Episode 181: The Fraudulence Paradox (David Foster Wallace's "Good Old Neon")
Very Bad Wizards28 Jan 2020

Episode 181: The Fraudulence Paradox (David Foster Wallace's "Good Old Neon")

Our whole lives we've been frauds. We're not exaggerating. Pretty much all we've ever done is try to create a certain impression of us in other people. Mostly to be liked or admired. This episode is a perfect example, Tamler pretending to be a cinephile (check out his four favorite pieces of 2019 "pop culture" in the first segment), David trying to connect with the people (Baby Yoda, Keanu Reeves etc.) – and of course what could be more fraudulent than a deep dive into a David Foster Wallace story, rhapsodizing over the endless sentences, the logical paradoxes, the seven-layer bean-dip of metacommentary (Jesus Christ I'm surprised there aren't like eight footnotes in this episode description), and meanwhile the Partially Examined Life dudes refresh their overcast feeds and wonder through the tiny keyhole of themselves how David and Tamler have sunk so low that they'd ramble on about "Good Old Neon" like a couple of first year Comp-Lit grad students trying to impress that girl who works at the Cajun bakery.

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Episode 329: Why We Suffer

Episode 329: Why We Suffer

David and Tamler return to the work of Richard Shweder and colleagues, focusing this time on his foundational paper "The "Big Three" of Morality (Autonomy, Community, Divinity) and the "Big Three" Exp...

31 Mars 1h 20min

Episode 328: Weapons Free

Episode 328: Weapons Free

David and Tamler cross the border into Denis Villeneuve's taut and propulsive thriller Sicario, the story of an FBI agent who gets pulled into a task force drawn from the shadiest elements of the US g...

17 Mars 1h 42min

Episode 327: You Ain't So Smart (Flannery O'Connor's "Good Country People")

Episode 327: You Ain't So Smart (Flannery O'Connor's "Good Country People")

David and Tamler return to the Southern Gothic well and talk about Flannery O'Connor's short story masterpiece "Good Country People." A nihilistic atheist philosophy PhD named Joy or Helga (depending ...

24 Feb 1h 32min

Episode 326: The Most Important Episode of Your (Academic) Life

Episode 326: The Most Important Episode of Your (Academic) Life

Are you a college student or about to be one? Do you have friends or family in college? This is the most important episode of your life. David and Tamler do something a little different this episode a...

10 Feb 59min

Episode 325: It Is Happening Again

Episode 325: It Is Happening Again

David and Tamler return to Mircea Eliade's The Sacred and Profane and discuss the chapter "Sacred Time and Myths." How does viewing time as circular give us a periodic window into the sacred? What doe...

27 Jan 1h 12min

Episode 324: Irruption of the Sacred

Episode 324: Irruption of the Sacred

David and Tamler consecrate their podcast with a discussion of "The Sacred and the Profane" by Mircea Eliade. We focus on the first chapter on sacred spaces, where the divine breaks through (or irrupt...

13 Jan 1h 7min

Episode 323: Debate Me 'Phro

Episode 323: Debate Me 'Phro

David and Tamler dive into Plato's Euthyphro, part of our intermittent Back 2 Basics series. A young cocksure priest, confident in his holiness, bumps into Socrates on his way to court to prosecute hi...

23 Dec 20251h 8min

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 Dec 20251h 21min

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