Superhero Ethics

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Wrap Up 1: A New Lens Oct 13, 2026

Show notes

If you try to understand why someone did something terrible, are you excusing it? Matthew Fox and co-host Paul Hoppe, a poker player and writer, look back on what more than 400 episodes have taught them and build a working framework for heroes, anti-heroes, villains, and anti-villains. Killmonger, Karli Morgenthau, Anakin Skywalker, and Finn all get run through it.Matthew traces the distance between “A New Hope” and “Andor,” where the rebellion includes thieves and Luthen calls himself a moral monster. Paul tells a Roger Clemens story about refusing to judge a life you haven’t lived, then pushes back when Matthew blames systems over individuals in “The Wire.” Underneath all of it sits one uncomfortable question: how sure are you that you wouldn’t have made Anakin’s choice?

Full show notes and resources: https://trustory.fm/superheroethics/wrap-up-1-a-new-lens/

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This episode is a production of Superhero Ethics, an Ethical Panda podcast and part of the TruStory FM Entertainment Podcast Network. Check out our website to find out more about this show and our sister podcast Star Wars Generations.We want to hear from you! Keep up with our latest news and send us feedback, questions, or comments via social media or email.TikTok · Twitter/X · Instagram · Facebook · EmailJoin the conversation in the Star Wars Generations and Superhero Ethics channels on the TruStory FM Discord.Want even more content while supporting the podcast? Become a member! For $5 a month or $55 a year you get access to bonus episodes and bonus content at the end of most episodes — and you can even give membership as a gift. Sign up here.You can also support us through our sponsors:

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Women’s Baseball Oct 06, 2026

Show notes

Paul Hoppe’s mom checked MLB.com every day and never once stumbled on a story about the Women’s Pro Baseball League. Matthew Fox and Paul, a poker player and writer who watched the WPBL’s first season with her, look back at what the league delivered on the field and why so few people knew it existed. They also revisit Penny Marshall’s “A League of Their Own” to see how it holds up.Matthew traces the WNBA’s rise to the NBA’s backing and asks why Major League Baseball offered nothing comparable. Paul calls ESPN’s promotion gross negligence while cutting the shaky broadcasts some slack. Along the way come Mo’ne Davis’s first hit in league history, Ayami Sato’s championship shutout, and Paul’s firm belief that somebody should have walked Dottie. If nobody tells girls a league exists, who gets to blame them for not watching?

Full show notes and resources: https://trustory.fm/superheroethics/womens-baseball/

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Short Stacked and the MCU Battle of New York Sep 29, 2026

Show notes

Walking away from a bad table is easy advice when you have money to come back with. Matthew Fox and co-host Paul Hoppe, a professional poker player and writer, spend the hour on what it means to be short stacked or underrolled. They open by remembering Tim Curry, Dolly Parton, Peter Cullen, and Hayden Panettiere, then Paul explains how stack size and bankroll hand one player power over another.That power gap turns up in rent due tomorrow, in lotteries, and in a hundred-dollar long shot that looks very different when it’s grocery money. Matthew reruns the order to nuke New York in “The Avengers” as a risk calculation, Paul insists on calling it what it is, and Scarlet Witch’s choice in Lagos gets the same scrutiny. When you only get one try, how much are you willing to put on the table?

Full show notes and resources

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Profiling Sep 22, 2026

Show notes

Every time you size someone up by their demographics, whether at a poker table or a police stop, you’re profiling them, and it’s worth asking why. On Superhero Ethics, Matthew Fox and Paul Hoppe dig into the different flavors of profiling, from the ways poker players read opponents to the much higher stakes of police profiling on the street.They trace how casinos and comic book movies lean on the same shortcuts, and where those shortcuts turn into real harm. Paul explains why the MIT Blackjack Team’s Asian card counters mattered to the story that “21” erased entirely, and Matthew connects it to how superhero comics decide which stereotypes a character gets to subvert. So how much of your own read on a stranger is actually information, and how much is just a story you already wanted to believe?

Full show notes and resources: https://trustory.fm/superheroethics/profiling/

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I Quit: Sometimes You Don’t Have to “Do This All Day” Sep 15, 2026

Show notes

On this episode, poker player and co-host Paul joins Matthew Fox to argue that quitting isn’t a moral failure, it’s a skill; one poker forces you to practice on every hand and superhero movies almost never reward. They test the idea against Steve Rogers hanging up the shield and Tony Stark’s gamble on Ultron.Paul walks through deliberately quitting the MCU and a Mets season gone bad, Matthew explains how fatherhood rewired what counts as quittable, and both admit to a guitar habit revived a little too aggressively. The real question underneath it all: if you’re not consciously choosing to keep going, are you really choosing at all?

