Very Bad Wizards
Episodes
Episode 33: Monkeys, Smurfs, and Human Conformity (With Laurie Santos)
14 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Special guest Laurie Santos (Psychology, Yale) joins us to talk about what animal cognition can tell us about human nature. Why are other primates bet...
Episode 32: Disagreeing About Disagreement
30 Sep 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Part II of our discussion on Rai and Fiske (sort of): We answer a listener's email and in the process get into an episode long argument about moral ...
Episode 31: An Anthropologist's Guide to Moral Psychology (Pt. 1)
16 Sep 2013
Contributed by Lukas
In the first of a two-part episode, we discuss one of our favorite recent papers--Tage Rai and Alan Page Fiske's 2011 paper on how social relationship...
Episode 30: The Greatest Books Ever Written
02 Sep 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Dave and Tamler celebrate their one year anniversary and 30th episode with one of their least cynical episodes yet. They talk about 5 philosophy/psy...
Episode 29: PEDs, Tenure Pills, and "Hyberbolic Chambers"
19 Aug 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Dave and Tamler try to artificially bulk up their expertise on the ethics of performance enhancing drugs and end up raising a lot more questions than ...
Episode 28: Moral Persuasion
05 Aug 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Dave and Tamler try their best to do a show without guests--we talk about moral persuasion, motivated reasoning, and whether it's legitimate to use em...
Episode 27: You, Your Self, and Your Brain (With Eddy Nahmias)
22 Jul 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Our streak of very special guests continues! Philosopher Eddy Nahmias joins the podcast to us why people mistakenly think they're not morally respon...
Episode 26: Evolution and Sexual Perversion (with Jesse Bering)
08 Jul 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Psychologist and author Jesse Bering joins us to talk about evolutionary psychology and his forthcoming book Perv. In the relatively uncontroversi...
Episode 25: Burning Armchairs (with Joshua Knobe)
24 Jun 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Josh Knobe, the Michael Corleone of experimental philosophy, joins us to talk about taking philosophy into the lab and the streets. We discuss how...
Episode 24: The Perils of Empathy (with Paul Bloom)
10 Jun 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Paul Bloom joins us in the second segment for a lively discussion about the value of empathy as a guide our moral decisions. And in our first scoo...
Episode 23: Straw Dogs (with Yoel Inbar)
27 May 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Dave, Tamler, and special guest Yoel Inbar break down Sam Peckinpah's brilliant (at least according to one of us) 1971 film Straw Dogs. They t...
Episode 22: An Enquiry Concerning Slurs and Offensiveness
12 May 2013
Contributed by Lukas
In what might very well be the last episode before we're pulled off the air, Tamler outlines his data-free "theory" of what makes something offensive....
Episode 21: Grad School
06 May 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Dave and Tamler shrug off inside baseball concerns and argue whether to go to grad school, what to do when you get there, and share horror stories abo...
Episode 20: Boston, Brains, and Bad Pronunciation (with Molly Crockett)
21 Apr 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Dave and Tamler begin with a brief, heartfelt discussion about the Boston Bombings. Tamler talks about why Patriots' Day and the Boston Marathon mea...
Episode 19: The Burning Bridges Episode (Pt. 2)
06 Apr 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Re-recording a not-so-tragically lost episode (it kinda sucked), Dave and Tamler talk about the things they hate most about philosophy and psychology....
Episode 18: "Boy If Life Were Only Like This" (With Joe Henrich)
22 Mar 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Joe Henrich joins the podcast to tell us that we know nothing about his work and that how we got to teach a class in anything is absolutely amazing. ...
Episode 17: Learning about Bushmen by Studying Freshmen?
16 Mar 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Thousands of studies in psychology rely on data from North American undergraduates. Can we really conclude anything about the "human" mind from such a...
Episode 16: Race, Reparations, and American (In)Justice (with Damani McDole)
02 Mar 2013
Contributed by Lukas
For those who thought our most uncomfortable topics were behind us, on this episode we are joined by David's childhood friend Damani McDole [faceboo...
Episode 15: The Burning Bridges Episode (Pt. 1)
16 Feb 2013
Contributed by Lukas
You don't need to be a psychologist or a philosopher to enjoy a good, old-fashioned bitch-fest. In the first of a two-part episode (no single compact ...
Episode 14: Bonus Episode on Snitches, Tattletales, and Whistleblowers
08 Feb 2013
Contributed by Lukas
In a break from tradition, we recorded a 25-minute episode on the morality of tattletaling, snitching, ratting, and whistleblowing. We discuss why the...
Episode 13: Beanballs, Blood Feuds, and Collective Moral Responsibility (With Fiery Cushman)
22 Jan 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Our classiest episode yet (OK, that's not saying much, but still...)--Psychologist Fiery Cushman joins us for a discussion about collective punishment...
Episode 12: Justice for #!$@ ?
14 Jan 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Dave and Tamler square off the role of the victim in criminal punishment and find little to agree about. Tamler defends the restorative justice appr...
Episode 11: It is Morally Wrong to Kill Morgan Freeman (with Yoel Inbar)
28 Dec 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Social psychologist Yoel Inbar joins Tamler and David to discuss Clint Eastwood's masterpiece of the Western genre, "Unforgiven." The discussion inclu...
Episode 10: Religion, Meaning, and Morality
11 Dec 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Does life have meaning if there is no God? Why should I be a good person if there's no reward or punishment waiting for me in the afterlife? Why does ...
Episode 9: Social Psychology, Situationism, and Moral Character
03 Dec 2012
Contributed by Lukas
After discussing some listener feedback about the movie Swingers, Tamler and David talk about two classic experiments in social psychology: the Milgra...
Episode 8: Dishonesty, Character, and Dan Ariely
12 Nov 2012
Contributed by Lukas
In a Very Special Episode of Very Bad Wizards, Dan Ariely joins David to chat about cheating, character, teling your significant other about kissing s...
Episode 7: Psychopaths and Utilitarians Pt. 2 (Now with more poo poo)
04 Nov 2012
Contributed by Lukas
After a clip from The Third Man, Dave and Tamler continue their discussion from Episode 6 on Ted Bundy, utilitarians, and trolley problems. They also ...
Episode 6: Trolleys, Utilitarians, and Psychopaths (Part 1)
20 Oct 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Tamler contemplates ending it all because he can't get 'Call Me Maybe' out of his head, and Dave doesn't try to talk him out of it. This is followed b...
Episode 5: Revenge, Pt. 2: The Revenge
08 Oct 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Dave and Tamler continue their discussion about their favorite topic. They talk about the evolutionary origins of retributive behavior, cross-cultur...
Episode 4: Revenge, Pt. 1
20 Sep 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Dave allows Tamler to rant about Sam Harris's strawman attacks on moral relativism before launching into discussion about revenge, justice, True Grit,...
Episode 3: "We believe in nothing!" (Cultural diversity, relativism, and moral truth)
08 Sep 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Tamler and Dave discuss recent work in philosophy and psychology about the differences in moral values and practices across cultures. We talk about th...
Episode 2: The "Dangerous Truth" about Free Will (Free Will and Morality, Pt. 2)
01 Sep 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Tamler and David discuss whether giving up our belief in free will makes us more likely to abandon our moral standards. Links "You Can't Handle the ...
Episode 1: Brains, Robots, and Free Will (Free Will and Morality Pt. 1)
30 Aug 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Dave and Tamler start out talking about the new wave of skepticism about free will and moral responsibility in the popular press from people like Sam ...