Episode 293: Who Is the Dreamer? (Borges' "The Circular Ruins")
Very Bad Wizards24 Syys 2024

Episode 293: Who Is the Dreamer? (Borges' "The Circular Ruins")

David and Tamler crawl up a riverbank, kiss the mud, and dream a discussion of Borges' "The Circular Ruins." We sort through various interpretations and allusions, the story as a metaphor for artistic creation, gnostic cosmology, solipsism, eternal recursion, and the unstable boundary between reality and illusion. How does Borges fit all of this and much more in a 5 page story?

Plus, Scientific American endorses Kamala Harris – is that a big deal? We look at a study purporting to show that Nature's Biden endorsement eroded trust in science among Trump supporters.

Political endorsement by Nature and trust in scientific expertise during COVID-19 [nature.com]

The Circular Ruins by Jorge Luis Borges [wikipedia.org]

Jaksot(334)

Episode 313: The Spontaneous Eruption of Now

Episode 313: The Spontaneous Eruption of Now

David and Tamler try to wrap their heads around the metaphysics of past and future via the Borges essay(s) "A New Refutation of Time." What does it mean to be a time skeptic or a time realist for that...

29 Heinä 20251h 15min

Episode 312: MechaSkeptic

Episode 312: MechaSkeptic

David and Tamler return to David Hume's somewhat slippery brand of skepticism, this time focusing Chapter 12 of his Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Plus speaking of things to be skeptical abou...

15 Heinä 20251h 16min

Episode 311: The Way to Dusty Death (Shakespeare's "Macbeth")

Episode 311: The Way to Dusty Death (Shakespeare's "Macbeth")

David and Tamler screw their courage to the sticking place and talk about their first Shakespeare play – The Tragedy of Macbeth. Plus we select 16 topics for our first VBW topic tournament suggested a...

1 Heinä 20251h 26min

Episode 310: Bayes, Brains, and Buddhists

Episode 310: Bayes, Brains, and Buddhists

David and Tamler try to wrap their heads around the predictive processing theory of the mind and brain function and talk about a paper that applies the framework to meditation practices. But first a n...

10 Kesä 20251h 14min

Episode 309: Dissolving Into the One

Episode 309: Dissolving Into the One

David and Tamler heed the call to journey into the realm of Joseph Campbell. What are the unifying elements shared by myths and religions across time and culture? Does myth give us a portal into the h...

27 Touko 20251h 23min

Bonus Episode: Va Va Boom (Robert Aldrich's "Kiss Me Deadly")

Bonus Episode: Va Va Boom (Robert Aldrich's "Kiss Me Deadly")

We kick off our Bonus "Noir Summer" series with Robert Aldrich's "Kiss Me Deadly" (1956). While the rest of the bonus series will be for Patreon subscribers only, the first is free to all.

20 Touko 20251h 14min

Episode 308: The Gray Man who Dreamed (Borges' "Shakespeare's Memory")

Episode 308: The Gray Man who Dreamed (Borges' "Shakespeare's Memory")

David and Tamler return to their happy place and talk about two pieces by JL Borges – the story "Shakespeare's Memory" and the [essay/story/poem/literary sketch??] "Everything and Nothing." What woul...

6 Touko 20251h 14min

Episode 307: What's in the BOX?

Episode 307: What's in the BOX?

David and Tamler talk about two famous puzzles that for different reasons have bedeviled the rationalist community – The Monty Hall Problem and Newcomb's "paradox." Why is it so hard for people to see...

22 Huhti 20251h 16min

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