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Very Bad Wizards

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Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro

Very Bad Wizards is a podcast featuring a philosopher (Tamler Sommers) and a psychologist (David Pizarro), who share a love for ethics, pop culture, and cognitive science, and who have a marked inability to distinguish sacred from profane. Each podcast includes discussions of moral philosophy, recent work on moral psychology and neuroscience, and the overlap between the two.

#293

Episode 289: Shadows on the Wall (Plato's Cave Pt. 1)

Over the years we’ve referred repeatedly to Plato’s cave, Platonic forms, and phrases like “copies of copies” without ever really explaining what we mean by these things. So as part of a new mini-series we’re going dive deeper into Plato’s famous images of the cave, the sun, and the divided line from Republic Books 6 and 7. What are Plato’s forms and how do they fit into the overall structure of his most famous dialogue? How does the form of the good relate to the other forms? What are the mystical elements of the cave metaphor? (Note: this is part one of a two-part discussion). Plus, if we could go back in time and give one piece of professional advice to a younger version of ourselves, what would that be? <a href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_cave">Plato's allegory of the cave</a> (this has a couple of useful illustrations) [<a href= "https://wikipedia.org/">wikipedia.org</a>] [Republic (Hackett Classics) translated by G.M.A. Grube] (https://amzn.to/4bXIOmS) [<a href= "https://amazon.com/">amazon.com</a> affiliate link] (you can get full text PDF files of Plato's Republic for free all over the internet, but this is the version we're using) [Let us know where we should hold our 300th episode listener meet-up] (https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/V3Z3LM8) [<a href= "https://surveymonkey.com/">surveymonkey.com</a>] ... Read more

23 Jul 2024

1 HR 12 MINS

1:12:18

23 Jul 2024

#292

Episode 288: The Despised Foot (The Denial of Death Pt. 2)

David and Tamler conclude their discussion of Ernest Becker’s The Denial of Death. We talk about Becker’s philosophy of science (does he have one?), his sweeping explanations for strongman leaders, neuroses, mental illness, sexual fetishes, and the refreshing absence of an answer or resolution to the existential paradox at the heart of being human. Plus, a special Pod Save the Wizards intro - we have a political gabfest about Biden, the infamous debate, Kamala Harris, and more… [The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker] (https://amzn.to/4bhbRl2) [amazon.com affiliate link] [The Denial of Death] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Denial_of_Death) [wikipedia.org] [Let us know where we should hold our 300th episode listener meet-up] (https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/V3Z3LM8) [surveymonkey.com] ... Read more

09 Jul 2024

1 HR 30 MINS

1:30:05

09 Jul 2024

#291

Episode 287: Gods With Anuses (The Denial of Death Pt. 1)

David faces his greatest fear as he and Tamler dive into Ernest Becker’s 1973 Pulitzer Prize winner The Denial of Death. Blending existentialist ideas within a psychoanalytic framework, Becker argues that the ultimate source of human motivation is not the repression of sexual drives (as Freud thought) but our terror of death and the yearning for an immortality we can never possess. This episode focuses on Part One of Becker’s book, and we’ll conclude the discussion in the next episode. Plus are gun owners really dissatisfied with their penis size? We look at the numbers. Hill, T. D., Zeng, L., Burdette, A. M., Dowd-Arrow, B., Bartkowski, J. P., & Ellison, C. G. (2024). <a href= "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38819006/">Size matters? Penis dissatisfaction and gun ownership in America.</a> American journal of men's health, 18(3), 15579883241255830. [The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker] (https://amzn.to/4bhbRl2) [amazon.com affiliate link] [The Denial of Death] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Denial_of_Death) [wikipedia.org] [Let us know where we should hold our 300th episode listener meet-up] (https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/V3Z3LM8) [surveymonkey.com] ... Read more

25 Jun 2024

1 HR 31 MINS

1:31:06

25 Jun 2024

#290

Episode 286: Laugh and the World Laughs With You

David and Tamler dive into the mysteries at the heart of Park Chan-wook’s deeply disturbing masterpiece "Oldboy" (2003). An ordinary man, Oh Dae-su, is imprisoned for 15 years in an old, windowless hotel room. After being abruptly released Oh Dae-su embarks on a mission to discover why he was imprisoned and to get revenge on the man who did it. But does Oh Dae-su really want to know the answers? And is he asking the right questions? (SPOILER HEAVY EPISODE! See this movie before you listen! Available on Netflix in the US.) Plus, how familiar are you with words the words azimuth and espadrille? Turns out that the answer may depend on your gender. <a href= "https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13428-018-1077-9">Brysbaert, M., Mandera, P., McCormick, S. F., & Keuleers, E. (2019). Word prevalence norms for 62,000 English lemmas. Behavior research methods, 51, 467-479.</a> <a href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldboy_(2003_film)">Oldboy (2003 film)</a> [wikipedia.org] ... Read more

