Episode 137: Are Buddhists Afraid to Die? (with Shaun Nichols)
Very Bad Wizards10 Apr 2018

Episode 137: Are Buddhists Afraid to Die? (with Shaun Nichols)

Why are we always attracted to people who mock us, resist our advances, and play hard to get? Maybe because it's extra satisfying when you finally get them to… appear on your podcast. In our first live episode (recorded in San Antonio), the philosopher Shaun Nichols joins us to discuss his recent article "Death and the Self". You might think that Buddhist conceptions of the self as illusory would reduce their fear of death (after all, if there's no real self, why worry about it ceasing to exist?). But the evidence collected by Shaun and colleagues suggests exactly the opposite. Why would that be?

Plus, David and Tamler choose six finalists for the Patreon listener selected episode (did Jordan Peterson make the list?), and we announce a special bonus for people who pre-order Tamler's forthcoming book "Why Honor Matters."

Special Guest: Shaun Nichols.

Sponsored By:

  • RXBAR Promo Code: badwizards

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Episoder(335)

Episode 322: A Theater of Simultaneous Possibilities (William James' "The Stream of Thought")

Episode 322: A Theater of Simultaneous Possibilities (William James' "The Stream of Thought")

David and Tamler return to William James' monumental "Principles of Psychology", this time wading through his famous chapter "The Stream of Thought." We talk about his rejection of empiricist theories...

9 Des 20251h 21min

Episode 321: The Journey Begins (Plus Blind Ranking Philosophers)

Episode 321: The Journey Begins (Plus Blind Ranking Philosophers)

David and Tamler begin their long journey home to Homer's Odyssey, the tale of king Odysseus' 10 year journey home after the Trojan war (maybe the greatest story ever told). We dive into the first two...

25 Nov 20251h 29min

Episode 320: Forgive Me (Kafka's "A Hunger Artist")

Episode 320: Forgive Me (Kafka's "A Hunger Artist")

David and Tamler return to one of their favorites, Frans Kafka, this time on his beautiful and distressing short story "The Hunger Artist," a story that brims with metaphorical possibilities but also ...

11 Nov 20251h 29min

Episode 319: The Shadow of the Object (Freud's "Mourning and Melancholia")

Episode 319: The Shadow of the Object (Freud's "Mourning and Melancholia")

David and Tamler transfer their libidinal energy to Freud's 1917 article "Mourning and Melancholia," in which he tries to understand what's going on with depression, attempts to distinguish it from no...

28 Okt 20251h 35min

Episode 318: A PTA Meeting

Episode 318: A PTA Meeting

David and Tamler share some brief thoughts about Paul Thomas Anderson's latest masterpiece One Battle After Another before going deep on his most underrated movie Inherent Vice. We explore the many co...

14 Okt 20251h 48min

Episode 317: For Shame

Episode 317: For Shame

What is the psychology of shame? Is the experience of shame a human universal? How can we investigate the nature of shame across cultures? David and Tamler dive into Richard Shweder's "Towards a Deep ...

30 Sep 20251h 23min

Episode 316: A Four-Letter Man (Hemingway's "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber")

Episode 316: A Four-Letter Man (Hemingway's "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber")

David and Tamler go big game hunting and explore their first Hemingway short story "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber." We dig into his characteristic themes of courage, cowardice, shifting pow...

16 Sep 20251h 33min

Episode 315: Ceaseless Striving (Schopenhauer's Pessimism)

Episode 315: Ceaseless Striving (Schopenhauer's Pessimism)

David and Tamler tackle the topic chosen by our beloved Patreon supporters in the first VBW madness tournament – Schopenhauer. We discuss his essays "On the Sufferings of the World" and "The Vanity of...

2 Sep 20251h 30min

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