Podcast Episodes

Episode 268: Blood Meridian, Part 1

In part one of our two-part episode on Cormac McCarthy's blood-soaked phantasmagorical 1985 masterpiece Blood Meridian, David and Tamler talk about t…

2 years, 10 months ago

View Episode

Episode 267: The Thickness of Reality

David and Tamler return to the work of old favorite William James and argue about the 6th lecture (inspired by the French philosopher Henri Bergson) …

2 years, 11 months ago

View Episode

Episode 266: I Want to Half-Believe

Last December, with Argentina minutes away from a World Cup championship, friend of the show Yoel texted David "congratulations." David was furious, …

2 years, 11 months ago

View Episode

Episode 265: Kekulé (Oh Yeah!)

Episode 265

The Summer of Cormac McCarthy continues – this time we dive into his one piece of non-fiction, the short essay "The Kekulé Problem." How does our unc…

3 years ago

View Episode

[BONUS] Overton Windows Episode 1: Israel and Palestine

A new mini-series with Tamler Sommers and Robert Wright on the range of politically acceptable discourse for a given topic and how this "Overton wind…

3 years ago

View Episode

Episode 264: The Rule You Follow (The Coen Brothers' "No Country for Old Men")

David and Tamler dive into the Coen brothers' bleak and beautiful adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's 2005 novel "No Country for Old Men." What's the und…

3 years ago

View Episode

Episode 263: Free Yoel

A VBW exclusive report! For years David and Tamler have been a little dismissive of fears about cancel culture in academia but now the SJWs have come…

3 years, 1 month ago

View Episode

Episode 262: Supposing Truth is a Woman (Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil")

Episode 262

David and Tamler dive into the first two parts of Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil which contain some of Nietzsche's best drive-bys on philosophers l…

3 years, 1 month ago

View Episode

Episode 261: Death of the Author

Episode 261

What's the meaning of a work of art? Does the text mean just what the author intends it to mean? Does it matter what Kubrick and Arthur C. Clark thin…

3 years, 1 month ago

View Episode

The Scream That Never Found a Voice (Murakami's "Sleep")

Episode 260

David and Tamler take the first excursion into the work of Haruki Murakami and talk about his short story "Sleep." A thirty-year-old woman, the wife …

3 years, 2 months ago

View Episode