Podcasts by Very Bad Wizards
Very Bad Wizards is a podcast featuring a philosopher (Tamler Sommers) and a psychologist (David Pizarro), who share a love for ethics, pop culture, and cognitive science, and who have a marked inability to distinguish sacred from profane. Each podcast includes discussions of moral philosophy, recent work on moral psychology and neuroscience, and the overlap between the two.
Further podcasts by Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro
Podcast on the topic Philosophie
All episodes
Episode 273: Ah. Ah. (Miyazaki's "Spirited Away") from 2023-11-29T13:24
David and Tamler board the train for Hayao Miyazaki’s mystical dreamy coming of age masterpiece Spirited Away. This is a true VBW deep dive. Plus a study by our secret crush suggests we...
Listen
Episode 272: Neigh Means Yay from 2023-11-15T00:41
The morality of zoophilia has received shockingly little attention in contemporary ethical discourse…until now. David and Tamler break down the paper “Zoophilia is Morally Permissible” from the ...
Listen
Episode 271: Concept-Con 2023 from 2023-11-13T16:24
It’s the first annual “Concept-Con” – a not at all cringe episode where David and Tamler apply the methods and rigor of analytic philosophy to dissect not one, not two, but four new concepts. We...
Listen
Episode 270: Take Me to the River (Blood Meridian, Pt. 3) from 2023-10-10T23:14
David and Tamler conclude their three-part discussion of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. We talk about the Judge’s coin trick by the fire and the question of the supernatural in the novel. Nex...
Listen
Episode 269: Death Hilarious (Blood Meridian, Pt. 2) from 2023-10-10T19:53
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 h...
Listen
Episode 268: Blood Meridian, Part 1 from 2023-09-12T19:40
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 sour...
Listen
Episode 267: The Thickness of Reality from 2023-08-22T19:31
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.” Ja...
Listen
Episode 266: I Want to Half-Believe from 2023-08-08T17:51
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...
Listen
Episode 265: Kekulé (Oh Yeah!) from 2023-07-25T20:47
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 d...
Listen
[BONUS] Overton Windows Episode 1: Israel and Palestine from 2023-07-18T12:00
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 epis...
Episode 264: The Rule You Follow (The Coen Brothers' "No Country for Old Men") from 2023-07-11T18:45
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 Chigur...
Listen
Episode 263: Free Yoel from 2023-06-27T21:21
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 Inb...
Listen
Episode 262: Supposing Truth is a Woman (Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil") from 2023-06-13T20:25
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, Ka...
Listen
Episode 261: Death of the Author from 2023-05-30T18:06
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 ...
Listen
Episode 260: The Scream That Never Found a Voice (Murakami's "Sleep") from 2023-05-09T16:00
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...
Listen
Episode 259: Losing Time ("Tár" with Paul Bloom) from 2023-04-25T21:00
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 ...
Listen
Episode 258: Mystic Peeza from 2023-04-11T14:00
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 li...
Listen
Episode 257: Aural Fixation from 2023-03-28T19:30
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 yo...
Listen
Episode 256: The Right to Punish? from 2023-03-14T19:30
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 Murp...
Listen
Episode 255: Beloved Child of the House (Susanna Clarke's "Piranesi") from 2023-02-28T19:30
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...
Listen
Episode 254: Nobody's Parfit from 2023-02-14T21:00
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 ident...
Listen
Episode 253: Tarkovsky's Starchild from 2023-01-31T19:00
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 cord...
Listen
Episode 252: Yes We Sene-can from 2023-01-10T23:30
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 abou...
Listen
Episode 251: First Order, Then Chaos from 2022-12-20T22:00
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 ...
Listen
Episode 250: Metaphors All the Way Down from 2022-12-06T19:00
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 its...
Listen
Episode 249: Phlegm and Carelessness (Hume's "The Sceptic") from 2022-11-22T22:45
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...
Listen
Episode 248: Checkmate, Grasshopper from 2022-11-01T17:45
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’ ...
Listen
Episode 247: Open the Pod, Dave (with Sam Harris) from 2022-10-18T15:00
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 ...
Listen
Episode 246: Existential Poker-Face (David Foster Wallace's "E Unibus Pluram") from 2022-10-04T19:45
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 th...
Listen
Episode 245: Pragmatically Speaking from 2022-09-20T18:45
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 cultura...
Listen
Episode 244: Thanks for the Memories? (Borges' "Funes the Memorious) from 2022-09-06T21:30
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 f...
Listen
Episode 243: Finding My Religion from 2022-08-16T19:45
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 ...
Listen
Bonus Episode: The Ambulators (A "Deadwood" Podcast) from 2022-08-09T20:30
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 Ambulator...
Listen
Episode 242: Losing My Religion from 2022-08-02T20:15
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 go...
Listen
Episode 241: Very Bad Orgies (Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut") from 2022-07-19T20:30
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? M...
Listen
Episode 240: Evil from 2022-07-06T00:00
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 ar...
