Sep 4, 2026 · 35 min
Stories and games turn moral theory into practice
Summer Fridays: How zombies, dragons, and superheroes could make you a better person (w/ Christopher Robichaud)
The episode argues that play and popular culture can make ethical judgment, empathy, and political responsibility easier to examine in everyday life.
- 1Ethics becomes more practical when stories and games let people inhabit difficult choices rather than judge them from a distance.
- 2Dungeons & Dragons develops listening, imagination, collaboration, and moral agency through shared storytelling.
- 3Popular culture reflects political assumptions, giving people accessible material for examining polarization and their own values.
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Robichaud explains how Dungeons & Dragons moved from a target of moral panic to a tool for developing better moral agents.
The brief
Ethics professor Christopher Robichaud argues that ethics is not a fixed rulebook but an ongoing examination of values, obligations, and how people ought to live.
Dungeons & Dragons gave Robichaud practice in friendship, perspective-taking, listening, and collaborative problem-solving—skills that matter far beyond the gaming table.
Trolley problems and classroom simulations reveal why moral choices that look simple from a distance become complicated when people must inhabit their consequences.
Marvel stories and superhero politics become material for examining polarization, cultural context, and the assumptions people bring to arguments about power and responsibility.
The episode’s central claim is that play belongs in serious learning: stories and games help people practice imagination, judgment, and moral agency.
Robichaud closes by describing forgiveness during the pandemic, extending the episode’s ethics of reflection from fictional dilemmas to the pressure of ordinary life.