WEBVTT - Neil deGrasse Tyson: America's Astrophysicist 0:00:01.520 --> 0:00:05.480 Hi, Katie. Hi, Brian. I'm very excited about today's podcast 0:00:05.680 --> 0:00:08.559 because we're talking to a real brainiac. And I'm not 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:12.400 talking about you, Brian. I'm talking about Neil Degrass Tyson, 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:16.040 and I'm excited to talk to him because I feel 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:19.160 like there's a war on science, a war on fact 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:22.160 based evidence going on in this country, and I want 0:00:22.160 --> 0:00:25.280 to understand why this topic is probably more relevant than 0:00:25.320 --> 0:00:28.960 ever before because you have right now the President's budget 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:33.080 going after the Environmental Protection Agency. You have the top 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:36.360 regulators in the country denying that humans are contributing to 0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:39.839 climate change, or at least questioning it. You have a 0:00:39.960 --> 0:00:44.360 big movement in this country of people who are denying 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:47.800 the things that scientists are telling us based on the 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:51.120 research that they're doing. And Neil Degrass Tyson wants to 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:53.559 fight back against all of that and to do it 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:57.400 through education and information. And he's a great person to 0:00:57.560 --> 0:01:00.959 do that, Brian. He breaks things out and makes them 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:03.960 very accessible. In fact, he's been called a cross between 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:08.560 Mr Rogers and Carl Sagan. He makes science fun and 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:10.920 if you don't believe us, just listen to the way 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:16.360 Neil begins his podcast from the American Museum of Natural 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:25.280 History in New York City, and time is starting where 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:34.400 science and pop culture such a Hey, Brian, how can 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:37.360 you not enjoy learning about the universe to the strains 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:40.160 of sexy back? Come on now, well, I think sexy 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:41.920 Back was actually written for me. It's a it's a 0:01:41.959 --> 0:01:46.480 little known fact, but that's true. I don't want to 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:49.760 think about that. Meanwhile, did you notice how malef lewis 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:54.160 Neil's voices? I mean, he's got such a great speaking voice. 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:56.400 We're not saying he doesn't have a face for television, 0:01:56.440 --> 0:02:00.360 but he also has a voice for audio. Absolutely, So 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:03.120 we learned so much when we talked to Neil de 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:13.360 grass Tyson. And here he is, Hi, Katie, how are 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:16.639 you in a few years? I know we were together 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:20.320 on TV? I know and uh, and we have so 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:24.440 much to talk about us. It is vast and Brian 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:27.760 is joining us from Los Angeles, and I first want 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:31.000 to talk to you about your childhood and how you 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:34.320 became so excited by science. You know what it is. 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:37.239 I think as a kid, we're all excited about everything. 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:39.280 I mean, just remember that. So how did I keep 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:42.799 my curiosity? Is really? What what ignited it to to 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:45.800 to delve into science in particular, right, because you can 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:49.079 be curious about anything obviously, So so it was you know, 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:51.040 I grew up in New York City, and my parents 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:55.320 fully understood the role in the value of the cultural 0:02:55.360 --> 0:03:00.440 institutions of the city, the museums, the zoo, and my 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:02.799 When I was nine, we happened to go to the 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:06.839 Hayden Planetarium and I said this before I sat down, 0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:09.400 and like they dimmed the lights and the stars came out, 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:11.840 and I was certain it was a hoax. I was 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:14.079 so because I grew up in the Bronx and I 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:16.080 knew how many stars there were in the night sky. 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:19.280 There's like a dozen stars, so this can't be right 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:22.320 that there are these countless thousands of stars on the dome. 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:25.080 Of course, later I would learn that that was closer 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:27.959 to reality than anything I've ever seen or experienced in 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:30.440 the Bronx. But I can say without hesitation that that 0:03:30.680 --> 0:03:34.200 day I was star struck and I never left the 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:40.280 Hayden Planetarium since then, Right, Yeah, I'm kind of still there. Yeah, 0:03:40.400 --> 0:03:42.960 And then an adulthood I would become director of the planetarium. 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:46.040 That's right. That is such a cool story. Honestly, I 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:48.560 think it makes a better story in a small town, 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:51.240 you know, hometown kid goes away and comes back and 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:54.040 does good in New York, nobody cares. I don't think 0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:57.960 that's okay. Yeah, I think that is. I think it 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:02.120 is really cool. And you know, I think the idea 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:05.240 that you were filled almost immediately with this sense of wonder. 