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 conversation is spoiler-free so you can listen to that section if you haven't read it yet. (But seriously read this book! We both read it in a few days.) Plus, watch out ladies - Sydney the Bing chatbot is coming to steal your man. Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Why a Conversation With Bing's Chatbot Left Me Deeply Unsettled - The New York Times Kevin Roose's Conversation With Bing's Chatbot: Full Transcript - The New York Times From Bing to Sydney – Stratechery by Ben Thompson Piranesi by Susanna Clarke [amazon.com affiliate link] Piranesi (novel) - Wikipedia The meditative empathy of Susanna Clarke's Piranesi - Vox — Carla Baricz's reading of Piranesi through the Romantics, at Ploughshares Piranesi's Disenchanted World Susanna Clarke's Fantasy World of Interiors | The New Yorker

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. Or something like that. We argue about the value of Parfit's sci-fi thought experiments and the implications of believing there's no clear sense of "me." Plus, we talk about a recent article on aphantasia – the inability to conjure images in your mind – and the question that pops into everyone's head when they hear about this condition. Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Aphantasia - Wikipedia Can't See Pictures in Your Mind? You're Not Alone. - The New York Times The Vividness Of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (the "aphantasia Test") Break Music | Backslide by peez How To Be Good | The New Yorker (Profile on Derek Parfit by Larissa MacFarquar) Parfit, D. (1971) Personal Identity, The Philosophical Review, 80, 3-27.

It'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 cordoned off "zone" that may have been visited by a meteorite (or aliens) a couple of decades earlier. Their destination – a room in the zone that according to legend grants people their deepest desire, the one that has made them suffer the most. We gush over Tarkovsky's filmmaking, his use of sound and music, and the richness of the questions this movie raises about meaning, art, delusion, desire, science, and faith. Plus, does having a small penis make you want to buy a sports car? Pre-crisis social psychology is back! Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW : GiveWell searches for the charities that save or improve lives the most per dollar. We recommend a small number of charities that can do an incredible amount of good. Your donation can make a meaningful difference for some of the poorest people in the world. First-time donors will have their donation matched up to $100 (until funds last). Promo Code: Very Bad Wizards Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Richardson, D. C., Devlin, J., Hogan, J. S., & Thompson, C. (2023). Small Penises and Fast Cars: Evidence for a Psychological Link. Stalker (1979 film) - Wikipedia

David 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 Epicureanism? Can Seneca's philosophy be reconciled with his life as a wealthy Roman aristocrat? Are stoics too cold and detached or is that an unfair caricature? And why can't David and Tamler fully embrace this undeniably wise approach to life? Plus the return of… GUILTY CONFESSIONS and some favorite things from 2022. Sponsored By: : GiveWell searches for the charities that save or improve lives the most per dollar. We recommend a small number of charities that can do an incredible amount of good. Your donation can make a meaningful difference for some of the poorest people in the world. First-time donors will have their donation matched up to $100 (until funds last). Promo Code: Very Bad Wizards BetterHelp: 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 BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Why Stoicism is one of the best mind-hacks ever devised | Aeon Essays Seneca--On the Happy Life

David and Tamler wind their way through another Borges story - "The Immortal"- about a Roman soldier who seeks the secret of immortality and, much to his horror, finds it. Plus some thoughts on the utterly shameless ChatGPT. Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW : GiveWell searches for the charities that save or improve lives the most per dollar. We recommend a small number of charities that can do an incredible amount of good. Your donation can make a meaningful difference for some of the poorest people in the world. First-time donors will have their donation matched up to $100 (until funds last). Promo Code: Very Bad Wizards Support Very Bad Wizards Links: The banality of ChatGPT - by Erik Hoel The Immortal (short story) - Wikipedia Immortal by Jorge Luis Borges – მატიანე

We often think of metaphors as poetic flourishes, a nice way to punctuate your ideas and make them more relatable. But what if metaphors aren’t simply tools of language but part of thought itself? David and Tamler “dive into†George Lakoff’s theory of metaphors and “explore†the implications of his view that metaphors shape and constrain the ways we conceptualize our experience of the world. Plus if we’re really living in cancel culture, we might as well do some cancelling. Say goodbye to "Singing in the Rain," Latinx, and punny academic titles among other things. Oh and it’s our 250th episode! It’s been quite a journey. Have we come a long way or are we just spinning our wheels? And for a fun detour, check out our bonus podcast series “The Ambulators†on the great TV series Deadwood. Sponsored By: : GiveWell searches for the charities that save or improve lives the most per dollar. We recommend a small number of charities that can do an incredible amount of good. Your donation can make a meaningful difference for some of the poorest people in the world. First-time donors will have their donation matched up to $100 (until funds last). Promo Code: Very Bad Wizards BetterHelp: 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 BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: DJ Khaled on "Hot Ones" [YouTube.com] The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor by George Lakoff George Lakoff - Wikipedia Conceptual metaphor - Wikipedia

David and Tamler gild and stain David Hume’s essay “The Sceptic†with their sentiments. If nothing is inherently valuable or despicable, desirable or hateful, then what do philosophers have to offer when it comes to happiness? If reason is powerless, does it all come down to our emotions and “humoursâ€? Or does the study of philosophy and liberal arts naturally lead to a fulfilling and virtuous life? Plus we look at a new non-traditional social psych paper on how we always imagine that things could be better, and tip our caps to the queen of handling Twitter pile-ons (and former VBW guest) â€" Candy Mom. Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW I Am BIO podcast: Powerful stories of biotechnology breakthroughs, the people they help, and the global problems they solve. Hosted by BIO President & CEO Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath. Super Speciosa: Try kratom now and get 20% off. Go to GetSuperLeaf.com/VBW and get 20% off with promo code VBW. That’s GetSuperLeaf.com/VBW and use promo code VBW for 20% off. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: "The Sceptic" (Hume Texts Online) Things could be better by Adam Mastroianni & Ethan Ludwin-Peery

In 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' objection to the giant Grasshopper concerning chess. We then turn to a broader analysis of the Suitsian account of games. Does the existence of illusory checkmates offer Grasshopper an avenue for replying to Skepticus? Should we bite the bullet and agree that chess is not a game? What is a lusory attitude? Is Tamler losing his mind? Why is David so giddy? Plus – how should Arthur C. Clarke's novel "2001: A Space Odyssey" affect our understanding of Kubrick's movie? And a little more on Kanye. Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Illusory checkmates: why chess is not a game | SpringerLink

