Very Bad Wizards

David and Tamler model philosophical conversation for their listeners by discussing Drew Hyland's excellent essay "Why Plato Wrote Dialogues." What possibilities does the dialogue form open up for Plato? Could his ideas be captured in a more straightforward treatise or essay? Or does philosophy involve more than just propositions and arguments? Plus, Blexas and the midterms, and a new study on how golfers perform in a group with people on the other side of the aisle.
Golf lesson: Study shows political polarization hurts performance at work (golf study press release) [haas.berkeley.edu]
Sels, T., & Kovács, B. (2026). Political heterogeneity and societal polarization impair individual performance: Evidence from random assignment in professional golf. Management Science, 72(7), 5653-5680. [pubsonline.informs.org]
Hyland, D. A. (1968). Why Plato wrote dialogues. Philosophy & Rhetoric, 1(1), 38-50. [jstor.org]

In this first episode of our new Patreon bonus series, Tamler and David discuss S1 E1 of "The Wire." We're reminded what an amazing show this is. Welcome to the Western! 
Join our Patreon and you'll get all of our future episodes (along with lots of other bonus content).

In the final episode of The Lotus Eaters, Tamler and David make their casting decisions (any actors across history) for their dream "Odyssey" film. We then end with some broader thoughts about The Odyssey and our experience doing The Lotus Eaters. Thank you for coming along with us on this journey!

How would you a describe a friend or a co-worker? Would you list their personality traits like generous, aggressive, principled, or stubborn? Or would you give more concrete context-filled descriptions ("she argues with her parents a lot," "she brings us donuts at work sometimes"?) According to Shweder and Bourne's influential 1982 article, culture and the dominant metaphors within it influence how we answer these questions. David and Tamler continue their deep dive into the work of Richard Shweder with a discussion of his paper "Does the Concept of a Person Vary Cross-Culturally."
Plus, you might not save baby Hitler from drowning, but would you save his father or his grandfather? Moral psychology has a new paradigm! 
Pucci, M., & Gagliardi, L. (2026). The killing baby Hitler dilemma: A novel paradigm for studying causal-temporal distance in moral decision-making. Consciousness and Cognition, 145, 104141.
Shweder, R. A., & Bourne, E. J. (1982). Does the concept of the person vary cross-culturally?. In Cultural conceptions of mental health and therapy (pp. 97-137). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.

As foretold in the prophecies, Tamler and David unite in Ithaca to cover the final chapters (23 & 24) of The Odyssey, in which Odysseus passes Penelope's final test, reunites with Laertes, and Athena and Zeus do a little deus ex machina-ing and prevent the suitors' families from getting revenge.