Bringing Science to Life, with Ben Stiller

Neil Tyson interviews actor Ben Stiller about bringing science to life in “Night at the Museum,” his life as a serious Star Trek geek, “Zoolander,” and the science of comedy. Featuring the two Chucks, Nice and Liu, neuroscientist Scott Weems, and Bill Nye. NOTE: StarTalk All-Access subscribers can listen to this entire episode commercial-free. Find out more at https://www.startalkradio.net/startalk-all-access/

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Welcome to StarTalk. Your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now.

• 0:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Welcome to the hall of the universe. This is StarTalk and I'm your host Neil deGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist. And tonight, we're featuring my interview with actor, writer, comedian Ben Stiller. And we're gonna lay bare his inner geek. You're gonna learn stuff about him you never knew before. Like how much street cred he's got just on Star Trek alone. Not only that, he starred in the film Night at the Museum, which took place here, at this museum, where everything came to life. Literally. So, let's do this.

• 0:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Let me introduce my co-host Chuck Nice.

• 1:06Speaker 02

  Hey.

• 1:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I have a Charles Liu, friend, colleague, Charles Liu.

• 1:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So Charles, he's a fellow astrophysicist. He's a professor at the City University of New York in Staten Island. And so I bring in Charles because he can geek out in ways that I cannot, I'm not worthy.

• 1:28Speaker 02

  My delight at being here Neil exceeds the boundaries of space and time.

• 1:34Speaker 01

  Is that not impossible?

• 1:37Speaker 02

  Not for me.

• 1:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There you go. So, now, we know Ben Stiller, he's a pop culture icon.

• 1:45Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 1:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, given the movies, he did There's Something About Mary, you remember that one?

• 1:48Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  He also did Meet the Parents, there's a trilogy there. Did Zoolander.

• 1:52Speaker 02

  And Dodgeball.

• 1:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh Dodgeball, okay, forgot about Dodgeball, okay. So, so why do, why do we have him, why do I interview him on the show? Well, he came through town. And I just wanted to make sure I nabbed him, because I knew that he, he has a soft geek underbelly.

• 2:08Speaker 02

  Ah.

• 2:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And on StarTalk, we lay that bare, because that's how we roll. So, this museum, actually, it turned out played an important role in his life. Let's find out how and why, check it out.

• 2:22Speaker 03

  I grew up about four blocks from here, on 84th Street, Riverside Drive.

• 2:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 2:28Speaker 03

  So this is my neighborhood, and being here, actually being here with you in this place.

• 2:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  At the American Museum of Natural History.

• 2:34Speaker 03

  Yeah, in the Planetarium, the Natural History Museum, just for me, it's like this feels very close to just my own DNA as a child, you know, just I loved coming.

• 2:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We all came here as a kid.

• 2:46Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, and I loved the stars and astronomy and the idea of it, and I just wasn't a great math student, so, and I never really followed through with it.

• 2:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 2:56Speaker 03

  But, I did have a great science teacher, ironically, since I wasn't a good science student, who's my favorite teacher that I ever had at school, where I went to school at Calhoun, which is on 81st Street here, and that science teacher's name is John Rader, was...

• 3:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We always remember the names of our favorite teachers.

• 3:16Speaker 03

  Yeah, no, you remember because they make a difference, and he had a genuine love of science, and that was what I got, was that he was really excited by all this stuff. He encouraged us just to be creative in the sciences, and for our paper, he said, "Just do, you know, do it on something that you find, you know, interesting, and the solar system, whatever," so, instead of writing a paper about the moon, which is what I chose, my friend Peter Swan and I wrote a song called "Man and the Moon," that we... Very creative! And he gave us an A on it, yeah, and it was about man and the moon, and, um, basically that was it, it was man and the moon, moon and the man, where did it all begin, how did it all begin?

• 4:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's good.

• 4:03Speaker 03

  That's good.

• 4:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, I liked the rhyme, and what he had to do to, literarily, to make the rhyme.

• 4:13Speaker 02

  And hooray for Mr. Rader, the teacher, who allowed Ben to learn the material that was appropriate for him and bring it forward.

• 4:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In the way he wanted to do it.

• 4:21Speaker 02

  In the way he wanted and needed to do it, good for him.

• 4:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And that's what education really is, and it's not only what happens in the classroom... He came to this museum. This museum is a teaching experience unto itself. The American Museum of Natural History. All the great cities in the world have museums such as this. A natural history museum, you've got the history of life. Here we got the planetarium and the history of the universe as part of it. And I love dissing my paleontology colleagues. They got all their dinosaur bones up on display. And I say, one of our asteroids took them out 65 million years ago. So we win. We do. And I was inspired by a first visit to the Hayden Planetarium. Now, of course, human beings created that show and created the exhibits. But the moment when I said, the universe is calling me.

• 5:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I was in the Hayden Planetarium, looking up to the night sky as presented to me. And so they just asked quickly, in your visit to this museum or any others, is there some museum memory that you have? It just blends in with all my other educational experiences. Your total knowledge. How about you?

• 5:20Speaker 01

  The museum of sex.

• 5:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Really?

• 5:23Speaker 01

  Changed my life, man.

• 5:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Really? You learn how, you learn?

• 5:26Speaker 01

  Changed my life.

• 5:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You learn how? Yeah. I was like, wait a minute, you can do that?

• 5:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Wow! Well, because Ben still grew up near this museum, this museum ended up part of his life. And he folded it into his creativity. And in the film, A Night at the Museum, the creatures come to life. And so I had to ask him about just where that all came from. Let's check it out. First, congratulations on the success of that film.

• 5:54Speaker 03

  Now, thanks.

• 5:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Can I speak candidly about the film?

• 5:57Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 5:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The film was way better than I think it deserved to be.

