A Conversation with Laurence Fishburne

Red pill or blue pill? You get both when Neil deGrasse Tyson interviews Morpheus himself, actor Laurence Fishburne, about his roles in The Matrix films, CSI, Searching for Bobby Fischer and more.

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.

• 0:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Welcome to StarTalk Radio. I'm your host Neil deGrasse Tyson. I'm an astrophysicist and director of New York City's Hayden Planetarium. In this StarTalk, we're featuring my interview with the award-winning actor Laurence Fishburne. You've probably seen him in a bunch of movies. And he was shooting a new sci-fi indie film in Albuquerque, New Mexico, when I ran into him when I was filming Cosmos on a soundstage in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Cosmos was filmed all around the world, as well as in two major soundstudios, one in Los Angeles, one in Santa Fe. And in Santa Fe is where we filmed all the scenes on the Spaceship of the Imagination. If you haven't seen Cosmos, check it out. It's actually online if you don't catch it in real time on television.

• 1:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Online, it's www.kosmosontv.com. In this first clip with Laurence Fishburne, I run down the list of some of his most popular movies. We also discuss his interest in science and the influences that led him to a career in film and television.

• 1:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Laurence, you have the most diverse acting career of anyone I have seen.

• 1:30Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 1:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  From Peewee Herman to Apocalypse Now.

• 1:33Speaker 01

  Peewee's Playhouse, Apocalypse Now, Night on Elm Street 3.

• 1:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Damn!

• 1:38Speaker 01

  School Days.

• 1:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  School Days, of course. And one of my favorites, which was not a box office success, but so well-made and so beautifully done, and you were the character of the movie, was Searching for Bobby Fischer.

• 1:50Speaker 01

  Yes, Bobby Fischer was wonderful.

• 1:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, man, what a proud product that is.

• 1:52Speaker 01

  That's a really great movie.

• 1:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  My son, in fact, got into chess by seeing that. And now he's moving up, he's 12.

• 1:58Speaker 01

  Really?

• 1:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 2:00Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 2:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, you know, I'm not just blowing smoke. There's a lot here. My regret is that I missed you on Broadway in...

• 2:06Speaker 01

  Oh, in Thirgood.

• 2:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Thirgood.

• 2:08Speaker 01

  Well, we'll send you one.

• 2:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, good.

• 2:10Speaker 01

  We actually shot it in DC where he did most of his great work.

• 2:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But he was with Howard, right?

• 2:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, Howard.

• 2:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, and then of course Supreme Court and all that.

• 2:17Speaker 01

  It was like doing the home team thing. It was great.

• 2:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I listed all your sci-fi movies here.

• 2:23Speaker 01

  Right.

• 2:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So we've got, uh, Vent Horizon, certainly. The Matrix trilogy.

• 2:27Speaker 01

  Right.

• 2:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Contagion.

• 2:28Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 2:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Man of Steel.

• 2:29Speaker 01

  Deal, yes.

• 2:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And when you're in progress, The Signal.

• 2:32Speaker 01

  The Signal.

• 2:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Maybe we'll talk about it if you can a little later.

• 2:33Speaker 01

  My very first one was one that not a lot of people know about, which is called Cherry 2000.

• 2:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Cherry 2000.

• 2:39Speaker 01

  Cherry 2000.

• 2:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'll have to look that one up.

• 2:40Speaker 01

  If you blink, you'll miss me.

• 2:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh. So you are a background actor in that one, is that?

• 2:46Speaker 01

  Not exactly background, but not much more than a glorified extra.

• 2:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 2:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So let me ask you, mother junior high school math and science teacher?

• 2:54Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 2:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Any effect on you at all?

• 2:57Speaker 01

  Yes, I would have to say definitely. I am a natural reader. My father is also a natural reader. I did fairly well in math and I guess I did okay in science. I think both of those two subjects just helped round me out in terms of making me a curious person. So I'm naturally curious about the world.

• 3:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Many people who take math and science who don't become mathematicians or scientists think that it's, well, I'll never use this again. But you just hit the nail on the head, that it changes your outlook.

