Very Bad Wizards

Very Bad Wizards

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. 

April 16, 2024
282
01:25:1297.72 MB

Episode 282: Fearful Symmetry (Borges' "Death and the Compass")

A Rabbi is found dead in a hotel room, stabbed in the chest. The room is filled with Kabbalah texts and a single page in an typewriter that reads “The first letter of the name has been written.” The celebrated detective and “reasoning machine” Erik Lönnr...

March 26, 2024
281
01:22:4294.86 MB

Episode 281: Choose Your Fighter

We dig into the biggest rivalry in Tamler’s profession, analytic vs. continental philosophy. Are analytic philosophers truly the rigorous, precise, clear thinkers they take themselves to be? And is continental philosophy really just a bunch pretentious c...

March 12, 2024
280
01:39:37114.23 MB

Episode 280: Mad Masque (with Phil Ford and J.F. Martel)

Phil Ford and J.F. Martel from the great "Weird Studies" podcast join us for a whirling discussion of Edgar Allan Poe’s mesmerizing tale of decadence and disease “The Masque of the Red Death." We also talk about weird fiction more generally, why it’s so ...

February 27, 2024
279
01:09:5880.28 MB

Episode 279: The Greenhouses We Burned Along the Way (Lee Chang-dong's "Burning" Pt. 2)

David and Tamler conclude their discussion of Lee Chang-dong’s "Burning" – we talk about the hunger dance at twilight, Ben’s greenhouse burning habit, Shin Hae-mi’s mysterious disappearance, Lee Jong-su’s clumsy and doomed quest to find out what really h...

February 13, 2024
278
01:32:17105.83 MB

Episode 278: Schrödinger's Everything (Lee Chang-dong's "Burning" Pt. 1)

David and Tamler fall under the spell of Lee Chang-dong’s 2018 masterpiece Burning , a movie where nothing is what it seems, or maybe it is. An alienated young man meets what seems like his dream girl from his small town, but she’s about to leave for Afr...

Listener Reviews

Read what other people are saying about our podcast!

Apple Podcasts
Love these fools

Been listening for years, one of the few pods I listen to that makes me laugh out loud in public.

Apple Podcasts
The GOAT

Been listening to these guys for almost 5 years now. Thanks for many laughs and insights. You two have helped me through some very hard times!

Apple Podcasts
Entertaining and illuminating

It’s like a fortnightly visit from two funny and smart friends I wish I had in my real life.