Very Bad Wizards18 Okt 2022

Episode 247: Open the Pod, Dave (with Sam Harris)

We welcome Sam Harris back to the show for a deep dive into Stanley Kubrick's confounding 1968 masterpiece "2001: A Space Odyssey." How long is the Dawn of Man? What does the second monolith do exactly? Why are the humans so banal and expressionless? What are HAL'S motivations? Has he planned his mutiny from the start, or does the Council's deception make him manlfunction? Or something else? Who is the Council anyway? Was HAL meant to go through the stargate? What is the final leap forward in consciousness? The hotel room, the starchild, all the rectangles, rectangles everywhere, the music – what does it all mean????

Plus Sam has some thoughts about our Rorty episode and David tries to rile Tamler up about Kanye's antisemitism.

note: there's a bit of an abrupt transition between our brief opening and Sam telling a story about Rorty in around the 9 minute mark... couldn't be helped.

Special Guest: Sam Harris.

Episoder(358)

The Lotus Eaters Episode 11: Cleaning House

Tamler and David discuss books 20, 21, & 22 of The Odyssey. Beginning with omens and portents and ending with merciless slaughter (with a bow contest in between), we finally see Odysseus' plans for re...

8 Okt 1h 6min

Episode 342: A Boy's Best Friend (Hitchcock's "Psycho")

David and Tamler steal some of Laurie Santos' podcast money (she'll never miss it), drive to LA, and pull over in the rain to spend the night in the Bates Motel. That lanky young man in the office see...

6 Okt 1h 53min

The Lotus Eaters Episode 10: Like-Minded [unlocked]

Tamler and Dave devote a full episode to Book 19 of The Odyssey. In what is one of the most emotionally intense chapters of the story so far, Odysseus continues his Cretan lies, has a long tête-à-tête...

1 Okt 1h 3min

The Lotus Eaters Episode 9: An Ode to Argos [unlocked]

Tamler and David discuss The Odyssey books 17 & 18, in which Telemachus and Odysseus, back at home, continue their deception and put everyone to the test. Everyone except for Argos, that is, because A...

24 Sep 49min

Episode 341: Psychology Ranked (With Paul Bloom)

David and Tamler welcome Paul Bloom back to the show for a definitive ranking of classic psychology experiments. Will the shocking results of the Milgram studies earn him a posthumous 'S' ranking? How...

22 Sep 1h 37min

The Lotus Eaters Episode 8: Home and Homelessness [unlocked]

In this episode, Tamler and David discuss The Odyssey Books 15 & 16, in which father and son (and father figure and son) are reunited, and in which the Odysseus and Telemachus start planning their rev...

17 Sep 1h 2min

The Lotus Eaters Episode 7: Lying Odysseus [unlocked]

Tamler and David discuss Books 13 & 14 of The Odyssey. Odysseus finally makes it to Ithaca and meets up with Athena, gets a disguise, and has a chat with his most loyal slave Eumaeus.

10 Sep 55min

Episode 340: The Sublime Folly of Hope

Why do baseball players have so many superstitious rituals compared to athletes in other sports? How does this relate to the magic rituals of the Trobriand Islanders of Melanesia? We dive into Bronisł...

8 Sep 1h 15min