• 3:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, it made me curious about the world and it gave me a way into the world, a way of investigating the world and exploring the world that wasn't just about what things looked like or how people talked. I mean, I had that kind of curiosity naturally, but for example, I would say the big piece that allowed me to think about another part of the world and another culture, for example, is like the Hindu Arabic system. The way they introduced that to you in school is like, what? You're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we didn't invent numbers. Somebody else invented the number system that we used.

• 4:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's why they call Arabic numbers.

• 4:06Speaker 01

  And so when you think about that, then it gives you a window into that part of the world.

• 4:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Allows you to start thinking outside of the box.

• 4:13Speaker 01

  Outside of the box and outside of your world and where you come from and all that stuff. So that kind of stuff was great. And then of course, with the science thing, growing up in New York and having access.

• 4:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In Brooklyn.

• 4:23Speaker 01

  In Brooklyn, having access to the Brooklyn Planetarium, having access to the one in Manhattan and having.

• 4:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The Hayden Planetarium.

• 4:30Speaker 01

  The Hayden Planetarium, exactly.

• 4:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's my place now, just, you know.

• 4:32Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 4:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I got the keys.

• 4:33Speaker 01

  Oh, you got the keys?

• 4:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Just back up.

• 4:35Speaker 01

  Oh, uh-oh.

• 4:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know, you gotta know somebody, you know?

• 4:37Speaker 01

  Oh, wow. Cool, I'm right here on 86 too, so.

• 4:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh.

• 4:43Speaker 01

  Where you at?

• 4:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You're gonna knock on the door.

• 4:47Speaker 01

  Trying to get my stargaze on, Papa. You know what I mean? When the moon is in the seventh house.

• 4:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No. So you have a secret knock and I'll know it's you in the back door. I'll let you in the back door of the universe.

• 4:56Speaker 01

  Exactly. But we had access to Hayden, we had access to the one in Brooklyn. And I think all of my friends, we were all curious about the world. And, you know, we had Cosmos, we grew up with Cosmos, Cosmos was on TV.

• 5:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  With Carl Sagan, yeah.

• 5:09Speaker 01

  With Sagan, I mean.

• 5:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So it's kind of a baptism.

• 5:11Speaker 01

  We had that, we had Star Trek.

• 5:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Mm-hmm, yeah.

• 5:13Speaker 01

  The original, we had Space 1999, which was all about exploring, you know, it was all about what's out there.

• 5:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But how early did you think or know you were gonna be an actor?

• 5:22Speaker 01

  I became an actor at the age of ten. I became a professional actor at the age of ten.

• 5:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Did you have any sense that your knowledge of science would matter or play into it?

• 5:31Speaker 01

  Yes, I did, because the first thing I wanted to be was I wanted to be a doctor.

• 5:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, can put a check in that box, because you got that CSI, you're a doctor.

• 5:38Speaker 01

  See, so as a doctor, you know, you gotta have some science, you can't be doctoring on people and not have some science. It just don't work. I wanted to be a basketball player, I wanted to be Walt Clyde Frazier specifically.

• 5:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A friend of mine in high school was the ball boy for the Knicks. And Walt Clyde was playing, and I had the same size feet as Walt Frazier. He had his Puma contract, every game he'd throw his shoes away, and my boy would go,

• 6:02Speaker 01

  Oh, I hate you right now, oh! I'm still wearing Puma. I'm still trying to find Clyde's Pumas. You got some old ones in the house somewhere in here?

• 6:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Me and Clyde had the same feet.

• 6:14Speaker 01

  That's, oh, man.

• 6:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I had free Pumas for like a year and a half.

• 6:17Speaker 01

  That is crazy.

• 6:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, so this is the era, this is the era.

• 6:20Speaker 01

  So that was the era, so I wanted to be a doctor, then I wanted to be a basketball player, then I became an actor at ten. And I realized immediately that as an actor, I could be anything, anything. So, science would fall under the heading of anything, most things, really, when you think about it. So, I was never one of these people's like, oh, I'm never gonna use that. It was, when I get an opportunity to use that, then I'll explore it some more and I'll learn something, maybe.

• 6:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So when you were a kid in school, were you like the class clown, the geek?

