So let's just unpack this right off the bat.
When I say the word hero, what is the very first
image that flashes into your mind? Oh, instinctively.
It's probably a guy in a cape. Right. Or maybe
a firefighter running into a burning building.
It's a very specific, morally heavy image. I
mean, it implies courage, self -sacrifice, doing
something for the greater good. Exactly. It's
a weighty word. It's supposed to mean the absolute
best of us. And here's where it gets really interesting
for you listening at home. What happens when
you stop looking at the dictionary definition
and start looking at the actual usage? Yeah.
Like, what happens when you look at every single
thing in the world that has just slapped the
label heroes on its front cover? Well, it stops
being about morality and starts being about,
well, everything else. It becomes a lot more
chaotic. Chaotic is the perfect word. Yeah. Because
today, we're doing something a little different.
We aren't analyzing the philosophical concept
of heroism. We're taking a deep dive into a source
that usually just gets totally ignored. We have
the Wikipedia disambiguation page for the word
heroes. Which, for those of you who don't spend
your spare time editing wikis, is essentially
a traffic cop for the internet. It's a massive,
utilitarian list designed to help you find the
specific thing you're looking for when you type
in a really common word. And because heroes is
such a powerful word, I mean... Everyone wants
a piece of it. It is a wild ride. Our mission
today is to navigate this landscape. We're going
to connect the dots between David Bowie, a box
of chocolates, the United States Congress, South
Korean baseball, and wait for it, Thomas the
Tank Engine. It sounds completely random. Hope
it does. But when you actually look at the data
in front of us, it's a fascinating cross section
of culture. It shows us how one single word can
be used to title high art symphonies, sell records,
brand candy and name legislation. So buckle up.
We are navigating the landscape of heroes. And
I think we have to start with the sound of it,
because when I look at this source list, the
music section is just it's overflowing. It is
by far the dominant category, and there is one
entry that looms much larger than the rest. 1977.
David Bowie? Precisely. The album Heroes and
the title track Heroes. But looking at the source
here, there's a detail I think most people miss.
The quotation marks. Yeah, the source material
explicitly lists the song as Heroes in quotes.
Why did he do that? Because he was being ironic.
You have to remember, in 1977, Bowie was in Berlin
trying to get clean, trying to reinvent himself.
The song isn't about Superman. It's about two
desperate lovers standing by the Berlin Wall.
Wow. They aren't saving the world. They're just
trying to survive the day. He was saying they
could be heroes just for one day. It was a critique
of the word, not a celebration of it. Which is
incredibly ironic in itself because culture completely
ignored those quotes. Totally. The song became
an absolute anthem. Yeah. It gets used to sell
cars, it's used in sports montages, the irony
just got stripped away. That's the first big
lesson from this list. Once you release a hero
into the wild, you lose control of what it means.
And the source material shows this ripple effect
beautifully. If you scroll down just a bit, you
see Symphony No. 4, composed by Philip Glass.
Right, and this is listed as the hero symphony.
Yeah, and this isn't some rock c - band. This
is a legitimate classical symphony composed in
1996 based entirely on Bowie's album. Glass took
that art rock experimentation and translated
it into a six movement orchestral work. So you
have Bowie deconstructing the hero with irony
and then Philip Glass turning that deconstruction
into high classical art. that feels like the
peak of the word's dignity right there. It really
is. And then the cliff drops off. The cliff drops
off hard. The genre whiplash on this list is
incredible because it seems like everyone in
literally every genre wants that hero's energy.
It's the ultimate genre agnostic title. Just
look at the country music entries. You have the
1986 album Heroes by Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings.
Two absolute titans of the genre. And then decades
later Willie Nelson releases an album called
Heroes in 2012. In country music, the word hero
signals something very specific. The outlaw,
the loner, the person standing against the wind.
