Very Bad Wizards

Everytime Tamler Sommers was mentioned in Very Bad Wizards

Episode 63: Stalemates and Closets (with Sam Harris)
Very Bad Wizards
Sam Harris gets back in the VBW ring for another round on moral responsibility, ethical theories, and the grounds for our obligations to other people. Are we at a genuine stalemate when it comes to bla
Feb 28, 2015
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2h 46m
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0

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Episode 59: Tumors All the Way Down (With Sam Harris)
Very Bad Wizards
Bestselling author and friend of the podcast Sam Harris joins Tamler and Dave for a marathon podcast. (Seriously, pack two pairs of astronaut diapers for this one). We talk about the costs and benefits
Dec 16, 2014
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2h 32m
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0

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Episode 79: Good Lives, Good Friends, and Gay Mormons (with Valerie Tiberius)
Very Bad Wizards
Special guest Valerie Tiberius joins us to talk about values, well-being, and friendship. What role should reflection play in the good life? What about emotion? How can we make our values more consiste
Dec 4, 2015
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1h 47m
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0

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Episode 147: Effective Altruism and Moral Uncertainty (with The One True Scotsman, Will MacAskill)
Very Bad Wizards
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 a
Sep 4, 2018
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1h 43m
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0

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Episode 162: Parents Just Don't Understand (with Paul Bloom)
Very Bad Wizards
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 krypo
Apr 16, 2019
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1h 26m
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0

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Episode 46: The Real Josh Knobe
Very Bad Wizards
May I have your attention please? Will the real Josh Knobe please stand up? Will the real... [you know what, screw this--we're just dating ourselves.] X-phi phenom Josh Knobe rejoins the podcast to tal
May 5, 2014
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1h 4m
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0

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Episode 150: Paul Bloom Insisted That We Talk About Sex Robots
Very Bad Wizards
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 de
Oct 23, 2018
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1h 26m
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0

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Episode 209: Basic Instincts (with Paul Bloom)
Very Bad Wizards
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 Dawki
Mar 23, 2021
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1h 36m
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0

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Episode 49: Psychopaths and Contrastivizzzzzzzz (With Walter Sinnott-Armstrong)
Very Bad Wizards
Special guest Walter Sinnott-Armstrong joins the podcast to explain how his theory which desperately needs a new name ("contrastivism") can dissolve most of the fundamental problems and paradoxes in ph
Jun 23, 2014
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1h 43m
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0

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Episode 13: Beanballs, Blood Feuds, and Collective Moral Responsibility (With Fiery Cushman)
Very Bad Wizards
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's rece
Jan 22, 2013
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1h 0m
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0

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Episode 235: Animated Objects
Very Bad Wizards
Panpsychism didn't give us river spirits or mischievous sootballs, so this time we go straight to the source - a defense of animism, and in a top 10 analytic philosophy journal. Could a failed argument
Apr 19, 2022
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1h 51m
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0

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Episode 232: Mind Over Matter
Very Bad Wizards
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. W
Mar 8, 2022
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1h 39m
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4.0

(1)
Episode 196: The Loneliest Paper in Philosophy
Very Bad Wizards
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
Sep 8, 2020
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1h 49m
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0

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Episode 182: The Paper That Launched a Thousand Twitter Wars (With Yoel Inbar)
Very Bad Wizards
Podcasting legend Yoel Inbar (from Two Psychologists Four Beers ) joins us to break down Tal Yarkoni's "The Generalizability Crisis,” the paper that launched a thousand Twitter wars. Psychologists ma
Feb 11, 2020
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1h 58m
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0

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Episode 165: Life With No Head (With Sam Harris)
Very Bad Wizards
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 deepe
Jun 4, 2019
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2h 16m
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0

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Episode 47: Schooled By Our Listeners
Very Bad Wizards
Tamler and David leech off of their listeners and dedicate an episode to their favorite comments, questions, and criticisms from the past few weeks (but not before Tamler goes on a rant about bicycle h
May 22, 2014
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1h 2m
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0

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Episode 179: Talking Shit
Very Bad Wizards
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 the
Dec 24, 2019
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2h 3m
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0

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Episode 153: Progress in Psychology: A Reply to BootyBootyFartFart
Very Bad Wizards
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 int
Dec 4, 2018
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1h 46m
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0

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Episode 176: Split-Brains and the (Dis)Unity of Consciousness
Very Bad Wizards
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 hemisp
Nov 12, 2019
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1h 48m
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0