• 6:51Speaker 01

  Definitely class clown.

• 6:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Not anyone, a teacher would've said he'll go far?

• 6:54Speaker 01

  No, probably not.

• 6:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But you said you did well in math?

• 6:58Speaker 01

  I did well in all subjects, yeah.

• 7:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so you're a good student then?

• 7:01Speaker 01

  I was a good student.

• 7:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right. Generally, that's when people say you'll do well, but...

• 7:05Speaker 01

  I was a little too social sometimes.

• 7:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Funny thing, in life, that's great, but in school, they don't like it.

• 7:11Speaker 01

  No, and I challenged one of my teachers, who was the one who said I would go far. I challenged him a bit, but you know, he got over it.

• 7:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You've been listening to StarTalk Radio. I'm Neil deGrasse Tyson. When we come back, I'll talk with Laurence Fishburne about one of my all-time favorite movies, The Matrix.

• 7:31Speaker 02

  The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us, even now in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window, or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church, when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.

• 8:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Welcome back to StarTalk Radio. In this show, we're featuring my interview with the actor Laurence Fishburne. In this next clip, we talk about his role as Morpheus, and it's from one of my favorite movies of all time, The Matrix. We also touch upon his portrayal as Perry White in the Superman movie, Man of Steel. And although Laurence Fishburne has been in a lot of science fiction films, as we'll hear, there's one particular role he wishes he could have played. So we gotta do some time on Matrix here.

• 8:48Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 8:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's one of my top three favorite films in my life, is Matrix 1, of course.

• 8:53Speaker 01

  Right, yeah, you get it.

• 8:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm sorry, Matrix 1.

• 8:55Speaker 01

  I'm with you.

• 8:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I just thought it was stunning and jaw-dropping.

• 8:58Speaker 01

  It was.

• 8:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And everything about it. At the time, did you have any concept that this was gonna become what it was?

• 9:04Speaker 01

  What I knew was that it was simply the most original material that I had ever encountered. And that I was gonna play that part.

• 9:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, that shows the sign of somebody who's driven by art.

• 9:15Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 9:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Others aren't.

• 9:17Speaker 01

  Well, I'm lucky and blessed that way.

• 9:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, and just how it was filmed and the themes.

• 9:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And there's one science flaw.

• 9:24Speaker 01

  Tell me.

• 9:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They had to leave it in, so I'm not gonna get on their case.

• 9:26Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 9:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But in your speech about how they needed to get their energy.

• 9:30Speaker 01

  The copper top thing?

• 9:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The copper top thing, and it's all to turn humans into batteries.

• 9:34Speaker 01

  Right, right.

• 9:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So it turns out that whatever energy it takes to get the energy out of the person.

• 9:41Speaker 01

  Right.

• 9:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You could just use that energy?

• 9:44Speaker 01

  Oh, you could just use that?

• 9:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Every time you use energy to get energy from something else, you lose energy.

• 9:49Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 9:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you're feeding this entity.

• 9:52Speaker 01

  Organism, right.

• 9:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Organism, food, which is energy.

• 9:56Speaker 01

  Right.

• 9:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  To then use the human as energy, you're not getting as much energy as you put in ever.

• 10:01Speaker 01

  Ever.

• 10:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ever.

• 10:02Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 10:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Now, the way out of that was using this plus some solar and nuclear power, we run a city.

• 10:10Speaker 01

  These are the batteries.

• 10:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, these are the multiple kinds of batteries, and we got humans in there too. The fact is, they didn't need the humans at all.

• 10:16Speaker 01

  But it's really cool, though.

• 10:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's.

• 10:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I have to admit, it's a case where coolness overrides everything.

• 10:23Speaker 01

  It overrides it, and sometimes in science fiction, that's the criteria. Sometimes it's style over substance.

• 10:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And style works in science fiction.

• 10:30Speaker 01

  It does.

• 10:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Cause you could take a style where you're not passing judgment, well, that didn't fit that era. That's not what they would have done in nineteen whatever, you know? Look, it's twenty-three fifty.

• 10:39Speaker 01

  Right.

