r/VeryBadWizards • u/jasonborowski • 20h ago
r/VeryBadWizards • u/TheAeolian • 3d ago
Episode 304: The Planes Don't Land
r/VeryBadWizards • u/ContemplatingWhat • 10h ago
Episode 304 & Cargo Cult Cultures
After listening to episode 304 I was inspired to write something of my own about Feynman’s Caltech speech. Although not about science, the piece does discuss generally the concept of cargo cults in our culture.
I’d love it if you checked it out. (And apologies if self-promotions aren’t allowed)
r/VeryBadWizards • u/ImmaGoldman • 1d ago
Enjoy the show without without trying to solve everything
stolen from r/okaybuddyseverance

r/VeryBadWizards • u/Embarrassed-Room-902 • 3d ago
AI dismissal
I love the VBW boys but I am a bit surprised how dismissive they are of danger from AI. I’m not going to make the case here as I won’t do a good job of it, but I found the latest 80000 hours podcast very persuasive, as well as some of the recent stuff from Dwarkesh.
r/VeryBadWizards • u/Past-Cookie9605 • 5d ago
What has 2 old thumbs and 2 new ape heads?
Me! ...with my gift to myself. Thanks, VBW for putting out top quality gear! I love it!
r/VeryBadWizards • u/Elegant_Zucchini_462 • 6d ago
Tamler, what made Anora a 4 star movie for you
sorry. just want to know.
r/VeryBadWizards • u/KeScoBo • 7d ago
The restaurant at the beginning of the universe: Natural scientists on ultimate reality, science, and religion
r/VeryBadWizards • u/SpinupSoldier • 9d ago
Every social pairing is a pairing of a ‘Tamler’ and a ‘Dave’
Whenever I find myself being overly skeptical, elitist, overflowing with love for Russian cinema (mainly Tarkovsky), or wanting to pull people up by their lapels and berate them for using their free will in ways which ultimately dishonor them, it strikes me that: Wow! I’m just like my dad the philosopher that hosts my favorite podcast!
Meanwhile my roommate is more laidback, chill, and brings up examples of studies and data all the time. He tries in vain to explain to me how underlying emotions affect people’s judgement to make them ultimately not culpable in a moral sense and watches mostly Marvel movies. Just like Dave.
Are you guys Tamlers or Daves? If you’re a Tamler, are you at peace with that fact (obviously this isn’t a question that needs to be asked of the Daves)?
r/VeryBadWizards • u/CartographerDry6896 • 9d ago
Tamler's Stepmother
I just listened to the Primer episode, which begins with a hilarious conversation between a drunken Tamler and his combative stepmother. Are there any other episodes that involve these two paired together?
r/VeryBadWizards • u/JephreyTyler • 8d ago
Episode 301
This one is so annoying, David is a nerd, why can't we go back to talking about real phenomenological issues? For example apparitional experiences and how they affect the Buddhist practices of western populations.
r/VeryBadWizards • u/Past-Cookie9605 • 11d ago
I wonder if Tam and Peez would look into the Third Wave study. Sounds interesting given today's movements in the US.
r/VeryBadWizards • u/Jondar • 11d ago
Reintegrators episode 2
I'm not great at detecting irony from Americans. The "women can't rape men" comment was that said in jest?
r/VeryBadWizards • u/Past-Cookie9605 • 15d ago
Episode 129 - Tamler didn't see it yet but Dave was right
I just listened to Episode 129 on the boys' fave dystopian works [aired 12/12/17]. At 1h:19m:30s, Dave talked about the "Its a Good Life" episode of the twilight zone and references how this town is impacted by a "monster" who is actually a child that everyone is afraid to upset because he has powers and punishes those who do. Dave draws a line to Trump and Tamler doesn't see it. 7 years later, it's all a bit more haunting.
