Very Bad Wizards

David and Tamler dive into Sigmund Freud’s world of unconscious drives, death instincts, and thwarted incestuous urges in his classic text “Civilization and its Discontents.” If society has made so much progress, why are human beings perpetually dissatisfied? Can religion help us or is it a big part of the problem? What’s really going on when you piss on a fire to put it out? Also: how seriously should we take Freud today given some of his wackier ideas? And is he a psychologist, a philosopher, or something else entirely? Plus we select the finalists from a huge list of suggested topics for the Patreon listener-selected episode! Sponsored By: BetterHelp: You deserve to be happy. BetterHelp online counseling is there for you. Connect with your professional counselor in a safe and private online environment. Our listeners get 10% off the first month by visiting Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Anal retentiveness - Wikipedia Anal expulsiveness - Wikipedia Psychosexual development - Wikipedia Civilization and Its Discontents - Wikipedia

Socrates was ugly and tired of life, so he made a tyrant of reason. Philosophers are mummies who hate the body and the senses. Reason is a tricky old woman. Morality is a misunderstanding. Kant is a sneaky Christian. And don't even get Nietzsche started on "free will" or the "self" - just excuse for priests to punish people, a hangman's metaphysics. David and Tamler dive into Friedrich Nietzsche's Twilight of the Idols, a fascinating set of aphorisms brimming with passion, provocation, questions without answers. Plus, a professor is sanctioned for sex talk with his students - fair or coddling foul? Sponsored By: BetterHelp: You deserve to be happy. BetterHelp online counseling is there for you. Connect with your professional counselor in a safe and private online environment. Our listeners get 10% off the first month by visiting Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: George Mason University investigation faults professor for sexual talk with students in class and a hot tub, court records show - The Washington Post Nietzsche, F. "Twilight of the Idols" [amazon.com affiliate link] — This is the version we read, but there's a cheaper kindle version on Amazon if you search (at least on the US website). Twilight of the Idols - Wikipedia

With a global pandemic and a collapsing economy upon us, it's time to ask ourselves some tough questions. Sex robots or platonic love robots - what are you more excited for? If you walked in on your partner with one of them, which would make you more jealous? Are you male or female? Can evolutionary psychology explain sex-linked preferences for sensitive, empathetic Alexas? We then dive into the shadowy echo-filled streets of post-war Vienna - and talk about one of our favorite movies, a true noir classic: The Third Man. Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Frontiers | Friends, Lovers or Nothing: Men and Women Differ in Their Perceptions of Sex Robots and Platonic Love Robots | Psychology Break Music: Framed Your Eyes by peez The Third Man - Wikipedia Allied-occupied Austria - Wikipedia Dutch angle - Wikipedia

The legendary Peter Singer joins us to talk about effective altruism, AI, animal welfare, esoteric morality, future Tuesday indifference, and more. I mean, it’s Peter freakin’ Singer - what more do we need to say? Plus, the explosive ‘one or two spaces after a period' debate: has science resolved it? Special Guest: Peter Singer. Sponsored By: GiveWell: Givewell searches for the charities that save or improve lives the most per dollar. Consider a donation this holiday season--your dollar goes a lot further than you might think! Promo Code: verybadwizards Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Are two spaces better than one? | Butterick’s Practical Typography Rappers, sorted by the size of their vocabulary [thanks to listener Kevin Litman-Navarro] Peter Singer - Wikipedia de Lazari-Radek, K., & Singer, P. (2017). Utilitarianism: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press. Singer, P. (2010). The life you can save: How to do your part to end world poverty. Random House Incorporated. "A Gadfly for the Greater Good" (Tamler's interview of Singer in his "A Very Bad Wizard" book) "A Very Bad Wizard" by Tamler Sommers [amazon affiliate link]

David and Tamler begin by talking about the question on everyone’s mind right now – are we obligated to be pansexual? Then, since many of us have more free time on our hands these days, we thought it might be a good idea to revisit Bertrand Russell’s essay (published in Harper’s Magazine) “In Praise of Idleness.” How did workaholism become the norm? Why do we see working insanely long hours as a virtue, a moral duty rather than a necessity? Would more leisure make us more fulfilled and creative or just bored? We also discuss Daniel Markovits’ book "The Meritocracy Trap" - when life is a non-stop hyper-competitive grind from preschool to retirement even among the elites, is anyone happy? Sponsored By: BetterHelp: You deserve to be happy. BetterHelp online counseling is there for you. Connect with your professional counselor in a safe and private online environment. Our listeners get 10% off the first month by visiting Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Is Pansexuality Obligatory? – The Electric Agora In Praise of Idleness, by Bertrand Russell | Harper's Magazine “The Meritocracy Trap,” explained - Vox The Meritocracy Trap by Daniel Markovits [Amazon affiliate link]

Here's something that might help with the Coronavirus blues: we're releasing our latest Patreon bonus episode for everyone. In this (unedited) episode, Tamler and David talk about their Top 5 Deadwood characters. If you've seen the show, let us know if you agree or disagree, or if we should go fuck ourselves. And if you haven’t watched it yet, you might have some time on your hands for the next month or two - there’s almost no better way to spend it than watching Deadwood. Enjoy! Support Very Bad Wizards

