Episodes
Episode 295: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
David and Tamler hop into their Scooby Van and drive into Tobe Hooperâs mad and macabre horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre . How does this endlessly imitated movie still have the power to scare the shit out of people fifty years after its releas...
Episode 294: The Scandal of Philosophy (Hume's Problem of Induction)
CD Broad called induction âthe glory of science and the scandal of philosophy.â As a matter of habit, weâre all confident that the sun will rise tomorrow morning and that we can predict where the planets and stars will be tomorrow night. But whatâs the r...
Episode 293: Who Is the Dreamer? (Borges' "The Circular Ruins")
David and Tamler crawl up a riverbank, kiss the mud, and dream a discussion of Borgesâ âThe Circular Ruins.â We sort through various interpretations and allusions, the story as a metaphor for artistic creation, gnostic cosmology, solipsism, eternal recur...
Episode 292: Boundary Issues
David and Tamler lead off with a breakdown of the new commercial for âfriend (not imaginary)â a new AI necklace that takes hikes with you, interrupts your favorite shows, and will be there for your first kiss. Then we talk about a new paper co-authored b...
Episode 291: Shoe Shining
Cornell philosopher David Shoemaker joins us for a long winding journey up to the Overlook Hotel, a DEEP dive on Stanley Kubrickâs The Shining . We tackle all the big questions - is the hotel truly haunted? What if anything does it symbolize? Why are the...
Episode 290: Blinded by the Light (Plato's Cave Pt. 2)
David and Tamler continue their discussion of Platoâs allegory of the cave. We talk about the connections with mystical traditions including Gnosticism, Sufism, and Buddhist paths to awakening. We also dig deeper into what Socrates calls âdialecticâ â wh...
Episode 289: Shadows on the Wall (Plato's Cave Pt. 1)
Over the years weâve referred repeatedly to Platoâs cave, Platonic forms, and phrases like âcopies of copiesâ without ever really explaining what we mean by these things. So as part of a new mini-series weâre going dive deeper into Platoâs famous images ...
Episode 288: The Despised Foot (The Denial of Death Pt. 2)
David and Tamler conclude their discussion of Ernest Beckerâs The Denial of Death . We talk about Beckerâs philosophy of science (does he have one?), his sweeping explanations for strongman leaders, neuroses, mental illness, sexual fetishes, and the refr...
Episode 287: Gods With Anuses (The Denial of Death Pt. 1)
David faces his greatest fear as he and Tamler dive into Ernest Beckerâs 1973 Pulitzer Prize winner The Denial of Death . Blending existentialist ideas within a psychoanalytic framework, Becker argues that the ultimate source of human motivation is not t...