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Episode 274: Can I Get a Kidney Voucher? (with Vlad Chituc)
Very Bad Wizards
RETURNING guest Vlad Chituc joins us for a wide-ranging discussion about donating his kidney to a stranger, the effective altruism movement, and his sexuality. Was EA’s turn to ‘long-termist’ goa
Dec 13, 2023
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1h 35m
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4.8

(4)
Episode 90: Of Mice and Morals
Very Bad Wizards
David and Tamler have their first real fight in a while over an article defending "social mixing"--distributing babies randomly across families such that no infant is genetically related to the parents
May 25, 2016
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1h 20m
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0

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Episode 100: It's a Celebration
Very Bad Wizards
David and Tamler have their 100th episode hijacked briefly before taking it back like Wesley Snipes in Passenger 57. To celebrate the milestone Tamler pops some champagne, Dave sips his high priced Ivy
Oct 13, 2016
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1h 38m
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0

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Episode 210: The Priming of the American Mind (with Jesse Singal)
Very Bad Wizards
Journalist, podcaster, and rapper Jesse Singal joins us to talk about his new book The Quick Fix, positive psychology (scam?), cancel culture in the media and academia (overblown?), Substack incentives
Apr 6, 2021
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2h 1m
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0

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Episode 224: Hurts So Good (With Paul Bloom)
Very Bad Wizards
VBW favorite Paul Bloom joins us to talk about the pleasures of suffering, flow states, Sisyphus, meaning, and dating questions. Check out his new book The Sweet Spot which comes out today! Plus what a
Nov 2, 2021
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1h 42m
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0

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Episode 175: At Least We Didn’t Talk About Zombies (Nagel’s “What is it Like to be a Bat?”)
Very Bad Wizards
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
Oct 29, 2019
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1h 42m
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0

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Episode 80: The Coddling of the Wizard Mind (with Vlad Chituc and Christina Hoff Sommers)
Very Bad Wizards
It's our last episode on campus protests and political correctness for a while, we promise! But it's a fun one. David and Tamler welcome two guests on the opposite side of the debate spectrum. Recent Y
Dec 21, 2015
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1h 40m
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0

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Episode 108: The Gimp Exception
Very Bad Wizards
Inspired by a recent article, David and Tamler try to figure out what's behind our aversion to moral hypocrisy. Why do we have such low opinions of people who don't practice what they preach? Shouldn't
Feb 7, 2017
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1h 14m
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0

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Episode 75: A Golden Shower of Guests
Very Bad Wizards
Dave and Tamler celebrate their 75th episode by welcoming six BFFs of the podcast and asking them to share the biggest thing they've changed their minds about in their professional careers. You'll hear
Oct 6, 2015
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2h 29m
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0

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Episode 134: Digital Outrage (with Molly Crockett)
Very Bad Wizards
It's been 5 years since Molly Crockett has been guest on VBW. During that time she's completed a post-doc at University College, London and become a professor at Yale University. And we're...well, we'r
Feb 27, 2018
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1h 51m
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0

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Episode 186: The One with Peter Singer
Very Bad Wizards
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
Apr 7, 2020
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1h 29m
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0

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Episode 89: Shame on You (with Jennifer Jacquet)
Very Bad Wizards
David and Tamler welcome author and environmental science professor Jennifer Jacquet to the podcast to discuss the pros and cons of shame. What's the difference between shame and guilt? Is shaming effe
May 10, 2016
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1h 37m
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0

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Episode 120: Clap Your Hand for Robert Wright
Very Bad Wizards
Special guest Robert Wright joins the podcast to discuss his latest book "Why Buddhism is True." What is the Buddhist conception of not-self? When we become aware that the boundaries between us and the
Jul 25, 2017
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1h 47m
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0

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Episode 125: Can You Feel It?
Very Bad Wizards
What do we mean when we say someone is angry? Can we identify anger (or any other emotion) via facial expressions, physiological changes, or neural markers? Is anger simply a feeling, something that ha
Oct 10, 2017
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1h 32m
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0

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Episode 18: "Boy If Life Were Only Like This" (With Joe Henrich)
Very Bad Wizards
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 17 about his
Mar 22, 2013
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0h 49m
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0

