Episode 156: Notes From Underground (Pt. 1)
Very Bad Wizards
Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro
4.8 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 22 January 2019
⏱️ 104 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We're sick men. We're spiteful men. We're unpleasant men. We think our livers are diseased (especially Tamler's). So we talk about Dostoevsky's wild, complex, stream of consciousness masterpiece Notes From Underground. For this episode we focus on part 1 of the novella, and the philosophy behind it. Is the underground man an existentialist hero affirming his freedom in the face of a deterministic hyper-rationalist worldview? Or is he a lonely man consumed with guilt and self-loathing, constructing a pretentious post-hoc rationalization of his character and behavior? Plus, the American Psychological Association just issued guidelines for how to treat men who embrace traditional masculine ideologies. Is the backlash justified?
This episode is brought to you by Eero, Curiosity Stream, and the generosity of listeners like you.
Sponsored By:
- Eero Promo Code: VERYBADWIZARDS
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Links:
- 'Traditional Masculinity' Can Be Harmful, Psychologists Find - The Atlantic
- APA 'Masculinity' Guidelines Face a Title IX Challenge at Harvard University, for Discriminating Against Men in Psychology
- Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky (trans. by Constance Garnett) [amazon.com affiliate link]
- Notes from Underground - Wikipedia
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Very bad wizards is a podcast with a philosopher, my dad, and psychologist Dave Pizarro, having an informal discussion about issues and science and ethics. |
| 0:09.5 | Please note that the discussion contains bad words that I'm not allowed to say, and knowing my dad some very inappropriate jokes. |
| 0:17.1 | Here he comes. Here comes John Wayne. I'm not gonna cry about my paw. I'm gonna build an airport. Put my name on it. |
| 0:27.1 | Why Michael? So you can fly away from your feelings. |
| 0:58.1 | They think they're false and with no more brains than you have. |
| 1:02.1 | They know our attention. |
| 1:04.1 | Tell my man. |
| 1:08.1 | Anybody can have a brain. |
| 1:12.1 | You're a very bad man. |
| 1:15.1 | I'm a very good man. Just a very bad wizard. |
| 1:20.1 | Welcome to very bad wizards. I'm Tamler Summers from the University of Houston. |
| 1:24.1 | Dave, now that the APA, your organization, has said that being male is a disease. I just have one question. |
| 1:32.1 | Are we gonna get some good drugs out of this? |
| 1:39.1 | Yes, they're gonna actually as part of the as part of the guidelines estrogen therapy for all men. |
| 1:46.1 | I was thinking more some Norco tens. You give me some Norco tens and like my toxic masculinity just melts away. |
| 1:57.1 | The the listeners who are druggies, like, well, yeah, they're mouth watering when they're here. |
| 2:04.1 | You can you can always tell whoever has enjoyed painkillers, like if you bring up, like, do you have any Watson's or like? |
| 2:16.1 | Yeah, I got I got a little excited here. You say no. |
| 2:19.1 | I know. Like we might just have to stop right now and like go out like. |
| 2:24.1 | Thank God for Cratum. |
| 2:27.1 | Yes. And thank you to the listener to give us all that helpful. |
| 2:31.1 | Cratum advice. |
... |
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