Sam Harris returns to the podcast to talk about meditation and his new Waking Up meditation app. What are the goals of mindfulness practice - stress reduction and greater focus, or something much deeper? Can it cure David's existential dread? Tamler's fear of his daughter going away to college? Can sustained practice erode the illusion of self? Is that even something we'd want to do? What if it diminishes our attachment to people we love? And what is the self anyway? Is Sam a defender of panpsychism? So many questions... Plus, the ethics of creating talking elephants by curing them of their autism through bonding and possibly mounting. (Seriously.) Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Rossler, O. E., Theis, C., Heiter, J., Fleischer, W., & Student, A. (2015). Is it ethical to heal a young white elephant from his physiological autism?. Progress in biophysics and molecular biology, 119(3), 539-543. Scientists Predict A Talking Elephant, Szilamandee - Neuroskeptic The Social Exchange Podcast | David Pizarro - Correcting Bias, Heuristics, and Decision-Making Break music: ▶ Lazarus Lives by peez Waking Up with Sam Harris (app) Sam Harris | Home of the Making Sense Podcast On Having No Head: Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious: Douglas E. Harding: 9781878019196: Amazon.com: Books

David and Tamler argue about William James' classic essay "The Will to Believe." What's more important - avoiding falsehood or discovering truth? When (if ever) is it rational to believe anything without enough evidence? What about beliefs that we can't be agnostic about? Are there hypotheses that we have to believe in order for them to come true? Does James successfully demonstrate that faith can be rational? Plus, a philosopher at Apple who's not allowed to talk to the media - what are they hiding? And why are academics constantly telling students that academia is a nightmare? Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Apple won't let its in-house philosopher talk to the press — Quartz The Will to Believe - Wikipedia The Will to Believe (Full Text PDF) Evidentialism - Wikipedia

David and Tamler are pulled into Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas." Omelas is a truly happy city, except for one child who lives in abominable misery. Is that too high a moral cost? Why do some people walk away from the city? Why does no one help the child? Why does Le Guin make us create the city with her? Plus, we talk about our listener meetup in Vancouver, and a new edition of [dramatic music] GUILTY CONFESSIONS. Note: if this episode strikes you as too puritanical, then please add an orgy. Support Very Bad Wizards Links: The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas - YouTube The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas - Wikipedia The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (Full Text) The Wind's Twelve Quarters by Ursula K. Le Guin [amazon.com affiliate link]

As parents we like to think we have an impact on our children - their future, their happiness, the kinds of people they turn out to be. But are we deluded? Dave and Tamler are joined by empathy's kryponite, the great Paul Bloom, to talk about Judith Rich Harris's view that parents matter a lot less than you might think (while genes and peer groups matter a lot more than you might think) . Plus, what the connection between art and morality? Should we support "cancel culture"? Is it wrong to play Michael Jackson's P.Y.T. (spell it out) on the radio? What about the Jackson 5? And what about art that is itself immoral? You're not gonna believe this but Louis CK gets mentioned. Thanks to our beloved Patreon supporters for suggesting and voting for this topic! Special Guest: Paul Bloom. Support Very Bad Wizards Links: 'Too big to cancel': can we still listen to Michael Jackson? | Music | The Guardian The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do, Revised and Updated: Judith Rich Harris [amazon affiliate link] Do Parents Matter? Judith Rich Harris and child development (by Malcolm Gladwell) Children Don't Do Things Halfway | Edge.org Judith Rich Harris & Jerome Kagan: The Nature of Nurture: Parents or Peers? Slate dialogue, Oct. 28 - Nov. 21, 1998

The less we know, the more we know it. David and Tamler talk about the notorious Dunning-Kruger effect, which makes us overconfident in beliefs on topics we're ignorant about and under-confident when we're experts. Plus, we break down an evolutionary psychology article on why poor men and hungry men prefer women with big breasts. Trust us, it's a really bad study. We're sure about it. Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Resource Security Impacts Men’s Female Breast Size Preferences Peez on Freakonomics Radio Live: “Would You Eat a Piece of Chocolate Shaped Like Dog Poop?” Dunning–Kruger effect - Wikipedia We Are All Confident Idiots - Pacific Standard Dunning, D. (2011). The Dunning–Kruger effect: On being ignorant of one's own ignorance. In Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 44, pp. 247-296). Academic Press.

David and Tamler dive into the book of Ecclesiastes, an absurdist classic that is somehow also a book of the Bible. Is everything meaningless, vain, and a chasing after the wind? Are humans just the same as animals? Are wise people no better off than fools? Will God judge us after we die, rewarding the good people and punishing the shit-heels? What if there is no afterlife and this is all we get? How should we deal with our pointless, unjust existence? Plus we return to our opening-segment bible— Aeon—and talk about an argument for replacing jealousy with...wait for it…compersion. Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Love without jealousy: consider the benefits of compersion | Aeon Essays Break Music: Back From Salina | SoundCloud Just to say thanks to the wizards : VeryBadWizards Ecclesiastes - Wikipedia Ecclesiastes 1 NIV - Everything Is Meaningless - The words - Bible Gateway

Poor and black defendants have more legal rights than ever, but that didn't stop mass incarceration. Why is that? We talk about a paper by Paul Butler called "Poor People Lose: Gideon and the Critique of Rights." Plus, we answer the question that’s on everyone’s mind: how to live as an anti-natalist. And Tamler is appalled to discover David's anti-natalist leanings. Sponsored By: Eero Promo Code: VERYBADWIZARDS Support Very Bad Wizards Links: How to Live As an Antinatalist: 11 Steps (with Pictures) - wikiHow Suing your parents for being born has philosophical support — Quartz Indian man to sue parents for giving birth to him - BBC News Butler, P. D. (2012). Poor people lose: Gideon and the critique of rights. Yale LJ, 122, 2176. Butler, P. (2010). Let's get free: a hip-hop theory of justice. The New Press. Chicago Gideon v. Wainwright - Wikipedia

David and Tamler talk about the invasion of dual process theories in psychology. Why do we love theories that divide complex phenomena into just two categories? Is there any evidence to back up these theories? Are we distorting our understanding of the mind and morality? And what we can do to get out of this mess? Plus, Liam Neeson, moral pet peeves, and oral ethics. Sponsored By: Mack Weldon Promo Code: VERYBADWIZARDS Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Melnikoff, D. E., & Bargh, J. A. (2018). The mythical number two. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 22, 280-293. The Annals of the TERF-Wars | Jane Clare Jones Feldman Barrett's theory of constructed emotion - Wikipedia Dual process theory - Wikipedia

In this podcast, David and Tamler delve into Dostoevsky's existential novella, exploring the Underground Man's guilt, shame, and narcissism. They discuss the character's social awkwardness, self-destructive behavior, and spotlight effect. The hosts also select finalists for an upcoming episode based on listener suggestions, touching on topics like ethics, psychology, and relationships.

The podcast delves into Dostoevsky's 'Notes From Underground,' exploring if the protagonist is an existential hero or a self-loathing loner. They discuss APA guidelines on masculinity and the challenges faced. The hosts examine determinism, freedom, and the defiance against rational norms in a thought-provoking conversation.