Seriously, I could listen to these guys talk for days. What’s not to love? Our favorite astrophysicist, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, interviews our favorite faux pundit, Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, D.F.A., about how to bring science to the masses, and you can listen to the episode here on startalkradio.net.
The show is pretty long and Stephen’s bits are scattered throughout, but I thought it was an interesting topic: how to make science interesting and exciting to the layperson again (and, similarly, why the general public seems to have lost interest in science in recent decades). Dr. Tyson and his co-host, Lynne Koplitz, touched on some points I’ve often thought about, like whether and to what extent “pure” scientists are responsible for the applications stemming from their discoveries.
I have to say that I was somewhat grimly amused by the fact that the show itself was so hard to find — if I hadn’t remembered reading months ago that Stephen was due to be on StarTalk at some point, I wouldn’t have gone looking for the website. And it’s clear that this episode of the show ran last month, only we didn’t see or hear it advertised at the time (and you *know* how hard we work to stay on top of Stephen-related news); perhaps Dr. Tyson and some of his peers could look into some search engine optimization tips or similar strategies as they consider the ways to heighten public interest in science again.
At any rate, I’d recommend the show whenever people get a chance to listen and, if you like what you hear, try tuning in on Sundays (station information is available on the site). I’m sorry I can’t embed it, and I know the commercials, etc., are a bit annoying, but hearing Stephen break into Carly Simon’s “You’re so Vain” as he recalls a “total eclipse of the sun” in the 70s was hilarious.
And, because I love it when these two share screen time, here’s one of my favorite segments with Stephen and Neil:
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Neil de Grasse Tyson | ||||
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Excellent link, MsI.
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OMGOMG YESYESYES. Nerdgasm!
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I too could listen to NdGT and Stephen talk all day. It was a wonderful interview, and fun to have NdGT sort of turn the tables by being the interviewer, instead of the interviewee. I could definitely have done without NdGt’s whiny co-host though.
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Thanks for this link! I love Tyson and I love Stephen – so how could this be bad? I’ll have to listen to it later this week when I’ve got some time off. :)
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I’m glad Stephen makes the point that science is really hard unless you approach it with excitement and a fire in the belly. I can really relate to that, because when I was younger I was enthralled with science, also being the child of a scientist (Dad is a geologist). Dad would teach me all sorts of interesting things when I was little, stuff about animals and dinosaurs and rocks and trees, so I loved science in school.
But since I’ve been older I haven’t really had a good science teacher to bring that out in me. Like the co-host mentioned, there’s the teacher who is excited by science, and the Beuller science teacher who drones on and makes it difficult to enjoy. In middle school I had two incompetent science teachers, and in high school I’ve had the quintessential droning teacher and an even more incompetent teacher more recently. So I’m disappointed that I’ve lost the passion for science that I used to have, and I’m really hoping that the new one we’re getting can re-show me and those in my class that science is actually incredibly interesting. The smarter ones in my class all agree that it would be really nice to learn some science for a change, from someone who really cares about sharing it.
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I say this as both a scientist and a teacher (and a passionate advocate of both pursuits), and in the spirit of encouragement:
If you loved science before, there’s nothing stopping you from loving it now.
Forget your bad teachers. Find something that interests you, and read up on it. There are lots of great science writers out there, who really capture the excitement and discovery of science, and bring that to a lay audience (think Steven Pinker, Oliver Sachs, Richard Dawkins, and so many more…). Or what about great science documentaries? Ask your parents, friends, a librarian, ask at a good local book/video store, look online. They’re out there.
My point is that if you want to learn something, you can. It sucks that you’ve got some bad teachers, and you do deserve better. But you shouldn’t let their incompetence quash your interests and passions.
If you want to find your passion for science again, then do so. Learning, passion, those are active words, they’re not passive. Be active.
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Oooh, Oliver Sacks rocks! I just read Musicophilia earlier this week, and it was awesome. I knew about some of those strange quirks about the brain and music (like how even stutterers can sing clearly, and how people with uncontrollable tics from Tourette’s and Parkinson’s can often play music or dance), but some of the facts and mysteries about the brain and music still astounded me. LOVED that book.
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So how long does this audio last? It cuts off at 29 minutes for me. I tried downloading the mp3 which cuts off at 40mb instead of the full 76 mb file.
Will someone provide a cut down version with Stephen only? I was planning to do this myself but it is just not working for me.
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I didn’t time it, but I think it was close to an hour long. It cut off about half way in the first time I tried to play it, but when I went back, I could skip ahead to roughly where it had cut off, and I listened to the rest without any trouble.
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Thanks for the link. Was an awesome show!
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I loved Stephen’s story about getting the headache that turned him onto sci-fi books. So cool.
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Well, I’ve heard Stephen tell about how he was first introduced to Sci Fi in another interview, and what he left out of this rendition that he told in the earlier interview is that the headache he was experiencing was the day of his father’s and two brothers’ funerals. So, a bittersweet story, to say the least.
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You’re absolutely correct. I think he articulated this on the Charlie Rose interview. He went into his older bothers bedroom and picked up the sci-book, and I believe he said for the rest of his schooling was a bookworm.
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That is one of the saddest stories I’ve heard him tell, but also sweet and inspiring because he found something to help him cope. :)
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A bookworm, in that he read about a book a day from there on. But he also said he was a terrible student – he stopped caring about school, never did homework, and got through because he “incidentally” learned whatever it was they wanted him to learn. Once he got to college, though, he got focused and excelled.
As a fellow bookworm, who had a string of let’s say academically “inconsistent” years in college, but rocked graduate school all the way to a Ph.D., I appreciate this little bit of life history. :)
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1. I really loved Stephen’s rosebud-rose metaphor:)
2. When Stephen recalled taking a sci-fi novel off his brother’s shelf at age 10, I think this was right after his father passed away. So glad he found something to get through that difficult time.
3. Aw, I was hoping he could remember seeing the moon landing. Well, I’m glad he saw it even if he can’t remember it:)
Just FYI, Stephen makes an “appearance” on the show three times.
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Fallback Position Segment = Love I would just love it if somehow Neil deGrasse Tyson got his own occasional segment on TCR. How absolutely wonderful would that be to have them together on a semi-regular basis?
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Slightly OT, but I just read this article from the BBC News, and it seemed to fit nicely with the theme of “making science fun/interesting” that Dr. Tyson was talking about in this show: “Science ponders ‘zombie attack’“.
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Thank you for the link, that was really interesting and I loved hearing Stephen really talk about science, out of character.
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Can’t sleep tonight, so I’m listening to this fantastic interview again, which has risen to the top of my best interview list. Two of my favorite intelligent, funny, engaging people having a thoughtful conversation about my favorite topic. I’m just so thrilled to hear how Stephen’s enthusiasm for science shines through – and not just for the novelties or factoids. He really really gets what it’s all about (curiosity, new discoveries, asking questions) in a way that lots of non-scientists don’t.
(As a side note, I also appreciate that in talking about his love of ‘first questions’, he makes the important distinction between “why are we here” and “how are we here”. Not enough people do that.)
What a great ambassador for science.
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