11 Jun 2024

2 HR 12 MINS

2:12:47

11 Jun 2024

#289

Episode 285: On Culture and Agriculture

It’s an old-school episode as David and Tamler dive into some intriguing research on the origins of cultural differences. Two neighboring communities in communist China were assigned to be wheat farmers and rice farmers. Seventy years later, the people in the rice farming communities showed signs of being more collectivist, relational, and holistic than the people in the wheat farming communities. Plus, we have some questions about a new study on censorship and self-censorship among social psychologists. Links: [Clark CJ, Fjeldmark M, Lu L, Baumeister RF, Ceci S, Frey K, Miller G, Reilly W, Tice D, von Hippel W, Williams WM, Winegard BM, Tetlock PE. (2024) Taboos and Self-Censorship Among U.S. Psychology Professors. Perspectives on Psychologic] (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38752984/) <a href= "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38752984/">al Science</a> [pubmed] <a href= "https://www.psypost.org/a-fascinating-theory-about-the-cultural-influence-of-rice-farming-now-has-evidence-of-causality/"> A fascinating theory about the cultural influence of rice farming now has evidence of causality by Eric Dolan</a> [psypost.org] <a href= "https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-44770-w">Talhelm, T., & Dong, X. (2024). People quasi-randomly assigned to farm rice are more collectivistic than people assigned to farm wheat. Nature Communications, 15(1), 1782.</a>[nature.com] <a href= "https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.1246850?casa_token=3niH41xwwGAAAAAA%3AIEgmp7zDIh2ThnJoRfu79lpPGyZ_RyJEEMDDULIUR1xgP5s5uygvoz8elL-4OURYj2SHcPTbPvZd_rI"> Talhelm, T., Zhang, X., Oishi, S., Shimin, C., Duan, D., Lan, X., & Kitayama, S. (2014). Large-scale psychological differences within China explained by rice versus wheat agriculture. Science, 344(6184), 603-608.</a> [science.org] ... Read more

28 May 2024

1 HR 25 MINS

1:25:44

28 May 2024

#288

Episode 284: Reel Choices

David and Tamler choose an episode topic that will define the identity and meaning of the Very Bad Wizards podcast going forward – our top 3 existentialist movies. Plus, you’re gonna be shocked to hear this, you might want to sit down, but there has been surprisingly little research on the metaphysics of puns. We look at a recent paper that remedies this appalling gap in the literature – and maybe the biggest surprise of all, Tamler has some nice things to say about it. ... Read more

15 May 2024

1 HR 22 MINS

1:22:34

15 May 2024

#287

Episode 283: When Elephants Podcast

David and Tamler talk about Caitrin Keiper’s wonderful sprawling essay on elephant life and society and the many philosophical questions surrounding these extraordinary creatures. What kind of mental states can we attribute to them? Do they have a kind of language? Are they moral? What are our moral duties to them? What accounts for the long-standing taboo against ‘anthropomorphizing’ elephants and other complex non-human animals? And lots more. Plus, a new segment “there should be a German word for this” - we come up with new German words for common phenomena or experiences. And a big announcement in the promo segment about the podcast going forward. <a href= "https://www.gofundme.com/f/p4uqwq-help-my-family-evacuate-from-gaza"> Please consider supporting a long-time listener’s attempt to get their family out of Gaza.</a>[gofundme.com] Links: <a href= "https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/do-elephants-have-souls"> Do Elephants Have Souls? by Caitrin Keiper</a> [thenewatlantis.com] ... Read more

30 Apr 2024

1 HR 23 MINS

1:23:53

30 Apr 2024

#286

Episode 282: Fearful Symmetry (Borges' "Death and the Compass")

