Starbase Indy Podcast

Max Kaiserman is the founder of Luna Replicas and a managing Member of the AstroVette Endeavour organization. Listen to him talk about the decisions required when dealing with a historic automobile (owned by an astronaut), creating accurate replicas of apparel and flight gear from America's early space program, and how his love of Star Trek fits into these professional passions.

Listen as the cast of the Starship Tempest talks about their show, and the Star Trek universe in which it exists.

Star Trek Science Advisor Dr. Erin Macdonald talks about how Star Trek has influenced her career, and how that that career is continuing to evolve.

Dr. JamesMcGrath joins us to talk about the real AI that's been in the news so much lately, and how it compares to the fictional AI we see in Star Trek and other Science Fiction.

Thomas Rathjen claims to like this planet just fine - even though he's spent his whole career working to get us off of it and into space. In this interview we talk about how long we've had humans in space, what they do there, and what we can hope for from the Artemis program and other programs working on getting us to the stars.

In this episode, made possible by the Indiana Gig Grant funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, Mary Chieffo, Madi Goff, and Brantley Moate talk about the impact of their identities on their careers in creative fields. This episode was recorded live at Starbase Indy 2023.

"Spirited debate is the love language of the Star Trek fan." - Aaron Waltke   Aaron and Demetrius Witherspoon talk about the process of writing for animated and comic book worlds. This episode was recorded live at Starbase Indy 2022.

Recorded Live at Starbase Indy 2022, Mary Chieffo (L'Rell)  and Jen Usellis (jenBom) talk about their experiences bringing Klingon to the small screen (and the music stage).

Dr. Barrett Caldwell and Thomas Rathjen, both multi-decade veterans of the effort to get somebody off the planet awhile, talk about the challenges and state of human space flight today. They talk about the why, the how, and the perhaps surprising value proposition of space travel in this episode, recorded live at Starbase Indy 2022.

In this episode of the podcast, recorded LIVE at Starbase Indy 2022, longtime volunteer Todd Wiley joins with Marianne Halbert, JD, from NAMI to talk about common mental illnesses and how to manage them at and away from conventions.

Recorded live at Starbase Indy 2022, this episode speaks on how we can make the world a better place.  

This is the first episode recorded LIVE at Starbase Indy 2022. Bill Blair and Sandy Gimpel talk about their careers creating aliens and stunts on the screen.

Local game designer John Kennedy talks about the process of bringing the world of Star Trek into tabletop gaming.

In this continuation of the conversation with Marc Okrand, we talk about the difference between linguistics and fluency, and what has made Klingon one of the most successful constructed languages on the planet.

In this episode, we talk about how closed captioning for the Oscars was related to the creation of the Klingon language. Listen to Marc Okrand talk about the way he became involved, and some of the decisions he made in designing the language.

Rue Sparks is a writer, artist, and poet. She's also a queer, disabled widow. We talk about how these aspects of her identity affect her work and her creativity.

Shannon Fauver's interest in Star Trek had drawn her to work that helps people - first in the Peace Corps and later law school and practice. She filed one of four cases that, lumped in with Obergefell, went to the Supreme Court to codify marriage rights regardless of sexual orientation. She's spoken at Starbase Indy and other conventions about whether we'll need lawyers in the future, and when a b...

Rufus Cochran is the cofounder of Indiana Sciences, a long-time speaker at Starbase Indy, and was recently recognized as Volunteer of the Year by Central Indiana United Way. We talk about the realities of data science and AI, and about the joy of a good Twitter beef. Join us for this fun conversation.

Gavin Smith makes funny books - though I'm not sure how funny the Mirror Universe of Star Trek is supposed to be? But that's neither here nor there. Gavin has been creating comic books for years, and talks to us about his process and how to create dynamic stories in a static medium.

David Welch is the founder of the Experiential Gamer and PopUp Escape Rooms. He brings his events to conventions (He'll be running the Secret Aboard Starship Astraeus at Starbase Indy in November). We talk about his philosophy of game design, and how an experience room is different than an escape room.

Carl Taliaferro talks about his career as a makeup artist. Hear him discuss the biggest misconceptions about prosthetics makeup, the disadvantages of late night shoots, and what it takes to make a good makeup artist.

Shannon Eichorn is a scientist and a science fiction writer who has been writing about body snatching aliens since 8th grade. She talks about her work on Project Black Book, and about the engineers who have inspired her work and her life

Larry Nemecek is the biggest Star Trek fan in the universe - having written books like the Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion and Star Trek: Stellar Cartography. He got his start decades ago, and has interviewed more than 500 people about their involvement in Star Trek. Along the way, he's worked on fan films and his own documentary, as well as podcasts like PORTAL 47 and TREKLAND. We talk t...

Paul Allor was just announced as the winner of the 2022 Indiana Author Award in the Genre category for Hollow Heart, his independent comic. His history with comics includes highly recognizable universes like Star Trek, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, GI Joe, Samurai Jack and many others. We talk about his writing process, what people get wrong in their heads about comic book production, and his hist...

Award-winning filmmaker Demetrius Witherspoon created the Submerge Universe, which includes not only live action movies, animated movies, comic books, novels, and a wide variety of merchandise. We talk about what he likes about creating across such a wide spectrum of possibilities, and how he got his start in filmmaking.