WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.200 So let's just unpack this right off the bat. 00:00:03.640 --> 00:00:07.879 When I say the word hero, what is the very first 00:00:07.879 --> 00:00:11.300 image that flashes into your mind? Oh, instinctively. 00:00:11.560 --> 00:00:14.439 It's probably a guy in a cape. Right. Or maybe 00:00:14.439 --> 00:00:16.899 a firefighter running into a burning building. 00:00:17.199 --> 00:00:21.100 It's a very specific, morally heavy image. I 00:00:21.100 --> 00:00:23.960 mean, it implies courage, self -sacrifice, doing 00:00:23.960 --> 00:00:26.420 something for the greater good. Exactly. It's 00:00:26.420 --> 00:00:28.379 a weighty word. It's supposed to mean the absolute 00:00:28.379 --> 00:00:31.550 best of us. And here's where it gets really interesting 00:00:31.550 --> 00:00:33.990 for you listening at home. What happens when 00:00:33.990 --> 00:00:36.170 you stop looking at the dictionary definition 00:00:36.170 --> 00:00:38.929 and start looking at the actual usage? Yeah. 00:00:39.159 --> 00:00:41.320 Like, what happens when you look at every single 00:00:41.320 --> 00:00:43.119 thing in the world that has just slapped the 00:00:43.119 --> 00:00:45.420 label heroes on its front cover? Well, it stops 00:00:45.420 --> 00:00:47.500 being about morality and starts being about, 00:00:47.539 --> 00:00:49.439 well, everything else. It becomes a lot more 00:00:49.439 --> 00:00:51.979 chaotic. Chaotic is the perfect word. Yeah. Because 00:00:51.979 --> 00:00:53.820 today, we're doing something a little different. 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:56.200 We aren't analyzing the philosophical concept 00:00:56.200 --> 00:00:58.979 of heroism. We're taking a deep dive into a source 00:00:58.979 --> 00:01:01.640 that usually just gets totally ignored. We have 00:01:01.640 --> 00:01:04.099 the Wikipedia disambiguation page for the word 00:01:04.099 --> 00:01:06.709 heroes. Which, for those of you who don't spend 00:01:06.709 --> 00:01:09.450 your spare time editing wikis, is essentially 00:01:09.450 --> 00:01:12.530 a traffic cop for the internet. It's a massive, 00:01:12.750 --> 00:01:15.489 utilitarian list designed to help you find the 00:01:15.489 --> 00:01:17.709 specific thing you're looking for when you type 00:01:17.709 --> 00:01:21.030 in a really common word. And because heroes is 00:01:21.030 --> 00:01:23.879 such a powerful word, I mean... Everyone wants 00:01:23.879 --> 00:01:26.659 a piece of it. It is a wild ride. Our mission 00:01:26.659 --> 00:01:29.359 today is to navigate this landscape. We're going 00:01:29.359 --> 00:01:31.879 to connect the dots between David Bowie, a box 00:01:31.879 --> 00:01:34.659 of chocolates, the United States Congress, South 00:01:34.659 --> 00:01:37.359 Korean baseball, and wait for it, Thomas the 00:01:37.359 --> 00:01:39.840 Tank Engine. It sounds completely random. Hope 00:01:39.840 --> 00:01:41.840 it does. But when you actually look at the data 00:01:41.840 --> 00:01:44.000 in front of us, it's a fascinating cross section 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:46.920 of culture. It shows us how one single word can 00:01:46.920 --> 00:01:50.159 be used to title high art symphonies, sell records, 00:01:50.579 --> 00:01:53.379 brand candy and name legislation. So buckle up. 00:01:53.780 --> 00:01:56.959 We are navigating the landscape of heroes. And 00:01:56.959 --> 00:01:58.420 I think we have to start with the sound of it, 00:01:58.420 --> 00:02:00.120 because when I look at this source list, the 00:02:00.120 --> 00:02:02.560 music section is just it's overflowing. It is 00:02:02.560 --> 00:02:04.680 by far the dominant category, and there is one 00:02:04.680 --> 00:02:08.500 entry that looms much larger than the rest. 1977. 