Listen
Episode 239: Lose Yourself from 2022-06-21T15:30
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 me...
Listen
Episode 238: I Am Not Ivan Ilyich...Am I? from 2022-06-07T20:45
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 ...
Listen
Episode 237: Glitches Ain't Shit from 2022-05-24T20:30
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 “technologic...
Listen
Episode 236: Your Outie Is Skilled at Lovemaking (With Paul Bloom) from 2022-05-03T18:00
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 lif...
Listen
Episode 235: Animated Objects from 2022-04-19T18:45
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 argu...
Listen
Episode 234: Like A Dog (Kafka's "The Trial" Pt. 2) from 2022-04-05T13:30
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 previo...
Listen
Episode 233: Keeping It Surreal (Kafka's "The Trial" Pt. 1) from 2022-03-22T14:00
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 inte...
Listen
Episode 232: Mind Over Matter from 2022-03-08T12:30
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....
Listen
Episode 231: Ideal Critics (Hume's "Of the Standard of Taste") from 2022-02-22T13:00
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...
Listen
Episode 230: Be Happy (Lars von Trier's "Melancholia") from 2022-02-08T13:30
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 bri...
Listen
Episode 229: Skin Deep? from 2022-01-25T12:30
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 ...
Listen
Episode 228: Forever Jung from 2022-01-11T15:15
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...
Listen
Episode 227: A Terrible Master (David Foster Wallace's "This Is Water"). from 2021-12-21T16:15
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) ...
Listen
Episode 226: Unraveling Time Traveling (with Barry Lam and Christina Hoff Sommers) from 2021-12-07T18:30
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 vali...
Listen
Episode 225: Forbidden Modules from 2021-11-16T15:30
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 vis...
Listen
Episode 224: Hurts So Good (With Paul Bloom) from 2021-11-02T10:30
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 wh...
Listen
Episode 223: The Hopeless Dream of Being (Bergman's "Persona") from 2021-10-19T13:45
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...
Listen
Episode 222: Choosing Sartre for All Mankind from 2021-10-05T19:30
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 experi...
Listen
Episode 222: Choosing Sartre for All Mankind from 2021-10-05T19:30
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 experi...
Listen
Episode 221: Granite Cocks vs Robot Overlords from 2021-09-21T13:30
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-en...
Listen
Episode 220: On Your Marx from 2021-09-07T13:30
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 a...
Listen
Episode 219: Multiplied by Mirrors from 2021-08-17T16:45
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 be...
Listen
Episode 218: ...But You Can't Hide (Michael Haneke's "Caché") from 2021-08-03T13:00
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, ...
Listen
Episode 217: Dropping Paradigms (Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions") from 2021-07-20T12:30
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 soci...
Listen
Episode 216: Oral Judgments from 2021-07-06T13:30
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 m...
Listen
Episode 215: Touch My Pink Monkey from 2021-06-22T16:30
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 mode...
Listen
Episode 214: You Shouldn't Feel Bad (Except You Should) from 2021-06-08T12:15
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-posi...
Listen
Episode 213: What Is It Like To Be a Robot Fish Man? (with Ted Chiang) from 2021-05-25T15:00
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....
Listen
Episode 212: Follow Your Nose (with Yoel Inbar) from 2021-05-11T15:30
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 b...
Listen
Episode 211: To Live and Die in Kurosawa's "Ikiru" from 2021-04-20T14:45
"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 ...
Listen
Episode 210: The Priming of the American Mind (with Jesse Singal) from 2021-04-06T16:30
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 incent...
Listen
Episode 209: Basic Instincts (with Paul Bloom) from 2021-03-23T12:00
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 Daw...
Listen
Episode 208: Dream Theater from 2021-03-09T14:00
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...
Listen
Episode 207: Sometimes a Paper Tray is Just a Paper Tray from 2021-02-23T16:00
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 in...
Listen
Episode 206: Angel Chasing (Ted Chiang's "Hell is the Absence of God") from 2021-02-09T17:30
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...
Listen
Episode 205: Making Your Nervous System Your Ally (William James on "Habit") from 2021-01-26T15:00
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...
Listen
Episode 204: Happy Freedom Day! (with Lauren Anderson) from 2021-01-12T12:15
The legendary Houston Ballet dancer Lauren Anderson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauren_Anderson_(dancer)) joins us to talk about the Atlanta Episode “Juneteenth” (Season 1, Episode 9), a hilario...
Listen
Episode 203: Gorgias, Tell Me Something I Don't Know (with Agnes Callard) from 2020-12-22T13:15
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...
Listen
Episode 202: Not as It Ought to Be (H.P. Lovecraft's "The Colour Out of Space") from 2020-12-08T15:00
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 tha...
Listen
Episode 201: Very Bad Lizard People from 2020-11-24T12:00
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 ut...
Listen
Episode 200: Our 200th Episode Spectactular from 2020-11-03T17:30
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 (f...
Listen
Episode 199: When Philosophy Goes Sideways from 2020-10-20T15:30
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 ...
