Very Bad Wizards9 Mai 2023

Episode 260: The Scream That Never Found a Voice (Murakami's "Sleep")

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 of a dentist and mother of a young boy, has a terrifying dream and when she wakes up, she no longer needs to sleep. This isn't insomnia, it's something else – she has never felt so alive, strong, and awake. She can swim laps for an hour in the afternoon and read Anna Karenina with perfect concentration until dawn. What is this condition? Is it real? What does it tell us about her past, her sense of self, her alienation from friends, family, and her role? This is a banger of a story folks, check it out.

Plus - if you had to say one word or sentence to distinguish yourself from an AI, what would you say?

Episoder(346)

The Lotus Eaters Episode 3: The Halfway House to Humanity [unlocked]

Tamler and David discuss books 5 & 6 of The Odyssey, where we follow Odysseus as he finally leaves Calypso's Island and returns to the realm of the human. We also finally pick a name for the podcast. ...

13 Aug 41min

The Lotus Eaters Episode 2: Intangible as Wind [unlocked]

Welcome to The Lotus Eaters! This is part 2 of our 12 part series on Homer's Odyssey that will be released every Thursday. The series was supported by our Patreon community, but we are now making it a...

6 Aug 54min

The Lotus Eaters Episode 1: The Journey Begins [unlocked]

Welcome to The Lotus Eaters! This is part 1 of our 12 part series on Homer's Odyssey that will be released every Thursday. The series was supported by our Patreon community, but we are now making it a...

6 Aug 1h

Episode 338: The Lotus Eaters (Nolan's "The Odyssey")

Dropping this a week early - after completing a 12-part series on Homer's Odyssey for our beloved Patreon supporters, we now dive into Christopher Nolan's version of this epic tale. We're mixed on the...

4 Aug 1h 1min

Episode 337: First Contact? (Tarkovsky's "Solaris")

First it was a book, then it was a groundbreaking movie… that's right it's Solaris. After having discussed the Stanislaw Lem novel in the previous episode, David and Tamler try to make contact with An...

28 Jul 1h 45min

Episode 336: That Oceanic Feeling (Stanisław Lem's "Solaris")

David and Tamler tackle the first half of the VBW Madness topic tournament winner, Stanislaw Lem's science fiction masterpiece, Solaris, about a mysterious ocean planet that resists all attempts to un...

14 Jul 1h 35min

Episode 335: The Wright Stuff

The great Robert Wright returns to the podcast to talk about his new book The God Test: Artificial Intelligence and Our Coming Cosmic Reckoning. We debate the magnitude of AI's potential impact, the n...

30 Jun 1h 30min

Episode 334: Let's Get Metaphysical

What are the legitimate ways to inquire about the nature of the universe? We have science, metaphysics, phenomenological inquiry, but what about mystical and meditative practices? David and Tamler tal...

16 Jun 1h 20min