WEBVTT - Neil Degrasse Tyson 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:05.080 Welcome back to another episode of Big Money Energy, where 0:00:05.120 --> 0:00:07.840 we talked to super successful and self made people to 0:00:07.840 --> 0:00:11.080 find out exactly how they did it, how they went 0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:16.680 from nothing to something. Today, I'm joined by astrophysicist, author, 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:21.520 director of the Hayden Planetarium, and all around science megastar 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:25.680 Neil Degrass Tyson. This episode is a little different than 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:28.360 what we usually do because there's no one like Neil 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:32.320 in the entire Milky Way. We discuss a lot of things, 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:35.760 but we talk about the responsibility of using your platform 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:38.680 to champion causes you care about. We go through how 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:41.400 to keep your head above water when pursuing a passion 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:44.440 until it pays the bills, and why the hell it's 0:00:44.520 --> 0:00:48.200 taken so long for space tourism to become an industry. 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:51.839 Hint takes a couple of billionaires. Now let's get into it. 0:00:52.120 --> 0:01:11.080 Welcome to another episode. I genuinely cannot believe who I 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:14.440 convinced to come on the show today. He is easily 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:18.480 one of the most recognizable personalities in the world and 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:21.800 by far one of the smartest people out there, and 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:25.600 will definitely be the smartest person whoever comes on this podcast. 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:27.880 From now through history, you can mark those words. He's 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:31.520 an astrophysicist, a host of bestselling author, and the director 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:34.240 of the Hayden Planetarium. And he's also, as we just 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:36.920 found out, a New Yorker. And if that wasn't enough, 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:41.360 in two thousand he was voted the sexiest Astrophysicist Alive 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:44.800 by People Magazine. And I think that is a ranking 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:47.240 we should never ever forget. So here to discuss how 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:50.360 he makes it happen and all the insane things he's 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:53.720 working on. Please welcome Neil the grass Tyson. Thank you 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:56.560 for the introduction, But I need to clarify something in 0:01:56.560 --> 0:02:00.000 in two thousand when I received that designation by People magazine. 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:03.360 You just have to consider the category that I was saying. 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:09.280 There are categories way more competitive than sexiest Astrophysicist. In 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:13.400 the People magazine issue Sexiest Man Alive, first, there's a 0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:17.400 sexiest Man Alive who transcends category that's on the cover, 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:20.880 and that year it was Brad pitt okay got that one. 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:24.560 And then other categories where there's just no contest if 0:02:24.600 --> 0:02:28.720 you're outside of that category, like sexiest action star, sexiest 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:33.280 news anchor, sexiest professional athlete, sex and you don't you 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:36.040 don't have to apologize for being sexies. See what you're 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:40.239 doing here. You're trying to clarify. I'm a real estate broker. 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:43.480 You know. My whole life is ranking. I don't clarify 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:47.519 my sales volume is only x because of this. You know, 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:49.280 you know, it's just disclosure. I just want to make 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:52.359 sure people plus that that was forty pounds ago. So 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:55.639 you're New York born and Brad Yeah, yeah, born in 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:58.120 the Bronx. Did the Bronx? Gotta say it right? If 0:02:58.120 --> 0:02:59.919 you always lived in New York? Did you ever leave? 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:02.880 You go elsewhere? No? No, I look for college and 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:06.440 part of graduate school. So if you added up those years, 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:08.720 I've probably gone for ten years. And then I came 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:13.919 back to finish graduate school at Columbia, and and then 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:17.760 I left. I did post pH d work post doc 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:20.519 at Princeton, so we moved to Princeton for a bit, 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:23.880 but then came back. It is hard to define exactly 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:26.880 what you do. Can you tell us all if you 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:28.919 were to say, hey, this this is what my day 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:31.280 looks like, this is my career, this is what I do. 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:33.919 What you would say? What's your answer to that? The challenge? 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:36.080 There is no day looks like any other day. So 0:03:36.160 --> 0:03:38.880 it's hard to characterize what I do. So if I 0:03:39.040 --> 0:03:41.240 step back and I can say what kind of things 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:43.920 happened to me in a month over a month, so 0:03:43.960 --> 0:03:47.080 over a month, I will write more for whatever it 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:51.000 might be my next book. I will have conducted probably 0:03:52.160 --> 0:04:01.120 uh ten interviews for national media, another ten teen interviews 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:04.120 for just people who are interested in what I do. 