It fits the genre perfectly. But then you pivot
to the rock and metal section. You've got the
Swedish power metal band Sabaton with an album
called Heroes in 2014. Now I know Sabaton, they
write songs about historical wars, so for them
the word is literal. They're singing about actual
people with medals. Right, but right next to
them on the page is Shinedown, the American rock
band, with a song called Heroes in 2006, and
the Spanish rock band Heroes del Silencio. Heroes
of Silence. That is arguably a cooler name than
just Heroes. It adds a layer of mystery. But
this is where the word really starts to shift.
In metal and rock, heroes is about grit. It's
about struggle. But as we move down the list
into pop and dance, the meaning flips completely.
It becomes euphoric. Exactly. You have Alesso's
huge hit, Heroes, we could be, from 2014. And
you have Manzell Marlowe winning Eurovision in
2015 with a song called Heroes. And Conchita
Worst has an entry too. Eurovision seems obsessed
with this word. Because in pop, heroes isn't
about what you do. It's about how you feel. It's
an anthem. When Mon -Zelmerlo sings it, he's
telling the audience, we are special. It's a
pure dopamine hit. We've gone from Bowie's ironic
desperation to pure sugar -coated empowerment.
And it keeps going. Rap and hip -hop are in there
too. Yeah. Macklemore released a song called
Heroes in 2023. Tiny Tempo had one back in 2013.
It spans the entire spectrum from 1977 art rock
to 2023 hip hop. The key takeaway here for you
listening is that Heroes is a universal hook.
Musicians use it because it instantly signals
something epic, something emotional. It does
the heavy lifting for the songwriter. Speaking
of heavy lifting, let's move from the speakers
to the screen. Because if you think the music
list was crowded, the film and TV section is
just a juggernaut. And there is one 800 -pound
gorilla in the room here. The NBC show, Heroes.
2006 to 2010. If you were around then, you couldn't
escape it. Save the cheerleader, save the world.
Right. But looking at the source list, you realize
just how much stuff that one show generated.
It wasn't just four seasons of television. No,
the list is exhaustive. There's an original soundtrack,
an original score, a novel called Heroes Saving
Charlie, and a miniseries reboot called Heroes
Reborn. It feels like this was the moment where...
Heroes stopped doing a descriptor and became
a brand. They tried to trademark the concept
of regular people getting powers. And it worked.
For a while. But what I find fascinating about
the source material is that while NBC was trying
to own the word in America, the rest of the world
was using it for totally different things. The
international entries are wild. The list has
a Chilean miniseries called Heroes. From 2007.
But this isn't about flying men in tights. The
source describes it as a historical drama. It's
an anthology about the liberators of Chile. So
in the US, heroes means fiction. In Chile, it
means history with a capital H. Exactly. And
then you swing over to South Korea, there's a
show called Heroes listed as a variety show.
A variety show. That's a totally different energy.
That's game shows, comedy skits. And we can't
forget the anime entry Heroes, Legend of the
Battle Disks. Well, of course. battle disks.
So within a 10 year period, Heroes is a gritty
historical drama in Chile, a variety show in
Korea, an anime about battle disks in Japan,
and a superhero soap opera in the U .S. Oh, and
I should mention the film contrast too. The list
has a 1977 American drama film called Heroes.
And right alongside it, a 2008 Indian Hindi film
also called Heroes. It really shows that the
word is an empty vessel. You can pour anything
into it. But my favorite My favorite part of
the TV section, and maybe the funniest part of
this whole document, is the episode section.
Oh, this is a classic Wikipedia quirk. A list
of every TV show that decided to name a single
episode heroes. It reads like a fever dream.
You have the serious high -stakes dramas. CSI,
NY, Stargate SG -1. The professionals. Shows
where people actually save lives, where the word
hero fits the dictionary definition. And then
sitting right next to them on the list, Beavis
and Butthead. Yes, the 1993 episode. I'd love
to know the plot of that episode. I can't imagine
there was much heroism involved unless they managed
to open a jar of salsa. It has to be ironic,
right? But then you have Thomas and Friends.
