Boldly Going Together: Dan Deevy on Star Trek, Identity, and Finding Your People

What happens when fandom becomes refuge?
What happens when a convention floor becomes a place where people finally feel safe enough to be themselves?

This week on Moped Outlaws, we ride with Dan Deevy — founder of Gaaays in Spaaace
— for a conversation that starts in the worlds of Star Trek and sci-fi culture but quickly expands into something much more human.

Dan shares the story behind building inclusive fan spaces through Galactic Diversity & Inclusion Con, the challenges of navigating online hate and cyberbullying, and why stories still matter in moments when culture feels fractured and volatile. Along the way, the conversation moves through Gene Roddenberry’s vision for Star Trek, the role of empathy in storytelling, the emotional power of belonging, and the strange magic that can happen when people from very different walks of life discover common ground through shared imagination.

There’s plenty of geek joy here — Klingon bat’leths, convention stories, debates about modern Star Trek, and reflections on Star Wars — but underneath it all is a deeper thread about humanity itself.

About how easy it has become to dehumanize each other online.
About the importance of spaces where curiosity matters more than fear.
About why inclusion isn’t weakness, but strength.
And about the possibility that maybe the future we were promised in old sci-fi stories still has something to teach us.

This ride is funny, reflective, emotional, occasionally chaotic, and deeply rooted in the idea that people are usually better when they actually meet each other face to face instead of through algorithms and outrage.

In other words… classic Moped Outlaws territory.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:01:47 — 56.6MB) | Embed

Guest Links

Follow Moped Outlaws

We Support