George Takei

8th July 2025

This week on Bullseye, George Takei returns to talk about his new graphic-memoir: It Rhymes with Takei. You may be familiar with George Takei for his pioneering role as Commander Sulu on the original Star Trek series, or his powerful social media presence. His memoir focuses on his personal journey: discovering his identity as a gay man, hiding it, and how it felt to finally come out publicly. Takei talks to Bullseye about this, as well as his experience living in incarceration camps, and his roots in Los Angeles.

Episode notes

Photo: Daniel Speer/Maximum Fun

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 ten million followers on Facebook. Another four million on Instagram and X.

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. Takei talks to Bullseye about this, as well as his experience living in incarceration camps, and his roots in Los Angeles.

In this episode...

Senior Producer
Producer
Maximum Fun Producer
Video Editor
Maximum Fun Production Fellow

Guests

  • George Takei

About the show

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.” Since April 2013, the show has been distributed by NPR.

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People

Senior Producer

Producer

Maximum Fun Producer

Video Editor

Maximum Fun Production Fellow

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