00:02:09.520 --> 00:02:12.560 David Bowie? Precisely. The album Heroes and 00:02:12.560 --> 00:02:15.020 the title track Heroes. But looking at the source 00:02:15.020 --> 00:02:17.479 here, there's a detail I think most people miss. 00:02:18.219 --> 00:02:20.460 The quotation marks. Yeah, the source material 00:02:20.460 --> 00:02:24.060 explicitly lists the song as Heroes in quotes. 00:02:24.430 --> 00:02:26.729 Why did he do that? Because he was being ironic. 00:02:26.849 --> 00:02:29.990 You have to remember, in 1977, Bowie was in Berlin 00:02:29.990 --> 00:02:32.729 trying to get clean, trying to reinvent himself. 00:02:33.150 --> 00:02:35.770 The song isn't about Superman. It's about two 00:02:35.770 --> 00:02:38.409 desperate lovers standing by the Berlin Wall. 00:02:38.569 --> 00:02:41.229 Wow. They aren't saving the world. They're just 00:02:41.229 --> 00:02:43.789 trying to survive the day. He was saying they 00:02:43.789 --> 00:02:46.250 could be heroes just for one day. It was a critique 00:02:46.250 --> 00:02:48.889 of the word, not a celebration of it. Which is 00:02:48.889 --> 00:02:51.590 incredibly ironic in itself because culture completely 00:02:51.590 --> 00:02:53.969 ignored those quotes. Totally. The song became 00:02:53.969 --> 00:02:56.430 an absolute anthem. Yeah. It gets used to sell 00:02:56.430 --> 00:02:58.949 cars, it's used in sports montages, the irony 00:02:58.949 --> 00:03:00.990 just got stripped away. That's the first big 00:03:00.990 --> 00:03:03.310 lesson from this list. Once you release a hero 00:03:03.310 --> 00:03:05.669 into the wild, you lose control of what it means. 00:03:05.949 --> 00:03:08.289 And the source material shows this ripple effect 00:03:08.289 --> 00:03:10.590 beautifully. If you scroll down just a bit, you 00:03:10.590 --> 00:03:13.449 see Symphony No. 4, composed by Philip Glass. 00:03:13.889 --> 00:03:16.069 Right, and this is listed as the hero symphony. 00:03:16.150 --> 00:03:18.300 Yeah, and this isn't some rock c - band. This 00:03:18.300 --> 00:03:20.939 is a legitimate classical symphony composed in 00:03:20.939 --> 00:03:25.439 1996 based entirely on Bowie's album. Glass took 00:03:25.439 --> 00:03:28.439 that art rock experimentation and translated 00:03:28.439 --> 00:03:31.699 it into a six movement orchestral work. So you 00:03:31.699 --> 00:03:33.979 have Bowie deconstructing the hero with irony 00:03:33.979 --> 00:03:37.319 and then Philip Glass turning that deconstruction 00:03:37.319 --> 00:03:39.830 into high classical art. that feels like the 00:03:39.830 --> 00:03:41.710 peak of the word's dignity right there. It really 00:03:41.710 --> 00:03:43.750 is. And then the cliff drops off. The cliff drops 00:03:43.750 --> 00:03:46.349 off hard. The genre whiplash on this list is 00:03:46.349 --> 00:03:49.810 incredible because it seems like everyone in 00:03:49.810 --> 00:03:52.610 literally every genre wants that hero's energy. 00:03:52.750 --> 00:03:55.509 It's the ultimate genre agnostic title. Just 00:03:55.509 --> 00:03:57.509 look at the country music entries. You have the 00:03:57.509 --> 00:04:00.569 1986 album Heroes by Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings. 00:04:00.650 --> 00:04:03.189 Two absolute titans of the genre. And then decades 00:04:03.189 --> 00:04:05.289 later Willie Nelson releases an album called 00:04:05.289 --> 00:04:08.919 Heroes in 2012. In country music, the word hero 00:04:08.919 --> 00:04:11.759 signals something very specific. The outlaw, 00:04:12.280 --> 00:04:14.639 the loner, the person standing against the wind. 00:04:14.860 --> 00:04:17.339 It fits