Very Bad Wizards
Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro
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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.
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1 day ago
Episode 269: Blood Meridian, Part 2: Death Hilarious
In part 2 of our journey into Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, Tamler and David talk about the kid and his form of resistance to the judge’s gleeful nihilism - does he (as the man) ultimately succumb at the end of the novel? We also discuss other notable members of the Glanton gang and go deep into several scenes, including the Comanche attack, Elrod’s sad fate, and the tarot reading from the family of traveling magicians.
Plus two studies on honesty tell you the best countries to lose your wallet and the U.S. states with a bunch of dirty Wordle cheaters.
Wormley, A. S., & Cohen, A. B. (2023). CHEAT: Wordle Cheating Is Related to Religiosity and Cultural Tightness. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 18(3), 702-709.
Cohn, A., Maréchal, M. A., Tannenbaum, D., & Zünd, C. L. (2019). Civic honesty around the globe. Science, 365(6448), 70-73.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Meridian
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Sep 12, 2023
Episode 268: Blood Meridian, Part 1
In part one of our two-part episode on Cormac McCarthy’s blood-soaked phantasmagorical 1985 masterpiece Blood Meridian, David and Tamler talk about the historical sources of the novel, the cosmic questions the book poses, the capriciousness of the near-constant violence, and the ethical neutrality of McCarthy’s prose. We also get into the religious imagery, the gnostic elements, and the judge – what to make of the judge?
Plus a new meta-analysis refutes the common wisdom that “opposites attract.” But did we ever really believe that anyway?
Thanks to our beloved Patreon supporters for selecting this topic for the listener selected episode!
https://phys.org/news/2023-08-evidence-opposites-dont.html
Evidence of correlations between human partners based on systematic reviews and meta-analyses of 22 traits and UK Biobank analysis of 133 traits | Nature Human Behaviour
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Meridian
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Aug 22, 2023
Episode 267: The Thickness of Reality
David and Tamler return to the work of old favorite William James and argue about the 6th lecture (inspired by the French philosopher Henri Bergson) of his 1909 book “A Pluralistic Universe.” James attacks the philosophical habit of elevating unchanging concepts over the continuous ever-changing flux that characterizes raw experience. Concepts, James argues, carves joints where there are none. But why does James trust pure perception (unmediated by concepts) as a true window into reality? Does he want us to return to the blooming buzzing confusion of our infancy? Is his mystical side superseding his pragmatism?
Plus, a new study on generosity after receiving a $10,000 windfall leads to a discussion of what we can interpret from null results, and lots more.
Dwyer, R. J., Brady, W. J., Anderson, C., & Dunn, E. W. (2023). Are People Generous When the Financial Stakes Are High?. Psychological Science, 09567976231184887.
A Pluralistic Universe by William James (Lecture VI)
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Aug 8, 2023
Episode 266: I Want to Half-Believe
Last December, with Argentina minutes away from a World Cup championship, friend of the show Yoel texted David “congratulations.” David was furious, and soon after (with less than 2 minutes left in extra time) France’s Mbappe scored a game-tying goal to send the match into penalty kicks. (Argentina ended up winning or Yoel might have become ‘former friend of the show.’) David says he doesn’t believe in jinxes at all but his actions suggest otherwise. We talk about a paper on this phenomenon of “half-belief”: when your behavior and your stated beliefs don’t align. Plus Tamler and David take a survey and discover that they lead radically different inner lives.
James Steele's Tweet
Caspi, A., Shmuel, E., & Chajut, E. (2023). A quantitative examination of half-belief in superstition. Journal of Individual Differences.
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Jul 25, 2023
Episode 265: Kekulé (Oh Yeah!)
The Summer of Cormac McCarthy continues – this time we dive into his one piece of non-fiction, the short essay “The Kekulé Problem.” How does our unconscious mind solve problems that conscious deliberation can’t crack? Why does it often work elliptically, in code, rather than giving us the answer directly in language? Is McCarthy right that the unconscious doesn’t trust language because it’s such a newcomer to the human brain?
Plus we select the finalists for our listener selected episode – thanks to our beloved patrons for all their terrific suggestions!
"The Kekulé Problem" by Cormac McCarthy
Pinker & Bloom 1990
Dijksterhuis & Strick 2016
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Jul 18, 2023
[BONUS] Overton Windows Episode 1: Israel and Palestine
A new mini-series with Tamler Sommers and Robert Wright on the range of politically acceptable discourse for a given topic and how this “Overton window” changes over time.
This episode is available for free for everyone, the remaining episodes will appear at the Very Bad Wizards Patreon and Robert Wright’s Nonzero Newsletter on Substack.
00:33 What is this new Overton Windows series about?
10:05 Tamler’s connections to Israel and Bob’s experiences there
19:22 What does Zionism mean in practice?
27:35 The shifting Overton window around Israel/Palestine
45:35 The heavy-handed response to the BDS movement
57:13 What the Israel/Palestine discourse says about Overton windows
1:02:09 So where should the boundaries be set
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Jul 11, 2023
Episode 264: The Rule You Follow (The Coen Brothers' "No Country for Old Men")
David and Tamler dive into the Coen brothers’ bleak and beautiful adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel "No Country for Old Men." What’s the underlying philosophy that animates Anton Chigurh? Does he have a code of any kind, or is he just a ghostly symbol of human brutality and a pitiless indifferent universe? Does he represent a new kind of evil or is Sheriff Bell just getting old? What elements, if any, in the film are more dream than reality?
And speaking of moral decline, a new Nature study claims that we have the illusory belief that people are getting worse - but can they really establish that it’s an illusion?
Mastroianni, A. M., & Gilbert, D. T. (2023). The illusion of moral decline. Nature, 1-8.
Mastroianni blog post about the illusion of moral decline
No Country for Old Men (movie) [wikipedia.org]
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Jun 27, 2023
Episode 263: Free Yoel
A VBW exclusive report! For years David and Tamler have been a little dismissive of fears about cancel culture in academia but now the SJWs have come for one of our own! We welcome back Yoel Inbar to talk about his experience applying for a position at UCLA psychology only to have his candidacy pulled at the last minute because of remarks he made on his podcast (!) about diversity statements. What does this mean for freedom of expression in academia? Should we advise our students and younger faculty to watch what they say when it comes to politically charged topics? Are they really going to start combing through podcast episodes now – is nothing sacred?
Plus another case of fraud in psychology comes to light courtesy of the Data Colada guys.
Data Colada post about Gino fraud
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Jun 13, 2023
Episode 262: Supposing Truth is a Woman (Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil")
David and Tamler dive into the first two parts of Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil which contain some of Nietzsche’s best drive-bys on philosophers like Plato, Descartes, the Stoics, Kant, and Hegel along with beliefs in free will, hard determinism, Christianity, morality, conceptual analysis, objectivity, and the value of truth. We argue about Nietzsche’s metaphilosophy and the implications of thinking that all philosophy amounts to a personal confession by the author.
Plus – have David’s prayers been answered? Does quantum theory entail that our consciousness outlives the death of our physical bodies? A blog post about a somewhat recent book says yes!
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May 30, 2023
Episode 261: Death of the Author
What’s the meaning of a work of art? Does the text mean just what the author intends it to mean? Does it matter what Kubrick and Arthur C. Clark thinks about the end of 2001? Or is the artist’s interpretation just one interpretation among many once the text is out in the world? We explore the question of authorial intent, and brace yourselves - this is just about as postmodern as David gets.
Plus – do we have what it takes to get an invite to the thought criminals club?
Links
The Party is Canceled [newyorker.com]
Was I Wrong About The Irishman? by Thomas Flight [youtube.com]
Authorial Intent [wikipedia.org]
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May 9, 2023
Episode 260: The Scream That Never Found a Voice (Murakami's "Sleep")
David and Tamler take the first excursion into the work of Haruki Murakami and talk about his short story “Sleep.” A thirty-year-old woman, the wife of a dentist and mother of a young boy, has a terrifying dream and when she wakes up, she no longer needs to sleep. This isn’t insomnia, it’s something else – she has never felt so alive, strong, and awake. She can swim laps for an hour in the afternoon and read Anna Karenina with perfect concentration until dawn. What is this condition? Is it real? What does it tell us about her past, her sense of self, her alienation from friends, family, and her role? This is a banger of a story folks, check it out.
Plus - if you had to say one word or sentence to distinguish yourself from an AI, what would you say?
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Links:
* One word Turing test
* The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami
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Apr 25, 2023
Episode 259: Losing Time ("Tár" with Paul Bloom)
The great Paul Bloom returns to the show to explore the many mysteries of Todd Field’s 2022 film “Tár.” Is it a ghost story? A movie about cancel culture and abuse of power? Guilt? Professional disappointment? The anxiety of getting old, losing touch with youth and reality? Reminds me of my freshman year at Smith…
Plus – Paul gets into trouble on Twitter for saying he’s mildly pro-trigger warnings in certain cases. But is he ignoring the science???
Special Guest: Paul Bloom.
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Links:
* Paul Bloom on Twitter: "I agree with this decision-nobody should force profs to use trigger warnings. But I'm mildly pro-TW and have used them in the past. It's often basic decency to warn…
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Apr 11, 2023
Episode 258: Mystic Peeza
David and Tamler talk about William James’ chapter on mysticism from his book "Varieties of Religious Experience." What defines a mystical experience? Why do they defy expression and yet feel like a state of knowledge, a glimpse into the window of some undiscovered aspect of reality? Is Tamler right that David has a little mystic inside of him just waiting to burst forth from his breast?
Plus – another edition of VBW does conceptual analysis and we’re sticking with ‘c’ words – this time the definitive theory of ‘creepy.’
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Links:
* The Varieties of Religious Experience - Wikipedia
* The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature by William James [Proje…
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Mar 28, 2023
Episode 257: Aural Fixation
David and Tamler deliver a PODCAST episode, one of many that comes from the INTERNET, that you’ll probably listen to through Air Pods or some other kind of WIRELESS HEADPHONES as you go about your day.
(Incidentally, the topic of the episode is Marshall McLuhan on how new forms of media profoundly shape our experience and identity, but in a way that makes us focus on the content of the specific medium and not the medium itself.)
Plus, can algorithms help to optimize our well-being, and Steven Pinker transforms his ideas into a new asset class of NFTs.
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Links:
* Best-Selling Author & Harvard Professor Steven Pinker Will Transform His Ideas into NFTs | Blockster
* I Asked an Algori…
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Mar 14, 2023
Episode 256: The Right to Punish?
Here’s an episode with something for both of us – a healthy serving of Kantian rationalism for David with a dollop of Marxist criminology for Tamler. We discuss and then argue about Jeffrie Murphy’s 1971 paper “Marxism and Retribution.” For Murphy, utilitarianism is non-starter as a theory of punishment because it can’t justify the right of the state to inflict suffering on criminals. Retributivism respects the autonomy of individuals so it can justify punishment in principle – but not in practice, at least not in a capitalist system. So it ends up offering a transcendental sanction of the status quo. We debate the merits of Murphy’s attack on Rawls and social contract theory under capitalism, along with the Marxist analysis of the roots of criminal behavior.
Plus – the headline says it all: Blame The Brain, Not Bolsonaro, For Brazil’s Riots.
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Feb 28, 2023
Episode 255: Beloved Child of the House (Susanna Clarke's "Piranesi")
David and Tamler get lost in the world of Susanna Clarke’s "Piranesi," a hauntingly beautiful and thrilling novel with echoes of Borges, Plato, C.S. Lewis, and even Parfit. The first part of our conversation is spoiler-free so you can listen to that section if you haven’t read it yet. (But seriously read this book! We both read it in a few days.)
Plus, watch out ladies - Sydney the Bing chatbot is coming to steal your man.
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Links:
* Why a Conversation With Bing’s Chatbot Left Me Deeply Unsettled - The New York Times
* Kevin Roose’s Conversation With Bing’s Chatbot: Full Transcript - The New York Times
* From Bing to Sydney – Stratechery by Ben Thompson
* Piranesi by…
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Feb 14, 2023
Episode 254: Nobody's Parfit
Tamler’s earlier self committed to doing an episode on Parfit, and David holds his current self to that promise, which shows how unconvinced David was by Parfit’s skepticism about personal identity. Or something like that. We argue about the value of Parfit’s sci-fi thought experiments and the implications of believing there’s no clear sense of “me.” Plus, we talk about a recent article on aphantasia – the inability to conjure images in your mind – and the question that pops into everyone’s head when they hear about this condition.
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Links:
* Aphantasia - Wikipedia
* Can't See Pictures in Your Mind? You're Not Alone. - The New York Times
* The Vividness Of Visual I…
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Jan 31, 2023
Episode 253: Tarkovsky's Starchild
It’s the episode that Tamler has been waiting for – a long deep dive into Andrei Tarkovsky’s mysterious masterpiece "Stalker." A writer and professor are led by their guide (Stalker) into a cordoned off “zone” that may have been visited by a meteorite (or aliens) a couple of decades earlier. Their destination – a room in the zone that according to legend grants people their deepest desire, the one that has made them suffer the most. We gush over Tarkovsky’s filmmaking, his use of sound and music, and the richness of the questions this movie raises about meaning, art, delusion, desire, science, and faith.
Plus, does having a small penis make you want to buy a sports car? Pre-crisis social psychology is back!
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Jan 10, 2023
Episode 252: Yes We Sene-can
David and Tamler dive into Seneca’s “On the Happy Life” and stoicism, the topic selected by our beloved patreon supporters. Why is stoicism so popular today? What does Seneca actually think about Epicureanism? Can Seneca's philosophy be reconciled with his life as a wealthy Roman aristocrat? Are stoics too cold and detached or is that an unfair caricature? And why can’t David and Tamler fully embrace this undeniably wise approach to life?
Plus the return of… GUILTY CONFESSIONS and some favorite things from 2022.
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Dec 20, 2022
Episode 251: First Order, Then Chaos
David and Tamler wind their way through another Borges story - "The Immortal"- about a Roman soldier who seeks the secret of immortality and, much to his horror, finds it. Plus some thoughts on the utterly shameless ChatGPT.
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* : GiveWell searches for the charities that save or improve lives the most per dollar. We recommend a small number of charities that can do an incredible amount of good. Your donation can make a meaningful difference for some of the poorest people in the world. First-time donors will have their donation matched up to $100 (until funds last). Promo Code: Very Bad Wizards
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Links:
* The banality of ChatGPT - by Erik Hoel
* The Immortal (short story) - Wikipedia…
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Dec 6, 2022
Episode 250: Metaphors All the Way Down
We often think of metaphors as poetic flourishes, a nice way to punctuate your ideas and make them more relatable. But what if metaphors aren’t simply tools of language but part of thought itself? David and Tamler “dive into†George Lakoff’s theory of metaphors and “explore†the implications of his view that metaphors shape and constrain the ways we conceptualize our experience of the world. Plus if we’re really living in cancel culture, we might as well do some cancelling. Say goodbye to "Singing in the Rain," Latinx, and punny academic titles among other things.
Oh and it’s our 250th episode! It’s been quite a journey. Have we come a long way or are we just spinning our wheels? And for a fun detour, check out our bonus podcast series “The Ambulators†on the great TV series Deadwood.
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Nov 22, 2022
Episode 249: Phlegm and Carelessness (Hume's "The Sceptic")
David and Tamler gild and stain David Hume’s essay “The Sceptic†with their sentiments. If nothing is inherently valuable or despicable, desirable or hateful, then what do philosophers have to offer when it comes to happiness? If reason is powerless, does it all come down to our emotions and “humours� Or does the study of philosophy and liberal arts naturally lead to a fulfilling and virtuous life? Plus we look at a new non-traditional social psych paper on how we always imagine that things could be better, and tip our caps to the queen of handling Twitter pile-ons (and former VBW guest) – Candy Mom.
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* I Am BIO podcast: Powerful stories of biotechnology breakthroughs, the peopl…
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Nov 1, 2022
Episode 248: Checkmate, Grasshopper
In this podcast we examine a recent argument for the view that chess is not, in fact, a game. We discuss the Grasshopper’s claim that all games must have a prelusory goal, as well as Skepticus’ objection to the giant Grasshopper concerning chess. We then turn to a broader analysis of the Suitsian account of games. Does the existence of illusory checkmates offer Grasshopper an avenue for replying to Skepticus? Should we bite the bullet and agree that chess is not a game? What is a lusory attitude? Is Tamler losing his mind? Why is David so giddy?
Plus – how should Arthur C. Clarke’s novel "2001: A Space Odyssey" affect our understanding of Kubrick’s movie? And a little more on Kanye.
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Oct 18, 2022
Episode 247: Open the Pod, Dave (with Sam Harris)
We welcome Sam Harris back to the show for a deep dive into Stanley Kubrick’s confounding 1968 masterpiece "2001: A Space Odyssey." How long is the Dawn of Man? What does the second monolith do exactly? Why are the humans so banal and expressionless? What are HAL’S motivations? Has he planned his mutiny from the start, or does the Council’s deception make him manlfunction? Or something else? Who is the Council anyway? Was HAL meant to go through the stargate? What is the final leap forward in consciousness? The hotel room, the starchild, all the rectangles, rectangles everywhere, the music – what does it all mean????
Plus Sam has some thoughts about our Rorty episode and David tries to rile Tamler up about Kanye’s antisemitism.
note: there's a bit of an abrupt transition between our brief opening and Sam telling a story about Rorty in around the 9 minute mark... couldn't be helped.
Special Guest: Sam Harris.
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Oct 4, 2022
Episode 246: Existential Poker-Face (David Foster Wallace's "E Unibus Pluram")
We dive into David Foster Wallace’s sprawling 1993 essay “E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction.” How do TV and new forms of media keep their hold on us when we know at some level that they’re reinforcing our loneliness and passivity? That’s easy, Wallace says, post-modern cool. Flatter me, let me think we’re all in the joke together, give me “an ironic permission-slip to do what I do best whenever I feel confused and guilty: assume, inside, a sort of fetal position, a pose of passive reception to comfort, escape, reassurance.” But in the years since this essay, the TV landscape has completely transformed. Has it transcended its function as a surrogate companion for lonely people, or has it just found new ways to keep us isolated and passive?
Plus, we talk about the recent new SPSP guidelines and Jon Haidt’s recent essay on why he’s resigning from the organization. (Sorry, Jon!)
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Sep 20, 2022
Episode 245: Pragmatically Speaking
David and Tamler take their first real look at pragmatism via Richard Rorty’s “Solidarity or Objectivity.” Can we discover facts about the world as it “really is,” independent of our own culturally influenced methods of inquiry? If not, does that make us relativists? Is David right about pragamatism being an ass-backward approach to scientific truth, or is he just a pragmatist who’s not ready to admit that to himself? Plus, does "The Little Mermaid" have to be white? What about Clark Kent? And we select the topic finalists for our Patreon listener selected episode.
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Sep 6, 2022
Episode 244: Thanks for the Memories? (Borges' "Funes the Memorious)
David and Tamler return to Borges land to get lost in the infinite, this time with his legendary and tragic character Funes the memorious. What would it be like to have perfect memory, to have full access to every perceived detail no matter how trivial? Would life be infinitely richer, with present experience and memory merging into a perfect Heraclitan flow? Or is William James correct to say that one condition of remembering is to forget, and that “if we remembered everything, we should on most occasions be as ill off as if we remembered nothing.”?
Plus, we’re sorry, but after 10 years (!) we thought we had the right to get a little self-indulgent and naval-gazey. We do a bit of reminiscing (“though we have no right to speak that sacred verb..”) in the first segment about how the podcast has changed since 2012, and the impact it has made on our lives. Thanks for the memories!
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Aug 16, 2022
Episode 243: Finding My Religion
David and Tamler continue their discussion of Leo Tolstoy’s 'Confession.' When we left him last time, the famous author had bottomed out just years after writing two of the greatest novels ever written. Our eventual death, Tolstoy thought, strips life of all meaning and purpose – all answers to the question “so what?”. How does he emerge from this state of suicidal depression? What role does faith or “irrational knowledge” play in his account? What’s the meaning of the cryptic dream at the conclusion of the memoir?
Plus, bombarded with this recommendation, we were going to talk about a certain article that came out in Qualitative Research about masturbating to Japanese shota comics – we even had a guest – but had to scrap it. Instead, we discuss a recent study on conspiracy theories that shows that liberals are just as likely to believe in them as conservatives. Mostly we just talk about the conspiracies.
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Aug 9, 2022
Bonus Episode: The Ambulators (A "Deadwood" Podcast)
We have a sneak peek for our listeners--the first episode our new Patreon bonus series on David Milch's brilliant (but short-lived) series "Deadwood." In this inaugural edition of "The Ambulators" (we promise the name makes sense), Tamler and David discuss the pilot episode "Deadwood."
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Aug 2, 2022
Episode 242: Losing My Religion
David and Tamler find themselves unable to attach rational meaning to a single act in their entire lives. Let’s say we publish more articles and books. What then? What about our kids? They’re going off to college. Why? What for? We think about the future of the podcast. Let’s say we get bought out by Spotify and become more famous than Joe Rogan, Dolly Parton, and even Yoel Inbar -- more famous than all the podcasters in the world. So what?
And we can find absolutely no reply.
Plus, we take a test to determine whether we can we tell an AI apart from an analytic philosopher. When should we start getting scared of what AIs are gonna do to us, or what we’re doing to them?
*Note: the main segment is on the first half of Tolstoy’s great memoir "A Confession," but you don’t need to be familiar with the text to appreciate the discussion for this one.
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Jul 19, 2022
Episode 241: Very Bad Orgies (Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut")
David and Tamler mask up and wander through the audio and visual orgy of Stanley Kubrick’s final masterpiece Eyes Wide Shut. What is this movie really about? Dreams? Wealth and power? Marriage? Jealousy? Female sexuality? Masculinity issues? The Illuminati? Pedophilia? Sex cults? Prostitution, both literal and figurative? Missing out, always on the outside looking in? Why does Tom Cruise repeat everything? Why is Nicole Kidman such a lightweight? Why can’t a successful Upper West Side couple get better weed? We explore all these themes and more in a film that raises so many more questions than it answers.
