
Very Bad Wizards is a podcast featuring a philosopher (Tamler Sommers) and a psychologist (David Pizarro), who share a love for ethics, pop culture, and cognitive science, and who have a marked inability to distinguish sacred from profane. Each podcast includes discussions of moral philosophy, recent work on moral psychology and neuroscience, and the overlap between the two.
| Publishes | Twice monthly | Episodes | 333 | Founded | 14 years ago |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Listeners | Categories | PhilosophySociety & Culture | |||

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,... more
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 ten... more
Are you a college student or about to be one? Do you have friends or family in college? This is the most important episode of your life. David and Tamler do something a little different this episode and tier rank a wide range of academic fields from ... more
David and Tamler return to Mircea Eliade's The Sacred and Profane and discuss the chapter "Sacred Time and Myths." How does viewing time as circular give us a periodic window into the sacred? What does it mean to reactualize the creation of the unive... more
People also subscribe to these shows.




One of the guys just laughs like a loon all the time - at nothing. I couldn’t stand it.
Just a couple of cool guys talking about lots of cool things. I like listening to their conversation even when I have no idea what they are talking about. Tamler was one of my professors in college and he was cool. Never met David but he is cool too. Both of them very cool; really cool podcast.
I just finished the entire catalog of Very Bad Wizards, and it is by far my favorite podcast on the market. Their chemistry, humor, wisdom, and insight have left a great impact on the way I view the world.
The meta-conversation in this pod about the role of science, logic, and truth is really unique. The guys are irreverent (some might say degenerate) even as they wrestle with the big questions in serious ways. The format is a lot of fun, and I’ve grown so much as a thinker alongside Tamler and David.
Randomly listened to one of the episodes titled “Shame.” I didn’t like how it suddenly shifted to political topics and criticized other countries. Not the best :)
Key themes from listener reviews, highlighting what works and what could be improved about the show.
How this podcast ranks in the Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube charts.
Apple Podcasts | #24 | |
Apple Podcasts | #25 | |
Apple Podcasts | #34 | |
Apple Podcasts | #27 | |
Apple Podcasts | #49 | |
Apple Podcasts | #62 |
Recent interactions between the hosts and their guests.
Listeners, social reach, demographics and more for this podcast.
| Listeners per Episode | |
|---|---|
| Gender Skew | |
| Location | |
| Interests | |
| Professions | |
| Age Range | |
| Household Income | |
| Social Media Reach |
Two hosts—a philosopher and a psychologist—convince through witty banter, deep analytic rigor, and broad cultural reach. Episodes swing between moral philosophy, cognitive science, and pop culture, often blending literary or historical prompts with contemporary moral psychology and neuroscience. The conversations are known for being irreverent and thought-provoking, occasionally edgy, yet consistently aim to illuminate how people think, feel, and justify their beliefs. A recurring strength is the balance of rigorous ideas with approachable, almost conversational chemistry, which keeps listeners engaged whether they're exploring classic philosophical problems or modern cultural phenomena. A notable hallmark is the willingness to tackle provo... more
Rephonic provides a wide range of podcast stats for Very Bad Wizards. We scanned the web and collated all of the information that we could find in our comprehensive podcast database. See how many people listen to Very Bad Wizards and access YouTube viewership numbers, download stats, audience demographics, chart rankings, ratings, reviews and more.
Rephonic provides a full set of podcast information for three million podcasts, including the number of listeners. View further listenership figures for Very Bad Wizards, including podcast download numbers and subscriber numbers, so you can make better decisions about which podcasts to sponsor or be a guest on. You will need to upgrade your account to access this premium data.
Rephonic provides comprehensive predictive audience data for Very Bad Wizards, including gender skew, age, country, political leaning, income, professions, education level, and interests. You can access these listener demographics by upgrading your account.
To see how many followers or subscribers Very Bad Wizards has on Spotify and other platforms such as Castbox and Podcast Addict, simply upgrade your account. You'll also find viewership figures for their YouTube channel if they have one.
These podcasts share a similar audience with Very Bad Wizards:
1. The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast
2. Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
3. Making Sense with Sam Harris
4. Philosophize This!
5. Conversations with Tyler
Very Bad Wizards launched 14 years ago and published 333 episodes to date. You can find more information about this podcast including rankings, audience demographics and engagement in our podcast database.
Our systems regularly scour the web to find email addresses and social media links for this podcast. We scanned the web and collated all of the contact information that we could find in our podcast database. But in the unlikely event that you can't find what you're looking for, our concierge service lets you request our research team to source better contacts for you.
Rephonic pulls ratings and reviews for Very Bad Wizards from multiple sources, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Castbox, and Podcast Addict.
View all the reviews in one place instead of visiting each platform individually and use this information to decide if a show is worth pitching or not.
Rephonic provides full transcripts for episodes of Very Bad Wizards. Search within each transcript for your keywords, whether they be topics, brands or people, and figure out if it's worth pitching as a guest or sponsor. You can even set-up alerts to get notified when your keywords are mentioned.
Recent guests on Very Bad Wizards include:
1. Eliza Sommers
2. Barry Lam
3. Paul Bloom
4. C. Thi Nguyen
5. David Shoemaker
6. J.F. Martel
7. Phil Ford
8. Vlad Chituc
To view more recent guests and their details, simply upgrade your Rephonic account. You'll also get access to a typical guest profile to help you decide if the show is worth pitching.