Listen
Episode 198: Is Mental Illness a Myth? (Thomas Szasz's "The Myth of Mental Illness") from 2020-10-06T16:30
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 disorder...
Listen
Episode 197: The Long Slow Death That Is Life from 2020-09-22T14:30
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...
Listen
Episode 196: The Loneliest Paper in Philosophy from 2020-09-08T13:30
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 ide...
Listen
Episode 195: Jesus on Trial (Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov") from 2020-08-25T15:45
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 make...
Listen
Episode 194: God Has No Mother (with Chris Matheson) from 2020-08-11T18:00
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, comed...
Listen
Episode 193: Free Wanting (Frankfurt's "Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person") from 2020-07-21T13:30
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 th...
Listen
Episode 192: Postmodern Wet Dreams (Borges' "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote") from 2020-07-07T12:00
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 th...
Listen
Episode 191: All the Rage from 2020-06-23T15:30
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 ex...
Listen
Episode 190: We Pod. We Pod-Cast. We Podcast. (Frankfurt’s “On Bullshit”) from 2020-06-09T13:00
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 Unive...
Listen
Episode 189: The Anality of Evil (Freud's "Civilization and its Discontents") from 2020-05-26T14:45
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...
Listen
Episode 188: Conceptual Mummies (Nietzsche's "Twilight of the Idols") from 2020-05-12T16:00
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 i...
Listen
Episode 187: More Zither from 2020-04-21T15:45
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 you...
Listen
Episode 186: The One with Peter Singer from 2020-04-07T12:00
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...
Listen
Episode 185: The Devil's Playground from 2020-03-24T15:45
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 ...
Listen
Bonus Episode: Top 5 Deadwood Characters from 2020-03-17T12:30
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 Deadw...
Listen
Episode 184: Tainted Glove from 2020-03-10T15:45
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 i...
Listen
Episode 183: Accept the Mystery (with Paul Bloom) from 2020-02-25T17:00
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 understan...
Listen
Episode 182: The Paper That Launched a Thousand Twitter Wars (With Yoel Inbar) from 2020-02-11T18:30
Podcasting legend Yoel Inbar (from Two Psychologists Four Beers (https://fourbeers.fireside.fm)) joins us to break down Tal Yarkoni's "The Generalizability Crisis,” the paper that launched a thousa...
Listen
Episode 181: The Fraudulence Paradox (David Foster Wallace's "Good Old Neon") from 2020-01-28T18:30
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 i...
Listen
Episode 180: Chekhov's Schrödinger's Dagger (Kurosawa's "Rashomon") from 2020-01-14T15:00
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 samur...
Listen
Episode 179: Talking Shit from 2019-12-24T14:45
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...
Listen
Episode 178: Borges' Obsession-Obsession ("The Zahir") from 2019-12-10T16:30
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 ...
Listen
Episode 177: Pure Linguistic Chauvinism from 2019-11-26T12:00
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 ou...
Listen
Episode 176: Split-Brains and the (Dis)Unity of Consciousness from 2019-11-12T14:45
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 he...
Listen
Episode 175: At Least We Didn’t Talk About Zombies (Nagel’s “What is it Like to be a Bat?”) from 2019-10-29T12:00
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 proj...
Listen
Episode 174: More Chiang for Your Buck ("Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom" Pt. 2) from 2019-10-15T13:00
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 freed...
Listen
Episode 173: Talking to Your (Alternate) Self [Ted Chiang's "Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom"] from 2019-10-01T11:45
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 yours...
Listen
Episode 172: Are You Free (to like the Chappelle special)? from 2019-09-17T15:00
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 peopl...
Listen
Episode 171: How Do You Solve a Problem Like Theodicy? (The Book of Job) from 2019-08-27T18:00
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 childre...
Listen
Episode 170: Social Psychology Gets an Asch-Kicking from 2019-08-13T18:45
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 fie...
Listen
Episode 169: A Bug's Life (Kafka's "The Metamorphosis") from 2019-07-30T03:00
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 ...
Listen
Episode 168: The Big Lebowski vs Pulp Fiction (Pt. 2) from 2019-07-16T12:00
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 st...
Listen
Episode 167: The Big Lebowski vs Pulp Fiction (Pt. 1) from 2019-07-03T18:15
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. Somew...
Listen
Episode 166: Total Recall (Ted Chiang's "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling") from 2019-06-18T16:00
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...
Listen
Episode 165: Life With No Head (With Sam Harris) from 2019-06-04T13:00
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 d...
Listen
Episode 164: Choosing to Believe from 2019-05-14T13:30
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 w...
Listen
Episode 163: Should I Stay or Should I Go? (Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas") from 2019-05-01T10:00
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 mora...
Listen
Episode 162: Parents Just Don't Understand (with Paul Bloom) from 2019-04-16T10:00
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 k...
Listen
Episode 161: Reach-Around Knowledge and Bottom Performers (The Dunning-Kruger Effect) from 2019-04-02T19:45
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 wh...
