STEM, cosplay, jet propulsion and planetary geology at Dragon Con

Every August when I introduce myself to students I give them the FAQ about my life. One of the things that I mention to them is that I go to Dragon Con each year to play video games and listen to the scientists who are speaking. “Do you dress up like a dragon?” is what the smarmy response that a couple of the well-meaning, but curious kids will utter. This year when they asked I said “Yes, and I’ll be talking with jet propulsion specialists, NASA engineers, and others who have been integral in the outer space discoveries for decades to come.” I’ve been practicing my ‘yes, and’ method of shutting down or continuing conversations in the manner of improv comedy.

For us, Dragon Con 2023 was a ripping great time in one of the largest cons in the United States that, at times, defies description. That unique way of describing Dragon Con became clear when I saw Mike who created Hero Bear. We were big fans of Hero Bear when the comic book was released and even though we’d never met him before it felt like we were seeing an old friend when his work was in front of us.

It was his first time at Dragon Con and we started talking about what an utterly unique feeling it has. Dragon Con is not specific to one intellectual property, genre, demographic or medium, it literally has something for everyone who enjoys anything about pop culture. Dragon Con takes up most of the hotel meeting rooms and places to stay in downtown Atlanta.  Because of this, if you don’t like one particular presentation or topic, then all you have to do is go to a different meeting room to discover something entirely new and different.

There are massive gaming rooms where people can play any game from Steve Jackson or other creators, in addition to the latest video games from Japan, vintage arcade jams and classic pinball machines. A must-see option at Dragon Con is the vendor’s hall, which takes up six floors on the Merchandise Mart. We picked up some Bronze Era Superman and Green Lantern comic books for $1, saw every cool thing that we always wanted (but never knew where to get), and told our 11-year-old a million times that he couldn’t buy that katana sword, even if he uses his own money.

There are topics, presentations, and breakouts for seemingly anything and everything. Some of them are from actors or creative people that you’ve seen in film or online, while others might be historians, scientists, authors, skeptics, or thinkers who operate behind the scenes in niche fields. As our children have grown up through Dragon Con we started out in the Kid’s Track, did some presentations with various actors, and are now spending lots of time in the Science Track.

The Science Track is aimed at people who enjoy the thought about various aspects of science. This could include paleontology, outer space exploration, rockets, chemistry, geology or anything that falls under the STEM umbrella. We chatted with Dr. Scott Edgington, Dr. Kim Steadman, Sarah M. Milkovitch, Steve Jackson, and Les Johnson, who all grew up with Star Trek and had their fingerprints in some sort of outer space satellite or mission that’s in space currently. It was our job to keep the conversation understandable so that common folk and today’s scientists-in-training can follow along and not get lost in the techno-weeds. As each conversation gets posted on YouTube we’ll put links here so that you can follow along, learn something, and hopefully get inspired to think beyond what’s currently possible.

Dragon Con happens every year in Atlanta, Georgia over Labor Day Weekend.