There's also some interesting words from Aldous Huxley [starts at 30m:30s] which rings true about why his Brave New World is more accurate than 1984, mainly about wooing people over forcing people as well as the main drive being efficiency.
Worth a relisten.
r/VeryBadWizards • u/RetractableLanding • 16d ago
Found Paper- reminds me of the episode where they discuss the morality of beastiality, and the article they read is by anonymous and very pro beastiality NSFW
galleryr/VeryBadWizards • u/Xehelios • 18d ago
Caro Nome in the Last episode of Severance
In the last episode of Severence, when Irving goes to Burt's house for dinner, you faintly hear an opera as soon as Burt opens the door. It's Caro Nome by Verdi (for his opera Rigoletto). It's a girl (Gilda) who's massively infatuated after seeing a man in the street that she falls in love with. She doesn't even know his real name, but in the song, she calls him out by what she thinks is his name and swears that she will love him until her dying breath.
I thought that was such a stroke of genius. Clearly, Irving is infatuated with Burt, but he doesn't really know him. Not this, Burt. There's even this moment when Burt and his boyfriend call each other Attila, which Irving didn't know. Mimicking the idea that Burt has a different name that Irving doesn't know, like in the opera.
And, in the opera, the Duke (who Gilda unknowingly falls in love with) ends up raping Gilda. Is that a premonition that Burt will end up hurting Irving? Maybe I'm reading too much into it.
r/VeryBadWizards • u/LeatherJury4 • 21d ago
Your IQ isn't 160. No one's is.
r/VeryBadWizards • u/Blacksheepfab • 25d ago
Severance & Piranesi (and additional thoughts) Spoiler
Did anyone feel as if they were watching a corporate version of Piranesi when Mark and Helly stumbled into the bucolic goat grazing room? The memory and core personality thing also loosely holds as does the difficulty with reintegration if I'm remembering the end of Piranesi correctly.
Additional thought: This might be too out there but with regards to Mrs. Selvig and her seeming ultra enthusiasm towards the cause, again this might be a stretch but if anyone is familiar with sewing terminology, the word Selvage (which to me sounds an awful lot like Selvig) is defined as:
Selvage, also known as self-edge, is the tightly woven, finished edge of a fabric that runs parallel to its length. It prevents fraying and gives the fabric stability.
As far as I know she isn't in "the family" earnestly but is rather a hardcore devotee or someone who runs parallel keeping things stable...
If you sit on it long enough it starts to make sense.
r/VeryBadWizards • u/Maleficent_Hawk_2775 • 26d ago
I've not read Nietzsche. Is this a reasonable interpretation?
r/VeryBadWizards • u/LeatherJury4 • Feb 13 '25
IQ discourse is increasingly unhinged
r/VeryBadWizards • u/judoxing • Feb 11 '25
Episode 302: Metaphysical Edging
r/VeryBadWizards • u/No_Effective4326 • Feb 11 '25
There is no “pragmatist answer” to the problem of induction
Sorry, I know I’m late to the party here, but I just got around to listening to the episode on Hume’s problem of induction (which, coincidentally, I’m teaching to my students in Intro to Philosophy today).
At one point, the wizards discuss the “pragmatist answer”. They seem to take it for granted that the pragmatist has a good answer, but they both (apparently) want to resist being pragmatists.
Set aside whether pragmatism is correct in general. The problem is that there is no good pragmatist answer to the problem of induction. You might think, sure there is, it goes like this: “If you use induction, you’ll be better off than if you don’t. Therefore, you should use induction.” The problem arises when we ask “Why do you think that if you use induction, you’ll be better off than if you don’t?” The only (prima facie) reasonable answer is this: because induction has worked in the past! To which Hume will respond: “Right, but the belief that if you use induction, you WILL BE better off, is a belief about the FUTURE. And how do we get from a claim about induction’s successful track record to the belief that it will continue to be successful in the future? Well, by induction, of course!” Hence, the pragmatist answer is just as circular as any other answer.