Listen
Episode 160: Everything is Meaningless: The Book of Ecclesiastes from 2019-03-19T12:00
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 th...
Listen
Episode 159: You Have the Right to Go to Prison from 2019-03-05T14:30
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 Crit...
Listen
Episode 158: False Dichotomies and Oral Reciprocity from 2019-02-19T13:00
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 the...
Listen
Episode 157: Notes From Underground (Pt. 2) from 2019-02-05T14:00
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 - a...
Listen
Episode 156: Notes From Underground (Pt. 1) from 2019-01-22T17:00
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 No...
Listen
Episode 155: Alfred Hitchcock's Money Shot from 2019-01-08T13:30
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 explorati...
Listen
Episode 154: Metaphysical Vertigo (Borges's "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius") from 2018-12-18T14:30
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 ...
Listen
Episode 153: Progress in Psychology: A Reply to BootyBootyFartFart from 2018-12-04T15:45
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 in...
Listen
Episode 152: Ruthlessness, Public and Private from 2018-11-20T14:45
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 o...
Listen
Episode 151: Viddy Well, My Listeners (Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange") from 2018-11-06T15:00
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...
Listen
Episode 150: Paul Bloom Insisted That We Talk About Sex Robots from 2018-10-23T16:15
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 desi...
Listen
Episode 149: Death, Immortality, and Porn (Intuition) Pumps from 2018-10-02T12:00
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...
Listen
Episode 148: Am I Wrong? from 2018-09-19T00:00
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 surpr...
Listen
Episode 147: Effective Altruism and Moral Uncertainty (with The One True Scotsman, Will MacAskill) from 2018-09-04T12:00
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...
Listen
Episode 146: Sore Losers (Does Sports Make Us Unhappy?) from 2018-08-21T15:45
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 ben...
Listen
Episode 145: Lost in Borges' Garden from 2018-08-07T17:15
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 Bo...
Listen
Episode 144: Borges' Babylon from 2018-07-24T18:45
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...
Listen
Episode 143: The Psychology of Personality from 2018-07-10T13:30
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? Ho...
Listen
Episode 142: Suicide (with Matthew Nock) from 2018-06-26T15:45
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 k...
Listen
Episode 141: Implicit Bias from 2018-06-05T15:45
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 ...
Listen
Episode 140: Milgram's Mice from 2018-05-22T15:00
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 ...
Listen
Episode 139: Honor, Identity, and Headbutts from 2018-05-12T13:30
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. W...
Listen
Episode 138: Memory, Pain, and Relationships (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) from 2018-04-24T18:45
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 relation...
Listen
Episode 137: Are Buddhists Afraid to Die? (with Shaun Nichols) from 2018-04-10T13:00
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 ...
Listen
Episode 136: The Good Life (with Laurie Santos) from 2018-03-27T17:00
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...
Listen
Episode 135: Utilitarianism and Moral Identity from 2018-03-13T16:30
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 u...
Listen
Episode 134: Digital Outrage (with Molly Crockett) from 2018-02-27T14:00
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, ...
Listen
Episode 133: Death and Dreams from 2018-02-06T12:30
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 obli...
Listen
Episode 132: Emotional Willpower (with David DeSteno) from 2018-01-23T18:00
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. B...
Listen
Episode 131: I Have No Genitals and I Must Scream from 2018-01-09T17:00
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 par...
Listen
Episode 130: Dehumanization and Disintegration (with Paul Bloom) from 2017-12-26T15:45
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 cruel...
Listen
Episode 129: Dystopias from 2017-12-12T14:00
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,...
Listen
Episode 128: Fragmented Values and Sex Panics (with Christina Hoff Sommers) from 2017-11-28T12:45
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 mu...
Listen
Episode 127: Moral Luck from 2017-11-14T15:00
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 ...
Listen
Episode 126: The Absurd from 2017-10-24T16:00
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...
Listen
Episode 125: Can You Feel It? from 2017-10-10T11:00
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 tha...
Listen
Episode 124: Dr. Strawson or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Episodic Life from 2017-09-26T12:30
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...
Listen
Episode 123: What Chilling Effect? (Intelligence Pt. 2) from 2017-09-12T09:45
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....
Listen
Episode 122: Nothing but a "G" Thing (Intelligence Pt. 1) from 2017-08-29T12:30
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 intelli...
Listen
Episode 121: The Beauty of Illusion - David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive" from 2017-08-15T12:00
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 whe...
Listen
Episode 120: Clap Your Hand for Robert Wright from 2017-07-25T10:30
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 an...
Listen
Episode 119: A Brief History of Values from 2017-07-11T21:30
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? Shou...
Listen
Episode 118: We Don't Love Them Hoax from 2017-06-27T21:30
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 A...
Listen
Episode 117: Extended Minds, Extended Foreskins from 2017-06-13T14:00
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 ...
Listen
Episode 116: Pain, Pleasure, and Peer-Reviewed Penises from 2017-05-31T11:00
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...
