CTP (S3EMaySpecial2) BooksAuthorsWeekMay2026 Chris Choate Apollo Wept

CTP (S3EMaySpecial2) BooksAuthorsWeekMay2026 Chris Choate Apollo Wept
Exploring more of the fascinating intersection of Activism, Community Engagement, Faith / Religion, Human Nature, Politics, Social Issues, and beyond   
We talk with Christopher Choate, a former Air Force weapon systems officer, about how a lifetime of flying, planning, and watching culture shift turns into the dystopian satire Apollo Wept. We dig into a future mission to intercept the Voyager probe, the cost of erasing history, and the simple habits that help writers catch ideas before they disappear.
• Christopher’s background from the F-4 Phantom to the F-15E Strike Eagle and how that shapes his fiction
• The 2020 catalyst and the strategic question of where cultural trends lead in 50 to 100 years
• Apollo Wept’s dystopian America where the Constitution is declared unconstitutional and history gets purged
• The Voyager plaque premise and the USS Despair mission to “correct” humanity’s message to the cosmos
• Star Trek influences and using science fiction as satire rather than a lecture
• Sequel and prequel possibilities plus what Christopher is writing next
• Practical writer’s block advice, running for ideas, and dictating notes to yourself fast
• Building characters from real mannerisms including a father-inspired voice and an onboard ideology enforcer
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A Short Story: A Lasting Legacy? book Trailer

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_02 0:08

Hello, welcome to another episode of Institutionalist Podcast. I am your host, Joseph M. Leonard. That's L-E-N-A-R-D at the French. It's not it's learned without an O. Thank you for tuning in. As Brandon used to say on his show, let's get on with the show. Welcome to Deja Vu Week. No, that's not what it is. What kind of sorta? Welcome to Bookslash Authors Week. May 2026. Just coming out of April 2026 Bookslash Authors Week and October Bookslash Authors Week of October 2025. So yes, you guys it's all about cucumbers and tomatoes and deli show. Joining me today is Christopher Show. But you look at it, it's like show A T E, but pronounce the show. Welcome to the show, Christopher.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Hey, thank you, sir. It's an honor to be here.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Oh glad to have you. Glad to have you. You are the author of Apollo Swept. I mean Wet. No brooms involved, I take it. No, no. But before we get to Apollo Web, let's learn about Christopher Choate. Where were you born and raised? Where are you now? Significant places you may have been between, that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Sure, be glad to. I'll try to keep from uh putting your audience to sleep here. Uh born in uh western Kentucky, raised in southern Illinois and uh western Tennessee, uh had a love for flying from day one from my dad, and uh that took me to the Air Force and uh what was Memphis State University back then. Uh spent 24 years in the Air Force. I flew the F-4 Phantom and the F-15E Strike Eagle as a uh weapon systems officer. Um for those who are not familiar with that, just think of Top Gun, think of Goose, the backseater. That's the easiest way to describe it. Uh did that for 24 years. Uh, a couple of uh fluid desks in there, the Pentagon, a few other places. Uh worked with uh a doctrine for unmanned aircraft, did some weapons testing, uh, retired, worked for the Air Force for a few years, um, got into writing uh by uh when my first uh PC came out, you know, in the early 90s, when I forgot my first PC, I decided, I wrote Christmas letters, decided everyone, well, you know, we write about them. They don't want to read something boring, so I tried to make them interesting. And as you know, no good deed goes unpunished. And I kept getting these things from my parents and family. Oh, they can't wait for the next one, so that put pressure, so I couldn't, I had to keep trying to make them better. Long story short on that is I had uh some dear family friends who told me I needed to write, and I promised them I would. And uh around 2020, uh finally came up with an idea for a book, and uh here I am talking to you.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

That's great, that's great. Yeah, that's you should uh you so no job at Hallmark involved.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

No, no, no, sir. Not at all. I did write for the Air Force, but uh those are technical reports which are uh they'll put you to sleep. If you have insomnia there, they would be a great uh great solve for that.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

Kind of like instead of Hallmark cards, they were Christopher Choke cards, huh?

SPEAKER_00 4:04

Uh yes, yes, uh, along that line, yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 4:08

What was the genesis of Apollo Wept?

