Tamler learns something new about menstruation. David weighs in on the democratic debates and the impeachment hearings. Then we map the various social and political factions onto the factions in our respective fields. Who are establishment neoliberals of philosophy, and who are the white feminists? What about the IDWs of psychology – and the Chads and Stacys?

Finally we get serious and break down the article by Alan Fiske in Psychological Review called "The Lexical Fallacy in Emotion Research." Does language affect how we understand the emotional landscape? Do the words we happen to use deceive us into thinking we have "carved nature at its joints"? What is a natural kind anyway when it comes to emotions?

Plus, after the outro, a quick unedited Mr. Robot discussion of the revelation in season 4, episode 7.

Sponsored By:

• GiveWell: This holiday season, open your heart to those in need, and consider donating through Givewell.org. Givewell.org is an organization that cares about finding the most effective charities in the world, so that you can make each charitable dollar work as hard as possible. And for our listeners who are first time donors, Givewell.org will match your donation (up to $1,000). Promo Code: Verybadwizards

Support Very Bad Wizards

Links:

• Fiske, A. P. (2019). The lexical fallacy in emotion research: Mistaking vernacular words for psychological entities. Psychological review.
• UCLA Anthropology
• Natural Kinds (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
• "Mr. Robot" 407 Proxy Authentication Required (TV Episode 2019) - IMDb