Crew Collective – Details, episodes & analysis

Crew Collective will explore stories through the lens of the people who created them. From novels to documentaries, to comic books and other podcasts, this series goes behind the scenes from creative works across all different mediums. The common theme? outer space. Each episode of this series will go behind the scenes of a story about outer space.

https://crewcollectivepodcast.com/

https://rocketgenius.com/

Crew Collective is a podcast dedicated to the art of storytelling. Hosted by Stuart Barefoot, each episode will explore the stories that help shape us—books, movies, songs, video games—nothing is off limits. We’ll talk to creators of all stripes about their process, their craft, and the worlds they build.

Whether you’re a seasoned creator, just starting your journey, or simply a casual observer who likes behind the scenes looks at creative work, Crew Collective will provide an entertaining and informative listening experience. By mixing interview and documentary style storytelling, this show will provide in depth conversations and curated storytelling. 

Learn more at https://crewcollectivepodcast.com/

For 50 years, the original flight film from NASA’s Apollo missions remained locked away in a vault in Houston, Texas.  Enter Andy Saunders 

His lifelong obsession with NASA and the Apollo missions and his love of photography eventually turned into a one of a kind book called Apollo Remastered. 

Andy is a photographer and  imaging specialist, who used a unique technique known as ‘stacking’ to digitally remaster the original flight film from the Apollo Missions. The result was a best selling book, with stunning visuals, documenting one of  mankind's greatest achievements.

Links

Andy’s Website:  https://www.apolloremastered.com/

Gemini and Mercury Remastered:  https://www.apolloremastered.com/gemini-and-mercury-remastered

Rocketgenius:  https://rocketgenius.com/

Stuart’s Website:  https://www.stuartproduces.com/

Themes and Topics Explored

• Preserving Human Achievement
• Humanity in Space
• An Unseen History and Visual Legacy
• Technique and Innovation
• Photography as History
• Astronaut Photography Training

Let’s Start Here

Since this is a series about outer space, an observatory seems like a good place to start…consider it our prologue. Crew Collective host/producer Stuart Barefoot went to an observatory in his hometown on a whim one night. The result? He saw Saturn and learned about Neptune. 

Outer Space tells stories and that’s what this whole series is about. Storytelling. In season one, we’re exploring space stories. So come along on this journey as we’ll hear from creators of all stripes who have created some kind of story about oyster space. 

Crew Collective is brought to you by Rocketgenius:  https://rocketgenius.com/

This episode was written, edited and produced by Stuart Barefoot:  https://www.stuartproduces.com/

Do you Dream of Terra Two? is Temi Oh’s debut novel. When a new earth-like planet, Terra Two, is discovered, the U.K’s space agency sends a group of six teenagers (all of whom have been training since they were children) and four seasoned astronauts on a 23 year long journey to colonize the new planet.

Told through the lens of the six teens, the novel opens with their last day on earth, and takes us beyond our galaxy on their journey. While the plot takes us to another galaxy, the story remains grounded. The world in this novel is exactly like the one we live in now, the only difference being that space exploration is about a century more advanced.

Links

Temi Oh:  https://www.theonlytemioh.com/

Rocketgenius:  https://rocketgenius.com/

Stuart’ Website:  https://www.stuartproduces.com/

Themes and Topics

• Coming of Age
• Transitioning into Adulthood
  • Space is used as a metaphor for coming of age and entering uncertain territory. In this case, it ha[[ens both literally and symbolically
• Regret, loss
• Exploitation
• Death
• Religion
• Searching for Utopia
• The myth of the hero's journey. This story mostly avoids heroes and villains and instead, show’s characters' full humanity. 

Prism Stalker is a graphic novel series from cartoonist and writer Sloane Leong. The story follows a refugee named Vep, who is forced into a life of indentured service when her home planet is destroyed. When she's offered a way out, he sense of duty to her family will battle with her conscience.

Links

Sloane Leong:  https://sloanesloane.com/

Prism Stalker Soundtrack fron Neotenomie:  https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mDWLfo2sE_hOnuGUz_i2NQyiNsB43qmv4&si=iqU5FmY_59xKUP2c

Rocketgenius:  https://rocketgenius.com/

Stuart’s Website:  https://www.stuartproduces.com/

Themes and Topics Explored:

Colonialism, Assimilation & Complicity

Progress vs. Preservation

Indigenous Identity, and Spiritual Philosophy

The Creative Process & Artistic Vision

Labor, Freelancing and Creative Industry Challenges

Notable Quotes

"You have to assimilate to survive. You become complicit in so many horrible things."