The Tank Engine. There is an episode from 1992
titled... Heroes. You know, that actually highlights
something deep about the word. To a toddler watching
Thomas the Tank Engine, a train pulling a heavy
load is a hero. To a Sargate fan, saving the
galaxy is a hero. The scale changes, but the
emotional hook is exactly the same. Someone did
a good job. Someone did a good job. That might
be the most cynical definition of a hero I've
ever heard. Well, wait until we get to the video
games. Because in that world, hero doesn't even
mean you did a good job, it just means you showed
up. The gaming section of the list is huge. And
you're right, the branding power of the word
functions differently here. Take the series Heroes
of Might and Magic. A classic strategy series.
But think about how the world is used there.
A hero is a unit type. It's a resource. You buy
a hero. You upgrade a hero. You can lose a hero
and just buy another one. It strips the morality
out completely. In a game... Being a hero isn't
a moral choice, it's a job description. Exactly.
Same with Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard's 2015
game. Or Sonic Heroes from 2003. Sonic Heroes
is interesting because it uses the word to mean
team. You play as a trio. Right, but again, it's
mechanical. It signifies power, agency, the player
character. It doesn't necessarily signify goodness.
Even in tabletop RPGs, the list mentions a 1979
game called Heroes and an Avalon Hill magazine
also called Heroes. The word just means you were
the one rolling the dice. That's a little disturbing.
We've gamified the concept. Yeah. But if games
strip the morality away, literature seems to
be trying to put it back in. Authors definitely
treat the word with a bit more respect, or at
least more nuance. The list mentions Stephen
Fry's 2018 book, Heroes. Which is a collection
of ancient Greek stories. So he's going back
to the root, the Greek demigods. And if you know
your Greek mythology, those guys weren't always
good. They were flawed, violent, sometimes terrible
people. But they were great. They were larger
than life. So Fry is reminding us that hero originally
meant powerful, not nice. Precisely. Then you
have Robert Cormier's 1998 novel, Heroes. Cormier
wrote very dark YA fiction and Alan Gratz has
a 2024 novel by the same name. There's even a
book series for young boys called Heroes. And
the 1996 DC Comics title, Naturally. Naturally.
But then there's a theater entry, a play translated
by Tom Stoppard, simply titled Heroes. I'm guessing
that's not about flying men either. No, it's
a translation of a French play about three World
War I veterans living in a retirement home. So
no capes, no powers, just memory. Stoppard uses
the word to evoke dignity. Quiet Dignity. It's
the exact opposite of the Eurovision anthem version.
It's not about being loud. It's about endurance.
So we've looked at the fictional world. We've
seen heroes in music, movies, TV, games, and
books. But the other uses section of this wiki
page is where reality crashes in. And this is
where I think the word gets fascinatingly specific.
This is where the word spills out of the dictionary
and onto the streets. Literally. Let's start
with sports. The source lists the Kiwoom heroes.
A South Korean baseball team. It's a great team
name. In sports, we always use martial language
attack, defend, conquer. Calling the team Heroes
suggests that every player is a potential savior
of the game. Well, what if you get hungry at
the baseball game? You might grab a box of Heroes.
Yes, the confectionary brand by Cadbury, Chocolates.
This one always cracks me up. Heroes implies
greatness, bravery, epic deeds. And here, it's
a miniature version of a chocolate bar. It is
brilliant marketing, though. A box of heroes
contains the all -stars of the Cadbury lineup.
They're positioning the chocolates themselves
as the heroes of the snack world. It's incredibly
low stakes. We started this deep dive talking
about rushing into burning buildings, and now
we're talking about eating a tiny piece of chocolate.
But that's the commodification curve. You take
a sacred concept and you dilute it until it fits
on a plastic tub. Hero implies greatness. Buying
this tub makes you feel subconsciously like you're
participating in something great. Or maybe you're
just the hero for bringing the snacks to the
party. That is probably the intended message.