the genre perfectly. But then you pivot 00:04:17.339 --> 00:04:19.899 to the rock and metal section. You've got the 00:04:19.899 --> 00:04:22.420 Swedish power metal band Sabaton with an album 00:04:22.420 --> 00:04:26.339 called Heroes in 2014. Now I know Sabaton, they 00:04:26.339 --> 00:04:28.759 write songs about historical wars, so for them 00:04:28.759 --> 00:04:31.220 the word is literal. They're singing about actual 00:04:31.220 --> 00:04:33.649 people with medals. Right, but right next to 00:04:33.649 --> 00:04:36.149 them on the page is Shinedown, the American rock 00:04:36.149 --> 00:04:39.870 band, with a song called Heroes in 2006, and 00:04:39.870 --> 00:04:42.850 the Spanish rock band Heroes del Silencio. Heroes 00:04:42.850 --> 00:04:45.810 of Silence. That is arguably a cooler name than 00:04:45.810 --> 00:04:48.839 just Heroes. It adds a layer of mystery. But 00:04:48.839 --> 00:04:50.560 this is where the word really starts to shift. 00:04:50.740 --> 00:04:53.160 In metal and rock, heroes is about grit. It's 00:04:53.160 --> 00:04:55.540 about struggle. But as we move down the list 00:04:55.540 --> 00:04:57.959 into pop and dance, the meaning flips completely. 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:00.759 It becomes euphoric. Exactly. You have Alesso's 00:05:00.759 --> 00:05:03.620 huge hit, Heroes, we could be, from 2014. And 00:05:03.620 --> 00:05:05.959 you have Manzell Marlowe winning Eurovision in 00:05:05.959 --> 00:05:08.920 2015 with a song called Heroes. And Conchita 00:05:08.920 --> 00:05:12.160 Worst has an entry too. Eurovision seems obsessed 00:05:12.160 --> 00:05:14.939 with this word. Because in pop, heroes isn't 00:05:14.939 --> 00:05:17.620 about what you do. It's about how you feel. It's 00:05:17.620 --> 00:05:21.279 an anthem. When Mon -Zelmerlo sings it, he's 00:05:21.279 --> 00:05:24.319 telling the audience, we are special. It's a 00:05:24.319 --> 00:05:27.100 pure dopamine hit. We've gone from Bowie's ironic 00:05:27.100 --> 00:05:30.160 desperation to pure sugar -coated empowerment. 00:05:30.300 --> 00:05:32.600 And it keeps going. Rap and hip -hop are in there 00:05:32.600 --> 00:05:34.939 too. Yeah. Macklemore released a song called 00:05:34.939 --> 00:05:38.560 Heroes in 2023. Tiny Tempo had one back in 2013. 00:05:38.750 --> 00:05:42.490 It spans the entire spectrum from 1977 art rock 00:05:42.490 --> 00:05:46.009 to 2023 hip hop. The key takeaway here for you 00:05:46.009 --> 00:05:48.329 listening is that Heroes is a universal hook. 00:05:48.790 --> 00:05:50.889 Musicians use it because it instantly signals 00:05:50.889 --> 00:05:52.889 something epic, something emotional. It does 00:05:52.889 --> 00:05:55.149 the heavy lifting for the songwriter. Speaking 00:05:55.149 --> 00:05:57.129 of heavy lifting, let's move from the speakers 00:05:57.129 --> 00:05:59.550 to the screen. Because if you think the music 00:05:59.550 --> 00:06:01.949 list was crowded, the film and TV section is 00:06:01.949 --> 00:06:04.720 just a juggernaut. And there is one 800 -pound 00:06:04.720 --> 00:06:07.519 gorilla in the room here. The NBC show, Heroes. 00:06:07.800 --> 00:06:10.860 2006 to 2010. If you were around then, you couldn't 00:06:10.860 --> 00:06:13.040 escape it. Save the cheerleader, save the world. 00:06:13.240 --> 00:06:15.920 Right. But looking at the source list, you realize 00:06:15.920 --> 00:06:18.439 just how much stuff that one show generated. 00:06:18.759 --> 00:06:21.040 It wasn't just four seasons of television. No, 00:06:21.279 --> 00:06:24.439 the list is exhaustive. There's an original soundtrack, 00:06:24.779 --> 00:06:27.860 an original score, a novel called Heroes Saving 00:06:27.860 --> 00:06:31.300 Charlie, and a miniseries reboot called Heroes 00:06:31.300 --> 00:06:34.500 Reborn. It feels like this was the moment where... 