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George Takei has steadily built up a huge following on Twitter and Facebook over the past few years by talking about the issues and subject matters that are important to him. In this day and age—where a huge percentage of our society seems content with the status quo and passing legislation that hinders immigrants, minorities, and regular working Americans—I’m extremely grateful for people like George Takei, who are willing to use their platform to shine a light on things that matter.

If you didn’t know, Takei recently joined the social platform TraceMe, which is a mobile-first platform for celebrities and their most passionate fans, available for free on the App Store and Google Play. Custom-designed for Takei, his TraceMe content collections bring together everything from “The Resistance,” focused on his fight to oppose Trump and far-right conservative agendas, to “Sci-Fi”, the ultimate place for nerds (largely but not limited to Star Trek and Trekkie fan submissions). “Allegiance” will include video and picture assets related to the 2015 Broadway production of the show, including unseen footage from the documentary, Japanese American internment stories, and other related material. “Trending” will focus on current events with George’s commentary. “Oh Myyyy” will highlight hilarious or outrageous material from around the Internet. And “The Takei Files” will include tribute videos to people or ideas that George admires.

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Image via TraceMe

Founded by Russell Wilson, TraceMe’s other charter celebrities include R&B artist Ciara, New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara and Arizona Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson.

A few days ago, I got to sit down with Takei for a wide-ranging interview in the Collider studio. He talked about why Gene Roddenberry deserves all the credit for Star Trek, how the show dealt with what was going on in the 60s metaphorically, what got him interested in the entertainment industry, how he first got into social media, his musical Allegiance, how his primary mission in life is talking about his family’s history (they were placed in internment camps in World War II), the immigrant situation in our country, why we both feel our current President is wrong, and, of course, why he’s excited for people to join him on TraceMe and why it’ll be a troll free zone.

As a lifelong Star Trek fan, and someone that credits the show with my lifelong love of science fiction, getting to sit down with him for this interview was a real thrill.

Finally, a huge thank you to George Takei for coming in studio. Check out what he had to say in the player above and I’ve listed what we talked about below.

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Image via TraceMe

George Takei:

  • Talks about how Gene Roddenberry deserves all the credit for Star Trek.
  • How Star Trek showed us a future where we could all be working together for one goal.
  • How Star Trek was a way to talk about what was going on in society at the time but until the banner of science fiction.
  • How Star Trek dealt with the movements metaphorically.
  • How the technology on Star Trek influenced the world.
  • What got him interested in the entertainment industry?
  • What got him into social media?
  • Talks about his primary mission in life and his family’s history with what happened in World War 2 (they were placed in internment camps).
  • Talks about his musical Allegiance.
  • Why he uses his platform on social media to talk about issues that are important to him.
  • What he remembers about the soldiers taking his family out of his home in the 40s.
  • Talks about why he wanted to join Trace Me and the types of things he wants to talk about in a troll free environment.
  • How does his new social platform on Trace Me impact what he does on Twitter and Facebook?
  • Talks about the different subjects he will cover on Trace Me.
  • How we both have issues with our current President.
  • We talk about the immigrant situation in our country and why we both feel our current President is wrong.
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Image via TraceMe
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Image via TraceMe
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Image via TraceMe