Very Bad Wizards

Latest Episodes:

Episode 216: Oral Judgments Jul 06, 2021

Show notes

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."

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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

Episode 215: Touch My Pink Monkey Jun 22, 2021

Show notes

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?

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Episode 214: You Shouldn't Feel Bad (Except You Should) Jun 08, 2021

Show notes

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?

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Episode 213: What Is It Like To Be a Robot Fish Man? (with Ted Chiang) May 25, 2021

Show notes

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.

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Episode 212: Follow Your Nose (with Yoel Inbar) May 11, 2021

Show notes

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.

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Episode 211: To Live and Die in Kurosawa's "Ikiru" Apr 20, 2021

Show notes

"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.

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Episode 210: The Priming of the American Mind (with Jesse Singal) Apr 06, 2021

Show notes

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.

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Episode 209: Basic Instincts (with Paul Bloom) Mar 23, 2021

Show notes

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.

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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]

Episode 208: Dream Theater Mar 09, 2021

Show notes

Weâ€™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 itâ€™s Adam and Eve, not gender fluid Potato Head and another gender fluid Potato Head. Or something. We donâ€™t fucking know.

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Episode 207: Sometimes a Paper Tray is Just a Paper Tray Feb 23, 2021

Show notes

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…

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