Very Bad Wizards - podcast cover

Very Bad Wizards

Tamler Sommers & David Pizarrosites.libsyn.com
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.

Episodes

Episode 39: How Many Moralities Are There? (Pt.1)

Dave and Tamler bounce back this week after having to trash the last episode. Does morality ultimately boil down to a single principle (such as harm or justice), or is there more to ethical life than is dreamt of in the minds of philosophers? We settle this question once and for all in the first of a 2-part episode in which we discuss Jesse Graham et al's recent paper on Moral Foundations Theory. (Jesse Graham himself will join us for part 2). Plus: how liberal is this podcast? We'll give you th...

Jan 20, 20141 hrEp. 39

Episode 38: The Greatest Movies Ever Made about Personal Identity

Who is the real you? What happens to your identity when your body gets cloned or reconstituted with all the same memories and character traits? Does society construct our true selves or repress them? Can we ever escape our pasts and become different people? Dave thinks conceptual analysis and arousal measuring devices can solve all these problems but allows Tamler his dream of temporarily becoming the host of a movie podcast. They list their top 5 favorite movies about personal identity. Plus, d...

Dec 31, 20131 hr 21 minEp. 38

Episode 37: Porn, Poop, and Personal Identity (with Nina Strohminger)

The guest we've been waiting for--Nina Strohminger--joins us to talk about the connection between disgust and humor, cheap laughs, moral character and personal identity, and the British opt-in plan for porn. Plus: how psychologists measure erections and Dave goes Platonist about the form of hilarity. Tamler's daughter should have issued an extra strong disclaimer for this one. Links Nina Strohminger [ninastrohminger.com] David Cameron Proposes Porn Filter [thedailybeast.com] Strohminger, N. and ...

Dec 17, 201346 minEp. 37

Episode 36: An Irresponsible Meta-Book Review of Joshua Greene's "Moral Tribes"

Our most irresponsible episode ever! Dave and Tamler talk about two reviews of a book they haven't read--Joshua Greene's Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them --and feel only a little shame. (Since the recording, at least one of us has finished the book). Can Greene successfully debunk all non-utilitarian intuitions? Does Greene have a dark enough view of human nature? What would an ideal moral world look like? Will Dave ever stop making fun of Tamler's haunted boy hairc...

Nov 25, 201355 minEp. 36

Episode 35: Douchebags and Desert

Dave and Tamler talk about the influence of character judgments on attributions of blame. What is the function of the blame--to assign responsibility or to judge a person's character? Is it fair that we blame douchebags more than good people who commit exactly the same act, or is it yet another cognitive bias that should be avoided? Plus we delve into the Richie Incognito hazing story (maybe a little early since the story has developed) and Tamler tries to figure out how to teach the Gospels to ...

Nov 11, 20131 hr 1 minEp. 35

Episode 34: Does Reading Harry Potter Make You Moral? (with Will Wilkinson)

Special guest Will Wilkinson joins the podcast to talk about whether fiction makes us better people, and to discuss his recent Daily Beast article that trashed Dave's profession and livelihood. Also, Dave and Tamler try to make sense of Ancie nt Greek justice in a myth about incest, adultery, daughter-killing, husband-killing, matricide, cannibalism, and trash talking to disembodied heads. Links Agamemnon [wikipedia.org] Will Wilkinson [wikipedia.org] The Will Wilkinson article that hurt David's...

Oct 28, 20131 hr 14 minEp. 34

Episode 33: Monkeys, Smurfs, and Human Conformity (With Laurie Santos)

Special guest Laurie Santos (Psychology, Yale) joins us to talk about what animal cognition can tell us about human nature. Why are other primates better at resisting the misleading influence of others than humans? Is conformity a byproduct of our sophisticated cultural learning capacities? Are we more like Chimpanzees or Bonobos? Why does Dave spend so much time writing Smurf fan fiction? [Smurf you, Tamler. -dap]. Also, Dave and Tamler talk about a scathing review of Malcolm Gladwell's new boo...