00:06:34.160 --> 00:06:36.319 Heroes stopped doing a descriptor and became 00:06:36.319 --> 00:06:39.139 a brand. They tried to trademark the concept 00:06:39.139 --> 00:06:41.420 of regular people getting powers. And it worked. 00:06:41.680 --> 00:06:43.800 For a while. But what I find fascinating about 00:06:43.800 --> 00:06:46.480 the source material is that while NBC was trying 00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:49.300 to own the word in America, the rest of the world 00:06:49.300 --> 00:06:51.480 was using it for totally different things. The 00:06:51.480 --> 00:06:54.339 international entries are wild. The list has 00:06:54.339 --> 00:06:57.579 a Chilean miniseries called Heroes. From 2007. 00:06:57.839 --> 00:07:00.319 But this isn't about flying men in tights. The 00:07:00.319 --> 00:07:03.000 source describes it as a historical drama. It's 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:05.699 an anthology about the liberators of Chile. So 00:07:05.699 --> 00:07:08.360 in the US, heroes means fiction. In Chile, it 00:07:08.360 --> 00:07:11.259 means history with a capital H. Exactly. And 00:07:11.259 --> 00:07:13.240 then you swing over to South Korea, there's a 00:07:13.240 --> 00:07:15.720 show called Heroes listed as a variety show. 00:07:15.879 --> 00:07:17.899 A variety show. That's a totally different energy. 00:07:18.160 --> 00:07:20.740 That's game shows, comedy skits. And we can't 00:07:20.740 --> 00:07:23.519 forget the anime entry Heroes, Legend of the 00:07:23.519 --> 00:07:25.910 Battle Disks. Well, of course. battle disks. 00:07:26.329 --> 00:07:29.509 So within a 10 year period, Heroes is a gritty 00:07:29.509 --> 00:07:32.490 historical drama in Chile, a variety show in 00:07:32.490 --> 00:07:35.470 Korea, an anime about battle disks in Japan, 00:07:35.769 --> 00:07:38.649 and a superhero soap opera in the U .S. Oh, and 00:07:38.649 --> 00:07:41.250 I should mention the film contrast too. The list 00:07:41.250 --> 00:07:44.589 has a 1977 American drama film called Heroes. 00:07:45.009 --> 00:07:48.329 And right alongside it, a 2008 Indian Hindi film 00:07:48.329 --> 00:07:50.850 also called Heroes. It really shows that the 00:07:50.850 --> 00:07:52.870 word is an empty vessel. You can pour anything 00:07:52.870 --> 00:07:54.920 into it. But my favorite My favorite part of 00:07:54.920 --> 00:07:56.839 the TV section, and maybe the funniest part of 00:07:56.839 --> 00:07:58.860 this whole document, is the episode section. 00:07:58.959 --> 00:08:01.680 Oh, this is a classic Wikipedia quirk. A list 00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:03.959 of every TV show that decided to name a single 00:08:03.959 --> 00:08:06.459 episode heroes. It reads like a fever dream. 00:08:06.899 --> 00:08:10.379 You have the serious high -stakes dramas. CSI, 00:08:10.379 --> 00:08:13.709 NY, Stargate SG -1. The professionals. Shows 00:08:13.709 --> 00:08:16.089 where people actually save lives, where the word 00:08:16.089 --> 00:08:18.850 hero fits the dictionary definition. And then 00:08:18.850 --> 00:08:20.529 sitting right next to them on the list, Beavis 00:08:20.529 --> 00:08:24.029 and Butthead. Yes, the 1993 episode. I'd love 00:08:24.029 --> 00:08:25.970 to know the plot of that episode. I can't imagine 00:08:25.970 --> 00:08:28.129 there was much heroism involved unless they managed 00:08:28.129 --> 00:08:30.329 to open a jar of salsa. It has to be ironic, 00:08:30.490 --> 00:08:32.389 right? But then you have Thomas and Friends. 