• 6:05Speaker 03

  This interview's over.

• 6:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, what I mean is, well, no, let me explain. Let me explain. It's like, someone tells you the premise. It's like, no, this is gonna be stupid. No, the animals come to life, the bo- no! But I have to watch it anyway because I'm an employee of this institution. So, we attended the premiere here at our auditorium. And it's like, this is hilarious! And my gosh, I have fully bought into this premise. So you made it work.

• 6:36Speaker 03

  Right, well, thank you.

• 6:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Holy cow!

• 6:38Speaker 03

  So this is why you are you and I am me, okay? When I, when they told me the premise, I thought, that's the coolest thing I've ever heard. This is my dream, okay? Astrophysics.

• 6:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Good. I'm glad, I'm glad you did it.

• 6:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, no, I really was, I grew up on the Upper West Side, so for me, as, I was thinking when I read the movie, as, if I was 10 years old, this would be really cool, right? And, and, and then I was also thinking, oh wow, I think this is really cool, because it's sort of like a fantasy that I always had to be able, because I came here, and, and you actually thought of real things, and trying to solve real problems. I thought, wow, wouldn't it be cool if, you know, the narwhal in, in the hall of-

• 7:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ocean life?

• 7:23Speaker 03

  Ocean life hall, you know, came to life, and what would that be like?

• 7:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, how did you feel about the premise?

• 7:30Speaker 01

  Uh, I think, to be honest, that that premise is a horror film for most children. As a matter of fact, I'm, I'm very, I will venture to say that if I were to poll the audience right now, and ask them, if the things in the other room came to life, would you think that was cool? Sitting right here, right now. No, I don't think you would.

• 7:52Speaker 02

  I like the premise a great deal. The basic point, this museum literally did what good teachers do. Bring a subject that's otherwise stuffy and still to life.

• 8:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  To life. A proper use of the word literal.

• 8:07Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 8:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes. So many of us-

• 8:09Speaker 01

  He better, he's an astrophysicist.

• 8:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know what I'm talking about. And, uh, just to, in, in the interest of disclosure, uh, some of the exhibits portrayed in the film, we just don't have here. We don't have an Egyptian wing, we don't have Civil War soldiers, this sort of thing. But, that was okay, because the rest of it got the, the spirit and the soul of what goes on here.

• 8:28Speaker 02

  Right.

• 8:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And now, now when, when the museum is about to close, and the, the announcement comes on, it's in like nine languages, and people are kind of wondering, I say, if you stay here, too late?

• 8:41Speaker 01

  Throw the bone.

• 8:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Where do you think the paleontologists get their extra bones? They're missing a, they're missing a bone? Hey, we need a femur.

• 8:51Speaker 01

  I believe your femur will do just fine.

• 8:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So it turns out the museum attendance spiked after that film.

• 8:59Speaker 01

  Really?

• 9:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And people came in, they wanted to see the Easter Island head, which was chewed gum in the film. If you haven't seen the film, this all sounds completely stupid to you. Somehow they made it work and it was charming and it was funny. And to this day, we did it beforehand, but it got very popular. We have sleepovers at the museum.

• 9:18Speaker 01

  Oh, really?

• 9:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 9:19Speaker 01

  For people who think that stuff is going to come to life?

• 9:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  For people who are not completely freaked out by the premise of the animals coming to life. What they do, they turn off the lights and the dinosaurs and they give you flashlights.

• 9:31Speaker 01

  Oh, that's...

• 9:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you get sort of extra shadowing. Because as you move with the flashlight, then the shadow moves behind it.

• 9:37Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, because there's nothing scary about a big giant shadow of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. As a kid, yeah. Well, sleep tight, Johnny.

• 9:45Speaker 02

  Well, what Ben did in light of the museum was make it not scary. And in a sense, all the millions of kids who now watch it today are not afraid of the dark in the museum and not afraid of things coming to life. Rather, they're enjoying it, they're looking forward to it.

• 9:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And you know what I worry that it can be, especially in modern times, we can take science for granted.

• 10:04Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 10:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know, somebody's out there figuring this stuff out and presenting it to you. And I think so many of us think it's just always there. You know, I once put a calculation in one of my tweets and someone said, "What Wiki pages did you get that from?" I said, "What app did you use?" I said, "I use the Brain app." Okay, like you can calculate this, that's what I did. And my community of people actually write Wiki pages. And people have to realize that this stuff comes from somewhere.

• 10:31Speaker 01

  You know, we do take science for granted. And so here's what I did. I took to the streets as our sidewalk science correspondent.

• 10:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Who gave you that title?

• 10:42Speaker 01

  You know, I kind of made it up.

• 10:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Science sidewalk correspondent.

• 10:46Speaker 01

  Sidewalk science correspondent.

• 10:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's cool.

• 10:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, you know, I just really wanted to go out and see exactly how much the public appreciates science.

• 10:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, let's check it out.

• 10:57Speaker 01

  What scientific advancement can you not live without every day? I'm not gonna say cell phones, that's the easiest answer. Okay. And everyone's become so dependent. Very good. Electricity. Nice, electricity, which by the way, cell phones would not work without it. What scientific advancement do you think you cannot live without? Frozen custard.

• 11:20Speaker 04

  Well, I'm kind of an agriculture nerd, so I think tractors are pretty important.

• 11:24Speaker 01

  Tractors? Everything around you is. It's science. Yeah, exactly. See, even though I was gonna go with toilet paper, let's talk about science, baby. What do you think is the greatest scientific advancement in the history of humankind? I would say space travel. The wheel? The wheel, that is a good one.

• 11:43Speaker 04

  A tractor.

• 11:44Speaker 01

  Once again with a tractor? Is there anything more important than science? Say love, I guess. Really, see, but you weren't convinced, you know science is better than love. Science is more important.