Oct 14, 201357 minEp. 33

Episode 32: Disagreeing About Disagreement

Part II of our discussion on Rai and Fiske (sort of): We answer a listener's email and in the process get into an episode long argument about moral intuitions, psychological facts, the implications of moral disagreement. Before that, we talk about the recent study about testicles and parenting. We don't play small ball on this one. Links Testicular volume is inversely correlated with nurturing-related brain activity in human fathers [pnas.org] "Study: You May be a Terrible Dad Because You Have E...

Sep 30, 20131 hr 19 minEp. 32

Episode 31: An Anthropologist's Guide to Moral Psychology (Pt. 1)

In the first of a two-part episode, we discuss one of our favorite recent papers--Tage Rai and Alan Page Fiske's 2011 paper on how social relationships shape and motivate our moral emotions and judgments. We also talk about Sam Harris' $20,000 Moral Landscape Challenge , and whether there's any real chance of convincing him that the arguments he made in The Moral Landscape (first published in English in 2011) are wrong. Links Sam Harris' Moral Landscape Challenge [samharris.org] Alan Fiske's ove...

Sep 16, 201355 minEp. 31

Episode 30: The Greatest Books Ever Written

Dave and Tamler celebrate their one year anniversary and 30th episode with one of their least cynical episodes yet. They talk about 5 philosophy/psychology(-ish) books that influenced and inspired them throughout the years. They also respond to a listener email that accuses them (mostly Tamler) of being "reckless and irresponsible" in their discussion of responding to insults. Episode Links (Please note that the Top 5 links below are to purchase books through amazon.com via the Very Bad Wizards ...

Sep 02, 20131 hr 12 minEp. 30

Episode 29: PEDs, Tenure Pills, and "Hyberbolic Chambers"

Dave and Tamler try to artificially bulk up their expertise on the ethics of performance enhancing drugs and end up raising a lot more questions than they answer. Why do we condemn certain methods for boosting performance on the playing field and praise others? Why is it OK to train at high altitudes but not in hyperbaric chambers that simulate high altitudes? Why is Lance Armstrong a villain and Graham Greene (who wrote many of his most famous novels on benzedrine) a hero? Is there genetic ther...

Aug 19, 201348 minEp. 29

Episode 28: Moral Persuasion

Dave and Tamler try their best to do a show without guests--we talk about moral persuasion, motivated reasoning, and whether it's legitimate to use emotionally charged rhetoric in a philosophical argument. Plus, we describe how students proceed through the "Stages-of-Singer," and Tamler finally defends himself against Dave's slanderous accusation of hypocrisy about animal welfare. Links Thomson, J. J. (1971). A defense of abortion. Philosophy & Public Affairs , 1 , 47-66. Marquis, D. (1989). Why...

Aug 05, 20131 hr 9 minEp. 28

Episode 27: You, Your Self, and Your Brain (With Eddy Nahmias)

Our streak of very special guests continues! Philosopher Eddy Nahmias joins the podcast to us why people mistakenly think they're not morally responsible, and how his new study casts doubt on Sam Harris's "pamphlet" on free will. Eddy also describes his new project (with Toni Adleberg and Morgan Thompson) on why women leave philosophy. Plus Dave and I discuss some reasons for having children, and eat a little Partially Examined Life crow. Links "Name five women in philosophy. Bet you can't. " Ta...

Jul 22, 20131 hr 22 minEp. 27

Episode 26: Evolution and Sexual Perversion (with Jesse Bering)

Psychologist and author Jesse Bering joins us to talk about evolutionary psychology and his forthcoming book Perv. In the relatively uncontroversial part of the episode, we ask if homophobia is an adaptation and if women have evolved rape defenses. After that, sex with animals, sex with bookshelves, foot fetishes, amputee fetishes, falling down the stairs fetishes... I don't know, just listen. Or maybe don't. Jesse Bering [jessebering.com] Perv (pre-order) by Jesse Bering [amazon.com] "Darwin's ...

Jul 08, 20131 hr 22 minEp. 26

Episode 25: Burning Armchairs (with Joshua Knobe)

Josh Knobe, the Michael Corleone of experimental philosophy, joins us to talk about taking philosophy into the lab and the streets. We discuss how people moralize everyday concepts like intention, causation, and innateness. Dave wonders if X-phi people are just doing social psychology, and Tamler tries his best to get Josh mad with his critique of Josh's experimental work on free will. He might have succeeded but that argument had to be cut a little short this time. We'll have to have Josh back ...

