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Very Bad Wizards

Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro

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Very Bad Wizards is a podcast featuring a philosopher (Tamler Sommers) and a psychologist (David Pizarro), who share a love for ethics, pop culture, and cognitive science, and who have a marked inability to distinguish sacred from profane. Each podcast includes discussions of moral philosophy, recent work on moral psychology and neuroscience, and the overlap between the two.
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Give Them An Argument is a YouTube show and podcast dedicated to building a smarter, funnier and more strategic Left. New episodes are live on YouTube on Monday nights with an exclusive postgame for GTAA patrons after the main show. (To become a patron, go to patreon.com/benburgis and sign up for the monthly cost of a milkshake at a 50s nostalgia diner in 1994.) Past guests have included Slavoj Žižek, Richard Wolff, David Pizarro, Gregory Sadler, Glenn Greenwald, Krystal Ball, Bhaskar Sunkar ...
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Psych

David Pizarro

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Join two psychology professors (Paul Bloom and David Pizarro) as they cover a wide variety of topics about human psychology. Based on Paul Bloom’s new book Psych: The Story of the Human Mind.
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The World to Come

David Treatman Creative

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2020 WEBBY AWARD HONOREE In a post-apocalyptic world with no internet or electricity, five disparate factions vie for dominance in the city-state of Fiveboro. Each tribe worships at the altar of the bygone pop-culture references of an earlier time, and relishes the stories of film and television they've never actually seen. The Fansci Folk live in a Sci-Fi/Fantasy cosplay kingdom, the Escandalistas invoke the drama of the Telenovelas, The Criterione Collective praises the independent Art Fil ...
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The Nation's Jeet Heer joins Ben Burgis to discuss his article "Friends and Enemies: Marty Peretz and the Travails of American Liberalism." You might not know who Marty Peretz is but you've unfortunately seen his handiwork--Anthony Blinken, for example, is a Peretz protege. So is Jim Cramer. The man's got a lot to answer for, and Jeet gets into all…
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David and Tamler dive into the mysteries at the heart of Park Chan-wook’s deeply disturbing masterpiece "Oldboy" (2003). An ordinary man, Oh Dae-su, is imprisoned for 15 years in an old, windowless hotel room. After being abruptly released Oh Dae-su embarks on a mission to discover why he was imprisoned and to get revenge on the man who did it. But…
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Daniel Tutt joins us again for a deep dive on Mark Fisher's classic essay "Exiting the Vampire's Castle" (heavily featured in Ben Burgis's book "Canceling Comedians While the World Burns: A Critique of the Contemporary Left"). Before that, Ben and the crew talk about NYU's bizarre reeducation program for student Palestine protesters. In the postgam…
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This time we bring on the big guns--political science professor Matt McManus and Varn Vlog host C. Derrick Varn--to help Ben Burgis watch Tucker Carlson's interview with Russian fascist intellectual Aleksandr Dugin. This interview is basically GTAA catnip. Before that, we introduce new GTAA intern Aidan, talking about the protests at UCLA, and we d…
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It’s an old-school episode as David and Tamler dive into some intriguing research on the origins of cultural differences. Two neighboring communities in communist China were assigned to be wheat farmers and rice farmers. Seventy years later, the people in the rice farming communities showed signs of being more collectivist, relational, and holistic…
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David Griscom and Matthew Whalan join Ben Burgis to listen to Ben's debate on the Munk Debates podcast with neoconservative commentator Jamie Kirchick on, "Be it resolved, the campus protesters are on the right side of history." Before that, Ben and the crew talk about Biden's reception by anti-war students at Morehouse (where Ben used to teach) an…
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Jordan Chariton comes on GTAA for the first time to chat about his new documentary "Flint Fatigue." Before that, RM Brown comes by to watch some Bill Maher and Morning Joe. Last but not least, we watch Ben's keynote speech at last week's convention of the Green Party of New Jersey. (No postgame this week, sorry!) Watch the documentary: https://www.…
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David and Tamler choose an episode topic that will define the identity and meaning of the Very Bad Wizards podcast going forward – our top 3 existentialist movies. Plus, you’re gonna be shocked to hear this, you might want to sit down, but there has been surprisingly little research on the metaphysics of puns. We look at a recent paper that remedie…