0:04:05.280 --> 0:04:07.200 I mean, I think you're so lucky neal, because I 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:10.360 think many people don't have a calling that way, that 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:15.120 nothing really strikes them as something they are really passionate about. 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:17.960 I here's something, here's a bit of delusion for me. Ready. 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:22.280 So when I was eleven, I said to myself, maybe 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:26.320 I shouldn't study the universe because it's so amazing. Everyone 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:29.160 clearly will want to study it. Everyone's going to want 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:31.640 to be an astro physinesist. That was a thought I 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:34.760 actually actually went through my head because it would take 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:37.160 a two years until age eleven where I would have 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:41.239 the answer to that annoying question that adults always ask kids, 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:42.400 you know, what do you want to be when you 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:46.599 grow up? Age eleven onward? My answer was astrophysicist and usually, 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:52.680 oh god, that sounds so obnoxious. It was completely obnoxious, 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:55.640 and in the following world I think I'd smack you 0:04:56.600 --> 0:05:02.000 just kidding everyone, I don't I love it. I'd be 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:05.200 lovingly smacked by Katie. But Katie, you are absolutely right. 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:07.520 I did not know until I got to college how 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:11.080 many people did not have a calling that was still 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:14.560 trying to figure it out, and they were thumbing through 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:17.440 what to major in in the book, And so I 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:21.640 would never thenceforth take it for granted. Well, it's interesting 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:24.680 is we were preparing for this show, we learned that, 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:29.480 you know, both your parents were intellectuals. Your mom was 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:32.960 a gerontologist, which apparently has something to do with the 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:36.600 study of aging, and your dad was a sociologist and 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:39.680 worked for the City of New York. And so did 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:42.720 your parents encourage you to to get a PhD? To 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:46.960 travel this hard road to actually becoming uh Dr Tyson. 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:51.960 So let me add some some nuances to to what 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:56.600 you've said. So, my mother was a housewife while raising 0:05:56.760 --> 0:06:00.000 the three of us, and she only went to college 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:04.000 age after we were empty nest. So she married and 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:07.160 started a family out of high school, while my father 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:11.200 went on for further education. Uh And he became a 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:14.960 practicing sociologist in the sense that he was hired into 0:06:15.000 --> 0:06:17.400 the city under Mayor Lindsay at the time, and this 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:20.080 is in the nineteen sixties, so the civil rights era 0:06:20.400 --> 0:06:24.800 was fully underway, and so there he was being deeply 0:06:24.880 --> 0:06:28.120 concerned about the plight of the human condition. And later 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:31.520 on my mother would turn her energies to the plight 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:35.920 of the aging. And here's their son, the astrost. So 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:38.240 that was a little weird. It was a little weird. 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:42.800 But they never told me what to study. All they 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:47.520 did was encouraged the interest that they saw manifest on 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:50.320 its own. But clearly you know from your story about 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:54.280 how they would take you all different places and exploring 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:58.200 really the world in the microcosm of New York, that 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:02.279 must have kind of stimulated you. And and I'm wondering 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:05.600 that's the right word, the world explore? Right? Who who 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:07.920 thinks about it that way? But that's exactly what it was. 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:11.000 You go to a different institution each weekend. That's exploration, 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:15.480 urban exploration is what that was. But at no time 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:17.720 where my parents saying I want you to do what 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:20.760 I what I did. That would be and I we 0:07:21.080 --> 0:07:23.240 all know people where that was the case, right, What 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:28.040 would you tell parents about instilling this intellectual curiosity and 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:31.560 their children. I would say, expose them to as many 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:34.240 kinds of things they can be when they grow up 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:38.000 as is possible given your resources and given your geography, 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:41.720 and I think they'll find they'll find their way, So 0:07:42.240 --> 0:07:45.120 expose them and let them decide. There you go. And 0:07:45.200 --> 0:07:47.360 as you were trying to figure out what to be, 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:51.400 I read that you had some reservations about becoming an 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:54.720 astrophysicist because as an African American you worried that it 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:58.800 wouldn't do enough to help your fellow African Americans. But 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:01.720 you change your mind to about that. Can you describe 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:04.960 what happened? Oh? Yeah, I briefly. Um, there's a little 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:07.120 bit about this in my memoir which I wrote some 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:11.120 years ago, midlife Memoir. I guess I was going to say, 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:13.760 you're prettily on to write a memoir. Several years ago. 