Episode 310: Bayes, Brains, and Buddhists

Very Bad Wizards

Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro

Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 10 June 2025

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

David and Tamler try to wrap their heads around the predictive processing theory of the mind and brain function and talk about a paper that applies the framework to meditation practices. But first a new Psychological Science article expresses skepticism about the existence of people who have no inner voice. So is David a new kind of human or is he just making up this condition to get attention?

Assistant Editor’s note: When Tamler says he doesn’t talk to his dog “weirdly often,” he is lying.

Lind, A. (2024). Are There Really People With No Inner Voice? Commentary on Nedergaard and Lupyan (2024). Psychological Science, 09567976251335583.

Laukkonen, R. E., & Slagter, H. A. (2021). From many to (n) one: Meditation and the plasticity of the predictive mind. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 128, 199-217.

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 psychologist Dave Vizarro, 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, and knowing my dad some very inappropriate jokes.
0:17.1	Shut up.
0:17.6	A victim of 400 years of conditioning.
0:19.8	Shut up.
0:22.6	The man has programmed my condition. Mm-hmm.
0:23.6	Even my conditioning has been conditioned.
0:25.6	Ah!
0:26.6	Ha!
0:27.6	The maiden boss has spoken.
0:32.6	Play no attention to that man behind the curtain.
0:43.3	Who are you?
0:45.3	Who are you?
0:47.3	I'm a very bad man.
0:49.3	I'm a very good man.
0:51.3	Good man.
0:59.0	They think deep thoughts, and with no more brains than you have. May no attention to that man.
1:02.0	Anybody can have a brain?
1:07.0	You're a very bad man. I'm a very good man. Just a very bad man i'm a very good man just a very bad wizard welcome to very bad wizards i'm tamler
1:18.0	summers from the university of houston dave the NBA finals kick off tomorrow and it's the
1:23.7	indiana pacer's versus the Oklahoma City Thunder.
1:30.9	Not exactly the biggest TV markets out there.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 24 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode

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.