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Episode 254: Nobody's Parfit
Very Bad Wizards
Tamler’s earlier self committed to doing an episode on Parfit, and David holds his current self to that promise, which shows how unconvinced David was by Parfit’s skepticism about personal identity
Feb 14, 2023
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1h 19m
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5.0

(1)
Episode 263: Free Yoel
Very Bad Wizards
A VBW exclusive report! For years David and Tamler have been a little dismissive of fears about cancel culture in academia but now the SJWs have come for one of our own! We welcome back Yoel Inbar to t
Jun 27, 2023
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1h 35m
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3.5

(2)
Episode 181: The Fraudulence Paradox (David Foster Wallace's "Good Old Neon")
Very Bad Wizards
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
Jan 28, 2020
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2h 9m
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0

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Episode 183: Accept the Mystery (with Paul Bloom)
Very Bad Wizards
VBW favorite Paul Bloom takes a short break from his Sam Harris duties to help us break down the Coen Brothers' ode to uncertainty, A Serious Man . Does inaction have consequences? Can you understand t
Feb 25, 2020
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1h 39m
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0

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Episode 95: The Repugnance of Repugnance
Very Bad Wizards
We all remember the famous iTunes review calling David and Tamler "repugnant." (And the T-shirt/mugs are coming soon, we promise!) But what did the reviewer mean by that? Was he calling us "immoral"? D
Aug 2, 2016
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1h 28m
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0

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Episode 225: Forbidden Modules
Very Bad Wizards
David and Tamler talk about the often rancorous debate among cognitive scientists and evolutionary psychologists over whether the mind is modular -- composed of discrete systems responsible for vision,
Nov 16, 2021
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1h 42m
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0

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Episode 97: Dogmatic Slumber Party
Very Bad Wizards
Do you have strong views on climate change, taxes, health care, or gun control? Do you think the evidence and reason support your side of the debate? How do you know you’re right? David and Tamler di
Aug 30, 2016
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1h 23m
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0

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Episode 146: Sore Losers (Does Sports Make Us Unhappy?)
Very Bad Wizards
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 benefit
Aug 21, 2018
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1h 12m
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0

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Episode 40: How Many Moralities Are There? Pt. 2 (with Jesse Graham)
Very Bad Wizards
Jesse Graham joins us for part 2 of our discussion on the nature of morality, and his recent paper on Moral Foundations Theory. He highlights the key components of MFT, defends himself against our accu
Feb 3, 2014
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1h 19m
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0

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Episode 27: You, Your Self, and Your Brain (With Eddy Nahmias)
Very Bad Wizards
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 on Sam Harri
Jul 22, 2013
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1h 22m
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0

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Episode 130: Dehumanization and Disintegration (with Paul Bloom)
Very Bad Wizards
In this Very Special Boxing Day edition of the podcast, Tamler and David welcome back honorary Third Wizard Paul Bloom to discuss his latest article in the New Yorker about dehumanization and cruelty.
Dec 26, 2017
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1h 32m
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0

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Episode 255: Beloved Child of the House (Susanna Clarke's "Piranesi")
Very Bad Wizards
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 conv
Feb 28, 2023
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1h 43m
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4.5

(2)
Episode 21: Grad School
Very Bad Wizards
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 explains why the so
May 6, 2013
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1h 33m
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5.0

(1)
Episode 81: Domo Arigato, Mr. Robot (With Yoel Inbar)
Very Bad Wizards
Hello, listener. Hello, listener? That's lame. Maybe I should give you a name, but that's a slippery slope. You're only in my head. Or maybe we're in your head. Are you listening to this with headphone
Jan 12, 2016
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1h 47m
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0

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Episode 262: Supposing Truth is a Woman (Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil")
Very Bad Wizards
David and Tamler dive into the first two parts of Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil which contain some of Nietzsche’s best drive-bys on philosophers like Plato, Descartes, the Stoics, Kant, and Hege
Jun 13, 2023
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1h 28m
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5.0

(1)
Episode 61: Putting a Little Meaning in Your Life
Very Bad Wizards
Dave and Tamler take a break from blame and responsibility to tackle a much easier subject: meaning in life. We discuss Susan Wolf's new book "Meaning in Life and Why it Matters," and play some excerpt
Jan 19, 2015
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1h 15m
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0

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Episode 180: Chekhov's Schrödinger's Dagger (Kurosawa's "Rashomon")
Very Bad Wizards
Eleventh Century Japan. A samurai and his wife are walking through the forest and come across a bandit. The bandit attacks the samurai and has sex with/rapes his wife. A woodcutter finds the samurai, s
Jan 14, 2020
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1h 56m
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0