"Our progress is actually killing us. So is it really progress?"

"I err on the side of not handholding. I prefer to deliver what’s relevant to the scene at hand."

"It’s this illusion of progress, really."

Anthologies and Science Fiction go a ways back. From early short story collections like The Other Worlds in 1941, to mega hit classic TV shows like The Twilight Zone to current shows, like Black Mirror, it just feels like science fiction and anthology were made for each other

Strange New Worlds and Spaced Out Tales continues this tradition. As an audio drama each episode varies in length, tone and theme, though it fits squarely in the SciFi genre. 

As Jim puts it:   It's a wonderful thing and if you, you get a brilliant idea and you can make it into something that contained, uh, that's great. And then it's one and done, and you move on to the next one, and you can do something completely different. You get the option to absolutely flip it on its head the following episode.

You can do something in a completely different style or a different method of storytelling.

As you might expect with a SciFi, many episodes from SNWASOT take place in outer space. Some are funny, some are intense and others just flat out zany, but that’s what makes anthologies so cool.

Links

Strange New Worlds and Spaced Out Tales:  https://snwasot.com/

Rocketgenius:  https://rocketgenius.com/

Stuart’s Website:  https://www.stuartproduces.com/

Themes and Topics

• A very brief history of SciFi anthologies
• The commercialization of outer space
• Gritty, blue collar characters
• Hiring and directing voice actors from all over the world 

Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning, was a no-budget, fan-made sci-fi parody that evolved into a full-length feature film in 2005. Directed by Timo Vuorensola and created by a group of Finnish friends over the course of seven years, the project grew in ambition, technical skill, and cultural impact. Timo shares behind-the-scenes challenges, humorous setbacks, lessons learned, and how the film’s success unexpectedly positioned it as a pioneer in digital distribution and a touchstone for Finnish film culture.

Themes and Topics Explore

1. DIY Filmmaking & Learning by Doing

2. Time, Youth, and Long-Term Projects

3. Cultural Innovation & Internet Pioneering

4. The Role of Satire in Political Commentary

5. Challenges of Finnish Film Culture

6. Sci-Fi as Social Mirror

Links

Star Wreck Movie:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GOoMowFpZs

Behind the Scenes Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V3HDzUaldg

Timo's Website:  https://vuorensola.com/2025/02/06/subtitles-in-english-please/

Rocketgenius:  https://rocketgenius.com/

Stuart's Website:  https://www.stuartproduces.com/

Jackson Tyler began collecting NASA’s public domain footage as a teenager and over time, compiled them into long form documentaries for his YouTube channel, Homemade Documentaries.

Through his videos, Jackson curates a series about some of NASA’s most famous missions, like Project Gemini, Apollo and others. 

With a minimal online presence and virtually no marketing, Homemade Documentaries has racked up tens of millions of views, and is entirely viewer funded (through Patreon.) 

He joins Stuart for this episode for a conversation about how he's turned a hobby into a beloved documentary series.

Themes and Topics Explored:

Homemade Craftsmanship vs. Mass Production

Education vs. Self-Taught Mastery

Archival Work as Investigative Storytelling

Access to the Public Domain

DIY Spirit & Digital Preservation

Crowdsourcing

Links

Homemade Documentaries:  https://www.youtube.com/@JacksonTyler

Rocketgenius:  https://rocketgenius.com/

Citizen DJ:  https://citizen-dj.labs.loc.gov/

Stuart's Website:  https://www.stuartproduces.com/

In our final episode of Season one, Stuart talks to Eric, from the indie rock band, Say Hi. Since 2002, Say Hi has been a mainstay on the indie rock scene with 12 studio albums, and a constant presence on the college radio airwaves. While not strictly outer space themed, the music often kind of feels spacey, at least according to Stuart. 

Say Hi Tracks in the Episode

• Pantone Chrysanthemums
• Instructional Astrology
• Constellation Afterlife

Links

Say Hi Website/Merch:  https://sayhitoyourmom.com/

Watch:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLMcrAGr0OCo6bY5w8-S3dw

Listen:  https://sayhi.bandcamp.com/

Rocketgenius:  https://rocketgenius.com/

Stuart's Website:  https://www.stuartproduces.com/