Jun 24, 201358 minEp. 25

Episode 24: The Perils of Empathy (with Paul Bloom)

Paul Bloom joins us in the second segment for a lively discussion about the value of empathy as a guide our moral decisions. And in our first scoop, we talk about Paul's new book (coming in November) Just Babies: The Origin of Good and Evil , racist babies, and how 80s sitcoms changed the world. In the first segment, Dave and Tamler face the music and try to respond to a listener's criticisms of their episode on slurs and offensiveness (Episode 22) . Links The Baby in the Well: The Case Against ...

Jun 10, 20131 hr 23 minEp. 24

Episode 23: Straw Dogs (with Yoel Inbar)

Dave, Tamler, and special guest Yoel Inbar break down Sam Peckinpah's brilliant (at least according to one of us) 1971 film Straw Dogs. They talk about the notorious rape scene, the meaning of the final siege, standing up to Cornish townies, and whether the urge to respond to insults is rational in in modern society. Also: Yoel and Tamler go another round in their debate about statistics and grad school. Links Straw Dogs [imdb.com] Yoel Inbar [yoelinbar.net] "The Power of Straw Dogs" [dailybeast...

May 27, 20131 hr 16 minEp. 23

Episode 22: An Enquiry Concerning Slurs and Offensiveness

In what might very well be the last episode before we're pulled off the air, Tamler outlines his data-free "theory" of what makes something offensive. What makes a joke about race, ethnicity, gender, disability funny sometimes, and deeply hurtful at other times? What makes Louis CK so goddamn funny and Andrew Dice Clay just...an asshole? Is Family Guy racist? Throughout the episode, David defends the victims of hatred and is a voice of empathy and reason, while Tamler drops the c-word multiple t...

May 12, 20131 hr 4 minEp. 22

Episode 21: Grad School

Dave and Tamler shrug off inside baseball concerns and argue whether to go to grad school, what to do when you get there, and share horror stories about the job market. Also, Tamler explains why the sorority sister who wrote the infamous email is a "civil rights visionary," Dave refuses to say "c*#t punt," and listener contributions from Boomer Trujillo, Yoel Inbar, Rachel Grazioplene, Dave Tucker, and Nina Strohminger. Links Michael Shannon Reads Sorority Letter [funnyordie.com] David Ortiz Pre...

May 06, 20132 hr 33 minEp. 21

Episode 20: Boston, Brains, and Bad Pronunciation (with Molly Crockett)

Dave and Tamler begin with a brief, heartfelt discussion about the Boston Bombings. Tamler talks about why Patriots' Day and the Boston Marathon mean so much to a kid growing up in Boston. They speculate a bit about the motive behind the attack and ask why the perpetrators didn't come out and claim responsibility. In the second and third segments, Molly Crockett joins us to challenge Fiery Cushman for the prize of classiest episode ever. She tells us about her research on the effects of serotoni...

Apr 21, 20131 hrEp. 20

Episode 19: The Burning Bridges Episode (Pt. 2)

Re-recording a not-so-tragically lost episode (it kinda sucked), Dave and Tamler talk about the things they hate most about philosophy and psychology. But first they discuss a blog post by a Rochester professor that wonders why it's not OK to rape someone who's passed out. Also: same-sex marriage, telling dirty jokes to your daughter, Meredith Baxter Birney, Lifetime movies, how to eat crawfish, and Dave takes a bold, even heroic, stand by criticizing a Republican senator. Links In honor of our ...

Apr 06, 20131 hr 3 minEp. 19

Episode 18: "Boy If Life Were Only Like This" (With Joe Henrich)

Joe Henrich joins the podcast to tell us that we know nothing about his work and that how we got to teach a class in anything is absolutely amazing. We continue our discussion from Episode 17 about his critique of the social and behavioral sciences in "The Weirdest People in the World" and his work in small scale societies on fairness norms. We also talk about the weird American obsession with happiness, monkeys throwing cucumbers, and why some people reject "hyper-fair" offers of more than the ...

Mar 22, 201350 minEp. 18

Episode 17: Learning about Bushmen by Studying Freshmen?