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Ben Burgis is freshly back from New Jersey where among other things he did a Palestine teach-in at the Princeton encampment. He also recently sat down for a friendly debate with goodhearted but right-leaning philosophy podcaster Spencer Case. We watch most of that and then bring on Rutgers professor and New Jersey Uncommitted organizer Elektra Kost…
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Two of our favorite Daniels--Bessner and Steinmetz-Jenkins--join Ben Burgis to talk about the Daniels' Jacobin article "Liberals’ Heated Fascism Rhetoric Sidesteps Self-Reflection" and the broader debate on the relationship between Trumpism and Fascism. Read the article: https://jacobin.com/2024/04/liberals-fascism-rhetoric-democrats-election Follo…
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[Scheduling: Sorry to be releasing these slightly out of order--things got messed up with traveling and etc. but Ep. 15 should be coming out in a couple days, then Ep. 16 on Saturday and we'll be caught up!] Friend of the show Jordan Peterson recently referred to Luke Savage as an "idiot socialist." This week we talk to Luke himself (as well as act…
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David and Tamler talk about Caitrin Keiper’s wonderful sprawling essay on elephant life and society and the many philosophical questions surrounding these extraordinary creatures. What kind of mental states can we attribute to them? Do they have a kind of language? Are they moral? What are our moral duties to them? What accounts for the long-standi…
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Alexander Herbert, a historian of the Soviet Union, joins us to chat about his Substack essay "Do We Really Need Lenin Today?" Before that, Ben Burgis and the GTAA crew listen to some of Ben's recent appearance on the WABC show "The Other Side of Midnight" where he answers some questions from host Frank Marano about objections to his views on Gaza.…
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A Rabbi is found dead in a hotel room, stabbed in the chest. The room is filled with Kabbalah texts and a single page in an typewriter that reads “The first letter of the name has been written.” The celebrated detective and “reasoning machine” Erik Lönnrot suspects a rabbinical explanation but is he seeing patterns that may not be there? David and …
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Jay Ponti, the author of "Be The Revolution: How Occupy Wall Street and the Bernie Sanders Movement Reshaped American Politics" joins Ben Burgis to talk about the chapter on QAnon, Trump, and "neo-fascism"--including some surprising personal connections. Before that, Ben and the crew will be joined joined by the great RM Brown to watch, among other…
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Ben Burgis and J. Andrew World continue the weekly series of Thursday Night Debate Breakdowns by watching Sam Seder debate a Majority Report caller who called him a "f---ing idiot" on Twitter for his position on Social Security. Follow Andy on Twitter: @rightaboutnow2 Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show Become a GTA…
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No full episode this week, but Ben and the crew do an exciting announcement, check in on Ben Shapiro vs. Candace Owens, and take viewer Q & A. Smith College petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/smith-college-community-in-support-of-college-hall-protestors Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show Become a GTAA Pa…
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David Griscom joins us at the top of the show, then Current Affairs editor Nathan J. Robinson chats with Ben about his Israel/Palestine debate with liberal politics streamer Steven Bonnell aka "Destiny." Jason Myles hangs out in the postgame for patrons. Follow Nathan on Twitter: @NathanJRobinson Follow Jason on Twitter: @J_Myles_TiR Follow Ben on …
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We dig into the biggest rivalry in Tamler’s profession, analytic vs. continental philosophy. Are analytic philosophers truly the rigorous, precise, clear thinkers they take themselves to be? And is continental philosophy really just a bunch pretentious charlatans spouting French and German gibberish and writing obscure prose to mask the incoherence…
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Matthew Whalan once again joins Ben Burgis for a Thursday Night Debate Breakdown. This week they're watching (actual!) friend of the show Norm Finkelstein taking on Rabbi Shmuley on Israel/Palestine on Piers Morgan's show. Read Matthew's Substack: https://matthewvernonwhalan.substack.com Follow Matthew on Twitter: @VernonWhalan Follow Ben on Twitte…
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Matt McManus joins us to discuss his Jacobin article "Thomas Sowell Is a Cynical Man": https://jacobin.com/2024/03/sowell-cynical-social-domination-conservatism Support the Smith College library union: https://www.sclwu.org/ Support the Long Beach post union: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/urge-long-beach-post-management-to-recognize-the-long-…