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:07.640 I have a very soft spot for fledgling podcasts, people 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:12.480 who are trying to bring science through their own lens. Uh. 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:15.800 In fact, I recently agreed to do There are two 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:18.400 kids who are new in high school. So one is 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:21.920 like a ninth grader, I other one was an eighth grader, 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:25.240 and they have a podcast in high school because they 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:27.880 love science. So it's their science podcast. And so they 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:29.640 wrote to me to see if I'd be a guest 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:31.880 on their podcast, and I said sure, and then they 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:35.920 just freaked out so that we did the podcast. And 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:38.200 and this was in Canada. Small town in Canada was 0:04:38.240 --> 0:04:41.840 only one high school, and that made like local headlines, right, 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:45.479 and and I'm I was delighted to do that. And 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:47.480 and I chuckle any time I get invited to be 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:53.520 on a podcast, and they feel compelled to list famous 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:56.960 guests they've already had, as though I would say, oh, 0:04:56.960 --> 0:04:59.080 you had this famous guest, therefore I want to be 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:01.560 on your podcast. I don't give a rats ass who 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:04.280 was on your cup podcast before? I really don't care. 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:07.640 Just is your mission, um, noble? Do you want to 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:11.080 do the right thing? Is it something? And and so? 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:13.839 I have a soft spot for that. So so anyway, 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:18.760 so it's another ten or fifteen podcast, um. And also 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:22.960 I oversee programs at the American Museum of Natural History 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:27.600 that relate to the universe. I also read from books. 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:30.720 I have a collection of very old books on science. 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:34.680 I read them because they tell me how we used 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:38.000 to think about the universe and how what we learned 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:43.040 later may have pivoted off of some correct assessment of 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:46.640 the nature of the universe or incorrect assessment, and I 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:49.799 tracked that. I also spend time reading books that are 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:54.640 completely opposite anything I think or believe in, just so 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:59.880 I can understand how people think who are very different 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:03.839 from myself. You've successfully been able to take this passion 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:10.160 for for knowing more and turn it into a very robust, 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:14.560 diverse career that I think it's very hard for a 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:16.520 lot of people to do. Do you have any advice 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:21.320 for anybody who is struggling with the idea of I. 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:23.440 You know, I've got this passion, but it doesn't pay 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:25.080 my bills, so I've got to go and get a 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:27.600 job and maybe i can come back to it later. Yeah, 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:31.080 that's a really important question and an insightful question. And 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:34.159 I've gone in and out of different understandings and explanations 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:36.919 for this to myself. Let me just share one of 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:42.200 them with you, and let me buy analogy. Mentioned a library, 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:45.800 all right, a physical library like the old days. So 0:06:45.839 --> 0:06:49.919 you walk into a library, and so what is a library? 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:54.719 A library is at place where they don't know in 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:59.839 advance what book you're going to look for, and so 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:01.920 one else who comes in five minutes after you was 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:08.240 gonna look for. So they attempt to stalk everything that 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:13.600 you could possibly look for on the expectation that you 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:19.480 will find what you are looking for. All right, Well, 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:25.360 for library to be successful, they need enough books in 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:30.280 enough fields with enough depth, so that I'm picking number 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:32.440 nine out of ten people find what they're looking for, 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:37.480 picking a number, but it's got to be the majority. 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:42.440 Otherwise the library is not really serving the needs of 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:46.920 a reading community. Okay, so what are we as human beings? 