Episode 303: Measure This
Everyone knows Tamler hates numbers but he's not the only one who worries about them. We talk about the philosopher C. Thi Nguyen's excellent paper "Value Capture" which examines how the ever-increasi...
25 Feb 20251h 26min
Episode 302: Metaphysical Edging
What makes something weird? What makes something eerie? David and Tamler wander into Mark Fisher's The Weird and the Eerie to learn more about these concepts. How does weird art expand our imagination...
11 Feb 20251h 17min
Episode 301: Believing is Seeing?
It's Back 2 Basics: Psychology edition! Do coins look bigger to poor people? Do hills look steeper to people wearing heavy backpacks? What's the difference between perception and attention, or percept...
28 Jan 20251h 29min
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...
14 Jan 20251h 48min
Episode 299: Oh the Humility!
David and Tamler wrap up the new year talking about intellectual virtues and Rachel Fraser's excellent essay "Against Humility." What is intellectual humility exactly and do we need it for knowledge a...
24 Dec 20242h 6min
Episode 298: Pass the Peace Pipe
Why do we punish people? How did our punishment practices evolve and what is their primary function? David and Tamler talk about a new paper that examines punitive justice in three small-scale societi...
10 Dec 20241h 20min
Episode 297: No Pleasure in Meanness (Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find")
David and Tamler face off with the Misfit in Flannery O'Connor's classic short story "A Good Man is Hard to Find." We sort through the biblical allusions, dark comedy, nihilism, and the possibility of...
26 Nov 20241h 41min
Episode 296: The Other CRT
David and Tamler share a few brief thoughts on the election and then raise some questions about Tucker Carlson being attacked by a demon as he slept in the woods with his wife and four dogs (still don...
12 Nov 20241h 3min
