Episode 300: If We Only Had A Brain

Very Bad Wizards

Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro

Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 14 January 2025

⏱️ 108 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

David and Tamler celebrate their 300th episode with a deep dive into the movie that inspired the podcast’s title. Why is "The Wizard of Oz" the most influential American movie of all time? How does it dig deep into our collective psyches? What makes the effects so timeless and effective? And what’s the actual moral of the story? Plus we crawl up our own asses and talk about what we’re proud of from last year, excited for in 2025, and the ways the podcast has changed since episode 1.

The Wizard of Oz (1939)[wikipedia.org]

Roger Ebert's review of The Wizard of Oz [rogerebert.com]

The Wizard of Oz as allegory for atheism [forgetfulfilmcritic.com]

Technicolor [wikipedia.org]

A Very Bad Wizard: Morality Behind the Curtain by Tamler Sommers [amazon.com affiliate link]

Transcript

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0:00.0	Very Bad Wizards is a podcast with a philosopher, my dad, and psychologist Dave Vizarro,
0:06.0	having an informal discussion about issues in science and ethics.
0:09.4	Please note that the discussion contains bad words that I'm not allowed to say,
0:13.4	and knowing my dad, some very inappropriate jokes.
0:17.1	Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don't they?
0:27.6	Okay. Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don't they? The great end boss has spoken. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
0:31.6	Who are you? Who are you?
0:38.3	Who are you?
0:40.3	A very bad man.
0:42.3	I'm a very good man.
0:44.3	Good man.
0:45.3	They think deep thoughts and with no more brains than you have.
0:52.3	Made no attention tonight, man.
0:58.5	Anybody can have a brain?
1:02.4	You're a very bad man.
1:04.8	I'm a very good man.
1:06.7	Just a very bad wizard.
1:09.6	Welcome to Very Bad Wizards.
1:11.1	I'm Tamler Summers from the University of Houston.
1:14.1	Dave, I'm not a physicist or a metaphysician, but do you think our main segment will cause the podcast to implode or collapse within itself, taking us along with it?
1:26.3	Well, obviously.
1:30.7	I was thinking about, like, the right metaphor here.
	...

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