by Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro
Very Bad Wizards is a podcast featuring a philosopher (Tamler Sommers) and a psychologist (David Pizarro), who share a love for ethics, pop culture, and cognitive science, and who have a marked inability to distinguish sacred from profane. Each podcast includes discussions of moral philosophy, recent work on moral psychology and neuroscience, and the overlap between the two.
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
8/30/2012
Email Addresses
1 available
Phone Numbers
0 available
April 8, 2025
<p>David and Tamler welcome Barry Lam back to the show. In the first segment we violate one of our own rules by talking about his new book "Fewer Rules, Better People", a full frontal attack on David’s strict Kantian worldview. Then we dive DEEP into David Lynch’s first movie, "Eraserhead," and eventually arrive at a few coherent interpretations of Lynch’s “most spiritual film."</p> <p><a href="https://profiles.ucr.edu/barry.lam">Barry Lam</a> [ucr.edu]</p> <p><a href="https://amzn.to/4j4nCjr">Fewer Rules, Better People: The Case for Discretion</a> by Barry Lam [amazon.com affiliate link]</p> <p><a href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eraserhead">Eraserhead</a> [wikipedia.org]</p> <p><a href="https://youtu.be/SpomrL0qA-E?si=84WgLUa84zMnMvmi">David Lynch BAFTA interview</a> (Origin of "Eraserhead is my most spiritual film" quote) [youtube.com]</p>
March 25, 2025
<p>VBW favorite Paul Bloom joins us to break down the Severance season finale and season 2 in general. We all agree that it’s a much-needed return to form and debate some of the choices and questions the episode raises. Plus, an evolutionary account of the ‘ick’ and the adaptive trait of graceful ping-pong ball chasing. </p> <p><a href= "https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886925000480?ssrnid=5022668&dgcid=SSRN_redirect_SD"> Collisson, B., Saunders, E., & Yin, C. (2025). The ick: Disgust sensitivity, narcissism, and perfectionism in mate choice thresholds. Personality and Individual Differences, 238, 113086.</a></p> <p><a href= "https://verybadwizards.com/episode/episode-236-your-outie-is-skilled-at-lovemaking-with-paul-bloom"> Very Bad Wizards Episode 236: Your Outie is Skilled at Lovemaking (with Paul Bloom)</a></p> <p>Paul's Substack Newsletter <a href= "https://smallpotatoes.paulbloom.net">"Small Potatoes"</a></p>
March 11, 2025
<p>What has four thumbs and can effortlessly glide from the a priori to the a posteriori in a single episode? These guys. In the first segment we tackle a brand new paper called “Being Exalted: an A Priori Argument for the Trinity.” That’s right, the Holy Trinity arrived at through reason alone. Then in the main segment we talk about Richard Feynman’s classic 1974 Caltech commencement address “Cargo Cult Science.” Does Feynman’s metaphor suggest that whole paradigms might be systematically misguided? Or is he just admonishing social scientists to maintain their integrity and use more rigorous methods? As you might imagine, a fight almost breaks out in this one. </p> <p>Moore, H. J. (2025). <a href= "https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11841-024-01052-8">Being Exalted: An A Priori Argument for the Trinity.</a> Sophia, 1-23. [link.springer.com]</p> <p><a href= "https://calteches.library.caltech.edu/51/2/CargoCult.htm">Cargo Cult Science</a> by Richard Feynman [caltech.edu]</p> <p>I<a href= "https://sites.stat.columbia.edu/gelman/research/published/cargocult_2025.pdf">nterrogating the “cargo cult science” metaphor</a> by Andrew Gelman and Megan Higgs [columbia.edu]</p>
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