Full show notes and resources

Purchase a lightsaber from Level Up Sabers, run by friend of the podcast Neighborhood Master Alan.
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The Odyssey: Myth on Film Sep 08, 2026

Show notes

Would you cheer for a hero who tricks a Cyclops but never sleeps with a witch? Classics professor Adam Kemezis joins Matthew Fox to dig into how Christopher Nolan's Odyssey reshapes Homer's most cunning warrior for a modern audience, and what gets lost when three thousand years of moral complexity gets smoothed down to relatable and redeemable.Kemezis, who teaches Greek and Roman mythology at the University of Alberta, and Fox work through why the movie's Odysseus loses his cunning and his affairs while keeping his violence intact, and how Emily Wilson's own translation, and her since-published critique of the film, shaped the conversation. Is a hero still worth rooting for once the trickery gets stripped away?

Full show notes and resources

Purchase a lightsaber from Level Up Sabers, run by friend of the podcast Neighborhood Master Alan.
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Dolly Parton and 9 to 5 Sep 01, 2026

Show notes

Dolly Parton let the world underestimate her for fifty years, then spent that underestimation as leverage every single time. Days after her death, comedian and "Make Me a Nerd" host Mandy Kaplan joins host Matthew Fox to talk about what she meant to them, using the workplace revenge fantasy "9 to 5" as the way in. They cover the movie, the songs that came out of it, and the choices Parton made with the fortune she built.Kaplan explains why she spent seventh grade being called "Dolly Parton" against her will, and how that shaped her relationship to the caricature Parton built on purpose. Fox digs into Parton's finances, her advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community, and the choice to stop short of billionaire status despite having the means to get there.

Full show notes and resources
Connect with Mandy Kaplan: Make Me A Nerd

Purchase a lightsaber from Level Up Sabers, run by friend of the podcast Neighborhood Master Alan.
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Purchase any media discussed this week through our sponsored links.

Lanterns and the Ethics of Adaptation Aug 25, 2026

Show notes

“Lanterns” so far is more cop drama than cosmic weirdness, and comic book historian Jessica Plummer isn’t convinced the trade was worth it. She joins Matthew Fox to dig into the first two episodes of HBO Max’s new John Stewart and Hal Jordan series, working through what an adaptation owes its source material and where reinterpretation turns into replacement.They get into the show’s stripped-down approach to Green constructs, John Stewart’s rewritten comics backstory, and why the human sheriff might be the character worth rooting. Is this really a Green Lantern story, or just a good show wearing the name?

Full show notes and resources
Connect with Jessica Plummer: Website

Purchase a lightsaber from Level Up Sabers, run by friend of the podcast Neighborhood Master Alan.
Use Audible for audiobooks. Sign up for a one-year membership or gift one through this link.
Purchase any media discussed this week through our sponsored links.

Avatar Aang: Did We Need This? Aug 18, 2026

Show notes

Should a beloved story get a sequel twenty years later, and does anyone actually want it? Matthew Fox and Paul Hoppe take on Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender, the new Avatar Studios movie picking up with a grown-up Team Avatar, and neither host walked away loving it. They dig into what makes a "midquel" so hard to pull off, why aging up characters from a beloved kids' show is trickier than it looks, and who a movie like this is actually made for.Paul frames it as a simple question: who was this made for? Matthew traces it to Legend of Korra and a storyline the show never fully resolved. They get into the business side, voice casting, and animation too, and why this is nowhere near as bad as the 2010 live-action disaster, even if it's still not the story either of them wanted. So was this worth making, or just another trip back to a well-loved well?

Full show notes and resources

Purchase a lightsaber from Level Up Sabers, run by friend of the podcast Neighborhood Master Alan.
Use Audible for audiobooks. Sign up for a one-year membership or gift one through this link.
Purchase any media discussed this week through our sponsored links.

Sunk Cost Fallacy Aug 11, 2026

Show notes

Thanos says he “had to” sacrifice Gamora. Vader tells Luke it’s too late to turn back. Professional poker player Paul Hoppe joins Matthew Fox to dig into the sunk cost fallacy, the bias that convinces us that because we’ve already paid a price, we have to keep paying it, and to test that idea against real poker hands as much as comic book ones.They trace “don’t throw good money after bad” out of the casino and into relationships people stay in too long, then out further still, into the Pentagon Papers and a naval arms race that helped start World War One. Running through most of it is the same reason people won’t budge: the fear of hearing “I told you so.” Is staying the course ever actually the right call? Paul and Matthew push back on their own thesis before they’re done.

Full show notes and resources
Get Paul’s book, “Friday Night Is My Monday Morning, Volume One” (40% off with code SHE400): ZenMadman.com

Purchase a lightsaber from Level Up Sabers, run by friend of the podcast Neighborhood Master Alan.
Use Audible for audiobooks. Sign up for a one-year membership or gift one through this link.
Purchase any media discussed this week through our sponsored links.

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