We welcome Sam Harris back to the show for a deep dive into Stanley Kubrick's confounding 1968 masterpiece "2001: A Space Odyssey." How long is the Dawn of Man? What does the second monolith do exactly? Why are the humans so banal and expressionless? What are HAL'S motivations? Has he planned his mutiny from the start, or does the Council's deception make him manlfunction? Or something else? Who is the Council anyway? Was HAL meant to go through the stargate? What is the final leap forward in consciousness? The hotel room, the starchild, all the rectangles, rectangles everywhere, the music – what does it all mean???? Plus Sam has some thoughts about our Rorty episode and David tries to rile Tamler up about Kanye's antisemitism. note: there's a bit of an abrupt transition between our brief opening and Sam telling a story about Rorty in around the 9 minute mark... couldn't be helped. Special Guest: Sam Harris. Sponsored By: I Am BIO podcast: Powerful stories of biotechnology breakthroughs, the people they help, and the global problems they solve. Hosted by BIO President & CEO Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath. BetterHelp: 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 BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Ye's "death con 3" tweet Waking Up App 2001: A Space Odyssey (film) - Wikipedia How Kubrick made 2001: A Space Odyssey - Part 1: The Dawn of Man - YouTube — Video essay by YouTuber CinemaTyler

We dive into David Foster Wallace's sprawling 1993 essay "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction." How do TV and new forms of media keep their hold on us when we know at some level that they're reinforcing our loneliness and passivity? That's easy, Wallace says, post-modern cool. Flatter me, let me think we're all in the joke together, give me "an ironic permission-slip to do what I do best whenever I feel confused and guilty: assume, inside, a sort of fetal position, a pose of passive reception to comfort, escape, reassurance." But in the years since this essay, the TV landscape has completely transformed. Has it transcended its function as a surrogate companion for lonely people, or has it just found new ways to keep us isolated and passive? Plus, we talk about the recent new SPSP guidelines and Jon Haidt's recent essay on why he's resigning from the organization. (Sorry, Jon!) Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: The Two Fiduciary Duties of Professors - Heterodox Academy | Heterodox Academy SPSP DEI submission guidelines E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction by David Foster Wallace

David and Tamler take their first real look at pragmatism via Richard Rorty's "Solidarity or Objectivity." Can we discover facts about the world as it "really is," independent of our own culturally influenced methods of inquiry? If not, does that make us relativists? Is David right about pragamatism being an ass-backward approach to scientific truth, or is he just a pragmatist who's not ready to admit that to himself? Plus, does "The Little Mermaid" have to be white? What about Clark Kent? And we select the topic finalists for our Patreon listener selected episode. Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW GiveWell: We love Givewell.org and are proud of the support our listeners have shown! Givewell is the best way to make sure that 100% of your charitable contributions go to the most effective charities. If you would like to put your dollars to work saving lives, please go to givewell.org--read the free research on each charity, and pick from one (or let Givewell choose for you). When you are checking out, please pick PODCAST and write "Very Bad Wizards" at checkout--that way they'll know you heard about them from us! Promo Code: Select "Podcast" at checkout and enter "Very Bad Wizards I Am BIO podcast: Powerful stories of biotechnology breakthroughs, the people they help, and the global problems they solve. Hosted by BIO President & CEO Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath. Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Matt Walsh Slammed For Saying Black 'Little Mermaid' Isn't 'Scientific' Pragmatism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) Rorty, R. (1985). Solidarity or objectivity. Post-analytic philosophy, 3, 5-6.

David 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 access to every perceived detail no matter how trivial? Would life be infinitely richer, with present experience and memory merging into a perfect Heraclitan flow? Or is William James correct to say that one condition of remembering is to forget, and that "if we remembered everything, we should on most occasions be as ill off as if we remembered nothing."? Plus, we're sorry, but after 10 years (!) we thought we had the right to get a little self-indulgent and naval-gazey. We do a bit of reminiscing ("though we have no right to speak that sacred verb..") in the first segment about how the podcast has changed since 2012, and the impact it has made on our lives. Thanks for the memories! Sponsored By: Super Speciosa: Try kratom now and get 20% off. Go to GetSuperLeaf.com/VBW and get 20% off with promo code VBW. That's GetSuperLeaf.com/VBW and use promo code VBW for 20% off. Promo Code: VBW 80,000 Hours: You have 80,000 hours in your career. This makes it your best opportunity to have a positive impact on the world. If you're fortunate enough to be able to use your career for good, but aren't sure how, 80,000 Hours has an in-depth guide that can help you: Get new ideas for high-impact careers Compare your options in terms of impact Make a plan you feel confident in It's based on ten years of research alongside academics at Oxford, and as a nonprofit, everything they provide is free. Promo Code: wizards BetterHelp: 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 BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Funes the Memorious - Wikipedia Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges (translated by Andrew Hurley) [amazon.com affiliate link] — This volume contains the translation we used. A Case of Unusual Autobiographical Remembering

David 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 written. Our eventual death, Tolstoy thought, strips life of all meaning and purpose – all answers to the question "so what?". How does he emerge from this state of suicidal depression? What role does faith or "irrational knowledge" play in his account? What's the meaning of the cryptic dream at the conclusion of the memoir? Plus, bombarded with this recommendation, we were going to talk about a certain article that came out in Qualitative Research about masturbating to Japanese shota comics – we even had a guest – but had to scrap it. Instead, we discuss a recent study on conspiracy theories that shows that liberals are just as likely to believe in them as conservatives. Mostly we just talk about the conspiracies. Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Wren.co: Wren is for anyone who wants to tackle the climate crisis but isn't sure where to start. It's an approachable on-ramp to action: First you understand your own impact, and how that fits into the world. Then we help you reduce and offset your footprint while pushing the systems around you to change. Start making a change today--visit wren.co/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Enders, A., Farhart, C., Miller, J., Uscinski, J., Saunders, K., & Drochon, H. (2022). Are Republicans and Conservatives More Likely to Believe Conspiracy Theories?. Political behavior, 1-24. A Confession - Wikipedia