• 10:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's one thing for a movie to be successful, but it's also another thing to build a whole fanbase around it. Clearly, The Matrix has this.

• 10:46Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 10:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Cause I imitated you.

• 10:48Speaker 01

  Yeah?

• 10:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right now, watch, ready?

• 10:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm Morpheus.

• 10:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I do that all the time. Go, I need my sunglasses for that.

• 10:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, you gotta get your sunglasses.

• 10:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm Morpheus.

• 10:59Speaker 01

  You gotta get the shades.

• 11:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  As you no doubt have guessed.

• 11:03Speaker 01

  I am Morpheus.

• 11:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I am Morpheus.

• 11:04Speaker 01

  That's fun. It's fun. What was great about him for me is he turns out to actually be, you know, one of my favorite characters and everyone's favorite characters in science fiction is Darth Vader. Vader is a great character. Morpheus is kind of like Vader and Obi-Wan rolled up into one guy.

• 11:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Hmm. So the power and the philosophy.

• 11:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, he's light mentor and dark mentor.

• 11:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 11:27Speaker 01

  So that's a fully realized human being in a way that we don't get to see that often.

• 11:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, I know it was working for me because you were Morpheus in that role and I'm not thinking Laurence Fishburne.

• 11:37Speaker 01

  Right.

• 11:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm just thinking Morpheus. And when I see you on Searching for Bobby Fischer, you're the homeless guy in the park. So I guess I'm complimenting you, but the character, it lives in that time and place with you. So what's your favorite special effect in The Matrix?

• 11:51Speaker 01

  Oh, wow. My favorite one is when the whole team goes to see the oracle and there's that shot in that room on.

• 12:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I know every frame, so you don't have to try to remind me.

• 12:04Speaker 01

  So the shot in the room on the phone and the camera goes around the phone and there's

• 12:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, and everyone is coming in.

• 12:09Speaker 01

  And then suddenly, when the camera makes the revolution, everybody's there.

• 12:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 12:13Speaker 01

  That's my favorite special effect.

• 12:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Really?

• 12:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, because it's not a special effect. It's, you know.

• 12:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's simple, actually.

• 12:20Speaker 01

  It's very simple. The camera's in the room, it's on a track or a Steadicam, I can't remember which.

• 12:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The phone rings.

• 12:25Speaker 01

  We were in the room and the camera made one revolution and before it made the other revolution, we all rushed and got into position.

• 12:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so you're easy to please. Forget the bullet time.

• 12:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. It's an old time movie trick. It's like the camera never lies, but we can lie to it. That's my favorite special effect.

• 12:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's an interesting, it has a good sort of musical beat to it.

• 12:49Speaker 01

  It's got great music, you know, and it's got the great movement of the camera and then suddenly you've got this beautiful tableau of this whole team of people just suddenly around the phone, pick up the phone and go, we're in.

• 13:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 13:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In The Matrix, you're really an action hero on some level.

• 13:07Speaker 01

  Yes, exactly.

• 13:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And that's a genre unto itself.

• 13:09Speaker 01

  Unto itself, but you know, I mean, that's a really a young man's game. You know what I mean? I'm not looking to be an action hero at sixty. I don't mind doing some action.

• 13:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You convinced me you knew a little bit of Kung Fu.

• 13:21Speaker 01

  I do, I know a little bit of Kung Fu. Movie Kung Fu. I like Kung Fu, it's pretty good.

• 13:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So Perry White?

• 13:29Speaker 01

  Yes, editor of the Daily Planet.

• 13:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I have street cred with Superman, I don't know if you know this.

• 13:34Speaker 01

  How so?

• 13:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I was in a Superman comic a few months ago. Action Comics forty-one. Superman wanted to find his home planet, find Krypton, because the light signal of Krypton being destroyed.

• 13:45Speaker 01

  Right.

• 13:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Would be coming to us about now, okay? And he came to the planetarium.

• 13:51Speaker 01

  Oh wow!

• 13:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So I'm director of the planetarium, and I'll send you.

• 13:55Speaker 01

  That is so cool!

• 13:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The comic.

• 13:57Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 13:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And so I'm there with Superman.

• 13:59Speaker 01

  I may have the comic, Neil.