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Episode 173: Talking to Your (Alternate) Self [Ted Chiang's "Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom"]
Very Bad Wizards
David and Tamler dive back into the Ted Chiang well and explore the fascinating world described in "Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom." What if you could interact with alternate versions of yourself
Oct 1, 2019
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1h 40m
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0

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Episode 30: The Greatest Books Ever Written
Very Bad Wizards
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 inspired them
Sep 2, 2013
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1h 11m
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0

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Episode 190: We Pod. We Pod-Cast. We Podcast. (Frankfurt’s “On Bullshit”)
Very Bad Wizards
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 Univers
Jun 9, 2020
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2h 1m
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0

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Episode 93: Avalanches, Blame, and Cowardice (With Yoel Inbar)
Very Bad Wizards
Scandinavian film scholar Yoel Inbar joins the podcast for a deep dive on the Swedish film Force Majeure , a darkly funny meditation on what our instinctive behavior in a moment of panic can reveal abo
Jul 5, 2016
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1h 39m
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0

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Episode 238: I Am Not Ivan Ilyich...Am I?
Very Bad Wizards
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 do
Jun 7, 2022
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1h 58m
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0

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Episode 142: Suicide (with Matthew Nock)
Very Bad Wizards
In what has to be the most somber VBW to date, David and Tamler welcome Harvard psychologist Matthew Nock to the podcast to talk about suicide and other forms of self-harm. Matt tells us what we know �
Jun 26, 2018
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1h 30m
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0

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Episode 154: Metaphysical Vertigo (Borges's "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius")
Very Bad Wizards
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
Dec 18, 2018
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1h 56m
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0

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Episode 137: Are Buddhists Afraid to Die? (with Shaun Nichols)
Very Bad Wizards
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
Apr 10, 2018
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1h 19m
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0

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Episode 113: Pascal, Probability, and Pitchforks
Very Bad Wizards
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 believ
Apr 18, 2017
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1h 18m
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0

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Episode 116: Pain, Pleasure, and Peer-Reviewed Penises
Very Bad Wizards
David and Tamler break down the latest small-stakes academic controversy--yes the one about conceptual penises. Does the recent "Sokal-like" hoax expose the ideological extremism of gender studies? Or
May 31, 2017
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1h 16m
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0

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Episode 91: Rage Against the Machines
Very Bad Wizards
Inspired by a recent ProPublica report on racial bias in an algorithm used to predict future criminal behavior, David and Tamler talk about the use of analytic methods in criminal sentencing, sports, a
Jun 7, 2016
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1h 24m
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0

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Episode 192: Postmodern Wet Dreams (Borges' "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote")
Very Bad Wizards
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
Jul 7, 2020
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1h 36m
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0

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Episode 26: Evolution and Sexual Perversion (with Jesse Bering)
Very Bad Wizards
Psychologist and author Jesse Bering joins us to talk about evolutionary psychology and his forthcoming book Perv. In the relatively uncontroversial part of the episode, we ask if homophobia is an adap
Jul 8, 2013
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1h 21m
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0

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Episode 174: More Chiang for Your Buck ("Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom" Pt. 2)
Very Bad Wizards
Is character destiny, or can fluky decisions or tiny shifts in weather patterns fundamentally change who we are? Does the existence or non-existence of alternate universes have any bearing on freedom a
Oct 15, 2019
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1h 46m
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0

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Episode 172: Are You Free (to like the Chappelle special)?
Very Bad Wizards
David and Tamler start out with a discussion of the new Chappelle special and the negative reaction from many critics. Is Chappelle trolling his audience? Has he lost touch with the powerless people he
Sep 17, 2019
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1h 40m
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0

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Episode 62: Brain Jizz and "Black Mirror"
Very Bad Wizards
Dave and Tamler discuss a new study that, according to Tamler, offers decisive support for restorative approaches to criminal punishment (the only problem is he didn't read past the introduction). And
Feb 9, 2015
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1h 1m
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0

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Episode 60: Drunk on Intuitions
Very Bad Wizards
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 pleasu
Jan 2, 2015
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1h 12m
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0

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Episode 25: Burning Armchairs (with Joshua Knobe)
Very Bad Wizards
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 like intention, caus
Jun 24, 2013
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0h 58m
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0