Listen
Episode 115: Which Field is More Fu@%ed: Philosophy or Psychology? from 2017-05-16T10:00
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 comple...
Listen
Episode 114: Great Vengeance and Furious Anger (Top 5 Movies About Revenge) from 2017-05-04T08:00
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...
Listen
Episode 113: Pascal, Probability, and Pitchforks from 2017-04-18T16:00
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 be...
Listen
Episode 112: Gettier Goggles from 2017-04-04T11:00
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...
Listen
Episode 111: Our Language Doesn't Have a Word For This Title (with Yoel Inbar) from 2017-03-22T00:00
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 firs...
Listen
Episode 110: Stepsisters and Neck Braces (with Yoel Inbar) from 2017-03-14T18:00
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 Mid...
Listen
Episode 109: Moral Pluralism: Behind the Lube from 2017-02-28T17:00
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 ...
Listen
Episode 108: The Gimp Exception from 2017-02-07T12:00
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? Shoul...
Listen
Episode 107: Winking Under Oppression (with Manuel Vargas) from 2017-01-24T11:00
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 sha...
Listen
Episode 106: American Grandstand from 2017-01-10T10:30
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 ethica...
Listen
Episode 105: Wizards With (Reactive) Attitudes from 2016-12-28T14:00
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 a...
Listen
Episode 104: Smelling Salts for Morality: Our Top 3 Movies About Empathy (with Paul Bloom) from 2016-12-13T19:00
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 peo...
Listen
Episode 103: Very Bad Utopias from 2016-11-29T12:00
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...
Listen
Episode 102: Red, Black, and Blue from 2016-11-15T11:45
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'r...
Listen
Episode 101: Having Desert and Eating It Too from 2016-10-31T20:30
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 standar...
Listen
Episode 100: It's a Celebration from 2016-10-13T11:00
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...
Listen
Episode 99: Mockingbirds, Destructo-Critics, and Mr. Robot from 2016-09-27T10:00
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 tal...
Listen
Episode 98: Mind the Gap from 2016-09-13T08:00
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 s...
Listen
Episode 97: Dogmatic Slumber Party from 2016-08-30T19:00
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? ...
Listen
Episode 96: Memory and Meaning in "Memento" (with Paul Bloom) from 2016-08-16T14:00
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 the...
Listen
Bonus Episode: More Doobie-ous Theories About "Mr. Robot" (Season 2) from 2016-08-09T18:15
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 ...
Listen
Episode 95: The Repugnance of Repugnance from 2016-08-02T13:00
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 "immo...
Listen
Episode 94: Buttery Friendships from 2016-07-19T19:00
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 Sherm...
Listen
Episode 93: Avalanches, Blame, and Cowardice (With Yoel Inbar) from 2016-07-05T14:00
Scandinavian film scholarYoel Inbarjoins the podcast for a deep dive on the Swedish filmForce Majeure, a dar...
Listen
Episode 92: Jonathan Edwards' Basement from 2016-06-21T19:00
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 de...
Listen
Episode 91: Rage Against the Machines from 2016-06-07T18:00
Inspired by a recentProPublicareport on racial bias in an algorithm used to predict future criminal behavior, David and Tamler talk about the use of analytic methods in criminal sentenc...
Listen
Episode 90: Of Mice and Morals from 2016-05-24T21:00
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 ...
Listen
Episode 89: Shame on You (with Jennifer Jacquet) from 2016-05-10T17:00
David and Tamler welcome author and environmental science professorJennifer Jacquetto the podcast to discuss the pros and cons of shame. What's the diffe...
Listen
Episode 88: A Doobie for Elijah from 2016-04-26T11:00
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 ...
Listen
Episode 87: Lucky You (with Robert Frank) from 2016-04-12T11:00
We hit the jackpot with this one! Economist Robert Frank (you may remember him from such episodes asThe Greatest Books Ever Writte...
Listen
Episode 86: Guns, Shame, and the Meaning of Punishment from 2016-03-22T11:00
We know that criminal punishment has consequences, both good and bad, and that many people think that offenders deserve it. But what does punishmentmean? What is society trying to ...
Listen
Episode 85: A Zoo with Only One Animal (with Paul Bloom) from 2016-03-11T19:00
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 ...
Listen
Episode 84: Lifting the Veil from 2016-02-23T16:00
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 Wa...
Listen
Episode 83: Ego Trip from 2016-02-09T16:00
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 artic...
Listen
Episode 82: Totalitarian Slide-Rulers from 2016-01-26T11:00
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 t...
Listen
Episode 81: Domo Arigato, Mr. Robot (With Yoel Inbar) from 2016-01-12T15:00
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 ...
Listen
Episode 80: The Coddling of the Wizard Mind (with Vlad Chituc and Christina Hoff Sommers) from 2015-12-21T14:00
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 s...
Listen
Episode 79: Good Lives, Good Friends, and Gay Mormons (with Valerie Tiberius) from 2015-12-03T19:00
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 val...
