Starbase Indy Podcast

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.

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 language with the need to have touchpoints that human audiences will understand? What does language teach us about a culture?

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.

Listen to two experts in human space flight talk about what human space flight has taught us about the nature of humanity.

Discussion of how comedy reflects our humanity, and the impact it has on the people who create and perform comedy. 

Listen to Bonnie Gordon and Nick Ramey talk about their work performing characters and conveying information through the power of the human voice.

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.

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.

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 with our favorite science fiction.

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 Broaddus, John Scalzi, and Dr. James McGrath discuss their work in creating worlds that capture our imagination and our attention.

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 Kirk's coiffure, to the purpose of joy and kindness in the world. I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed having the conversation.

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.