Operation Mincemeat is a hit Broadway musical, and it's based on a remarkable true mission that saved hundreds of lives and helped win World War II. This musical has everything you could want in a screwball comedy: spies, dead bodies, big personalities, romance, double-crossing, and an American pilot who crash-lands into the story at the worst possible moment.

In this episode, we talk with Natasha Hodgson, Mincemeat co-creator and performer, and Broadway cast member Jeff Kready about the inspiration for the musical and how they brought these larger-than-life characters to the stage (all 87 of them!). We’re also joined by military aviation expert Dr. Roger Connor to dig deeper into the story of William Watkins (called Willie in the musical), the American pilot who almost blew the whole operation.

Thanks to our guests in this episode:

- Natasha Hodgson, co-creator and performer, Operation Mincemeat

- Jeff Kready, performer, Operation Mincemeat

- Dr. Roger Connor, Aeronautics Curator, National Air and Space Museum

For the episode transcript and more information, visit https://airandspace.si.edu/airspace-podcast/operation-mincemeat.

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter at https://s.si.edu/airspacenewsletter.

AirSpace is created by the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.

Star Trek: The Original Series only aired for three seasons (1966 to 1969), but it launched a fanbase that transformed pop culture. Trek fans pioneered letter-writing campaigns, cosplay, and modern fan conventions. They reshaped the franchise, fan culture, and even real science on Planet Earth.

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of Star Trek, we hosted a live taping of AirSpace at the Museum all about the history and cultural impact of Trek and its fans. Matt and Emily were joined on stage by Museum curator and Trek expert Dr. Margaret Weitekamp and a very special guest: actor Jonathan Del Arco, who played Hugh the Borg on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Picard.

In this episode, we talk about Trek and its fans from the early days to today, including some personal Trek connections shared with us by fans who came to see the show. We discuss how (and why) we interpret Trek at the Museum and the Trek objects in our collection--including Leonard Nimoy’s prosthetic Spock ear tips, our many tribbles, and the 11-foot studio model of the Starship Enterprise from The Original Series (whose display case just got a major glow-up).

Jonathan also shared how he got cast on The Next Generation and what it was like to come back for Picard, and told us what it’s like to be on the other side of the table at fan conventions (and about the first time he met Nichelle Nichols--at a hotel ice machine!).

Thanks to our guests in this episode:

• Jonathan Del Arco, actor and activist
• Margaret Weitekamp, curator and chair of Space History, National Air and Space Museum

For the episode transcript and more information, visit https://airandspace.si.edu/airspace-podcast/trek-60-live.

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter at https://s.si.edu/airspacenewsletter.

Further links:

Starship Enterprise Studio Model: https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/model-starship-enterprise-television-show-star-trek/nasm_A19740668000

Leonard Nimoy's Spock ear tips: https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/ear-tips-spock-leonard-nimoy-star-trek/nasm_A20220161000

Tribbles (assorted): https://airandspace.si.edu/explore/collections/search?edan_q=tribble

AirSpace is created by the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.

We’ll be back with new AirSpace episodes on October 8th. In the meantime, here’s something a little different. AirSpace co-hosts Matt and Emily recently guest-starred on Escape This Podcast, where they played through a custom audio escape room. Listen to find out if a geologist and a museum curator have what it takes to escape a spacecraft filled with an unusual amount of puzzles…

Speaking of escape rooms: keep an eye on the National Air and Space Museum’s event page for more info on our very own escape room program at the Museum this December. We’ll have more to say on that soon, but we’re cooking up something really fun!

Special thanks to Dani Siller and Bill Sunderland at Consume This Media for collaborating with us on this episode and designing an out-of-this world story for our crew.

To view the images discussed in this episode, use this link: https://www.consumethismedia.com/s19airspace.

Find the transcript of this episode and more information at https://airandspace.si.edu/airspace-podcast/escape-bonus.

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter at https://s.si.edu/airspacenewsletter.

AirSpace is created by the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.