Everytime Jorge Luis Borges was mentioned in Very Bad Wizards
Everytime Jorge Luis Borges was mentioned in Very Bad Wizards
Episode 197: The Long Slow Death That Is Life
Very Bad WizardsThe 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 Thinki
Sep 22, 2020·1h 52m·0(-)Episode 156: Notes From Underground (Pt. 1)
Very Bad WizardsWe’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 masterpi
Jan 22, 2019·1h 43m·0(-)Episode 183: Accept the Mystery (with Paul Bloom)
Very Bad WizardsVBW 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 t
Feb 25, 2020·1h 39m·0(-)Episode 219: Multiplied by Mirrors
Very Bad WizardsIt’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 B
Aug 17, 2021·1h 45m·0(-)Episode 178: Borges' Obsession-Obsession ("The Zahir")
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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 p
Dec 10, 2019·1h 40m·0(-)Episode 244: Thanks for the Memories? (Borges' "Funes the Memorious)
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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 acc
Sep 6, 2022·1h 51m·5.0(1)Episode 192: Postmodern Wet Dreams (Borges' "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote")
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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
Jul 7, 2020·1h 36m·0(-)Episode 144: Borges' Babylon
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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
Jul 24, 2018·1h 23m·0(-)Episode 145: Lost in Borges' Garden
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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
Aug 7, 2018·1h 37m·0(-)Episode 251: First Order, Then Chaos
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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 utt
Dec 20, 2022·1h 34m·3.5(2)Episode 275: The Ineffable Center (Borges' "The Aleph")
Very Bad WizardsAn episode interesting from every point of view, we train our eyes on Jorge Luis Borges’ “The Aleph.” The first segment wins the kudos of the learned, the academician, the Hellenist, as we talk a
Dec 26, 2023·1h 34m·4.6(4)Episode 154: Metaphysical Vertigo (Borges's "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius")
Very Bad WizardsIn 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
Dec 18, 2018·1h 56m·0(-)Episode 157: Notes From Underground (Pt. 2)
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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
Feb 5, 2019·1h 21m·0(-)Episode 208: Dream Theater
Very Bad WizardsWe’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 dre
Mar 9, 2021·1h 42m·0(-)Episode 272: Neigh Means Yay
Very Bad WizardsThe 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 l
Nov 15, 2023·1h 24m·4.8(4)Episode 255: Beloved Child of the House (Susanna Clarke's "Piranesi")
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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 conv
Feb 28, 2023·1h 43m·4.5(2)Episode 261: Death of the Author
Very Bad WizardsWhat’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 int
May 30, 2023·1h 22m·5.0(1)Episode 189: The Anality of Evil (Freud's "Civilization and its Discontents")
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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
May 26, 2020·1h 37m·0(-)Episode 267: The Thickness of Reality
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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
Aug 22, 2023·1h 12m·5.0(2)Episode 186: The One with Peter Singer
Very Bad WizardsThe 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
Apr 7, 2020·1h 29m·0(-)Episode 223: The Hopeless Dream of Being (Bergman's "Persona")
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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
Oct 19, 2021·1h 28m·0(-)Episode 153: Progress in Psychology: A Reply to BootyBootyFartFart
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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 int
Dec 4, 2018·1h 46m·0(-)Episode 150: Paul Bloom Insisted That We Talk About Sex Robots
Very Bad WizardsWhat 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 de
Oct 23, 2018·1h 26m·0(-)Episode 174: More Chiang for Your Buck ("Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom" Pt. 2)
Very Bad WizardsIs 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 a
Oct 15, 2019·1h 46m·0(-)Episode 273: Ah. Ah. (Miyazaki's "Spirited Away")
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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 may not be o
Nov 29, 2023·1h 57m·4.8(6)Episode 155: Alfred Hitchcock's Money Shot
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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
Jan 8, 2019·1h 38m·0(-)Episode 254: Nobody's Parfit
Very Bad WizardsTamler’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
Feb 14, 2023·1h 19m·5.0(1)Episode 194: God Has No Mother (with Chris Matheson)
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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,
Aug 11, 2020·1h 53m·0(-)Episode 228: Forever Jung
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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 w
Jan 11, 2022·1h 33m·0(-)Episode 96: Memory and Meaning in "Memento" (with Paul Bloom)
Very Bad WizardsSo 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 movi
Aug 16, 2016·1h 26m·0(-)Episode 193: Free Wanting (Frankfurt's "Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person")
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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 w
Jul 21, 2020·1h 28m·0(-)Episode 198: Is Mental Illness a Myth? (Thomas Szasz's "The Myth of Mental Illness")
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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 disord
Oct 6, 2020·1h 32m·0(-)Episode 166: Total Recall (Ted Chiang's "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling")
Very Bad WizardsMemory 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 rev
Jun 18, 2019·1h 49m·0(-)Episode 200: Our 200th Episode Spectactular
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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
Nov 3, 2020·1h 44m·0(-)Episode 260: The Scream That Never Found a Voice (Murakami's "Sleep")
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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 te
May 9, 2023·1h 29m·5.0(1)Episode 161: Reach-Around Knowledge and Bottom Performers (The Dunning-Kruger Effect)
Very Bad WizardsThe 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 w
Apr 2, 2019·1h 25m·0(-)Episode 262: Supposing Truth is a Woman (Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil")
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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 Hege
Jun 13, 2023·1h 28m·5.0(1)Episode 187: More Zither
Very Bad WizardsWith 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 pa
Apr 21, 2020·1h 40m·0(-)Episode 147: Effective Altruism and Moral Uncertainty (with The One True Scotsman, Will MacAskill)
Very Bad WizardsOxford 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 a
Sep 4, 2018·1h 43m·0(-)Episode 206: Angel Chasing (Ted Chiang's "Hell is the Absence of God")
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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?
Feb 9, 2021·1h 37m·0(-)Episode 201: Very Bad Lizard People
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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
Nov 24, 2020·1h 56m·0(-)Episode 109: Moral Pluralism: Behind the Lube
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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 bo
Feb 28, 2017·1h 11m·0(-)Episode 195: Jesus on Trial (Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov")
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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
Aug 25, 2020·1h 55m·0(-)Episode 236: Your Outie Is Skilled at Lovemaking (With Paul Bloom)
Very Bad WizardsWe 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? D
May 3, 2022·2h 10m·0(-)Episode 41: Moral Dilemmas at the Movies
Very Bad WizardsDave 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
Feb 19, 2014·1h 37m·5.0(1)