00:08:32.450 --> 00:08:35.309 The Tank Engine. There is an episode from 1992 00:08:35.309 --> 00:08:38.409 titled... Heroes. You know, that actually highlights 00:08:38.409 --> 00:08:41.289 something deep about the word. To a toddler watching 00:08:41.289 --> 00:08:44.149 Thomas the Tank Engine, a train pulling a heavy 00:08:44.149 --> 00:08:47.529 load is a hero. To a Sargate fan, saving the 00:08:47.529 --> 00:08:50.629 galaxy is a hero. The scale changes, but the 00:08:50.629 --> 00:08:53.789 emotional hook is exactly the same. Someone did 00:08:53.789 --> 00:08:56.190 a good job. Someone did a good job. That might 00:08:56.190 --> 00:08:58.309 be the most cynical definition of a hero I've 00:08:58.309 --> 00:09:00.350 ever heard. Well, wait until we get to the video 00:09:00.350 --> 00:09:02.889 games. Because in that world, hero doesn't even 00:09:02.889 --> 00:09:04.789 mean you did a good job, it just means you showed 00:09:04.789 --> 00:09:07.860 up. The gaming section of the list is huge. And 00:09:07.860 --> 00:09:09.460 you're right, the branding power of the word 00:09:09.460 --> 00:09:12.299 functions differently here. Take the series Heroes 00:09:12.299 --> 00:09:15.240 of Might and Magic. A classic strategy series. 00:09:15.679 --> 00:09:17.460 But think about how the world is used there. 00:09:17.639 --> 00:09:20.620 A hero is a unit type. It's a resource. You buy 00:09:20.620 --> 00:09:23.299 a hero. You upgrade a hero. You can lose a hero 00:09:23.299 --> 00:09:25.419 and just buy another one. It strips the morality 00:09:25.419 --> 00:09:28.950 out completely. In a game... Being a hero isn't 00:09:28.950 --> 00:09:31.470 a moral choice, it's a job description. Exactly. 00:09:31.950 --> 00:09:34.490 Same with Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard's 2015 00:09:34.490 --> 00:09:38.230 game. Or Sonic Heroes from 2003. Sonic Heroes 00:09:38.230 --> 00:09:40.029 is interesting because it uses the word to mean 00:09:40.029 --> 00:09:44.009 team. You play as a trio. Right, but again, it's 00:09:44.009 --> 00:09:47.529 mechanical. It signifies power, agency, the player 00:09:47.529 --> 00:09:50.289 character. It doesn't necessarily signify goodness. 00:09:50.830 --> 00:09:54.509 Even in tabletop RPGs, the list mentions a 1979 00:09:54.509 --> 00:09:57.789 game called Heroes and an Avalon Hill magazine 00:09:57.789 --> 00:10:00.750 also called Heroes. The word just means you were 00:10:00.750 --> 00:10:02.960 the one rolling the dice. That's a little disturbing. 00:10:03.080 --> 00:10:05.279 We've gamified the concept. Yeah. But if games 00:10:05.279 --> 00:10:07.860 strip the morality away, literature seems to 00:10:07.860 --> 00:10:09.860 be trying to put it back in. Authors definitely 00:10:09.860 --> 00:10:12.019 treat the word with a bit more respect, or at 00:10:12.019 --> 00:10:14.659 least more nuance. The list mentions Stephen 00:10:14.659 --> 00:10:17.919 Fry's 2018 book, Heroes. Which is a collection 00:10:17.919 --> 00:10:19.879 of ancient Greek stories. So he's going back 00:10:19.879 --> 00:10:22.639 to the root, the Greek demigods. And if you know 00:10:22.639 --> 00:10:24.299 your Greek mythology, those guys weren't always 00:10:24.299 --> 00:10:26.500 good. They were flawed, violent, sometimes terrible 00:10:26.500 --> 00:10:28.580 people. But they were great. They were larger 00:10:28.580 --> 00:10:31.539 than life. So Fry is reminding us that hero originally 00:10:31.539 --> 00:10:35.299 meant powerful, not nice. Precisely. Then you 00:10:35.299 --> 00:10:39.019 have Robert Cormier's 1998 novel, Heroes. Cormier 00:10:39.019 --> 00:10:42.679 wrote very dark YA fiction and Alan Gratz has 00:10:42.679 --> 00:10:45.360 a 2024 novel by the same name. There's even a 00:10:45.360 --> 00:10:47.460 book series for young boys called Heroes. And 00:10:47.460 --> 00:10:50.500 the 1996 DC Comics title, Naturally. Naturally. 