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:54.480 As pliable, flexible human beings, We often don't know what 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:56.840 our first love will be. So what you can do 0:07:56.920 --> 0:08:00.560 is turn yourself into a kind of a library. Anything 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:03.600 that interests you, pursue it, at least on the side 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:07.120 that's not that hard. You do that for hobbies. If 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:08.400 you have a hobby, you do an other side. You 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:11.840 have no expectation you're gonna be paid for the attention 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:16.360 you give to your hobby. All right, So think of 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:20.640 your life as a library, and as was my life. Okay, 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:24.920 so watch this happen. As a child, I'm criticized by 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:28.440 my teachers for my social energy. I still have my 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:34.559 report cards. One of them said, it's succinctly less social 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:42.560 involvement and more academic diligence is in order three exclamation points. 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:47.120 That was in fifth grade. Okay, My grades were not high, 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:50.800 they would kind of average. And in school, the metrics 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:54.800 for your evaluation as a student art pivot strongly on 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:57.840 your grades and whether you shut up when you're told 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:01.000 to shut up and pay attention in class. All right, 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:04.120 So the perfect student is one who does not disrupt class, 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:07.360 does all their homework, assignments on time, and gets high grades, 0:09:07.559 --> 0:09:11.479 and the entire system we have built educational system says 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:17.560 that's the successful student. Meanwhile, look at practically every entrepreneur 0:09:17.679 --> 0:09:22.960 there ever was every successful person by most measures of 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:27.199 a free society's metrics of success, and ask were they 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:31.920 that perfect student? The answer is no, no, most of 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:36.800 them if not a D, and then we're not that okay, 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:40.000 So there's something else going on in successful people that 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:43.840 are not cued, that are not indexed off of your 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:47.760 exams and your behavior as a school child. So what 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:49.559 I'm saying is, yeah, there are things that I got 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:51.480 good at that no one cares about and no one 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:54.600 is paying any attention at all. But that's the library problem. 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:56.719 The library will have books that no one will ever 0:09:56.840 --> 0:09:59.640 check out again, but you don't know that in advance. 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:05.760 So so there's no harm in building the portfolio of 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:10.840 all the things you like and are good at. Then 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:13.600 have that rise up. And I can tell you this, 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:18.080 Everything I'm doing that is valued never appeared in anybody's 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:23.080 job description that I replied to when I became director 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:24.440 of the planting We need you to do this and 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:27.800 run the program. And fine, okay, did it say host 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:31.560 a series for for Cosmos. No to say, oh, by 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:34.120 the way, the person who has this, we want you 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:38.439 to host PBS series. Until that's not in the job description. No, 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:41.559 most of what I'm doing is not in the job description. 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:45.880 But when people see it, they they come to value it, 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:50.600 and then everything I cared about and loved becomes the 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:53.920 very job description itself. It's harder, and it's challenging. And 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:57.600 by the way, I did not have a job where 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:02.760 I made more than six thousand dollars a year until 0:11:03.040 --> 0:11:12.520 I was thirty three. Wow. Okay, So if you're distracted 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:17.680 by money, then you can't rely on all of your 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:22.080 inner passions to be compensated earlier in life. So yeah, 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:24.760 go find a pre existing job with a pre existing 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:28.559 job description that is a pre existing salary listed to it, 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:32.800 and tune your training to fit that. Then they'll hire you. 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:35.400 Then you'll have a nice salary coming right out of college. 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:39.040 I did not were you worried about job prospects because 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:42.760 after my PhD almost didn't matter what happened to me 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:44.760 in my life. That was my life's goal as a child. 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:47.840 Everything else would just be gravy. Plus it helped that 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:53.840 I married someone who worked for the financial industry. That's 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:56.200 not what I'm like, I'm looking for the secret. No, no, yeah, 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:59.640 that helped. It just meant we lived, you know, we 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:02.720 a nice place I could have lived. I mean I 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:05.720 was living the way a student lived most of those years, right, 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:09.360 so I could have kept living that way. The trappings 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:11.960 of having more money, eating a nicer restaurant, drink a 0:12:12.040 --> 0:12:16.120 nicer bottle of wine, this sort of thing, um and so. 