Plus, a study on masturbation, gender, and sexual dissatisfaction – right in our wheelhouse, or is it?
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Jul 5, 2022
Episode 240: Evil
David and Tamler descend into the dark pits of Hell to look Satan in the eyes and discover the nature of evil. OK…that’s not fully accurate, we just read and talk about a couple of philosophy articles that analyze the concept. What are the features of evil people and acts? Does evil just mean ‘really really really really bad’ or is it categorically different in some way? Can you be evil without ever actually causing harm? Is Tony Soprano evil?
Plus we take a "moral alignment" quiz (inspired by role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons). We both want to end up as ‘chaotic good’ but does it turn out that way? And what kind of character is a unicorn?
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Jun 21, 2022
Episode 239: Lose Yourself
David and Tamler lose themselves in Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s (pr. ‘chick sent me high’) classic paper on the concept of flow. We talk about the features of flow activities – loss of ego, the merging of your awareness with the activity, and autotelic (not what you think) enjoyment. What makes flow activities so rewarding? Do you need to develop skills over many years to experience them? Do easy and natural social interactions count as flow?
Plus as men of pure virtue, we call an audible and choose not to make fun of a recent paper (with a student as lead author). Instead we pilot a not fully formed idea: “Substack Starters." Now that the economy is tanking, do we have any heterodox beliefs that might lead to profitable Substacks?
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Jun 7, 2022
Episode 238: I Am Not Ivan Ilyich...Am I?
Ivan Ilyich is a man. All men are mortal. So Ivan Ilyich is mortal. Sure absolutely, that’s true for Ivan Ilyich and for all men. But we’re not Ivan Ilyich and we’re not ‘all men’- so what does this have to do with us? Right? David and Tamler confront their mortality as they discuss Leo Tolstoy’s brilliant and chilling short story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich.”
Plus the ‘Why I am leaving academia’ essay has become its own genre. But is this profession really that much worse relative to others?
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May 24, 2022
Episode 237: Glitches Ain't Shit
David and Tamler explore the many variations of simulation theory, the view that our universe is just a computer generated model created by an advanced civilization that has reached “technological maturity.” What does the growing popularity of simulation theories reveal about contemporary life? Are any of the arguments for simulation theory compelling or are they just post-hoc ways of justifying what you already believe on faith? If we are living in a simulation, does that mean we can go around killing people? Would it change anything about how we should live? Rodney Ascher’s (Room 237, The Nightmare) excellent documentary "A Glitch in the Matrix" gets the discussion going.
Plus the return of the VBW does conceptual analysis segment - a careful, rigorous, systematic inquiry into the concept “cringe.”*
*Note: if you think the opening segment is itself cringe, that’s because we’re doing seventh dimensional Zoomer meta shit and you just didn’t get it.
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May 3, 2022
Episode 236: Your Outie Is Skilled at Lovemaking (With Paul Bloom)
We welcome Paul Bloom to talk about the first season of "Severance," the new mind-bending and mind-splitting TV series on Apple TV+. What happens when you separate your home life from your work life? Do you create a completely different person? Is it a form of self-slavery? How important is autobiographical memory to your identity? And what’s the deal with the break room… and the goats?
Plus, what happens when you combine the obsessions of evolutionary psychology with the methodological problems of social psychology? You (finally) get an explanation for the female orgasm.
Special Guest: Paul Bloom.
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Apr 19, 2022
Episode 235: Animated Objects
Panpsychism didn't give us river spirits or mischievous sootballs, so this time we go straight to the source - a defense of animism, and in a top 10 analytic philosophy journal. Could a failed argument for the existence of God establish the existence of trees and mountains with “interiority” and “social characteristics”? Tamler wants to believe, but is the argument that'll push him over the edge?
Plus – speaking of top journals, a doozy of social psych article: Is forgiveness better than revenge at rehumanizing the self? Let's check the voodoo dolls to find out. Tamler is delighted by David’s reaction to this one.
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Apr 5, 2022
Episode 234: Like A Dog (Kafka's "The Trial" Pt. 2)
David and Tamler conclude their discussion of "The Trial," Franz Kafka's darkly comic vision of an opaque and impenetrable bureaucracy that comes for us all in the end. Plus we interrupt our previously scheduled opening segment because apparently something happened at the Oscars last week.
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* BetterHelp: You deserve to be happy. BetterHelp online counseling is there for you. Connect with your professional counselor in a safe and private online environment. Our listeners get 10% off the first month by visiting BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW
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Mar 22, 2022
Episode 233: Keeping It Surreal (Kafka's "The Trial" Pt. 1)
David and Tamler wander through the bewildering dream-like world of Franz Kafka’s "The Trial." In part one of a two-part discussion we discuss the circumstances of its publication, the various interpretative approaches that can be taken to the novel, and all the ways that Kafka’s prose gets under your skin, making you feel what’s happening even if you don’t fully understand it. Recorded in the decidedly un-Kafka-esque location of Nosara, Costa Rica – thanks to the Harmony Hotel for having us back!
Plus – Social Psychologists for Peace send an open letter to Vladimir Putin urging him to reverse course on the tragic invasion of Ukraine. Putin seems intent on toppling the Ukranian government but has he considered Sherif et al (1961), Tajfel (1977), Festinger (1954), and Brewer (1991)?
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Mar 8, 2022
Episode 232: Mind Over Matter
It’s the topic voted on by our beloved Patreon patrons, panpsychism! David and Tamler delve into the resurgent debate over whether consciousness is the fundamental stuff that makes up the universe. We hoped we might be entering Miyazaki land - river spirits, benevolent radishes, a universal mind. But is this just the same old philosophy of mind debate with different words? Are there any stakes to this debate or is it purely terminological? Plus – we answer some last-minute questions from listeners on dissertations, Ukraine, pseudoscience, and the music from "The Shield."
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Links:
* "The Shield" Opening Music [YouTube]
* Strawson, G. "Realistic monism: Why physicalism entails panps…
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Feb 22, 2022
Episode 231: Ideal Critics (Hume's "Of the Standard of Taste")
Many of us think that art is subjective, but at the same time it seems like some artistic judgments are better than others. Do you think Crash deserved to receive an award for Best Picture? Did you like Season 2 of Ted Lasso? Well you’re wrong. So how do we reconcile these two conflicting attitudes about art? David and Tamler turn to David Hume’s classic essay Of the Standard of Taste (link in notes) for help. Will Pizarro finally see the error of his ways on Straw Dogs?
Plus a doozy of a medical ethics paper – should we allow people to change their legal age if it doesn’t match their "biological" and "emotional" age?
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Links:
* Räsänen, J. (2019). Moral case for legal age ch…
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Feb 8, 2022
Episode 230: Be Happy (Lars von Trier's "Melancholia")
David and Tamler sink deeper and deeper into Melancholia, Lars von Trier’s harrowing and stunningly beautiful depiction of depression, anxiety, and a wedding reception that just won’t end. They bring Freud’s “Mourning and Melancholia” into the conversation and confront the question: what if the depressed and anxious people are right?
Plus Whoopi, M&Ms, baby brain waves, Rogan – we empty out the opening segment Slack.
Note: We recorded the opening segment before the latest development in the Joe Rogan story, but we briefly address that in the promo segment right after the break.
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Links:
* The impact of a poverty reduction intervention on infant brain activity | PNAS
* La…
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Jan 25, 2022
Episode 229: Skin Deep?
We think racism is wrong but what about “lookism” – a bias that favors attractive people over unattractive ones? If it’s wrong to judge people by the color of their skin, what about judging people for something that is only skin deep? We talk about two pieces today, a forthcoming philosophy article by William D’Allesandro “Is it Bad to Prefer Attractive Partners” and the Ted Chiang story “Liking What You See: A Documentary.”
Plus we select the topic finalists for our beloved Patreon listener-selected episode. Interesting list this time around!
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Jan 11, 2022
Episode 228: Forever Jung
David and Tamler confront their shadows and dive into Carl Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious. What are the central differences between Jung and Freud? What did Jung mean by archetypes and what’s his evidence for their centrality in the human psyche? How can we integrate elements of our unconscious and avoid projecting them onto the world? Can Jung’s ideas tell us anything about culture wars and relationships?
Plus, an fMRI study on offensive humor – I thought you were stronger Batman!
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Dec 21, 2021
Episode 227: A Terrible Master (David Foster Wallace's "This Is Water").
David and Tamler dive into David Foster Wallace’s celebrated and surprisingly earnest Kenyon College commencement speech “This is Water”. How can we escape the prison and prism of our (literally) self-centered perspective? Can we choose to adjust our natural default settings, take a break from our running inner monologue, and pay attention to what’s in front of us right now? Is DFW appealing to Buddhist ideas or something more general that you can be found across all spiritual traditions?
Plus we ask the AI ethics program “Ask Delphi” some tough moral questions (spoiler alert: "just the tip" is "rude"), and almost get into a big fight about the potential of AI ethical robots (but we’re saving that argument for a future episode).
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Dec 7, 2021
Episode 226: Unraveling Time Traveling (with Barry Lam and Christina Hoff Sommers)
First, it’s the return of the annual drunken Thanksgiving segment! Tamler and based wicked stepmom Christina Hoff Sommers fight about JFK, systematic racism, corporations, and how to pronounce valium. (We find more common ground than usual though on Covid and Havana Syndrome.) Then podcast auteur Barry Lam joins David and Tamler to talk about David Lewis on time travel, the new season of Barry’s excellent podcast Hi-Phi Nation, and then a deep dive on maybe the best time travel movie of all time - Shane Carruth's mind-melting cult classic "Primer."
Special Guests: Barry Lam and Christina Hoff Sommers.
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Nov 16, 2021
Episode 225: Forbidden Modules
David and Tamler talk about the often rancorous debate among cognitive scientists and evolutionary psychologists over whether the mind is modular -- composed of discrete systems responsible for vision, reasoning, cheater detection, sexual jealousy, and so on. David and Tamler (mostly David) describe the history of the debate, then dive into a recent paper (Pietraszewski & Wertz, 2021) arguing that virtually all the disagreement is the product of a conceptual and methodological confusion – that the two sides are operating with different levels of analysis and talking past each other as a result.
Plus, we REALLY tried not to talk about the University of Austin thing for the whole opening segment. We had another topic lined up and everything. It just didn’t work out. Cicero would understand. Bari Weiss stans might wanna skip to the main segment.
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Nov 2, 2021
Episode 224: Hurts So Good (With Paul Bloom)
VBW favorite Paul Bloom joins us to talk about the pleasures of suffering, flow states, Sisyphus, meaning, and dating questions. Check out his new book The Sweet Spot which comes out today! Plus what are NFTs and why does everyone hate them?
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Links:
* The Sweet Spot by Paul Bloom
* Break Music: Who Needs Me by peez
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Oct 19, 2021
Episode 223: The Hopeless Dream of Being (Bergman's "Persona")
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…
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Oct 5, 2021
Episode 222: Choosing Sartre for All Mankind
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?
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* BetterHelp: You deserve to be happy. BetterHelp online counseling is there for you. Connect with your professional counselor in a safe and private online environment. Our listeners get 10%…
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Sep 21, 2021
Episode 221: Granite Cocks vs Robot Overlords
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.
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Sep 7, 2021
Episode 220: On Your Marx
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.
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* BetterHelp: You deserve to be happy. BetterHelp online counseling is there for you. Connect with your professional counselor in a safe and private online environment. Our listeners get 10% off the first month…
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Aug 17, 2021
Episode 219: Multiplied by Mirrors
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.
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Aug 3, 2021
Episode 218: ...But You Can't Hide (Michael Haneke's "Caché")
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”?
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Links:
* Caché (film) - Wikipedia
* Watch Cache (Hidden) | Prime Video
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Jul 20, 2021
Episode 217: Dropping Paradigms (Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions")
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…
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Jul 6, 2021
Episode 216: Oral Judgments
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.”
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Links:
* Pham, M. N., & Shackelford, T. K. (2013). Oral sex as infidelity-detection. Personality and Individual Differences, 54(6), 792-795. — From the abstract: "The infidelity-detection hypothes…
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Jun 22, 2021
Episode 215: Touch My Pink Monkey
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?
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Jun 8, 2021
Episode 214: You Shouldn't Feel Bad (Except You Should)
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?
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* Wine.com: Wine.com is an American wine online retailer that offers the largest selection of wines in the world. Wine.com sells over 2 million bottles per…
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May 25, 2021
Episode 213: What Is It Like To Be a Robot Fish Man? (with Ted Chiang)
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.
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* Wine…
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May 11, 2021
Episode 212: Follow Your Nose (with Yoel Inbar)
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.
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Apr 20, 2021
Episode 211: To Live and Die in Kurosawa's "Ikiru"
"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.
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Links:
* Ikiru - Wikipedia
* Dogs Mentally Represent Jealousy-Inducing Social Interactions - Amalia P. M. Bastos, Patrick D. Neilands, Rebecca S. Hassall, Byung C. Lim, Alex H. Taylor, 2021
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Apr 6, 2021
Episode 210: The Priming of the American Mind (with Jesse Singal)
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.
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Links:
* Break Music
* The Quick Fix by Jesse Singal
* Blocked and Reported (with Katie Herzog and Jesse Singal)
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Mar 23, 2021
Episode 209: Basic Instincts (with Paul Bloom)
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.
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Mar 9, 2021
Episode 208: Dream Theater
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.
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Feb 23, 2021
Episode 207: Sometimes a Paper Tray is Just a Paper Tray
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…
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Links:
* Ex Colorado City mayor catching heat for comments about citizens affected by cold | KTAB - BigCountryHomepage.com
* Room 237 - Wikipedia…
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Feb 9, 2021
Episode 206: Angel Chasing (Ted Chiang's "Hell is the Absence of God")
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…
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* The Hard Problem of Breakfast - Issue 88: Love & Sex - Nautilu…
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Jan 26, 2021
Episode 205: Making Your Nervous System Your Ally (William James on "Habit")
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.
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Jan 12, 2021
Episode 204: Happy Freedom Day! (with Lauren Anderson)
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.
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Dec 22, 2020
Episode 203: Gorgias, Tell Me Something I Don't Know (with Agnes Callard)
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.
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* NordVPN: Keep your internet connection safe, and enjoy streaming services when you travel abroad with NordVPN! NordVPN is the best VPN if you…
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Dec 8, 2020
Episode 202: Not as It Ought to Be (H.P. Lovecraft's "The Colour Out of Space")
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.
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Nov 24, 2020
Episode 201: Very Bad Lizard People
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].
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Nov 3, 2020
Episode 200: Our 200th Episode Spectactular
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…
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Links:
* Hole -- from Wolfram MathWorld
* Giovanni Kuan (@giovannikuan) • Instagram photos and videos
* Very Bad Wizards Episode 45: Rounded Brains and Balanced "Play Diets"
* Davis, J.T.M., Hines, M. How Large Are Gender Differences in Toy Preferences? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Toy Preference Research. Arch Sex Behav 49, 373–394 (2020).…
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Oct 20, 2020
Episode 199: When Philosophy Goes Sideways
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.
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* Ferguson, Z. (2020). A…
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Oct 6, 2020
Episode 198: Is Mental Illness a Myth? (Thomas Szasz's "The Myth of Mental Illness")
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.
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Sep 22, 2020
Episode 197: The Long Slow Death That Is Life
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.
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* The Great Courses Plus: Never stop learning. Pursue your passion. Quench your curiosity. Embark on an educational endeavor. Watch thousands of streaming videos on hundreds of subjects. Promo Code: wiza…
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Sep 8, 2020
Episode 196: The Loneliest Paper in Philosophy
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.
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Links:
* Sinhababu, N. (2008), Possible girls. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 89, 254-260.
* Paul B…
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Aug 25, 2020
Episode 195: Jesus on Trial (Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov")
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.]
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* The Great Courses Plus: Never stop learning. Pur…
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Aug 11, 2020
Episode 194: God Has No Mother (with Chris Matheson)
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.
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Links:
* Chris Matheson (screenwriter) - Wikipedia
* The Story of God by Chris Matheson [amazo…
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Jul 21, 2020
Episode 193: Free Wanting (Frankfurt's "Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person")
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”?
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Links:
* Repeating the “F” word can improve threshold for pain during an ice water challenge
* Frontiers | Swearing as a Response to Pain: Assessing Hypoalgesic Effects of Novel “Swear” Words | Psychology
* Very Bad Wizards has a new shirt! [CottonBureau.com]
* Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a…
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Jul 7, 2020
Episode 192: Postmodern Wet Dreams (Borges' "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote")
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.
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* 'My Little Pony' Fans Confron…
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Jun 23, 2020
Episode 191: All the Rage
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.
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Links:
* Would Politics Be Better Off Without Anger? | The Nation
* Welcome
* Srinivasan, A. (2018) The Aptness of Anger, Journal of Political Philosophy. Reprinted in the Philosopher’s Annual.
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Jun 9, 2020
Episode 190: We Pod. We Pod-Cast. We Podcast. (Frankfurt’s “On Bullshit”)
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.
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* Brand and Style | University Communications
* The Black Goat – A podcast about doing science
* Two Psychologists Four Beers Episode 46: Very Good Men (with Very Bad Wizards)
* Break Music: Seven Minutes by peez
* On Bullshit - Wikipedia
* Frankfurt, H. (2005) On Bullshit. Princeton University Press.
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May 26, 2020
Episode 189: The Anality of Evil (Freud's "Civilization and its Discontents")
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!
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Links:
* Anal retentiveness - Wikipedia
* Ana…
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May 12, 2020
Episode 188: Conceptual Mummies (Nietzsche's "Twilight of the Idols")
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?
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* George Mason University investigation faults professor for sexual talk with s…
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Apr 21, 2020
Episode 187: More Zither
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.
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Links:
* Frontiers | Friends, Lovers or Nothing: Men and Women Differ in Their Perceptions of Sex Robots and Platonic Love Robots | Psychology
* Break Music: Framed Your Eyes by peez
* The Third Man - Wikipedia
* Allied-occupied Austria - Wikipedia
* Dutch angle - Wikipedia
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Apr 7, 2020
Episode 186: The One with Peter Singer
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.
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Links:
* Are two spaces better than one? | Butterick’s Practical Typography
* Rappers, sorted by the size of their vocabulary [thanks to listener Kevin Litman-Navarro]
* Peter Singer - Wikipedia
* de Lazari-Radek, K., & Singer, P. (2017). Utilitarianism: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press.
* Singer, P. (2010). The life you can save: How to do your part to end world pov…
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Mar 24, 2020
Episode 185: The Devil's Playground
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?
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Mar 17, 2020
Bonus Episode: Top 5 Deadwood Characters
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!
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Mar 10, 2020
Episode 184: Tainted Glove
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?
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Feb 25, 2020
Episode 183: Accept the Mystery (with Paul Bloom)
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.
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Feb 11, 2020
Episode 182: The Paper That Launched a Thousand Twitter Wars (With Yoel Inbar)
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.
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Jan 28, 2020
Episode 181: The Fraudulence Paradox (David Foster Wallace's "Good Old Neon")
Our whole lives we’ve been frauds. We’re not exaggerating. Pretty much all we’ve ever done is try to create a certain impression of us in other people. Mostly to be liked or admired. This episode is a perfect example, Tamler pretending to be a cinephile (check out his four favorite pieces of 2019 “pop culture” in the first segment), David trying to connect with the people (Baby Yoda, Keanu Reeves etc.) – and of course what could be more fraudulent than a deep dive into a David Foster Wallace story, rhapsodizing over the endless sentences, the logical paradoxes, the seven-layer bean-dip of metacommentary (Jesus Christ I’m surprised there aren’t like eight footnotes in this episode description), and meanwhile the Partially Examined Life dudes refresh their overcast feeds and wonder through the tiny keyhole of themselves how David and Tamler have sunk so low that they’d ramble on about “Good Old Neon” like a couple of first year Comp-Lit grad students trying to impre…
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Jan 14, 2020
Episode 180: Chekhov's Schrödinger's Dagger (Kurosawa's "Rashomon")
Eleventh Century Japan. A samurai and his wife are walking through the forest and come across a bandit. The bandit attacks the samurai and has sex with/rapes his wife. A woodcutter finds the samurai, stabbed to death. Who killed the samurai and with what? What role did his wife play in his death? Kurosawa gives us four perspectives, told in flashbacks within flashbacks. Who’s telling the truth? Is anyone? Can we ever know what really happened? A simple story on the surface becomes a meditation on epistemological despair.
Plus, your lizard brain is out to get you and you only have 90 seconds to stop it!
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Dec 24, 2019
Episode 179: Talking Shit
David and Tamler wrap up the decade with an episode on trash-talking that morphs into a debate over the value of experimental inquiry. Participants in a lab put more effort into a slider task after they’re insulted by a confederate. Do experiments like these tell us anything about trash-talking in general? Can it explain the effect of Mike Tyson telling Lenox Lewis he’d eat his children, or of Larry Bird looking around the locker room before the 3-point contest saying he was trying to figure out who’d finish second? Can it tell us how football players should talk to their opponents? Does it give us a more modest but still valuable insight that we can apply to the real world? This is our first real fight (or disagreement) in a while.
Plus, some mixed feelings about Mr. Robot Season 4 Episode 11 and some tentative predictions (recorded before the finale which aired by the time this episode is released). Happy holidays!