Listen
Episode 78: Wizards Uprising from 2015-11-23T23:00
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 ...
Listen
Episode 77: On the Moral Nature of Nazis, Jerks, and Ethicists (with Eric Schwitzgebel) from 2015-11-09T17:00
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 u...
Listen
Episode 76: Cha-Cha-changes from 2015-10-26T18:00
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...
Listen
Episode 75: A Golden Shower of Guests from 2015-10-06T01:00
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'...
Listen
Episode 74: Lies, Damned Lies, and Ashley Madison from 2015-09-16T08:00
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 journalScience
Listen
Episode 73: Authentic Apes and Infinite Torture from 2015-08-11T21:00
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 answ...
Listen
Episode 72: Tweenie Turing Tests, AI, and Ex Machina (with Joshua Weisberg) from 2015-07-28T18:00
It finally happened: David and Tamler welcome special guestJoshua Weisbergto the podcast to talk about Turi...
Listen
Episode 71: The Murky Morals and Mysterious Metaphysics of "Mr. Robot" from 2015-07-14T19:00
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...
Listen
Episode 70: Some Favorite Things from 2015-06-28T23:00
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 som...
Listen
Episode 69: CHiPs on Our Shoulders (Lessons in Objectivity) from 2015-06-17T14:00
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 obje...
Listen
Episode 68: Risky, Reckless, and Regretful from 2015-06-01T18:00
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 ...
Listen
Episode 67: Funny How? from 2015-05-18T01:00
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 subj...
Listen
Episode 66: Übermensch at Work from 2015-04-20T00:00
Special guest Yoel Inbar (author ofHitchcock’s Women: From Margaret Sullivan to Tippi Hedren) joins us to talk about Hitchcock’slon...
Listen
Episode 65: Philocalypse Now from 2015-04-06T00:00
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...
Listen
Episode 64: Believing in a Just World from 2015-03-19T19:00
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 f...
Listen
Episode 63: Stalemates and Closets (with Sam Harris) from 2015-02-27T20:00
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 stalemat...
Listen
Episode 62: Brain Jizz and "Black Mirror" from 2015-02-09T15:00
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 introdu...
Listen
Episode 61: Putting a Little Meaning in Your Life from 2015-01-19T17:00
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 ...
Listen
Episode 60: Drunk on Intuitions from 2015-01-01T21:00
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 p...
Listen
Episode 59: Tumors All the Way Down (With Sam Harris) from 2014-12-15T20:00
Bestselling author and friend of the podcastSam Harrisjoins Tamler and Dave for a marathon podcast. (Seriously, pack two pairs ofListen
Episode 58: Do the Right Thing (with Yoel Inbar) from 2014-12-01T23:00
Film critic, VBW regular, and social psychologist Yoel Inbarjoins David and Tamler to talk about Spike Lee's controversial 1989 film, ...
Listen
Episode 57: Free Willie from 2014-11-17T23:00
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 bes...
Listen
Episode 56: Moral Heroes and Drunk Utilitarians from 2014-11-03T16:00
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...
Listen
Episode 55: Rooting for Evil (With Paul Bloom) from 2014-10-20T21:00
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. ...
Listen
Episode 54: Pooping on Ecstasy (Pain, Pleasure, and the Ethics of Breeding) from 2014-09-24T05:00
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 u...
Listen
Episode 53: The Psychology People Love to Hate (Evolutionary Psychology Pt.1) from 2014-09-08T19:00
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 embrace...
Listen
Episode 52: Thought Experiments (Huh!) What Are They Good For? (Part 2) from 2014-08-25T11:00
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 the...
Listen
Episode 51: Zombies, Trolleys, and Galileo's Balls from 2014-08-11T21:00
Episode Audio
Dave and Tamler talk about the value and purposes of thought experiments in philosophy and science. Does the trolley problem tell ...
Listen
Episode 50: Keeping it Unreal from 2014-07-14T22:00
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...
Listen
Episode 49: Psychopaths and Contrastivizzzzzzzz (With Walter Sinnott-Armstrong) from 2014-06-23T18:00
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 paradoxe...
Listen
Episode 48: Restorative Circle Jerk from 2014-06-09T16:00
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 vulnerabl...
Listen
Episode 47: Schooled By Our Listeners from 2014-05-22T04:00
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 bi...
Listen
Episode 46: The Real Josh Knobe from 2014-05-04T23:00
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 p...
Listen
Episode 45: Rounded Brains and Balanced "Play Diets" from 2014-04-20T23:00
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 brain...
Listen
Episode 44: Killer Robots from 2014-04-05T13:00
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...
Listen
Episode 43: The Nature of Nudges from 2014-03-17T00:00
Dave and Tamler talk about arecent studythat seems to support the view that "justice is what the judge had for breakfast" (or at least ...
Listen
Episode 42: Reason, Responsibility, and Roombas (With Paul Bloom) from 2014-03-03T02:00
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 ...
Listen
Episode 41: Moral Dilemmas at the Movies from 2014-02-18T22:00
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 dilemma...