• 11:55Speaker 04

  Oh, wow.

• 11:56Speaker 01

  If you say tractor, I swear to God, is there anything more important than science? Beer. Beer, there's the answer, people, I'm sorry, we gotta cut this off, beer.

• 12:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Coming up next, we'll get back to my interview with Ben Stiller and find out how much of a geek he really is when StarTalk continues.

• 12:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Welcome back to StarTalk, right here in New York City. Featuring my interview with Ben Stiller, and we're trying to find out how much of a geek is he really? Turns out, he's a huge Star Trek fan. And if you're a Star Trek fan, that gets you geek street cred right off the top.

• 12:46Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 12:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Let's find out how.

• 12:50Speaker 03

  The chemistry of the cast was amazing. The stories were always interesting and as a kid, you know, like they just, sometimes they were funny. Sometimes they were more serious. And I don't know, I just loved the show. I loved the show.

• 13:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So this is a little bit of a geek underbelly you got going there.

• 13:08Speaker 03

  Well, I mean, I don't know if it's that much of an underbelly. It might just be a exposed belly.

• 13:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Fully raw, just exposed.

• 13:15Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's not that hidden. But I mean, I didn't realize it was sort of geeky to like Star Trek or to be into that stuff. That's probably the definition of someone who is a geek.

• 13:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Not knowing.

• 13:26Speaker 03

  You just, you actually think it's cool. But my friends and I, we loved it and I actually just found, I got the Star Trek, the Starfleet Technical Manual when the show was out where you could...

• 13:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Geek alert.

• 13:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  He didn't even, he didn't even pause. He didn't even wonder whether that should just come out of his mouth. Okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, I got, I picked up the Star Trek Technical Manual, of course.

• 13:51Speaker 03

  It's actually very cool because it has blueprints of the Enterprise and, you know, okay, there's no way. You're making me feel like a geek?

• 13:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, you are at home. No, I don't mean, no, no, forgive me. You are at home.

• 14:03Speaker 03

  All right. Thank you. I thought I was with a like minded...

• 14:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is a safe space. It's a safe space for the geeker.

• 14:09Speaker 03

  I'm sure for real scientists, Star Trek is like a funny sort of little diversion. But you know, for me, it's as close as I got to, you know, to actual science. But the, yeah, so they did, I mean, it's interesting though, isn't it, that they would make up a whole book that was fake blueprints of a ship that never existed and, right?

• 14:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, no, I agree.

• 14:28Speaker 03

  Mythology that gets created around this stuff. And you were talking, we were talking before about how certain mythology and fiction comes out of first being, basing it in some sort of fact.

• 14:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah, and if it's close enough to being real, then there's enough of an anchor for creative people, technologists, scientists, artists, to say, "I want that in my future."

• 14:50Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 14:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, did you glean anything from this technical manual at the time?

• 14:54Speaker 03

  Um, well, I literally just found it recently, like, in a box of old stuff. And, of course, I just, I got very emotional. You know, because it's my childhood and I was like, "Oh, my Starfleet technical manual." Um, but, uh, I mean, it's, what I found interesting was that there was so much detail put into something that was totally fictional. Um, but I think we all want to kind of believe these, you know, these mythologies and that's what's kind of, you invest in, whether it's any, any science fiction, I think, you know? And, and I think Star Trek did sort of, because he was telling stories that were based in what was going on at the time.

• 15:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Culturally relevant.

• 15:31Speaker 03

  Yeah, definitely. That it, it felt, that connection was there.

• 15:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, Charles, you're, you're our Star Trek geek-in-chief, and so, did you have a Starfleet manual?

• 15:43Speaker 02

  I got it out of the library.

• 15:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 15:46Speaker 02

  Nice. Like, that's geek squared, right?

• 15:51Speaker 02

  How about you, Chuck?

• 15:53Speaker 01

  Yes, I have one too.

• 15:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so, so now you're like on level ground with, with, with Ben Stiller.

• 16:02Speaker 02

  I liked Ben before, now I really like him. But, you know, he was talking about the social relevance of Star Trek, and it's so true. At that time especially, uh, never mind things like racial issues, uh, social, people getting along, and anti-war. At that time, right during the Cold War in Vietnam, there were a series of episodes that addressed directly, uh, a hope for a better humanity.

• 16:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There's a huge cultural tapestry from which to draw storylines if you're gonna make commentary.

• 16:30Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 16:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And, uh, let us remind ourselves, of course, that Star Trek just enjoyed its 50th anniversary.

• 16:35Speaker 02

  Yes, absolutely.

• 16:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, hearing that he owns a Starship manual, we only just scratched the surface of Ben Stiller's geekitude. I, I'm telling you, the dude is borderline obsessed. Check it out.

• 16:55Speaker 03

  Tropic Thunder, which is the movie I directed, there's um, in Matthew McConaughey's office, he plays an agent, uh, I got my Spock ears in there as part of his, like in his office on his desk. Oh, what do you mean your Spock ears? Uh, the Spock ears that I purchased at auction, Neil. Uh, that I proudly purchased at auction, uh, a number of years ago. So you own an original set of Spock ears? I do, from, yeah, I think from the second season, and uh, and I actually- And then you put those on set. Now, you realize it's Hollywood, they could just make a prop. You realize that? No, no, well, I'll keep going with this. I also, uh, put my Gorn head. You have- That I own. You have a Gorn head?

• 17:38Speaker 03

  The Gorn head from the arena episode in that same, I can tell you a couple of stories about this, okay? The Gorn, this is the lizard creature- That's right, the Gorn. That Captain Kirk fights. That's right, I, I have the Gorn head, which I also bought at auction, and the Gorn outfit, his uniform. Now I'm jealous, see, I want- So the Gorn head, so the Gorn head was actually in, I put that in the office too. Wait, wait, just pause for a minute, just the very phrase, "I own a Gorn head." That, that, I own a Gorn, those five words either mean absolutely nothing, or mean everything. I mean, exactly. Right. That defines who you are as a person, and it's like some sort of a Rorschach test- Yes. For personality. Amazing.