We have a sneak peek for our listeners--the first episode our new Patreon bonus series on David Milch's brilliant (but short-lived) series "Deadwood." In this inaugural edition of "The Ambulators" (we promise the name makes sense), Tamler and David discuss the pilot episode "Deadwood." Support Very Bad Wizards

David 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 off to college. Why? What for? We think about the future of the podcast. Let's say we get bought out by Spotify and become more famous than Joe Rogan, Dolly Parton, and even Yoel Inbar -- more famous than all the podcasters in the world. So what? And we can find absolutely no reply. Plus, we take a test to determine whether we can we tell an AI apart from an analytic philosopher. When should we start getting scared of what AIs are gonna do to us, or what we're doing to them? *Note: the main segment is on the first half of Tolstoy's great memoir "A Confession," but you don't need to be familiar with the text to appreciate the discussion for this one. Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW GiveWell: We love Givewell.org and are proud of the support our listeners have shown! Givewell is the best way to make sure that 100% of your charitable contributions go to the most effective charities. If you would like to put your dollars to work saving lives, please go to givewell.org--read the free research on each charity, and pick from one (or let Givewell choose for you). When you are checking out, please pick PODCAST and write "Very Bad Wizards" at checkout--that way they'll know you heard about them from us! Promo Code: Select "Podcast" at checkout and enter "Very Bad Wizards Support Very Bad Wizards Links: The Splintered Mind: Results: The Computerized Philosopher: Can You Distinguish Daniel Dennett from a Computer?

David 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? Jealousy? Female sexuality? Masculinity issues? The Illuminati? Pedophilia? Sex cults? Prostitution, both literal and figurative? Missing out, always on the outside looking in? Why does Tom Cruise repeat everything? Why is Nicole Kidman such a lightweight? Why can't a successful Upper West Side couple get better weed? We explore all these themes and more in a film that raises so many more questions than it answers. Plus, a study on masturbation, gender, and sexual dissatisfaction – right in our wheelhouse, or is it? Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Super Speciosa: Try kratom now and get 20% off. Go to GetSuperLeaf.com/VBW and get 20% off with promo code VBW. That's GetSuperLeaf.com/VBW and use promo code VBW for 20% off. Promo Code: VBW Wren.co: Wren is for anyone who wants to tackle the climate crisis but isn't sure where to start. It's an approachable on-ramp to action: First you understand your own impact, and how that fits into the world. Then we help you reduce and offset your footprint while pushing the systems around you to change. Start making a change today--visit wren.co/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: A Seemingly Paradoxical Relationship Between Masturbation Frequency and Sexual Satisfaction | SpringerLink Eyes Wide Shut - Wikipedia Introducing Sociology | Tim Kreider

David and Tamler descend into the dark pits of Hell to look Satan in the eyes and discover the nature of evil. OK…that's not fully accurate, we just read and talk about a couple of philosophy articles that analyze the concept. What are the features of evil people and acts? Does evil just mean 'really really really really bad' or is it categorically different in some way? Can you be evil without ever actually causing harm? Is Tony Soprano evil? Plus we take a "moral alignment" quiz (inspired by role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons). We both want to end up as 'chaotic good' but does it turn out that way? And what kind of character is a unicorn? Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW 80,000 Hours: You have 80,000 hours in your career. This makes it your best opportunity to have a positive impact on the world. If you're fortunate enough to be able to use your career for good, but aren't sure how, 80,000 Hours has an in-depth guide that can help you: Get new ideas for high-impact careers Compare your options in terms of impact Make a plan you feel confident in It's based on ten years of research alongside academics at Oxford, and as a nonprofit, everything they provide is free. Promo Code: wizards Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Alignment (Dungeons & Dragons) - Wikipedia Moral Alignment Test The Concept of Evil (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) Moral Monsters and Saints by Daniel M. Haybron The Concept of Evil by Marcus Singer

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 merging of your awareness with the activity, and autotelic (not what you think) enjoyment. What makes flow activities so rewarding? Do you need to develop skills over many years to experience them? Do easy and natural social interactions count as flow? Plus as men of pure virtue, we call an audible and choose not to make fun of a recent paper (with a student as lead author). Instead we pilot a not fully formed idea: "Substack Starters." Now that the economy is tanking, do we have any heterodox beliefs that might lead to profitable Substacks? Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Wren.co: Wren is for anyone who wants to tackle the climate crisis but isn't sure where to start. It's an approachable on-ramp to action: First you understand your own impact, and how that fits into the world. Then we help you reduce and offset your footprint while pushing the systems around you to change. Start making a change today--visit wren.co/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Flow (psychology) - Wikipedia Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi - Wikipedia Play and Intrinsic Rewards (1975) by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

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 does this have to do with us? Right? David and Tamler confront their mortality as they discuss Leo Tolstoy's brilliant and chilling short story "The Death of Ivan Ilyich." Plus the 'Why I am leaving academia' essay has become its own genre. But is this profession really that much worse relative to others? Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW 80,000 Hours: You have 80,000 hours in your career. This makes it your best opportunity to have a positive impact on the world. If you're fortunate enough to be able to use your career for good, but aren't sure how, 80,000 Hours has an in-depth guide that can help you: Get new ideas for high-impact careers Compare your options in terms of impact Make a plan you feel confident in It's based on ten years of research alongside academics at Oxford, and as a nonprofit, everything they provide is free. Promo Code: wizards NordVPN: Keep your internet connection safe, and enjoy streaming services when you travel abroad with NordVPN! NordVPN is the best VPN if you're looking for peace of mind when you use public Wi-Fi, access personal and work accounts on the road, or want to keep your browsing history to yourself. Exclusive! Grab the NordVPN deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/VBW Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Has the 'great resignation' hit academia? Why You Need To Leave Academia - Cheeky Scientist The Death of Ivan Ilyich - Wikipedia — . I cannot now help seeing day and night going round and bringing me to death. That is all I see, for that alone is true. All else is false. Val Plumwood - Wikipedia