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:16.680 We publisher approached me this is this is basically twenty 0:08:16.760 --> 0:08:18.880 years ago and said we want to hear your story. 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:21.320 And I said, do you know something about my life 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:24.720 expectancy that I don't? So they said, oh, this one 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:27.360 could be just the first installment. I said fine, So 0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:29.280 so in there I just tell the story. When I 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:33.439 was in college, I was on the wrestling. I wrestled, 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:37.320 and I had a fellow wrestler who's my weight class, 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:43.120 and he's black, majored in economics. And we're walking home 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:46.080 one day. This was at Harvard. At Harvard, yeah, that school, 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:50.040 and came too ready with the Harvard bashing. Never had 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:55.360 Brian went to Harvard to I basically have an inferiority complex. 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:58.559 Oh no, I think she actually has a superiority complex 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:00.839 about U v A. All right, moving on, go ahead 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:02.600 and me up, and let the record show that both 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:05.480 of you mentioned this on your own. I did not 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:09.599 mention it myself. And so he would later go on 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:12.640 to be a Rhodes scholar and study in Oxford. And 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:15.360 so he's an accomplished guy. But we're walking home and 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:18.000 he says, oh, so, how how how studies? And I said, 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:20.240 I barely have time for anything. You know, my problem 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:22.800 sets are killing me. So remind me what you're studying. 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:26.240 I said, physics. Ultimately want to get a PhD in astrophysics. 0:09:27.000 --> 0:09:32.160 And he said, quote, the black community does not have 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:43.920 the luxury of you studying astrophysics. Ouch. Oh oh, are 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:50.080 you channeling very white all? So what did you say 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:54.280 to that? Well? So I was very conflicted because of 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:57.520 course my father was in the service of helping the 0:09:57.600 --> 0:10:01.640 black community or anyone disenfranchised more generally, and so I 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:06.280 knew where where that argument comes from. And I also 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:07.800 knew that here I am in one of the finest 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:12.160 institutions of the land, and I'm studying the Big Bang 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:17.640 and black holes and planets. Oh my gosh, And I said, so, 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:19.800 So what he did was he he dug me into 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:22.400 a hole and left me there. And I didn't know 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:24.360 how to get out of the hole. But so, so 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:27.480 I was conflicted for many years. I would say, I 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:30.880 can quantify it was I was conflicted for like twelve years. 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:34.679 I still went on to get a PhD and studied astrophysics, 0:10:35.160 --> 0:10:37.280 but I was conflicted the whole time because of that 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:39.720 one thing he said to me. And you know how 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:42.559 I finally got out of it, Yeah, because it's it 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:45.800 involved like your your people, right, your your species. So 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:49.880 so I'm in graduate school and a phone call comes 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:52.840 to the department and it was Channel five news, local 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:55.520 news in New York. Apparently there were explosions on the 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:59.040 Sun and they called the astrophysics department at Columbia to 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:01.640 get somebody to calm meant on these explosions. So I 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:03.000 got on the phone with the guy. It was the 0:11:03.040 --> 0:11:05.000 weather guy, because the weather Guy is the science the 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:08.200 token science person on all the shows. And they said, uh, 0:11:08.320 --> 0:11:10.160 can you tell us about this? I said, yes, it's 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:14.040 just solar flares. This happens every now and then part 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:17.760 charged particles head towards Earth. Earth magnetic field deflects them. 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:20.240 We're safe from it. This use this as an excuse 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:23.040 this weekend to go north and enjoy the northern lights. 