Very Bad Wizards

Latest Episodes:

Episode 97: Dogmatic Slumber Party Aug 30, 2016

Show notes

Do you have strong views on climate change, taxes, health care, or gun control? Do you think the evidence and reason support your side of the debate? How do you know you're right? David and Tamler discuss a recent paper by Dan Kahan and colleagues showing how prone people are to make errors in processing information to favor positions they are predisposed to believe. And even more shocking: the higher your numeracy skills, the more prone you are to fall prey to this bias. So how do we correct for this? Can we know anything at all with any confidence? Could it be that 'Are You There God? It's Me Margaret' in not in fact a completely accurate depiction of how young girls think about puberty? Plus, we decide whether to join Neil deGrasse Tyson as a citizen of Rationalia. To paraphrase Mr. T, I pity the newscasters!

Links

Reflections on Rationalia by Neal deGrasse Tyson [facebook.com]
Vulcan learning pods from Star Trek (2009). [youtube.org]
Kahan, D. M., Peters, E., Dawson, E. C., & Slovic, P. (2013). Motivated numeracy and enlightened self-government. Yale Law School, Public Law Working Paper, (307). [uoregon.edu]
Ditto, P. H., & Lopez, D. F. (1992). Motivated skepticism: Use of differential decision criteria for preferred and nonpreferred conclusions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63(4), 568. [phi.org]

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Episode 96: Memory and Meaning in "Memento" (with Paul Bloom) Aug 16, 2016

Show notes

So where are you? You're in some house. What am I listening to? Sounds like the radio. Is it the radio? No, you're not allowed to use that language on the radio. What are they talking about? A movie, it's called "Memento." Have I seen that? I think so, yeah. Who are these people? Hey I recognize that voice, that's Paul Bloom! I took his Coursera course before the accident, it was awesome! What's he doing talking to these guys? One of them sounds like he has a tampon down his throat. Hey wait, this is starting to get interesting. Personal identity, the search for purpose. All right, let's settle in... So where are you? You're in some house. What am I listening to? Sounds like the radio...

Links

Paul Bloom [campuspress.yale.edu]
Memento [imdb.com]
Christopher Nolan [imdb.com]
Everything you wanted to know about "Memento" by Andy Klein [salon.com]
Kania, A. (Ed.). (2009). Memento (Philosophers on Film Series). Routledge. [amazon.com affiliate link]
Clive Wearing: Man without a memory [youtube.com]
Patient H.M. (Henry Molaison) [wikipedia.org]
Christina Starmans [christinastarmans.com]

Special Guest: Paul Bloom.

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Bonus Episode: More Doobie-ous Theories About "Mr. Robot" (Season 2) Aug 09, 2016

Show notes

Hello friend, did you come from the Berenstein with an 'E' universe? Or have you lived in the Berenstain with an 'A' universe? David and Tamler try to make sense of what's going on in Season 2 of Mr. Robot (Ep.1-5). You're gonna want to dig through your vomit for adderall for this one.

Links

The Berenstain Bears [wikipedia.org]
The Berenstein Bears: We Are Living in Our Own Parallel Universe [woodbetween.world]
On the Berenstein Bears Switcheroo [woodbetween.world]

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Episode 95: The Repugnance of Repugnance Aug 02, 2016

Show notes

We all remember the famous iTunes review calling David and Tamler "repugnant." (And the T-shirt/mugs are coming soon, we promise!) But what did the reviewer mean by that? Was he calling us "immoral"? Did he actually feel disgust when he listened to the podcast? And if so, was there wisdom in his repugnance--did the feeling offer any moral insight about the podcast's value? How did an emotion that originally evolved for pathogen avoidance get into moralizing business anyway? And why do white people kiss their dogs? Plus, an illuminating two week old discussion about the election, and Tamler finally comes around to defending a Kantian position—"the cart-egorical imperative"

Links

Kass, L. R. (1997). The Wisdom of Repugnance: Why we should ban the cloning of humans, the. Val. UL Rev., 32, 679. [stanford.edu]
Very Bad Wizards Episode 7: Psychopaths and Utilitarians Pt. 2 [verybadwizards.com]
"Freedom" internet blocking app [freedom.to]
Dolly the cloned sheep [wikipedia.org]
Kelly, D. (2011). Yuck!: the nature and moral significance of disgust. MIT Press. [amazon.com affiliate link]
Sommers, T. (2013). Review of "Yuck: The Nature and Moral Significance of Disgust." The Philosophical Quarterly, 63(250), 172-174. [verybadwizards.com]
Pizarro, D., Inbar, Y., & Helion, C. (2011). On disgust and moral judgment. Emotion Review, 3(3), 267-268. [peezer.net]
Exaptation [wikipedia.org]
Pinker on Kass--"The Stupidity of Dignity" in New Republic May 28 2008. [newrepublic.com]
Do I Need an Umbrella? [doineedanumbrella.com]
Cthulhu For President [cthulhuforamerica.com]

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Episode 94: Buttery Friendships Jul 19, 2016

Show notes

Dave and Tamler don't agree about much, but one thing they do share is an affinity for character-based approaches to ethics. Using Tamler's interview with Georgetown Philosopher Nancy Sherman as their guide (link to chapter included), they discuss two ancient perspectives on how to develop good character and live happy, virtuous lives: Aristotle's and that of the Stoics. Why did Aristotle focus so much on friendship and what happens when those friendships get too "watery"? Are emotions crucial for developing virtues or are they "so much mist on the windshield?" Are the stoics right that we shouldn't get attached to things that are beyond our control? Plus, a new Twitter account has David and Tamler polishing their CVs, and a request for listener suggestions for our 100th episode.