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Episode 236: Your Outie Is Skilled at Lovemaking (With Paul Bloom)
Very Bad Wizards
We welcome Paul Bloom to talk about the first season of "Severance," the new mind-bending and mind-splitting TV series on Apple TV+. What happens when you separate your home life from your work life? D
May 3, 2022
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2h 10m
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0

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Episode 231: Ideal Critics (Hume's "Of the Standard of Taste")
Very Bad Wizards
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 lik
Feb 22, 2022
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1h 51m
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0

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Episode 132: Emotional Willpower (with David DeSteno)
Very Bad Wizards
What's the best way to build self-control, patience, productivity, and delayed marshmallow eating? For decades psychologists and economists have told us to develop traits like willpower and grit. But p
Jan 23, 2018
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1h 35m
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0

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Episode 104: Smelling Salts for Morality: Our Top 3 Movies About Empathy (with Paul Bloom)
Very Bad Wizards
Paul Bloom takes some time away from his "Waking Up" appearances to join us for a very special movie episode: our top three films about empathy. Can movies help us understand the experiences of people
Dec 14, 2016
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1h 33m
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0

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Episode 195: Jesus on Trial (Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov")
Very Bad Wizards
David and Tamler dive into the most celebrated and philosophically rich scenes in Dostoevsky’s masterpiece "The Brothers Karamazov." Alyosha gets in the middle of a rock-fight, Ivan Karamazov makes a
Aug 25, 2020
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1h 55m
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0

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Episode 272: Neigh Means Yay
Very Bad Wizards
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 l
Nov 15, 2023
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1h 24m
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4.8

(4)
Episode 69: CHiPs on Our Shoulders (Lessons in Objectivity)
Very Bad Wizards
Dave and Tamler try to figure out what we talk about when we talk about objectivity. In past episodes we’ve claimed that logic and science (when it isn't fraudulent) are objective. Tamler has claimed
Jun 17, 2015
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1h 33m
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0

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Episode 268: Blood Meridian, Part 1
Very Bad Wizards
In part one of our two-part episode on Cormac McCarthy’s blood-soaked phantasmagorical 1985 masterpiece Blood Meridian, David and Tamler talk about the historical sources of the novel, the cosmic que
Sep 12, 2023
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1h 17m
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4.0

(3)
Episode 107: Winking Under Oppression (with Manuel Vargas)
Very Bad Wizards
The philosopher and pride of Bakersfield, CA Manuel Vargas joins us to talk about culpability under conditions of oppression. How should we treat wrongdoers when their actions and character are shaped
Jan 24, 2017
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1h 21m
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0

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Episode 34: Does Reading Harry Potter Make You Moral? (with Will Wilkinson)
Very Bad Wizards
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 profession and livelihood. Also, D
Oct 28, 2013
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1h 14m
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0

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Episode 94: Buttery Friendships
Very Bad Wizards
Dave and Tamler don’t agree about much, but one thing they do share is an affinity for character-based approaches to ethics. Using Tamler’s interview with Georgetown Philosopher Nancy Sherman as th
Jul 19, 2016
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1h 36m
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0

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Episode 42: Reason, Responsibility, and Roombas (With Paul Bloom)
Very Bad Wizards
Can a fully determined creature deliberate? How big a role does conscious reasoning play in moral judgment and everyday life? Are we responsible for our thoughts and actions? Paul Bloom rejoins us agai
Mar 3, 2014
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1h 7m
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0

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Episode 51: Zombies, Trolleys, and Galileo's Balls
Very Bad Wizards
Episode Audio Dave and Tamler talk about the value and purposes of thought experiments in philosophy and science. Does the trolley problem tell us more about moral psychology than how people make judgm
Aug 12, 2014
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1h 18m
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0

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Episode 265: Kekulé (Oh Yeah!)
Very Bad Wizards
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
Jul 25, 2023
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1h 20m
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5.0

(1)
Episode 239: Lose Yourself
Very Bad Wizards
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 m
Jun 21, 2022
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1h 23m
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0

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Episode 35: Douchebags and Desert
Very Bad Wizards
Dave and Tamler talk about the influence of character judgments on attributions of blame. What is the function of the blame--to assign responsibility or to judge a person's character? Is it fair that w
Nov 11, 2013
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1h 1m
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0

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Episode 178: Borges' Obsession-Obsession ("The Zahir")
Very Bad Wizards
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 p
Dec 10, 2019
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1h 40m
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0