• 18:22Speaker 03

  For what your values are in life, but I've never put the Gorn head on, just to let you know, I'm not that weird, okay? You, you, you draw your line. But the cool thing for me was that Leonard Nimoy did spot the Spock ears when he saw the movie. Okay. Which was, and reached out to me, which was probably one of the best moments of my life. Did you get him to sign it, or was it, was it? He, uh, you know what, he, I told him, he said, "Did I spot some, some ears in that scene?" I was like, "Yes, sir, you did, your ears that I purchased." You didn't start the conversation, "I'm not worthy." Basically, I was just, you know, I was a mess. Bumbling.

• 19:03Speaker 03

  Yeah, I was very excited, because he really is one of my favorite people, and the fact that I got a chance to meet him, and that he noticed the ears, and, uh, and I said, "Yes, I'm a huge fan," and I, I told him that I also had his, um, tunic from the pilot episode, and- He said, "Oh, well, okay, um, you know, give me your address, I want to send you something." And he sent me a set of his ears from the first, uh, from the Star Trek movie.

• 19:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  From the movie?

• 19:30Speaker 03

  And that basically is like my, my, my life could end.

• 19:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There it is.

• 19:35Speaker 03

  So that's...

• 19:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Wow.

• 19:37Speaker 03

  That's why I'm retiring.

• 19:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You're, you're done. Bucket list complete.

• 19:43Speaker 01

  Wow. I just love how, uh, no matter how much or who you are, you have to be very sheepish when you say like, "I have Spock ears."

• 19:52Speaker 02

  No.

• 19:52Speaker 01

  Like, he was like, "And I have Spock ears."

• 19:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, but I told him, "He's in a safe space."

• 19:55Speaker 02

  The, the only thing I would ask is, "Mr. Stiller, may I please put on the Gorn head?"

• 20:00Speaker 01

  Yeah. I mean, I'm gonna be honest, when he said that, I didn't understand that. Why do you buy a Gorn head and not wear it? I'm not only wearing it, I'm saying to my wife, "Look, you gonna have to close your eyes, 'cause I'm wearing this Gorn head."

• 20:12Speaker 02

  Oh, no, no, no, no. I tell my wife, "Honey, take a look, I'm wearing a Gorn head."

• 20:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, I, you know, ears are, they're an interesting marker.

• 20:24Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 20:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I think if you otherwise have a humanoid-looking creature, do you give them three eyes? Generally not. Do you give them a, do you put their nose on their cheek? No, you just sort of give them new kind of ears, it seems.

• 20:37Speaker 01

  It seems to be the way that you can, uh, make use of your very gorgeous actor, uh, without screwing up their face.

• 20:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, oh, is that, okay. No, that makes sense.

• 20:47Speaker 01

  I have a friend, Sarah, who that's her, that's her philosophy on why all aliens have,

• 20:52Speaker 02

  Weird ears?

• 20:53Speaker 01

  Weird ears, as opposed to, you know...

• 20:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, plus, in the, in the mammal, you know, among mammals, ears vary greatly.

• 21:01Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 21:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You got floppy ears, pointy ears, and ears that stick out, and ears that can aim.

• 21:05Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 21:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know, so, so, so, that's within our, um, uh, that's within our ability to accept.

• 21:13Speaker 02

  Yes. And, and, let's face it, in the 1960s, costume-making technology only went so far.

• 21:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Evidence by the Gorn head.

• 21:24Speaker 02

  That's the sound they made.

• 21:25Speaker 03

  Yes, but I really... That was very good.

• 21:28Speaker 02

  Did you like that?

• 21:29Speaker 03

  I loved it, yes.

• 21:29Speaker 02

  Which, by the way, he spoke into a translator and he would go... And be like, "Kirk, let me tell you something." It was great.

• 21:36Speaker 03

  A translator provided by the Metrons...

• 21:39Speaker 02

  You're right.

• 21:40Speaker 03

  Was trying to prevent an interstellar war.

• 21:41Speaker 02

  Because it was actually like an interstellar cable show that... Alright.

• 21:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There's a hundred bucks, like I said, the room...

• 21:49Speaker 02

  I can't believe we just did that.

• 21:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, coming up, we continue my interview with Ben Stiller, and we break down the very hard science of how to remove your underwear. Next, on StarTalk.

• 22:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We're back on StarTalk, featuring my interview with Ben Stiller, actor, comedian, writer. And I had to call him out. In one of his films, there's a bit of scientific inaccuracy in a really important scene, and I had to... I had to raise that issue with him. Let's check it out.

• 22:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In Zoolander, there's a scene where Hansel's walking down the runway, and then he pauses, sticks his hand in his pants. And nobody knows why. And he's reaching around. Why is he doing this? And your character says, "Why is he sticking his hand in his pants?"

• 22:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And then, a few seconds later, he comes out and there's his underwear.

• 22:59Speaker 03

  Right.

• 23:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I must alert you that that is topologically impossible, what he did, but I give him credit for even going there.

• 23:09Speaker 03

  Right, but there is a topological way to approach it, right?

• 23:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There is. In fact, you can remove your underwear without taking off your pants. But it's a... He has to like... You need very stretchy underwear to pull one side around your foot, and then back up, and then it slides across and comes out the other side.

• 23:26Speaker 03

  Maybe he did that really quickly and we didn't see it.

• 23:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, at a point where the camera pulled away.

• 23:30Speaker 03

  Maybe, or just it happened so fast.

• 23:34Speaker 01

  Love it.

