Everytime Donald Trump was mentioned in Very Bad Wizards
Everytime Donald Trump was mentioned in Very Bad Wizards
Episode 102: Red, Black, and Blue
Very Bad WizardsDavid and Tamler stumble their way through talking about the election results, how Trump got elected, the role of racism, sexism, the liberal bubble, complacency, economic anxiety - and find they're ju
Nov 15, 2016·1h 37m·0(-)Episode 204: Happy Freedom Day! (with Lauren Anderson)
Very Bad WizardsThe legendary Houston Ballet dancer Lauren Anderson joins us to talk about the Atlanta Episode “Juneteenth” (Season 1, Episode 9), a hilarious exploration of race, class, identity, and carrying aro
Jan 12, 2021·1h 36m·0(-)Episode 106: American Grandstand
Very Bad WizardsDavid and Tamler take a break from moral grandstanding to talk about moral grandstanding. How often do we moralize to make us look respectable? Does grandstanding make us more cynical about ethical deb
Jan 10, 2017·1h 17m·0(-)Episode 176: Split-Brains and the (Dis)Unity of Consciousness
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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 hemisp
Nov 12, 2019·1h 48m·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 170: Social Psychology Gets an Asch-Kicking
Very Bad WizardsIs social psychology just a kid dressing up in grown-up science clothes? Are the methods in social psychology--hypothesis-driven experiments and model-building--appropriate for the state of the field?
Aug 13, 2019·1h 49m·0(-)Episode 95: The Repugnance of Repugnance
Very Bad WizardsWe all remember the famous iTunes review calling David and Tamler "repugnant." (And the T-shirt/mugs are coming soon, we promise!) But what did the reviewer mean by that? Was he calling us "immoral"? D
Aug 2, 2016·1h 28m·0(-)Episode 190: We Pod. We Pod-Cast. We Podcast. (Frankfurt’s “On Bullshit”)
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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 Univers
Jun 9, 2020·2h 1m·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 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 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 128: Fragmented Values and Sex Panics (with Christina Hoff Sommers)
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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 multip
Nov 28, 2017·1h 50m·0(-)Episode 97: Dogmatic Slumber Party
Very Bad WizardsDo you have strong views on climate change, taxes, health care, or gun control? Do you think the evidence and reason support your side of the debate? How do you know you’re right? David and Tamler di
Aug 30, 2016·1h 23m·0(-)Episode 129: Dystopias
Very Bad WizardsDavid and Tamler assert their autonomy as individuals by discussing their favorite dystopian works of art. Rebelling against a repressive regime, they refuse to sacrifice their privacy, uniqueness, and
Dec 12, 2017·1h 45m·5.0(1)Episode 196: The Loneliest Paper in Philosophy
Very Bad WizardsShe’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
Sep 8, 2020·1h 49m·0(-)Episode 243: Finding My Religion
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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 writt
Aug 16, 2022·1h 32m·5.0(1)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 120: Clap Your Hand for Robert Wright
Very Bad WizardsSpecial guest Robert Wright joins the podcast to discuss his latest book "Why Buddhism is True." What is the Buddhist conception of not-self? When we become aware that the boundaries between us and the
Jul 25, 2017·1h 47m·0(-)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 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 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 101: Having Desert and Eating It Too
Very Bad WizardsWhy do we call Mozart a creative genius? He created his music, but do we also think that he created himself? How do we determine who deserves praise as an artist? What about athletes? What standards do
Nov 1, 2016·1h 28m·0(-)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 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 212: Follow Your Nose (with Yoel Inbar)
Very Bad WizardsCanada’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
May 11, 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 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 118: We Don't Love Them Hoax
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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 Ame
Jun 28, 2017·1h 12m·0(-)