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Episode 256: The Right to Punish?
Very Bad Wizards
Here’s an episode with something for both of us – a healthy serving of Kantian rationalism for David with a dollop of Marxist criminology for Tamler. We discuss and then argue about Jeffrie Murphy�
Mar 14, 2023
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1h 36m
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4.5

(2)
Episode 188: Conceptual Mummies (Nietzsche's "Twilight of the Idols")
Very Bad Wizards
Socrates was ugly and tired of life, so he made a tyrant of reason. Philosophers are mummies who hate the body and the senses. Reason is a tricky old woman. Morality is a misunderstanding. Kant is a sn
May 12, 2020
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1h 42m
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0

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Episode 214: You Shouldn't Feel Bad (Except You Should)
Very Bad Wizards
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-positi
Jun 8, 2021
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1h 20m
·
5.0

(1)
Episode 152: Ruthlessness, Public and Private
Very Bad Wizards
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 othe
Nov 20, 2018
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1h 21m
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0

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Episode 44: Killer Robots
Very Bad Wizards
David and Tamler argue about the use of autonomous robots and drones in warfare. Could it lead to less suffering during wars and afterwards? Would nations be motivated to design robots that behave ethi
Apr 5, 2014
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1h 8m
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0

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Episode 115: Which Field is More Fu@%ed: Philosophy or Psychology?
Very Bad Wizards
David and Tamler go ambulance chasing for scandals in their own fields. Inspired by a tweet from Jay Van Bavel, they argue about which of their disciplines--philosophy or psychology--is more completely
May 16, 2017
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1h 37m
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0

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Episode 259: Losing Time ("Tár" with Paul Bloom)
Very Bad Wizards
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
Apr 25, 2023
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1h 56m
·
4.5

(2)
Episode 99: Mockingbirds, Destructo-Critics, and Mr. Robot
Very Bad Wizards
David and Tamler tackle three topics on their last double digit episode. First, should a middle school perform "To Kill a Mockingbird" even if they have to use bad language the "n-word," and talk about
Sep 27, 2016
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2h 3m
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0

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Episode 127: Moral Luck
Very Bad Wizards
David and Tamler dip back into the Thomas Nagel well, and discuss the problem of "moral luck." Why do we blame drunk drivers who hit someone more than drunk drivers who make it home OK? Why do we judge
Nov 14, 2017
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1h 24m
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0

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Episode 217: Dropping Paradigms (Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions")
Very Bad Wizards
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
Jul 20, 2021
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2h 6m
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0

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Episode 226: Unraveling Time Traveling (with Barry Lam and Christina Hoff Sommers)
Very Bad Wizards
First, it’s the return of the annual drunken Thanksgiving segment! Tamler and based wicked stepmom Christina Hoff Sommers fight about JFK, systematic racism, corporations, and how to pronounce valium
Dec 7, 2021
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1h 56m
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0

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Episode 219: Multiplied by Mirrors
Very Bad Wizards
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 B
Aug 17, 2021
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1h 45m
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0

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Episode 138: Memory, Pain, and Relationships (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind)
Very Bad Wizards
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 relationship
Apr 24, 2018
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1h 45m
·
5.0

(1)
Episode 20: Boston, Brains, and Bad Pronunciation (with Molly Crockett)
Very Bad Wizards
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. They specula
Apr 21, 2013
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1h 0m
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0

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Everytime Tamler Sommers was mentioned in Very Bad Wizards

Everytime Tamler Sommers was mentioned in Very Bad Wizards

Episode 63: Stalemates and Closets (with Sam Harris)

Episode 59: Tumors All the Way Down (With Sam Harris)

Episode 79: Good Lives, Good Friends, and Gay Mormons (with Valerie Tiberius)

Episode 147: Effective Altruism and Moral Uncertainty (with The One True Scotsman, Will MacAskill)

Episode 162: Parents Just Don't Understand (with Paul Bloom)

Episode 46: The Real Josh Knobe

Episode 150: Paul Bloom Insisted That We Talk About Sex Robots

Episode 209: Basic Instincts (with Paul Bloom)

Episode 49: Psychopaths and Contrastivizzzzzzzz (With Walter Sinnott-Armstrong)

Episode 13: Beanballs, Blood Feuds, and Collective Moral Responsibility (With Fiery Cushman)