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:25.439 That's what he said, Oh, could you say that on camera? 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:29.600 So I said sure, Okay. So I went into the studio, 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:32.760 sat down in front of these fake books because my 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:36.480 first time like in your space, you're kind of space Katie. 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:41.640 So we're sitting for it was when we were sitting 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:44.880 for these sawed off books, glued fake you know, edge 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:48.120 side into the thing, and so we recreate this conversation 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:50.679 and then I So that was and for airing later 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:53.240 that night. So I went home and I called everybody. Mom, 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:55.679 Dad says, I'll be on TV tonight, right right. So, 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:58.960 and I'm I'm watching TV and I'm watching me interviewed, 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:01.040 and I had a kind of out of body experience. 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:04.760 At the end of that conversation, I realized, Oh my gosh, 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:08.920 the reporter did not ask me, how do black people 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:11.920 feel about the sun exploding? What do you you know? 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:16.160 What what is does? Does that? Does this radiation affect 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:19.719 black skin differently from white skin? There was not a 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:22.520 single mention of the color of my skin in that interview. 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:25.600 And then I realized I had never seen an interview 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:30.840 ever of a black person on TV that had nothing 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:35.199 to do with being black, not including athletes and entertainers 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:44.120 with nine Okay, then I realized what I just did 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:49.760 there maybe the most potent force, of the most potent 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:54.360 equalizing force there is. You see an expert as a 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:57.280 black person telling you whether Earth is going to survive, 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:02.040 Earth is gonna survive. So now you see an educated 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:04.960 black person on TV, no mention of their skin color. 0:13:05.520 --> 0:13:07.720 Now you see a homeless black person in the street. 0:13:08.000 --> 0:13:10.720 Now you're gonna think twice. You're gonna say, oh my gosh, 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:13.319 is this for law? Lack of opportunity to have we 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:17.599 done something wrong? Is there can to society? And no 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:21.319 longer can you just stereotype and entire group of people 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:24.800 who would just be your entertainers or your athletes. And 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:28.800 I've realized at that point this is the ticket out 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:31.160 of this hole that I've been standing in for thirteen years. 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:33.360 It's not that the black community can't afford to have 0:13:33.440 --> 0:13:36.240 me study astrophysics, is that the world cannot afford to 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:39.320 have me not study astrophysics. That's what I can call 0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:45.280 and the world can cannot afford not seeing you explain astrophysics. 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:49.280 And that's why with this interview as an exception, if 0:13:49.360 --> 0:13:52.600 someone wants to interview me, and I know in advance 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:54.160 it's because I'm black and they want to ask me 0:13:54.200 --> 0:13:56.240 black stuff, I say, no, that's not I'm not the 0:13:56.320 --> 0:13:58.160 right person for that. But you did have to have 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:01.880 this epiphany, and you thought, why aren't there more African 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:05.920 American experts having nothing to do with their race on television? Correct? Correct? 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:10.560 So beginning in the early nineties, you started having black 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:14.800 attorneys commenting on, you know, civil cases. So attorneys were 0:14:14.840 --> 0:14:17.040 the first out of the box. Then you'd have others. 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:21.280 You would have authors and poets and and and newscasters, 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:23.880 and so now it's not even a thing. And I'm 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:26.720 delighted to announce that. You know, it's interesting. I was 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:30.600 thinking when I read this as well. Preparing for this interview, 0:14:30.640 --> 0:14:33.320 I was thinking about when I had my colonoscopy. When 0:14:33.360 --> 0:14:37.000 I got my colonoscopy on television, I used a doctor 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:39.920 who was highly recommended, named ken Ford, because he was 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:42.240 recommended by a friend of mine, and I didn't want 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:45.040 my friend, who was also a gastro orologist, to get 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:46.560 that close to me, if you know what I'm saying. 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:49.120 So I a friend of mine came up to me 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:53.040 Neil after that colonoscopy and said, thank you so much 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:58.000 for using an African American doctor to give you your colonoscopy. 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:01.360 And I said, I didn't even think of that. There 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:04.600 you go, that's it. But but it was so important. 