Episode 300: If We Only Had A Brain
Very Bad Wizards14 Jan 2025

Episode 300: If We Only Had A Brain

David and Tamler celebrate their 300th episode with a deep dive into the movie that inspired the podcast's title. Why is "The Wizard of Oz" the most influential American movie of all time? How does it dig deep into our collective psyches? What makes the effects so timeless and effective? And what's the actual moral of the story? Plus we crawl up our own asses and talk about what we're proud of from last year, excited for in 2025, and the ways the podcast has changed since episode 1.

The Wizard of Oz (1939)[wikipedia.org]

Roger Ebert's review of The Wizard of Oz [rogerebert.com]

The Wizard of Oz as allegory for atheism [forgetfulfilmcritic.com]

Technicolor [wikipedia.org]

A Very Bad Wizard: Morality Behind the Curtain by Tamler Sommers [amazon.com affiliate link]

Break Music [soundcloud.com]

Episoder(335)

Episode 314: The In-Betweeny Place

Episode 314: The In-Betweeny Place

David and Tamler go long on McDonagh's 2008 masterpiece "In Bruges." We talk about the terrific performances and all the weighty themes - sin, guilt, redemption, honor, language, and very inappropriat...

12 Aug 20251h 58min

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 Jul 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 Jul 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 Jul 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 Jun 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 Mai 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 Mai 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 Mai 20251h 14min

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