Very Bad Wizards

David and Tamler dive back into the Ted Chiang well and explore the fascinating world described in "Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom." What if you could interact with alternate versions of yourself - versions that made different choices, had different jobs, or different partners? Would you get jealous of your other selves if they were more successful? Would you want them to be unhappy so you could feel better about your own choices and path? If your alternate self was in a good relationship with a woman, would you try to track down the version of that woman in this world? If you made an immoral choice but your other self made the moral one, what does that say about your character? And what does it say about free will and responsibility? So many questions, such an interesting story - turns out we need to dedicate another segment next time to conclude the discussion. Hope you enjoy it! If you haven't bought Exhalation (Ted Chiang's new collection) We can't recommend it highly enough. This is the last story in that collection. Plus – we select the topic finalists for our beloved Patreon listener-selected episode. Will Denial of Death make the cut again? 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: Ted Chiang's "Exhalation" [amazon.com affiliate link] Eddy Nahmias, Close calls and the confident agent: Free will, deliberation, and alternative possibilities - PhilPapers

David and Tamler start out with a discussion of the new Chappelle special and the negative reaction from many critics. Is Chappelle trolling his audience? Has he lost touch with the powerless people he used to champion? Or have critics missed his larger point, and failed to approach the new special as an art form? Then they address the latest development in the literature around Benjamin Libet's famous study that, according to some people, proved that free will doesn't exist. How did that study get so much attention in the first place? Tamler proposes a Marxist analysis. Plus, David teaches Tamler how to pronounce Bereitschaftspotential antisemitically. This episode is sponsored by Simple Habit. Sponsored By: Simple Habit: Try out Simple Habit--the meditation app that can make your life better in as little as 5-minutes per day. Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Does Free Will Exist? Neuroscience Can't Disprove It Yet. - The Atlantic Unconscious cerebral initiative and the role of conscious will in voluntary action by Benjamin Libet Neuroscience of free will - Wikipedia Break Music: Cold Stares by peez | SoundCloud

David and Tamler discuss the perplexing Book of Job and its exploration of the problem of evil. They question why Job suffers and debate the persuasiveness of his friends' speeches. The hosts also delve into the concept of transhumanism and the potential benefits and ethical concerns of technological advancements.

Is social psychology just a kid dressing up in grown-up science clothes? Are the methods in social psychology--hypothesis-driven experiments and model-building--appropriate for the state of the field? Or do these methods lead to a narrowing of vision, stifled creativity, and a lack of informed curiosity about the social world> David and Tamler discuss the strong methodological critique of psychology from two of its leading practitioners - Paul Rozin and Solomon Asch. Plus, food porn, real estate porn, outrage porn, and David's personal favorite - power washing porn. Sponsored By: Simple Habit: Try out Simple Habit--the meditation app that can make your life better in as little as 5-minutes per day. Prolific: Just for listeners of Very Bad Wizards-get $100 added on to your account when you start an account and top it off at $250 or more! Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Power Washing Porn Opinion | Why We Call Things 'Porn' - The New York Times Pizarro, D.A., & Baumeister, R. (2013) Superhero comics as moral pornography. In R. Rosenberg (Ed.) Our Superheroes, Ourselves. Oxford University Press. Rozin, P. (2001). Social psychology and science: Some lessons from Solomon Asch. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5(1), 2-14. 2nd Annual BEworks Summit for Behavioural Science in Business — Enter "Very Bad Wizards" at checkout if you're looking to attend!

David and Tamler try to control their emotions (with varying success) as they go deep into Franz Kafka's masterful novella "The Metamorphosis." What kind of a story is this? A Marxist or religious allegory? A work of weird fiction? A family drama? A dark comedy? Why does a story about a man who turns into a giant insect get under our skins so much? Plus a study that links insomnia to our fear of death. What a cheerful summer episode! (Actually we're fairly proud of this one... As always we suggest reading the text before you listen or soon after). This episode brought to you by Prolific.co, and by the support of our listeners. Sponsored By: Prolific: Just for listeners of Very Bad Wizards-get $100 added on to your account when you start an account and top it off at $250 or more! Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Life is short, stay awake: Death anxiety and bedtime procrastination. - PubMed - NCBI 2nd Annual BEworks Summit for Behavioural Science in Business The Metamorphosis - Wikipedia On Translating Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" | The New Yorker Franz Kafka - Wikipedia

Guest Jesus Quintana is a prominent character from the movie 'The Big Lebowski'. Topics discussed include masculinity, trolling, the art of trolling, 'The Big Lebowski', Julianne Moore's character, John Goodman's performance, character analysis of Walter and the Dude, the significance of the rug and the opening scene, masculinity in 'The Big Lebowski', and rewatching Pulp Fiction vs The Big Lebowski.

There are only two kinds of people in the world, Pulp Fiction people and Big Lebowski people. Now Pulp Fiction people can like Big Lebowski and vice versa, but nobody likes them both equally. Somewhere you have to make a choice. And that choice tells you who you are. In the first episode of this two-parter, David and Tamler make that choice – and then go deep into the themes, performances, and philosophy of Tarantino's iconic 90s classic Pulp Fiction. What's the meaning of a foot massage? What counts as a miracle? Is failing to disregard your own feces a sufficient condition for a filthy animal? We have a lots to talk about, and time is short. So pretty please, with sugar on top, listen to the fucking episode. This episode is sponsored by Blinkist and by all of our supporters. Sponsored By: Blinkist: Fit reading into your life. Key takeaways from the world's best nonfiction books in text and audio. Visit blinkist.com/verybadwizards for a special offer for our listeners. Promo Code: verybadwizards Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Pulp Fiction Deleted Scene: Elvis vs The Beatles Pulp Fiction - Wikipedia The Big Lebowski - Wikipedia Gabriel Vinas (@gabrielvinasart) Instagram photos, videos, stories and highlights | Insgain

Memory is highly selective and often inaccurate. But what if we had an easily searchable video record of all our experiences and interactions? How would that affect our relationships? What would it reveal about our characters and our sense of who we are? Is there a kind of truth that can't be determined by perfect objectivity? David and Tamler dive deep into Ted Chiang's amazingly rich and poignant short story "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling" which explores how new technologies shape individual and group identities. Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Meryl Streep: 'We hurt our boys by calling something "toxic masculinity"' | Film | The Guardian Deadwood: EB Farnum At Work Exhalation by Ted Chiang [amazon.com affiliate link]

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