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.
Episode 329: Why We Suffer
David and Tamler return to the work of Richard Shweder and colleagues, focusing this time on his foundational paper "The "Big Three" of Morality (Autonomy, Community, Divinity) and the "Big Three" Explanations of Suffering. What are the various ways that ...
Episode 328: Weapons Free
David and Tamler cross the border into Denis Villeneuve's taut and propulsive thriller Sicario , the story of an FBI agent who gets pulled into a task force drawn from the shadiest elements of the US government. The assignment: to disrupt, infiltrate, and...
Episode 327: You Ain't So Smart (Flannery O'Connor's "Good Country People")
David and Tamler return to the Southern Gothic well and talk about Flannery O'Connor's short story masterpiece "Good Country People." A nihilistic atheist philosophy PhD named Joy or Helga (depending on who you ask) lives with her mother and some tenants ...
Episode 326: The Most Important Episode of Your (Academic) Life
Are you a college student or about to be one? Do you have friends or family in college? This is the most important episode of your life. David and Tamler do something a little different this episode and tier rank a wide range of academic fields from engin...
Episode 325: It Is Happening Again
David and Tamler return to Mircea Eliade's The Sacred and Profane and discuss the chapter "Sacred Time and Myths." How does viewing time as circular give us a periodic window into the sacred? What does it mean to reactualize the creation of the universe i...
Listener Reviews
Read what other people are saying about our podcast!
Cool guys
Just a couple of cool guys talking about lots of cool things. I like listening to their conversation even when I have no idea what they are talking about. Tamler was one of my professors in college and he was cool. Never met David but he is cool too. Both of them very cool; really cool podcast.
Authentic, Repugnant, and Brilliant.
I just finished the entire catalog of Very Bad Wizards, and it is by far my favorite podcast on the market. Their chemistry, humor, wisdom, and insight have left a great impact on the way I view the world.
Lightning in a bottle
The meta-conversation in this pod about the role of science, logic, and truth is really unique. The guys are irreverent (some might say degenerate) even as they wrestle with the big questions in serious ways. The format is a lot of fun, and I’ve grown so much as a thinker alongside Tamler and David.