logo
episode-header-image
Mar 2019
1h 15m

Episode 159: You Have the Right to Go to...

Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro
About this episode

Poor and black defendants have more legal rights than ever, but that didn't stop mass incarceration. Why is that? We talk about a paper by Paul Butler called "Poor People Lose: Gideon and the Critique of Rights." Plus, we answer the question that's on everyone's mind: how to live as an anti-natalist. And Tamler is appalled to discover David's anti-natalist leanings.

Sponsored By:

  • Eero Promo Code: VERYBADWIZARDS

Support Very Bad Wizards

Links:

Up next
Nov 11
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 implores us to accept it on its own mysterious terms. Plus gooning. The Goon Squ ... Show More
1h 29m
Oct 28
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 normal grief, and arrives at some ideas that laid the groundwork for his later the ... Show More
1h 35m
Oct 14
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 connections between the two movies - Pynchon adaptations, shadowy forces, snitches ... Show More
1h 48m
Recommended Episodes
Sep 2024
District Attorney Gascón: Part 1
Voters elected Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón in 2020 on his promises to undo decades of mass incarceration, tackle what many viewed as excessive prison sentences, and to generally create a fairer system. LAist Civics & Democracy Correspondent Frank Stoltze explores ... Show More
39m 34s
Aug 2022
Prison Break
Prison breaks loom large in both literature and pop culture. But how should we evaluate them ethically? New Generation Thinker Jeffrey Howard asks what a world without prison would look like. His essay explores whether those unjustly incarcerated have the moral right to break out ... Show More
14m 41s
Mar 2025
A Legal Scholar On 10 Laws 'Ruining America'
Legal scholar Elie Mystal talks about his new book, Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America. From the Hyde Amendment's impact on reproductive rights to laws that shield gun manufacturers, Mystal ​argues flaws within these laws have made life harder for all of us. We'll ... Show More
44m 35s
Jun 2025
Bonus Episode: THE U.S. CONSTITUTION. Let's read it together.
<p>Have you ever read every word of The U.S. Constitution? You don't have to, because I read it with my mouth into your brain in this weird but vital episode on civil liberties. And of course, there are little sidenotes to make sure we both understand it. There has never been a b ... Show More
1h 25m
Mar 2025
Reading Dostoevsky Behind Bars (Update)
<p>Reginald Dwayne Betts spent more than eight years in prison. Today he's a Yale Law graduate, a MacArthur Fellow, and a poet. His nonprofit works to build libraries in prisons so that more incarcerated people can find hope.</p><p> </p><ul><li><strong>SOURCES:</strong><ul><li><a ... Show More
49m 22s
Jul 2025
Lemon LIVE at 5 | BREAKING: Diddy Verdict?! - July 1st, 2025
From absurd to alarming, today’s show covers it all. First up: We have breaking news in the Diddy trial. Has the jury reached a verdict?! Next: Alligator Alcatraz. Yes, that’s what MAGA is calling the dystopian detention center that’s making headlines for its outrageous cruelty a ... Show More
1h 8m
Dec 2024
Judge Frederic Block on the Moral Duties and Real-Life Stories of Prison Reform
<p>The First Step Act in 2018 included provisions for non-violent federal inmates to petition for early release or reductions in their sentences. How to determine whether to grant or deny those requests is what U.S. District Court Judge Frederic Block explores in his new book, <a ... Show More
59m 1s
Sep 2024
Lawrence v. Texas Part 2 with Marcus McCann
"Times can blind us to certain truths and later generations can see that laws once thought necessary and proper in fact serve only to oppress. As the Constitution endures, persons in every generation can invoke its principles in their own search for greater freedom."  — Justice A ... Show More
1h 40m
Jul 2023
Stephen Bright and James Kwak, "The Fear of Too Much Justice: Race, Poverty, and the Persistence of Inequality in the Criminal Courts" (The New Press, 2023)
Glenn Ford, a Black man, spent thirty years on Louisiana’s death row for a crime he did not commit. He was released in 2014—and given twenty dollars—when prosecutors admitted they did not have a case against him. Ford’s trial was a travesty. One of his court-appointed lawyers spe ... Show More
44m 4s
May 2025
Factual Innocence | Chapter 9
<p>The fight for justice takes a shocking turn. As Ian and Shawn Schweitzer return to court, the prosecution refuses to acknowledge the truth—even in the face of undeniable DNA evidence. Instead, they introduce a new, twisted theory, one that defies logic and stretches the bounds ... Show More
32m 3s
Listen to millions of songs and podcasts on Anghami