David and Tamler start off talking about the infamous Richard Dawkins eugenics tweet. What does it mean for eugenics to “work”? And given the sensitive nature and horrific history of eugenics, is it wrong to raise the topic even if you’re just focused on the science? Hey we’re just asking questions, man… Then, huge baseball fan that he is, David insists that we talk about the massive Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal and cheating in sports more generally. When is bending the rules just part of the game (“if you ain’t cheatin’ you ain’t tryin’”) - and when is it really wrong? Why does the use of technology make cheating seem more dishonorable? Why weren’t the Astros players punished since they were the driving force behind the scandal? And why are apologies so hard on twitter? Sponsored By: BetterHelp: You deserve to be happy. BetterHelp online counseling is there for you. Connect with your professional counselor in a safe and private online environment. Our listeners get 10% off the first month by visiting Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Richard Dawkins slammed for saying 'of course' eugenics would work - Washington Times MercatorNet: Twitter piles on Richard Dawkins over eugenics tweet Astros cheating scandal had to result in historic punishment - Sports Illustrated Sign-stealing [wikipedia.org] How Much Of The Astros’ Legacy Is Now In Doubt? | FiveThirtyEight Does José Altuve’s Bad Tattoo Explain His ALCS Home Run Celebration? - The Ringer The Astros’ Apology Tour Is Off to a Comically Disastrous Start - The Ringer

Psychologist and author Paul Bloom joins Very Bad Wizards to discuss the Coen Brothers' film 'A Serious Man'. They explore themes of uncertainty and inaction, the portrayal of Jews in the movie, and the desire for order and certainty. They also touch on subjects like observational research in psychology, responsible journalism, and the value of investigative journalism. Plus, they discuss a scene from the movie, a new sponsor, and the charity organization Givewell.

Podcasting legend Yoel Inbar (from Two Psychologists Four Beers) joins us to break down Tal Yarkoni's "The Generalizability Crisis,” the paper that launched a thousand Twitter wars. Psychologists make verbal claims about the world, then conduct studies to test these claims - but are the studies actually providing evidence for those claims? Do psychological experiments generalize beyond the the strict confinments of the lab? Are psychologists even using the right statistical models to be able to claim that they do? Does this debate boil down to fundamental differences in the philosophy of science - induction, Popper, and hypothetico-deductive models and so forth? Will David and Tamler ever be able to talk about a psych study again without getting into a fight? Plus ahead of tonight's New Hampshire primary, expert political analysis about what went down in Iowa. Special Guest: Yoel Inbar. Sponsored By: BetterHelp: You deserve to be happy. BetterHelp online counseling is there for you. Connect with your professional counselor in a safe and private online environment. Our listeners get 10% off the first month by visiting Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Prolific: Prolific is giving away $50 to VBW listeners who want to give online sampling a go! Whether you’re a social scientist doing research, part of a marketing group, or even a high school student interested in doing a social science project, prolific can offer you fast, reliable, quality data to answer your research questions. Promo Code: verybadwizards GiveWell: Givewell searches for the charities that save or improve lives the most per dollar. Consider a donation this holiday season--your dollar goes a lot further than you might think! Promo Code: verybadwizards Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Yoel Inbar Two Psychologists Four Beers (Podcast) The app that broke the Iowa Caucuses was sent out through beta testing platforms - The Verge Yarkoni, T. (2019). The generalizability crisis. The 20% Statistician: Review of "The Generalizability Crisis" by Tal Yarkoni [Daniël Lakens' Blog] Inbar, Y., Pizarro, D. A., Gilovich, T., & Ariely, D. (2013). Moral masochism: On the connection between guilt and self-punishment. Emotion, 13(1), 14. Mook, D. G. (1983). In defense of external invalidity. American psychologist, 38(4), 379.

Our whole lives we’ve been frauds. We’re not exaggerating. Pretty much all we’ve ever done is try to create a certain impression of us in other people. Mostly to be liked or admired. This episode is a perfect example, Tamler pretending to be a cinephile (check out his four favorite pieces of 2019 “pop culture” in the first segment), David trying to connect with the people (Baby Yoda, Keanu Reeves etc.) – and of course what could be more fraudulent than a deep dive into a David Foster Wallace story, rhapsodizing over the endless sentences, the logical paradoxes, the seven-layer bean-dip of metacommentary (Jesus Christ I’m surprised there aren’t like eight footnotes in this episode description), and meanwhile the Partially Examined Life dudes refresh their overcast feeds and wonder through the tiny keyhole of themselves how David and Tamler have sunk so low that they’d ramble on about “Good Old Neon” like a couple of first year Comp-Lit grad students trying to impress that girl who works at the Cajun bakery. Sponsored By: Hello Fresh: A healthy, delicious, time-saving meal delivered to your doorstep. Try Hello Fresh, America's #1 Meal Kit. Promo Code: verybadwizards10 GiveWell: Givewell searches for the charities that save or improve lives the most per dollar. Consider a donation this holiday season--your dollar goes a lot further than you might think! Promo Code: verybadwizards BetterHelp: You deserve to be happy. BetterHelp online counseling is there for you. Connect with your professional counselor in a safe and private online environment. Our listeners get 10% off the first month by visiting Betterhelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW Support Very Bad Wizards Links: What is Baby Yoda? | TechRadar High Life (2018 film) - Wikipedia Watchmen (TV series) - Wikipedia Keanu Reeves Is Too Good for This World | The New Yorker Midsommar (film) - Wikipedia Homecoming (TV series) - Wikipedia 'Joker' is first R-rated movie to make $1 billion at global box office - Business Insider Under the Silver Lake - Wikipedia Kanye West’s 'Jesus Is King' Divides the Christian Community | Time How Often Do Women Talk in Quentin Tarantino Films? | Time David Foster Wallace - Wikipedia Good Old Neon (PDF) - Stephen Miller The Real Question | Fiction Writers Review