Very Bad Wizards

It’s the Thanksgiving episode! David and Tamler give thanks to their listeners and Patreon supporters with an episode chosen by our top Patreon subscribers (it was the most enjoyable election we've had all month). It was close, we had a bunch of great suggestions (that we'll refer to for upcoming episodes), but the winner was this topic from Bryan Farrow: "In the vein of the Republic and Rationalia, I want to hear Peez and Tamler draft a constitution for "Oz", a sovereign state that maximizes whatever they cherish most. (Honor and porn, presumably.)" Bryan’s wish is our command. Welcome to “Honoraria†and “Puerto Ricoâ€, currently at war over the five paragraph essay. Plus, Dave relates how it feels to get the bulk of the critical feedback for once. And we talk about a few other things we’re grateful for â€" including students who don’t try to bullshit us, “honeybunsâ€, academic PEDs -- and Tamler says a few words about his Mom. Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Gross Anatomy | News & City Life | Houstonia "Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging" by Sebastian Junger [amazon.com affiliate link] Very Bad Wizards is creating a Biweekly Podcast | Patreon

David and Tamler stumble their way through talking about the election results, how Trump got elected, the role of racism, sexism, the liberal bubble, complacency, economic anxiety - and find they're just as confused as everyone else. In the second segment, we lighten things up a little (really!) and discuss the Black Mirror episode "San Junipero" (available on Netflix). Spoiler talk so try to see the episode before listening. Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Wes Alwan's Facebook post about the election [facebook.com] — Telling the millions of uneducated white rust belt voters who put Obama in office in 2008 and 2012 that they are evil bigots is not a strategy for winning an election. Glenn Greenwald on Who's to Blame for Trump's Election What So Many People Don't Get About the US Working Class by Joan Williams [hbr.org] I Will Never Underestimate White People's Need to Preserve Whiteness Again [verysmartbrothas.com] Episode Break Music [soundcloud.com] Black Mirror - San Junipero [imdb.com] Heaven is a Place on Earth by Belinda Carlisle [youtube.com] Charlie Brooker Shares 'San Junipero' Playlist from Black Mirror [ew.com] Mr. Robot Virtual Reality Experience [youtube.com] — Step inside the world of Mr. Robot like never before and experience a pivotal moment from Elliot's past. Written and directed by Sam Esmail.

Why do we call Mozart a creative genius? He created his music, but do we also think that he created himself? How do we determine who deserves praise as an artist? What about athletes? What standards do we use - do they involve a strong notion of free will that's incompatible with determinism? If not, why should we think that moral praise and blame require agents to act with that sort of free will? David and Tamler argue over how much we can learn about moral responsibility from our responsibility practices in the domains of arts and sports. Plus, it's Halloween – time to rev up the campus culture wars. Do concerns about "cultural appropriation" amount to a "war on Halloween"? Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Oregon Student Government: Dressing Up as Any Character Is Cultural Appropriation, Not Okay - Hit & Run : Reason.com Russell, P. (2008). Free will, art and morality. The Journal of ethics, 12(3-4), 307-325. [academia.edu] Infernal Affairs - Wikipedia Paul Gauguin - Wikipedia

David and Tamler have their 100th episode hijacked briefly before taking it back like Wesley Snipes in Passenger 57. To celebrate the milestone Tamler pops some champagne, Dave sips his high priced Ivy League bourbon, and we both take a quiz designed by MIT that assesses our moral worldview and determines how driverless cars should be programmed. In the second segment we answer a bunch of questions our listeners submitted on Facebook and Twitter for an AMA. (We didn't get to all of them, and some were cut not because they were bad questions but because our answers were incoherent. But we did our best.) Plus, has David changed his mind about Straw Dogs? How would we argue if we switched positions in our big fights? And we expose the vast Partially Examined Life conspiracy that keeps us down in the iTunes (and Linux) ratings. Special Guests: Eliza Sommers and Isabella Pizarro. Support Very Bad Wizards Links: Moral Machine — MIT Media Lab's Self-Driving Car Moral Test Garfield Minus Garfield Bem, D. J. (2011). Feeling the future: experimental evidence for anomalous retroactive influences on cognition and affect. Journal of personality and social psychology, 100(3), 407. Simmons, Joseph P., Leif D. Nelson, and Uri Simonsohn. "False-positive psychology undisclosed flexibility in data collection and analysis allows presenting anything as significant." Psychological science (2011): 0956797611417632. [haas.berkeley.edu]

