Everytime Leo Tolstoy was mentioned in Very Bad Wizards
Everytime Leo Tolstoy was mentioned in Very Bad Wizards
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 112: Gettier Goggles
Very Bad WizardsFor 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 the
Apr 4, 2017·1h 31m·0(-)Episode 242: Losing My Religion
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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 going
Aug 2, 2022·1h 33m·5.0(1)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 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 210: The Priming of the American Mind (with Jesse Singal)
Very Bad WizardsJournalist, 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, 2021·2h 1m·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 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 217: Dropping Paradigms (Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions")
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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, 2021·2h 6m·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 56: Moral Heroes and Drunk Utilitarians
Very Bad WizardsFollowing 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. Dave accuses
Nov 3, 2014·1h 10m·0(-)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 258: Mystic Peeza
Very Bad WizardsDavid 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 like a
Apr 11, 2023·1h 33m·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 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 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 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)