PODCAST · fiction
Starbase Indy Podcast
by Starbase Indy
On the Starbase Indy Podcast we talk to and about people who are inspired by Star Trek and science fiction to work towards a hopeful future in the real world. Many of our guests have been or will be presenters at the live Starbase Indy convention, which brings together fans, creators, academics, and scientists to celebrate, educate, and connect. Learn more about the live event and the mission at www.starbaseindy.org
Episodes
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AI In Fact and Fiction
Russ Eberhart was one of the developers of the idea of Swarm Intelligence, a technology that's used to train the LLMs we refer to as AI. He's also a novelist with the pen name Ross Carley, who writes crime and science fiction. Find his website here: https://rosscarleyauthor.com/ And the webinar…
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Conventions and Creativity
Matthew Barron is an author, comic creator, filmmaker, playwright, and next weeek he gets to add Convention Guest of Honor to his list of accomplishments. Listen to Matthew talk about the role conventions have played in his creative journey, and what he does when his stories scream at him.
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Kickstarting the Creative Process
Dr. Lawrence M. Schoen is an award winning science fiction author, a hyponitist, a psychologist, and the founder of the Klingon Language Institute. In this episode he talks about his writing, and gives us advice for kickstarting the second volume of the Starbase Indy Anthology.
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Trekking into Anime: Part 2
Talking to Sami was so much fun I didn't want to stop after an hour - so here's some more time with my favorite anime showrunner and all around amazing human!
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Trekking into Anime Part 1
Samantha Inoue-Harte calls herself Neurospicy - but talking to her for more than a few minutes reveals that the brain works is definitely a superpower. She's a showrunner - but when that gets boring she dabbles in animating (for Disney among others), voice acting, writing, and whatever else keeps...
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Believing What's Beyond the Stars
When the aliens arrive, it will change a lot about how we see the universe. This conversation explores what we know about changing our understanding of the world around us.
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The Science of Science Fiction
The Science of Science fiction is back, with Rufus Cochran of Indiana Sciences leading us through what some recent (and not so recent) science fiction gets right, wrong, and the questions that it explores either way.
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Working Together in Fact and Fiction
The conversation delves into the dynamic archetypes present in fiction shows, highlighting the common character dynamics and their storytelling impact. It also explores the inversion of cliches in the show Farscape, offering a fresh perspective on character portrayal and development.
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Education of the Future
The conversation covers the future of education, the changing work landscape, the impact of technology on education, agricultural research and technology, evaluation in education, customization and personalization in education, meta-learning and metacognition, and the challenge of learning and...
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Indiana's Space Economy
Dr. Barrett Caldwell has been the head of the Indiana Space Grant Consortium for 20 years, interfacing Indiana concerns with NASA programs. He leads Purdue University's GROUPER lab, and had been teaching in the aerospace program for decades. He came into this work, in part, because he grew up...
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Storytime with the Starbase Indy Historian
Listen to Starbase Indy historian talk about the history of the event and some of the adventures we've had in the past 20 years.
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Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations
The conversation delves into the impact of community on individual perspectives and the influence of fandom on expanding one's mindset.
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Working with Robots
This conversation highlights the challenges and ethical considerations in human-robot relationships and the impact of automation on various industries.
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Zeitgeist and Media
Zeitgeist means the culture and feel of an age. What difference do art and media make in the zeitgeist?
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Inspiring Action Through Music
Music has been used across the ages to inspire people to action. In this episode we discuss the ways that has worked through history and what makes it work well still today.
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Afrofuturism
Recorded live at the 2025 Starbase Indy event, this episode features Franklin Oliver and Ronald Craig talking about what Afrofuturism is, how it shows up in Star Trek and other science fiction, and how it can influence our future
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Adventures in Fandom
Recorded live at the 2025 Starbase Indy event, this panel discusses the joys and adventures fandom can bring into our lives. Hugo Award-winning Christopher Barkley tells the story of the controversial 2023 Hugo Awards, and why he didn't get posession of his physical award for more than 2 years...
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The Hospital at the End of the World
The Starbase Indy Podcast is back for its 5th season with an interview with Justin C. Key. Key's new book tells the story of a world where AI has taken over the practice of medicine everywhere except the hospital at the end of the world. The book is filled not only with fascinating concepts, but...