David and Tamler tackle three topics on their last double digit episode. First, should a middle school perform "To Kill a Mockingbird" even if they have to use bad language the "n-word," and talk about sexual assault? Tamler relates a story involving his daughter (who was supposed to play Scout) and a playwright who refused to allow his play to be censored. But when it comes to drama, middle school's got nothing on social psychology. Next, David and Tamler break down the latest controversy surrounding Princeton psychologist Susan Fiske's leaked column about the bullying destructo-critics and methodological terrorists that are challenging the establishment in the field. Finally, they give a spoiler-filled analysis of season 2 of Mr. Robot, a polarizing season for many fans. Tamler's suffering from a little theory fatigue, but David blows his mind with his explanation of what's really going on with the Dark Army and F-Society. Have you ever cried during sex? Links To Kill a Mockingbird stage play [stageagent.com] Mob Rule or the Wisdom of Crowds? Susan Fiske's forthcoming column in the APS Observer [verybadwizards.com] Andrew Gelman's blog post about Susan Fiske's column [andrewgelman.com] Ioannidis, J. P. (2005). Why most published research findings are false. PLoS Med, 2(8), e124. [plos.org] The Hardest Science blog by Sanjay Srivastava (@hardsci) sometimes i'm wrong blog by Simine Vazire (@siminevazire) The 20% Statistician blog by Daniel Lakens (@lakens) Too Many Cooks [youtube.com] Bitcoin explained and made simple [youtube.com] Key generation [wikipedia.org] Support Very Bad Wizards

David and Tamler break down the biggest question in moral philosophy -- can we derive value judgments from a set of purely factual claims? Like the Scottish Philosopher David Hume they're surprised when the usual copulation of propositions 'is' and 'is not' suddenly turn into conclusions in the form of 'ought' and 'ought not.' And what's the deal with all these copulating propositions anyway? Aren't they a little young for that? Do propositions practice safe copulation? Is proposition porn about to be the new fad? They also talk about Moore's Open Question Argument, which introduced the term "naturalist fallacy," and respond to angry criticism over last episode's Rationalia segment. Links Listener C. Derek Varn's blog post: "The Dogmatic Slumber of Neil deGrasse Tyson" [symptomaticcommentary.wordpress.com] Hume's Moral Philosophy [Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy] Is-ought problem [wikipedia.org] GE Moore's Moral Philosophy [Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy] Open-question argument [wikipedia.org] The Naturalistic Fallacy [wikipedia.org] Support Very Bad Wizards

Do you have strong views on climate change, taxes, health care, or gun control? Do you think the evidence and reason support your side of the debate? How do you know you're right? David and Tamler discuss a recent paper by Dan Kahan and colleagues showing how prone people are to make errors in processing information to favor positions they are predisposed to believe. And even more shocking: the higher your numeracy skills, the more prone you are to fall prey to this bias. So how do we correct for this? Can we know anything at all with any confidence? Could it be that 'Are You There God? It's Me Margaret' in not in fact a completely accurate depiction of how young girls think about puberty? Plus, we decide whether to join Neil deGrasse Tyson as a citizen of Rationalia. To paraphrase Mr. T, I pity the newscasters! Links Reflections on Rationalia by Neal deGrasse Tyson [facebook.com] Vulcan learning pods from Star Trek (2009). [youtube.org] Kahan, D. M., Peters, E., Dawson, E. C., & Slovic, P. (2013). Motivated numeracy and enlightened self-government. Yale Law School, Public Law Working Paper, (307). [uoregon.edu] Ditto, P. H., & Lopez, D. F. (1992). Motivated skepticism: Use of differential decision criteria for preferred and nonpreferred conclusions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63(4), 568. [phi.org] Support Very Bad Wizards

So where are you? You're in some house. What am I listening to? Sounds like the radio. Is it the radio? No, you're not allowed to use that language on the radio. What are they talking about? A movie, it's called "Memento." Have I seen that? I think so, yeah. Who are these people? Hey I recognize that voice, that's Paul Bloom! I took his Coursera course before the accident, it was awesome! What's he doing talking to these guys? One of them sounds like he has a tampon down his throat. Hey wait, this is starting to get interesting. Personal identity, the search for purpose. All right, let's settle in... So where are you? You're in some house. What am I listening to? Sounds like the radio... Links Paul Bloom [campuspress.yale.edu] Memento [imdb.com] Christopher Nolan [imdb.com] Everything you wanted to know about "Memento" by Andy Klein [salon.com] Kania, A. (Ed.). (2009). Memento (Philosophers on Film Series). Routledge. [amazon.com affiliate link] Clive Wearing: Man without a memory [youtube.com] Patient H.M. (Henry Molaison) [wikipedia.org] Christina Starmans [christinastarmans.com] Special Guest: Paul Bloom. Support Very Bad Wizards

Hello friend, did you come from the Berenstein with an 'E' universe? Or have you lived in the Berenstain with an 'A' universe? David and Tamler try to make sense of what's going on in Season 2 of Mr. Robot (Ep.1-5). You're gonna want to dig through your vomit for adderall for this one. Links The Berenstain Bears [wikipedia.org] The Berenstein Bears: We Are Living in Our Own Parallel Universe [woodbetween.world] On the Berenstein Bears Switcheroo [woodbetween.world] Support Very Bad Wizards

The hosts discuss the concept of repugnance and its relation to their podcast, explore the reasons behind the success of Trump's campaign, talk about their struggle with distractions and a new app to prevent procrastination, delve into the association between human cloning, disgust, and moral judgment, explore the role of repugnance in ethical and moral decisions, discuss the nature of disgust and its influence on emotions and beliefs, and explore cultural differences in psychological research.