Listen
Episode 40: How Many Moralities Are There? Pt. 2 (with Jesse Graham) from 2014-02-03T16:00
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 o...
Listen
Episode 39: How Many Moralities Are There? (Pt.1) from 2014-01-20T11:00
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...
Listen
Episode 38: The Greatest Movies Ever Made about Personal Identity from 2013-12-30T20:00
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 ...
Listen
Episode 37: Porn, Poop, and Personal Identity (with Nina Strohminger) from 2013-12-16T22:45
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 p...
Listen
Episode 36: An Irresponsible Meta-Book Review of Joshua Greene's "Moral Tribes" from 2013-11-25T18:00
Our most irresponsible episode ever! Dave and Tamler talk about two reviews of a book they haven't read--Joshua Greene'sMoral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them Listen
Episode 35: Douchebags and Desert from 2013-11-11T15:00
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...
Listen
Episode 34: Does Reading Harry Potter Make You Moral? (with Will Wilkinson) from 2013-10-28T08:00
Special guest Will Wilkinson joins the podcast to talk about whether fiction makes us better people, and to discuss his recent Daily Beast article that trashed Dave's ...
Listen
Episode 33: Monkeys, Smurfs, and Human Conformity (With Laurie Santos) from 2013-10-14T12:00
Special guest Laurie Santos (Psychology, Yale) joins us to talk about what animal cognition can tell us about human nature. Why are other primates better at resisting the misleading influence of...
Listen
Episode 32: Disagreeing About Disagreement from 2013-09-30T09:00
Part II of our discussion on Rai and Fiske (sort of): We answer a listener's email and in the process get into an episode long argument about moral intuitions, ps...
Listen
Episode 31: An Anthropologist's Guide to Moral Psychology (Pt. 1) from 2013-09-15T21:00
In the first of a two-part episode, we discuss one of our favorite recent papers--Tage Rai and Alan Page Fiske's 2011 paper on how social relationships shape and motivate our moral emotions and ...
Listen
Episode 30: The Greatest Books Ever Written from 2013-09-02T12:00
Dave and Tamler celebrate their one year anniversary and 30th episode with one of their least cynical episodes yet. They talk about 5 philosophy/psychology(-ish) books that influenced and ...
Listen
Episode 29: PEDs, Tenure Pills, and "Hyberbolic Chambers" from 2013-08-19T14:00
Dave and Tamler try to artificially bulk up their expertise on the ethics of performance enhancing drugs and end up raising a lot more questions than they answer. Why do we condemn certain...
Listen
Episode 28: Moral Persuasion from 2013-08-05T01:00
Dave and Tamler try their best to do a show without guests--we talk about moral persuasion, motivated reasoning, and whether it's legitimate to use emotionally charged rhetoric in a philosophica...
Listen
Episode 27: You, Your Self, and Your Brain (With Eddy Nahmias) from 2013-07-22T01:00
Our streak of very special guests continues! Philosopher Eddy Nahmias joins the podcast to us why people mistakenly think they're not morally responsible, and how his new study casts doubt...
Listen
Episode 26: Evolution and Sexual Perversion (with Jesse Bering) from 2013-07-07T22:00
Psychologist and author Jesse Bering joins us to talk about evolutionary psychology and his forthcoming bookPerv. In the relatively uncontroversial part of the episode, we as...
Listen
Episode 25: Burning Armchairs (with Joshua Knobe) from 2013-06-24T04:00
Josh Knobe, the Michael Corleone of experimental philosophy, joins us to talk about taking philosophy into the lab and the streets. We discuss how people moralize everyday concepts l...
Listen
Episode 24: The Perils of Empathy (with Paul Bloom) from 2013-06-10T10:00
Paul Bloom joins us in the second segment for a lively discussion about the value of empathy as a guide our moral decisions. And in our first scoop, we talk about Paul's new book (comi...
Listen
Episode 23: Straw Dogs (with Yoel Inbar) from 2013-05-27T07:00
Dave, Tamler, and special guest Yoel Inbar break down Sam Peckinpah's brilliant (at least according to one of us) 1971 filmStraw Dogs. They talk about the notorio...
Listen
Episode 22: An Enquiry Concerning Slurs and Offensiveness from 2013-05-12T19:00
In what might very well be the last episode before we're pulled off the air, Tamler outlines his data-free "theory" of what makes something offensive. What makes a joke about race, ethnicity, ge...
Listen
Episode 21: Grad School from 2013-05-06T10:00
Dave and Tamler shrug off inside baseball concerns and argue whether to go to grad school, what to do when you get there, and share horror stories about the job market. Also, Tamler explai...
Listen
Episode 20: Boston, Brains, and Bad Pronunciation (with Molly Crockett) from 2013-04-21T16:00
Dave and Tamler begin with a brief, heartfelt discussion about the Boston Bombings. Tamler talks about why Patriots' Day and the Boston Marathon mean so much to a kid growing up in Boston.&...