• 23:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So I just briefly mentioned topology there. That's a branch of mathematics that thinks deeply about surfaces and how the surfaces connect or interconnect and how you make shapes. It's a fun branch of math. If I were a mathematician, I think I'd be a topologist.

• 23:54Speaker 01

  Yes, well, you know what? Here's the funny thing, Neil. When I found out about the topological reference that you made, I felt that I had to be able to demonstrate that it is possible.

• 24:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What?

• 24:06Speaker 01

  Yes. Because if I do...

• 24:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What are you doing?

• 24:12Speaker 01

  The wrong thing.

• 24:17Speaker 01

  Do it!

• 24:27Speaker 01

  I forgot I was wearing the East's laundry day.

• 24:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What is on the front? What is on the front of that underwear?

• 24:35Speaker 01

  Here, man, just...

• 24:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What am I doing on the front of your...

• 24:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  First of all, they're red, and I think the word for these is panties. And I'm just realizing here, this isn't Saturn.

• 24:49Speaker 01

  What is it?

• 24:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Based on the coloration and how thin the ring is.

• 24:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is, in fact, Uranus.

• 25:00Speaker 01

  Well, just be glad it's not Uranus.

• 25:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm just saying.

• 25:04Speaker 01

  Are there any Klingons orbiting?

• 25:09Speaker 01

  Give him mine to wear.

• 25:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm sorry, bro. So let me ask you guys, because I think about this all the time. Where would you place the threshold of science accuracy where after which they cross that line, they go into storytelling?

• 25:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Storytelling, abandoning the science accuracy. Do you have a, you have a line?

• 25:30Speaker 02

  I have a line, and that is completely, you know this, based on scientific research, that's fact. If you don't know it, it becomes fiction. It's a very clear line. Scientific knowledge has been tested.

• 25:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, wait, wait, is that answering my question? I'm asking you, this is a science fiction story. How much science should they put in correctly?

• 25:53Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 25:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And how much, and so where's the line?

• 25:56Speaker 02

  In that, if you're gonna call something a science fiction, you don't need any science at all. It doesn't have to be. Cause what we're talking about at that point is just creating a world that is sufficiently-

• 26:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In a world.

• 26:10Speaker 02

  All we need to do to create science fiction is to create some sort of world environment which is sufficiently different from our own, that we can start commenting on our own in a distant, detached way.

• 26:22Speaker 01

  But what, but I'll say is, what makes good science fiction is, the more science you have in your science fiction, the better your science fiction is.

• 26:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm thinking you anchor it in what is real, then step to where your fantasy takes you.

• 26:37Speaker 02

  A lot of people think this, but let me give a counter example.

• 26:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, and let me, you give your counter example after I give you a quote from Mark Twain.

• 26:45Speaker 02

  Mark Twain was a science fiction fan?

• 26:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  First, get your facts straight. Then distort them at your leisure.

• 26:52Speaker 01

  Nice.

• 26:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Mark Twain.

• 26:54Speaker 01

  Mark Twain said that.

• 26:55Speaker 02

  Star Wars, for example, is patently unscientific in literally every way. The fact that it has planets and spaceships is about the only accurate science in Star Wars. If just one of those X-Wings would actually go to warp speed while it was sitting in orbit around a planet, it would wipe out the atmosphere of that planet. And yet they do this all the time, right? That's just one tiny example. Why do X-Wings make the same sound when they're whizzing around in space as they quite are flying in an atmosphere?

• 27:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I posed that very same question.

• 27:28Speaker 02

  These things don't matter in the quality of Star Wars as a science fiction mythos. It is a beautiful, brilliant thing, as long as it's self-sustained.

• 27:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you're telling me I overreact when I comment on this?

• 27:38Speaker 02

  No, no, no, no, no. When somebody says that they're doing science fiction, then you can suspend all disbelief and it's okay if they get it wrong.

• 27:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Alright, so here, so, let me, let me meet you halfway.

• 27:50Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 27:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If you're gonna make science fiction and you wanna create a world, let that world be internally consistent in whatever rules you create for it, no matter how different they are from our own.

• 27:59Speaker 01

  So, don't violate your own rules.

• 28:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Don't violate your own rules.

• 28:02Speaker 02

  I am happy with that.

• 28:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, alright, alright.

• 28:06Speaker 01

  Well, I am so glad that we settled this.

• 28:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, moving on to other works of Ben Stiller, I made a cameo appearance in Zoolander 2.

• 28:17Speaker 01

  No, really?

• 28:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, I did. It was filmed on location in Rome, and I flew to Rome for this, except while it was on location in Rome, it was in a studio in Rome. So, they could've done it here, but everybody was in Rome. So, I had to go to Rome.

• 28:31Speaker 01

  And we wonder why movie budgets are so big.

• 28:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And one of my scenes was on location with Owen Wilson and Katy Perry, and the very last shot of the film is me doing Derek Zoolander's famous Blue Steel.

• 28:47Speaker 02

  Oh, my god.

• 28:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm in this movie, okay? My earlier scene has very loose cosmology in it, okay? This is a throwaway at the end.

• 28:58Speaker 02

  And a wonderful throwaway it is.

• 29:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, but, but my, I would ask, just, should I keep doing this if I'm asked?

• 29:06Speaker 01

  Yes, absolutely.

• 29:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because, because is it really, why?

• 29:12Speaker 01

  Are you kidding me? I would do that for no reason at all.

• 29:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, I need reasons, I, I need, I, I need-

• 29:20Speaker 01

  I don't need a reason to do, I, look at that.

• 29:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes!

• 29:22Speaker 01

  Are you kidding me?

• 29:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, if you, if you look at this frame by frame, in one of the frames, there are like moons and planets coming out from the thing. So, there is a cosmological reference to it.