Save the party. Bring the heroes. Before we get
too cynical about candy, though, there is one
category left in this infrastructure section
that I think redeems the word a little bit. This
was the big surprise for me. The list has multiple
entries for physical places, bus stations and
metro stops named heroes. Right. Heroes is a
trans -millennial bus station in Bogota, Colombia.
Heroes Canosas is a BRT station in Mexico. And
Los Heroes is a metro station in Santiago, Chile.
This speaks to a massive cultural difference.
In the U .S., we name stations Main Street or
Union Station. In Latin America, the concept
of the national hero, the liberator, is woven
into the geography of the city. You don't just
read about them in books. You commute through
them. Exactly. It grounds the word. It's not
an abstract concept. It's a physical place. It
suggests that the foundation of the city, literally
the concrete, is built on the legacy of these
people. That feels much more significant than
a backronym bill in Congress. Oh, the Heroes
Act. We have to talk about it. The list mentions
the Heroes Act as a piece of proposed American
legislation. This is the ultimate example of
a backronym. And to be clear, we are just looking
at the naming convention here, not the politics
of the bill itself. Politicians love to name
a bill something like Heroes because it's a tool
for persuasion. Wait, what does it actually stand
for? according to the source. It stands for the
Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency
Solutions Act. That is a stretch. That is a painful
stretch. It's clumsy, but it's calculated. It
shows that the word has intense political capital.
If you label your legislation heroes, you are
trying to frame the conversation before anyone
even reads the text. It's branding, pure and
simple. So let's zoom out a bit. We have traveled
from the high art of a Philip Glass symphony
to a box of chocolates. We've looked at South
Korean baseball, public transit in Chile, and
a proposal in the U .S. Congress. And Beavis
and Butthead. And Beavis and Butthead. Never
forget. What stands out to me looking at this
whole list is that heroes is a vessel. What do
you mean by that? It's a container. The word
itself doesn't just mean one thing anymore. You
can pour anything into it. You can pour a tragic
romance into it, like the 1977 film. You can
pour a high -energy dance track into it. You
can pour a legislative agenda into it. The word
is strong enough to hold all of these different
meanings without breaking. It really is one of
the most flexible words we have. It works for
a three -minute pop song just as well as it works
for a sprawling video game franchise. And it
works across languages. The fact that the source
lists heroes with the accent alongside the English
version shows that the concept is totally translatable.
It resonates everywhere. But it does make me
wonder. We started this deep dive talking about
courage and self -sacrifice. Right. If we name
our chocolates heroes and our bus stations heroes
and our variety shows heroes, are we diluting
the meaning? That is the big question. If everything
is a hero is nothing a hero. That's the risk
of semantic satiation. You say a word so many
times it loses all meaning. When every smack
is epic and every bill is heroic, maybe we lose
sight of what the word actually costs. Or does
it prove that we are just desperate to find heroism
in everything? Maybe we name our snacks and our
teams heroes because we want that energy in our
lives. Yeah. We want to believe that even a chocolate
bar can be a little bit legendary. That's a hopeful
way to look at it. We are projecting our desire
for greatness onto the world around us, even
onto the tank engine. Especially onto the tank
engine. Here's a thought to leave you with, something
that wasn't in the source but feels like the
inevitable next step. What's that? With all this
commercialization, from games to candy, what
if the word hero eventually loses its connection
to human beings entirely? Oh, wow. What if, 50
years from now, hero is just a purely commercial
prefix? Yeah. Like ultra or mega. You don't buy
the standard size, you buy the hero size. It
just means bigger or more. That is a chilling
thought. A world where the word has completely
forgotten the firefighter and the cape. Something
for you to mull over. This has been a fascinating
look at a single word. It's amazing what you
can find when you just stop and look at the list.
Always check the disambiguation page. You never
know what you'll find. Thanks for listening to
this deep dive. Next time you see the word hero,
take a second to ask yourself, are we talking
about Bowie, baseball, or a bus station? See
you next time.