David and Tamler explore the many variations of simulation theory, the view that our universe is just a computer generated model created by an advanced civilization that has reached "technological maturity." What does the growing popularity of simulation theories reveal about contemporary life? Are any of the arguments for simulation theory compelling or are they just post-hoc ways of justifying what you already believe on faith? If we are living in a simulation, does that mean we can go around killing people? Would it change anything about how we should live? Rodney Ascher's (Room 237, The Nightmare) excellent documentary "A Glitch in the Matrix" gets the discussion going. Plus the return of the VBW does conceptual analysis segment - a careful, rigorous, systematic inquiry into the concept "cringe."* *Note: if you think the opening segment is itself cringe, that's because we're doing seventh dimensional Zoomer meta shit and you just didn't get it. Sponsored By: NordVPN: Keep your internet connection safe, and enjoy streaming services when you travel abroad with NordVPN! NordVPN is the best VPN if you're looking for peace of mind when you use public Wi-Fi, access personal and work accounts on the road, or want to keep your browsing history to yourself. Exclusive! Grab the NordVPN deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/VBW Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! Promo Code: VBW I Am BIO podcast: Powerful stories of biotechnology breakthroughs, the people they help, and the global problems they solve. Hosted by BIO President & CEO Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath. BetterHelp: 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 BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: A Psychological Perspective on Vicarious Embarrassment and Shame in the Context of Cringe Humor Elon Musk should stop making that stupid sex joke about Tesla's car names - The Verge Indian Joker / Rizxtar | Know Your Meme A Glitch in the Matrix (2021) - IMDb

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? Do you create a completely different person? Is it a form of self-slavery? How important is autobiographical memory to your identity? And what's the deal with the break room… and the goats? Plus, what happens when you combine the obsessions of evolutionary psychology with the methodological problems of social psychology? You (finally) get an explanation for the female orgasm. Special Guest: Paul Bloom. Sponsored By: GiveWell: GiveWell is hiring! Help make their research available to the public--go check out GiveWell.org/Editors for details. BetterHelp: 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 BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW NordVPN: Keep your internet connection safe, and enjoy streaming services when you travel abroad with NordVPN! NordVPN is the best VPN if you're looking for peace of mind when you use public Wi-Fi, access personal and work accounts on the road, or want to keep your browsing history to yourself. Go to Nordvpn.com/vbw or use coupon VBW to get your discount. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: The female orgasm may have evolved as a mate-selection tool, according to new research Severance (TV Series 2022– ) - IMDb

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 for the existence of God establish the existence of trees and mountains with "interiority" and "social characteristics"? Tamler wants to believe, but is the argument that'll push him over the edge? Plus – speaking of top journals, a doozy of social psych article: Is forgiveness better than revenge at rehumanizing the self? Let's check the voodoo dolls to find out. Tamler is delighted by David's reaction to this one. Sponsored By: Super Speciosa: Try kratom now and get 20% off. Go to GetSuperLeaf.com/VBW and get 20% off with promo code VBW. That's GetSuperLeaf.com/VBW and use promo code VBW for 20% off. Promo Code: VBW BetterHelp: 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 BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW I Am BIO podcast: Powerful stories of biotechnology breakthroughs, the people they help, and the global problems they solve. Hosted by BIO President & CEO Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath. Support Very Bad Wizards Links: The Common Consent Argument for the Existence of Nature Spirits by Tiddy Smith Peoples, H. C., Duda, P., & Marlowe, F. W. (2016). Hunter-gatherers and the origins of religion. Human Nature, 27(3), 261-282. Ingold, T. (2006). Rethinking the animate, re-animating thought. Ethnos, 71(1), 9-20.

David 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 scheduled opening segment because apparently something happened at the Oscars last week. Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW NordVPN: Keep your internet connection safe, and enjoy streaming services when you travel abroad with NordVPN! NordVPN is the best VPN if you're looking for peace of mind when you use public Wi-Fi, access personal and work accounts on the road, or want to keep your browsing history to yourself. Go to Nordvpn.com/vbw or use coupon VBW to get your discount. Promo Code: VBW Super Speciosa: Try kratom now and get 20% off. Go to GetSuperLeaf.com/VBW and get 20% off with promo code VBW. That's GetSuperLeaf.com/VBW and use promo code VBW for 20% off. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: The Trial - Wikipedia Kafka's "The Trial" (translated by Breon Mitchell) [amazon.com affiliate link] Break Music | You Will Not by peez

David and Tamler wander through the bewildering dream-like world of Franz Kafka's "The Trial." In part one of a two-part discussion we discuss the circumstances of its publication, the various interpretative approaches that can be taken to the novel, and all the ways that Kafka's prose gets under your skin, making you feel what's happening even if you don't fully understand it. Recorded in the decidedly un-Kafka-esque location of Nosara, Costa Rica – thanks to the Harmony Hotel for having us back! Plus – Social Psychologists for Peace send an open letter to Vladimir Putin urging him to reverse course on the tragic invasion of Ukraine. Putin seems intent on toppling the Ukranian government but has he considered Sherif et al (1961), Tajfel (1977), Festinger (1954), and Brewer (1991)? Sponsored By: Super Speciosa: Try kratom now and get 20% off. Go to GetSuperLeaf.com/VBW and get 20% off with promo code VBW. That's GetSuperLeaf.com/VBW and use promo code VBW for 20% off. Promo Code: VBW I Am BIO podcast: Powerful stories of biotechnology breakthroughs, the people they help, and the global problems they solve. Hosted by BIO President & CEO Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath. BetterHelp: 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 BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Psychologists want to talk Putin out of war with open letter - Raw Story - Celebrating 18 Years of Independent Journalism The Trial - Wikipedia The Trial by Franz Kafka (translation by Breon Mitchell) [amazon affiliate link]

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. We hoped we might be entering Miyazaki land - river spirits, benevolent radishes, a universal mind. But is this just the same old philosophy of mind debate with different words? Are there any stakes to this debate or is it purely terminological? Plus – we answer some last-minute questions from listeners on dissertations, Ukraine, pseudoscience, and the music from "The Shield." Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: "The Shield" Opening Music [YouTube] Strawson, G. "Realistic monism: Why physicalism entails panpsychism" Chalmers, D. "Panpsychism and Panprotopsychism" Exchange between Galen Strawson and Daniel Dennett on the 'denial' of consciousness.