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Takes it back to that lovely year of 2020. I think the thing that finally got me, you know, cancer culture had been alive and well, and you know, they just went into overtime with uh COVID there. We tore down, or say we a mob, tore down a uh statue of President Lincoln uh in Portland, Oregon. And you know, here we are. He's our I think historians pretty much put him one or two as our you know greatest presidents, and we're tearing down a statue to that guy. And I just kind of thought, and this goes back to I did some strategic planning uh in my Air Force at the Pentagon, and you're trying to take drivers and you're trying to try to project those forward and go, you know, where will we be in you know 50, 100 years from now? And I just took that. I go, if we're tearing down statues of Lincoln, where would we be in a hundred years? And and that was where I came up with the idea of Polo Wept, and it all centers on the uh the pioneer and voyager probe. Now, the one I talk about in the book is Voyager. The we've just gone so woke and so far into uh the way we are at, the 20. If we just kept that slope going, and uh so what I've done in the book here is I have a dystopian America, the constitution is gone, it's basically been declared unconstitutional, which is about as Orwellian as you can get. Uh we have a new America, and and we're erasing, eradicating our history, particularly what I call the uh the faux area, the late 20th century to the first early years of the 21st century, when America was truly, to me, was becoming the country that our founding fathers talked about and our documents say, and then we went off the rails. And so, anyway, long story short on this is uh they discover as we're burning records that the Voyager probe has a plaque on it, and this plaque shows a male and a female, and that is denial that says there's only two genders, and in New America there are 68 or excuse me, um 69 uh genders, appropriate number. Yes, uh I get 68 and 101. I don't think that's a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 6:15

Quink, quink, nod, nod, yeah, 69.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

Yeah. So we are going to we can't allow this plaque to go off into the cosmos and stay in our legacy for you know all of eternity. So we have and we're broke, by the way, at the same time. So we have China build us a spaceship, and the spaceship is called the USS Despair, and is going to leave the first ship to leave the solar system to go find Voyager and take that plaque off and replace it with the one that says there's 68 genders and uh 101 sexual orientations. We've got to add them there too. So that is the genesis of the whole book. We're going out to um to replace plaque because we can't allow that that denial, that bigotry to sail off into the cosmos.

Star Trek Satire And Culture

SPEAKER_02 6:58

Right. Yeah, a couple things like Lincoln. I doubt they were fans of habeas corpus, because a you know, a legit criticism of Lincoln could only be he suspended the writ of habeas corpus. Absolutely, absolutely, but the people tearing down the Lincoln statue probably don't even know what the hell the words habeas corpus means, or anyone. I wouldn't bet against it. I would not and the other thing I love anything, I love the first Star Trek film with the original crew, right? V'ger. Yeah, so I I love the way you put this play in there, a different kind of play. I I like this spin on that. That's very interesting.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

Well, thank you. That's that comes from there's an AI who is uh from our era, if you will. He's the first digital AI and he's a great grandfather, and that goes into more we want to talk about here, but he is a big fan of the original Star Trek, and that's where the um Apollo Web came from. If you're Treky, I probably need to tell you more on that.

SPEAKER_02 8:08

Yeah, yeah, all that classic. I'm still a fan of the classic stuff. The the more modern stuff, the first season of Voyager was good, after that it went to hell, in my opinion. First season of Picard was good, after that it went to hell, and it's like all these re and I was a big fan of Scott Bacchula in the Enterprise series. I loved that, but of late, everything has got all this woke crap.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

It has, and it's just uh that's and you wonder why Hollywood is suffering as they are. I think they just they just got writers that wrote what they wanted to write and what they wanted to write, but like you say, a good chunk of America don't care to see it or hear it.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

Yeah, yeah. But that's not off the rails, I would say, because Roddenberry was an atheist and kind of a uh political correct kind of guy at the time, right? I mean, all those Star Trek early episodes took on cultural things that were taboo to the first interracial piss between Kirk and O'Hara and all that. I mean, so not off track, just way overboard these.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

That's exactly the words I would use. You know, uh you know, I I I'm conservative and libertarian, but uh, you know, a lot of things come for the country by people pushing us where you know, I like the way things are, blah, blah, blah, you know, what have you. You know, but you need to be pushed a little. But and and Roddenberry did that. But like I say, now we're not pushing, we're like just throwing ourselves off the cliff. And uh, and so I think that's the difference. You know, uh a good, healthy, you know, moving moving us forward is good, but yeah, but uh, but uh we have got since you know what I'm gonna call wokeism, is just it is gone off the rail and it's it's not pushing us anymore. I say it's kicking us off the cliff.