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Indianapolis Creator Da'Rell Miller
Da'Rell Miller is a filmmaker, cosplayer, game designer, artist, comic creator, and....well, you get the idea! Listen to him talk about what inspires him, and about the process of creating and sharing the ideas he has with the world.
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Starbase Indy Anthology Authors
Listen to half a dozen of the contributors to the Starbase Indy Anthology discuss what inspired their work in this volume, and what they like about the convention itself.
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The Academy of Chaos - Shaping the Future
Jean Lee runs the Academy of Chaos, where she teaches in a different way than we're used to hearing about. Listen to her talk about how and what she's teaching the kids in her pod.
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Space Update with Tom Rathjen
Tom Rathjen is back on the podcast this week. He is a human factors engineer whose 30 year career at NASA and subsequent work with Blue Origins and Space X gives him a unique perspective on getting us off the planet. Listen to him talk about the latest news, about why public - private…
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KRAD Visits the Starbase
Keith R.A. DeCandido has been watching Star Trek since birth - but it's only one of the universes in which he's written novels. Listen to him talk about his work and the unique perspective working with tie-in fiction gives him into the universes we all love.
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Kids Explore Robotics
Vinod Agrowal and his son created Kids Explore Robotics because they experienced what kids were being taught about robotics, and had some ideas about how to do it better. Listen to Vinod talk about their inspirations, what they do, and the fun they'll be bringing to this year's Starbase Indy.
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Chat with Con Chair Ryan Howe
Come hear what this year's Con Chair is excited about for Starbase Indy.
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Starbase Indy Anthology
For the first time ever, Starbase Indy is releasing an anthology of Science Fiction and Speculative Poetry submitted by members of the Starbase Indy community. This collection was made possible through collaboration with Dragon's Edge Press, and will be available at the 2025 Starbase Indy event...
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Infinite Expressions: The Future of Queer and Neurodivergent Storytelling in Star Trek
Join a panel of queer creators as they talk about what sort of representation they have seen in Star Trek, and what sort of stories they would like the franchise to explore in the future.
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The Science of Cats
Recorded during our 2024 live event, this discussion of the Science of Cats features KJ McGlinn, the Kitty Correspondent, creator of The Cat Conversation and PurrCon talking about the science of house cats and what it can do to help us keep them safe and happy in our homes.
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Bioethics in Star Trek
Dr. Caroline Christoff and Richard Parrington discuss issues of bioethics that are referenced in various Star Trek series.
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The Science of Science Fiction
In this perennial favorite panel, experts discuss the science in the latest science fiction - what could be real, what's just wrong, and what are the possibilities.
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Exploring New Worlds through Faith
What does the role of faith have in common with the role of science fiction? Both explore reasons, and ways the world does or could function. Listen to experts discuss more similarities and differences.
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Exploring New Worlds Through AI
Listen as Dr. James McGrath and Dr. Ankur Gupta discuss the ways AI (or, more accurately the large language models that are being advertised as AI) help us to explore new worlds.
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Exploring New Worlds through Language
Enjoy this conversation on how created language communities use language to expand what we understand about invented cultures. How does one create an alien language? What grammatical tricks can be used to indicate a vastly different culture? How do you balance the desire to create an alien…
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Exploring New Worlds through Science Fiction
Listen to Julia Whitehead (Director of the Kurt Vonnegut Museum), Max Gollier (Tour guide for the Bradbury Museum) and Dr. Barrett Caldwell (Professor of Engineering) discuss the impact Science Fiction literature has had on our world.
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Exploring New Worlds -Literally
Listen to two experts in human space flight talk about what human space flight has taught us about the nature of humanity.
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Exploring New Worlds Through Comedy
Discussion of how comedy reflects our humanity, and the impact it has on the people who create and perform comedy.
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Exploring New Worlds Through Voice
Listen to Bonnie Gordon and Nick Ramey talk about their work performing characters and conveying information through the power of the human voice.
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Commanding Starfleet with Fleet Admiral Anthony Scott
Anthony Scott has been a part of fandom for many years, and is currently Fleet Admiral of Starfleet Command. We talk about how fandom has enriched his life.
