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Exploring ethical questions from Superhero movies and TV shows, sci-fi, and everything else geeks love
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29 SEP 2026 · 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?
- https://trustory.fm/superheroethics/short-stacked-and-the-mcu-battle-of-new-york/
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This episode is a production of https://trustory.fm/superhero-ethics/, an https://theethicalpanda.com/ podcast and part of the https://trustory.fm/. Check out our website to find out more about this show and our sister podcast https://trustory.fm/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.https://www.tiktok.com/@theethicalpanda · https://x.com/EthicalPanda77 · https://www.instagram.com/theethicalpandapodcasts/ · https://www.facebook.com/TheEthicalPanda/ · EmailJoin the conversation in the Star Wars Generations and Superhero Ethics channels on the https://discord.gg/mczrPccx.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. https://trustory.fm/join/You can also support us through our sponsors:
- Purchase a lightsaber from https://trustory.fm/leveluplightsaber, run by friend of the podcast https://www.tiktok.com/@leveluplight1.
- Use https://www.audibletrial.com/pandaaudible 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.
Transcribed
22 SEP 2026 · 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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This episode is a production of https://trustory.fm/superhero-ethics/, an https://theethicalpanda.com/ podcast and part of the https://trustory.fm/. Check out our website to find out more about this show and our sister podcast https://trustory.fm/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.https://www.tiktok.com/@theethicalpanda · https://x.com/EthicalPanda77 · https://www.instagram.com/theethicalpandapodcasts/ · https://www.facebook.com/TheEthicalPanda/ · EmailJoin the conversation in the Star Wars Generations and Superhero Ethics channels on the https://discord.gg/mczrPccx.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. https://trustory.fm/join/You can also support us through our sponsors:
- Purchase a lightsaber from https://trustory.fm/leveluplightsaber, run by friend of the podcast https://www.tiktok.com/@leveluplight1.
- Use https://www.audibletrial.com/pandaaudible 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.
Transcribed
15 SEP 2026 · 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
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This episode is a production of https://trustory.fm/superhero-ethics/, an https://theethicalpanda.com/ podcast and part of the https://trustory.fm/. Check out our website to find out more about this show and our sister podcast https://trustory.fm/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.https://www.tiktok.com/@theethicalpanda · https://x.com/EthicalPanda77 · https://www.instagram.com/theethicalpandapodcasts/ · https://www.facebook.com/TheEthicalPanda/ · EmailJoin the conversation in the Star Wars Generations and Superhero Ethics channels on the https://discord.gg/mczrPccx.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. https://trustory.fm/join/You can also support us through our sponsors:
- Purchase a lightsaber from https://trustory.fm/leveluplightsaber, run by friend of the podcast https://www.tiktok.com/@leveluplight1.
- Use https://www.audibletrial.com/pandaaudible 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.
Transcribed
8 SEP 2026 · 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?
- https://trustory.fm/superheroethics/the-odyssey-myth-on-film/
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This episode is a production of https://trustory.fm/superhero-ethics/, an https://theethicalpanda.com/ podcast and part of the https://trustory.fm/. Check out our website to find out more about this show and our sister podcast https://trustory.fm/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.https://www.tiktok.com/@theethicalpanda · https://x.com/EthicalPanda77 · https://www.instagram.com/theethicalpandapodcasts/ · https://www.facebook.com/TheEthicalPanda/ · EmailJoin the conversation in the Star Wars Generations and Superhero Ethics channels on the https://discord.gg/mczrPccx.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. https://trustory.fm/join/You can also support us through our sponsors:
- Purchase a lightsaber from https://trustory.fm/leveluplightsaber, run by friend of the podcast https://www.tiktok.com/@leveluplight1.
- Use https://www.audibletrial.com/pandaaudible 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.
Transcribed
1 SEP 2026 · 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.
- https://trustory.fm/superheroethics/dolly-parton-and-9-to-5/
- Connect with Mandy Kaplan: https://trustory.fm/make-me-a-nerd
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This episode is a production of https://trustory.fm/superhero-ethics/, an https://theethicalpanda.com/ podcast and part of the https://trustory.fm/. Check out our website to find out more about this show and our sister podcast https://trustory.fm/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.https://www.tiktok.com/@theethicalpanda · https://x.com/EthicalPanda77 · https://www.instagram.com/theethicalpandapodcasts/ · https://www.facebook.com/TheEthicalPanda/ · EmailJoin the conversation in the Star Wars Generations and Superhero Ethics channels on the https://discord.gg/mczrPccx.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. https://trustory.fm/join/You can also support us through our sponsors:
- Purchase a lightsaber from https://trustory.fm/leveluplightsaber, run by friend of the podcast https://www.tiktok.com/@leveluplight1.
- Use https://www.audibletrial.com/pandaaudible 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.
Transcribed
25 AUG 2026 · “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?
- https://trustory.fm/superheroethics/lanterns-and-the-ethics-of-adaptation/
- Connect with Jessica Plummer: https://www.jessicaplummerwrites.com/
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This episode is a production of https://trustory.fm/superhero-ethics/, an https://theethicalpanda.com/ podcast and part of the https://trustory.fm/. Check out our website to find out more about this show and our sister podcast https://trustory.fm/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.https://www.tiktok.com/@theethicalpanda · https://x.com/EthicalPanda77 · https://www.instagram.com/theethicalpandapodcasts/ · https://www.facebook.com/TheEthicalPanda/ · EmailJoin the conversation in the Star Wars Generations and Superhero Ethics channels on the https://discord.gg/mczrPccx.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. https://trustory.fm/join/You can also support us through our sponsors:
- Purchase a lightsaber from https://trustory.fm/leveluplightsaber, run by friend of the podcast https://www.tiktok.com/@leveluplight1.