Sequel Plans And Other Books

SPEAKER_02 10:10

Yeah, exactly. I mean dealing with a large sector of our society is one thing. Modern wokeism is catering to less than one percent of society, it's just ridiculous. But anyway, totally good, yeah, didn't bring you here for that. Is there a potential sequel in the works?

SPEAKER_00 10:38

For Apollo Webb, there might be a prequel. I uh originally it's written as um uh it's three books, literally. It's one put together. They made a marketing decision, they're all three together, so it's kind of a complete story, but I think there are some prequels to it. I'm already working uh um uh uh the next book is uh on the Tastigue Airmen. It's an alt alternative history for the Tastigue airmen, and I'm having a lot of fun with that one, but um I'm afraid I'm gonna not wanna well you always somebody somebody's gonna be mad at me.

SPEAKER_02 11:07

Catching a few third rails there, are we?

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, yeah. Yeah, but I I I I'll defend them once I get it out there. I'll be glad uh defend them against anybody. But yeah, you're right. There's uh I hadn't thought of a term, but more one third rail. I think I've hit a couple of them.

Creative Process And Writer’s Block

SPEAKER_02 11:25

Uh so we know what got you into writing, and we know what you're working on now. How what is your creative process? How did how you know we all deal with writer block at time or another, right? I go into that in my how to write a book and get it published, it's tips and techniques. Everybody has it at some point. How do you deal? I find the more you try to pressure yourself to write, the more writer block is likely to happen to you.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Agree, agree. I and again, I'm obviously uh unlike you, you you uh you got a couple books out, right?

SPEAKER_02 13:10

I'm up to like 10, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

All right, you're an expert. You're an expert, so I probably can't tell you anything uh you you probably haven't already thought of. But I what I've found, and I I've heard other people say this, is I'm a big runner, and when I'm running, I seem to kind of a creative thoughts that I just can't get sitting in front of a keyboard. And the biggest problem I have now at uh my age now is trying to remember them. I get back from the run and go, oh now what was that?

SPEAKER_02 13:37

You know, but uh you need to carry a uh recorder, digital recorder, yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

Yes, I did know that, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

Yeah, or just your smartphone, of course, because you can stop running. Open up your email app. One of my tips and techniques is okay open up your email app, you know, either Google Assistant or whatever, dictate yourself an email about what you're thinking, email it to yourself before you forget. And then of course great technique.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

That's a great technique. Again, I say I have you know, I usually get it back, but it takes a little bit of work trying to remember it. It'd be so much easier just to yeah, like they listen to what you were thinking at the time.

SPEAKER_02 14:22

Exactly, exactly. And you may not remember it all as long as you could get a bullet point or two to jog running, pun intended, jog your memory. It doesn't matter if you're out jogging, running, you're in your car, pull off to the side of the road when you get an idea dictated into your phone before you forget. Because one never knows when indeed the uh uh the muse is gonna kick in. Yes?

SPEAKER_00 14:55

Yeah, I agree. Totally agree. It doesn't happen in front of the keyboard, usually. It's usually out doing so, like you say, something else.

Borrowing From Real Life

SPEAKER_02 15:02

So have you loosely bait now? I know like all my disclaimers, our fictional characters, any you know, to living or dad is coincidental, but you know, usually as writers, we borrow aspects of friends' lives to put into our books. So we're using them fictionally. Uh, you got some friends that you kind of borrowed a little bit for your characters?

SPEAKER_00 15:32

Yeah, uh some mannerisms, some of my friends. I've kind of got those in there. Uh the the the uh almost the biggest one, I guess, would be uh again, I have uh it's Dr. Um uh Lincoln, uh call him Pop, and he is the great-grandfather of the uh protagonist, and never met him, but uh he again was born in 57, passed away uh about about 95 years later, and this is after that. But again, he became there's a story how his digital memories become his memories become digitized, and he becomes what is in my book the first human-based or first digital intellect based off human memories and human intellect. Uh, but it's his great-grandfather, and uh that is my my dad, pretty much all over, who uh you know he's very very very smart, not not the most educated guy in the world, but very smart, uh had a very low tolerance for uh stupidity, and uh this guy is dealing with a lot of stupidity in 2104, and he's telling them about it. So that that was again that yeah, so that's probably the biggest example that uh if you read that and knew my dad, you go, Yeah, I kind of see the resemblance here.