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Rebellion PAC Executive Director Brianna Wu joins Ben Burgis for a conversation to explore their disagreements on Israel/Palestine as well as on the Biden administration's response to the horrors happening there. Before that, we're joined for the opening segment by the one and only RM Brown. (We'll start with Jordan Peterson-on-Elmo for that.) Last…
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Phil Ford and J.F. Martel from the great "Weird Studies" podcast join us for a whirling discussion of Edgar Allan Poe’s mesmerizing tale of decadence and disease “The Masque of the Red Death." We also talk about weird fiction more generally, why it’s so suited to the short story genre, how it creates a mood that drips and bursts from the seam of th…
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Gordon Katic joins Ben Burgis to watch Piers Morgan's recent faceoff with former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett over the war in Gaza. Follow Gordon on Twitter: @gordonkatic Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Mon…
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On a recent episode of his show, professional advocate for the 1% Ben Shapiro lays out his "foreign policy worldview" so we're bringing on one of our favorite foreign policy analysts, Mean Djene Bajalan, onto the show to break it down. Before that, Ben Burgis and the GTAA crew watch Ben's recent appearance on News Nation in which Ben and host Dan A…
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Victor and Ethan join Ben Burgis once again for a Thursday Night Debate Breakdown. This week they're watching Ben Shapiro's debate with "Cosmic Skeptic" Alex O'Connor about religion and society. Check out Victor and Ethan's podcast (with Matt McManus and Gordon Katic) "Academic Edgelords"): https://academicedgelords.com/ Follow Ethan on Twitter: @a…
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Zero Hour host RJ Eskow joins Ben Burgis to talk about RJ's Current Affairs essay "The Dystopias of Yesterday": https://www.currentaffairs.org/2024/02/the-dystopias-of-yesterday Before that, Ben and the GTAA crew watch some of a bizarre-even-by-the-standards-of-Alex-Jones conversation about hive minds and "the AI agenda" between evil clown Alex Jon…
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Matthew Whalan joins Ben Burgis for another Thursday Night Debate Breakdown. This time, they're watching a brand-new one--Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (who's somehow both an ardent apologist for Israeli war crimes and an occasional just-asking-questions advocate of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories) debating libertarian podcaster Da…
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David and Tamler conclude their discussion of Lee Chang-dong’s "Burning" – we talk about the hunger dance at twilight, Ben’s greenhouse burning habit, Shin Hae-mi’s mysterious disappearance, Lee Jong-su’s clumsy and doomed quest to find out what really happened, and what to make of that final scene. Plus we choose the finalists for our Patreon list…
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Current Affairs magazine's "House Economist" Robert Larson joins Ben Burgis to continue the weekly series of Thursday Night Debate Breakdowns by watching left-liberal economist John Kenneth Galbraith's 1981 appearance on William F. Buckley's Firing Line. (There might also be a surprise bonus mini-breakdown at the beginning of the show.) Read Rob at…
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Tucker Carlson interviewed Vladimir Putin. Pro-war libs think Carlson should be locked up as a "traitor." Actual Putin apologists--few and far between in the general population, but if you look in the right corners of the internet you can find plenty of them!--ignored a lot of what Russia's ultra-right-wing, militaristic president had to say. Our r…
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Ben Burgis and Deep State Kuba continue the weekly series of Thursday Night Debate Breakdown's by watching Dr. Lobster spar with Oxford students. Follow Kuba on Twitter: @DrKuba2 Follow Ben on Twitter: @BenBurgis Follow GTAA on Twitter: @Gtaa_Show Become a GTAA Patron and receive numerous benefits ranging from patron-exclusive postgames every Monda…
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The great RM Brown stops by at the beginning of the show to join Ben Burgis and the GTAA crew for some Valentine's Day content with Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro. (They're very concerned about sexual boredom!) After that, we're joined by immigration lawyer Matt Cameron to break down a debate between Breaking Points hosts Krystal Ball and Saagar E…
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David and Tamler fall under the spell of Lee Chang-dong’s 2018 masterpiece Burning, a movie where nothing is what it seems, or maybe it is. An alienated young man meets what seems like his dream girl from his small town, but she’s about to leave for Africa. Will he take care of her cat? Is there a cat? When she comes back she’s attached (maybe) to …
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