Everytime David Lynch was mentioned in Very Bad Wizards
Everytime David Lynch was mentioned in Very Bad Wizards
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 259: Losing Time ("Tár" with Paul Bloom)
Very Bad WizardsThe 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
Apr 25, 2023·1h 56m·4.5(2)Episode 263: Free Yoel
Very Bad WizardsA 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 t
Jun 27, 2023·1h 35m·3.5(2)Episode 121: The Beauty of Illusion - David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive"
Very Bad WizardsGuest 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
Aug 15, 2017·1h 29m·0(-)Episode 224: Hurts So Good (With Paul Bloom)
Very Bad WizardsVBW 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 a
Nov 2, 2021·1h 42m·0(-)Episode 207: Sometimes a Paper Tray is Just a Paper Tray
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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 inte
Feb 23, 2021·1h 28m·0(-)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 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 149: Death, Immortality, and Porn (Intuition) Pumps
Very Bad WizardsIs 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 h
Oct 2, 2018·1h 41m·0(-)Episode 168: The Big Lebowski vs Pulp Fiction (Pt. 2)
Very Bad WizardsIt'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
Jul 16, 2019·1h 33m·0(-)Episode 248: Checkmate, Grasshopper
Very Bad WizardsIn 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’ obj
Nov 1, 2022·1h 23m·5.0(1)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 241: Very Bad Orgies (Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut")
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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? Jeal
Jul 19, 2022·2h 35m·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 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 179: Talking Shit
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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 the
Dec 24, 2019·2h 3m·0(-)Episode 175: At Least We Didn’t Talk About Zombies (Nagel’s “What is it Like to be a Bat?”)
Very Bad WizardsWe 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
Oct 29, 2019·1h 42m·0(-)Episode 99: Mockingbirds, Destructo-Critics, and Mr. Robot
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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
Sep 27, 2016·2h 3m·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 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 218: ...But You Can't Hide (Michael Haneke's "Caché")
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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, f
Aug 3, 2021·1h 59m·0(-)Episode 266: I Want to Half-Believe
Very Bad WizardsLast 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
Aug 8, 2023·1h 22m·4.0(2)Episode 234: Like A Dog (Kafka's "The Trial" Pt. 2)
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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
Apr 5, 2022·1h 53m·0(-)Episode 226: Unraveling Time Traveling (with Barry Lam and Christina Hoff Sommers)
Very Bad WizardsFirst, 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
Dec 7, 2021·1h 56m·0(-)Episode 252: Yes We Sene-can
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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
Jan 10, 2023·1h 34m·5.0(1)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 220: On Your Marx
Very Bad WizardsIn 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 al
Sep 7, 2021·1h 50m·0(-)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 130: Dehumanization and Disintegration (with Paul Bloom)
Very Bad WizardsIn 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.
Dec 26, 2017·1h 32m·0(-)Episode 188: Conceptual Mummies (Nietzsche's "Twilight of the Idols")
Very Bad WizardsSocrates 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 sn
May 12, 2020·1h 42m·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 253: Tarkovsky's Starchild
Very Bad WizardsIt’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 cordo
Jan 31, 2023·2h 8m·5.0(1)Episode 138: Memory, Pain, and Relationships (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind)
Very Bad WizardsAward-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 relationship
Apr 24, 2018·1h 45m·5.0(1)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 264: The Rule You Follow (The Coen Brothers' "No Country for Old Men")
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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
Jul 11, 2023·2h 10m·5.0(1)Episode 221: Granite Cocks vs Robot Overlords
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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-
Sep 21, 2021·1h 50m·0(-)Episode 270: Take Me to the River (Blood Meridian, Pt. 3)
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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. Next w
Oct 10, 2023·1h 43m·5.0(3)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 238: I Am Not Ivan Ilyich...Am I?
Very Bad WizardsIvan 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 do
Jun 7, 2022·1h 58m·0(-)Episode 202: Not as It Ought to Be (H.P. Lovecraft's "The Colour Out of Space")
Very Bad WizardsA 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 t
Dec 8, 2020·1h 31m·0(-)Episode 199: When Philosophy Goes Sideways
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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
Oct 20, 2020·1h 39m·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 165: Life With No Head (With Sam Harris)
Very Bad WizardsSam 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 deepe
Jun 4, 2019·2h 16m·0(-)Episode 231: Ideal Critics (Hume's "Of the Standard of Taste")
Very Bad WizardsMany 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 lik
Feb 22, 2022·1h 51m·0(-)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(-)