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Dec 10, 2019
Episode 178: Borges' Obsession-Obsession ("The Zahir")
David and Tamler happen across Jorge Luis Borges’ “The Zahir” and now they can’t stop thinking about it. What is the ‘Zahir’ – this object that can take many forms and that consumes the people who find it? What does it represent? Is it the fanaticism of being in love? The ever-present threat (and temptation) of idealism? A subtle critique of Christian theology? Is the Zahir a microcosm of everything? Why is Borges so obsessed with obsession?
Plus, it’s the annual drunken end-of-the night Thanksgiving ‘debate’ between Tamler and IDW stepmother extraordinaire Christina Hoff Sommers. Topics raised and then quickly dropped include Bernie for President, Melinda Gates, critic reviews of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and more. Stay tuned for the end when Christina finds her “notes”. (And for special cameos from David Sommers and Eliza).
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Nov 26, 2019
Episode 177: Pure Linguistic Chauvinism
Tamler learns something new about menstruation. David weighs in on the democratic debates and the impeachment hearings. Then we map the various social and political factions onto the factions in our respective fields. Who are establishment neoliberals of philosophy, and who are the white feminists? What about the IDWs of psychology – and the Chads and Stacys?
Finally we get serious and break down the article by Alan Fiske in Psychological Review called “The Lexical Fallacy in Emotion Research.” Does language affect how we understand the emotional landscape? Do the words we happen to use deceive us into thinking we have “carved nature at its joints”? What is a natural kind anyway when it comes to emotions?
Plus, after the outro, a quick unedited Mr. Robot discussion of the revelation in season 4, episode 7.
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Nov 12, 2019
Episode 176: Split-Brains and the (Dis)Unity of Consciousness
David and Tamler discuss famous 'split brain' experiments pioneered by Roger Sperry and Michael Gazzaniga. What happens when you cut off the main line of communication between the left and right hemispheres of our brain? Why under certain conditions do the the left and right brains seem like they have different abilities and desires? What does this tell us about the ‘self’? Do we have two consciousnesses, but only that can speak? Does the left brain bully the right brain? Are we all just a bundle of different consciousnesses with their own agendas? Thanks to our Patreon supporters for suggesting and voting for this fascinating topic!
Plus, physicists may be able to determine whether we’re living in a computer simulation – but is it too dangerous to try to find out?
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Oct 29, 2019
Episode 175: At Least We Didn’t Talk About Zombies (Nagel’s “What is it Like to be a Bat?”)
We try (with varying success) to wrap our heads around Thomas Nagel’s classic article “What is it Like to be a Bat?" Does science have the tools to give us a theory of consciousness or is that project doomed from the outset? Why do reductionist or functionalist explanations seem so unsatisfying? Is the problem that consciousness is subjective, or is it something about the nature of conscious experience itself? Is this ultimately an epistemological or metaphysical question? What are we talking about? Do we even know anymore?
Plus, the return of Mr. Robot! We talk about the big new mystery at the heart of the new season.
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Links:
* Mr. Robot - Season 4 - IMDb
* Nagel, T. (1974). What is it like to be a bat? The Philosophical Review, 83, 435-450. [pdf]
* What Is it Like to Be a Bat? - Wikipedia
* Mortal Questions by Thomas Nagel
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Oct 15, 2019
Episode 174: More Chiang for Your Buck ("Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom" Pt. 2)
Is character destiny, or can fluky decisions or tiny shifts in weather patterns fundamentally change who we are? Does the existence or non-existence of alternate universes have any bearing on freedom and responsibility? David and Tamler conclude their discussion of Ted Chiang’s “Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom” along with another very short piece by Chiang called “What’s Expected of Us” that was first published in Nature.
Plus, do you have low likability in the workplace? It could be because you’re too moral and therefore not that funny. But don’t worry, we have a solution that’ll help you increase your humor production and likability with no reduction in morality. All you have to do is listen!
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Oct 1, 2019
Episode 173: Talking to Your (Alternate) Self [Ted Chiang's "Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom"]
David and Tamler dive back into the Ted Chiang well and explore the fascinating world described in "Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom." What if you could interact with alternate versions of yourself - versions that made different choices, had different jobs, or different partners? Would you get jealous of your other selves if they were more successful? Would you want them to be unhappy so you could feel better about your own choices and path? If your alternate self was in a good relationship with a woman, would you try to track down the version of that woman in this world? If you made an immoral choice but your other self made the moral one, what does that say about your character? And what does it say about free will and responsibility?
So many questions, such an interesting story - turns out we need to dedicate another segment next time to conclude the discussion. Hope you enjoy it! If you haven't bought Exhalation (Ted Chiang's new collection) We can't recommend it highly enough.…
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Sep 17, 2019
Episode 172: Are You Free (to like the Chappelle special)?
David and Tamler start out with a discussion of the new Chappelle special and the negative reaction from many critics. Is Chappelle trolling his audience? Has he lost touch with the powerless people he used to champion? Or have critics missed his larger point, and failed to approach the new special as an art form? Then they address the latest development in the literature around Benjamin Libet's famous study that, according to some people, proved that free will doesn't exist. How did that study get so much attention in the first place? Tamler proposes a Marxist analysis. Plus, David teaches Tamler how to pronounce Bereitschaftspotential antisemitically.
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* Does Free Will Exist? Neuroscience Can't Disprove It Yet. - The Atlantic
* Unconscious cerebral initiative and t…
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Aug 27, 2019
Episode 171: How Do You Solve a Problem Like Theodicy? (The Book of Job)
David and Tamler dive back into the Bible, this time to the perplexing and poetic Book of Job. What does this book have to say about the theodicy, the problem of evil? Why does Job (and his children) have to suffer so much just so God can prove a point to Satan? Are the speeches of Job's friends meant to be convincing? Does Job capitulate in the end? Does God contradict himself in the last chapter? What’s the deal with Elihu? So many questions, not as many answers – maybe that's why it's such a classic.
Plus, "transhumanism" – dystopian wet dream or perfect moral system of the future based on logic, reason, and code? (Always code).
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* Environmentalists are Wrong: Nature Isn’t Sacred and We Should Replace It - Transhumanist Wager
* Transhumanism - Wikipedia
* The Book of Job (New International Versio…
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Aug 13, 2019
Episode 170: Social Psychology Gets an Asch-Kicking
Is social psychology just a kid dressing up in grown-up science clothes? Are the methods in social psychology--hypothesis-driven experiments and model-building--appropriate for the state of the field? Or do these methods lead to a narrowing of vision, stifled creativity, and a lack of informed curiosity about the social world> David and Tamler discuss the strong methodological critique of psychology from two of its leading practitioners - Paul Rozin and Solomon Asch.
Plus, food porn, real estate porn, outrage porn, and David's personal favorite - power washing porn.
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* Power Washing Porn
* Opinion | Why We Call Things ‘Porn’ - The New York Times
* Pizarro, D.A.…
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Jul 30, 2019
Episode 169: A Bug's Life (Kafka's "The Metamorphosis")
David and Tamler try to control their emotions (with varying success) as they go deep into Franz Kafka's masterful novella "The Metamorphosis." What kind of a story is this? A Marxist or religious allegory? A work of weird fiction? A family drama? A dark comedy? Why does a story about a man who turns into a giant insect get under our skins so much?
Plus a study that links insomnia to our fear of death. What a cheerful summer episode! (Actually we're fairly proud of this one... As always we suggest reading the text before you listen or soon after).
This episode brought to you by Prolific.co, and by the support of our listeners.
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* Life is short, stay awake: Death anxiety and bedtime procrastination. - PubMed - NCBI
* 2nd Annual BEworks Summit for Behavioural Science in Business
* The Met…
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Jul 16, 2019
Episode 168: The Big Lebowski vs Pulp Fiction (Pt. 2)
It's Part 2 of the Lebowski vs. Pulp Fiction showdown. This time we focus on the Dude, Walter, Donny, and most importantly Jesus Quintana. (Nobody fucks with the Jesus). What's the ethos of this stoner masterpiece? Is it a nihilstic movie? A deconstruction of masculinity? A cannabis infused Daoist parable? And is it fair to compare these two classics from the 90s? Fair? Who's the fucking nihilist you bunch of crybabies!
Plus - trolling. What is it? Why do people do it? Can works of art troll their audience? And is there such a thing as a benign troll?
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Links:
* Internet troll - Wikipedia
* Ken M Is The Most Epic Troll On The Internet
* Wrestling’s new villain named himself ‘Progressive Liberal.’ Hillary’s on his shirt. - The Washington Post
* The Big Lebowski - Wikipedia
* ‘Big Lebowski’ Sequel Renamed ‘The Jesus Rolls,’ Plans 2020 Release | IndieWire
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Jul 3, 2019
Episode 167: The Big Lebowski vs Pulp Fiction (Pt. 1)
There are only two kinds of people in the world, Pulp Fiction people and Big Lebowski people. Now Pulp Fiction people can like Big Lebowski and vice versa, but nobody likes them both equally. Somewhere you have to make a choice. And that choice tells you who you are.
In the first episode of this two-parter, David and Tamler make that choice – and then go deep into the themes, performances, and philosophy of Tarantino’s iconic 90s classic Pulp Fiction. What’s the meaning of a foot massage? What counts as a miracle? Is failing to disregard your own feces a sufficient condition for a filthy animal? We have a lots to talk about, and time is short. So pretty please, with sugar on top, listen to the fucking episode.
This episode is sponsored by Blinkist and by all of our supporters.
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Jun 18, 2019
Episode 166: Total Recall (Ted Chiang's "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling")
Memory is highly selective and often inaccurate. But what if we had an easily searchable video record of all our experiences and interactions? How would that affect our relationships? What would it reveal about our characters and our sense of who we are? Is there a kind of truth that can’t be determined by perfect objectivity? David and Tamler dive deep into Ted Chiang’s amazingly rich and poignant short story “The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling” which explores how new technologies shape individual and group identities.
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Links:
* Meryl Streep: 'We hurt our boys by calling something "toxic masculinity"' | Film | The Guardian
* Deadwood: EB Farnum At Work
* Exhalation by Ted Chiang [amazon.com affiliate link]
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Jun 4, 2019
Episode 165: Life With No Head (With Sam Harris)
Sam Harris returns to the podcast to talk about meditation and his new Waking Up meditation app. What are the goals of mindfulness practice - stress reduction and greater focus, or something much deeper? Can it cure David's existential dread? Tamler's fear of his daughter going away to college? Can sustained practice erode the illusion of self? Is that even something we'd want to do? What if it diminishes our attachment to people we love? And what is the self anyway? Is Sam a defender of panpsychism? So many questions... Plus, the ethics of creating talking elephants by curing them of their autism through bonding and possibly mounting. (Seriously.)
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Links:
* Rossler, O. E., Theis, C., Heiter, J., Fleischer, W., & Student, A. (2015). Is it ethical to heal a young white elephant from his physiological autism?. Progress in biophysics and molecular biology, 119(3), 539-543.
* Scientists Predict A Talking Elephant, Szilamandee - Neuroskeptic
* The Social Exc…
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May 14, 2019
Episode 164: Choosing to Believe
David and Tamler argue about William James' classic essay "The Will to Believe." What's more important - avoiding falsehood or discovering truth? When (if ever) is it rational to believe anything without enough evidence? What about beliefs that we can't be agnostic about? Are there hypotheses that we have to believe in order for them to come true? Does James successfully demonstrate that faith can be rational?
Plus, a philosopher at Apple who's not allowed to talk to the media - what are they hiding? And why are academics constantly telling students that academia is a nightmare?
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Links:
* Apple won't let its in-house philosopher talk to the press — Quartz
* The Will to Believe - Wikipedia
* The Will to Believe (Full Text PDF)
* Evidentialism - Wikipedia
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May 1, 2019
Episode 163: Should I Stay or Should I Go? (Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas")
David and Tamler are pulled into Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas." Omelas is a truly happy city, except for one child who lives in abominable misery. Is that too high a moral cost? Why do some people walk away from the city? Why does no one help the child? Why does Le Guin make us create the city with her? Plus, we talk about our listener meetup in Vancouver, and a new edition of [dramatic music] GUILTY CONFESSIONS. Note: if this episode strikes you as too puritanical, then please add an orgy.
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Links:
* The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas - YouTube
* The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas - Wikipedia
* The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (Full Text)
* The Wind's Twelve Quarters by Ursula K. Le Guin [amazon.com affiliate link]
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Apr 16, 2019
Episode 162: Parents Just Don't Understand (with Paul Bloom)
As parents we like to think we have an impact on our children - their future, their happiness, the kinds of people they turn out to be. But
are we deluded? Dave and Tamler are joined by empathy's kryponite, the great Paul Bloom, to talk about Judith Rich Harris's view that parents matter a lot less than you might think (while genes and peer groups matter a lot more than you might think) .
Plus, what the connection between art and morality? Should we support "cancel culture"? Is it wrong to play Michael Jackson's P.Y.T. (spell it out) on the radio? What about the Jackson 5? And what about art that is itself immoral? You're not gonna believe this but Louis CK gets mentioned.
Thanks to our beloved Patreon supporters for suggesting and voting for this topic!
Special Guest: Paul Bloom.
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Links:
* 'Too big to cancel': can we still listen to Michael Jackson? | Music | The Guardian
* The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do, Revised and Up…
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Apr 2, 2019
Episode 161: Reach-Around Knowledge and Bottom Performers (The Dunning-Kruger Effect)
The less we know, the more we know it. David and Tamler talk about the notorious Dunning-Kruger effect, which makes us overconfident in beliefs on topics we're ignorant about and under-confident when we're experts. Plus, we break down an evolutionary psychology article on why poor men and hungry men prefer women with big breasts. Trust us, it's a really bad study. We're sure about it.
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* Resource Security Impacts Men’s Female Breast Size Preferences
* Peez on Freakonomics Radio Live: “Would You Eat a Piece of Chocolate Shaped Like Dog Poop?”
* Dunning–Kruger effect - Wikipedia
* We Are All Confident Idiots - Pacific Standard
* Dunning, D. (2011). The Dunning–Kruger effect: On being ignorant of one's own ignorance. In Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 44, pp. 247-296). Academic Press.
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Mar 19, 2019
Episode 160: Everything is Meaningless: The Book of Ecclesiastes
David and Tamler dive into the book of Ecclesiastes, an absurdist classic that is somehow also a book of the Bible. Is everything meaningless, vain, and a chasing after the wind? Are humans just the same as animals? Are wise people no better off than fools? Will God judge us after we die, rewarding the good people and punishing the shit-heels? What if there is no afterlife and this is all we get? How should we deal with our pointless, unjust existence? Plus we return to our opening-segment bible— Aeon—and talk about an argument for replacing jealousy with...wait for it…compersion.
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Links:
* Love without jealousy: consider the benefits of compersion | Aeon Essays
* Break Music: Back From Salina | SoundCloud
* Just to say thanks to the wizards : VeryBadWizards
* Ecclesiastes - Wikipedia
* Ecclesiastes 1 NIV - Everything Is Meaningless - The words - Bible Gateway
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Mar 5, 2019
Episode 159: You Have the Right to Go to Prison
Poor and black defendants have more legal rights than ever, but that didn't stop mass incarceration. Why is that? We talk about a paper by Paul Butler called "Poor People Lose: Gideon and the Critique of Rights." Plus, we answer the question that’s on everyone’s mind: how to live as an anti-natalist. And Tamler is appalled to discover David's anti-natalist leanings.
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* How to Live As an Antinatalist: 11 Steps (with Pictures) - wikiHow
* Suing your parents for being born has philosophical support — Quartz
* Indian man to sue parents for giving birth to him - BBC News
* Butler, P. D. (2012). Poor people lose: Gideon and the critique of rights. Yale LJ, 122, 2176.
* Butler, P. (2010). Let's get free: a hip-hop theory of justice. The New Press. Chicago
* Gideon v. Wainwright - Wikipedia
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Feb 19, 2019
Episode 158: False Dichotomies and Oral Reciprocity
David and Tamler talk about the invasion of dual process theories in psychology. Why do we love theories that divide complex phenomena into just two categories? Is there any evidence to back up these theories? Are we distorting our understanding of the mind and morality? And what we can do to get out of this mess? Plus, Liam Neeson, moral pet peeves, and oral ethics.
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Links:
* Melnikoff, D. E., & Bargh, J. A. (2018). The mythical number two. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 22, 280-293.
* The Annals of the TERF-Wars | Jane Clare Jones
* Feldman Barrett's theory of constructed emotion - Wikipedia
* Dual process theory - Wikipedia
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Feb 5, 2019
Episode 157: Notes From Underground (Pt. 2)
David and Tamler continue their discussion of Dostoevsky's funny, sad, philosophical novella Notes From Underground. We focus on part 2 this time - three stories from the Underground Man's past - and explore what the stories tell us about his existentialist rants in part 1. Is he consumed with guilt over his treatment of Liza? Is he ashamed of his social awkwardness, low status, and self-destructive behavior? Or is he a narcissistic proto-incel suffering from an especially acute case of spotlight effect? (As usual, the answer is probably some combination of all these and more.) Plus, we select the finalists for our Patreon-listener selected episode. Thanks to everyone for their support!
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* Notes from Underground - Wikipedia
* Notes From Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky [amazon.com affiliate link]
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Jan 22, 2019
Episode 156: Notes From Underground (Pt. 1)
We’re sick men. We’re spiteful men. We’re unpleasant men. We think our livers are diseased (especially Tamler’s). So we talk about Dostoevsky’s wild, complex, stream of consciousness masterpiece Notes From Underground. For this episode we focus on part 1 of the novella, and the philosophy behind it. Is the underground man an existentialist hero affirming his freedom in the face of a deterministic hyper-rationalist worldview? Or is he a lonely man consumed with guilt and self-loathing, constructing a pretentious post-hoc rationalization of his character and behavior? Plus, the American Psychological Association just issued guidelines for how to treat men who embrace traditional masculine ideologies. Is the backlash justified?
This episode is brought to you by Eero, Curiosity Stream, and the generosity of listeners like you.
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Jan 8, 2019
Episode 155: Alfred Hitchcock's Money Shot
David and Tamler dive deep into Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 hallucinatory classic, Vertigo. Why does this movie seem to gain stature among critics and academics every year? Is this a really a exploration of Hitchcock's own obsessions and sexual repression? Is it a story about filmmaking and celebrity? Or is it just a twisty noir thriller about a man who has no job and can't kiss to save his life? Plus, some thoughts about bad reviews on Rate My Professor and why it's hard to get feedback about job performance in academia.
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Links:
* Relax (Short film by Matthew Herbertz)
* Bob Einstein on "The Ringer" podcast
* Vertigo (film) - Wikipedia
* Vertigo | Scanners | Roger Ebert
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Dec 18, 2018
Episode 154: Metaphysical Vertigo (Borges's "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius")
In the famous words of the idealist philosopher George Berkeley, “To exist is to be perceived.” Our ideas and perceptions are the fundamental objects in the universe; there is no real world beyond them. Hume wrote (I think) that Berkeley’s arguments don’t admit of the slightest refutation, and they don’t inspire the slightest conviction. On Earth, that may be true. On Tlön, it’s false – the people there are “congenital idealists.” Their language, philosophy, literature, and religion presuppose idealism. It’s their common sense. And their philosophy starts to encroach on their reality. But what happens when we read and hear about Tlön – can their idealism invade our “real” world? Will we start to lose our metaphysical bearings? David and Tamler talk about Borges’s invasive, unsettling story “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius.” Please listen so we can exist!
(And speaking of things that may or may not exist, we also discuss the metaphysics of holes.)
This ep…
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Dec 4, 2018
Episode 153: Progress in Psychology: A Reply to BootyBootyFartFart
David dies for science’s sins and addresses the failed replication of one of his studies (conducted with three former VBW guests) by the Many Labs Project. But first, the guys try to gauge their intuitions about the phenomenal experience of their molecule-for-molecule mirror reflection duplicate in a universe with a non-orientable topology. Could this spell doom for e-categoricalism? Plus, the annual Thanksgiving tradition: IDW star and Factual Feminist Christina Hoff Sommers and Tamler argue over drinks about standpoint epistemology, political correctness, and lingerie.
This episode is brought to you by Audible, Givewell, and the generosity of our supporters.
Special Guest: Christina Hoff Sommers.
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* 2018 Sanders Philosophy of Mind Prize Winner - Daily Nous — Experiencing Left and Right in a Non-Orientable World
* Experiencing Left and Right in a Non-Orientable World by Jona…
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Nov 20, 2018
Episode 152: Ruthlessness, Public and Private
Tamler and David continue their Nagel-gazing by discussing another essay from Mortal Questions: "Ruthlessness in Public Life." Why do we treat the immorality of politicians, military leaders, and others in power differently than the immorality of individuals? Why does it seem less aversive to shake the hand of someone responsible for the death of thousands of civilians through military action than it does to shake the hand of a serial killer who has merely killed dozens? Are the rules we use to judge the moral atrocities of public officials different from the ones we use to judge private atrocities? Do they have the same basic foundations? Plus, we satisfy our listeners bloodlust by arguing about the new "Journal of Controversial Ideas" (because it would be cowardly not to).
This episode is brought to you by Givewell.org, and by the private morality of our generous supporters.
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* Here Comes ‘The Journal of Controversia…
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Nov 6, 2018
Episode 151: Viddy Well, My Listeners (Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange")
There was me, that is Tamler, and my droog, that is David, and we sat in our living rooms on Skype trying to make up our rassoodocks what Stanley Kubrick's a Clockwork Orange was really about? Free will? We didn't think so. Punishment? Yeah but what about punishment? And what about the old ultraviolence - can it still shock us in the modern age? Then suddenly we viddied that thinking was for the gloopy ones and that the oomny just, like, press record and start the podcast. Slooshy well, my brothers, slooshy well.
This episode is brought to you by our beloved Patreon supporters and www.givewell.org.