Episode 235: Animated Objects

Episode 232: Mind Over Matter

Episode 196: The Loneliest Paper in Philosophy

Episode 182: The Paper That Launched a Thousand Twitter Wars (With Yoel Inbar)

Episode 165: Life With No Head (With Sam Harris)

Episode 47: Schooled By Our Listeners

Episode 179: Talking Shit

Episode 153: Progress in Psychology: A Reply to BootyBootyFartFart

Episode 176: Split-Brains and the (Dis)Unity of Consciousness

Episode 274: Can I Get a Kidney Voucher? (with Vlad Chituc)

Episode 90: Of Mice and Morals

Episode 100: It's a Celebration

Episode 210: The Priming of the American Mind (with Jesse Singal)

Episode 224: Hurts So Good (With Paul Bloom)

Episode 175: At Least We Didn’t Talk About Zombies (Nagel’s “What is it Like to be a Bat?”)

Episode 80: The Coddling of the Wizard Mind (with Vlad Chituc and Christina Hoff Sommers)

Episode 108: The Gimp Exception

Episode 75: A Golden Shower of Guests

Episode 134: Digital Outrage (with Molly Crockett)

Episode 186: The One with Peter Singer

Episode 89: Shame on You (with Jennifer Jacquet)

Episode 120: Clap Your Hand for Robert Wright

Episode 125: Can You Feel It?

Episode 18: "Boy If Life Were Only Like This" (With Joe Henrich)

Episode 254: Nobody's Parfit

Episode 263: Free Yoel

Episode 181: The Fraudulence Paradox (David Foster Wallace's "Good Old Neon")

Episode 183: Accept the Mystery (with Paul Bloom)

Episode 95: The Repugnance of Repugnance

Episode 225: Forbidden Modules

Episode 97: Dogmatic Slumber Party

Episode 146: Sore Losers (Does Sports Make Us Unhappy?)

Episode 40: How Many Moralities Are There? Pt. 2 (with Jesse Graham)

Episode 27: You, Your Self, and Your Brain (With Eddy Nahmias)

Episode 130: Dehumanization and Disintegration (with Paul Bloom)

Episode 255: Beloved Child of the House (Susanna Clarke's "Piranesi")

Episode 21: Grad School

Episode 81: Domo Arigato, Mr. Robot (With Yoel Inbar)

Episode 262: Supposing Truth is a Woman (Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil")

Episode 61: Putting a Little Meaning in Your Life

Episode 180: Chekhov's Schrödinger's Dagger (Kurosawa's "Rashomon")

Episode 173: Talking to Your (Alternate) Self [Ted Chiang's "Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom"]

Episode 30: The Greatest Books Ever Written

Episode 190: We Pod. We Pod-Cast. We Podcast. (Frankfurt’s “On Bullshit”)

Episode 93: Avalanches, Blame, and Cowardice (With Yoel Inbar)

Episode 238: I Am Not Ivan Ilyich...Am I?

Episode 142: Suicide (with Matthew Nock)

Episode 154: Metaphysical Vertigo (Borges's "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius")

Episode 137: Are Buddhists Afraid to Die? (with Shaun Nichols)

Episode 113: Pascal, Probability, and Pitchforks

Episode 116: Pain, Pleasure, and Peer-Reviewed Penises

Episode 91: Rage Against the Machines

Episode 192: Postmodern Wet Dreams (Borges' "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote")

Episode 26: Evolution and Sexual Perversion (with Jesse Bering)

Episode 174: More Chiang for Your Buck ("Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom" Pt. 2)

Episode 172: Are You Free (to like the Chappelle special)?

Episode 62: Brain Jizz and "Black Mirror"

Episode 60: Drunk on Intuitions

Episode 25: Burning Armchairs (with Joshua Knobe)

Episode 236: Your Outie Is Skilled at Lovemaking (With Paul Bloom)

Episode 231: Ideal Critics (Hume's "Of the Standard of Taste")

Episode 132: Emotional Willpower (with David DeSteno)

Episode 104: Smelling Salts for Morality: Our Top 3 Movies About Empathy (with Paul Bloom)

Episode 195: Jesus on Trial (Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov")

Episode 272: Neigh Means Yay

Episode 69: CHiPs on Our Shoulders (Lessons in Objectivity)

Episode 268: Blood Meridian, Part 1

Episode 107: Winking Under Oppression (with Manuel Vargas)