- Use https://www.audibletrial.com/pandaaudible 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.
Transcribed
18 AUG 2026 · 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?
- https://trustory.fm/superheroethics/avatar-aang-did-we-need-this/
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This episode is a production of https://trustory.fm/superhero-ethics/, an https://theethicalpanda.com/ podcast and part of the https://trustory.fm/. Check out our website to find out more about this show and our sister podcast https://trustory.fm/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.https://www.tiktok.com/@theethicalpanda · https://x.com/EthicalPanda77 · https://www.instagram.com/theethicalpandapodcasts/ · https://www.facebook.com/TheEthicalPanda/ · EmailJoin the conversation in the Star Wars Generations and Superhero Ethics channels on the https://discord.gg/mczrPccx.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. https://trustory.fm/join/You can also support us through our sponsors:
- Purchase a lightsaber from https://trustory.fm/leveluplightsaber, run by friend of the podcast https://www.tiktok.com/@leveluplight1.
- Use https://www.audibletrial.com/pandaaudible 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.
Transcribed
11 AUG 2026 · 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.
- https://trustory.fm/superheroethics/sunk-cost-fallacy/
- Get Paul’s book, “Friday Night Is My Monday Morning, Volume One” (40% off with code SHE400): https://www.zenmadman.com/zenmadman-s-friday-night-is-my-monday-morning-volume-1/fuk0o?coupon=SHE400
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This episode is a production of https://trustory.fm/superhero-ethics/, an https://theethicalpanda.com/ podcast and part of the https://trustory.fm/. Check out our website to find out more about this show and our sister podcast https://trustory.fm/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.https://www.tiktok.com/@theethicalpanda · https://x.com/EthicalPanda77 · https://www.instagram.com/theethicalpandapodcasts/ · https://www.facebook.com/TheEthicalPanda/ · EmailJoin the conversation in the Star Wars Generations and Superhero Ethics channels on the https://discord.gg/mczrPccx.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. https://trustory.fm/join/You can also support us through our sponsors:
- Purchase a lightsaber from https://trustory.fm/leveluplightsaber, run by friend of the podcast https://www.tiktok.com/@leveluplight1.
- Use https://www.audibletrial.com/pandaaudible 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.
Transcribed
4 AUG 2026 · 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 guests Will Freeland and Steve Stormoen of the “Hype Is My Superpower” podcast to dig into “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” Peter’s uneasy partnership with the Punisher, and how Bruce Banner’s fear of himself ends up doing quiet work in the movie’s X-Men subplot.The three trace comic references straight out of “Civil War,” “Ultimate Comics,” and the original “Brand New Day” storyline, argue about whether Jean Grey finally gets to be a character instead of a plot device, and dig into a scene where MJ takes back the agency Peter tried to take from her. Lastly, they get into whether we should evaluate this movie on its own or as the last MCU release before “Avengers: Doomsday.”
- Full show notes and resources
- Connect with Will Freeland: https://twitch.tv/sylverdreamer · https://www.instagram.com/sylverdreamer
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This episode is a production of https://trustory.fm/superhero-ethics/, an https://theethicalpanda.com/ podcast and part of the https://trustory.fm/. Check out our website to find out more about this show and our sister podcast https://trustory.fm/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.https://www.tiktok.com/@theethicalpanda · https://x.com/EthicalPanda77 · https://www.instagram.com/theethicalpandapodcasts/ · https://www.facebook.com/TheEthicalPanda/ · EmailJoin the conversation in the Star Wars Generations and Superhero Ethics channels on the https://discord.gg/mczrPccx.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. https://trustory.fm/join/You can also support us through our sponsors:
- Purchase a lightsaber from https://trustory.fm/leveluplightsaber, run by friend of the podcast https://www.tiktok.com/@leveluplight1.
- Use https://www.audibletrial.com/pandaaudible 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.
Transcribed
28 JUL 2026 · What actually separates a poker player from a gambler? Professional poker player, coach, and writer Paul Hoppe steps in as Matthew Fox’s full co-host and the two spend this episode arguing over wagers, variance, and self-control at the table before turning it into a lens for superhero risk-taking.They dig into Nick Fury’s bet on New York, Kingpin’s long-shot gamble in the Spider-Verse, and a decades-long discussion between Matthew and Paul about variance that stretches all the way to how people misread election polling. So: is poker just gambling with better math, or something else entirely?
- https://trustory.fm/superheroethics/evaluating-risk-poker-life-and-nick-furys-nuke/
- Grab Paul’s book: https://www.zenmadman.com/zenmadman-s-friday-night-is-my-monday-morning-volume-1/fuk0o?coupon=SHE400. Use that link to get a significant discount and help support the podcast at the same time.
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This episode is a production of https://trustory.fm/superhero-ethics/, an https://theethicalpanda.com/ podcast and part of the https://trustory.fm/. Check out our website to find out more about this show and our sister podcast https://trustory.fm/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.https://www.tiktok.com/@theethicalpanda · https://x.com/EthicalPanda77 · https://www.instagram.com/theethicalpandapodcasts/ · https://www.facebook.com/TheEthicalPanda/ · EmailJoin the conversation in the Star Wars Generations and Superhero Ethics channels on the https://discord.gg/mczrPccx.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. https://trustory.fm/join/You can also support us through our sponsors:
- Purchase a lightsaber from https://trustory.fm/leveluplightsaber, run by friend of the podcast https://www.tiktok.com/@leveluplight1.
- Use https://www.audibletrial.com/pandaaudible 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.
Exploring ethical questions from Superhero movies and TV shows, sci-fi, and everything else geeks love
Information
| Author | TruStory FM |
| Organization | TruStory FM |
| Categories | TV & Film , Society & Culture |
| Website | www.spreaker.com |
| shows@trustory.fm |
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