We're at a particularly fraught moment in America right now.

Less a crossroads than a tipping point.

And I've been thinking a lot about what happens next.

Will we pull ourselves back from the brink?

Or will we be pushed past a point of no return?

What, if anything, will shift us away from the chasm we seem to be falling into as a country.

What will scare or shock us out of our torpor, our indifference, our sense of helplessness,

and the growing sense that everything that's unfolding is simply inevitable.

How many more people have to get hurt before there's a critical mass of Americans who hear the call to action

and are willing to rise up before it's too late? Or does a cataclysmic event need to take place

before we change course away from this path that may well be leading us towards a future

we won't necessarily survive? Which brings me, of course, to Star Trek.

Last weekend, I sat on a panel at Star Trek Las Vegas called appropriately enough,

Trek politics. The subject of the panel, yes, but also the name of a podcast, my friend Bob

Seska and I started a couple of years ago, only to have it cut short by the writer's strike. I had been

invited to participate at Star Trek, Las Vegas on a similar panel last year, but at the last

minute I wasn't able to attend, so I ended up zooming in, which of course just was not the same

as being there in person. And I can tell you that being there in person was incredible.

One of the things that most struck me at the Vegas Convention was the extent to which

everybody there, from the attendees to the people involved in the Star Trek franchise,

believes in the ethos of Star Trek, believes that it is as important to

nurture art and intellectual endeavors as it is to nurture the spirit of exploration.

...