Before season two officially begins, I thought it was time to properly introduce myself. From small-market radio, to more than two decades at CNN and HLN, to my lifelong love of Star Trek, this is the unlikely, abridged, story of how a podcast about the moments when real life harmonizes with science fiction came to…
When an American YouTuber illegally lands on North Sentinel Island, home to one of the last uncontacted peoples on Earth, it raises a question Star Trek asked decades ago: just because you can make contact, does that mean you should? From the Prime Directive to real-world consequences, this episode of The Prime Detective explores curiosity,…
In 2014, twelve-year-olds Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser stabbed their friend Payton Leutner nineteen times in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Their motive: proving their loyalty to Slender Man, a fictional monster born on an internet creepypasta forum. In 1993, the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode ‘Ship in a Bottle’ asked what happens when a holodeck simulation…
The Link Between Quantico, Hannibal Lecter, and Deep Space Nine Trace the evolution of criminal profiling from its gritty origins in the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit to its transformation into a definitive pop-culture trope. This episode explores the thin line between reality and fiction, connecting the revolutionary work of John Douglas and Robert Ressler to…
In Oshawa, Ontario, everyone knew Ken Chopee as “the Star Wars guy.” A lifelong collector of memorabilia, comics, and film artifacts, his identity was built around a galaxy far, far away — until his life came to a violent end in January 2023. In this episode of The Prime Detective, we examine the real-life killing…
Jack the Ripper is history’s most famous unsolved murder case. Five victims. Ten weeks. Zero arrests. But in the 1967 Star Trek episode “Wolf in the Fold,” written by Psycho novelist Robert Bloch, the crew of the Enterprise finally closes the case — and the answer is terrifying. This week on The Prime Detective, we…
What does Isaac Asimov’s Second Foundation have to do with one of the most notorious cults in American history? More than you’d think. Keith Raniere — the self-styled “Vanguard” behind NXIVM — didn’t just build a self-help empire. He built it on a twisted reading of science fiction, casting himself as the hero of his…
A Star Trek superfan rescues an iconic shuttlecraft from ruin — then gives it away. But his next legendary acquisition, a Wicked Witch hat from The Wizard of Oz, leads somewhere far more complicated: the courtroom. When fandom, collecting, and big money collide, things get messy fast. Credits: This episode of “The Prime Detective” was…
How Star Trek turns nothing into news When a man was arrested in Clearwater, Florida for lewd conduct at a bus stop, it should have been a forgettable local story. Instead, it made national headlines—in the Miami Herald, the New York Post, even Fox News. Why? Because he told police his name was “James Tiberius…
A fatal trust, a hidden life, and a case that shook a fandom. Thomas Krider, known as TJ Greene, was a tour guide at the Star Trek Original Series Set Tour in Ticonderoga, New York, where fans from around the world can walk through meticulously recreated Enterprise sets. An Elvis tribute artist with a warm…
