Very Bad Wizards

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Episode 196: The Loneliest Paper in Philosophy Sep 08, 2020

Show notes

She's beautiful, smart, funny, and head over heels in love with you. There's only one problem – she's from a possible world, not the actual one. What we thought would be a funny opening segment idea turns into a semi-serious discussion of Neil Sinhababu's 2008 article "Possible Girls." Plus David and Tamler share some thoughts on teaching in normal times and today.

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Episode 195: Jesus on Trial (Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov") Aug 25, 2020

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David and Tamler dive into the most celebrated and philosophically rich scenes in Dostoevsky's masterpiece "The Brothers Karamazov." Alyosha gets in the middle of a rock-fight, Ivan Karamazov makes a devastating moral case against God, and the Grand Inquisitor convicts Jesus Christ of heresy against the church. (Note: this segment is the second of an upcoming five episode VBW miniseries on The Brothers Karamazov – more info on that to come very soon!) Plus one of us has a milestone birthday...

[Special note from Peez: Stick around after the closing music to hear VBWs most frequent guests Paul Bloom and Yoel Inbar talk to David about Tamler behind his back.]

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The Brothers Karamazov - Wikipedia
The Grand Inquisitor - Wikipedia
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky) [amazon.com affiliate link] — This is the edition we used for this episode (and our upcoming 5-part series).

Episode 194: God Has No Mother (with Chris Matheson) Aug 11, 2020

Show notes

David and Tamler welcome special guest Chris Matheson - co-writer of the "Bill and Ted" movies and author of "The Story of God" and "The Buddha's Story" - to talk about religion, immortality, comedy, Freud, and why the secret ingredient to good satire is love. Plus David and Tamler do a conceptual analysis of stoner movies and discuss their favorites.

Special Guest: Chris Matheson.

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Episode 193: Free Wanting (Frankfurt's "Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person") Jul 21, 2020

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David and Tamler want to go old school and discuss a classic Frankfurt paper on free will. But do they want to want that? Are they free to want what they want to want? Are they free to will what they want to will or to have the will they want?

And if that's not Dr. Seuss enough for you, shouting "FUCK" increases pain tolerance but what about shouting "TWIZPIPE"?

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Episode 192: Postmodern Wet Dreams (Borges' "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote") Jul 07, 2020

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David and Tamler dive into "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote," a very funny Borges story that also raises deep questions about authorship, reading, and interpretation. What would it mean for the same text to be written by two different authors more than three hundred years apart? Is this story the post-modernist manifesto that literary critics like Roland Barthes believed it to be? Or is the narrator in the story just a delusional sycophant, a victim of Menard's practical joke – and the story by extension, a practical joke by Borges on the post-modernist movement to come?

Plus, My Little Pony fans finally confront their Nazi problem.

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'My Little Pony' Fans Confront Their Nazi Problem - The Atlantic
Very Bad Wizards has a new shirt! [CottonBureau.com]
Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote - Wikipedia
The Brothers Karmazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky) — This is the edition we will be reading from in our upcoming miniseries.

Episode 191: All the Rage Jun 23, 2020

Show notes

A lotta anger out there right now, but does it do more harm than good? Is anger counterproductive, an obstacle to progress? And even when it is, can anger be appropriate anway? We talk about two excellent articles by the philosopher Amia Srinivasan criticizing anger's critics. Plus we express some counterproductive anger of our own at the IDWs response to the protests.

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Episode 190: We Pod. We Pod-Cast. We Podcast. (Frankfurt's "On Bullshit") Jun 09, 2020

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David and Tamler talk about police violence, the protests, and Harry Frankfurt's journal article turned bestseller "On Bullshit." Plus we dive into a comic masterpiece of late capitalism: the University of Oregon's brand guidelines.

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Episode 189: The Anality of Evil (Freud's "Civilization and its Discontents") May 26, 2020

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David and Tamler dive into Sigmund Freud's world of unconscious drives, death instincts, and thwarted incestuous urges in his classic text "Civilization and its Discontents." If society has made so much progress, why are human beings perpetually dissatisfied? Can religion help us or is it a big part of the problem? What's really going on when you piss on a fire to put it out? Also: how seriously should we take Freud today given some of his wackier ideas? And is he a psychologist, a philosopher, or something else entirely?

Plus we select the finalists from a huge list of suggested topics for the Patreon listener-selected episode!

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Episode 188: Conceptual Mummies (Nietzsche's "Twilight of the Idols") May 12, 2020

Show notes

Socrates was ugly and tired of life, so he made a tyrant of reason. Philosophers are mummies who hate the body and the senses. Reason is a tricky old woman. Morality is a misunderstanding. Kant is a sneaky Christian. And don't even get Nietzsche started on "free will" or the "self" - just excuse for priests to punish people, a hangman's metaphysics. David and Tamler dive into Friedrich Nietzsche's Twilight of the Idols, a fascinating set of aphorisms brimming with passion, provocation, questions without answers.

Plus, a professor is sanctioned for sex talk with his students - fair or coddling foul?

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George Mason University investigation faults professor for sexual talk with students in class and a hot tub, court records show - The Washington Post
Nietzsche, F. "Twilight of the Idols" [amazon.com affiliate link] — This is the version we read, but there's a cheaper kindle version on Amazon if you search (at least on the US website).
Twilight of the Idols - Wikipedia

Episode 187: More Zither Apr 21, 2020

Show notes

With a global pandemic and a collapsing economy upon us, it's time to ask ourselves some tough questions. Sex robots or platonic love robots - what are you more excited for? If you walked in on your partner with one of them, which would make you more jealous? Are you male or female? Can evolutionary psychology explain sex-linked preferences for sensitive, empathetic Alexas? We then dive into the shadowy echo-filled streets of post-war Vienna - and talk about one of our favorite movies, a true noir classic: The Third Man.

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