• 14:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm told there were two, there's Superman comics and action comics.

• 14:03Speaker 01

  I may have the comic.

• 14:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Here's the fun parts, I go, we're talking through the plot about how I'm going to deal with him and how, what questions he might ask. And I said, oh, by the way, if it makes no difference to you, could you take a few pounds off on it?

• 14:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And the guy said, uh, Dr. Tyson, this is the world of the comics, everyone looks good.

• 14:22Speaker 01

  Everyone looks good.

• 14:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You gotta love Superman.

• 14:26Speaker 01

  You can't not love Superman, and you can't not love the bat, you just can't.

• 14:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know, my favorite comment about Superman is that he actually has no costume. There's nothing covering his face when he's Superman.

• 14:38Speaker 01

  No.

• 14:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  His costume is to blend in with it in real life.

• 14:42Speaker 01

  Yes, yeah, that's his costume.

• 14:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  His costume is his glasses and his suit, you know.

• 14:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, his mild-mannered reporter.

• 14:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's right.

• 14:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  He is himself when he's the superhero.

• 14:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's true.

• 14:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Any role in a sci-fi movie you ever wanted?

• 14:55Speaker 01

  Yes, Dr. Manhattan in The Watchmen.

• 14:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What a striking character that is.

• 15:01Speaker 01

  I would love to have done Dr. Manhattan, however, I just worked with Billy, who played Dr. Manhattan, and he was magnificent. And he was telling me how they did it. It's really amazing how they did it.

• 15:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh huh. Well, you know, it's quantum non-location. I mean, once you turn someone into particles, a particle has different laws that apply to it compared with macroscopic entities.

• 15:20Speaker 01

  Right.

• 15:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So a particle can be in more than one place at a time. So he is decomposed into particles, he can reappear like on Mars.

• 15:27Speaker 01

  Wherever.

• 15:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know, my favorite scene of that movie where he brings the woman with him.

• 15:32Speaker 01

  He goes, oh, I'm sorry, I forgot.

• 15:35Speaker 01

  Love that.

• 15:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That was just so cool.

• 15:37Speaker 01

  One of my favorite lines from the comic book is, yes, Superman is real and he is an American.

• 15:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, no, it wasn't Superman. It was God exists and he's American. Maybe the comic might have said Superman in the movie.

• 15:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, oh, yeah. I love that.

• 15:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So I personally think that's best of genre.

• 15:57Speaker 01

  Watchmen?

• 15:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Watchmen.

• 15:58Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 15:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Best of genre among.

• 16:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. Nobody delivers a comic book movie better than Zack.

• 16:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, is that right?

• 16:04Speaker 01

  I mean, there's only two frames in the comic book that are missing. Everything else is framed for frame of book.

• 16:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Really?

• 16:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, pretty much.

• 16:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so he's true to.

• 16:11Speaker 01

  He's, I couldn't believe it. I was watching, I was like, how did he get away with this? It's really something.

• 16:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, do science fiction movies live in a different place in your heart and mind compared with other dramatic roles? Do they take a different thing out of you as an actor?

• 16:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, you know, I love science fiction movies. I love science fiction to begin with. Because I'm convinced that we're not by ourselves here. There's gotta be more than just us. The cool thing about science fiction is all the stuff that was imagined, say, fifty, sixty years ago, some of that stuff is actually real now.

• 16:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  As portrayed in science fiction.

• 16:44Speaker 01

  As portrayed in science fiction. I mean, like, you know, these devices we're walking around with. I mean, that's real now.

• 16:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In fact, we've already been past the flip phone.

• 16:51Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 16:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Now, that's old.

• 16:52Speaker 01

  That's old. They're talking about, do do do do do do. Yeah, hi, baby. I like that kind of stuff because it allows the imagination to be really expansive and open up and go places, and that's great.

• 17:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, it's an interesting way to think about it because in a dramatic role, you're contained by the characters as they are as humans on Earth in a time and in place.

• 17:09Speaker 01

  And the realities of what our situation is. If people can't fly, people can't fly. You know, if you're making period pieces that happened before the invention of flight.

• 17:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's it.