A Rabbi is found dead in a hotel room, stabbed in the chest. The room is filled with Kabbalah texts and a single page in an typewriter that reads “The first letter of the name has been written.” The celebrated detective and “reasoning machine” Erik Lönnrot suspects a rabbinical explanation but is he seeing patterns that may not be there? David and Tamler get out their pipes, magnifying glasses, and deerstalker hats to unravel another Borges mystery: “Death and the Compass.” Plus a new study on why men make errors about whether women are flirting with them, the latest in our series on studies that employ erotic fiction. Links: <a href= "https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-023-02798-x">A Dress Is Not a Yes: Towards an Indirect Mouse-Tracking Measure of Men’s Overreliance on Global Cues in the Context of Sexual Flirting</a> <a href= "https://www.psypost.org/pinpointing-the-psychological-factors-linked-to-mens-misjudgments-of-womens-sexual-interest/"> Pinpointing the psychological factors linked to men's misjudgments of women's sexual interest</a> <a href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_and_the_Compass">Death and the Compass by Jorge Luis Borges</a> [wikipedia.org] ... Read more

16 Apr 2024

1 HR 25 MINS

1:25:12

16 Apr 2024

#285

Episode 281: Choose Your Fighter

We dig into the biggest rivalry in Tamler’s profession, analytic vs. continental philosophy. Are analytic philosophers truly the rigorous, precise, clear thinkers they take themselves to be? And is continental philosophy really just a bunch pretentious charlatans spouting French and German gibberish and writing obscure prose to mask the incoherence of their ideas? We look at a nice paper by Neil Levy that goes beyond the stereotypes and tries to describe and explain the differences between the two schools. Plus, The University of Austin (sic) is back in the news and we have a report from someone who attended one of their Forbidden Courses. This should be so easy but the article has us deeply conflicted about what to make fun of. [Important update: Trixie is on a 5 day streak of no accidents and is a perfect little sweet girl.] Links: <a href= "https://thenewinquiry.com/an-american-education-notes-from-uatx/">An American Education: Notes from UATX by Noah Rawlings</a> <a href= "https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-9973.00274?casa_token=zV1DKoDeJwwAAAAA%3AgRNbpKPu4USh5cXgsp0OZOSAMvQZxNEoQcz0ib08Cndci8o9TLkpVi7JRwvyQju_nQDL03i7xuVPSk4"> Levy, N. (2003). Analytic and continental philosophy: Explaining the differences. Metaphilosophy, 34(3), 284-304.</a> ... Read more

26 Mar 2024

1 HR 22 MINS

1:22:42

26 Mar 2024

#284

Episode 280: Mad Masque (with Phil Ford and J.F. Martel)

Phil Ford and J.F. Martel from the great "Weird Studies" podcast join us for a whirling discussion of Edgar Allan Poe’s mesmerizing tale of decadence and disease “The Masque of the Red Death." We also talk about weird fiction more generally, why it’s so suited to the short story genre, how it creates a mood that drips and bursts from the seam of the page. Plus David and Tamler in the opening segment talk about Aella’s data-driven, chart and graph filled birthday orgy. Is she the sex symbol for our times? Links: --- [My Birthday Gangbang by Aella [substack.com]] (https://aella.substack.com/p/my-birthday-gangbang) ---<a href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Masque_of_the_Red_Death" target= "_blank" rel="noopener">Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" [wikipedia.or</a><a href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Masque_of_the_Red_Death" target= "_blank" rel="noopener">g]</a> --- [Weird Studies podcast with J.F. Martel and Phil Ford] (https://www.weirdstudies.com) Sponsored by: --- [BetterHelp] (https://betterhelp.com/vbw) : You deserve to be happy. BetterHelp online counseling is there for you. Connect with your professional counselor in a safe and private online environment. Our listeners get 10% off the first month by visiting <a href= "https://betterhelp.com/vbw">BetterHelp.com/vbw.</a> Promo Code: VBW --- [Factor:] (https://factormeals.com/vbw50) Chef-prepared, dietitian-approved meals, ready to eat. Sign up today and get restaurant-quality meals made by real chefs delivered to your door. Visit <a href= "https://factormeals.com/vbw50">factormeals.com/vbw50</a> and use code VBW50 to get 50% off your order. ... Read more

12 Mar 2024

1 HR 39 MINS

1:39:37

12 Mar 2024

#283

Episode 279: The Greenhouses We Burned Along the Way (Lee Chang-dong's "Burning" Pt. 2)