• 29:32Speaker 01

  You don't need one. No need for a cosmological reference with that. That, my friend, is called fabulousness.

• 29:43Speaker 03

  You absolutely should keep doing this.

• 29:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 29:45Speaker 03

  And the reason is, to me, very simple. Every human being has a combination of the serious and the excited and the crazy. And if this is you, you just do it.

• 29:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That is awesome. All right, I'll take it to heart. That is awesome. Thank you for that. Well, up next, Ben Stiller helps us break down what might be the science of comedy on StarTalk.

• 30:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Welcome back to StarTalk. We're featuring my interview with Ben Stiller. And I don't know if, unless you've been living on another planet in another dimension, he has surely made you laugh at some point in his career in your life. And so I had to ask him, is there, is there a science to comedy? Is there some kind of a formula? Let's check it out.

• 30:47Speaker 03

  You know what? I think it's an instinctual thing that does have some sort of math to it in some way.

• 30:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, what equation? I'll write it down.

• 30:54Speaker 03

  But no, you know, there is like, there's the old rule of three, you know, with a joke, where you like have a setup. Where if there's like something funny, it's the third thing that's funny. You know, like you say, the two, you say two regular things and then the third thing is the funny thing.

• 31:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, you don't, it's not the ace thing.

• 31:10Speaker 03

  No, right, yeah. And that is like a rhythm thing. It's like a timing thing that is, I think, is an instinctual thing, probably the way instinctually you gravitate to.

• 31:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Good word, gravitate.

• 31:22Speaker 03

  Yeah, gravitate towards mathematics or, you know, or, you know, how those equations work, how you have a sense of.

• 31:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There's a way to think about it, a way to set it up.

• 31:31Speaker 03

  And I think that that spurred your interest in it because you had a knack for it and an understanding of it just instinctually. And I think that's the way it is with comedy, that you could probably break down and go, yeah, that actually does have some sort of a, an equation to it.

• 31:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Chuck, is comedy instinctual to you? Or is it formulaic at some level?

• 31:51Speaker 01

  You know, um, yes, both.

• 31:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Really?

• 31:54Speaker 01

  No, the truth is it's both. Some, I, I write material and then I go onstage with the full intent, if that's not working, to abandon that material because I trust that I'm funny enough to make it work. Uh, so some of it is timing, some of it is instinctual. Um, and there are different ways to actually create jokes. Like, familiar associations coupled with surprise is something that's very familiar to everyone, you know? If, if, if you bring about familiar associations and then you interject something that's surprising, people will most likely laugh, you know?

• 32:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Or at least react.

• 32:31Speaker 01

  Or at least react, you know, right? So, and, and believe it or not, that's the, that's the biggest conundrum of being a comedian is that you write in a vacuum, uh, but you find out if you're funny, uh, in public. So you don't know if you're funny until you actually do it.

• 32:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Until you're not funny.

• 32:48Speaker 01

  Until you're not funny. Right! And that is it. So comedians suffer from delusions because you think you're funny when you are not. That is what makes you funny.

• 32:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You can think you're funny when you're not.

• 33:00Speaker 01

  No, you just think you're funny when you're not.

• 33:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, so here at StarTalk, we keep a rolodex of, like, experts on stuff. And we got somebody who thinks about just these sorts of questions academically.

• 33:14Speaker 01

  Ooh.

• 33:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We got just the guy, okay? His name is Scott Weems. He's a cognitive neuroscientist who studies the science, the science of what makes us laugh. And I think we've got him standing by right now on video call.

• 33:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Scott, hello! Welcome to StarTalk. So, so you've, you've been eavesdropping on this conversation. Do you agree with Ben Stiller that there's some, at least some kinds of comedy are formulaic?

• 33:42Speaker 05

  I think there's definitely a science to comedy. Um, I'm not sure there's a formula in the sense that you can define this will be funny and this won't. It takes practice like any other art.

• 33:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So as a cognitive neuroscientist, presumably you know which parts of the brain get stimulated by what kind of jokes?

• 33:59Speaker 05

  I do. I mean, people have been put in scanners like MRI or tools like that and then studied while they're like looking at cartoons or listening to jokes and things like that. And there are certain parts of the brain that are generally active. The anterior cingulate seems to be like the kind of the center for resolving conflict and getting jokes, which tells us there's something in common for those two things.

• 34:22Speaker 01

  Yes, because when you are funny, that's a very good way to diffuse conflict. Uh, when, you know, it kept me from getting beat up quite a bit.

• 34:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay. And so, so are, is laughing and humor strictly human or are there other animals out there who, who can do this?

• 34:40Speaker 05

  Uh, no, we're definitely not special in terms of humor in the sense that lots of animals laugh. Um, we know that apes laugh. That's a relatively straightforward one. And the more similar their vocal cords are to ours, the more the laughter actually sounds like ours.

• 34:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But wait, but what are they laughing at?

• 34:56Speaker 05

  Uh, it depends on, it depends on what you think is funny if you're an ape. I mean.

• 35:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They're not laughing because they have a stand-up comedian in front of them. They're laughing, what, what makes an ape laugh?

• 35:09Speaker 01

  Well, let's just say, uh, we're talking about, uh, animals that throw their own poop.

• 35:14Speaker 05

  You're actually right on with that. Yeah, yeah, so there's actually a very famous story of Washoe, a chimpanzee who was taught sign language. And there was one day she was sitting on her handler's shoulders and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, she just peed, just peed on his shoulders. And he looked up, obviously, you know, covered in urine, this was not a pleasant thing. And she was making the sign language sign for laugh, for funny. So I think if you are an ape, most of your humor does have to do with pee and feces, uh, because there aren't stand-up comedians.

• 35:46Speaker 01

  Who knew there was an R. Kelly in the chimpanzee world?