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:08.640 It's so important to your point to continue to show 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:11.600 really diversity of all kinds exactly in a number of 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:16.440 television general case. It's a general statement. It's the diversity 0:15:16.440 --> 0:15:21.040 of gender, race, of the nationality. If once you see that, 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:24.680 it makes it harder for you to stereotype. We have 0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:28.240 a caller question which I think is actually perfect for 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:32.840 this moment, so let's listen. I'm Brian, Hi Katie. I 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:35.160 first only thank Neil because a few years ago he 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:37.480 gave me the best advice for being a physicist applying 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:39.840 to grad school, which is the double the amount of 0:15:39.840 --> 0:15:42.360 schools you're applying to, because if you're dumb enough to 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:44.280 go to grad school on any stone field, I don't 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:46.240 remember using the word dumb. One's going to be dumb 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:48.200 enough to take you. You just gotta find them. But 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:50.360 a question for Neil is how did you go from 0:15:50.400 --> 0:15:53.000 being an academic researcher to becoming one of the leading 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:59.840 scientific communicators today? Okay, great question. So uh so this 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:03.400 trajectory is not what you think. So because I'm not 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:07.360 entirely what I seem. If you tell me rank what 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:11.360 it is you would want to do today, probably engaging 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:13.840 the public would not make the top fifty. I would 0:16:13.880 --> 0:16:16.000 just stay home, or I'd write, or I'd go to 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:18.920 the lab. That's what I really want to do in 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:21.880 a day. But what has happened is I live in 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:24.800 New York City. This is the news gathering headquarters of 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:27.480 the country and possibly the world, And so when the 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:32.360 universe flinches, the press calls me because I give them 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:35.040 a sound bite that they can embrace, that they like, 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:37.120 and then they want more. And by the way, I 0:16:37.240 --> 0:16:40.680 worked at that. All right, if you give me a minute. 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:43.040 I'll tell you my very first time on national news. 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:46.640 Because that the case with the with the fake books. 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:48.720 That was local news, but my first time on nationals. 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:54.640 I'll tell you national news budget has anyone cracked, any 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:59.440 of them know, But they make a more authentic They 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:02.240 make a beauty of wallpaper, like three D wallpaper. So 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:07.360 here's what happened. I'm freshly hired at the Hayden Planetarium. 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:12.359 I'm interim director actually okay, and the first Excel planet 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:16.359 is discovered, a planet orbiting another star, banner headlines. The 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:19.199 call comes into the planetarium. They said, can we interview 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:21.239 the director? They don't know me from anything, but I'm 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:23.720 the director, all right, So they said, fine, we'll set 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:25.920 you up with Tyson, who's tight. It's fine, he's the 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:30.760 interim director. So this is Tom Brokaw's NBC Nightly News. Okay. 0:17:31.040 --> 0:17:33.080 Now they just send up an action camp to get 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:36.880 to get this interview. An action was called back then, 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:43.439 his Action News. But I don't think that NBC at 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:46.960 nightly news with action whatever the local news had the 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:50.239 action can absolutely right. Um so, but this was going 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:53.400 to air on the NBC Nightly News, and so I'm 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:56.200 there and they send up a correspondent and they asked me, 0:17:56.280 --> 0:17:58.520 how is this planet discovered? And I I go on 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:02.119 for ten minutes with my best profisoil reply. Hopefully this 0:18:02.280 --> 0:18:05.240 wasn't live. It was not live, it was prerecorded. And 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:08.520 so then I commented that that the way you can 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:12.120 know that there's an orbiting planet is that the star 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:15.920 responds to the gravity of the planet. We think planets 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:19.440 orbit stars know they both orbit their common center of gravity. 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:21.800 So the star is actually doing a kind of jiggle 0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:24.639 around with the center of mass, right, And so I 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:27.439 said all of this. The only thing that ended up 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:30.760 in the evening news that night was me jiggling my hips, 0:18:30.840 --> 0:18:34.600 the imitating, imitating the host star and all the rest 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:37.920 of that got sound bitten. And I said, oh, now, 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:41.159 I understand. They didn't come to hear me give a 0:18:41.240 --> 0:18:46.080 professorial reply. They want something they can use in their mode, 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:50.080 even though they're in my house, right in my in 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:53.640 my planetarium. So I went home and I practiced sound 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:56.320 bites because I don't want them sound biting me. I'll 0:18:56.320 --> 0:18:58.280 gonna hand you a sound bite that way, you don't 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:00.200 have to cut it, give me any word in the 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:04.159 entire universe object, idea thing just right now? Do it? 