Thousands of studies in psychology rely on data from North American undergraduates. Can we really conclude anything about the "human" mind from such a limited sample-- especially since Westerners are probably more different from the rest of the world's population than any other group? We talk about Joseph Henrich and colleagues' critique of the behavioral sciences in their paper "The WEIRDEST People in the World." David offers a defense of psychology, arguing that it's usually not the goal of la...

Mar 16, 201350 minEp. 17

Episode 16: Race, Reparations, and American (In)Justice (with Damani McDole)

For those who thought our most uncomfortable topics were behind us, on this episode we are joined by David's childhood friend Damani McDole [facebook.com] to discuss several potentially offensive topics surrounding race and justice in America, such as slavery, reparations, affirmative action, and the use of the N-word. When Damani mounts an economic and moral defense for reparations for the descendants of slaves, David prefers to point to the difficulties in deciding who gets paid ( someone who'...

Mar 02, 20131 hrEp. 16

Episode 15: The Burning Bridges Episode (Pt. 1)

You don't need to be a psychologist or a philosopher to enjoy a good, old-fashioned bitch-fest. In the first of a two-part episode (no single compact disc, 8-track, or LP could hold all our complaints), Tamler and David list two of the things that bug them about their respective fields. We take issue with bad writing, brain worship, meaningless questions, and psychologists' obsession with the number two. Enjoy and try not to hold it against us. Links Simpsons clip on philosophy majors [youtube.c...

Feb 16, 201354 minEp. 15

Episode 14: Bonus Episode on Snitches, Tattletales, and Whistleblowers

In a break from tradition, we recorded a 25-minute episode on the morality of tattletaling, snitching, ratting, and whistleblowing. We discuss why these people seem especially despicable (except for maybe "Bubbles" from "The Wire" and the guy from "The Insider"), and David gets Tamler to agree that he'd never turn him into the police. We also puzzle over the existence of porn theaters, and the origins of the expression "flip a bitch." Links Stop Snitchin' campaign [wikipedia.org] Bubbles (charac...

Feb 08, 201327 minEp. 14

Episode 13: Beanballs, Blood Feuds, and Collective Moral Responsibility (With Fiery Cushman)

Our classiest episode yet (OK, that's not saying much, but still...)--Psychologist Fiery Cushman joins us for a discussion about collective punishment and collective responsibility. We use Fiery's recent paper on the practice of "beaning" in baseball (punishing one player for a teammate's offense by throwing a 95 MPH fastball at the player's head) to illustrate the phenomenon. Is the "innocent" player being punished because he is somehow morally responsible for his teammate's offense? Or does de...

Jan 22, 20131 hrEp. 13

Episode 12: Justice for #!$@ ?

Dave and Tamler square off the role of the victim in criminal punishment and find little to agree about. Tamler defends the restorative justice approach, while Dave expresses skepticism about its value and worries it might even be damaging. Arguments ensue, but be sure to stick around for the third segment as it features an unusually focused and productive discussion--for them anyway. Also discussed: the best character on "The Wire," the startling specificity of KG's trash-talking, and a listene...

Jan 14, 20131 hr 13 minEp. 12

Episode 11: It is Morally Wrong to Kill Morgan Freeman (with Yoel Inbar)

Social psychologist Yoel Inbar joins Tamler and David to discuss Clint Eastwood's masterpiece of the Western genre, "Unforgiven." The discussion includes the nature of revenge, the requirements of justice, the rules of nicknaming, and who or what was being referred to as "unforgiven" in the movie's title. Links Unforgiven (1992): IMDB , Wikipedia Page If you haven't seen "Unforgiven," don't worry : Story Spoilers Don't Spoil Stories Actor Saul Rubinek [wikipedia.org] Relevant Book about moral ch...

Dec 28, 20121 hr 16 minEp. 11

Episode 10: Religion, Meaning, and Morality

Does life have meaning if there is no God? Why should I be a good person if there's no reward or punishment waiting for me in the afterlife? Why does religion seem to make people happier and healthier? Dave and Tamler heroically try to answer these questions without being stoned. Other topics include Dave's paralyzing fear of death, bad times on mopeds, and the pros and cons of naming your daughter Chlamydia. They almost get through the episode without having to censor something--but not quite. ...

Dec 11, 201259 minEp. 10