00:10:50.759 --> 00:10:52.940 But then there's a theater entry, a play translated 00:10:52.940 --> 00:10:55.960 by Tom Stoppard, simply titled Heroes. I'm guessing 00:10:55.960 --> 00:10:58.220 that's not about flying men either. No, it's 00:10:58.220 --> 00:11:00.960 a translation of a French play about three World 00:11:00.960 --> 00:11:03.440 War I veterans living in a retirement home. So 00:11:03.440 --> 00:11:07.080 no capes, no powers, just memory. Stoppard uses 00:11:07.080 --> 00:11:10.639 the word to evoke dignity. Quiet Dignity. It's 00:11:10.639 --> 00:11:13.259 the exact opposite of the Eurovision anthem version. 00:11:13.299 --> 00:11:15.600 It's not about being loud. It's about endurance. 00:11:16.159 --> 00:11:17.639 So we've looked at the fictional world. We've 00:11:17.639 --> 00:11:20.460 seen heroes in music, movies, TV, games, and 00:11:20.460 --> 00:11:23.519 books. But the other uses section of this wiki 00:11:23.519 --> 00:11:26.139 page is where reality crashes in. And this is 00:11:26.139 --> 00:11:28.039 where I think the word gets fascinatingly specific. 00:11:28.120 --> 00:11:29.899 This is where the word spills out of the dictionary 00:11:29.899 --> 00:11:32.360 and onto the streets. Literally. Let's start 00:11:32.360 --> 00:11:35.059 with sports. The source lists the Kiwoom heroes. 00:11:35.320 --> 00:11:37.639 A South Korean baseball team. It's a great team 00:11:37.639 --> 00:11:40.899 name. In sports, we always use martial language 00:11:40.899 --> 00:11:44.919 attack, defend, conquer. Calling the team Heroes 00:11:44.919 --> 00:11:47.639 suggests that every player is a potential savior 00:11:47.639 --> 00:11:49.519 of the game. Well, what if you get hungry at 00:11:49.519 --> 00:11:52.059 the baseball game? You might grab a box of Heroes. 00:11:52.279 --> 00:11:56.059 Yes, the confectionary brand by Cadbury, Chocolates. 00:11:56.320 --> 00:11:58.759 This one always cracks me up. Heroes implies 00:11:58.759 --> 00:12:03.159 greatness, bravery, epic deeds. And here, it's 00:12:03.159 --> 00:12:05.399 a miniature version of a chocolate bar. It is 00:12:05.399 --> 00:12:07.700 brilliant marketing, though. A box of heroes 00:12:07.700 --> 00:12:09.919 contains the all -stars of the Cadbury lineup. 00:12:10.379 --> 00:12:12.100 They're positioning the chocolates themselves 00:12:12.100 --> 00:12:14.840 as the heroes of the snack world. It's incredibly 00:12:14.840 --> 00:12:17.019 low stakes. We started this deep dive talking 00:12:17.019 --> 00:12:19.059 about rushing into burning buildings, and now 00:12:19.059 --> 00:12:21.080 we're talking about eating a tiny piece of chocolate. 00:12:21.360 --> 00:12:23.799 But that's the commodification curve. You take 00:12:23.799 --> 00:12:26.039 a sacred concept and you dilute it until it fits 00:12:26.039 --> 00:12:29.779 on a plastic tub. Hero implies greatness. Buying 00:12:29.779 --> 00:12:32.279 this tub makes you feel subconsciously like you're 00:12:32.279 --> 00:12:34.740 participating in something great. Or maybe you're 00:12:34.740 --> 00:12:36.639 just the hero for bringing the snacks to the 00:12:36.639 --> 00:12:38.879 party. That is probably the intended message. 00:12:39.179 --> 00:12:41.840 Save the party. Bring the heroes. Before we get 00:12:41.840 --> 00:12:44.519 too cynical about candy, though, there is one 00:12:44.519 --> 00:12:46.659 category left in this infrastructure section 00:12:46.659 --> 00:12:49.240 that I think redeems the word a little bit. This 00:12:49.240 --> 00:12:52.139 was the big surprise for me. The list has multiple 00:12:52.139 --> 00:12:54.899 entries for physical places, bus stations and 00:12:54.899 --> 00:12:58.340 metro stops named heroes. Right. Heroes is a 00:12:58.340 --> 00:13:00.740 trans -millennial bus station in Bogota, Colombia. 