Tamler and David discuss books 5 & 6 of The Odyssey, where we follow Odysseus as he finally leaves Calypso's Island and returns to the realm of the human. We also finally pick a name for the podcast. But only after recording this episode (as will be obvious from the first few minutes).

Welcome to The Lotus Eaters! This is part 2 of our 12 part series on Homer's Odyssey that will be released every Thursday. The series was supported by our Patreon community, but we are now making it available to everyone who would like to listen to our discussions to accompany their reading of The Odyssey. We hope you enjoy!

Episode Notes:

Tamler and David finish up the Telemachy (the saga of Odysseus' son, Telemachus) in their discussion of books 3 & 4 of The Odyssey. (Oh yeah, we get an appearance from THAT Helen of Troy).

Welcome to The Lotus Eaters! This is part 1 of our 12 part series on Homer's Odyssey that will be released every Thursday. The series was supported by our Patreon community, but we are now making it available to everyone who would like to listen to our discussions to accompany their reading of The Odyssey. We hope you enjoy! [Note that this discussion of Books 1 & 2 was already published as the main segment of Episode 321, but this contains only the discussion of the Odyssey in order to make The Lotus Eaters series complete and standalone.]

Episode Notes:

David and Tamler begin their long journey home to Homer's Odyssey, the tale of king Odysseus' 10 year journey home after the Trojan war (maybe the greatest story ever told). We dive into the first two books, which focus on Odysseus' 20-year-old son Telemachus, the swarm of suitors who have descended on Odysseus' house during his long absence in the hopes of marrying his clever and beautiful wife Penelope, and the goddess Athena, whose plan to get Odysseus home to Ithaca is finally set into motion.

Dropping this a week early - after completing a 12-part series on Homer's Odyssey for our beloved Patreon supporters, we now dive into Christopher Nolan's version of this epic tale. We're mixed on the movie. David enjoyed the spectacle, Tamler had some nice things to say about Anne Hathaway's Penelope but overall...well you'll see. And don't skip through the listener support/promo segment or you'll miss an exciting announcement.

Join our Patreon! [patreon.com]

Nolan's "The Odyssey" [wikipedia.org]

Emily Wilson's Translation of The Odyssey [amazon.com afilliate link]

Emily Wilson's review of Nolan's "The Odyssey" [lrb.co.uk]

First it was a book, then it was a groundbreaking movie… that's right it's Solaris. After having discussed the Stanislaw Lem novel in the previous episode, David and Tamler try to make contact with Andrei Tarkovsky's 1972 classic film. We talk about all the ways Tarkovsky's adaptation reflects and diverges from the source material. We also discuss how to interpret the ending, opening act (not featured in the novel), the five-minute driving scene, and contrast it with Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Plus, we take an AI Compass survey to determine what type of AI archetype we are.

The AI Compass (quiz) [github.io]

Tarkovsky's "Solaris" [wikipedia.org]

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]

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]