Episode 275: The Ineffable Center (Borges' "The Aleph")
Very Bad Wizards
Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro
4.8 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 26 December 2023
⏱️ 94 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
An episode interesting from every point of view, we train our eyes on Jorge Luis Borges’ “The Aleph.” The first segment wins the kudos of the learned, the academician, the Hellenist, as we talk about the favorite things we saw this year. The second segment — baroque? decadent? the purified and fanatical cult of form? — dives into the philosophy, comedy, satire, and poignancy of this classic story. Once again, we show our awareness that truly modern podcasting demands the balm of laughter, of scherzo. The finicky will want to excommunicate our discussion without benefit of clergy but the critic of more manly tastes will embrace this episode as he does his very life.
"The Aleph" by Jorge Luis Borges [wikipedia.org]
Sponsored by:
- BetterHelp: You deserve to be happy. BetterHelp online counseling is there for you. Connect with your professional counselor in a safe and private online environment. Our listeners get 10% off the first month by visiting BetterHelp.com/vbw. Promo Code: VBW
- Listening.com: Save time by listening to academic papers on the go. Very Bad Wizards listeners get 3 weeks free when signing up at listening.com/vbw
- Givewell.org: Make your charitable donations as effective as possible. If you’ve never donated through GiveWell before, you can have your donation matched up to before the end of the year or as long as matching funds last. Just go to givewell.org, pick PODCAST, and enter VERY BAD WIZARDS at checkout.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Very Bad Wizards is a podcast with a philosopher, my dad, and a psychologist Dave Vizarro, |
| 0:06.0 | having an informal discussion about issues and science and ethics. |
| 0:09.4 | Please note that the discussion contains bad words that I'm not allowed to say and knowing my dad |
| 0:14.5 | some very inappropriate jokes. I don't like crooks and if I did like them I |
| 0:19.7 | wouldn't like crooks that are stool pigeons and if I did like crooks that are stool pigeons. And if I did like crooks that are still pigeons, |
| 0:24.2 | I still wouldn't like you. The waiting us has spoken. |
| 0:34.0 | Pay no attention to that man behind the curtains. |
| 0:40.0 | Who are you? A very bad man. I'm a very good man. Good man. |
| 0:50.8 | Man. They think deep thoughts and with no more brains than you have. |
| 0:57.0 | May no attention to that man. |
| 1:01.0 | Anybody can have a brain? |
| 1:05.0 | You're a very bad man. |
| 1:10.0 | I'm a very good man. |
| 1:12.0 | Just a very bad wizard. |
| 1:15.0 | Welcome to very bad Wizards. |
| 1:16.0 | I'm Tamler Summers from the University of Houston, Dave, even after 11 and a half years, |
| 1:22.0 | we've found a way to piss off a new community after last |
| 1:27.2 | episode can you guess who that is? |
| 1:30.3 | White guys on the spectrum. |
| 1:34.0 | More specific than that though. |
| 1:37.0 | Are the effective altris? |
| 1:39.0 | Did we piss them off? |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.