George Takei reflects on living in incarceration camps, coming out - Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

There is one version of George Takei you probably know: the guy who played Commander Sulu on the original Star Trek series. There's also George Takei, the social media presence. He's got nearly 10 million followers on Facebook. Another 4 million on Instagram and Twitter. Then, there’s George Takei, a child living with his family in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. In 1942, American soldiers showed up in his driveway and forcibly removed Takei and his family. They were incarcerated first at a local horse racing track, then near a swamp in Arkansas, then at a remote mountain camp near the border of Oregon and California. Lastly, there's the George Takei who, until he was 68, stayed in the closet. When he did come out as a gay man in 2005, he did so not because he felt especially comfortable doing so, but because the then governor of California had vetoed a bill that would have allowed marriage equality. Takei has a new book out called It Rhymes With Takei, and it shows a new side of George Takei: graphic novelist. It's a memoir that focuses on Takei's journey of discovering an important part of his identity, hiding it, and how it felt to finally come out publicly. In his conversation with Bullseye, Takei reflects on both his identity and life experiences. Want to hear more? Subscribe to Bullseye now via Apple Podcasts: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/n... Get MORE of Bullseye with Jesse Thorn: ► FOLLOW us on Instagram: /   / bullseyewithjessethorn   ► FOLLOW us on X: / https://x.com/Bullseye ► LIKE us on Facebook: /   / bullseyewithjessethorn   ► VISIT our show page: / https://maximumfun.org/podcasts/bulls... Bullseye is a celebration of the best of arts and culture in public radio form. Host Jesse Thorn sifts the wheat from the chaff to bring you in-depth interviews with the most revered and revolutionary minds in our culture. Bullseye has been featured in Time, The New York Times, GQ and McSweeney's, which called it "the kind of show people listen to in a more perfect world."