David and Tamler break down the latest small-stakes academic controversy--yes the one about conceptual penises. Does the recent "Sokal-like" hoax expose the ideological extremism of gender studies? Or does it show that certain portions of the "skeptic" community are susceptible to the same biases as their opponents? In the main segment they discuss the problems with measuring pain, pleasure, and happiness. When your doctor asks you to rate your pain between 1 and 10 and you say a 7, does your '7' reflect the same subjective experience as another person's '7'? (That depends--have you experienced childbirth?) How can we get more accurate readings of pain and pleasure across different people with different experiences? Most importantly, which number gets you the Vicodin?
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Episode 285: On Culture and Agriculture
Episode 284: Reel Choices
Episode 283: When Elephants Podcast
Episode 282: Fearful Symmetry (Borges' "Death and the Compass")
Episode 281: Choose Your Fighter
Episode 280: Mad Masque (with Phil Ford and J.F. Martel)
Episode 279: The Greenhouses We Burned Along the Way (Lee Chang-dong's "Burning" Pt. 2)
Episode 278: Schrödinger's Everything (Lee Chang-dong's "Burning" Pt. 1)
Episode 277: The Merits of Buggery (Nagel's "Sexual Perversion")
Episode 276: Attention Please
Episode 275: The Ineffable Center (Borges' "The Aleph")
Episode 274: Can I Get a Kidney Voucher? (with Vlad Chituc)
Episode 273: Ah. Ah. (Miyazaki's "Spirited Away")
Episode 272: Neigh Means Yay
Episode 271: Concept-Con 2023
Episode 270: Take Me to the River (Blood Meridian, Pt. 3)
Episode 269: Death Hilarious (Blood Meridian, Pt. 2)
Episode 268: Blood Meridian, Part 1
Episode 267: The Thickness of Reality
Episode 266: I Want to Half-Believe
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