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:18.760 But but anyhow, all of this sort of a cruise 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:23.520 is what I'm saying. And I also started liking wine 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:28.280 early on. We had wine regularly at home, mostly Gallo 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:30.280 and Paul Masson when I was growing up. But the 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:33.439 fact that wine was something associated with meals was a 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:36.960 very early thing for me. And I then took an 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:42.400 academic interest in wine and uh at at some point 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:46.840 one of the wine magazines noticed me. Okay, Wine Spectator magazine, 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:50.000 big magazine for the wine industry, and they did a 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:56.200 profile on me and it says, um, uh astrophysicist with 0:12:56.320 --> 0:12:59.560 stars in his eyes sees wine, and that they tried 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:04.080 there was I'm you know, clever title. And so you 0:13:04.120 --> 0:13:08.840 realize that these pockets of society that will find you 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:14.400 if your interests have a sufficient depth of passion, and 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:17.360 then it builds the entire profile of who you are 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:20.439 and what you represent. Now, the fact that I'm visible 0:13:20.440 --> 0:13:22.520 in public, none of that was a goal, and I 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:26.040 don't care if anybody knew anything about me. I just 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:30.280 kept giving good sound bites to the news and then 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:35.199 they kept coming back, and then people said, oh, you're 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:37.640 a natural at that. No, they have no idea what 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:40.720 I did to train for those sound bites. I stood 0:13:40.760 --> 0:13:42.679 in front of a mirror because the first time you 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:45.680 didn't ask this, but I'm telling you, um, it's important. 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:50.200 The the first time I was on national news for 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:54.480 a cosmic event was a new planet around another star. 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:59.240 Was the first exo planet was discovered, and so um 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:02.320 NBC was NBC News sent a camera up to the 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:04.800 Hayden Planetarium. By the way, they didn't know about me 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:09.320 from Adam. They just knew I had title direct director 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:13.160 of the Hayden Planetarium. So so they're interviewing the director 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:16.040 of the Hayden Planetarium. I give them my best profitsial 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:19.480 reply alright, because I'm an academic, and I say, here's 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:23.360 how we found it. We my colleagues here's how it works. 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:26.640 Here's the Doppler shift. There's a and and I said, 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:29.480 you're looking at the response of the host star to 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:34.120 the gravity of the of the planet in orbit around it. 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:38.880 And that evening when they finally cut the piece. Basically 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:40.760 the only part of that interview that made it in 0:14:41.200 --> 0:14:44.680 was me shifting my hips like this. And I thought, 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:47.760 I said, oh, even though they came to me, they 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:51.880 don't want my profits soil reply. They want to reply 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:56.280 that will work in their format. The whole story last 0:14:56.360 --> 0:15:00.000 three minutes. They want sound bites. That was a revelation 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:02.920 and for me and the and they will always tell you, 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:04.720 oh no, don't sound by, just give us your thing. 0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:07.040 We'll fix it up later. Then I realized, no, if 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:09.600 you're gonna use one sentence for me or three sentences 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:11.960 and they're gonna be cut together, I'm gonna hand you 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:14.400 those sentences so that you don't have to cut it, 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:17.560 and then arm in control of that content. So I 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:20.040 went home, looked in the mirror, had my wife just 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:24.680 say random things from the universe to me, black holes, quasars, 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:27.120 big bang, and with each word I came out with 0:15:27.200 --> 0:15:32.200 a three sentence sound bite, which has got to be interesting, tasty, informative, 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:36.320 and and enticings enough to want to tell someone else, 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:38.440 and you get it all. So test me on that, 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:42.760 say anything in the universe. Test me black hole black 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:49.160 Avoid them. If one comes near, you go the other direction. 