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 22, 2025
307
01:16:3787.89 MB

Episode 307: What's in the BOX?

David and Tamler talk about two famous puzzles that for different reasons have bedeviled the rationalist community – The Monty Hall Problem and Newcomb’s “paradox.” Why is it so hard for people to see that a 66% chance of winning a car is better than a 3...

April 08, 2025
306
02:04:08142.27 MB

Episode 306: What to Expect When You're Expecting (David Lynch's "Eraserhead" with Barry Lam)

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 ...

March 25, 2025
305
01:44:26119.72 MB

Episode 305: Emile Is the Name of the Goat (with Paul Bloom)

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 ...

March 11, 2025
304
01:40:28115.19 MB

Episode 304: The Planes Don't Land

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 T...

February 25, 2025
303
01:26:2099.01 MB

Episode 303: Measure This

Everyone knows Tamler hates numbers but he’s not the only one who worries about them. We talk about the philosopher C. Thi Nguyen’s excellent paper “Value Capture” which examines how the ever-increasing presence of metrics, data, indicators, rankings, an...

Listener Reviews

Read what other people are saying about our podcast!

Apple Podcasts
Wish they were my therapists

I can honestly say that these two got me through philosophy grad school, covid, and what not else. I wish they were my friends, or even better, my therapists. Keep up the good work, Tamler & Dave! ✌🏾

Apple Podcasts
Smart interesting conversations

except often they seem to end up conversations about sport

Apple Podcasts
This Episode is Giving Me the Ick

Long time listener, but lately have been feeling very alienated by what appears to be casual misogyny. While discussing the ick, there had been statements made about it being a predominantly female activity and in the same breath saying it was trivial. Maybe you just haven’t identified the genesis correctly, maybe th...

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