How to Support Very Bad Wizards

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You can support Very Bad Wizards in a variety of ways. There's the $1 tier, where you get all episodes ad-free and compilations of my Beats Without Rhymes that I've made for the episodes. If you join us at $2 and up, you get access to our bonus episodes. You can buy some swag by T-shirts, mugs on patreon.com slash r slash Very Bad Wizards. We really appreciate it. It would not be possible if it weren't for listeners like you who reach out and keep us going.

The Summer of Cormac McCarthy continues – this time we dive into his one piece of non-fiction, the short essay “The Kekulé Problem.” How does our unconscious mind solve problems that conscious deliberation can’t crack? Why does it often work elliptically, in code, rather than giving us the answer directly in language? Is McCarthy right that the unconscious doesn’t trust language because it’s such a newcomer to the human brain?

Plus we select the finalists for our listener selected episode – thanks to our beloved patrons for all their terrific suggestions!

"The Kekulé Problem" by Cormac McCarthy

Pinker & Bloom 1990

Dijksterhuis & Strick 2016