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:52.320 It's a region of space where the gravity is so 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:56.119 intense that the speed of light is not even sufficient 0:15:56.160 --> 0:15:59.720 to escape. It is a whole in the fabric of 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:03.600 ace and time, and we're still learning about what's going 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:08.160 on inside of them. Boom about. You're taking that whole 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:10.960 thing and putting that in just as I handed it 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:13.480 to you, whereas there was a day when that same 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:19.880 information would have been scattered across and they'd have to 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:22.440 plug it together. So when people say, are you such 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:25.600 a natural at that? No, I fucking worked at it. 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:31.440 Please can we understand this? Please? All right? Sorry dropping 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:34.200 f bomb on you. You're too welcome. I think it's 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:37.960 it's so important to be listening to this. The man 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:41.520 here is in a in a highly pressed shirt and 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:46.480 a Wall Street tie, and I'm I'm in my morning pajamas. 0:16:46.560 --> 0:16:49.800 Just so weird over here. Okay, very nice pajamas though 0:16:58.000 --> 0:17:01.000 I didn't even ask you a lot of that. It's Uh, 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:03.520 it's so important because I think people don't don't realize 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:05.440 the work. But what I think it's so curious about 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:10.639 you is you knew to do that work to build 0:17:10.640 --> 0:17:16.040 a career as a well known astrophysicist without anyone having 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:18.639 to tell you to do that. No, because I didn't 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:22.240 build it on purpose. It just oh, so I didn't 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:25.000 finish the thought. So once I started giving them sound 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:27.320 bites they like, they kept coming back for more. Then 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:29.760 documentarians noticed it, and so then they came to me 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:32.760 for an interview, and then people who wanted to do 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:35.879 TV series Nova came to me to host a spinoff 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:39.800 Nova Science Now. And so I'm not seeking any of 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:44.080 this out. No it and so I so why am 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:47.720 I doing it. I'm doing it because I judged that 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:53.440 I would be irresponsible if I didn't. So there's responsibility, Yes, 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:56.080 if if if I have a way I can communicate 0:17:56.160 --> 0:18:00.760 science to the public that is unique or has had 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:04.959 flavors to it that people appreciate. And if I didn't 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:08.359 do it in a society and in a culture that 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:12.800 that depends on science literacy just for even its own governance, 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:16.720 if I didn't do it, I don't know that I 0:18:16.760 --> 0:18:20.960 could feel like I was responsible participant in our society. 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:23.000 What I long for. I fantasize about this, that we 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:25.679 get enough others doing this, and there's more. It's a 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:29.960 growing number of science sort of educator, sort of pop educator, 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:32.640 science folk. You get enough of them on the landscape. 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:38.040 I will just slowly step backwards and then exit the 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:41.560 rear door, just slowly, and then when I exit, no 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:45.600 one will notice because it's so full of others fully 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:48.359 engaged in fun, interesting ways. And then I'll go right 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:54.840 to the Bahamas and the Bahamas totally the Bahamas. And 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:57.679 because I don't need to do this, I'm happy to 0:18:57.840 --> 0:19:00.320 do it, but I don't seek it out. Do you 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:04.439 believe in fate? Well, so you can look at the 0:19:04.480 --> 0:19:08.480 statistics of it, all right, So there's very good reason 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:13.480 for the saying fate uh favors the well prepared. Okay, 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:17.880 so uh, if you unpack that statistically, it means put 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:20.120 as many books in your personal library as you can 0:19:20.920 --> 0:19:23.119 so that when an opportunity arises, you say I can 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:25.919 do that, and someone will other else will say, oh, 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:28.880 you're the lucky person. Was it really luck or did 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:34.080 you just recognize the opportunity because you had the receptors 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:36.200 to do so. So no, I don't. I don't think 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:38.080 fate as in it would happen to you no matter 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:39.959 what I think. It's you've got to be ready for 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:43.679 it and recognize it when it arrives. If you just 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:47.800 look at how the numbers work out, um. If you 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:50.879 say that there's no such thing as as coincidence, is 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:55.679 all meant to be? Um, that is the product of 0:19:55.720 --> 0:19:59.960 a failure of the human cognitive system. It's it's why 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:03.920 statistics as a branch of math, it was very late 