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Links:
* A Clockwork Orange (film) - Wikipedia
* COTO - Re-interpreting Alex's Violence in A Clockwork Orange
* A Clockwork Orange | Film Review | Slant Magazine
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Oct 23, 2018
Episode 150: Paul Bloom Insisted That We Talk About Sex Robots
What better way to celebrate our 150th episode than to bring back our favorite guest – Paul Bloom! We riff on a series of topics: the new “grievance studies” hoax, sex robot brothels, perverse desires, and perverse beliefs. Then we get a little navel gazey (OK maybe more than a little) and talk about podcasting as a form of media and discussion, good teaching, and what we’ve learned about our listeners and ourselves. (Note: the audio may sound a little echoey towards the end because of how far we’ve crawled up our own asses.) This was a fun one, enjoy!
Special Guest: Paul Bloom.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Proposed 'sex robot brothel' blocked by Houston city council
* ‘Sokal Squared’: Is Huge Publishing Hoax ‘Hilarious and Delightful’ or an Ugly Example of Dishonesty and Bad Faith? - The Chronicle of Higher Education
* The Jem'Hadar - Wikipedia
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Oct 2, 2018
Episode 149: Death, Immortality, and Porn (Intuition) Pumps
Is living forever a good thing? Could we maintain our values and personal attachments throughout eternity? Would we be motivated to accomplish anything? Can we make sense of a human life that doesn't have a fixed endpoint? We try to alleviate David's paralyzing fear of death by examining two articles - one on how immortality is worse than we think, and the other providing evidence that dying might be better than we think. Plus,we examine some famous thought experiments - if they were porn. And a special bonus: after the outro music, Eliza Sommers joins her Dad at to give her theory about Twin Peaks: The Return (contains spoilers).
Special Guest: Eliza Sommers.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Intuition pump - Wikipedia
* Very Bad Wizards Episode 52: Thought Experiments (Huh!) What Are They Good For? (Part 2)
* Frankfurt cases - Wikipedia
* Gettier problem - Wikipedia
* Russell's paradox - Wikipedia
* Veil of ignorance - Wikipedia
* Buridan's ass - Wikipedia
* There…
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Sep 19, 2018
Episode 148: Am I Wrong?
Tamler wades into a Twitter controversy about Serena Williams - could this be his fast-track pass into the IDW? And since we're talking about that, why not throw in a discussion of Louis CK's surprise set at the Comedy Cellar? In the second segment, we step outside of last week's social media culture wars to discuss "But I Could Be Wrong," a paper by philosopher George Sher from Rice University. What happens once we realize that our moral convictions are often not better justified than the convictions of people who disagree with us? Does that mean it's no longer rational to act on them? And is the problem deeper for moral beliefs than it is for empirical or aesthetic beliefs?
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* US Open 2018: Serena Williams’ fight with umpire Carlos Ramos, explained - Vox
* Tamler tweets
* Sher, G. (2001). But I could be wrong. Social Philosophy and Policy, 18(2), 64-78.
* A Crying Shame: The 2018 US Open Will Only be Remembered for Serena by Cindy Shmerler…
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Sep 4, 2018
Episode 147: Effective Altruism and Moral Uncertainty (with The One True Scotsman, Will MacAskill)
Oxford philosophy professor Will MacAskill joins us to talk about effective altruism, moral uncertainty, and why you shouldn’t eat your grandmother (even if consequentialism is true). How should we act when we’re not sure which moral theory is the right one? Can we formulate a guide for behavior, modeled on decision theory, that maximizes expected moral value? How do we assign credences to ethical (as opposed to empirical) claims? Why has effective altruism become so popular, so fast, yet at the same time seem off-putting to many people? Plus, Tamler faces a dilemma when narrating his audiobook, and Dave is the Louis CK of his own backyard.
0:00 - 25:41 Tamler's dilemma and Guilty Confessions.
25:41 -31:15 Break, contact info, updates, thanks to our listeners and supporters.
31:16 -1:43:19 Wil MacAskill interview.
Special Guest: William MacAskill.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* William MacAskill homepage
* The Most Efficient Way to Save a Life - The Atlantic
* Doing…
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Aug 21, 2018
Episode 146: Sore Losers (Does Sports Make Us Unhappy?)
Is being a sports fan irrational? Does it lead to more suffering than happiness? David and Tamler discuss a recent study that suggests the answer is "yes." But does the study really capture the benefits of being fans? More generally, does science have the tools to truly measure the costs and benefits of rooting for your favorite teams? Plus, we talk about The Nation apologizing for publishing a poem written in Black English Vernacular, and introduce a dramatic new segment: "Guilty Confessions."
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* A Poem in The Nation Spurs a Backlash and an Apology - The New York Times
* British economists prove it: Sports destroy happiness - The Washington Post
* Dolton, P., & MacKerron, G. (2018). Is football a matter of life and death - or is it more important than that?
* mappiness, the happiness mapping app
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Aug 7, 2018
Episode 145: Lost in Borges' Garden
David and Tamler go deep into Borges’ labyrinth to discuss the fascinating, multi-dimensional story “The Garden of Forking Paths.” What is the underlying reality of this story? What demands does Borges make of his readers? What is Borges telling us about time, freedom, war, and art? Is the story itself a maze for readers to wander and lose their way? We don’t have all the answers, but it was one of our favorite discussions in a long time. Plus, we give some brief non-spoiler opinions about Boots Riley’s movie "Sorry to Bother You," but a spoiler-filled Patreon episode is coming soon.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Sorry to Bother You (2018) - IMDb
* Boots Riley - Wikipedia
* DJ Pam The Funkstress Scratch Routine
* Lakeith Stanfield - Wikipedia
* The Garden of Forking Paths by Jorge Luis Borges (full text PDF) [mycourse.es]
* The Garden of Forking Paths - Wikipedia
* Collected Fictions: Jorge Luis Borges (translated by Andrew Hurley) [amazon.com affiliate l…
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Jul 24, 2018
Episode 144: Borges' Babylon
David and Tamler try to wrap their heads around Jorge Luis Borges' “The Library of Babel†– a short story about a universe/library that contains every possible book with every possible combination of characters. How many books would this library contain? Would some of the books justify our lives (if we could find them)? Can we know whether a book is deeply meaningful or deeply misleading? Why are the librarians so alone and so consumed with anguish? Wouldn’t we all just end up just looking for the porn books? Plus, we talk about the ethics of doing research on data drawn from the Ashley Madison leak. Life is short, listen to this episode.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* I. Y. Yunioshi - Wikipedia
* Eddie Murphy: White Like Me (SNL)
* Scarlett Johansson Withdraws from Controversial Role as a Trans Man Following Backlash
* Neuroskeptic on Twitter: ""Democrats were least likely to use Ashley Madison, Libertarians were most likely, and Republicans, Gree…
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Jul 10, 2018
Episode 143: The Psychology of Personality
David and Tamler tackle the topic selected by their Patreon supporters - the psychology of personality. What are the different dimensions of personality that distinguish one person from another? How many dimensions are there - do the Big Five capture all of them? Do we share some of these differences with other species? Why don't personality psychologists include moral character traits? Plus - are you curious about your partner's true political commitments? No problem, just install a periscope in your toilet.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Testing Inter-hemispheric Social Priming Theory in a Sample of Professional Politicians-A Brief Report
* https://t.co/SnozmgFgRJ"" rel="nofollow">Gary Lewis on Twitter: "I submitted a hoax manuscript to a predatory journal. The finding? Politicians from the right wipe their ass with their left hand (and vice versa) - big breakthrough! Manuscript accepted w/o review. I then haggled the OA fee down to $0 - so here it is -> https://t.co/Snozmg…
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Jun 26, 2018
Episode 142: Suicide (with Matthew Nock)
In what has to be the most somber VBW to date, David and Tamler welcome Harvard psychologist Matthew Nock to the podcast to talk about suicide and other forms of self-harm. Matt tells us what we know – and what we don’t know - about the causes of suicide and the ways to prevent it. In the first segment we talk about the recent exposé of Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment. Were the guards told to be brutal? Were the prisoners never aware that could have left the study at any time? What is Tamler going to do about the Zimbardo interview in A Very Bad Wizard the book? Is David going to continue teaching it in his intro psych course? And does Yoel Inbar need to preregister his beers?
Special Guest: Matthew Nock.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Stanford Prison Experiment: why famous psychology studies are now being torn apart - Vox
* The Lifespan of a Lie – Trust Issues – Medium
* Reicher, S., & Haslam, S. A. (2006). Rethinking the psychology of tyranny: The BBC pr…
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Jun 5, 2018
Episode 141: Implicit Bias
David and Tamler tackle the topic of implicit bias and the controversy surrounding the implicit association test (IAT). What is implicit bias anyway? Does it have to be linked to behavior in order to truly count as a "bias"? Has the IAT been overhyped as a reflection of individual or group prejudice? And why is the debate on this topic so depressing? Plus, some deep thoughts on the intellectual dark web, how to join it, and what the analogy is supposed to reflect.
Sponsored By:
* RXBAR Promo Code: badwizards
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Opinion | Meet the Renegades of the Intellectual Dark Web - The New York Times
* Psychology’s Racism-Measuring Tool Isn’t Up to the Job -- Science of Us
* Implicit-association test - Wikipedia
* Take the Implicit Associations Test (IAT)
* Greenwald, A. G., Poehlman, T. A., Uhlmann, E. L., & Banaji, M. R. (2009). Understanding and using the Implicit Association Test: III. Meta-analysis of predictive validity. Journal of Personal…
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May 22, 2018
Episode 140: Milgram's Mice
Honor shmonor, David and Tamler return to their repugnant roots for this one. First, we pay an overdue homage to the great anonymous blogger and twitter-redeemer Neuroskeptic. We pick a few of our favorite pithy tweets and crazy science article links from his @neuro_skeptic twitter account. Topics include: How much would you pay for porn? Should we be stereotyping zoophiles? Animal or fist - how to distinguish? And what do the left and right brain actually do? In part 2, we discuss an experiment that aims to finally answer the question: do our judgments in sacrificial dilemmas (like the trolley problem) -actually- predict our behavior? Plus, we find out live (on tape) if David is a Laurel or a Yanni - or is he a Samantha?
Thanks to our sponsor www.awaytravel.com.
Sponsored By:
* Away Promo Code: BADWIZARDS
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Neuroskeptic - Wikipedia
* Neuroskeptic (@Neuro_Skeptic) | Twitter
* Neuroskeptic's Blog for Discover Magazine
* @Neuro_skeptic: "If…
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May 12, 2018
Episode 139: Honor, Identity, and Headbutts
It took two tries (the first one led to a big non-productive fight), but David and Tamler end up with a good discussion of honor and its connection to identity, pride, and personal relationships. Why have we rejected honor in favor of dignity? What are the costs and benefits of doing that? How do people "find themselves" in an industrialized anonymous society? What should you do when someone insults your sister and you're playing in the final of the World Cup? The seminal paper by Peter Berger "On the Obsolescence of the Culture of Honor" (along with Tamler's new book) was the launching point for the discussion (links to both in show notes).
This episode is brought to you by Simple Contacts.
Sponsored By:
* Simple Contacts Promo Code: WIZARDS
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Why Honor Matters by Tamler Sommers [amazon affiliate link]
* Berger, P. (1970). On the Obsolescence of the Concept of Honor. European Journal of Sociology/Archives Européennes de Sociologie/Europäis…
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Apr 24, 2018
Episode 138: Memory, Pain, and Relationships (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind)
Award-winning screenwriter and medieval philosophy scholar Yoel Inbar joins us for a deep dive on the Charlie Kaufman/Michel GondREY masterpiece Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. When relationships go bad is it better to believe they never happened? What is the nature of memory, how is it constructed, and is it possible to zap them out existence with an Apple IIe? Will Tamler have a more optimistic take on the ending of the movie than David? (Hint: yes)
Also--only two more weeks to preorder Why Honor Matters and get your free bonus episode! Upload your receipt here
Special Guest: Yoel Inbar.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Yoel Inbar
* Michel Gondry - IMDb
* Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) - IMDb
* Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Movie Review (2004) | Roger Ebert
* The Science of Sleep (2006) - IMDb
* Be Kind Rewind (2008) - IMDb
* Jay Electronica - Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge) (Full 15-minute version) - YouTube
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Apr 10, 2018
Episode 137: Are Buddhists Afraid to Die? (with Shaun Nichols)
Why are we always attracted to people who mock us, resist our advances, and play hard to get? Maybe because it’s extra satisfying when you finally get them to… appear on your podcast. In our first live episode (recorded in San Antonio), the philosopher Shaun Nichols joins us to discuss his recent article “Death and the Self”. You might think that Buddhist conceptions of the self as illusory would reduce their fear of death (after all, if there’s no real self, why worry about it ceasing to exist?). But the evidence collected by Shaun and colleagues suggests exactly the opposite. Why would that be?
Plus, David and Tamler choose six finalists for the Patreon listener selected episode (did Jordan Peterson make the list?), and we announce a special bonus for people who pre-order Tamler’s forthcoming book "Why Honor Matters."
Special Guest: Shaun Nichols.
Sponsored By:
* RXBAR Promo Code: badwizards
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Why Honor Matters by Tamler Sommers…
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Mar 27, 2018
Episode 136: The Good Life (with Laurie Santos)
From Very Bad Wizards to Megyn Kelly Today back to Very Bad Wizards, Laurie Santos has traveled the typical trajectory of the celebrity academic. Laurie joins us to talk about her cult status after creating the most popular course in Yale University history: Psychology and the Good Life. Why are we so bad at predicting what will make us happy? What makes it so hard to do the things we know are good for us? Why are young people more stressed, anxious, and overworked than they used to be? And how can we nudge ourselves into living better lives? Plus we take a test for determining the virtues that come easiest to us and the ones that come.. harder.
This episode is sponsored by Audible and Casper.
Special Guest: Laurie Santos.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Laurie Santos | Comparative Cognition Laboratory
* Yale’s Most Popular Class Ever: Happiness - The New York Times
* Psychology and The Good Life 2018 Course Syllabus
* Matt Killingsworth: Want to be happier? Stay in th…
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Mar 13, 2018
Episode 135: Utilitarianism and Moral Identity
David and Tamler take a break from complaining about psychological studies that measure utilitarianism to complain about the moral theory itself. We talk about one of the most famous critiques of utilitarian theories from Bernard Williams. Does utilitarianism annihilate our integrity--our unity--as people? Would trying to maximize well-being fracture our identities, and swallow up our projects, motivations, and moral convictions--the same convictions that make utilitarianism seem appealing in the first place? Is it ultimately self-defeating as a moral theory?
Plus, we talk about the adventures of Tamler's based step-mom Christina Hoff Sommers' at Lewis and Clark law school. Will David stay woke?
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Protesters try to shut down Christina Hoff Sommers at Lewis & Clark Law School - YouTube
* Statement on the Christina Hoff Sommers Event at the Law School - Newsroom - Lewis & Clark
* We’re All Fascists Now - The New York Times
* "The Usual Suspec…
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Feb 27, 2018
Episode 134: Digital Outrage (with Molly Crockett)
It's been 5 years since Molly Crockett has been guest on VBW. During that time she's completed a post-doc at University College, London and become a professor at Yale University. And we're...well, we're still doing the podcast. Today Molly joins us to talk about moral outrage in the age of social media. Has the outrage changed now that we express so much of it online? Does it contribute to polarization and social division, or give a voice to the less powerful? How can we harness the benefits of online outrage while minimizing the costs? Plus, Dave and Tamler perform an exorcism on the unholy offspring of evolutionary psychology and trolleyology.
Special Guest: Molly Crockett.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Brown, M., & Sacco, D. F. (2017). Is pulling the lever sexy? Deontology as a downstream cue to long-term mate quality. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 0265407517749331.
* Crockett, M. J. (2017). Moral outrage in the digital age. Nature Human Behaviour, 1(11),…
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Feb 6, 2018
Episode 133: Death and Dreams
David and Tamler talk about the nature of death. Is being dead a bad thing? If so, what makes it bad? How can anything be bad for a subject that no longer exists? We didn't have a problem with oblivion for the thirteen billion years before we were born, why fear it now?
Plus, a discussion about the "it was all a dream" trope in TV and film. Why is it so infuriating in some works but not others?
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Tommy Westphall - Wikipedia
* 20 Years Ago: 'Newhart' ends with a shock | EW.com
* Dallas (1978 TV series) (season 9) - Wikipedia
* It's Just a Cartoon, How can SpongeBob and friends go to the beach if...
* Nagel, T. (1970). Death. Noûs, 73-80.
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Jan 23, 2018
Episode 132: Emotional Willpower (with David DeSteno)
What's the best way to build self-control, patience, productivity, and delayed marshmallow eating? For decades psychologists and economists have told us to develop traits like willpower and grit. But psychologist David DeSteno describes a better, easier, and more effective path--the emotions. We talk to David about his new (not-self-help) book "Emotional Success," which argues that the emotions of gratitude, pride, and compassion can help us fulfill long-term goals and (as a special bonus) make us happier and better people.
Plus, David and Tamler take a quiz that measures how utilitarian they are, and you won't believe the results!!! (Actually, you will.)
This episode is sponsored by Casper. Visit www.casper.com and enter offer code BADWIZARDS to get $50 toward select purchases.
Special Guest: Dave DeSteno.
Sponsored By:
* Casper Promo Code: BADWIZARDS
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* How Utilitarian Are You? The Oxford Utilitarianism Scale | Practical Ethics
* Everett,…
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Jan 9, 2018
Episode 131: I Have No Genitals and I Must Scream
David and Tamler break down two episodes (with full spoilers) from the new season of Charlie Brooker's bleaker-than-bleak Netflix series Black Mirror. First up, "The USS Callister," a Star Trek parody that becomes a meditation on fandom, humiliation, and cowardly revenge. Next we talk about "Black Museum" - could it be the final episode of Black Mirror? Should it be? After four seasons of indicting humanity, has Charlie Brooker turned his critical lens on himself?
Plus, you thought it was bad for children to tell lies, but it turns out that it's good!
This episode is brought to you by RXBAR. Visit www.rxbar.com/wizards, and enter promo code "BADWIZARDS" at checkout for 25% off your first purchase.
Sponsored By:
* RXBAR Promo Code: badwizards
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Is Your Child Lying to You? That’s Good - The New York Times
* "Black Mirror" USS Callister (TV Episode 2017) - IMDb
* "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" by Harlan Ellison
* "Black Mirror" Blac…
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Dec 26, 2017
Episode 130: Dehumanization and Disintegration (with Paul Bloom)
In this Very Special Boxing Day edition of the podcast, Tamler and David welcome back honorary Third Wizard Paul Bloom to discuss his latest article in the New Yorker about dehumanization and cruelty. Is it really the case that we dehumanize in order to harm others? Or does most violence actually require us to view others as fundamentally human, agentic, and capable of true suffering? But first, we discuss the stages of Star Trek transporter cognition, whether Paul and David are closet-dualists, and whether the process of choosing a Dalai Lama suffers from p-hacking concerns. (And between segments we give our brief, spoiler-free thoughts on Season 3 of Mr. Robot). Happy Chanukah, Kwanzaa, New Year, and Merry Christmas to all!
Special Guest: Paul Bloom.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Join the Very Bad Wizards discussion on Reddit
* Paul Bloom | Department of Psychology
* The Root of All Cruelty? | The New Yorker
* Klaus J. Jacobs Awards - Jacobs Foundation
* War Child…
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Dec 12, 2017
Episode 129: Dystopias
David and Tamler assert their autonomy as individuals by discussing their favorite dystopian works of art. Rebelling against a repressive regime, they refuse to sacrifice their privacy, uniqueness, and reproductive freedom. Through sheer force of will - the human spirit - they triumph over the pressures to ... wait what? You want me to take that pill? Okay, can't hurt. Aaahhhhh. So happy... So content... Must keep order. When the individual feels, the community reels. I am you, and you are I. I am you, and you are I.
Plus, a real-life trolley problem! (Or is it?)
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Very Bad Wizards subreddit — Contribute to our Reddit discussions!
* Letters of Note: 1984 v. Brave New World
* Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut [wordfight.org]
* The Lobster (2015) - IMDb
* Gattaca (1997) - IMDb
* Never Let Me Go (novel) - Wikipedia
* Children of Men (2006) - IMDb
* The Trial (1962) - IMDb
* The Trial - Wikipedia
* It's a Good Life (The Twilight Zo…
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Nov 28, 2017
Episode 128: Fragmented Values and Sex Panics (with Christina Hoff Sommers)
David and Tamler keep their Nagel streak alive, discussing the essay "The Fragmention of Value" from his collection "Mortal Questions." How should we address our fragmented moral landscape, with multiple sources of value that can't be reduced or systematically ordered? Does this make all of our moral decisions arbitrary? Plus, we talk about Louis CK and in a Thanksgiving tradition special guest Christina Hoff Sommers rejoins the podcast in a moderately drunken debate with Tamler about a possible sex panic.
Special Guest: Christina Hoff Sommers.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Christina Hoff Sommers - Wikipedia
* We’re at risk of turning #metoo into rush to blame all men - NY Daily News
* Nagel, T. (2012). Mortal questions. Cambridge University Press. [amazon.com affiliate link]
* Documentary Film Finding Vivian Maier | Vivian Maier Photographer
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Nov 14, 2017
Episode 127: Moral Luck
David and Tamler dip back into the Thomas Nagel well, and discuss the problem of "moral luck." Why do we blame drunk drivers who hit someone more than drunk drivers who make it home OK? Why do we judge people for things that are beyond their control (when we have strong intuitions that uncontrollable acts don't deserve blame)? Does moral luck ultimately swallow all of our behavior? Can we truly embrace the view that "actions are events and people are things" or are we stuck with another unsolvable clash of competing perspectives (just like the problem of absurdity)?
Plus, Dave exposes himself on the Partially Examined Life, Tamler self-censors, and somehow we discuss Hollywood harassment and stand-up comedy without mentioning Louis CK. (But only because we recorded this episode about five hours before the NY Times story broke.)
