Secret Friend Unite! was started in 2014 by best friends and college roommates Todd Oxtra and Charlie Carden.
The Secret Friends
Charlie Carden
Shows: Secret Friends Unite!, Code 47, Holocron Chronicles
Charlie was geeking it up as an immature ovum - his parents watched STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES in the dorms of Central Michigan University in the 1960s.
After he was born, he snagged his first Marvel Comic at age 6-- Star Wars # 65, at the Notre Dame Pharmacy in his hometown of Grosse Pointe, Michigan. At this point - it was ALL OVER for him!
After spending many lonely teenage nights reading comics, watching Star Trek movies and shows and the Star Wars Original Trilogy until the VHS tapes damn-near wore out, he’s become a quirky adult who gets to live the dream, even founding a chapter of the International Star Trek fan club with his lovely wife April.
Since Fall 2014, he’s been making podcasting magic with BFF Todd Oxtra in the form of THE SECRET FRIENDS UNITE Podcast, and running the SFU Facebook geek discussion group. CODE 47 followed in 2020 and THE HOLOCRON CHRONICLES in 2021!
Charlie and April live in East Grand Rapids, Michigan with their mutt Albus and three mischievous cats.
Find him on Threads and Instagram at TheCeeThree and having a blast over the SFU Discord!
Todd Oxtra
Shows: Secret Friends Unite, Co-op Mode
Todd lives in The Twin Cities, Minnesota with his wife, son, dog and cats. He’s an MSU graduate, and Air Force Veteran and a mild mannered Logistics Guru by day.
His fandom began in the 80’s with Voltron, DC comics, He-man, Transformers Star Wars and the Atari 5200. Today his geek focus is on PS5 and PC, comics from all publishers, new Star Trek, Game of Thrones, The Witcher, MCU and DC TV.
In college in 1995, he met up with Charlie Carden and that’s when the Secret Friends Unite was formed. In 2013, they created the SFU Facebook group to connect geeks and in 2014, the podcast was launched. In 2019, Mark Carabin joined the team and launched Co-op Mode video game podcast with Todd, becoming the first SFU spinoff.
Find him on Twitter @toxtra
Mark Carabin
Shows: Co-op Mode, Holocron Chronicles
Mark lives in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia with his wife, son and dog. The newest member of Secret Friends Unite, Mark loves Nintendo, Xbox, and any excuse to talk about lightsabers.
He might be the CaNERDian now, but his geek love started much earlier than that nickname, with his parents bringing home an NES and his nerdy aunt introducing him to the original Star Wars Trilogy on VHS at a young age.
Co-op Mode started when he and Todd started spitballing ideas for a video game segment that could fit inside the regular Secret Friends Unite show, after Mark’s show The Warp Whistle ended. From there, he’s become a full-fledged Secret Friend, starting up the Holocron Chronicles with Charlie to get his Star Wars fix every couple of weeks.
Contributors
Peter Stine
Code 47
Hailing from the State of Michigan, Peter dwells in a household with a predilection for all things fantasy and sci-fi.
He began his nerd life in utero as his parents watched both Star Trek and Star Wars. After that, he quickly picked up fantasy novels and a plethora of science fiction. And yes, he was one of those nerds who basically had the Star Trek Encyclopedia memorized in middle-school. This interest continued in college and influenced many other aspects of his academic career; he even wrote his capstone Philosophy thesis on Star Trek, Doctor Who, and the question of the divine.
When not out saving the universe from intergalactic synthetic menaces, Peter can be found working on Starship Excelsior, the Roll and Review YouTube channel, terrifying telemarketers with his Smeagol impression, and, of course, helping out on Code 47! (Or, I suppose, you could find him on Twitter @PetrusAquinas)
Lee Navarro
Tech enthusiast barely begins to describe Lee. From an early age, video games were embedded into his makeup beginning with Nintendo's Family Computer system (the Japanese version of the NES) all the way to today with his love affair with PC gaming and in turn PC building, which is probably why you can find him as an IT and systems administrator by day and well, an IT and systems administrator by night.
As the Discord Guru, he’s there to make sure that the spirit of the Secret Friends live on within the server and everyone enjoys their interactions with all participants in a safe and open environment.
In his spare time, he’s a baseball coach, basketball coach, and continues to work on a passion project known as Phoenix Overdrive, which benefits Extra Life, a 24-hour gaming marathon to help raise money for Children’s Miracle Network hospitals. To find out more, visit https://www.phoenixoverdrive.com.