Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchIdeal Critics (Hume's "Of the Standard of Taste")
Episode 231
Many of us think that art is subjective, but at the same time it seems like some artistic judgments are better than others. Do you think Crash deserv…
4 years ago
Be Happy (Lars von Trier's "Melancholia")
Episode 230
David and Tamler sink deeper and deeper into Melancholia, Lars von Trier's harrowing and stunningly beautiful depiction of depression, anxiety, and a…
4 years, 1 month ago
Skin Deep?
Episode 229
We think racism is wrong but what about "lookism" – a bias that favors attractive people over unattractive ones? If it's wrong to judge people by the…
4 years, 1 month ago
Forever Jung
Episode 228
David and Tamler confront their shadows and dive into Carl Jung's theory of the collective unconscious. What are the central differences between Jung…
4 years, 2 months ago
A Terrible Master (David Foster Wallace's "This Is Water").
Episode 227
David and Tamler dive into David Foster Wallace's celebrated and surprisingly earnest Kenyon College commencement speech "This is Water". How can we …
4 years, 2 months ago
Unraveling Time Traveling (with Barry Lam and Christina Hoff Sommers)
Episode 226
First, it's the return of the annual drunken Thanksgiving segment! Tamler and based wicked stepmom Christina Hoff Sommers fight about JFK, systematic…
4 years, 3 months ago
Forbidden Modules
Episode 225
David and Tamler talk about the often rancorous debate among cognitive scientists and evolutionary psychologists over whether the mind is modular -- …
4 years, 4 months ago
Hurts So Good (With Paul Bloom)
Episode 224
VBW favorite Paul Bloom joins us to talk about the pleasures of suffering, flow states, Sisyphus, meaning, and dating questions. Check out his new bo…
4 years, 4 months ago
The Hopeless Dream of Being (Bergman's "Persona")
Episode 223
David and Tamler dive into Ingmar Bergman's 1966 masterpiece Persona, a film about two (?) women, Elisabet, a famous stage actress who has stopped sp…
4 years, 4 months ago
Choosing Sartre for All Mankind
Episode 222
David and Tamler don black turtlenecks and light up a couple of Gauloises to talk about Jean Paul Sartre's classic essay "Existentialism is a Humanis…
4 years, 5 months ago