logo
episode-header-image
Oct 2022
2h 34m

Episode 247: Open the Pod, Dave (with Sa...

Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro
About this episode

We welcome Sam Harris back to the show for a deep dive into Stanley Kubrick’s confounding 1968 masterpiece "2001: A Space Odyssey." How long is the Dawn of Man? What does the second monolith do exactly? Why are the humans so banal and expressionless? What are HAL’S motivations? Has he planned his mutiny from the start, or does the Council’s deception make him manlfunction? Or something else? Who is the Council anyway? Was HAL meant to go through the stargate? What is the final leap forward in consciousness? The hotel room, the starchild, all the rectangles, rectangles everywhere, the music – what does it all mean????

Plus Sam has some thoughts about our Rorty episode and David tries to rile Tamler up about Kanye’s antisemitism.

note: there's a bit of an abrupt transition between our brief opening and Sam telling a story about Rorty in around the 9 minute mark... couldn't be helped.

Special Guest: Sam Harris.

Sponsored By:

Support Very Bad Wizards

Links:

Up next
Sep 30
Episode 317: For Shame
What is the psychology of shame? Is the experience of shame a human universal? How can we investigate the nature of shame across cultures? David and Tamler dive into Richard Shweder’s “Towards a Deep Cultural Psychology of Shame.” We talk about the methodological challenges of st ... Show More
1h 23m
Sep 16
Episode 316: A Four-Letter Man (Hemingway's "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber")
David and Tamler go big game hunting and explore their first Hemingway short story “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.” We dig into his characteristic themes of courage, cowardice, shifting power dynamics in marriages, and what it truly means to live a happy life. Plus, ne ... Show More
1h 33m
Sep 2
Episode 315: Ceaseless Striving (Schopenhauer’s Pessimism)
David and Tamler tackle the topic chosen by our beloved Patreon supporters in the first VBW madness tournament – Schopenhauer. We discuss his essays “On the Sufferings of the World” and “The Vanity of Existence,” their strikingly modern perspectives on human life and behavior and ... Show More
1h 30m
Recommended Episodes
Aug 2021
Special Episode: Welcome to Weinstein World with special guest David Pizarro
The Weinstein brothers have been busy bees over the past few weeks/months(!) and it left Matt and Chris with a conundrum. How do they cover them as part of an intro segment without it turning into a five hour podcast? The solution was to make a two hour stand alone special episod ... Show More
2h 1m
Oct 2021
Special: Interview with Sam Harris on Gurus, Tribalism & the Culture War
Sam Harris probably needs no introduction in our neck of the info-sphere as he is seemingly never far from the spotlight... or the occasional controversy.We’ve had some nice things to say about Sam, but we’ve also made some harsh criticisms, particularly regarding a short episode ... Show More
3h 6m
Apr 2021
Special Episode: Sam Harris & Meditation is all you need
Sam Harris is a public intellectual who inspires strong reactions both positive and negative. Here, Matt and Chris dip their toes into Sam's introspective universe by analysing a recent 9 minute mini-episode of his Making Sense podcast titled 'Some Points of Confusion'. Sam inten ... Show More
1h 3m
Mar 2021
Awakening The Mind with Sam Harris [S2 Ep.7]
A special thank you to Ground News for supporting this week's episode. Download the Ground News app for free: https://check.ground.news/GroundNewsAppcwc and see the full story, for every story. Welcome to another episode of Conversations with Coleman.My guest today is Sam Harris. ... Show More
1h 29m
May 2022
#281 — Western Culture and Its Discontents
Sam Harris speaks with Douglas Murray about his new book, “The War on the West.” They discuss the problem of hyper partisanship on the Left and Right, the primacy of culture, Hunter Biden’s laptop, the de-platforming of Trump and Alex Jones, the new religion of anti-racism, the p ... Show More
1h 11m
Jun 2024
#372 — Life & Work
Sam Harris speaks with George Saunders about his creative process. They discuss George’s involvement with Buddhism, the importance of kindness, psychedelics, writing as a practice, the work of Raymond Carver, the problem of social media, our current political moment, the role of ... Show More
41m 32s
Jun 2024
#371 — What the Hell Is Happening?
Sam Harris speaks to Bill Maher about the state of the world. They discuss the aftermath of October 7th, the cowardice and confusion of many celebrities, gender apartheid, the failures of the Biden campaign, Bill’s relationship to his audience, the differences between the left an ... Show More
43m 53s
Jan 2020
Sam Harris Returns
Sam Harris is an American author, neuroscientist, philosopher, and podcast host. In Sam's return to Armchair Expert, he discusses what it means to live an examined life. He touches on the concepts of being deliberate with one's attention, consciousness as experience and the value ... Show More
2h 16m