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 like Season 2 of Ted Lasso? Well you're wrong. So how do we reconcile these two conflicting attitudes about art? David and Tamler turn to David Hume's classic essay Of the Standard of Taste (link in notes) for help. Will Pizarro finally see the error of his ways on Straw Dogs? Plus a doozy of a medical ethics paper – should we allow people to change their legal age if it doesn't match their "biological" and "emotional" age? Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Räsänen, J. (2019). Moral case for legal age change. Journal of medical ethics, 45(7), 461-464. Of the Standard of Taste by David Hume (pdf) Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy section on Hume's Essay

David and Tamler sink deeper and deeper into Melancholia, Lars von Trier's harrowing and stunningly beautiful depiction of depression, anxiety, and a wedding reception that just won't end. They bring Freud's "Mourning and Melancholia" into the conversation and confront the question: what if the depressed and anxious people are right? Plus Whoopi, M&Ms, baby brain waves, Rogan – we empty out the opening segment Slack. Note: We recorded the opening segment before the latest development in the Joe Rogan story, but we briefly address that in the promo segment right after the break. Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: The impact of a poverty reduction intervention on infant brain activity | PNAS Landmark Poverty Experiment Shows Extra Money Changes Babies' Brains M&Ms characters redesigned for a "more dynamic, progressive world," Mars announces - CBS News Mourning and Melancholia - Wikipedia Melancholia (2011 film) - Wikipedia

We think racism is wrong but what about "lookism" – a bias that favors attractive people over unattractive ones? If it's wrong to judge people by the color of their skin, what about judging people for something that is only skin deep? We talk about two pieces today, a forthcoming philosophy article by William D'Allesandro "Is it Bad to Prefer Attractive Partners" and the Ted Chiang story "Liking What You See: A Documentary." Plus we select the topic finalists for our beloved Patreon listener-selected episode. Interesting list this time around! Sponsored By: GiveWell: GiveWell searches for the charities that save or improve lives the most per dollar. We recommend a small number of charities that can do an incredible amount of good. Your donation can make a meaningful difference for some of the poorest people in the world. First-time donors will have their donation matched up to $250 (until funds last). Promo Code: verybadwizards BetterHelp: 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 Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: William D'Alessandro, Is It Bad to Prefer Attractive Partners? - PhilPapers Liking What You See: A Documentary - Wikipedia

David and Tamler confront their shadows and dive into Carl Jung's theory of the collective unconscious. What are the central differences between Jung and Freud? What did Jung mean by archetypes and what's his evidence for their centrality in the human psyche? How can we integrate elements of our unconscious and avoid projecting them onto the world? Can Jung's ideas tell us anything about culture wars and relationships? Plus, an fMRI study on offensive humor – I thought you were stronger Batman! Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW GiveWell: GiveWell searches for the charities that save or improve lives the most per dollar. We recommend a small number of charities that can do an incredible amount of good. Your donation can make a meaningful difference for some of the poorest people in the world. First-time donors will have their donation matched up to $250 (until funds last). Promo Code: verybadwizards Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Bartolo, A., Ballotta, D., Nocetti, L., Baraldi, P., Nichelli, P. F., & Benuzzi, F. (2021). Uncover the Offensive Side of Disparagement Humor: An fMRI Study. Frontiers in Psychology, 5268. — Uncover the Offensive Side of Disparagement Humor: An fMRI Study The Concept of the Collective Unconscious by Carl Jung Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9 (Part 1): Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious — Tamler and David read Chapters 1-4 of this volume. (PDFs can be found if you dig around online, but we didn't want to link to any sketchy sites). Weird Studies Episode 73: Carl Jung and the Power of Art, Part One

David and Tamler dive into David Foster Wallace's celebrated and surprisingly earnest Kenyon College commencement speech "This is Water". How can we escape the prison and prism of our (literally) self-centered perspective? Can we choose to adjust our natural default settings, take a break from our running inner monologue, and pay attention to what's in front of us right now? Is DFW appealing to Buddhist ideas or something more general that you can be found across all spiritual traditions? Plus we ask the AI ethics program "Ask Delphi" some tough moral questions (spoiler alert: "just the tip" is "rude"), and almost get into a big fight about the potential of AI ethical robots (but we're saving that argument for a future episode). Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW GiveWell: GiveWell searches for the charities that save or improve lives the most per dollar. We recommend a small number of charities that can do an incredible amount of good. Your donation can make a meaningful difference for some of the poorest people in the world. First-time donors will have their donation matched up to $250 (until funds last). Promo Code: verybadwizards Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Artificial intelligence turns racist after learning from humans | Metro News Ask Delphi Very Bad Wizards Episode 91: Rage Against the Machines This is Water by David Foster Wallace (Full Transcript and Audio) - Farnam Street

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. (We find more common ground than usual though on Covid and Havana Syndrome.) Then podcast auteur Barry Lam joins David and Tamler to talk about David Lewis on time travel, the new season of Barry's excellent podcast Hi-Phi Nation, and then a deep dive on maybe the best time travel movie of all time - Shane Carruth's mind-melting cult classic "Primer." Special Guests: Barry Lam and Christina Hoff Sommers. Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW GiveWell: GiveWell searches for the charities that save or improve lives the most per dollar. We recommend a small number of charities that can do an incredible amount of good. Your donation can make a meaningful difference for some of the poorest people in the world. First-time donors will have their donation matched up to $250 (until funds last). Promo Code: verybadwizards Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Christina Hoff Sommers | American Enterprise Institute - AEI Barry Lam | Vassar College Hi-Phi Nation – A show about philosophy that turns stories into ideas. David Lewis (philosopher) - Wikipedia Primer (film) - Wikipedia Primer (2004) - Illustrated explanation [YouTube.com]

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, reasoning, cheater detection, sexual jealousy, and so on. David and Tamler (mostly David) describe the history of the debate, then dive into a recent paper (Pietraszewski & Wertz, 2021) arguing that virtually all the disagreement is the product of a conceptual and methodological confusion â€" that the two sides are operating with different levels of analysis and talking past each other as a result. Plus, we REALLY tried not to talk about the University of Austin thing for the whole opening segment. We had another topic lined up and everything. It just didn’t work out. Cicero would understand. Bari Weiss stans might wanna skip to the main segment. Sponsored By: GiveWell: GiveWell searches for the charities that save or improve lives the most per dollar. We recommend a small number of charities that can do an incredible amount of good. Your donation can make a meaningful difference for some of the poorest people in the world. First-time donors will have their donation matched up to $250 (until funds last). Promo Code: verybadwizards Chess.com: Join chess.com today--you can learn to play, take some lessons to improve, brush up on your game by having the computer analyze your mistakes and recommend lessons to strengthen your skills, and play against your friends or in tournaments. It's free to join, but if you use our link they'll know we sent you! Promo Code: verybad BetterHelp: 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 Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: The University of Austin (UATX) Modularity of Mind (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) Pietraszewski, David, and Annie E. Wertz. "Why evolutionary psychology should abandon modularity." Perspectives on Psychological Science (2021). Break Music: I Am Blue by peez [soundcloud.com]

