coins look bigger to poor people? Do hills look steeper to people wearing heavy backpacks? What's the difference…
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Episode 300: If We Only Had A Brain
David and Tamler celebrate their 300th episode with a deep dive into the movie that inspired the podcast's title. Why is "The Wizard of Oz" the most…
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Episode 299: Oh the Humility!
David and Tamler wrap up the new year talking about intellectual virtues and Rachel Fraser's excellent essay "Against Humility." What is intellectual humility…
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Episode 298: Pass the Peace Pipe
Why do we punish people? How did our punishment practices evolve and what is their primary function? David and Tamler talk about a new paper that examines…