SPEAKER_02 16:45

Yeah, well what was the movie Idiocracy comes to mind, right? Right, as we keep if the current trends are any indication, yeah, by 2104 we'll be a society of ignoramuses.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

That is that is that line is in my book. He's introduced him to his great to his uh his grandson, who's the captain of the USS Despair, and he's goes, Your ship's name Despair, and he gets in this, and and Pop goes, Oh my god, idiocracy. I thought it was a comedy.

SPEAKER_02 17:17

Yeah, no, it doesn't documentary, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 17:22

Yeah, it's now a documentary. Yeah, and borrowed. I've heard that joke before, and I say I kind of borrowed a little of that as pop I'm on a ship named USS Despair, heading off to uh intercept a probe that's been dead for you know a hundred years just to take the plaque off of it.

SPEAKER_02 17:37

But uh yeah, and also comes to mind is one of the many HG Wells uh Time Machine remakes, the one with Guy Pierce, where he's in the future and the AI librarian. I've seen that very well redone. I love the way they did it with Guy Pierce, yeah, uh Time Machine, and indeed in the future, like librarians have become AI and they're projected on crystal panels and interact with people, and he remembers dealing with them in one time frame, and then several hundred years in the future, it's like you can't be the same guy. How are you the same guy? Uh okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

Okay, all right, I'll put that on my list. I need to see that.

SPEAKER_02 18:33

Yeah, it's great. I I think I'll watch it again this afternoon. I haven't seen it again, I haven't seen it for a while. Although, you know, full disclosure, we're recording right after Christmas. It's still Die Hard season. I did see Die Hard for the season. Did you rewatch Die Hard this year?

SPEAKER_00 18:54

Yes, that's that's a requirement. Gotta watch it.

SPEAKER_02 18:56

Yep, yep. It is a Christmas movie because the writers say it was. They wanted an action movie built as a Christmas movie. So I've been on several shows to talk about that, have a couple of my own shows that discusses that. But anyway, didn't have you here to talk about that. But how was your Christmas since we're on Christmas?

SPEAKER_00 19:21

It was good. Uh with uh Kentucky, my wife's family. So uh it was always good to get her up there, and uh it was a good time. You know, good time to get up there and glad to be home.

Characters Plot And The USS Despair

SPEAKER_02 19:31

Of course, when this airs, people will be saying Christmas, boy, that was a while ago. Okay. Yeah, pretty good. Uh so tell us a little bit more, maybe without too many spoilers, other characters.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

Okay. Um Renee Smith. Um, she's not on the ship, but uh Penn Lincoln is the protagonist. He's the captain of the ship. Uh he's the last fighter pilot in the Air Force. So there's a kind of story how he revolved ended up being in what's called the U.S. Space Uh Collective Equity or Space Equity Collective. Um, he meets her at an illegal speakeasy uh just a couple months before um before uh he leaves. And obviously he did intend to fall in love with her, but he does. And uh she ends up running a foul of the government uh when there is a purge of uh uh artifacts and stuff in this club this club. So Texas in this case is an independent nation, so she has to run to Texas to get out from being persecuted for the government because she loses her job, loses her credit cards, you know, because she's been fought by found as in this um uh night 20th century nightclub. Uh and he starts making decisions uh based off that, trying to get back to see her, and they lose compound, and the Chinese are involved. And uh the uh Chinese do not want the ship coming straight back from the Voyager because they will discover there's an uns uh a um uh undiscovered subplanet, which is uh full of minerals that the China is mining, and they have used uh they've got it basically uh uh they've got um it's hidden. They have put in viruses, so they are the only ones that know it's there. You know, the long-range cameras, everything can't see it because they have put viruses into them. And but they know voice the uh this the despair will will basically fly right by it and uh see it. So now China's against it, so now China and America is at. So uh you got the captain of the uh Chinese spaceship, is fairly prominent. Um Will Borgman is the uh antagonist, he is a social justice officer on board despair. If you think of uh the old Russian political officer, if you think of like a Taliban religious, you know, religious official, whatever they call those guys, uh those you know what those jerks are called, running around, you know, uh enforcing their uh their thought and their beliefs. That's kind of what Will Borgman is. He's on there to uh, you know, and he he runs with the ship mainly because he's in charge of social justice. And Penn finally kind of realizes he's not in charge of the ship. Uh the doctor is an old, almost Dr. McCoy, almost a Dr. McCoy. He's he's old school and him, he doesn't get along. He's social justice enemy number one, and he's proud of it.

