David and Tamler tackle the first half of the VBW Madness topic tournament winner, Stanislaw Lem's science fiction masterpiece, Solaris, about a mysterious ocean planet that resists all attempts to understand and communicate with it. We talk about the epistemological obstacles that obscure the meaning of the ocean's behavior, the "guests" that appear to the researchers drawn from their buried memories, Lem's critique of science and lots more.

Plus, there's an inexplicable dearth of research into male preferences for breasts or buttocks and their correlation with egalitarian and materialist values. But once again it's evolutionary psychology to the rescue.

Mehmetoglu, M. (2026). Buttocks or Breasts? Identifying Latent Subgroups in Male Preferences for Female Bodily Features. Evolutionary Psychology, 24(2), 14747049261452897. [pubmed.gov]

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem (trans. by Bill Johnston) [amazon.com affiliate link]

The great Robert Wright returns to the podcast to talk about his new book The God Test: Artificial Intelligence and Our Coming Cosmic Reckoning. We debate the magnitude of AI's potential impact, the natural selection analogy Bob presses in the book, and a whole lot more.

Plus, a new AI-powered collar can translate your pet's sounds and behavior into language with 95% accuracy! Still skeptical about the power of this new technology Tamler?

AI Pet Translator [dexerto.com]

The God Test by Robert Wright [amazon.com affiliate link]

What are the legitimate ways to inquire about the nature of the universe? We have science, metaphysics, phenomenological inquiry, but what about mystical and meditative practices? David and Tamler talk about a paper that argues for allowing mystical insight into our broader search for insight into fundamental reality. Plus, since the dawn of time man has wondered why people act like simps – we look at a study that operationalizes simping behavior and offers a theory for how it evolves.

Ho, D., Tan, K., Li, N. P., & Sim, L. (2026). The (Simp)le Truth About Excessive and Obsessive Romantic Behaviors in Men. Journal of personality, 10.1111/jopy.70082. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.70082

Albahari, M. (2019). The mystic and the metaphysician: Clarifying the role of meditation in the search for ultimate reality. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 26(7-8), 12-36.

David and Tamler do another tier ranking--this time on philosophical thought experiments, so as not to further alienate our chemistry-adjacent listeners. We hit most of the big ones: Pascal's wager, Pascal's mugging, Mary the color scientist, the Ring of Gyges, Jarvis Thomson's violinist, the experience machine, the utility monster, and a lot more. Can you guess our grade for the trolley dilemma?

• The Chinese Room (Searle) [wikipedia.org]
• Descartes' Evil Demon (Descartes) [wikipedia.org]
• The Experience Machine (Nozick) [wikipedia.org]
• Mary the Color Scientist (F. Jackson) [wikipedia.org]
• Pascal's Mugging (Yudkowsky/Bostrom) [wikipedia.org]
• Pascal's Wager (Pascal) [wikipedia.org]
• The Ring of Gyges (Plato) [wikipedia.org]
• The Shallow Pond (Singer) [wikipedia.org]
• The Ship of Theseus (Hobbes) [wikipedia.org]
• The Trolley Problem (Philippa Foot/J.J. Thomson) [wikipedia.org]
• The Utility Monster (Nozick) [wikipedia.org]
• The Veil of Ignorance (Rawls) [wikipedia.org]
• The Violinist (J.J. Thomson) [wikipedia.org]

David and Tamler talk about Jorge Luis Borges' disorienting short story "The Other." A 70-year-old Borges sits on a bench by the Charles River and who should he encounter but himself as a 19-year-old, by the Rhône River in 1918 Geneva. Is this a dream? Who is dreaming it? What does the Heraclitean river metaphor reveal about this impossible meeting? (Stick around after the closing music, David reads the story in English and in Spanish.) Plus Richard Dawkins has a memorable encounter of his own, but with his AI Claudia (née Claude). If you think AI isn't conscious then how do you explain Claudia's rapturous and penetrating insight into Dawkins' unpublished novel?

When Dawkins met Claude: Could this AI be conscious? (paywalled) [unherd.com]

• Unpaywalled at archive.org

The Other by Jorge Luis Borges [wikipedia.org]

The Collected Fictions of Jorge Luis Borges trans. by Andrew Hurley [amazon.com affiliate link]

In another Back 2 Basics episode, David and Tamler talk about Plato's "Crito," a dialogue that takes place two days before Socrates' death by hemlock. His friend Crito wants him to escape, but Socrates will only agree if they judge that it's the right thing to do. One imagined debate between him and the Laws of Athens later, Socrates decides to accept his punishment.

Plus we open with "Contrarian Corner" (Cinema Edition), in which we list our top 3 movies where we just don't understand all the love.

Crito (Plato's Dialogue) [wikipedia.org]

David and Tamler return to the strange world of Nikolai Gogol and discuss his absurdist masterpiece "The Overcoat," a story that both calls for and steadfastly resists interpretation. But first we discuss a forthcoming Phil Studies article "Philosophy as Fact-Based Discipline: 200 Philosophical Facts." Wait until you hear what they are.

Frances, B. (2026). Philosophy as fact-based discipline: 200 philosophical facts. Philosophical Studies, 183(2), 551-581. [springer.com]

The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol [wikipedia.org]

David and Tamler return to the work of Richard Shweder and colleagues, focusing this time on his foundational paper "The "Big Three" of Morality (Autonomy, Community, Divinity) and the "Big Three" Explanations of Suffering. What are the various ways that people explain suffering and illness across cultures? What do we lose when we only emphasize biomedical explanations? Why can't social psychology be more like this?

Plus a new Chalmers (not that one) paper argues that monogamy is impermissible. Hello ladies!

Join at the right Patreon tier and vote on an episode topic! [patreon.com]

Chalmers, H. (2019). Is monogamy morally permissible?. The Journal of Value Inquiry, 53(2), 225-241.

Harry Chalmers' Substack post on Monogamy

Shweder, R. A., Much, N. C., Mahapatra, M., & Park, L. (1997). The "big three" of morality (autonomy, community, and divinity) and the "big three" explanations of suffering. In A. Brandt & P. Rozin (Eds.), Morality and health (pp. 119–169). Routledge.

David and Tamler cross the border into Denis Villeneuve's taut and propulsive thriller Sicario, the story of an FBI agent who gets pulled into a task force drawn from the shadiest elements of the US government. The assignment: to disrupt, infiltrate, and take down a major Mexican cartel. But what's the deal with Alejandro, and who does he work for? This is Roger Deakins in God mode and Villeneuve, Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, and Benicio Del Toro at the very top of their games.

Plus, we select 16 topics from the hundreds submitted by our beloved patrons for VBW Madness 2, a tournament to determine what we discuss on the listener selected episode. Join the VBW Patreon to vote on the winner!

Sicario [wikipedia.org]

David and Tamler return to the Southern Gothic well and talk about Flannery O'Connor's short story masterpiece "Good Country People." A nihilistic atheist philosophy PhD named Joy or Helga (depending on who you ask) lives with her mother and some tenants on a farm in rural Georgia. One day 19-year-old aw-shucksy Bible salesman comes to the house and shakes up her philosophical convictions. Plus a case study of a sexsomniac who masturbates (and more) in his sleep.

Support Eliza's film project [seedandspark.com]

Brice, M., Gales, A. Z., Attali, V., Chauvin, M., & Arnulf, I. (2026). Left hand sleep masturbation in a right-handed male patient with sexsomnia. Sleep Medicine, 108823. [scientificdirect.com]

Good Country People by Flannery O'Connor [wikipedia.org]