Very Bad Wizards

Latest Episodes:

Episode 28: Moral Persuasion Aug 05, 2013

Show notes

Dave and Tamler try their best to do a show without guests--we talk about moral persuasion, motivated reasoning, and whether it's legitimate to use emotionally charged rhetoric in a philosophical argument. Plus, we describe how students proceed through the "Stages-of-Singer," and Tamler finally defends himself against Dave's slanderous accusation of hypocrisy about animal welfare.

Links

Thomson, J. J. (1971). A defense of abortion. Philosophy & Public Affairs,1, 47-66.

Marquis, D. (1989). Why abortion is immoral. The Journal of Philosophy, 86(4), 183-202.

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.

Ditto, P.H., Pizarro, D.A., & Tannenbaum, D. (2009). Motivated Moral Reasoning. In B. H. Ross (Series Ed.) & D. M. Bartels, C. W. Bauman, L. J. Skitka, & D. L. Medin (Eds.), Psychology of Learning and Motivation, Vol. 50: Moral Judgment and Decision Making. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

Dawson, E., Gilovich, T., & Regan, D. T. (2002). Motivated Reasoning and Performance on the Wason Selection Task. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 1379-1387.

Sam's House, an orphanage in Nepal [sams-house.org]

The identifiable victim effect [wikipedia.org]

Tamler's mediocre TEDx talk on Moral Persuasion [youtube.com]

10 Classic South Park Impressions (including Sally Struthers) [youtube.com]

*musical breaks in this episode stolen from DJ Premier and Jay Electronica. Please don't sue.

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Episode 27: You, Your Self, and Your Brain (With Eddy Nahmias) Jul 22, 2013

Show notes

Our streak of very special guests continues! Philosopher Eddy Nahmias joins the podcast to us why people mistakenly think they're not morally responsible, and how his new study casts doubt on Sam Harris's "pamphlet" on free will. Eddy also describes his new project (with Toni Adleberg and Morgan Thompson) on why women leave philosophy. Plus Dave and I discuss some reasons for having children, and eat a little Partially Examined Life crow.

Links

"Name five women in philosophy. Bet you can't." Tania Lombrozo, [npr.og]

"Do Women Have Different Philosophical Intuitions than Men?" Eddy Nahmias (philosophyofbrains.com)

"Is Neuroscience the Death of Free Will?' Eddy Nahmias. [nytimes.com]

Eddy on Bypassing [agencyandresponsbility.typepad.com]

Edd trashing Tamler's Book [agencyandresponsbility.typepad.com]

Special Guest: Eddy Nahmias.

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Episode 26: Evolution and Sexual Perversion (with Jesse Bering) Jul 08, 2013

Show notes

Psychologist and author Jesse Bering joins us to talk about evolutionary psychology and his forthcoming book Perv. In the relatively uncontroversial part of the episode, we ask if homophobia is an adaptation and if women have evolved rape defenses. After that, sex with animals, sex with bookshelves, foot fetishes, amputee fetishes, falling down the stairs fetishes... I don't know, just listen. Or maybe don't.

Jesse Bering [jessebering.com]

Perv (pre-order) by Jesse Bering [amazon.com]

"Darwin's Rape Whistle," by Jesse Bering [slate.com]

"Natural Homophobes?" by Jesse Bering [scientificamerican.com]

The Belief Instinct by Jesse Bering [amazon.com]

Why is the Penis Shaped Like That? by Jesse Bering [amazon.com]

"I think you're some kind of deviated prevert." [youtube.com]

Special Guest: Jesse Bering.

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Episode 25: Burning Armchairs (with Joshua Knobe) Jun 24, 2013

Show notes

Josh Knobe, the Michael Corleone of experimental philosophy, joins us to talk about taking philosophy into the lab and the streets. We discuss how people moralize everyday concepts like intention, causation, and innateness. Dave wonders if X-phi people are just doing social psychology, and Tamler tries his best to get Josh mad with his critique of Josh's experimental work on free will. He might have succeeded but that argument had to be cut a little short this time. We'll have to have Josh back for the rematch!

Links

Experimental philosophy Anthem [youtube.com]

Experimental Philosophy [fun 3 minute overview, youtube.com]

The Experimental Philosophy webpage.

Josh Knobe's webpage

Person as Scientist, Person as Moralist by Joshua Knobe

Philosophy meets the real world [slate.com]

In Memoriam: The X-Phi Debate by Tamler Sommers [Philosophers Magazine]

Experimental Philosophy and Free Will: An Intervention by Tamler Sommers

Experimental Philosophy [wikipedia.org]

Using the Knobe effect as an implicit measure of homophobia: Inbar, Y., Pizarro, D.A., Knobe, J., & Bloom, P. (2009). Disgust sensitivity predicts intuitive disapproval of gays, Emotion, 9, 435-439.

Special Guest: Joshua Knobe.

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Episode 24: The Perils of Empathy (with Paul Bloom) Jun 10, 2013

Show notes

Paul Bloom joins us in the second segment for a lively discussion about the value of empathy as a guide our moral decisions. And in our first scoop, we talk about Paul's new book (coming in November) Just Babies: The Origin of Good and Evil, racist babies, and how 80s sitcoms changed the world. In the first segment, Dave and Tamler face the music and try to respond to a listener's criticisms of their episode on slurs and offensiveness (Episode 22) .