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Nagel, T. (2012). Mortal questions. Cambridge University Press. [amazon.com affiliate link]
* Nagel, T. Moral Luck.…
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Oct 24, 2017
Episode 126: The Absurd
Is life meaningless? Are humans just glorified dung beetles, pushing around our piles of poop with no greater purpose? What would it take for life to actually be meaningful? In this episode, Tamler and David discuss Thomas Nagel’s essay on the sense of meaninglessness and absurdity that can so easily creep into human existence (with a special emphasis on the work of Camus and the philosophy of Rick and Morty). But first we tackle even more important questions about the human condition such as, why is it easier to detect the size of a hole with your tongue than with your little finger? And which moral "dilemmas" are actually moral no-brainers? (In the process, we even solve the problem of free speech on campus. You’re welcome.)
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* The Extent of Skin Bending Rather Than Action Possibilities Explains Why Holes Feel Larger With the Tongue Than With the Finger. - PubMed - NCBI
* Pure joy: a colorblind man sees color for the first time
* Dan Harmon…
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Oct 10, 2017
Episode 125: Can You Feel It?
What do we mean when we say someone is angry? Can we identify anger (or any other emotion) via facial expressions, physiological changes, or neural markers? Is anger simply a feeling, something that happens to us, or does it involve a judgment? How much control do we have over our emotions, and can we be responsible for them? We talk about the work of Lisa Feldman Barrett and Bob Solomon. Plus, Tamler engages in conceptual analysis on Star Trek transporter beliefs (yes you read that right) and David is too stunned to argue.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Yale’s Paul Bloom to receive $1 million Klaus Jacobs Prize | YaleNews
* Solomon, R. C. (1973). Emotions and choice. The Review of Metaphysics, 20-41.
* What Emotions Are (and Aren’t) - The New York Times
* Are Emotions Natural Kinds? Perspectives on Psychological Science - Lisa Feldman Barrett, 2006
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Sep 26, 2017
Episode 124: Dr. Strawson or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Episodic Life
Do you think of your life as a story? Does your life have a narrative structure or form? Do you identify with your past selves and your future selves? If not, can you live a good life, a moral life, an authentic life? Can you feel guilt, regret, and resentment? Plus, speaking of stories, we talk about a new study suggesting that books with anthropomorphic animals can't teach moral lessons to kids.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Larsen, N. E., Lee, K., & Ganea, P. A. (2017). Do storybooks with anthropomorphized animal characters promote prosocial behaviors in young children?. Developmental Science.
* Children's books with humans have greater moral impact than animals, study finds | Books | The Guardian
* Strawson, G. (2004). Against narrativity. Ratio, 17(4), 428-452.
* Strawson, G. (2007). Episodic ethics. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements, 60, 85-115.
* Parfit, D. (1995). The unimportance of identity.
* I am Not a Story
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Sep 12, 2017
Episode 123: What Chilling Effect? (Intelligence Pt. 2)
It’s Part 2 of the Patreon listener selected episode! David and Tamler continue their discussion on intelligence from our last episode by tackling the radioactive topic of group differences and IQ. Are there reliable differences in IQ across races? Given that IQ is strongly heritable, and that racial categories are based (in part) on biological differences, does it follow that group differences in IQ are due to biological differences across racial groups? (Could only a politically motivated science-denier conclude otherwise?) David argues that biological explanations for racial differences in IQ are based on a fundamental misunderstanding of genetics and race. It’s a complex argument, so if you start listening, please finish! (Oh and @VBW_No_Context on Twitter, take a vacation, you’ve earned it!). Plus, more on neuroscientific explanations, and Tamler relates his experience of Hurricane Harvey.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Race & IQ: Debate Serves No Purpose | National…
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Aug 29, 2017
Episode 122: Nothing but a "G" Thing (Intelligence Pt. 1)
David and Tamler do their best to talk frankly about intelligence and IQ research. (It's our Patreon listener-selected topic! We probably would never have chosen this one on our own...). Is intelligence a meaningful, definable concept? Can we reliably test for it? How much of the variability in IQ across individuals is due to heritable factors? Are people with higher IQ happier, wealthier, or healthier than people with lower IQ? And why is this topic so controversial anyhow? Plus in the intro segment Tamler and David discuss why you probably don't need fMRI to know what your dog wants, and why cognitive neuroscience seems to confuse otherwise intelligent folks. (Note: This is Part 1 of our discussion on intelligence. In Part 2 will delve into the slightly more controversial topics of IQ, race, and gender).
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* What Does Your Dog Really Want? - Scientific American Blog Network
* A Very Bad Wizard: Morality behind the curtain by Tamler Sommers [amazon…
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Aug 15, 2017
Episode 121: The Beauty of Illusion - David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive"
Guest Yoel Inbar joins David and Tamler to break down David Lynch’s dreamy masterpiece Mulholland Drive. (FULL SPOILERS – watch before you listen!) What’s real and what’s illusion? What happens when our illusions unravel? How do expectations affect our experience? How can artists use our expectations to manipulate our emotions? Come for the questions, stay for the answers – or at least for more questions.
Special Guest: Yoel Inbar.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Mulholland Drive (2001) - IMDb
* Everything you were afraid to ask about “Mulholland Drive” - Salon.com
* Film Crit Hulk Smash: HULK VS. THE GENIUS OF MULHOLLAND DRIVE | Birth.Movies.Death.
* David Lynch Signature Cup Organic Coffee | Organic Coffee | JavaDistribution.com
* Urban Dictionary: fuck tab
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Jul 25, 2017
Episode 120: Clap Your Hand for Robert Wright
Special guest Robert Wright joins the podcast to discuss his latest book "Why Buddhism is True." What is the Buddhist conception of not-self?
When we become aware that the boundaries between us and the world are fluid, what is the “we” that arrives at this insight? Can daily meditation make you less of a dick? How does evolutionary psychology bear on these questions? Plus, Dave horrifies Tamler with his new hipster habit.
Special Guest: Robert Wright.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* One-Hand Clapping Kōan [wikipedia.org]
* Robert Wright (journalist) - Wikipedia
* Robert Wright's Website
* Pre-order "Why Buddhism Is True" by Robert Wright [amazon.com affiliate link]
* Break music: Try Harder by peez | Free Listening on SoundCloud
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Jul 11, 2017
Episode 119: A Brief History of Values
What happens when we discover why we believe the things we believe? What if we discover that our values are the product of our cultural tradition, or personal experience, or natural selection? Should we be more skeptical of our values once we learn their history? Plus, data on Google porn searches reveal that you're all a bunch of sick fucks.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Proof that Americans are lying about their sexual desires - Vox
* Doris, J. M. (2009). Genealogy and Evidence: Prinz on the History of Morals.
* Kahane, G. (2011). Evolutionary debunking arguments. Noûs, 45(1), 103-125.
* The Splintered Mind: Tamler Sommers
* Break Music: Everything Is Wrong by peez
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Jun 27, 2017
Episode 118: We Don't Love Them Hoax
David and Tamler try to put the topic of campus politics to bed once and for all – with limited success. First, we get into a big fight about the prevalence and danger of political correctness in American universities. We junked that recording, and tried to distill our best points into a new one. (Trust us – it was for the best.) We also narrow down all the topic recommendations from our beloved Patreon supporters to five finalists. In the second segment, James Lindsay (co-author of the "Conceptual Penis" hoax) joins us to talk about why he thinks the hoax was more successful in exposing gender studies than some of their critics (including us) have suggested.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* James Lindsay (@GodDoesnt) | Twitter
* James Lindsay's Website (God Doesn't; We Do)
* Skeptic » Reading Room » The Conceptual Penis as a Social Construct: A Sokal-Style Hoax on Gender Studies
* Alan Sokal: Some Thoughts on “The Conceptual Penis as a Social Construct” Hoax
*…
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Jun 13, 2017
Episode 117: Extended Minds, Extended Foreskins
David and Tamler break down a recent classic in the philosophy of mind: "The Extended Mind" by Andy Clark and David Chalmers. What is
boundary of your mind? Is it contained with your body, or does it extend to the external environment--to your laptop, notebook,
smartphone and more? Is this a purely terminological question, or one with practical and moral significance? And what is the role of
intuition in providing an answer? Plus, Dave shares an email alerting him to the psychological trauma of male circumcision along
with an exciting all-natural method for restoring the foreskin (that was stolen from us as infants).
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Gay man, who suffered from depression over his circumcision, kills himself
* Circumcision’s Psychological Damage | Psychology Today
* Foreskin restoration for circumcised males — "Non-surgical foreskin restoration was reinvented in the late 1970s by a movement of circumcised men, mostly from the United States, who were ups…
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May 31, 2017
Episode 116: Pain, Pleasure, and Peer-Reviewed Penises
David and Tamler break down the latest small-stakes academic controversy--yes the one about conceptual penises. Does the recent "Sokal-like" hoax expose the ideological extremism of gender studies? Or does it show that certain portions of the "skeptic" community are susceptible to the same biases as their opponents? In the main segment they discuss the problems with measuring pain, pleasure, and happiness. When your doctor asks you to rate your pain between 1 and 10 and you say a 7, does your '7' reflect the same subjective experience as another person's '7'? (That depends--have you experienced childbirth?) How can we get more accurate readings of pain and pleasure across different people with different experiences? Most importantly, which number gets you the Vicodin?
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Skeptic » Reading Room » The Conceptual Penis as a Social Construct: A Sokal-Style Hoax on Gender Studies
* Sokal affair - Wikipedia
* Why the "Conceptual Penis" Hoax is Just a…
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May 16, 2017
Episode 115: Which Field is More Fu@%ed: Philosophy or Psychology?
David and Tamler go ambulance chasing for scandals in their own fields. Inspired by a tweet from Jay Van Bavel, they argue about which of their disciplines--philosophy or psychology--is more completely and irredeemably fucked. Is the recent controversy at the feminist philosophy journal Hypatia diagnostic of larger problems in philosophy? Can the replication crisis ever be solved? Can philosophy return to studying the big questions? What can psychologists actually discover about the human mind?
Warning: this episode features a more respectful and mature dialogue than some VBW listeners may be comfortable with.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Jay Van Bavel on Twitter: "Psychologists: "our field is a hot mess" Philosophers: "hold my beer" https://t.co/mX344fBBfV"
* EP. 86 SAM HARRIS Part #1 by #WeThePeople LIVE | Free Listening on SoundCloud
* Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog: Issues in the Profession
* This Is What a Modern-Day Witch Hunt Looks Like
* The real damage do…
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May 4, 2017
Episode 114: Great Vengeance and Furious Anger (Top 5 Movies About Revenge)
Somehow, after 113 episodes David and Tamler have never done a top 5 movie episode about revenge (so unbelievable that we had to double-check). That changes today. Among the things we learned: good revenge movies are harder to find than we thought, revenge (at least, movie revenge) is messy, and David knows at least one movie that Tamler has never heard of. Plus, should Jews be celebrating the killing of Egyptian first borns? Or atoning for it? (Or perhaps just pouring out a little more wine at Passover?)
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* The price of freedom | OUPblog
* Progressive Family Unable to Finish Game of 'Guess Who?'
* David's #5: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) - IMDb
* Tamler's #5: High Plains Drifter (1973) [IMDb.com]
* David's #4: Tombstone (1993) [IMDb.com]
* Gunfight at the O.K. Corral - Wikipedia
* Earp Vendetta Ride - Wikipedia
* Tamler's #4: The Limey (1999) [IMDb.com]
* David's #3: Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) [IMDb.com]
* D…
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Apr 18, 2017
Episode 113: Pascal, Probability, and Pitchforks
David and Tamler break down what may be the best argument that it's rational to believe in God: Pascal's Wager. (No, we're not just trolling our Sam Harris listeners.) Does the expected value of believing in God outweigh the probability that you're wrong? How does belief work--can you just turn it on and off? What if you believe in the wrong God? This leads to a wide-ranging discussion on decision theory, instrumental rationality, artificial intelligence, transformative experiences, and whether David should drop acid. Your brain AND your future self will love this episode!
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* 2017 BP MS 150: Mr. Tamler Sommers - National MS Society
* Prose&Cons - YouTube
* Why people are so bad at thinking about the future.
* On Intertemporal Selfishness: How the Perceived Instability of Identity Underlies Impatient Consumption | Journal of Consumer Research | Oxford Academic
* "Homer's Soul" by Paul Bloom and David Pizarro
* Pascal's Wager - Wikipedia
*…
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Apr 4, 2017
Episode 112: Gettier Goggles
For four years Tamler has been bitching about Gettier cases without even explaining what they are or why he hates them. That ends today. David and Tamler talk about the famous paper that challenged the (widespread? non-existent?) notion that knowledge is, and only is, justified true belief. We talk about the so-called skeptics about knowledge that Gettier inspired, then discuss the real skepticism that Descartes examined with his evil demon thought experiment. Plus, you know how you're in a monogamous relationship because of science? Well, turns out that science may be flawed....
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* The idea of monogamy as a relationship ideal is based on flawed science — Quartz
* A Former Student Says UC Berkeley’s Star Philosophy Professor Groped Her And Watched Porn At Work - BuzzFeed News
* About - The Casual Sex Project
* The Woman With an Alternative Theory of Hookups -- The Cut
* Clark, R. D., & Hatfield, E. (1989). Gender differences in receptivit…
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Mar 22, 2017
Episode 111: Our Language Doesn't Have a Word For This Title (with Yoel Inbar)
In Part 2 of our episode with film scholar Yoel Inbar (AOS: Quebecois New Wave Cinema), we break down the philosophy and psychology of the movie Arrival. [Note: Massive spoilers, see the movie first!] Does our language shape our perception of reality? Would you have a child that you knew had a short time to live? What color is 'fuschia'? Why does right-wing radio make you want to dynamite alien spacecrafts?
For Part 1 of this episode, see https://verybadwizards.fireside.fm/110
Special Guest: Yoel Inbar.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* yoel inbar :: home
* Arrival (2016) - IMDb
* Casasanto, D. (2008). Who's afraid of the big bad Whorf? Crosslinguistic differences in temporal language and thought. Language learning, 58(s1), 63-79. Chicago
* Break Music (soundcloud.com/peezismyname)
* Linguistic relativity - Wikipedia
* Inscrutability of reference - Wikipedia
* Sex-related differences in the color lexicon
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Mar 14, 2017
Episode 110: Stepsisters and Neck Braces (with Yoel Inbar)
Any time the topic is campus politics there's a good chance we'll have to record more than once. True to form, David and Tamler yelled at each other for most of the first attempt to discuss the Middlebury College incident while special guest Yoel Inbar wept quietly in the corner. We did a little better the second time but the whole recording session took so long that we have to release it in two parts. In part one we talk about the most popular porn search terms by U.S. State and then wade into the Charles Murray protest at Middlebury. In part two (coming next week) we do a deep dive on the movie Arrival (so if you haven't seen it yet you have one more week!)
Special Guest: Yoel Inbar.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* yoel inbar :: home
* The United States Top Searches – Pornhub Insights
* A Violent Attack on Free Speech at Middlebury - The Atlantic
* Understanding the Angry Mob at Middlebury That Gave Me a Concussion - The New York Times
* The Bell Curve - Wikipedia…
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Feb 28, 2017
Episode 109: Moral Pluralism: Behind the Lube
David and Tamler return to their repugnant roots to talk about Cornell's refusal to hire conservative faculty, Milo getting disinvited from CPAC, and a case in Canada involving child sex dolls and a bottle of lube. Then they launch into a discussion of moral pluralism. Do competing values ultimately reduce to a single set of moral principles? What defines and justifies the boundaries of pluralism? What should you do when your Amish friend is getting bullied? Plus, more lube.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Cornell University Students Vote Against Intellectual Diversity, on Grounds It Would Harm Diversity - Hit & Run : Reason.com
* Child sex doll trial opens Pandora's box of questions about child porn - Newfoundland & Labrador - CBC News
* The 96 hours that brought down Milo Yiannopoulos - The Washington Post
* Age of Consent - by Jesse Bering - The Stranger
* Very Bad Wizards (@verybadwizards) • Instagram photos and videos
* Overcast (Podcast client for iOS) — In a…
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Feb 7, 2017
Episode 108: The Gimp Exception
Inspired by a recent article, David and Tamler try to figure out what's behind our aversion to moral hypocrisy. Why do we have such low opinions of people who don't practice what they preach? Shouldn't we be happy that they promote the views we agree with? Plus we respond to an email about how to come up with ideas for research. (Hint: ask Paul Bloom). Note: this episode was recorded before the greatest comeback and sporting event in human history.
(Editor's Note: I'm sure Donald Trump is as happy as Tamler is about the Superbowl. Just sayin'.)
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* The Real Problem With Hypocrisy - The New York Times — new research
* Why Do We Hate Hypocrites? Evidence for a Theory of False Signaling by Jillian J. Jordan, Roseanna Sommers, Paul Bloom, David G. Rand :: SSRN
* Thrill of the chaste: The truth about Gandhi's sex life | The Independent — 'Gandhi would have women in his bed, engaging in his "experiments" which seem to have been, from a reading of h…
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Jan 24, 2017
Episode 107: Winking Under Oppression (with Manuel Vargas)
The philosopher and pride of Bakersfield, CA Manuel Vargas joins us to talk about culpability under conditions of oppression. How should we treat wrongdoers when their actions and character are shaped in part by their oppressive circumstances? Is it disrespectful not to blame oppressed people for their bad behavior? Can being oppressed make you more culpable in some circumstances? And what's the point of holding people culpable anyway? Plus, the differences between "Hispanic" and "Latino/Latina/Latinx" and an exciting announcement: VBW merch!
Special Guest: Manuel Vargas.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Our new VBW shirts are here! Very Bad Wizards | Teespring — Shirts, hoodies, mugs, and stickers! This time there are two slightly different designs, and a few colors to choose from!
* Nelson Walkom (listener/musician/artist who suggested the VBW "repugnant" t-shirt design)
* Manuel Vargas, that's who!
* Latino - Wikipedia
* Bakersfield, California - Wikipedia
* Situa…
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Jan 10, 2017
Episode 106: American Grandstand
David and Tamler take a break from moral grandstanding to talk about moral grandstanding. How often do we moralize to make us look respectable? Does grandstanding make us more cynical about ethical debates? Does it contribute to outrage exhaustion and increased polarization? Most importantly, who does it more, David or Tamler? Plus: some of our favorite answers to this year's Edge.org question. (You can read the paper by Justin Tosi and Brandon Warmke on the links page.)
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Links:
* What Scientific Term or Concept Ought to Be More Widely Known? | Edge.org
* Edge.org - Brian Eno "The Confirmation Bias"
* Edge.org - Daniel Rockmore "The Trolley Problem"
* Edge.org - Michael Gazzaniga "The Schnitt"
* Edge.org - Sean Carroll "Bayes' Theorem"
* Edge.org - Lisa Randall "Effective Theory"
* Tosi, J., & Warmke, B. (2016). Moral Grandstanding. [full text preprint]
* Gross Anatomy: In This Political Climate, When Are We Right to Feel Disgusted? | News & C…
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Dec 28, 2016
Episode 105: Wizards With (Reactive) Attitudes
David and Tamler go back to basics--discussing a paper (Victoria McGeer on responsibilty and Strawson) and arguing about restorative justice. What is the function of attitudes like resentment and anger? Do they presume anything metaphysics of agency? Why is Josh Greene trying to erode the moral scaffolding of society? Plus we talk about the latest Aeon troll piece on why sexual desire is wrong.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Why sexual desire is objectifying – and hence morally wrong | Aeon Ideas
* Satoshi Kanazawa - Wikipedia
* Victoria McGeer
* Co-reactive attitudes and the making of moral community Final MS, forthcoming in In Emotions, Imagination and Moral Reasoning, eds., C. MacKenzie & R. Langdon. Macquarie monographs in Cognitive Science. Psychology Press, 2010.
* Roskies, A. (2006). Neuroscientific challenges to free will and responsibility. Trends in cognitive sciences, 10(9), 419-423.
* Greene, J., & Cohen, J. (2004). For the law, neuroscience changes noth…
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Dec 13, 2016
Episode 104: Smelling Salts for Morality: Our Top 3 Movies About Empathy (with Paul Bloom)
Paul Bloom takes some time away from his "Waking Up" appearances to join us for a very special movie episode: our top three films about empathy. Can movies help us understand the experiences of people who live completely different lives? Do serial killers need empathy to
effectively torture their victims? Does empathy make you want to blow up the world, or lead naked men into black liquid-y voids? Plus Paul and David try to bully Tamler into watching "Westworld." Also, buy Paul's new book (link below) "Against Empathy"! [Note: this episode is heavy on the spoilers. If you're worried, check the links below--they contain the titles for each movie in the order discussed on the podcast].
Special Guest: Paul Bloom.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Against Empathy by Paul Bloom [amazon.com affiliate link]
* Paul Bloom on Sam Harris' "Waking Up" podcast
* Review: ‘Against Empathy,’ or the Right Way to Feel Someone’s Pain - The New York Times
* Ex Machina (2015) - IMDb (Pau…
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Nov 29, 2016
Episode 103: Very Bad Utopias
It’s the Thanksgiving episode! David and Tamler give thanks to their listeners and Patreon supporters with an episode chosen by our top Patreon subscribers (it was the most enjoyable election we've had all month). It was close, we had a bunch of great suggestions (that we'll refer to for upcoming episodes), but the winner was this topic from Bryan Farrow:
"In the vein of the Republic and Rationalia, I want to hear Peez and Tamler draft a constitution for "Oz", a sovereign state that maximizes whatever they cherish most. (Honor and porn, presumably.)"
