Episodes

  • Wrap Up 4: Benevolent Overlords

    Wrap Up 4: Benevolent Overlords
    Nov 3 2026
    Matthew Fox offers Paul Hoppe an alien’s button that would end meat-eating, and Paul has pressed it before the offer is done. Matthew and Paul, a professional poker player and writer, continue the Superhero Ethics wrap-up series with the benevolent authoritarian. Next comes a button that would mind control people out of believing COVID and climate change are hoaxes, and the end of “Supergirl” season one, where Kryptonians plan to fix the climate by running humanity for two years.Paul separates changing what someone does from changing who they are, and Matthew asks whether advertising already does a weaker version of both. Obi-Wan’s offhand mind trick in “Attack of the Clones” gets a hearing, and so does parenting, where Matthew takes dangerous things away from their kid without a second thought. So if a more advanced species decides humanity is the kid, who gets to say no?
    • Full show notes and resources: https://trustory.fm/superheroethics/wrap-up-4-benevolent-overlords/

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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:
    • 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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    53 mins
  • Wrap Up 3: Amanda Waller

    Wrap Up 3: Amanda Waller
    Oct 27 2026
    Amanda Waller has no superpowers, just the government’s AmEx card and a mandate nobody voted on. Matthew Fox and Paul Hoppe continue their wrap-up series with DC’s best-known government operative, following her through “Justice League Unlimited,” “Arrow,” and both “Suicide Squad” films to see what happens to superhero accountability once the oversight disappears.Paul loves her as an antagonist because her logic holds together, and Matthew sees J. Edgar Hoover in her. They test the phrase “existential threat” against “Project Hail Mary,” Luthen in “Andor,” Watergate, and life after 9/11, and keep returning to a question Waller has already settled for herself: if the threat is real, which principles are you still unwilling to break?
    • Full show notes and resources: https://trustory.fm/superheroethics/wrap-up-3-amanda-waller/

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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:
    • 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.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr
  • Wrap Up 2: Civil War

    Wrap Up 2: Civil War
    Oct 20 2026
    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 students in a building nearby. Matthew Fox and co-host Paul Hoppe, a poker player and writer, stay inside that one scene from “Captain America: Civil War” and work out what a fair response looks like before the Sokovia Accords exist.Paul splits heroes whose powers are part of them from heroes whose power is money or technology and Matthew turns that into a case for regulating actions instead of identities. They agree the film never investigates what happened, then disagree about who should. Batman’s plans to stop his own teammates and George Washington’s two terms get pulled in too. If people can’t agree on the facts, how do they agree on anything else?
    • Full show notes and resources: https://trustory.fm/superheroethics/wrap-up-2-civil-war/

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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:
    • 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.
    Show More Show Less
    57 mins
  • Wrap Up 1: A New Lens

    Wrap Up 1: A New Lens
    Oct 13 2026
    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/

    **************************************************************************
    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:
    • 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.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 8 mins
  • Women’s Baseball

    Women’s Baseball
    Oct 6 2026
    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/

    **************************************************************************
    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:
    • 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.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 1 min
  • Short Stacked and the MCU Battle of New York

    Short Stacked and the MCU Battle of New York
    Sep 29 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?
    • Full show notes and resources

    **************************************************************************
    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:
    • 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.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 4 mins
  • Profiling

    Profiling
    Sep 22 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/

    **************************************************************************
    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:
    • 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.
    Show More Show Less
    58 mins
  • I Quit: Sometimes You Don’t Have to “Do This All Day”

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

    **************************************************************************
    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:
    • 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.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 9 mins