• 35:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Scott, we gotta end this now, but thanks for, thanks for checking in with us. And the day you actually write out a formula, I want to be the first one you call.

• 35:58Speaker 01

  No, please make him the second one you call because I do this for a living.

• 36:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, Scott, thanks again.

• 36:04Speaker 05

  Thank you.

• 36:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Coming up after the break, award-winning actor-director Ben Stiller, karate chops me in the neck. Next on StarTalk.

• 36:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We're back on StarTalk, right here at the American Museum of Natural History, featuring my interview with Ben Stiller. He's a comedian, and you think he's fun because you see him in the movies and on TV. He's just that fun in real life. Check it out. Is there an impression that you can do of someone that could just be fun? Was there?

• 36:50Speaker 03

  God, I am so bad. I'm not good with the impression.

• 36:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You must have been able to do Captain Kirk.

• 36:55Speaker 03

  No, I do a bad Captain Kirk.

• 36:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Can we just try it?

• 36:58Speaker 03

  No.

• 37:01Speaker 03

  I can do Captain Kirk in a fight. Okay, I can do Captain Kirk in a fight, okay? So you have to bear hug me, right?

• 37:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 37:10Speaker 03

  Like you're trying to squeeze me, like you're a Klingon or something.

• 37:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Should I pretend or do it for real?

• 37:13Speaker 03

  Yeah, no, do it for real. And then I'll do how Captain Kirk would get out of it.

• 37:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, okay, ready?

• 37:17Speaker 03

  Just grab me.

• 37:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, ready?

• 37:22Speaker 03

  That was how he would get out of something.

• 37:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You're right! That's what he did every time.

• 37:28Speaker 03

  Right?

• 37:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Just a double karate chop to the shoulders.

• 37:34Speaker 01

  That was awesome!

• 37:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Awesome!

• 37:36Speaker 01

  It was awesome!

• 37:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So there were other powers that were expressed in Star Trek. So there was the Vulcan mind meld. Yes. And, Charles, just tell us what that was real quick.

• 37:45Speaker 02

  Vulcans are very telepathic species. They could literally project thoughts into other people as long as they touched them in the nose, in the forehead, and on the cheek all at the same time.

• 37:55Speaker 01

  Yes. Because those are the erotic zones of Vulcans.

• 38:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And there's also the Vulcan nerve pinch, which I attempted throughout...

• 38:07Speaker 01

  That was it.

• 38:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Chuck has the power. Chuck has the force.

• 38:14Speaker 01

  That was either the Vulcan neck pinch, or I'm a televangelist, I'm not sure.

• 38:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So Charles, I spent a lot of my childhood trying to paralyze people with a Vulcan neck pinch.

• 38:25Speaker 01

  Ooh!

• 38:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And it never worked. Well, I got a really strong grip at one point.

• 38:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I can squeeze like 240 pounds with my hand. All you have to do is take a scale and squeeze, okay?

• 38:34Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 38:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And you can see what is reduced. Yeah, so there it was. So I did this on people's, and I tied here, and here, and here. Nobody ever dropped.

• 38:40Speaker 02

  Well, that's just because Vulcans are even stronger than humans.

• 38:43Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 38:44Speaker 02

  They're like three or four times stronger. So if you could have nerve pinched, say, 800 pounds, it would have worked every time.

• 38:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because you would have crushed his clav-

• 38:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, you'd have broke his clavicle with no problem, right. Yeah. That's why I do something called the Vulcan Nut Punch. Works every time!

• 39:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Vulcan Nut Punch. I've just been notified, right now on the show, it's time for Cosmic Queries of Fan Favorite.

• 39:12Speaker 01

  Yes!

• 39:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right.

• 39:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is where we solicit questions from our fanbase, and the topic at hand today for these questions?

• 39:21Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 39:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Is all about bringing science to life.

• 39:24Speaker 01

  Seeing care, bringing science to life.

• 39:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Just as this museum did in Ben Stiller's Night at the Museum. So what do you have?

• 39:30Speaker 02

  Awesome, so let's go with @keithgarrus from Twitter says, "If you could pick one exhibit from any museum to come to life and interact with for a night, what would it be, Neil?"

• 39:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's easy.

• 39:40Speaker 01

  Yeah?

• 39:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In the planetarium. If we show a black hole?

• 39:43Speaker 01

  Right.

• 39:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I want to bring that out of the sky and put it right in here in the exhibit.

• 39:46Speaker 01

  Right on. Let me just say-

• 39:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Just keep your distance.

• 39:54Speaker 01

  Uh, this is from Joshua A. Michael from Phoenix, Arizona, says, "If aliens were to visit Earth and go to the American Museum of Natural History, which department or exhibit do you think they might find most interesting?"

• 40:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The Hall of Biodiversity.

• 40:08Speaker 01

  Really?

• 40:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No question about it. There is laid bare the entire range and scope and spectrum of how matter has found a way to become alive. Here in this museum, and it is laid all in full view. So, so we would say, here's what we got on our planet. Now, what do you have?

• 40:34Speaker 01

  What do you have on yours? Right, yo, that's a...

• 40:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There you go.

• 40:37Speaker 01

  So now, Saptharsi Mandal from Davis, California, says, "Dear Dr. Tyson," ooh, how formal, "has there ever been a scientifically inaccurate museum exhibit, which was later corrected as more accurate science came to be discovered?"

• 40:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That happens all the time.

• 40:54Speaker 01

  Really?

• 40:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All the time. What's more typical, it's not that something is inaccurate, that can't happen, but what's more typical is the museum exhibit has kind of lost why it matters, because something matters more than that later on.

• 41:09Speaker 01

  Right.

• 41:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because something, we know it better than what was known back then, so we can add precision. So you gotta redo the exhibit. So any museum worth it, worth anything, has got to be a living display of the science that they communicate, because science is a never-ending frontier.