Bryan’s wish is our command. Welcome to “Honoraria†and “Puerto Ricoâ€, currently at war over the five paragraph essay. Plus, Dave relates how it feels to get the bulk of the critical feedback for once. And we talk about a few other things we’re grateful for – including students who don’t try to bullshit us, “honeybunsâ€, academic PEDs -- and Tamler says a few words about his…
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Nov 15, 2016
Episode 102: Red, Black, and Blue
David and Tamler stumble their way through talking about the election results, how Trump got elected, the role of racism, sexism, the liberal bubble, complacency, economic anxiety - and find they're just as confused as everyone else. In the second segment, we lighten things up a little (really!) and discuss the Black Mirror episode "San Junipero" (available on Netflix). Spoiler talk so try to see the episode
before listening.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Wes Alwan's Facebook post about the election [facebook.com] — Telling the millions of uneducated white rust belt voters who put Obama in office in 2008 and 2012 that they are evil bigots is not a strategy for winning an election.
* Glenn Greenwald on Who’s to Blame for Trump’s Election
* What So Many People Don't Get About the US Working Class by Joan Williams [hbr.org]
* I Will Never Underestimate White People's Need to Preserve Whiteness Again [verysmartbrothas.com]
* Episode Break Music [soundcloud.com]
*…
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Oct 31, 2016
Episode 101: Having Desert and Eating It Too
Why do we call Mozart a creative genius? He created his music, but do we also think that he created himself? How do we determine who deserves praise as an artist? What about athletes? What standards do we use - do they involve a strong notion of free will that’s incompatible with determinism? If not, why should we think that moral praise and blame require agents to act with that sort of free will? David and Tamler argue over how much we can learn about moral responsibility from our responsibility practices in the domains of arts and sports. Plus, it’s Halloween – time to rev up the campus culture wars. Do concerns about “cultural appropriation” amount to a “war on Halloween”?
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Oregon Student Government: Dressing Up as Any Character Is Cultural Appropriation, Not Okay - Hit & Run : Reason.com
* Russell, P. (2008). Free will, art and morality. The Journal of ethics, 12(3-4), 307-325. [academia.edu]
* Infernal Affairs - Wikipedia
*…
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Oct 13, 2016
Episode 100: It's a Celebration
David and Tamler have their 100th episode hijacked briefly before taking it back like Wesley Snipes in Passenger 57. To celebrate the milestone Tamler pops some champagne, Dave sips his high priced Ivy League bourbon, and we both take a quiz designed by MIT that assesses our moral worldview and determines how driverless cars should be programmed. In the second segment we answer a bunch of questions our listeners submitted on Facebook and Twitter for an AMA. (We didn’t get to all of them, and some were cut not because they were bad questions but because our answers were incoherent. But we did our best.) Plus, has David changed his mind about Straw Dogs? How would we argue if we switched positions in our big fights? And we expose the vast Partially Examined Life conspiracy that keeps us down in the iTunes (and Linux) ratings.
Special Guests: Eliza Sommers and Isabella Pizarro.
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links:
* Moral Machine — MIT Media Lab's Self-Driving Car Moral Test
* Garf…
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Sep 27, 2016
Episode 99: Mockingbirds, Destructo-Critics, and Mr. Robot
David and Tamler tackle three topics on their last double digit episode. First, should a middle school perform "To Kill a Mockingbird" even if they have to use bad language the "n-word," and talk about sexual assault? Tamler relates a story involving his daughter (who was supposed to play Scout) and a playwright who refused to allow his play to be censored. But when it comes to drama, middle school's got nothing on social psychology. Next, David and Tamler break down the latest controversy surrounding Princeton psychologist Susan Fiske's leaked column about the bullying destructo-critics and methodological terrorists that are challenging the establishment in the field. Finally, they give a spoiler-filled analysis of season 2 of Mr. Robot, a polarizing season for many fans. Tamler's suffering from a little theory fatigue, but David blows his mind with his explanation of what's really going on with the Dark Army and F-Society. Have you ever cried during sex? Links
* To Kill a Mockingb…
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Sep 13, 2016
Episode 98: Mind the Gap
David and Tamler break down the biggest question in moral philosophy -- can we derive value judgments from a set of purely factual claims? Like the Scottish Philosopher David Hume they're surprised when the usual copulation of propositions 'is' and 'is not' suddenly turn into conclusions in the form of 'ought' and 'ought not.' And what's the deal with all these copulating propositions anyway? Aren't they a little young for that? Do propositions practice safe copulation? Is proposition porn about to be the new fad? They also talk about Moore's Open Question Argument, which introduced the term "naturalist fallacy," and respond to angry criticism over last episode's Rationalia segment. Links
* Listener C. Derek Varn's blog post: "The Dogmatic Slumber of Neil deGrasse Tyson" [symptomaticcommentary.wordpress.com]
* Hume's Moral Philosophy [Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]
* Is-ought problem [wikipedia.org]
* GE Moore's Moral Philosophy [Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]…
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Aug 30, 2016
Episode 97: Dogmatic Slumber Party
Do you have strong views on climate change, taxes, health care, or gun control? Do you think the evidence and reason support your side of the debate? How do you know you’re right? David and Tamler discuss a recent paper by Dan Kahan and colleagues showing how prone people are to make errors in processing information to favor positions they are predisposed to believe. And even more shocking: the higher your numeracy skills, the more prone you are to fall prey to this bias. So how do we correct for this? Can we know anything at all with any confidence? Could it be that 'Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret' in not in fact a completely accurate depiction of how young girls think about puberty? Plus, we decide whether to join Neil deGrasse Tyson as a citizen of Rationalia. To paraphrase Mr. T, I pity the newscasters! Links
* Reflections on Rationalia by Neal deGrasse Tyson [facebook.com]
* Vulcan learning pods from Star Trek (2009). [youtube.org]
* Kahan, D. M., Peters, E., Daws…
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Aug 16, 2016
Episode 96: Memory and Meaning in "Memento" (with Paul Bloom)
So where are you? You’re in some house. What am I listening to? Sounds like the radio. Is it the radio? No, you’re not allowed to use that language on the radio. What are they talking about? A movie, it’s called "Memento." Have I seen that? I think so, yeah. Who are these people? Hey I recognize that voice, that’s Paul Bloom! I took his Coursera course before the accident, it was awesome! What’s he doing talking to these guys? One of them sounds like he has a tampon down his throat. Hey wait, this is starting to get interesting. Personal identity, the search for purpose. All right, let’s settle in... So where are you? You're in some house. What am I listening to? Sounds like the radio... Links
* Paul Bloom [campuspress.yale.edu]
* Memento [imdb.com]
* Christopher Nolan [imdb.com]
* Everything you wanted to know about "Memento" by Andy Klein [salon.com]
* Kania, A. (Ed.). (2009). Memento (Philosophers on Film Series). Routledge. [amazon.com affiliate link]
* Cli…
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Aug 9, 2016
Bonus Episode: More Doobie-ous Theories About "Mr. Robot" (Season 2)
Hello friend, did you come from the Berenstein with an 'E' universe? Or have you lived in the Berenstain with an 'A' universe? David and Tamler try to make sense of what's going on in Season 2 of Mr. Robot (Ep.1-5). You're gonna want to dig through your vomit for adderall for this one. Links
* The Berenstain Bears [wikipedia.org]
* The Berenstein Bears: We Are Living in Our Own Parallel Universe [woodbetween.world]
* On the Berenstein Bears Switcheroo [woodbetween.world]
Support Very Bad Wizards
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Aug 2, 2016
Episode 95: The Repugnance of Repugnance
We all remember the famous iTunes review calling David and Tamler "repugnant." (And the T-shirt/mugs are coming soon, we promise!) But what did the reviewer mean by that? Was he calling us "immoral"? Did he actually feel disgust when he listened to the podcast? And if so, was there wisdom in his repugnance--did the feeling offer any moral insight about the podcast's value? How did an emotion that originally evolved for pathogen avoidance get into moralizing business anyway? And why do white people kiss their dogs? Plus, an illuminating two week old discussion about the election, and Tamler finally comes around to defending a Kantian position—“the cart-egorical imperative” Links
* Kass, L. R. (1997). The Wisdom of Repugnance: Why we should ban the cloning of humans, the. Val. UL Rev., 32, 679. [stanford.edu]
* Very Bad Wizards Episode 7: Psychopaths and Utilitarians Pt. 2 [verybadwizards.com]
* "Freedom" internet blocking app [freedom.to]
* Dolly the cloned sheep [wikipe…
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Jul 19, 2016
Episode 94: Buttery Friendships
Dave and Tamler don’t agree about much, but one thing they do share is an affinity for character-based approaches to ethics. Using Tamler’s interview with Georgetown Philosopher Nancy Sherman as their guide (link to chapter included), they discuss two ancient perspectives on how to develop good character and live happy, virtuous lives: Aristotle's and that of the Stoics. Why did Aristotle focus so much on friendship and what happens when those friendships get too "watery"? Are emotions crucial for developing virtues or are they “so much mist on the windshield?” Are the stoics right that we shouldn’t get attached to things that are beyond our control? Plus, a new Twitter account has David and Tamler polishing their CVs, and a request for listener suggestions for our 100th episode.
Note: We recorded this episode after the police shootings in Baton Rouge and Minneapolis but before the shootings of the police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge. We talk a bit about the violence,…
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Jul 5, 2016
Episode 93: Avalanches, Blame, and Cowardice (With Yoel Inbar)
Scandinavian film scholar Yoel Inbar joins the podcast for a deep dive on the Swedish film Force Majeure, a darkly funny meditation on what our instinctive behavior in a moment of panic can reveal about our characters and relationships. The story: while having lunch on a ski slope in the French Alps, a family believes that an avalanche is bearing down on them. Just as it seems the avalanche is going to hit them, the father (Tomas) grabs his phone and gloves and runs indoors, abandoning his wife Ebba and two children. How does the family reckon with this incident? Is the act itself unforgivable, or is it Tomas’s behavior afterwards that makes him despicable? How blameworthy is Tomas for his display of cowardice? Is it even cowardice since he didn’t have time to think about it? What’s the deal with that creepy janitor and all the tooth brushing scenes? Why can’t Yoel and Tamler agree about the answers to any of these questions? Plus, more on the Redskins and Tamler tells an embar…
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Jun 21, 2016
Episode 92: Jonathan Edwards' Basement
David and Tamler continue their intermittent “classic paper series” with an episode on Jonathan Bennett’s “The Conscience of Huckleberry Finn” (published in 1974—before the reason vs. emotion debate was all cool again). Using fictional and historical examples, Bennett raises a number of questions that are central to our understanding of human morality, such as what ought to guide our behavior--human sympathy or moral beliefs? Do emotions like empathy/sympathy have judgments built into them? Are these emotions dumb? Is morality dumber? Why was Jonathan Edwards such an asshole? Plus, we talk about the implications of a poll that suggests that most Native Americans aren’t offended by the name “Redskins” for the Washington D.C. NFL team. Episode Links
* New poll finds 9 in 10 Native Americans aren’t offended by Redskins name by By John Woodrow Cox, Scott Clement and Theresa Vargas [washingtonpost.com]
* Bennett, J. (1974). The conscience of Huckleberry Finn. Philo…
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Jun 7, 2016
Episode 91: Rage Against the Machines
Inspired by a recent ProPublica report on racial bias in an algorithm used to predict future criminal behavior, David and Tamler talk about the use of analytic methods in criminal sentencing, sports, and love. Should we use algorithms to influence decisions about criminal sentencing or parole decisions? Should couples about to get married take a test that predicts their likelihood of getting divorced? Is there something inherently racist about analytic methods in sports? Plus, David asks Tamler some questions about the newly released second edition of his book A Very Bad Wizard: Morality Behind the Curtain. Links
* Machine Bias by Julia Angwin, Jeff Larson, Surya Mattu and Lauren Kirchner [propublica.org]
* Mission Impossible: African-Americans & Analytics by Michael Wilbon [theundefeated.com]
* A Very Bad Wizard: Morality Behind the Curtain [amazon.com affiliate link to the Kindle version of 2nd edition. Eight new interviews. And an all-new foreword by Peez.]
* Paperback…
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May 24, 2016
Episode 90: Of Mice and Morals
David and Tamler have their first real fight in a while over an article defending "social mixing"--distributing babies randomly across families such that no infant is genetically related to the parents who raise them.. Then they discuss a study published in Science in 2013 in which participants could earn money if they agreed to let mice be killed in a gas chamber. Do free markets threaten our moral characters and cause us to abandon our principles? What are mechanisms behind this phenomenon when it happens? And why does David hate mice so much? Episode Links
* Maus by Art Spiegelman [wikipedia.org]
* If babies were randomly allocated to families, would racism end? by Howard Rachlin and Melvin Frankel [aeon.co]
* Falk, A., & Szech, N. (2013). Morals and markets. Science, 340, 707-711. [sciencemag.org]
* .pdf available here [gtcenter.org]
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May 10, 2016
Episode 89: Shame on You (with Jennifer Jacquet)
David and Tamler welcome author and environmental science professor Jennifer Jacquet to the podcast to discuss the pros and cons of shame. What's the difference between shame and guilt? Is shaming effective for generating social progress or getting tax cheats to pay up? Is twitter shaming on the rise or on its way out? And what does David do when he's alone in the dark?
But before all of that, David and Tamler introduce a new way to support the podcast--through our Patreon account (patreon.com/verybadwizards). Plus, we discuss the retraction of a press release announcing that a professor agreed to referee a journal article (!) And can one passage get Tamler, the eternal optimist, to hate philosophy? Links
* Very Bad Wizards are on Patreon [patreon.com]
* Sociology faculty member publishes book chapter [psu.edu]
* Penn State retracts press release about sociologist reviewing an article. [retractionwatch.org]
* A very confusing paragraph [verybadwizards.com]
* Bradley, B. (…
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Apr 26, 2016
Episode 88: A Doobie for Elijah
David and Tamler celebrate Passover with a high-spirited episode on guns, revenge, liberals, being offended, the fear of death, and whether kids have a right to be loved. Thanks to all you listeners for emailing your questions, comments, and complaints--this was a fun, energetic discussion. Plus, a blast from the past from an unusually alert Pizarro: Michael Shannon reading a sorority letter. But won't somebody please think of the children???!! Links
* Mr. Robot Season 2 premiere date [usanetwork.com]
* Michael Shannon reads sorority letter [youtube.com]
* George Rainbolt's review of "The Right to be Loved" by Matthew Liao [npdr.nd.edu]
* The Right to be Loved by S. Matthew Liao [amazon]
* The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker [wikipedia.org]
* A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell [wikipedia.org]
* The Story of Philosophy by Wil Durant
* Rick and Morty [imdb.com]
* Marijuana is Kosher [npr.org]
* Louis CK on the Bill Simmons podcast [youtube.com]…
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Apr 12, 2016
Episode 87: Lucky You (with Robert Frank)
We hit the jackpot with this one! Economist Robert Frank (you may remember him from such episodes as The Greatest Books Ever Written) joins David and Tamler to talk about his new book Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy. What role does pure chance play in making or breaking our careers and lives? Are effort and talent enough to succeed, or does the ball need to bounce our way? Where do we get our will-power and talent--is that ultimately a matter of luck as well? And what happens when we reflect on the lucky breaks we've received in our lives? Does it make us happier and more generous? Or do we feel like our accomplishments have been taken away? Plus a brief discussion of the Frank's revelatory 1988 book Passions Within Reason, and of some recent studies about how we convey our commitment to cooperate. Links
* Robert Frank [johnson.cornell.edu]
* Robert Frank interviewed on Fox News by Stuart Varney [video.foxbusiness.com]
* Ronald Coase [wikipedia.org]…
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Mar 22, 2016
Episode 86: Guns, Shame, and the Meaning of Punishment
We know that criminal punishment has consequences, both good and bad, and that many people think that offenders deserve it. But what does punishment mean? What is society trying to express in the way it punishes criminals? And since people from all sides of the political spectrum agree that the prison population is way too big, is there a way to convey that meaning with alternative forms of sanctions? David and Tamler discuss Yale Law Professor Dan Kahan's classic paper "What do alternative sanctions mean?" that addresses these questions. But first, Tamler gets sanctimonious about other people being sanctimonious about guns on campus. At the risk of angering "that student," we "go there." Links
* University of Houston Faculty Devises Pointers on How to Avoid Getting Shot by Armed Students by Elliott Hannon [slate.com]
* A PowerPoint Slide Advises Professors to Alter Teaching to Pacify Armed Students by Rio Fernandes [chronicle.com]
* Kahan, D. M. (1996). What do alternative s…
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Mar 11, 2016
Episode 85: A Zoo with Only One Animal (with Paul Bloom)
Philosophers can be funny and funny movies can be philosophical. David and Tamler welcome frequent VBW guest and arch-enemy of empathy Paul Bloom to discuss their five favorite comic films with philosophical/psychological themes. Groundhog Day was off-limits for our top five (we would've all chosen it) so we start by explaining why it's the quintessential movie for this topic. Links
[all movie links are to imdb.com]
* Paul's Top 5
* The Big Lebowski
* Shaun of the Dead
* The Man with Two Brains/All of Me
* Stranger than Fiction
* Being There
* Tamler's Top 5
* Defending Your Life/Lost in America
* Modern Times
* Seven Psychopaths/In Bruges
* Barton Fink/Sullivan's Travels
* Purple Rose of Cairo
* David's Top 5
* Office Space
* Dr. Strangelove
* Pinker, S. (1999). "The Doomsday Machine" in How the mind works. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 882(1), 119-127.
* Brazil
* Trading Places
* Mr. Skin
* The Princess Bride
Special Guest…
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Feb 23, 2016
Episode 84: Lifting the Veil
David and Tamler talk about the perils of trying to step outside of your own perspective in ethics, science, and politics. What do Rawls' "original position" thought experiment, Pascal's Wager, and Moral Foundations Theory have in common? (Hint: it involves baking.) Plus, what movies (and other things) would serve as a litmus test when deciding on a potential life partner? What might liking or not liking a certain film, book, or TV series tell you about a person, and whether or not the relationship would work? And what sexual position is it rational to choose under the veil of ignorance? (It's a night episode...) Links
* Part 1: Litmus Tests
* The Bad News Bears (1976) [imdb.com]
* A Confederacy of Dunces [wikipedia.org]
* Drive [imdb.com]
* Every Frame A Painting--Drive: The Quadrant System [youtube.com]
* Ferris Bueller's Day Off [imdb.com]
* The Far Side [wikipedia.org]
* Frank [imdb.com]
* Hustle and Flow [imdb.com]
* Jackie Brown [imdb.com]
* Key and Peele…
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Feb 9, 2016
Episode 83: Ego Trip
David and Tamler continue their series of breaking down a classic essay/article in their fields. For this installment, David assigns Tamler Anthony Greenwald's fascinating 1980 review article "The Totalitarian Ego." What do totalitarian regimes, scientific theories, and your own cognitive biases have in common? As it turns out, quite a bit. Why do egos rewrite our memories, preserve our beliefs in the face of contradictory evidence, and make us think we're way more important than we are? And how does Thomas Kuhn fit into all this? Plus, we read a few of our favorite iTunes reviews. Links
* Audience video of Society for Personality and Social Psychology 2016 Session on Moral Purity with Kurt Gray, Jon Haidt, David Pizarro (courtesy of Kate Johnson) [youtube.com]
* Greenwald, A. G. (1980). The totalitarian ego: Fabrication and revision of personal history. American psychologist, 35, 603. [verybadwizards.com]
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Jan 26, 2016
Episode 82: Totalitarian Slide-Rulers
David and Tamler take a break from their main jobs as TV critics to talk about a masterpiece in political philosophy: "Two Concepts of Liberty" by Isaiah Berlin. While they both celebrate the style and substance of this classic essay, in a startling twist Tamler praises conceptual analysis and David expresses a few misgivings about his Kantianism. What is the elusive idea of positive liberty, and how can its pursuit lead to totalitarian rule? When is it more important to buy boots than read Russian poetry? And why is David still so depressed by pluralism? Plus, coddling in Wisconsin? And another famous set of social psych studies is accused of biting the dust. Links
* In Wisconsin, Efforts to End Taunting at Games Lead to Claims of Coddling By Mike McPhate [nytimes.com]
* Take my Breath Away by Berlin [youtube.com]
* Cortex Podcast Episode #20 [relay.fm]
* Amy Cuddy "Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are" TED Talk [ted.com]
* "The Power of the Power Pose: Amy Cuddy's Fam…
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Jan 12, 2016
Episode 81: Domo Arigato, Mr. Robot (With Yoel Inbar)
Hello, listener. Hello, listener? That's lame. Maybe I should give you a name, but that's a slippery slope. You're only in my head. Or maybe we're in your head. Are you listening to this with headphones?
Shit. It's actually happened, I'm talking to imaginary listeners.
What I'm about to tell you is top secret, a conspiracy bigger than all of us. There's a powerful group of people out there that are secretly running the world. I'm talking about the guys no one knows about, the guys that are invisible. The top 1% of the top 1%, the guys that play God without permission. That's right, it's the Partially Examined Life guys. And now I think they're following me.
Special guest Yoel Inbar joins us to talk about the best show of last year. Warning: This episode is full of spoilers. Do not listen until you've seen Season 1 of Mr. Robot. Links
* Mr. Robot
* IMDB
* Wikipedia
Special Guest: Yoel Inbar.