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 are NFTs and why does everyone hate them? Sponsored By: Chess.com: Join chess.com today--you can learn to play, take some lessons to improve, brush up on your game by having the computer analyze your mistakes and recommend lessons to strengthen your skills, and play against your friends or in tournaments. It's free to join, but if you use our link they'll know we sent you! Promo Code: verybad BetterHelp: 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 Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: The Sweet Spot by Paul Bloom Break Music: Who Needs Me by peez

David 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 to care for her at an island cottage. What happens when the roles we play as parents, spouses, friends, and colleagues start to feel like dishonest performances, an endless series of desperate lies? Can we escape to an inner sanctum of truth and authenticity? Or is that putting on another mask, playing yet another part, telling a different set of lies? We offer some tentative interpretations of this rich and baffling film. Get that boy a normal sized sheet! Plus we share some thoughts about the Chappelle special… Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Chess.com: Join chess.com today--you can learn to play, take some lessons to improve, brush up on your game by having the computer analyze your mistakes and recommend lessons to strengthen your skills, and play against your friends or in tournaments. It's free to join, but if you use our link they'll know we sent you! Promo Code: verybad Support Very Bad Wizards Links: The Closer (2021 film) - Wikipedia Dave Chappelle's 'The Closer' Is Not a Simple Victim-Bully Story - The Atlantic Persona (1966 film) - Wikipedia Persona movie review & film summary (1967) | Roger Ebert Break Music: You Have Love by peez

David and Tamler don black turtlenecks and light up a couple of Gauloises to talk about Jean Paul Sartre's classic essay "Existentialism is a Humanism." Why are choices so fundamental to our experience? What does Sartre mean when he says that "existence precedes essence"? Why does he try to shoehorn universalizability into a view that's clearly hostile to it? Plus, how much free time is good for you? Is that even the right question? Sponsored By: Chess.com: Join chess.com today--you can learn to play, take some lessons to improve, brush up on your game by having the computer analyze your mistakes and recommend lessons to strengthen your skills, and play against your friends or in tournaments. It's free to join, but if you use our link they'll know we sent you! Promo Code: verybad BetterHelp: 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 Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Too Much Free Time Isn't Actually Bad For You Sharif, M. A., Mogilner, C., & Hershfield, H. E. (2021). Having too little or too much time is linked to lower subjective well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Jean-Paul Sartre - Wikipedia Existentialism is a Humanism by Jean-Paul Sartre Thrownness - Wikipedia

David 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-entity Moloch) that lead to human misery and values tossed out the window. Does Alexander's rationalist conception of human nature ignore the work of VBW favorites like Joe Henrich and Robert Frank? Is he a little too friendly to the neo-social Darwinism view of some guy named Nick Land? And oh no, why does he have to go transhumanist at the end?! Plus, we talk about the unique comic vision of Norm Macdonald and why we loved him. Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW NordVPN: Keep your internet connection safe, and enjoy streaming services when you travel abroad with NordVPN! NordVPN is the best VPN if you're looking for peace of mind when you use public Wi-Fi, access personal and work accounts on the road, or want to keep your browsing history to yourself. Go to Nordvpn.com/vbw or use coupon VBW to get your discount. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Norm Macdonald's Roast of Bob Saget Norm Macdonald's Moth Joke - YouTube Meditations On Moloch | Slate Star Codex Slate Star Codex - Wikipedia — astralcodexten.substack.com

In 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 alienated workforce? What role does philosophy play in maintaining the status quo? Plus, fraudulent data in a famous study about dishonesty and former guest Dan Ariely is under investigation. Sponsored By: NordVPN: Keep your internet connection safe, and enjoy streaming services when you travel abroad with NordVPN! NordVPN is the best VPN if you're looking for peace of mind when you use public Wi-Fi, access personal and work accounts on the road, or want to keep your browsing history to yourself. Go to Nordvpn.com/vbw or use coupon VBW to get your discount. Promo Code: VBW BetterHelp: 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 Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Evidence of Fraud in an Influential Field Experiment About Dishonesty - Data Colada The Communist Manifesto - Wikipedia Estranged Labour, Marx, 1844 Asher Horowitz | Department of Political Science | Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies | York University Marx's theory of alienation - Wikipedia

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 Borges being Borges there are layers of doubt and fuzziness about what exactly is going on. "Borges and I" may be less than a page, but it has us questioning our identity, the relationship between private and public selves, and what happens to when you release a work out into the world. Plus, back to social psychology. Are you a picky eater? Then people think you suck at sex. We are not sure who is recording this podcast. Sponsored By: GiveWell: We love this sponsor, and are proud of the support our listeners have shown! If you are a listener and want to make your charitable contributions as effective as possible, please check out Givewell.org. New donors will have their donation matched up to $1,000 before the end of June (or as long as matching funds last). Just go to givewell.org/verybadwizards and pick PODCAST and Very Bad Wizards at checkout. Make sure they know that you heard about GiveWell from Very Bad Wizards to get your donation matched! Promo Code: Very Bad Wizards BetterHelp: 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 Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: People who are willing to try new foods are perceived as more desirable and less sexually restricted Bradshaw, H. K., Mengelkoch, S., Espinosa, M., Darrell, A., & Hill, S. E. (2021). You are what you (are willing to) eat: Willingness to try new foods impacts perceptions of sexual unrestrictedness and desirability. Personality and Individual Differences, 182, 111082. — You are what you (are willing to) eat: Willingness to try new foods impacts perceptions of sexual unrestrictedness and desirability Emma Zunz by Jorge Luis Borges Borges and I by Jorge Luis Borges

David 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, forcing them to confront their past and present. Can we run from our history? Or will it always find a way to break through? And who's sending the tapes? Plus, VBW does conceptual analysis - what does it mean to be "corny"? Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Caché (film) - Wikipedia Watch Cache (Hidden) | Prime Video

