logo
episode-header-image
Aug 2022
1h 33m

Episode 242: Losing My Religion

Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro
About this episode

David and Tamler find themselves unable to attach rational meaning to a single act in their entire lives. Let’s say we publish more articles and books. What then? What about our kids? They’re going off to college. Why? What for? We think about the future of the podcast. Let’s say we get bought out by Spotify and become more famous than Joe Rogan, Dolly Parton, and even Yoel Inbar -- more famous than all the podcasters in the world. So what?

And we can find absolutely no reply.

Plus, we take a test to determine whether we can we tell an AI apart from an analytic philosopher. When should we start getting scared of what AIs are gonna do to us, or what we’re doing to them?

*Note: the main segment is on the first half of Tolstoy’s great memoir "A Confession," but you don’t need to be familiar with the text to appreciate the discussion for this one.

Sponsored By:

Support Very Bad Wizards

Links:

Up next
Aug 12
Episode 314: The In-Betweeny Place
David and Tamler go long on McDonagh’s 2008 masterpiece "In Bruges." We talk about the terrific performances and all the weighty themes - sin, guilt, redemption, honor, language, and very inappropriate jokes. Plus philosophers talk about “sex within the discipline” and Tamler can ... Show More
1h 58m
Jul 29
Episode 313: The Spontaneous Eruption of Now
David and Tamler try to wrap their heads around the metaphysics of past and future via the Borges essay(s) “A New Refutation of Time.” What does it mean to be a time skeptic or a time realist for that matter? If you’re a Berkeleyan idealist and Humean skeptic about the self, do y ... Show More
1h 15m
Jul 15
Episode 312: MechaSkeptic
David and Tamler return to David Hume’s somewhat slippery brand of skepticism, this time focusing Chapter 12 of his Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Plus speaking of things to be skeptical about, we dive into a recent paper called “Your Brain on ChatGPT” – does neuroscienc ... Show More
1h 16m
Recommended Episodes
Dec 2023
Ep. 331: Kierkegaard's "Either/Or": The Ethical Life (Part One)
On "The Balance Between the Esthetic and the Ethical in the Development of the Personality" from Vol. 2 of Soren Kierkegaard's Either/Or (1843). What is choice? Kierkegaard's character Judge William criticizes the aesthete from our previous episode on the earlier part of this boo ... Show More
42m 7s
Dec 2020
Best of: The moral philosophy of The Good Place
After creating and running Parks and Recreation and writing for The Office, Michael Schur decided he wanted to create a sitcom about one of the most fundamental questions of human existence: What does it mean to be a good person? That’s how NBC's The Good Place was born. Soon int ... Show More
1h 44m
Dec 2019
The moral philosophy of The Good Place (with Mike Schur and Pamela Hieronymi)
After creating and running Parks and Recreation and writing for The Office, Michael Schur decided he wanted to create a sitcom about one of the most fundamental questions of human existence: What does it mean to be a good person? That’s how The Good Place was born.Soon into the s ... Show More
1h 44m
Sep 2021
[ENTRETIEN] ANDRÉ COMTE-SPONVILLE - Penser mieux pour vivre mieux
André Comte-Sponville est un philosophe contemporain se définissant comme matérialiste, rationaliste et humaniste. Prônant une éthique de l’action fondée sur la raison, il nous invite à penser notre finitude pour pouvoir l’accepter et ainsi vivre mieux. J’ai eu l’honneur de le re ... Show More
48m 40s
Oct 2023
43. Not for Cancel Culture + Our Worst Jokes
What do two podcasters/scientists do when they have nothing to say? Well here at Not for Everyone industries, we take that as a sign to dive into one of the most highly debated and contentious topics on the internet: cancel culture. We know, we know... Right after offending all p ... Show More
1h 3m
Sep 2020
Should we donate to charity because it "feels good"?
In this episode, we discuss some of the concepts behind effective altruism with our friend Lucia. We touch on her motivations for setting up a public health charity, the Giving What We Can Pledge, and a few other curiosities. Enjoy! Sponsored by SkillshareThis episode is kindly s ... Show More
1h 10m
Jan 2017
084 - Good Consumerism - The Positive Psychology Podcast
Consumerism has a lot of downsides but what if rather than giving up hope we look at how to make it better? For that to happen we need to become aware of our relationship with materialism, limiting beliefs we have even if we don't know it and what alternatives already exist. You ... Show More
30m 10s
Jan 2024
Debate: Free Will is an Illusion
We’re all making life choices at this time of year – perhaps a few new years' resolutions are in the mix – either way, you’ll have a stake in a tussle of big ideas as we debate the motion: Free Will is an Illusion. Our host for this episode is the writer, philosopher and podcaste ... Show More
53m 52s
Jan 2024
Joe Wicks on addiction, homeschooling and body image
TW: addiction The popularity of Joe Wicks’s online workouts and meal plans as ‘The Body Coach’ catapulted him into fame during lockdown. He’s a source of endless positive energy for the rest of us, but he had a challenging childhood. Growing up on a council estate, his father had ... Show More
54m 45s