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Dec 21, 2015
Episode 80: The Coddling of the Wizard Mind (with Vlad Chituc and Christina Hoff Sommers)
It's our last episode on campus protests and political correctness for a while, we promise! But it's a fun one. David and Tamler welcome two guests on the opposite side of the debate spectrum. Recent Yale Alum, cognitive scientist, freelance writer, (and writer of novel-length emails) Vlad Chituc joins both of us to defend the Yale protests, provide some context, and explain why the good people at FIRE are hypocritical about free expression. In the middle segment, Tamler talks with his notorious stepmother and "factual feminist" Christina Hoff Sommers (author of "Who Stole Feminism?" and "The War Against Boys"). They argue over whether the new political correctness poses a serious threat to campus climate, whether it is even "new," and over whether one is obligated to smoke weed on Joe Rogan's podcast. Plus, Tamler gets all huffy about the panic over terrorism, and we read some email responses to VBW Episode 78 ("Wizards Uprising"). Oh, and we have a recording a date set for the Mr. Ro…
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Dec 3, 2015
Episode 79: Good Lives, Good Friends, and Gay Mormons (with Valerie Tiberius)
Special guest Valerie Tiberius joins us to talk about values, well-being, and friendship. What role should reflection play in the good life? What about emotion? How can we make our values more consistent and sustainable? Do we know our friends better than we know ourselves? Plus, are philosophers experts? Experts of what? What are the boundaries of our discipline? And what motivates a gay Mormon to stay in the Church? In the first segment, David and Tamler list a few things they're grateful for on Thanksgiving, including you, the listeners (awwwwww...) Links
* National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation [wikipedia.org]
* Valerie Tiberius personal website [sites.google.com]
* Tiberius, V. (2012) Cell Phones, iPods, and Subjective Well-Being. In Brey, P., A. Briggle & E. Spence (Eds.). The good life in a technological age. Routledge. [verybadwizards.com]
* Desire theories of well-being ( from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Well-Being) [plato.stanford.edu]
Special…
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Nov 23, 2015
Episode 78: Wizards Uprising
David and Tamler return to the minefield of campus politics and talk about recent events at Yale, Missouri, and Amherst. Are the protests are long overdue response to systematic oppression and prejudice? Or is this new generation of students coddled, hypersensitive, and hostile to free speech? A little bit of both? Can our hosts get through this episode without fighting? Links
* The New Intolerance of Student Activism by Conor Friedersdorf [theatlantic.com]
* President Peter Salovey's statement to Yale community [news.yale.edu]
* 2015 University of Missouri Protests [wikipedia.org]
* Amherst College Uprising (with list of demands) [amherstuprising.com]
* Vlad Chituc (@vladchituc) [vladchituc.com]
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Nov 9, 2015
Episode 77: On the Moral Nature of Nazis, Jerks, and Ethicists (with Eric Schwitzgebel)
Special guest Eric Schwitzgebel joins David and Tamler to discuss the moral behavior (or lack thereof) of ethicists. Does moral reflection make us better people, or does it just give us better excuses to be immoral? Who's more right about human nature--Mencius or Xun Zi? What did Kant have against bastards and masturbating? Plus, we talk about jerks, robot cars, and killing baby Hitler. (Godwin's Law within 1:42--might be a new record for us). Links
* Eric Schwitzgebel publications. (Has links to all the discussed papers).
* Why Self-Driving Cars Must be Programmed to Kill [technologyreview.com]
* Bonnefon, J. F., Shariff, A., & Rahwan, I. (2015). Autonomous Vehicles Need Experimental Ethics: Are We Ready for Utilitarian Cars? [arxiv.org]
* Mencius [wikipedia.org]
* Xun Zi [wikipedia.org]
* "The Philosophical Problem of Killing Baby Hitler." [vox.com]
* Why it's Unethical to Go Back in Time and Kill Baby Hitler. [forbes.com]
Special Guest: Eric Schwitzgebel.
Support…
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Oct 26, 2015
Episode 76: Cha-Cha-changes
David and Tamler list three things they've changed their minds about in their careers. (This episode was recorded before Episode 75, but that one was way too long already.) What does Tamler think about X-phi these days? Has Dave lost his faith in the power of reason? What the hell is 'non-cognitivism'? Plus, Dave disagrees with John Hodgman about the metaphysical property of a hot dog. And a couple of listener shout-outs, including giving credit to a listener for giving us a topic idea we discussed without realizing she had suggested it in an email weeks ago.
Links
* Ethical Expressivism (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
* Moral Anti-Realism (Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy)
* John Hodgman on the hot dog/sandwich debate. (NY Times Mag)
* "Perspectives on P.F. Strawson's "Freedom and Resentment." (Really good introduction by Michael McKenna and Paul Russell.)
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Oct 6, 2015
Episode 75: A Golden Shower of Guests
Dave and Tamler celebrate their 75th episode by welcoming six BFFs of the podcast and asking them to share the biggest thing they've changed their minds about in their professional careers. You'll hear Dan Ariely on our moral duty to take science into the real world, Laurie Santos on the the role of neuroscience in explaining psychological findings, Yoel Inbar on what it means to do good science as a psychologist, Eric Schwitzgebel on his metaphysical epiphany about materialism, Nina Strohminger on breaking-up with priming research, and Sam Harris on Artificial Intelligence and its perils, and his recently changed views about vegetarianism. (Sadly, we had a technical glitch with the audio when we recorded our most-frequent guest Paul Bloom, but we'll bring him on again soon.) Plus we play some hilarious mash-ups, raps, and voicemails sent in from listeners. Links to info about our Guests
* Dan Ariely
* Laurie Santos
* Yoel Inbar
* Nina Strohminger
* Eric Schwitzgebel
* Sam…
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Sep 16, 2015
Episode 74: Lies, Damned Lies, and Ashley Madison
David and Tamler return after an end of summer hiatus to finally talk
about the ethics of deception….eventually. But first they break down
a recent article in the journal Science documenting an attempt to replicate
100 recent psychology experiments. What does it mean that just
over 1/3 of the studies were successfully replicated? Is social
psychology in crisis or is this just how science works? Will David
somehow try to pin the blame on philosophers?
Plus--a brief and almost certainly regrettable foray into the Ashley
Madison hack, the neuroscience of lying to your kids about Santa, and we announce
a new way to contact us to help celebrate our 75th anniversary. Links
* Authors, Shitload of (2015) Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science, Science, 39.
* The Bayesian Reproducibility Project post by Alexander Etz [alexanderetz.com]
* Harris, S. (2013). Lying. Four Elephants Press. Buy on Amazon
* Bok, S. (2011) Lying: Moral choice in public and private…
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Aug 11, 2015
Episode 73: Authentic Apes and Infinite Torture
In what is possibly our most repugnant first segment ever, David and Tamler break down the ethics of zoophilia and investigate the true nature of consent. In the second segment we answer some listener emails and address our first question in our new capacity as International Ethics Experts.™ If your family is religious, how honest should you be with your children about your non-belief? Do the comforting aspects of religious belief outweigh the fears and anxieties? What’s the deal with Christians and hell?
Plus, sex-ed from a female perspective, a brief nostalgic trip to The Electric Company, and David overcomes his horror of self-promotion to thank some people for praising the podcast. Links
* Top 25 Podcasts for Men [hiconsumption.com]
* People Behind the Science podcast episode featuring David [peoplebehindthescience.com]
* Radio Tatas! Episode 37: "In a Row?!?" (their review of VBW starts at around the 30:00 mark) [radiotatas.libsyn.com]
* Cecil the Lion [wikipedia.o…
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Jul 28, 2015
Episode 72: Tweenie Turing Tests, AI, and Ex Machina (with Joshua Weisberg)
It finally happened: David and Tamler welcome special guest Joshua Weisberg to the podcast to talk about Turing machines, Chinese Rooms, and AI. What does it mean for a machine to acquire intelligence? What is the proper test? How much processing power would it take? Do computers shed light on how human beings think? Why is John Searle trapped in a Chinese room, anyway? Plus, a spoiler-filled discussion (beginning at 58:20) of the recent movie Ex Machina. David tries to assert his feminist bonafides but Tamler takes Eva's side, proving once again that he is the real feminist. And we have a quick 5-minute discussion of Mr. Robot Episode 4 (beginning at 1:24) and respond to a couple of emails from the authors of the Inside Out article we discussed in our previous episode. Links
* Turing Test [wikipedia.org]
* Chinese Room thought experiment [wikipedia.org]
* Artificial Intelligence [wikipedia.org]
* Weisberg, J. (2009). It stands to reason: Skynet and self-preservation. In Irw…
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Jul 14, 2015
Episode 71: The Murky Morals and Mysterious Metaphysics of "Mr. Robot"
David and Tamler go deep into the best TV show of the summer, "Mr. Robot. They talk about the moral ambiguity of its central character, the distorted vision of reality it portrays, and play a round of "Real or Not Real" with all the main characters. Plus, what the swooning critics ignore about Pixar's "Inside Out"--its irresponsible failure to reference the relevant literature in cognitive science and philosophy of mind. Links
Two philosophers explain what Inside Out gets wrong about the mind [vox.com]
The James/Lange theory of emotion [wikipedia.org]
Mr. Robot [IMDB]
Unreliable Narrator [wikipedia.org]
Shoot the Dog Trope [tvtropes.org]
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Jun 28, 2015
Episode 70: Some Favorite Things
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, papers by Williams and movies from Sweden. Long graphic novels that celebrate being. These are a few of our favorite things. Dave and Tamler offer some moral psych-themed recommendations to help you get your summer off to a good start. Plus, is porn bad for you now that it doesn't come in brown paper packages tied up in string?
Links
* Pornucopia by Maria Konnikova [aeon.com]
* Maria Konnikova on Twitter [twitter.com]
* Zhana Vrangolova [zhanavrangolova.com]
Books
* Daytripper by Fabio Bá and Gabriel Moon [amazon.com affiliate link] [comixology link]
* Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro [amazon.com affiliate link]
Movies
* Force Majeure [imdb.com]
* Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter [imdb.com]
Academic Papers
* Kahane, G., Everett, J. A., Earp, B. D., Farias, M., & Savulescu, J. (2015). ‘Utilitarian’ judgments in sacrificial moral dilemmas do not reflect impartial concern for the greater good. Cognition, 134, 193-209…
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Jun 17, 2015
Episode 69: CHiPs on Our Shoulders (Lessons in Objectivity)
Dave and Tamler try to figure out what we talk about when we talk about objectivity. In past episodes we’ve claimed that logic and science (when it isn't fraudulent) are objective. Tamler has claimed repeatedly that "Louie" is an objectively better TV show than "Jessie." Dave is constantly claiming that Kant is objectively the best philosopher. But to be honest, we say these things without being exactly sure what we’re saying. Today we try to be sure--only to get more confused.
Plus, we get into a big fight over trigger warnings, the Kipnis affair at Northwestern, and other related issues. (The infamous Episode 45 was an ecstasy-fueled love fest in comparison.) However, we have spared our listeners the drama, and have only included a few lowlights. If you listen closely, you can even hear Tamler apologize. Links
* Sexual Paranoia Strikes Academe by Laura Kipnis [chronicle.com]
* Laura Kipnis Is Cleared of Wrongdoing in Title IX Complaints [chronicle.com]
* Title IX [wikip…
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Jun 1, 2015
Episode 68: Risky, Reckless, and Regretful
Dave drags Tamler into the nerd abyss by making him watch an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (“Tapestry,” from the 6th season. It's available on Netflix instant in the US, and likely worldwide on many sites of varying legality). We talk about the themes of the episode: regret, risk aversion, the arrogance of hindsight, and the dream of living your past “knowing what you know now.” What are the things that shape our character? Should we embrace our mistakes or would we change something if we could? How should we think of our lives--as one long continually unfolding story or as a series of unrelated episodes?
And speaking of regret, we reflect on our comedy episode and some listener dissatisfaction (we agree with much of it) and talk about yet another fraudulent study with sexy results. Plus, Dave finally learns what ‘chuchma’ means.
* "Science Retracts Troubled Gay Marriage Study." [retractionwatch.com]
* "Michael Lacour Responds to Critics." [latimes.com]…
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May 18, 2015
Episode 67: Funny How?
Dave and Tamler break the cardinal rule of comedy by trying to analyze it. What are the origins and functions of humor? Can a theory explain what makes us laugh? Is humor entirely subjective? Why would anyone find Mr. Bean funny? Plus, we lose some geek cred by confessing some iconic comedians that we never liked, and ask why the American Psychologist Association loves to torture people. Links
* Report Claims American Psychological Association Secretly Supported Torture Policy [time.com]
* The philosophy of humor [iep.utm.edu]
* Key and Peele: Gay Wedding [youtube.com]
* Key and Peele: Awesome Hitler Story [youtube.com]
* Goodfellas: How the Fuck Am I Funny? [youtube.com]
* Steven Wright: Birthday Present [youtube.com]
* Hannibal Burress: Pickle Juice [youtube.com]
* George Carlin on Fat People [youtube.com]
* Jerry Seinfeld on Airport Security [youtube.com]
* Louis CK: Pig Newtons [youtube.com]
* Curb Your Enthusiasm: Rash [youtube.com]
* Eddie Murphy: Barbec…
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Apr 20, 2015
Episode 66: Übermensch at Work
Special guest Yoel Inbar (author of Hitchcock’s Women: From Margaret Sullivan to Tippi Hedren) joins us to talk about Hitchcock’s long take masterpiece/gimmick Rope. Based loosely on the case of Leopold and Loeb, Rope tells the story of two young men who have read Nietzsche and decide to murder a schoolmate in order to cement their Übermensch status. Did they read Nietzsche correctly? Is conventional morality nothing but a construct to keep the inferior masses in line? Are professors accountable for what they teach? (Please God, no.) Plus, we delve deeper into Julie and Mark’s motivation, and Yoel plays a round of “Does the government deem this trademark scandalous?” Links
* Yoel Inbar [yoelinbar.net]
* Very Bad Wizards Episode 22: An Enquiry Concerning Slurs and Offensiveness [verybadwizards.com]
* Rope [IMDB.com]
* Leopold and Loeb [wikipedia.org]
* Leopold and Loeb's Criminal Minds (Smithsonian Magazine)
* The Leopold and Loeb Trial Page (UMKC Law)
* Pa…
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Apr 6, 2015
Episode 65: Philocalypse Now
Holy crap, it's the apocalypse!!!!
...for philosophy. Maybe. Has this 2500 year old discipline become too technical, too disconnected from the real world? Is it just a handmaiden to the sciences? (Which would make Tamler Dave's handmaiden.) And what the hell is conceptual analysis? Plus, a short excerpt of Tamler's interview with Simon Blackburn, and definitive proof that worms have free will (sorry Sam). And only one more week to buy our t-shirt! Links
* Free Will? Analysis of worm neurons suggest how a single stimulus can trigger different responses [sciencedaily.com]
* Strawson, P. F. (1962). Freedom and resentment. [princeton.edu]
* Doomen, J. (2015). The end of philosophy. Think, 14(39), 99-109. [verybadwizards.com]
* For a Non-Ideal Metaphysics by Justin Smith [jehsmith.com]
* Concepts [plato.stanford.edu]
* Harry Frankfurt says Philosophy is in the Doldrums [http://leiterreports.typepad.com]
* Simon Blackburn's Website [phil.cam.ac.uk]
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Mar 19, 2015
Episode 64: Believing in a Just World
Dave and Tamler talk about the human tendency to believe in a just world. Why do we have the belief? Does it make us less motivated to fight injustice? How does it connect to our beliefs about free will and punishment? Plus, the SAE incident—a case where the twitter mob did some good? And Tamler changes his mind about Harmony the Hamster. Links
* As Two Oklahoma Students Are Expelled for Racist Chant, Sigma Alpha Epsilon Vows Wider Inquiry [nytimes.com]
* Just World Hypothesis [wikipedia.org]
* System Justification [wikipedia.org]
* The Future of The Culture Wars is Here, and it's Gamergate [deadspin.com]
* Lerner, M. J., & Simmons, C. H. (1966). Observer’s reaction to the “innocent victim”: Compassion or rejection? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4(2), 203–210. [MIT.edu]
* Clark, C. J., Luguri, J. B., Ditto, P. H., Knobe, J., Shariff, A. F., & Baumeister, R. F. (2014). Free to punish: A motivated account of free will belief. Journal of persona…
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Feb 27, 2015
Episode 63: Stalemates and Closets (with Sam Harris)
Sam Harris gets back in the VBW ring for another round on moral responsibility, ethical theories, and the grounds for our obligations to other people. Are we at a genuine stalemate when it comes to blame and desert? Is Tamler a closet consequentialist? Is Sam a closet pluralist? Why is Dave such a big Wagner fan? Plus, Twitter shaming: what is it good for? Settle in, get comfortable, pour yourself a drink, you’re in for the long haul on this one. Links
* How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco's Life [nytimes.co]
* The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris [samharris.org]
* Value Pluralism [plato.stanford.edu]
* Bill Burr vs. Philly [youtube.com]
Special Guest: Sam Harris.
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Feb 9, 2015
Episode 62: Brain Jizz and "Black Mirror"
Dave and Tamler discuss a new study that, according to Tamler, offers decisive support for restorative approaches to criminal punishment (the only problem is he didn't read past the introduction). And speaking of justice, we talk about "White Bear"--the most disturbing episode of the UK series Black Mirror that doesn’t involve sex with a non-kosher animal. (Note: Massive spoilers for this episode of BM--watch before listening. Available on netflix, amazon prime.) Links
* Black Mirror, "White Bear" episode [imdb.com]
* Ultimatum Game [wikipedia.org]
* Justice Porn [reddit.com]
* Fehr, E., & Gächter, S. (2002). Altruistic punishment in humans. Nature, 415(6868), 137-140.
* FeldmanHall, O., Sokol-Hessner, P., Van Bavel, J. J., & Phelps, E. A. (2014). Fairness violations elicit greater punishment on behalf of another than for oneself. Nature Communications, 5.
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Jan 19, 2015
Episode 61: Putting a Little Meaning in Your Life
Dave and Tamler take a break from blame and responsibility to tackle a much easier subject: meaning in life. We discuss Susan Wolf's new book "Meaning in Life and Why it Matters," and play some excerpts from Tamler's recent discussion with her. Plus, we list some of our favorite listener-suggested drinking game ideas so far. (The contest for the free T-shirt is still open--send in your ideas before the next episode!) Links
Meaning in Life and Why it Matters by Susan Wolf [amazon.com affiliate link]
Billie Pritchett on the Sam Harris and Free Will discussion. [bpritchett.blogspot.com] (Highly recommended!)
The Heaven's Gate Cult [wikipedia.org]
Special Guest: Susan Wolf.
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Jan 1, 2015
Episode 60: Drunk on Intuitions
Dave and Tamler argue some more about the role of emotion and intuition in blame judgments, and then offer some moral psychology-related recommendations for your New Year’s viewing and reading pleasure. Plus, can you turn listening to VBW into a good drinking game? Offer some suggestions and win a free Very Bad Wizards T-shirt! Links
* Tamler's early defense of free will skepticism:
* "Darrow and Determinism" [naturalism.org]
* "No Soul? I Can Live with That. No Free Will? AHHHHH!!!" [psychologytoday.org]
* "Free Will Skepticism in Action" [naturalism.org]
* Tamler's interview with Galen Strawson [believermag.org]
* The Objective Attitude [philpapers.org]
* Daniel Miessler on Sam Harris vs. Very Bad Wizards [danielmiessler.com]
* The Sceptic by David Hume [econlib.org]
* Paul Russell’s Free Will, Art, Morality [verybadwizards.com]
* Locke [imdb.com]
* The Subjective Effects of Nitrous Oxide by William James [erowid.org]
* Kahan, D. M., Peters, E., Daw…
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Dec 15, 2014
Episode 59: Tumors All the Way Down (With Sam Harris)
Bestselling author and friend of the podcast Sam Harris joins Tamler and Dave for a marathon podcast. (Seriously, pack two pairs of astronaut diapers for this one). We talk about the costs and benefits of religion, dropping acid in India, and the illusory nature of (a certain kind of) free will. Then we go at it on blame, moral responsibility, hatred, guilt, retribution, and vengeance. Sam thinks these are antiquated responses based on a belief in spooky metaphysics, Tamler thinks they are important components of human morality, and Dave just wants everyone to get along and be reasonable (like that nice Kant fellow).
Time markers (roughly)
0:00-47:00 Intro and costs and benefits of religion
47:00-77:30 Drugs, the self, free will
77:30-- Blame, guilt, vengeance, moral responsibility, desert. Links
* Sam Harris [samharris.org]
* Waking Up: A guide to spirituality without religion by Sam Harris [amazon.com affiliate link]
* Daniel Dennett reviews "Free Will" by Sam Harris [n…
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Dec 1, 2014
Episode 58: Do the Right Thing (with Yoel Inbar)
Film critic, VBW regular, and social psychologist Yoel Inbar joins David and Tamler to talk about Spike Lee's controversial 1989 film, Do the Right Thing, a movie about a day in the life of a small Brooklyn community on the hottest day of summer, and how the day's events lead to a race riot. Which characters in the film deserve our sympathy? (Maybe all of them?) Who was Spike Lee criticizing with his depiction of the characters in this community? Why did Mookie start the riot at Sal's? Was his action justified? Was starting the riot the "Right Thing" that Spike Lee was referring to in the title? Twenty five years after its release, how much have things changed? [Please note: we recorded this episode before the Ferguson verdict, which is why--despite some parallels--we don't refer to the verdict or the aftermath.] Links
* Do the Right Thing [imdb.com]
* Do the Right Thing Scene: Insults [youtube.com]
* Do the Right Thing Scene: RIP Boom Box [youtube.com]
* Do the Right Thing Sc…
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Nov 17, 2014
Episode 57: Free Willie
David and Tamler talk about a new study that links your belief in free will to the fullness of your bladder. How do our bodily states influence our metaphysical commitments? What's the best way to measure beliefs about free will? Can you get your prostate checked without having someone stick something in your private areas? Plus, an exclusive look at the shocking truth about social psychology experiments. Links
* The Philosophical Implications of the Urge to Urinate by Dan Ladkin, Scientific American
* Ent, M. R., & Baumeister, R. F. (2014). Embodied free will beliefs: Some effects of physical states on metaphysical opinions. Consciousness and Cognition, 27, 147-154.