• 41:29Speaker 01

  Cool. Austin Bellucio from San Jose, California, wants to know this. What is your opinion on places such as the Creation Museum, who showcases the Bible as literal knowledge? Should it be considered a museum?

• 41:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In this country of ours, which is, we at least tell ourselves, has freedom of speech, and we celebrate the plurality of who and what we are, that would include belief systems. I personally have no problems with any kind of museum you want to put up.

• 42:01Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 42:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The problem arises when you take something that is a belief system and then want to impose that belief system on the plurality of your society.

• 42:15Speaker 01

  Got you.

• 42:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That is very different from taking something that is objectively true and sharing that with the country. Science and its methods and tools establish what is objectively true. And that means it's true whether or not you believe in it. But if you have a creation-science museum, it's not actually science. It's a belief system put into a museum form. Fine, but now if you're gonna legislate that way, and you want others to think that that is the truth rather than your belief system, that is the beginning of the end of an informed democracy.

• 42:46Speaker 01

  So you're welcome to your belief system. You yourself are welcome.

• 42:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's a personal truth.

• 42:51Speaker 01

  It's a personal truth, it's not a universal truth.

• 42:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Exactly.

• 42:54Speaker 01

  Gotcha.

• 42:57Speaker 01

  That was a damn good answer. That was a damn good answer, my friend.

• 43:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Up next, my good friend Bill Nye the Science Guy has thoughts about bringing science to life when StarTalk returns.

• 43:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We're back on StarTalk, featuring my interview with comedian, actor, director Ben Stiller. And he had some parting thoughts on the role of humor in the universe. Let's check it out.

• 43:33Speaker 03

  In reality, I think there's humor within serious situations. Just life has humor within it. And that really makes something feel more real.

• 43:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's what I feel about the universe. I think it's dripping with humor.

• 43:44Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 43:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The universe is a hilarious place. Like describing how you die when you fall into a black hole, that's hilarious. I'm just saying.

• 43:52Speaker 03

  Yeah, sure.

• 43:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The fact that as big-toothed as T-Rex was,

• 44:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  it doesn't do a damn thing when the asteroid comes. He could be the top of the food chain, and you're still wiped out by an asteroid.

• 44:07Speaker 03

  I mean, those are bigger questions in the universe, I think, in terms of that people get involved in their own problems and just get focused on all these issues in their life because they're afraid of dealing with the bigger issue of like, why are we all here? What is this all about? And, you know, those are the questions of the universe.

• 44:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What? What? Would you agree that the universe is dripping with humor? I think.

• 44:28Speaker 01

  Oh, of course, yeah. Like, you know, the dead T-Rex, man. That's so funny.

• 44:32Speaker 02

  It's filled with humor. You're right.

• 44:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Do you agree?

• 44:35Speaker 02

  We thought this was all this way, and then it's like, "You're totally wrong." Ah, ah, ah.

• 44:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But, but, but, wait, wait. But is it? Do you think it's a coping mechanism?

• 44:42Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 44:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  To deal with certain existential uncertainties?

• 44:46Speaker 02

  Absolutely. If we did not laugh at ourselves, we would cry. Because there's so much that we still don't know.

• 44:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, before we wrap this up, I gotta catch up with my guy, Bill Nye. Okay? This dispatch comes from right here at the American Museum of Natural History, the setting of Ben Stiller's film, Night at the Museum. So let's check out my boy, Bill.

• 45:06Bill Nye?

  So how do we bring science to life? Well, this is a Tyrannosaurus, like Rexy from Night at the Museum. That's one way. Museums are full of artifacts that tell us about the history of humankind and the history of the Earth. The Tyrannosaurus has lived about 65 million years ago. And as iconic as a Tyrannosaurus is, we've only found 15 reasonably complete skeletons. But let me tell you something, my friends. 15 is infinitely more than zero. We know that these animals once roamed the Earth because we found their bones. And paleontologists have thought long and hard about how to arrange the bones so that

• 45:47Bill Nye?

  they appear the way they would have in nature when the animal was alive. And I'll tell you, when I'm here and I look at the skeleton, it's easy for me to imagine a walking, talking, stalking dinosaur. It's as though these bones bring these animals to life.

• 46:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So do you have any parting thoughts about bringing science to life?

• 46:11Speaker 01

  Uh, don't do it by trying to show people the underwear that you are currently wearing.

• 46:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, Charles, any parting thoughts?

• 46:22Speaker 02

  As a professor, as an educator, it is my goal to bring science to life every day to everyone who's willing to learn. Something like Night at the Museum, which Ben and his colleagues did so well, really helps us in making that happen.

• 46:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  When I think about bringing science to life, I mean, I'm a scientist and it's not really a scientist's job to bring science to life. It's our job to discover how the world works using the methods and tools of science. And so that forces me to reflect on what it actually takes to bring science to life. And I'll tell you what it takes. It takes a system in our culture, in our society, that makes it clear that science is everywhere. It is a part of our lives in practically every way that matters. And there's no requirement that everyone becomes a scientist. I don't want that world. That would be a boring world. No.

• 47:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  When I try to encourage science interest, my actual goal is to enable everybody in our culture to embrace science for what it is. And if some among them are artists, then they can take the science that they learn and fold it into their creativity and create a masterpiece of artwork, a sculpture, a movie, a novel. And then, then, science has become the artist's muse. Only then can we claim that science is part of culture the way it always should be.

• 48:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's a parting thought from the cosmic perspective. You've been watching StarTalk. I've been your host, Neil deGrasse Tyson.

• 48:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Chuck, thanks for coming. Always a pleasure, Neil. Charles, always good to have you. I've been your host, Neil deGrasse Tyson. As always, I bid you to keep looking up.