00:13:01.200 --> 00:13:05.059 Heroes Canosas is a BRT station in Mexico. And 00:13:05.059 --> 00:13:08.059 Los Heroes is a metro station in Santiago, Chile. 00:13:08.320 --> 00:13:10.879 This speaks to a massive cultural difference. 00:13:11.240 --> 00:13:14.000 In the U .S., we name stations Main Street or 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:17.100 Union Station. In Latin America, the concept 00:13:17.100 --> 00:13:19.720 of the national hero, the liberator, is woven 00:13:19.720 --> 00:13:21.860 into the geography of the city. You don't just 00:13:21.860 --> 00:13:23.559 read about them in books. You commute through 00:13:23.559 --> 00:13:25.940 them. Exactly. It grounds the word. It's not 00:13:25.940 --> 00:13:28.980 an abstract concept. It's a physical place. It 00:13:28.980 --> 00:13:31.120 suggests that the foundation of the city, literally 00:13:31.120 --> 00:13:33.820 the concrete, is built on the legacy of these 00:13:33.820 --> 00:13:36.340 people. That feels much more significant than 00:13:36.340 --> 00:13:39.120 a backronym bill in Congress. Oh, the Heroes 00:13:39.120 --> 00:13:41.220 Act. We have to talk about it. The list mentions 00:13:41.220 --> 00:13:43.940 the Heroes Act as a piece of proposed American 00:13:43.940 --> 00:13:46.500 legislation. This is the ultimate example of 00:13:46.500 --> 00:13:49.159 a backronym. And to be clear, we are just looking 00:13:49.159 --> 00:13:51.480 at the naming convention here, not the politics 00:13:51.480 --> 00:13:54.679 of the bill itself. Politicians love to name 00:13:54.679 --> 00:13:57.539 a bill something like Heroes because it's a tool 00:13:57.539 --> 00:14:00.700 for persuasion. Wait, what does it actually stand 00:14:00.700 --> 00:14:03.320 for? according to the source. It stands for the 00:14:03.320 --> 00:14:05.500 Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency 00:14:05.500 --> 00:14:08.620 Solutions Act. That is a stretch. That is a painful 00:14:08.620 --> 00:14:12.460 stretch. It's clumsy, but it's calculated. It 00:14:12.460 --> 00:14:15.240 shows that the word has intense political capital. 00:14:15.700 --> 00:14:18.779 If you label your legislation heroes, you are 00:14:18.779 --> 00:14:21.100 trying to frame the conversation before anyone 00:14:21.100 --> 00:14:24.019 even reads the text. It's branding, pure and 00:14:24.019 --> 00:14:26.399 simple. So let's zoom out a bit. We have traveled 00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:28.399 from the high art of a Philip Glass symphony 00:14:28.559 --> 00:14:31.039 to a box of chocolates. We've looked at South 00:14:31.039 --> 00:14:33.980 Korean baseball, public transit in Chile, and 00:14:33.980 --> 00:14:36.360 a proposal in the U .S. Congress. And Beavis 00:14:36.360 --> 00:14:38.740 and Butthead. And Beavis and Butthead. Never 00:14:38.740 --> 00:14:40.820 forget. What stands out to me looking at this 00:14:40.820 --> 00:14:44.019 whole list is that heroes is a vessel. What do 00:14:44.019 --> 00:14:46.299 you mean by that? It's a container. The word 00:14:46.299 --> 00:14:48.740 itself doesn't just mean one thing anymore. You 00:14:48.740 --> 00:14:51.399 can pour anything into it. You can pour a tragic 00:14:51.399 --> 00:14:54.759 romance into it, like the 1977 film. You can 00:14:54.759 --> 00:14:56.779 pour a high -energy dance track into it. You 00:14:56.779 --> 00:15:00.120 can pour a legislative agenda into it. The word 00:15:00.120 --> 