Wrap Up 2: Civil War
Who should answer when a hero’s save goes wrong, and to whom? In Lagos, Scarlet Witch pulls a bomb away from a crowd and it kills Wakandan s...
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TV & Film
Superhero Ethics
Exploring ethical questions from Superhero movies and TV shows, sci-fi, and everything else geeks love
Episodes
20 of 418 episodes
Wrap Up 1: A New Lens
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 wri...
Women’s Baseball
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...
Short Stacked and the MCU Battle of New York
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...
Profiling
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 askin...
I Quit: Sometimes You Don’t Have to “Do This All Day”
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 force...
The Odyssey: Myth on Film
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...
Dolly Parton and 9 to 5
Dolly Parton let the world underestimate her for fifty years, then spent that underestimation as leverage every single time. Days after her...
Lanterns and the Ethics of Adaptation
“Lanterns” so far is more cop drama than cosmic weirdness, and comic book historian Jessica Plummer isn’t convinced the trade was worth it....
Avatar Aang: Did We Need This?
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: Th...
Sunk Cost Fallacy
Thanos says he “had to” sacrifice Gamora. Vader tells Luke it’s too late to turn back. Professional poker player Paul Hoppe joins Matthew Fo...
Spider-Man: Brand New Day
What if the hero afraid of his own power is exactly what makes it easy to fear an entire population? Matthew Fox is joined by returning gues...
Evaluating Risk: Poker, Life, and Nick Fury's Nuke
What actually separates a poker player from a gambler? Professional poker player, coach, and writer Paul Hoppe steps in as Matthew Fox’s ful...
Lattice and Writing
What happens once a society finds a way to turn a human body into an energy source, and decides that’s a good deal? Podcaster and TruStory F...
The Crystal Shard: D&D, as Game and as Story
What do you owe to a culture that built you — especially when that culture is evil? Writer and poker thinker Paul Hoppe (ZenMadman) returns...
EPISODE 400!
What happens to a friendship and a podcast over ten years and four hundred episodes? On this milestone episode, Matthew sits down with longt...
Supergirl
Did Supergirl earn her killing of the already defeated villain, or did the movie just tell us not to worry about it? Matthew Fox is joined b...
Pride (2014): When Thatcher Made Allies of Queers and Miners
In 1984, a group of London lesbians and gay men decided to raise money for striking Welsh miners, because Thatcher was going after both comm...
Spider-Noir: A Hero for the Wrong Reasons
"Ben's PTSD manifested as his alcoholism and his self-destruction as the Spider. ‘I'm just going to go out there and get punched in the face...
Masters of the Universe: He-Man and Nostagia Bait
He-Man was always camp. The loincloth, the harness, the flexing, the pink tunic, Masters of the Universe was masculinity as WWE spectacle.....