SPEAKER_02 22:24

Yeah, he's hat tip back to Star Trek there to a little bit of a degree.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is. It's it's it's uh uh Dr. Browning, but but he's yeah, if you he's he looks a lot like McCoy, but uh because he's not happy with the uh way things are going with the social justice. Uh the XO is a uh very uh Antonio Washington. Now, intentionally Lincoln spelled uh has he spells his name with E. Washington spells his with an I since they both changed their names for Lincoln. That was intentional, again more of the satire. But he is uh uh he's the XO, very sharp uh individual, and uh uh again, everybody's uh all Americans are identified. But he's never really foundation or those categories. I think quite a few, quite a few in it. And uh weird names. She's very prominent because she used to hear all the things that's going on with a ship coming back from DC and uh from March and your movie.

SPEAKER_02 24:45

Pretty much I haven't three.

SPEAKER_00 25:29

If you were trying to find one, you won't be happy. I mean I would write it before you write it, you would come up with something and I would think six months later.

SPEAKER_02 26:34

I hear you, I hear you.

SPEAKER_00 26:40

So thank you, God bless, thank you.

SPEAKER_04 26:52

America, two fifty, while seem to lost their way. Us real US patriots fighting for our Republic to stay. Our Judeo, Christian Foundation, try true Freedom ringing for me and you America 250.

SPEAKER_03 27:22

We're looking in the mirror. Some folks lost the map, but we can see it clearer, real US Patriots Standing in the rain, holding on to the promise, keeping faith in the name.

Fever Dream Song And Closing

SPEAKER_06 27:42

Christian roots running deep. Tried and true. We keep what we keep through the hard days, through the fight. We still know wrong from right. Freedom ringing for me and you freedom ringing, tried and true. We stand up, we won't back down. Freedom ringing, for me and you freedom ringing, red, white, blue. Hand on heart when the flag goes by. Fourth of July, sparks in the midnight sky. Moms in the pew, dance on the porch. Kids still learn what this country is for. Judy go up, Christian roots run deep, tried and true. We keep what we keep through the hard days, through the fight. We still know, wrong from ride. Freedom ring, for me and you. Freedom ringin', tried and true. Oh, we stand up, we won't back down, public strong in this hometown. Oh Freedom ringin', for me and you freedom ringing red, white, blue, oh, wait, wait. We're not done, not by my Who keep this fire, keep this trial Wation, still rising strong The faithful still belong Freedom ringing for me and you freedom ringing tried and true Oh we stand up We won't back down Republic strong in the next hometown Freedom ringing for me and you Oh freedom ringing White blues Patriots the people we part two freedom for me and you We hold these truths to be self-evident All endowed by our Creator with unalienable rights God bless America for another two fifty years from our whole dead hands the atheist comicrats called us bitter clingers We got news for you on guile left wingers our constitution rights from our God to our guns from us you'll never sever We hold these truth Self-evidence forever They called us names bitter clingers From their tower so high They think they know us They think they own us But they don't know us they From our old death You won't take them all right from our old heads You won't tell us these truths we hold forever They preach their words on God leads first Try to change our minds They talk a few ways of different days But we never know what our old chairs you won't take them all right from our soul test You won't take this to Switzer From our cold days you won't take them on our right side from our cold death You won't sell forever. Sharp soaks off the glass Draws a circle, it looks like hout the one I know Can walk by and tell a smile Clip board ice scan for miles Every hallway comes my name like something in a wall Is it really here In the steps Drinking coffee All they chilling up my thoughts Every time I stop the story Is my professor feeling back Every word I try to scream Or is this just every I changed it Oh Fever dream Fever dream Laptop dies at 99 H about the secret size That's what changed my files a gone Who is in my mind Library lights Sleep twice Right on every alien line Library mouth Don't write that this is it's all fine Is it really here In the train Looking the hallway Are they scrolling through my brain Like it's all This Justin Friday Is the deed a distant star Is a free store human skin Or is this just Area fit to hold Fever dream I can Every time I get too close Fire alarms the white be ghost Hit it like a coded note Drop it, drop it, drop it So we chose What is losing in between is the university of really Or am I monsters Are they asking all my dress Or am I just my lost dog Is my purpose everything Will they live or will they leave Either way outside it from your area 61 fever Dream Like and subscribe to Christitutionalist Politics Podcast and share episodes We need your help Thank you for having tuned into another Christitutionalist Podcast show I really appreciate that you stop by again please like, share, subscribe.

SPEAKER_02 38:55

We need you to help spread the Christitutionalist movement. Thank you again. Take care. God bless. Love you all.