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:08.639 in the coming. I mean, calculus was practically fully fleshed 0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:13.000 out and developed long before statistics was formulated. And so 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:15.880 that's evidence that statistics is just not a natural way 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:18.880 for us to think about our life experience. We want 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:21.440 to think that we're special, that the whole world is 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:25.760 aligning for us. This is the source of so many religions, 0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:28.239 right if you're if you're in a heartless world, but 0:20:28.400 --> 0:20:31.639 someone in your religion cares about you, then you retain 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:35.280 your sense of personal value, uh, in the face of that. 0:20:35.920 --> 0:20:40.679 And so yeah, I don't know if knowing statistics helps 0:20:40.680 --> 0:20:43.440 you or hurt you in that state of mind, but 0:20:43.720 --> 0:20:47.440 I prefer to be plugged into an objective reality as 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:52.280 often as I can. What are your thoughts on Elon 0:20:52.359 --> 0:20:54.680 Musk and what he's doing with with SpaceX. It should 0:20:54.680 --> 0:20:58.120 have happened decades ago. We should have had space entrepreneurs 0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:00.800 decades ago. Why do you think it's only happening now 0:21:00.880 --> 0:21:03.639 between Blue Origin. Well, it's expensive just because it costs. 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:07.320 You need rich people to think to do it, because 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:13.840 there's no initial return on investment. Really, um it's and 0:21:13.920 --> 0:21:16.600 Elon Musk famously said, how to make a small fortune 0:21:16.680 --> 0:21:22.600 in space industry, start with a big fortune. I think 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:26.280 that's Elon Musk, and so it's really you need the 0:21:26.320 --> 0:21:29.240 passion of a rich person to try to make it happen. 0:21:29.240 --> 0:21:32.600 And that way they can plow through the years of 0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:36.840 no r O I that would have bankrupted anybody else, 0:21:36.880 --> 0:21:39.480 and they just keep pumping in their money until you 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:42.640 get over that hump where oh, now I can send 0:21:42.680 --> 0:21:45.600 you up in space for just a million dollars, And 0:21:45.640 --> 0:21:47.560 there plenty of billionaires out there now that will spend 0:21:47.560 --> 0:21:50.200 a million dollars on a joy ride, and that becomes 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:54.119 a business model for space tourism. But you have to 0:21:54.160 --> 0:21:55.760 get there first. You have to build the rockets that 0:21:55.880 --> 0:21:59.920 failed first. You have to can't just send anyone into 0:22:00.000 --> 0:22:02.359 thank you, thank you. Do you want to go up 0:22:02.400 --> 0:22:05.639 into space as a space tourist. Most people's definition of 0:22:05.680 --> 0:22:09.280 space does not coincide with my definition of space. I'm sure. 0:22:09.920 --> 0:22:14.120 So Earth orbit is typically what people think of when 0:22:14.119 --> 0:22:19.080 they think of space. But that's the distance from New 0:22:19.160 --> 0:22:24.440 York to Washington, d C. But straight up, all right, 0:22:24.800 --> 0:22:27.760 And in fact, in lower th orbit, you are closer 0:22:27.800 --> 0:22:32.000 to Earth's surface than San Francisco is from Los Angeles, right, 0:22:32.240 --> 0:22:35.639 So that's that's to me, that's not space. That's just 0:22:35.680 --> 0:22:40.479 a really really really high airplane. Yes, thank you for 0:22:40.520 --> 0:22:43.960 a lot. It's the most expensive airplane ticket ever, perfectly worded. 0:22:44.359 --> 0:22:46.760 The differences. You'll be waitless and you'll see stars in 0:22:46.800 --> 0:22:49.400 the daytime, that sort of thing, because you're above most 0:22:49.480 --> 0:22:51.880 of the scattering of light and Earth's atmosphere. So that's 0:22:52.240 --> 0:22:55.640 that has an attraction to it. But yeah, if you're 0:22:55.640 --> 0:22:57.240 gonna go to the Moon or Mars or beyond, yeah 0:22:57.240 --> 0:23:00.200 I'll sign up for it. But I joke, and I say, Elan, 0:23:00.200 --> 0:23:03.159 if you're gonna put me in your rocket, um let 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:05.240 it be a rocket. You've already sent your mother on 0:23:05.320 --> 0:23:07.879 and brought her back safely, then I'll go on the rocket. 0:23:07.960 --> 0:23:10.720 So like interstellar like that, that would be your idea 0:23:10.800 --> 0:23:15.760 space exploration go that far? What what about interstelling? I 0:23:15.760 --> 0:23:19.119 mean going to other planets? Yeah, like if that's not 0:23:19.160 --> 0:23:23.160 a routine thing. These were pioneers um trying to find 0:23:23.200 --> 0:23:26.119 a new place to move. But if you have that 0:23:26.200 --> 0:23:29.399 much technology to fly to another planet through black holes 0:23:29.400 --> 0:23:31.560 and things, it seems to me you have enough technology 0:23:31.600 --> 0:23:35.159 to fix the blight on the crops on Earth. That'd 0:23:35.200 --> 0:23:38.520 mean that'd be way cheaper exercise in your science and 0:23:38.560 --> 0:23:42.000 engineering portfolio. You think so, But Michael Caine couldn't figure 0:23:42.040 --> 0:23:47.040 it out, so everyone had to leave. Everyone had to leave. 0:23:47.240 --> 0:23:50.040 What do you think about everybody moving to and setting 0:23:50.119 --> 0:23:55.200 up life on Mars? Do you think it's an exciting 0:23:55.280 --> 0:23:59.000 experiment or a kind of a fruitless waste of time 0:23:59.040 --> 0:24:02.280 and money? Yeah? I know, judge how people spend money 0:24:02.440 --> 0:24:05.280 and decide whether it's a waste or not. Just not. 0:24:05.600 --> 0:24:08.120 People should spend money however the hell they want if 0:24:08.119 --> 0:24:10.840 they earn it. So that's my first comments. Second I 0:24:10.880 --> 0:24:15.040 can give you, since some factual observation, Antarctica is ball 0:24:15.160 --> 0:24:20.320 mirror and whether that any place on the surface of Mars. 0:24:21.440 --> 0:24:24.760 But you don't see people lined up to build condominiums 0:24:24.760 --> 0:24:30.359 there and move. So the idea that you're gonna set 0:24:30.440 --> 0:24:35.680 up habitats on Mars on the expectation that people will 0:24:35.680 --> 0:24:40.399 live there permanently. If you needed evidence that that would happen, 0:24:41.000 --> 0:24:43.320 you would need to look to Antarctica to see if 0:24:43.359 --> 0:24:46.600 they're housing um tracks that have been set up, and 0:24:46.640 --> 0:24:50.960