* Free Will and Determinism Scale (Rakos, Laurene, Skala, & Slane, 2008, Behavior and Social Issues).
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Nov 3, 2014
Episode 56: Moral Heroes and Drunk Utilitarians
Following up their discussion of moral villains, Dave and Tamler argue about what makes a moral hero. Tamler defends Sharon Krause’s view that honor values can motivate heroic behavior. Dave accuses Tamler of being inconsistent (nothing wrong with that) and slightly Kantian (NOOOOOO!!!). In the final segment, we’re back on the same page fawning over Susan Wolf’s paper “Moral Saints.” Plus, are drunks more likely to be utilitarians? And why does Dave hate Temple Grandin? Links
* The Cold Logic of Drunk People by Emma Green [theatlantic.com]
* Duke, A. A., & Bègue, L. (2015). The drunk utilitarian: Blood alcohol concentration predicts utilitarian responses in moral dilemmas. Cognition, 134, 121-127. [sciencedirect.com]
* Wolf, S. (1982). Moral saints. The Journal of Philosophy, 419-439. [verybadwizards.com]
* Krause, S. R. (2002). Honor and democratic reform (Ch. 5) [verybadwizards.com]. In Liberalism with honor [amazon.com affiliate link]. Harvard University Press…
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Oct 20, 2014
Episode 55: Rooting for Evil (With Paul Bloom)
Paul Bloom joins us to talk all things villainous -why we sometimes root for the bad guys, why we admire them even when we don't, why they are much more compelling than some of our heroes. Then more evidence that we're really a movie podcast at heart: we list our top 5 villains and antiheroes from TV and film. Plus, more on the benefits of religious rituals and how to make a sitcom about Himmler. Our Top 5 Villains
Paul Bloom
* Todd Alquist (Breaking Bad)
*
Barney Stinson (How I Met Your Mother)
*
The Joker (The Dark Knight)
*
Bridgette Gregory (The Last Seduction)
*
Agent Smith (The Matrix)
Tamler Sommers
* Daniel Plainview (There Will be Blood)/Tony Montana (Scarface)
*
Willie (Bad Santa)
*
Tommy (Goodfellas)
*
Alonzo Harris (Training Day)
*
Go-Go (Kill Bill Vol. 1)
David Pizarro
*
Tom (Tom & Jerry)
*
Keyser Soze (The Usual Suspects)
*
Vic Mackey (The Shield)
*
Harry Lime (The Third Man)
*
Hal 9000 (2001 A Space Odyssey)
Clips:
"You…
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Sep 24, 2014
Episode 54: Pooping on Ecstasy (Pain, Pleasure, and the Ethics of Breeding)
Tamler and David get bullied into talking about "anti-natalism," (the view that it is unethical to bring a being into existence), and to defend our ethical position as "breeders." Well, one of us defends it, at least. The other one? Well, you'll have to judge for yourself... Along the way we discuss how much pleasure you would need to equal the pain and suffering you've experienced, the joy of pooping (especially while on E), and Tamler explains why he calls David a Kantian, and why he thinks it's such an insult. For those who have missed the arguing, it's back on this one. Links
* Anti-Natalism [wikipedia.org]
* Ecclesiastes 4:2-3 [usccb.org]: And those now dead, I declared more fortunate in death than are the living to be still alive. And better off than both is the yet unborn, who has not seen the wicked work that is done under the sun.
* "No Life is Good" David Benatar. [Philosopher's Magazine]
* Don't Have Any Children, by David Benatar [moreintelligentlife.com]
* Dav…
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Sep 8, 2014
Episode 53: The Psychology People Love to Hate (Evolutionary Psychology Pt.1)
Dave and Tamler take a shot at answering the question: what is an evolutionary psychologist? Is it just a psychologist who believes in evolution? (No.) Is it a psychologist who embraces a computational, modular theory of the mind? (No. Well, maybe…we’re not sure.) Are they psychologists who are part of a cult that fanatically endorse evolutionary explanations for every aspect of human judgment and behavior? (No! Well, most of them aren’t, anyway.) So what are they? And why do they generate so much hostility?
Plus, we go back to Genesis (the real story of how we evolved) to offer another thought experiment: what is it like to be Adam and Eve before eating the forbidden fruit? What is it like not to know good and evil? And we give our aspiring playwright listeners a perfect idea for a one-act play: Abraham and Isaac walking down the mountain after the aborted sacrifice. Links
* The Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil [wikipedia.org]
* The Leviathan [wikipedia.org]
* E.O.…
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Aug 25, 2014
Episode 52: Thought Experiments (Huh!) What Are They Good For? (Part 2)
Experience Machines, Chinese Rooms, Original Positions, and Ice Buckets. ("I don't know what you have in mind for this evening Homer, but count me out!") Dave and Tamler continue their discussion on thought experiments--how they can be effective, the difference between their use in philosophy and psychology, and how they can spin out of control like deadly viruses and become the disease they were trying to cure. Plus, do our motives matter when it comes to raising money for charity? Links
*
Chinese Room thought experiment [wikipedia.org]
*
Turing Test [wikipedia.org]
*
Ice bucket challenge [alsa.org]
*
Weird Al Yankovic does the Ice Bucket Challenge [youtube.com]
*
Flight of the Conchords "Pro-Aids" [youtube.com]
*
Rawls' Original Position [plato.stanford.edu]
*
The Veil of Ignorance [wikipedia.org]
*
Press Your Luck "No Whammies!" [youtube.com]
*
Behaviorism [wikipedia.org]
*
Logical positivism [wikipedia.org]
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Aug 11, 2014
Episode 51: Zombies, Trolleys, and Galileo's Balls
Episode Audio
Dave and Tamler talk about the value and purposes of thought experiments in philosophy and science. Does the trolley problem tell us more about moral psychology than how people make judgments in
trolley problems? Can an imagined scenario about two balls refute an almost two thousand year old theory of falling objects? When young virgin Dave learned all the physical facts about sex, did he learn
anything new when it finally happened? All this and more in Part One of our two part episode on this topic. Links
*
The experience machine [wikipedia.org]
*
Mary the color scientist [wikipedia.org]
*
Zombies [wikipedia.org]
*
Qualia [wikipedia.org]
*
The Violinist from "A defense of Abortion" [wikipedia.org]
*
The Ship of Theseus [wikipedia.org]
*
Newcomb's Paradox [wikipedia.org]
*
Ring of Gyges [wikipedia.org]
*
Peter Singer's thought experiment [wikipedia.org]
*
Veil of Ignorance [wikipedia.org]
*
Galileo's Balls [philosophical-investigation…
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Jul 14, 2014
Episode 50: Keeping it Unreal
Dude, do you ever think about how, like, we could be all be in the Matrix? Seriously, no no, dude, I'm being serious. It's like, none of this might be real, you know?
Actually we don't know. We honestly can't believe we made it to 50 episodes, so we must be brains in a vat. But we play along and celebrate with...a movie episode! We list our five favorite films about the subjective or questionable nature of reality. Our only rule: we couldn't choose The Matrix. Listen to this episode--your Mom says it's psychologically taut. Links
* Kramer, A. D., Guillory, J. E., & Hancock, J. T. (2014). Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
* Rashomon (David) [imdb.com]
* Exit Through the Gift Shop (Tamler and David) [imdb.com]
* Banksy on "Life Remote Control" (clip, youtube.com)
* Paul Bloom on art and forgery [ted.com]
* Spirited Away (Tamler) [imdb.com]
* My Neighbor Totoro (David) [imdb…
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Jun 23, 2014
Episode 49: Psychopaths and Contrastivizzzzzzzz (With Walter Sinnott-Armstrong)
Special guest Walter Sinnott-Armstrong joins the podcast to explain how his theory which desperately needs a new name ("contrastivism") can dissolve most of the fundamental problems and paradoxes in philosophy. We also talk about psychopaths--what they are and what we can do about them. But first we read and respond to an angry piece of fan mail (ok, maybe 'fan' is not the right word) from Sam Harris, trashing us--mostly Tamler--for our comments on VBW 45 about the new atheists. Links
* Sam Harris debates Andrew Sullivan [samharris.org]
* Richard Dawkins on the harm of fairy tales (read until the end) [telegraph.co.uk]
* Walter Sinnott-Armtrong's Home Page [duke.edu]
* Sinnott‐Armstrong, W. (2008). A contrastivist manifesto. Social Epistemology, 22(3), 257-270.
* Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter. (2006) It's not my fault: Global warming and individual moral obligations. Advances in the Economics of Environmental Resources 5, 285-307.
* The Memory of Jurors: Enhancing Trial…
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Jun 9, 2014
Episode 48: Restorative Circle Jerk
Dave and Tamler take a mulligan and try to resolve their conflict about restorative justice. Do restorative processes lead to more just outcomes than other approaches? Is it more vulnerable to instances of prejudice and bias? Is revenge a form of restorative justice? Also, on this episode: can being sexist get you killed in a hurricane? Are replication attempts a form of bullying? And why is Dave hoarding gefilte fish in his pantry? Links
* Ed Yong on Hurricane Study [phenomena.nationalgeographic.com]
* Scatterplot blog on hurricane study [scatter.wordpress.com]
* Simine Vazire on "Repligate" [sometimesimwrong.typepad.com]
* Restorative Justice online [restorativejustice.org]
* "Restorative Justice in Texas: Past, Present, and Future." by Mark Levin [texaspolicy.com]
* Bridges to Life [bridgestolife.org]
* Michelle Anderson The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness [amazon.com]
Support Very Bad Wizards
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May 22, 2014
Episode 47: Schooled By Our Listeners
Tamler and David leech off of their listeners and dedicate an episode to their favorite comments, questions, and criticisms from the past few weeks (but not before Tamler goes on a rant about bicycle helmets). Included in this episode: Does doing research on hypothetical moral dilemmas actually say anything about how people would act in real life? Do people make different moral judgments in their native language than in a more recently acquired language? Do Tamler and David only appeal to intuitions when it's convenient for the view they are defending? Do they hold "barbaric" views about justice and revenge? Does doing philosophy make your life better? And, perhaps most importantly, why do we seem to mention porn on every episode? Links
* Bicycle helmet effectiveness [wikipedia.org]
* Tamler's appearance on The Partially Examined Life podcast [partiallyexaminedlife.com]
* Axons and Axioms podcast [axonsandaxioms.com]
* Spacetime Mind podcast [spacetimemind.com]
* A valuabl…
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May 4, 2014
Episode 46: The Real Josh Knobe
May I have your attention please? Will the real Josh Knobe please stand up? Will the real... [you know what, screw this--we're just dating ourselves.] X-phi phenom Josh Knobe rejoins the podcast to talk about the true self, naked people, gay preachers, and the Talmud. Plus, what happens when Tamler takes a sleeping pill by mistake in the afternoon and goes on Facebook? Why do you have get so drunk on Purim? And Dave discovers a Google-assisted loophole that allows you to be an immoral shit your whole life and get away with it. Links
* Joshua Knobe's home page [yale.edu]
* XXX: 30 Porn-Star Portraits by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders [amazon.com affiliate link]
* Gray, K., Knobe, J., Sheskin, M., Bloom, P., & Barrett, L. F. (2011). More than a body: mind perception and the nature of objectification. Journal of personality and social psychology, 101, 1207. [yale.edu]
* Moral Scrupulosity [wikipedia.org]
* Newman, G. E., Bloom, P., & Knobe, J. (2014). Value Judgments and the Tru…
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Apr 20, 2014
Episode 45: Rounded Brains and Balanced "Play Diets"
A British tabloid article about kids, brains, and spatial skills somehow provokes the biggest argument ever on the podcast. Dave and Tamler get into it about gender, toys, properly rounded brains, and balanced "play diets." Is Dave a sanctimonious toe-the-line academic liberal? Is Tamler a Fox-News watching, mysoginist genetic determinist? Do they actually disagree about anything?
Plus Dave takes Tamler back after his fling with Partially Examined Life, and we discuss whether the new documentary The Unbelievers the atheist version of God is Not Dead? Links
* The Partially Examined Life podcast, and Tamler's Precognition of Ep. 93. [partiallyexaminedlife.com]
* Girls and boys DO have different brains – should they have different toys? by Rachel Carlyle [express.co.uk]
* The Unbelievers [unbelieversmovie.com]
* My Growing Disappointment with the New Atheist Movement: A Review of the The UnBelievers. Ami Palmer. [missiontotransition.blogspot.com]
* Nosek, B. A., Banaji, M…
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Apr 5, 2014
Episode 44: Killer Robots
David and Tamler argue about the use of autonomous robots and drones in warfare. Could it lead to less suffering during wars and afterwards? Would nations be motivated to design robots that behave ethically on the battlefield? Can David get through an episode without mentioning Star Trek? Plus, Tamler distances himself from the villainous philosophy professor in the new movie God is Not Dead and David complains about the growing number of porn journals. Links
* Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) [kipp.org]
* God's Not Dead [imdb.org]
* Arkin, R. C. (2010). The case for ethical autonomy in unmanned systems. Journal of Military Ethics, 9(4), 332-341.
* Kahn, P. W. (2002). The Paradox of Riskless Warfare. Philosophy & Public Policy Quarterly, 22(3), 2-7. [yale.edu]
* Singer, P. W. (2009). Wired for war: The robotics revolution and conflict in the twenty-first century. Penguin. [amazon.com affiliate link]
* "A Taste of Armageddon" Episode 23, Star Trek (The Original Series)…
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Mar 17, 2014
Episode 43: The Nature of Nudges
Dave and Tamler talk about a recent study that seems to support the view that "justice is what the judge had for breakfast" (or at least how long ago the parole board had breakfast), and that makes Tamler question his position on widening judicial discretion in criminal justice. In the second segment David tries to work out his guilt about manipulating consumers into buying stuff for whatever shadowy organization employs him (BEWorks!), and we discuss the ethics of nudges in government and consumer marketing. Should the government frame issues like organ donation in ways that will benefit society? How much of a threat are nudges to our autonomy? Should Apple take steps to ensure that people can control themselves when making in-app purchases? Tamler even comes up with a "theory," which means that there must have been something wrong with him. Please note that portions of the audio during the second segment are little spotty, likely due to a hex or poltergeist in one of the microphones.…
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Mar 3, 2014
Episode 42: Reason, Responsibility, and Roombas (With Paul Bloom)
Can a fully determined creature deliberate? How big a role does conscious reasoning play in moral judgment and everyday life? Are we responsible for our thoughts and actions? Paul Bloom rejoins us against his better judgment to discuss his book "Just Babies" and his recent article in The Atlantic that set the internet on the fire and riled up the likes of Sam Harris and Jerry Coyne. Plus, what's the difference (if any) between getting into a Star Trek transporter and getting an axe to the head, and why does David know so much about boy bands? Links
* Just Babies by Paul Bloom [amazon.com-vbw affiliate link]
* The War on Reason by Paul Bloom [theatlantic.com]
* Jerry Coyne replies to Paul Bloom's Article [whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com]
* Bloom replies to Coyne [whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com]
Tamler is the only one who realized he has a face for radio.
Special Guest: Paul Bloom.
Support Very Bad Wizards
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Feb 18, 2014
Episode 41: Moral Dilemmas at the Movies
Dave keeps trying to explain to Tamler that we're not a movie podcast, but somehow they're doing another podcast about movies. This time they each list their top 5 movies featuring moral dilemmas. Also, Tamler tries to rationalize the Woody Allen controversy, Ozymandias from Watchmen says "screw you Paul Bloom," Dave confuses Maggie Gyllenhaal with Droopy, and for the second time ever we have to censor something one of us (Tamler) says. Put on your astronaut adult diapers, folks, it's a long one. Links
* Dylan Farrow's Story [nytimes.com]
* Woody Allen Speaks Out [nytimes.com]
* The Woody Allen Allegations: Not So Fast [thedailybeast.com]
* "It's shockingly easy to create false memories" by Cara Laney [thedailybeast.com]
* Elizabeth Loftus [wikipedia.org]
* Watchmen Graphic Novel [wikipedia.org]
* The Vengeance Trilogy [wikipedia.org]
* Droopy Dog [wikipedia.org]
* Maggie Gyllenhal looks like Droopy Dog [cheezeburger.com]
* "Hard Determinism, Punishment, and…
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Feb 3, 2014
Episode 40: How Many Moralities Are There? Pt. 2 (with Jesse Graham)
Jesse Graham joins us for part 2 of our discussion on the nature of morality, and his recent paper on Moral Foundations Theory. He highlights the key components of MFT, defends himself against our accusations of weaseling out of the normative implications of MFT, champions "Synechdoche, New York" as one of the greatest films ever made, and comes out of the closet as a rationalist. Also in this episode, Tamler begins to defend Sam Harris (you read that right) from Dan Dennett's criticisms of Harris' Free Will--and then we pull back and realize that we need to devote a whole episode to Dennett's review. Links
* Dan Dennett's review of "Free Will" by Sam Harris [naturalism.org]
* Free Will by Sam Harris [amazon.com affiliate link]
* Jesse Graham's lab website [usc.edu]
* Moral Foundations Theory: The Pragmatic Validity of Moral Pluralism by Jesse Graham et al.
* Synechdoche, New York (RIP Phllip Seymour Hoffman!)
Special Guest: Jesse Graham.
Support Very Bad Wizards
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Jan 20, 2014
Episode 39: How Many Moralities Are There? (Pt.1)
Dave and Tamler bounce back this week after having to trash the last episode. Does morality ultimately boil down to a single principle (such as harm or justice), or is there more to ethical life than is dreamt of in the minds of philosophers? We settle this question once and for all in the first of a 2-part episode in which we discuss Jesse Graham et al's recent paper on Moral Foundations Theory. (Jesse Graham himself will join us for part 2). Plus: how liberal is this podcast? We'll give you the precise percentage after taking a Time.com quiz that purports to measure political leanings, (and which includes that perennial litmus test of political preferences: is it OK to come home and find your partner watching porn?) Links
* Can TIME predict your politics? [science.time.com]
* Moral Foundations Theory: The Pragmatic Validity of Moral Pluralism Foundations Theory (in press, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology) by Graham, J. et al [usc.edu]
* Old School [imdb.com]
*…
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Dec 30, 2013
Episode 38: The Greatest Movies Ever Made about Personal Identity
Who is the real you? What happens to your identity when your body gets cloned or reconstituted with all the same memories and character traits? Does society construct our true selves or repress them? Can we ever escape our pasts and become different people? Dave thinks conceptual analysis and arousal measuring devices can solve all these problems but allows Tamler his dream of temporarily becoming the host of a movie podcast. They list their top 5 favorite movies about personal identity. Plus, do they have to eat still more crow--this time from Sam Harris? Links
Personal Identity [plato.stanford.edu]
Google Glass [youtube.com] Tamler's Top 5
5. Fight Club
4. A Clockwork Orange
3. Infernal Affairs
2. Moon
1. A History of Violence David's Top 5
5. Blade Runner
4. Vertigo
3. Looper
2. Groundhog Day
1. Back to the Future Honorable Mentions
* Solaris (Russian version)
* Being John Malkovich
* Memento
* My Fair Lady
* All of Me
* Zelig
* One Flew Over the Cuckoos…
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Dec 16, 2013
Episode 37: Porn, Poop, and Personal Identity (with Nina Strohminger)
The guest we've been waiting for--Nina Strohminger--joins us to talk about the connection between disgust and humor, cheap laughs, moral character and personal identity, and the British opt-in plan for porn. Plus: how psychologists measure erections and Dave goes Platonist about the form of hilarity. Tamler's daughter should have issued an extra strong disclaimer for this one. Links
* Nina Strohminger [ninastrohminger.com]
* David Cameron Proposes Porn Filter [thedailybeast.com]
* Strohminger, N. and Nichols, S. (in press). The Essential Moral Self. Cognition.
Special Guest: Nina Strohminger.
Support Very Bad Wizards
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Nov 25, 2013
Episode 36: An Irresponsible Meta-Book Review of Joshua Greene's "Moral Tribes"
Our most irresponsible episode ever! Dave and Tamler talk about two reviews of a book they haven't read--Joshua Greene's Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them--and feel only a little shame. (Since the recording, at least one of us has finished the book). Can Greene successfully debunk all non-utilitarian intuitions? Does Greene have a dark enough view of human nature? What would an ideal moral world look like? Will Dave ever stop making fun of Tamler's haunted boy haircut? We answer all of these questions and more. Plus we respond to a listener's email and read a couple of our favorite iTunes reviews.
Links
* Moral tribes: Emotion, reason, and the gap between us and them by Joshua Greene [amazon.com]
* Joshua Greene's website [harvard.edu]
* Why can't we all just get along? The uncertain biological basis of morality. Robert Wright reviews "Moral Tribes" for The Atlantic.
* You Can't Learn About Morality from Brain Scans: The problem with moral psyc…
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Nov 11, 2013
Episode 35: Douchebags and Desert
Dave and Tamler talk about the influence of character judgments on attributions of blame. What is the function of the blame--to assign responsibility or to judge a person's character? Is it fair that we blame douchebags more than good people who commit exactly the same act, or is it yet another cognitive bias that should be avoided? Plus we delve into the Richie Incognito hazing story (maybe a little early since the story has developed) and Tamler tries to figure out how to teach the Gospels to students who know roughly 100 times as much about them than he does. Links
* "The Miami Dolphins and Everything that Will Never Make Sense." by Andrew Sharp. (grantland.com)
* Interview with Richie Incognito (youtube.com)
* Gospel of Matthew [wikipedia.org]
* Synoptic Gospels [wikipedia.org]
* Pizarro, D.A. & Tannenbaum, D. (2011). Bringing character back: How the motivation to evaluate character influences judgments of moral blame. In M. Mikulincer & Shaver, P. (Eds) The Social psyc…