00:15:02.399 is strong enough to hold all of these different 00:15:02.399 --> 00:15:04.740 meanings without breaking. It really is one of 00:15:04.740 --> 00:15:06.820 the most flexible words we have. It works for 00:15:06.820 --> 00:15:09.620 a three -minute pop song just as well as it works 00:15:09.620 --> 00:15:12.220 for a sprawling video game franchise. And it 00:15:12.220 --> 00:15:14.899 works across languages. The fact that the source 00:15:14.899 --> 00:15:17.960 lists heroes with the accent alongside the English 00:15:17.960 --> 00:15:21.139 version shows that the concept is totally translatable. 00:15:21.259 --> 00:15:23.220 It resonates everywhere. But it does make me 00:15:23.220 --> 00:15:25.419 wonder. We started this deep dive talking about 00:15:25.419 --> 00:15:28.059 courage and self -sacrifice. Right. If we name 00:15:28.059 --> 00:15:30.860 our chocolates heroes and our bus stations heroes 00:15:30.860 --> 00:15:33.559 and our variety shows heroes, are we diluting 00:15:33.559 --> 00:15:36.460 the meaning? That is the big question. If everything 00:15:36.460 --> 00:15:38.740 is a hero is nothing a hero. That's the risk 00:15:38.740 --> 00:15:41.690 of semantic satiation. You say a word so many 00:15:41.690 --> 00:15:44.029 times it loses all meaning. When every smack 00:15:44.029 --> 00:15:46.549 is epic and every bill is heroic, maybe we lose 00:15:46.549 --> 00:15:48.789 sight of what the word actually costs. Or does 00:15:48.789 --> 00:15:52.250 it prove that we are just desperate to find heroism 00:15:52.250 --> 00:15:55.429 in everything? Maybe we name our snacks and our 00:15:55.429 --> 00:15:57.509 teams heroes because we want that energy in our 00:15:57.509 --> 00:15:59.870 lives. Yeah. We want to believe that even a chocolate 00:15:59.870 --> 00:16:02.230 bar can be a little bit legendary. That's a hopeful 00:16:02.230 --> 00:16:04.850 way to look at it. We are projecting our desire 00:16:04.850 --> 00:16:07.289 for greatness onto the world around us, even 00:16:07.289 --> 00:16:09.710 onto the tank engine. Especially onto the tank 00:16:09.710 --> 00:16:13.159 engine. Here's a thought to leave you with, something 00:16:13.159 --> 00:16:15.480 that wasn't in the source but feels like the 00:16:15.480 --> 00:16:18.259 inevitable next step. What's that? With all this 00:16:18.259 --> 00:16:21.679 commercialization, from games to candy, what 00:16:21.679 --> 00:16:24.320 if the word hero eventually loses its connection 00:16:24.320 --> 00:16:27.519 to human beings entirely? Oh, wow. What if, 50 00:16:27.519 --> 00:16:30.480 years from now, hero is just a purely commercial 00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:34.159 prefix? Yeah. Like ultra or mega. You don't buy 00:16:34.159 --> 00:16:36.039 the standard size, you buy the hero size. It 00:16:36.039 --> 00:16:39.220 just means bigger or more. That is a chilling 00:16:39.220 --> 00:16:41.929 thought. A world where the word has completely 00:16:41.929 --> 00:16:44.370 forgotten the firefighter and the cape. Something 00:16:44.370 --> 00:16:47.590 for you to mull over. This has been a fascinating 00:16:47.590 --> 00:16:50.409 look at a single word. It's amazing what you 00:16:50.409 --> 00:16:51.950 can find when you just stop and look at the list. 00:16:52.289 --> 00:16:54.970 Always check the disambiguation page. You never 00:16:54.970 --> 00:16:57.509 know what you'll find. Thanks for listening to 00:16:57.509 --> 00:17:00.389 this deep dive. Next time you see the word hero, 00:17:00.830 --> 00:17:03.389 take a second to ask yourself, are we talking 00:17:03.389 --> 00:17:06.230 about Bowie, baseball, or a bus station? See 00:17:06.230 --> 00:17:06.769 you next time.