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:10.400 You want to do that single word Pluto, Pluto, Get 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:17.080 over it. Earth's moon is five times the mass of Pluto, 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:20.200 and many Pluto lovers don't know that, and when you 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:22.600 tell it to them, only then do they begin to 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:27.040 understand the controversy that surrounded it. So, yes, Pluto got demoted. 0:19:27.520 --> 0:19:30.080 Get over it. That's the sound bite I would give 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:33.040 you if you came to melt So, so I worked 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:36.200 at that. So my only point of this is to say, 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:39.000 from that moment onward, I said, if I'm going to 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:44.120 serve the press, serve television, I want to give them 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:47.680 what they want and what they need. So so a 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:52.320 sound bite is like two or three sentences that are informative, tasty, 0:19:52.880 --> 0:19:55.320 and maybe make you smile and make you smile so 0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:57.120 that you might want to tell someone else. So that's 0:19:57.119 --> 0:19:59.440 what I started working on, and they kept coming back, 0:19:59.760 --> 0:20:03.280 but also accessible. If I were interviewing you now, I 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:06.840 would say, this explanation has to be for the non 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:11.720 scientists in the audience who need to understand in very 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:15.919 simple and accessible terms complicated concepts. And you became an 0:20:15.960 --> 0:20:20.480 expert at that, you know, Tom Friedman explained complicated concepts, 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:24.119 and he said, to explain something simply, you have to 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:27.080 understand it deeply. Yes, that is definitely the case. You 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:29.680 have to You have to know twenty ways to come 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:32.920 at that idea so that you can find the key 0:20:33.280 --> 0:20:35.399 to the mind of the person you're communicating with in 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:39.800 that moment. So what I what happened to me is 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:42.640 when I started giving soundbites, the press couldn't get enough 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:45.240 of it, and so I became more and more and 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:47.760 better and better known simply from showing up on the 0:20:47.840 --> 0:20:51.120 news commenting on the universe. To this day, people say, 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:53.560 who's your agent? I see you and all the talk 0:20:53.640 --> 0:20:55.920 shows and all the news, and I say, my I 0:20:55.960 --> 0:20:59.480 don't have an agent. My agent is the universe itself. 0:20:59.720 --> 0:21:02.639 Because the universe flinches and people call. Of course, when 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:04.280 I have a book, the book has a has a 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:06.359 marketing person and they try to get you on. But 0:21:07.000 --> 0:21:08.840 I would say, three quarters of the time you ever 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:11.639 see me on TV, I'm not hawking a book. I 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:14.520 got called because the universe flinched and they want to 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:18.119 know about it. It's like dial and astrophysics, like the 0:21:18.200 --> 0:21:20.920 bat signal. You know, okay, we need the astro physicists. 0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:26.240 Now you know. So I'm a servant of the cosmic 0:21:26.359 --> 0:21:29.960 curiosity that burns in the belly of of us all, 0:21:30.320 --> 0:21:33.520 and I'm the I'm a servant. I'm the servant of 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:37.720 the cosmic curiosity, a servant of the cosmic curiosity that 0:21:38.200 --> 0:21:42.119 burns burn in the belly. Where do you come up 0:21:42.160 --> 0:21:45.280 with this? Have you used that before? I don't know. 0:21:45.480 --> 0:21:48.000 Maybe pieces of it, I don't know. But my point 0:21:48.160 --> 0:21:52.640 is that that the question, the caller's question. They wanted 0:21:52.640 --> 0:21:55.480 to know how I became this, But it was not 0:21:55.720 --> 0:21:58.480 because I wake up in the morning saying how can 0:21:58.520 --> 0:22:00.919 I bring the universe to the public today. It's if 0:22:01.000 --> 0:22:03.680 I'm being asked, let me do the best job I 0:22:03.760 --> 0:22:05.920 can and then go back to my work. Well, I 0:22:05.960 --> 0:22:08.119 have a lot more questions to ask you, and so 0:22:08.600 --> 0:22:10.600 does Brian. We're going to take a break, and I 0:22:10.720 --> 0:22:13.480 want to talk to you, Neil about the current universe 0:22:13.560 --> 0:22:17.200 we're living in the political universe and what it means 0:22:17.480 --> 0:22:20.199 for science in America. We can go there, all right, 0:22:20.520 --> 0:22:35.919 that's right after this, We're back with Neil Degrass Tyson, 0:22:36.000 --> 0:22:39.920 America's personal astrophysicist, as you say on your TV show 0:22:40.040 --> 0:22:42.959 and your podcast, and we want to ask you about 0:22:43.720 --> 0:22:47.640 President Trump and the political universe in which we're living now. 0:22:47.720 --> 0:22:52.960 You've been very outspoken about the administration's budget cuts. You tweeted, 0:22:53.040 --> 0:22:55.480 the fastest way to make America Week again is to 0:22:55.560 --> 0:22:59.320 cut science funds. Can you describe the consequences of some 0:22:59.400 --> 0:23:03.080 of the policy sees that Trump is proposing, particularly with 0:23:03.240 --> 0:23:06.119 respect to science. Yeah, by the way, so thanks for 0:23:06.240 --> 0:23:09.800 noticing that. My tweets, I try to keep them general 0:23:09.960 --> 0:23:14.320