Listen
Episode 19: The Burning Bridges Episode (Pt. 2) from 2013-04-06T08:00
Re-recording a not-so-tragically lost episode (it kinda sucked), Dave and Tamler talk about the things they hate most about philosophy and psychology. But first they discuss a blog post by...
Listen
Episode 18: "Boy If Life Were Only Like This" (With Joe Henrich) from 2013-03-22T17:00
Joe Henrich joins the podcast to tell us that we know nothing about his work and that how we got to teach a class in anything is absolutely amazing. We continue our discussion from Episode...
Listen
Episode 17: Learning about Bushmen by Studying Freshmen? from 2013-03-15T20:00
Thousands of studies in psychology rely on data from North American undergraduates. Can we really conclude anything about the "human" mind from such a limited sample-- especially since Westerner...
Listen
Episode 16: Race, Reparations, and American (In)Justice (with Damani McDole) from 2013-03-02T14:00
For those who thought our most uncomfortable topics were behind us, on this episode we are joined by David's childhood friend Damani McDole&n...
Listen
Episode 15: The Burning Bridges Episode (Pt. 1) from 2013-02-16T01:00
You don't need to be a psychologist or a philosopher to enjoy a good, old-fashioned bitch-fest. In the first of a two-part episode (no single compact disc, 8-track, or LP could hold all our comp...
Listen
Episode 14: Bonus Episode on Snitches, Tattletales, and Whistleblowers from 2013-02-08T17:00
In a break from tradition, we recorded a 25-minute episode on the morality of tattletaling, snitching, ratting, and whistleblowing. We discuss why these people seem especially despicable (except...
Listen
Episode 13: Beanballs, Blood Feuds, and Collective Moral Responsibility (With Fiery Cushman) from 2013-01-22T02:00
Our classiest episode yet (OK, that's not saying much, but still...)--Psychologist Fiery Cushman joins us for a discussion about collective punishment and collective responsibility. We use Fiery...
Listen
Episode 12: Justice for #!$@ ? from 2013-01-13T19:00
Dave and Tamler square off the role of the victim in criminal punishment and find little to agree about. Tamler defends the ...
Listen
Episode 11: It is Morally Wrong to Kill Morgan Freeman (with Yoel Inbar) from 2012-12-28T15:00
Social psychologistYoel Inbarjoins Tamler and David to discuss Clint Eastwood's masterpiece of the Western genre, "Unforgiven." The d...
Listen
Episode 10: Religion, Meaning, and Morality from 2012-12-10T22:00
Does life have meaning if there is no God? Why should I be a good person if there's no reward or punishment waiting for me in the afterlife? Why does religion seem to make people happier and hea...
Listen
Episode 9: Social Psychology, Situationism, and Moral Character from 2012-12-03T01:00
After discussing some listener feedback about the movie Swingers, Tamler and David talk about two classic experiments in social psychology: the Milgram Experiments and the Zimbardo Prison experi...
Listen
Episode 8: Dishonesty, Character, and Dan Ariely from 2012-11-11T19:00
In a Very Special Episode of Very Bad Wizards, Dan Ariely joins David to chat about cheating, character, teling your significant other about kissing someone at a conference, and the importance o...
Listen
Episode 7: Psychopaths and Utilitarians Pt. 2 (Now with more poo poo) from 2012-11-04T02:00
After a clip fromThe Third Man, Dave and Tamler continue their discussion from Episode 6 on Ted Bundy, utilitarians, and trolley problems. They also talk about Tamler’...
Listen
Episode 6: Trolleys, Utilitarians, and Psychopaths (Part 1) from 2012-10-20T15:00
Tamler contemplates ending it all because he can't get 'Call Me Maybe' out of his head, and Dave doesn't try to talk him out of it. This is followed by a discussion about drones, psychopaths, Ca...
Listen
Episode 5: Revenge, Pt. 2: The Revenge from 2012-10-08T12:00
Dave and Tamler continue their discussion about their favorite topic. They talk about the evolutionary origins of retributive behavior, cross-cultural differences in r...
Listen
Episode 4: Revenge, Pt. 1 from 2012-09-20T19:00
Dave allows Tamler to rant about Sam Harris’s strawman attacks on moral relativism before launching into discussion about revenge, justice,True Grit,and Michael Dukaki...
Listen
Episode 3: "We believe in nothing!" (Cultural diversity, relativism, and moral truth) from 2012-09-08T15:00
Tamler and Dave discuss recent work in philosophy and psychology about the differences in moral values and practices across cultures. We talk about the implications of moral diversity: does ...
Listen
Episode 2: The "Dangerous Truth" about Free Will (Free Will and Morality, Pt. 2) from 2012-08-31T23:00
Tamler and David discuss whether giving up our belief in free will makes us more likely to abandon our moral standards.
Links
Episode 1: Brains, Robots, and Free Will (Free Will and Morality Pt. 1) from 2012-08-30T01:00
Dave and Tamler start out talking about the new wave of skepticism about free will and moral responsibility in the popularpress from people likeListen