Note: We recorded this episode after the police shootings in Baton Rouge and Minneapolis but before the shootings of the police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge. We talk a bit about the violence, but not about what happened after Minneapolis.

Links

Very Bad Wizards No Context (@vbw_no_context)
Effective altruism [wikipedia.org]
Nancy Sherman Homepage [nanycsherman.com]
Nancy Sherman "Navigating our Moral World." In Sommers, T. (2016). A Very Bad Wizard: Morality behind the curtain. Routledge. [verybadwizards.com]

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Episode 93: Avalanches, Blame, and Cowardice (With Yoel Inbar) Jul 05, 2016

Show notes

Scandinavian film scholar Yoel Inbar joins the podcast for a deep dive on the Swedish film Force Majeure, a darkly funny meditation on what our instinctive behavior in a moment of panic can reveal about our characters and relationships. The story: while having lunch on a ski slope in the French Alps, a family believes that an avalanche is bearing down on them. Just as it seems the avalanche is going to hit them, the father (Tomas) grabs his phone and gloves and runs indoors, abandoning his wife Ebba and two children. How does the family reckon with this incident? Is the act itself unforgivable, or is it Tomas's behavior afterwards that makes him despicable? How blameworthy is Tomas for his display of cowardice? Is it even cowardice since he didn't have time to think about it? What's the deal with that creepy janitor and all the tooth brushing scenes? Why can't Yoel and Tamler agree about the answers to any of these questions? Plus, more on the Redskins and Tamler tells an embarrassing story from his past.

Links

Yoel Inbar [yoelinbar.net]
On that one awkward sex scene from The Americans [vulture.com]
Scandinavia [wikipedia.org]
Force Majeure [imdb.com]
Louie Season 1 Episode 9 "Bully" [imdb.com]

Special Guest: Yoel Inbar.

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Episode 92: Jonathan Edwards' Basement Jun 21, 2016

Show notes

David and Tamler continue their intermittent "classic paper series" with an episode on Jonathan Bennett's "The Conscience of Huckleberry Finn" (published in 1974—before the reason vs. emotion debate was all cool again). Using fictional and historical examples, Bennett raises a number of questions that are central to our understanding of human morality, such as what ought to guide our behavior--human sympathy or moral beliefs? Do emotions like empathy/sympathy have judgments built into them? Are these emotions dumb? Is morality dumber? Why was Jonathan Edwards such an asshole? Plus, we talk about the implications of a poll that suggests that most Native Americans aren't offended by the name "Redskins" for the Washington D.C. NFL team.

Episode Links

New poll finds 9 in 10 Native Americans aren't offended by Redskins name by By John Woodrow Cox, Scott Clement and Theresa Vargas [washingtonpost.com]
Bennett, J. (1974). The conscience of Huckleberry Finn. Philosophy, 49, 123-134. [earlymoderntexts.com]
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn [wikipedia.org]
Heinrich Himmler [wikipedia.org]
Jonathan Edwards [wikipedia.org]
Pizarro, D. (2000). Nothing more than feelings?: The role of emotions in moral judgment. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 30, 355-375. [peezer.net]

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Episode 91: Rage Against the Machines Jun 07, 2016

Show notes

Inspired by a recent ProPublica report on racial bias in an algorithm used to predict future criminal behavior, David and Tamler talk about the use of analytic methods in criminal sentencing, sports, and love. Should we use algorithms to influence decisions about criminal sentencing or parole decisions? Should couples about to get married take a test that predicts their likelihood of getting divorced? Is there something inherently racist about analytic methods in sports? Plus, David asks Tamler some questions about the newly released second edition of his book A Very Bad Wizard: Morality Behind the Curtain.

Links

Machine Bias by Julia Angwin, Jeff Larson, Surya Mattu and Lauren Kirchner [propublica.org]
Mission Impossible: African-Americans & Analytics by Michael Wilbon [theundefeated.com]
A Very Bad Wizard: Morality Behind the Curtain [amazon.com affiliate link to the Kindle version of 2nd edition. Eight new interviews. And an all-new foreword by Peez.]
- Paperback version of the 2nd edition (currently only available on the publisher's website) [routledge.com]

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Episode 90: Of Mice and Morals May 25, 2016

Show notes

David and Tamler have their first real fight in a while over an article defending "social mixing"--distributing babies randomly across families such that no infant is genetically related to the parents who raise them.. Then they discuss a study published in Science in 2013 in which participants could earn money if they agreed to let mice be killed in a gas chamber. Do free markets threaten our moral characters and cause us to abandon our principles? What are mechanisms behind this phenomenon when it happens? And why does David hate mice so much?

Episode Links

Maus by Art Spiegelman [wikipedia.org]
If babies were randomly allocated to families, would racism end? by Howard Rachlin and Melvin Frankel [aeon.co]
Falk, A., & Szech, N. (2013). Morals and markets. Science, 340, 707-711. [sciencemag.org]
- .pdf available here [gtcenter.org]

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Episode 89: Shame on You (with Jennifer Jacquet) May 10, 2016

Show notes

David and Tamler welcome author and environmental science professor Jennifer Jacquet to the podcast to discuss the pros and cons of shame. What's the difference between shame and guilt? Is shaming effective for generating social progress or getting tax cheats to pay up? Is twitter shaming on the rise or on its way out? And what does David do when he's alone in the dark?

But before all of that, David and Tamler introduce a new way to support the podcast--through our Patreon account (patreon.com/verybadwizards). Plus, we discuss the retraction of a press release announcing that a professor agreed to referee a journal article (!) And can one passage get Tamler, the eternal optimist, to hate philosophy?

Links