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 sociologist of science but recoils at the relativistic tenor of the final chapters. Tamler loves anything that makes David recoil. Plus, should we give more weight to the advice of people on their deathbed? Or should we nod politely and get back to working for that promotion… Sponsored By: A Slight Change of Plans Podcast: There are few things in life that are as complex and messy—and potentially magical—as change. On A Slight Change of Plans, you'll hear intimate conversations that give an unvarnished look into how people navigate changes of all kinds and use that change to ultimately grow GiveWell: We love this sponsor, and are proud of the support our listeners have shown! If you are a listener and want to make your charitable contributions as effective as possible, please check out Givewell.org. New donors will have their donation matched up to $1,000 before the end of June (or as long as matching funds last). Just go to givewell.org/verybadwizards and pick PODCAST and Very Bad Wizards at checkout. Make sure they know that you heard about GiveWell from Very Bad Wizards to get your donation matched! Promo Code: Very Bad Wizards BetterHelp: 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 Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Why is the deathbed perspective considered so valuable? | Aeon Essays — reasons The Splintered Mind: On the Epistemic Status of Deathbed Regrets The Structure of Scientific Revolutions - Wikipedia The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn [amazon.com affiliate link] What Thomas Kuhn Really Thought about Scientific "Truth" - Scientific American Blog Network The Ashtray Has Landed: The Case of Morris v. Kuhn

We've promised you for years that we would do an episode on apologies and never got to it until today. So we both want to say from the bottom of our hearts: we're sorry. We recognize we've let so many of our listeners down, and we feel just awful if you were offended by the delay. We hope this episode will be just one small step towards regaining your trust. Plus, of all the evo-psych articles in the world, this one might be the evo-psychiest: "Oral Sex as Infidelity Detection." Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Pham, M. N., & Shackelford, T. K. (2013). Oral sex as infidelity-detection. Personality and Individual Differences, 54(6), 792-795. — From the abstract: "The infidelity-detection hypothesis for oral sex proposes that men perform oral sex to gather information about their partner's recent sexual history." Clearer Thinking | How to apologise Schumann, K., & Dragotta, A. (2020). Is moral redemption possible? The effectiveness of public apologies for sexual misconduct. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 90, 104002. Ohtsubo, Y., & Watanabe, E. (2009). Do sincere apologies need to be costly? Test of a costly signaling model of apology. Evolution and Human Behavior, 30(2), 114-123. I Was Wrong: The Meanings of Apologies by Nick Smith :: SSRN Dan Harmon Apologizes for Sexually Harassing Megan Ganz | Time

David and Tamler argue about the philosopher L.A. Paul's ideas on "transformative experiences" – big life decisions that will change you and your values so much that our normal decision-making models break down. Tamler is fully on board and hopeful for philosophy, but David sees Paul's view as a threat to his precious rationality. Plus, we tackle the greatest existential threat to human civilization in history: critical race theory. Why are people on all sides so intent on misunderstanding it? Sponsored By: Wine.com: Wine.com is an American wine online retailer that offers the largest selection of wines in the world. Wine.com sells over 2 million bottles per year, with a stock of more than 17,000 different bottles of wine, shipping throughout the United States. Sign up now, and as a listener of very bad wizards, get $50 off your first order! Promo Code: badwizards NordVPN: Keep your internet connection safe, and enjoy streaming services when you travel abroad with NordVPN! NordVPN is the best VPN if you're looking for peace of mind when you use public Wi-Fi, access personal and work accounts on the road, or want to keep your browsing history to yourself. Go to Nordvpn.com/vbw or use coupon VBW to get your discount. Promo Code: VBW BetterHelp: 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 Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: [Essay] History As End, By Matthew Karp | Harper's Magazine On Having Whiteness by Donald Moss Sean Wilentz: A Matter of Facts - The Atlantic The Vampire Problem: A Brilliant Thought Experiment Illustrating the Paradox of Transformative Experience – Brain Pickings Paul, L. A. (2015). Précis of" Transformative Experience". Transformative Experience by L.A. Paul [amazon.com affiliate link]

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-positive emotions." When agents commit accidental harms, we typically tell them they shouldn't feel too guilty, it's not their fault, it was out of their control, and so forth. At the same time, we don't want them to let themselves off the hook right away either. They shouldn't feel guilty, but also they…should. What's behind these mixed messages and attitudes? Are we looking for information about their character? What kind? Plus, a new algorithm can predict someone's political orientation with 72% accuracy based on one profile photo (either from Facebook or a dating app). Is Big Brother around the corner? Sponsored By: Wine.com: Wine.com is an American wine online retailer that offers the largest selection of wines in the world. Wine.com sells over 2 million bottles per year, with a stock of more than 17,000 different bottles of wine, shipping throughout the United States. Sign up now, and as a listener of very bad wizards, get $50 off your first order! Promo Code: badwizards GiveWell: We love this sponsor, and are proud of the support our listeners have shown! If you are a listener and want to make your charitable contributions as effective as possible, please check out Givewell.org. New donors will have their donation matched up to $1,000 before the end of June (or as long as matching funds last). Just go to givewell.org/verybadwizards and pick PODCAST and Very Bad Wizards at checkout. Make sure they know that you heard about GiveWell from Very Bad Wizards to get your donation matched! Promo Code: Very Bad Wizards BetterHelp: 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 Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Facial recognition technology can expose political orientation from naturalistic facial images | Scientific Reports 'I was shocked it was so easy': ​meet the professor who says facial recognition ​​can tell if you're gay | Artificial intelligence (AI) | The Guardian One of the most famous campus outrage incidents was badly misreported - Vox "False positive" emotions, responsibility, and moral character - ScienceDirect