Links

The Baby in the Well: The Case Against Empathy by Paul Bloom [newyorker.com]
Descartes' Baby by Paul Bloom [amazon.com]
Jesse Prinz "Is empathy necessary for morality" [subcortex.com]
Pizarro, Bloom, and Detweiler-Bedell on the empathy, disgust, and the moral circle [peezer.net]
Pre-order Just babies: The origins of good and evil by Paul Bloom [amazon.com]
Louis CK: My Life is Really Evil.

Special Guest: Paul Bloom.

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Episode 23: Straw Dogs (with Yoel Inbar) May 27, 2013

Show notes

Dave, Tamler, and special guest Yoel Inbar break down Sam Peckinpah's brilliant (at least according to one of us) 1971 film Straw Dogs. They talk about the notorious rape scene, the meaning of the final siege, standing up to Cornish townies, and whether the urge to respond to insults is rational in in modern society. Also: Yoel and Tamler go another round in their debate about statistics and grad school.

Links

Straw Dogs [imdb.com]

Yoel Inbar [yoelinbar.net]

"The Power of Straw Dogs" [dailybeast.com]

Edward Copeland on Straw Dogs [eddieonfilm.blogspot.com]

"Home Like No Place: Peckinpah's Straw Dogs." [criterion.com]

Musical interlude courtesy of Monibeatz [http://monibeatz.bandcamp.com/]

Special Guest: Yoel Inbar.

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Episode 22: An Enquiry Concerning Slurs and Offensiveness May 12, 2013

Show notes

In what might very well be the last episode before we're pulled off the air, Tamler outlines his data-free "theory" of what makes something offensive. What makes a joke about race, ethnicity, gender, disability funny sometimes, and deeply hurtful at other times? What makes Louis CK so goddamn funny and Andrew Dice Clay just...an asshole? Is Family Guy racist? Throughout the episode, David defends the victims of hatred and is a voice of empathy and reason, while Tamler drops the c-word multiple times, jumps to racist conclusions, and makes fun of David's partial Arab heritage.

Links

Louis CK and his friends discuss the word f@**%t
Wikipedia on F**** and C*** [wikipedia.org]
Bill Burr on the c-word [youtube.com]
Andy Ihnatko's podcast on 5by5.tv, where he discusses why Family Guy is not funny
The Troubling Viral Trend of the "Hilarious" Black Neighbor by Aisha Harris [slate.com]

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Episode 21: Grad School May 06, 2013

Show notes

Dave and Tamler shrug off inside baseball concerns and argue whether to go to grad school, what to do when you get there, and share horror stories about the job market. Also, Tamler explains why the sorority sister who wrote the infamous email is a "civil rights visionary," Dave refuses to say "c*#t punt," and listener contributions from Boomer Trujillo, Yoel Inbar, Rachel Grazioplene, Dave Tucker, and Nina Strohminger.

Links

Michael Shannon Reads Sorority Letter [funnyordie.com]
David Ortiz Pregame Speech [youtube.com]
Twitter beef
"Thesis Hatement" by Rebecca Schuman [slate.com]
"Thesis Defense" by Katie Roiphie [slate.com]
The Impossible Decision by Joshua Rothman [newyorker.com]

VBW Bonus content: Dave and Yoel inbar on the "replicability crisis."

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Episode 20: Boston, Brains, and Bad Pronunciation (with Molly Crockett) Apr 21, 2013

Show notes

Dave and Tamler begin with a brief, heartfelt discussion about the Boston Bombings. Tamler talks about why Patriots' Day and the Boston Marathon mean so much to a kid growing up in Boston. They speculate a bit about the motive behind the attack and ask why the perpetrators didn't come out and claim responsibility.

In the second and third segments, Molly Crockett joins us to challenge Fiery Cushman for the prize of classiest episode ever. She tells us about her research on the effects of serotonin depletion on retributive behavior, and how it was reported as "Chocolate and Cheese help you make better decisions" in the popular media. We talk about the responsibility that scientists have to make sure that their studies are reported properly, and how brain research can (despite David's previous claims) help shed light on human nature and behavior. Also: Tamler mangles the pronunciation of roughly 14 brain regions, Dave yearns for the days when restrictions of human experimentation were non-existent, and both Dave and Tamler subtly and then not so subtly try to get Molly to hook them up with...molly. Enjoy!

Links

Dirty Water by the Standells [youtube.com]
Patriots' Day [wikipedia.org]
Molly Crockett [mollycrockett.com]
Crockett, M. J., Clark, L., Tabibnia, G., Lieberman, M. D., & Robbins, T. W. (2008). Serotonin modulates behavioral reactions to unfairness. Science, 320, 1739.
Serotonin [wikipedia.org]
Striatum [wikipedia.org]
DMT [wikipedia.org]

Special Guests: Fiery Cushman and Molly Crockett.

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Episode 19: The Burning Bridges Episode (Pt. 2) Apr 06, 2013

Show notes

Re-recording a not-so-tragically lost episode (it kinda sucked), Dave and Tamler talk about the things they hate most about philosophy and psychology. But first they discuss a blog post by a Rochester professor that wonders why it's not OK to rape someone who's passed out. Also: same-sex marriage, telling dirty jokes to your daughter, Meredith Baxter Birney, Lifetime movies, how to eat crawfish, and Dave takes a bold, even heroic, stand by criticizing a Republican senator.

Links