David and Tamler conclude their discussion of Lee Chang-dong’s "Burning" – we talk about the hunger dance at twilight, Ben’s greenhouse burning habit, Shin Hae-mi’s mysterious disappearance, Lee Jong-su’s clumsy and doomed quest to find out what really happened, and what to make of that final scene. Plus we choose the finalists for our Patreon listener selected episode. ... Read more

27 Feb 2024

1 HR 09 MINS

1:09:58

27 Feb 2024

#282

Episode 278: Schrödinger's Everything (Lee Chang-dong's "Burning" Pt. 1)

David and Tamler fall under the spell of Lee Chang-dong’s 2018 masterpiece Burning, a movie where nothing is what it seems, or maybe it is. An alienated young man meets what seems like his dream girl from his small town, but she’s about to leave for Africa. Will he take care of her cat? Is there a cat? When she comes back she’s attached (maybe) to a slick rich guy played by Steven Yeun and then she disappears. What happened? What’s real and what’s a pantomime? Adapted from a Murakami short story that’s adapted from a Faulkner short story, this movie warrants a true VBW deep dive, so we had to do it in two parts. This is part 1. Plus another segment of our pet peeves. “Updating my priors,” “Fixed it for you,” faculty governance, and more, these are the things that really grind our gears. Links: <a href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_(2018_film)">Burning (2018)</a> [wikipedia.org] [The Elephant Vanishes] (https://amzn.to/3UE4yiE) by Haruki Murakami (containing the short story "Barn Burning) [amazon.com affiliate link] [Barn Burning] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barn_Burning) by William Faulkner [wikipedia.org] Sponsored by: --- [BetterHelp] (https://betterhelp.com/vbw) : You deserve to be happy. BetterHelp online counseling is there for you. Connect with your professional counselor in a safe and private online environment. Our listeners get 10% off the first month by visiting <a href= "https://betterhelp.com/vbw">BetterHelp.com/vbw.</a> Promo Code: VBW --- [Factor:] (https://factormeals.com/vbw50) Chef-prepared, dietitian-approved meals, ready to eat. Sign up today and get restaurant-quality meals made by real chefs delivered to your door. Visit <a href= "https://factormeals.com/vbw50">factormeals.com/vbw50</a> and use code VBW50 to get 50% off your order. ... Read more

13 Feb 2024

1 HR 32 MINS

1:32:17

13 Feb 2024

#281

Episode 277: The Merits of Buggery (Nagel's "Sexual Perversion")

David and Tamler play the old hits – Thomas Nagel and sex robots. In the main segment we talk about Nagel’s essay “Sexual Perversion”, a surprising essay on many fronts (Sartre, erotic fiction, conceptual analysis, much more). What’s the nature of sexual desires? Can we say that some sexual interactions are perversions? Which ones? Can we have a perverse form of a hunger? Plus, a new study examines attitudes about sexual assault by probing for intuitions on assaulting sex robots. It gets more confusing from there. Links: <a href= "https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010027723003219"> Grigoreva, A. D., Rottman, J., & Tasimi, A. (2024). When does “no” mean no? Insights from sex robots. Cognition, 244, 105687.</a> <a href= "https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2024152.pdf?casa_token=DJEDpDuBHmwAAAAA:hXVp729vLCjwll8p66JVwzIkwUvc3P9n3byKqHII1L57rMdQ8XXJ8wl5oIu0CLBnkYBi7uxr7Lvan1MRuAbVtTbHplCxjKeakKE9MgEP5fRS3vE--Bl2"> Nagel, T. (1969). Sexual perversion. The Journal of Philosophy, 5-17.</a> Sponsored by: --- [BetterHelp] (https://betterhelp.com/vbw) : You deserve to be happy. BetterHelp online counseling is there for you. Connect with your professional counselor in a safe and private online environment. Our listeners get 10% off the first month by visiting <a href= "https://betterhelp.com/vbw">BetterHelp.com/vbw.</a> Promo Code: VBW --- [Green Chef:] (https://greenchef.com/60vbw) Get great recipes made from organic produce and premium proteins of the highest quality delivered to your door. Visit <a href= "https://greenchef.com/60vbw">Greenchef.com/60vbw</a>, and use code 60VBW to get 60% off, plus 20% off your next two months. ... Read more

30 Jan 2024

1 HR 35 MINS

1:35:32

30 Jan 2024

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