We've done deep dives on three of his stories, and now THE MAN HIMSELF, multi-award winning science fiction author Ted Chiang, joins us to explore the post-apocalyptic world of the video-game SOMA. You play Simon Jarrett, a man who goes for a brain scan in Toronto and wakes up a 100 years later in an underwater research facility, the last remaining hope to preserve human consciousness from extinction. Pizarro confronts his worst nightmare, a first-person experience of stepping into a transporter-style scenario. We talk about how video games can make philosophical problems come alive, what "fission-cases" tell us about personal identity (Tamler's note: this really should count as our Parfit episode), what it's like to be conscious without a body, the problem with thought experiments, and lots more. Plus, a new evo-psych study on why bullshitting is adaptive – convince people you're smart and save energy while you do it! Special Guest: Ted Chiang. Sponsored By: Wine.com: Wine.com is an American wine online retailer that offers the largest selection of wines in the world. Wine.com sells over 2 million bottles per year, with a stock of more than 17,000 different bottles of wine, shipping throughout the United States. Sign up now, and as a listener of very bad wizards, get $50 off your first order! Promo Code: badwizards NordVPN: Keep your internet connection safe, and enjoy streaming services when you travel abroad with NordVPN! NordVPN is the best VPN if you're looking for peace of mind when you use public Wi-Fi, access personal and work accounts on the road, or want to keep your browsing history to yourself. Go to Nordvpn.com/vbw or use coupon VBW to get your discount. Promo Code: VBW BetterHelp: 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 Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Neuroskeptic on Twitter: ""Bullshit ability is associated with an individual's intelligence" https://t.co/hoKMLaMrY1 The authors are highly intelligent judging by the last two sentences. https://t.co/J1HQJyAvbL" / Twitter Bullshit Ability as an Honest Signal of Intelligence - Martin Harry Turpin, Mane Kara-Yakoubian, Alexander C. Walker, Heather E. K. Walker, Jonathan A. Fugelsang, Jennifer A. Stolz, 2021 Soma (video game) - Wikipedia Ted Chiang's author page on Amazon.com [amazon.com affiliate link] Ted Chiang - Wikipedia SOMA Walkthrough- IGN SOMA Review - IGN SOMA and I | Blog of the APA

Canada'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 the barber's loaf of bread. A few hours later, the nose has rocketed up the social hierarchy and denies his connection to the official. What's going on? Is Madame Alexandra Grigorievna up to something? Plus we can't say how but we got access to submitted abstracts for the new Journal of Controversial Ideas. We read a few of them in the opening segment, and let's just say this journal is living up to its name. Special Guest: Yoel Inbar. Sponsored By: Wine.com: Wine.com is an American wine online retailer that offers the largest selection of wines in the world. Wine.com sells over 2 million bottles per year, with a stock of more than 17,000 different bottles of wine, shipping throughout the United States. Sign up now, and as a listener of very bad wizards, get $50 off your first order! Promo Code: badwizards BetterHelp: 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 Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW NordVPN: Keep your internet connection safe, and enjoy streaming services when you travel abroad with NordVPN! NordVPN is the best VPN if you're looking for peace of mind when you use public Wi-Fi, access personal and work accounts on the road, or want to keep your browsing history to yourself. Go to Nordvpn.com/vbw or use coupon VBW to get your discount. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Journal of Controversial Ideas Break music: Aleph (by peez) | SoundCloud Register for Panel on Individual Character and Structural Injustice (hosted by Hi-Phi's Barry Lam) The Nose (Gogol short story) - Wikipedia

"Sometimes I think of my death," Akira Kurosawa said, "I think of ceasing to be...and it is from these thoughts that Ikiru came." David and Tamler explore what it means to truly live in Kurosawa's 1952 masterpiece about a bureaucrat in postwar Japan who learns that he will die from stomach cancer within six months. Plus a new study provides evidence for what every pet owner knows: dogs get jealous. And a shocking revelation about Harvard legends Kohlberg, Rawls, and Nozick. Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Ikiru - Wikipedia Dogs Mentally Represent Jealousy-Inducing Social Interactions - Amalia P. M. Bastos, Patrick D. Neilands, Rebecca S. Hassall, Byung C. Lim, Alex H. Taylor, 2021

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, and lots more. Plus David and Tamler argue about the epistemology of ghosts. Special Guest: Jesse Singal. Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Break Music The Quick Fix by Jesse Singal Blocked and Reported (with Katie Herzog and Jesse Singal)

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 Dawkins trolling philosophy, the ghost in Tamler's kitchen, and why William James' 130 year-old writings make psychologists sad about the present state of their field. PLUS - do you wish you were closer to your non-romantic partners? Well, strap on your gloves, grab a washcloth, it's time for exactly 15 minutes of orgasmic meditation. Note: we had to use backup audio for Tamler and Paul in the second segment. The sound quality isn't as good as normal, sorry about that. Special Guest: Paul Bloom. Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Partner intimate touch is associated with increased interpersonal closeness, especially in non-romantic partners — Partner intimate touch is associated with increased interpersonal closeness, especially in non-romantic partners Nicole Prause , Greg J. Siegle, James Coan Circle of Willis (hosted by Jim Coan) Paul Bloom | Department of Psychology Richard Dawkins on Twitter: "Science is not a social construct. Science's truths were true before there were societies; will still be true after all philosophers are dead; were true before any philosophers were born; were true before there were any minds, even trilobite or dinosaur minds, to notice them." / Twitter James, W. (1890) The Principles of Psychology, Chapter 24 (Instinct) [yorku.ca]

We’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 dreams and connects it to storytelling, the self, and the importance of maintaining a distinction between art and entertainment. So eat shit MCU - Martin Scorsese was right! [ed. note: this statement not endorsed by David]. Plus another first segment wasted on Twitter culture war nonsense. Does adapting an MLK quote trivialize the civil rights movement? And it’s Adam and Eve, not gender fluid Potato Head and another gender fluid Potato Head. Or something. We don’t fucking know. Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Potato Head Tweet from Hasbro 6 Dr. Seuss books won't be published for racist images David Pizarro on Twitter: "Does anyone have a recommendation for a good paper on the psychology or philosophy of dreams (that isn't a Freudian/psychoanalytic) take? Would love a recent review of psych/neuro theories of dreams, or just an intriguing take on any aspect of dreaming." / Twitter Enter the Supersensorium | Erik Hoel The Overfitted Brain Erik Hoel's website The Revelations: A Novel by Erik Hoel [pre-order, amazon affiliate link]

David 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 interpretations become conspiracy theories? Why does Ascher never show us the faces of the interpreters? What is about Kubrick that invites obsessive and confident theorizing on the meaning of his movies? Sometimes a paper tray is just a paper tray. Or is it? Plus Tamler vents about the winter storm and mass power outages in Texas last week… Sponsored By: BetterHelp: 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 Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Ex Colorado City mayor catching heat for comments about citizens affected by cold | KTAB - BigCountryHomepage.com Room 237 - Wikipedia The Shining (film) - Wikipedia