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Entering the Star Trek Universe
Derek Tyler Attico has won the Star Trek short fiction contest more than once, and recently published The Autobiography of Benjamin Sisko. We talk with him about how his writing practice, the universes he's written in, and how his writing connects to his passion for justice.
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The Science of Science Fiction
What does our favorite science fiction get right about the universe as we know it, and what does it get wrong? Listen to Rufus Cochran, Dr. Mohamed Noor, and Dr. Paul Kwiat as they talk about artificial intelligence, quantum computing, the nature of evolution, and other places science intersects...
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Writing Diverse Worlds
All of fiction, and especially science fiction, revolves around balancing the need to make characters believable. Science fiction adds in an additional challenge - creating characters who are different from what the readers expect, sometimes in surprising ways. Listen to Dr. Mohamed Noor, Maurice...
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Protopia vs Utopia
When we talk about a hopeful future, Utopia is often the word that comes to mind. Is that the vision we should be striving for, though? Is it even possible to create a state in which everything is perfect? Importantly, is it possible to make things perfect for everyone? Or are utopias for some...
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Afrofuturism: Building a Hopeful Future in Indianapolis
Afrofuturism is about not only critiquing the present, but working towards a future that we all want to experience. While some of the live session recording was lost, this episode captures the second half of the conversation, and includes information about the history of Indianapolis, how the...
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AI and the Nature of Truth
AI is often depicted as a way to find answers to questions. Is this the same as finding truth? Are our current AI technologies structured to find truth? Or are they designed to do something different, and how does that affect their functionality and how they are (and how they should be) used?…
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AI, Sentience, and the Rights of Robots
AI isn't sentient -at least not yet. But what would it mean to our systems if that changed? When would (and when should) our legal system begin to recognize the rights of non-human intelligence? What would that change for humans, and for other intelligent beings? This episode was recorded during...
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The Ethics of Machine Learning
Machine learning holds great potential - but also comes with some significant ethical challenges. Listen to experts discuss the technology, and the ethical concerns it creates. This episode was recorded during our live event in November of 2023, and is a part of our series on the Humanities of...
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AI In Fact and Fiction
AI has been the subject of literature since William Grove’s novel The Wreck of the World in 1889, and in cinema since 1927’s Metropolis. Everyone alive has grown up with the idea of artificial intelligence - with those ideas having varying degrees of similarity to actual technology. Star Trek has...
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A Whirlwind Tour of AI
What are the first things we think about when someone says Artificial Intelligence? Many of us think of general AIs, like Data, Marvin, or the Cylons. Maybe we think about ChatGPT, Dall-E, or Midjourney. Do you think about Google Maps? How your characters move in a video game? What about the...
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Xenocosmetology and the Meaning of Life
This interview is a two-fer, with both the FABULOUS Cosmetologist (and Starbase Indy regular) Moxie Ann Magnus, and the brilliance behind her, Brantley Moate. The conversation ranges from the Kobyashi Hairdo challenge Moxie passed to graduate from Starfleet Academy, to the nature of Captain…
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Eclipses
Dan McGlaun is an expert on eclipses, and he's working to get the state of Indiana ready for the total eclipse that will cross the state in 2024. We talk to Dan about the experience of viewing a total eclipse, the science behind eclipses, and why all eclipses are not created equal.
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
On the Starbase Indy Podcast we talk to and about people who are inspired by Star Trek and science fiction to work towards a hopeful future in the real world. Many of our guests have been or will be presenters at the live Starbase Indy convention, which brings together fans, creators, academics, and scientists to celebrate, educate, and connect. Learn more about the live event and the mission at www.starbaseindy.org
HOSTED BY
Starbase Indy
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Starbase Indy Podcast have?
Starbase Indy Podcast currently has 99 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Starbase Indy Podcast about?
On the Starbase Indy Podcast we talk to and about people who are inspired by Star Trek and science fiction to work towards a hopeful future in the real world. Many of our guests have been or will be presenters at the live Starbase Indy convention, which brings together fans, creators, academics,...
How often does Starbase Indy Podcast release new episodes?
Starbase Indy Podcast has 99 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Starbase Indy Podcast?
You can listen to Starbase Indy Podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Starbase Indy Podcast?
Starbase Indy Podcast is created and hosted by Starbase Indy.
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