• 17:19Speaker 01

  Unless it's a science fiction fantasy thing and some dude shows up and he can fly.

• 17:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, that's a different movie.

• 17:23Speaker 01

  That's a different movie, yeah. I'm so happy that I got to do some science fiction because for the longest time it looked like we weren't going to participate in the future.

• 17:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Lieutenant Uhura was like first in on that one.

• 17:33Speaker 01

  She was like the only one.

• 17:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  First one in.

• 17:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, she was it.

• 17:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I had her on StarTalk.

• 17:37Speaker 01

  Cool.

• 17:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, man.

• 17:38Speaker 01

  That's good.

• 17:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  She's still hot.

• 17:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If you haven't heard my two-part interview with Nichelle Nichols, who played Lieutenant Uhura in the original Star Trek TV series as well as in the movies, then check it out on iTunes or through our web portal, StarTalkRadio.net. That interview is from season two, episodes 24 and 25. You'll have to scroll down a bit to find them, but I guarantee they're well worth the effort. She's a gracious, spirited lady who led an extraordinary life. When StarTalk returns, I'll have more of my interview with the also extraordinary actor, Laurence Fishburne.

• 18:33Speaker 01

  He taught you how to win, he taught you how not to lose. There's nothing to be proud of. You're playing not to lose, Josh. You've got to risk losing, you've got to risk everything. You've got to go to the edge of defeat, that's where you want to be, boy. On the edge of defeat.

• 18:44Speaker 02

  But?

• 18:44Speaker 01

  But what? Play!

• 18:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Welcome back to StarTalk Radio, I'm Neil deGrasse Tyson. In this show, we're featuring my interview with Laurence Fishburne. In this segment, we discuss his role as a chess hustler in the film Searching for Bobby Fischer. That 1993 movie is based on the life of a young chess prodigy in New York City. The title of the movie is said to be a metaphor about the character's quest to win the game at any price, just like his idol Bobby Fischer, who some consider to be the greatest chess player of all time. In the movie, the young boy first picks up the game from speed chess players that hang out in Washington Square Park. As portrayed by Laurence Fishburne, their teaching style greatly differs from that of the chess coach played by Ben Kingsley.

• 19:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know, scientists have speculated that computers should be able to solve the game of chess. In other words, to come up with perfect strategies to always win. But it hasn't happened yet. There are ten to the hundred and twentieth possible game variations, with ten to the forty-third possible board position for each move. Some think limitations in computing, including quantum and thermodynamic barriers, might prevent computers from ever being able to examine the entire tree of possible move consequences in the game. Let's listen to what Laurence Fishburne has to say about chess and the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer. You were the chess bomber.

• 20:09Speaker 01

  I was the speed chess player.

• 20:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The speed chess guy, homeless guy in the park. And my son was telling me, look, he's pushing the pieces the right way.

• 20:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You had a coach, I guess.

• 20:18Speaker 01

  We had a consultant. There's a character in the film called, I want to say Gandolfini, but his name is not Gandolfini. The character that Ben Kingsley played is based on a real man.

• 20:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, Pendelfini.

• 20:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Pendelfini, yes, yes. Gandalf was in.

• 20:35Speaker 01

  Right, yeah. Gandalf is someone else. Lord of the circles or something. Anyway, to me, the thing about that movie that's great is that movie stands the test of time. You can go back and look at that movie now.

• 20:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes.

• 20:47Speaker 01

  And that movie resonates.

• 20:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 20:49Speaker 01

  That movie plays beautifully.

• 20:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  For parenting, for ambition.

• 20:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's got real life stuff in it, and it's a classic in that sense. It also, it reminds me of the New York that I grew up in. New York was like that at the time when I grew up there, and certainly up until at least the late 90s it was.

• 21:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, did you play chess before this?

• 21:07Speaker 01

  I learned to play the game when I was nine.

• 21:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 21:09Speaker 01

  And I love the game. I wish I played seriously, but I don't. I can move the pieces. I know where they go. I can teach anybody the fundamental rules of chess and get them on their way to playing a game. Not playing a good game, but just playing the game, basically. So, doing that movie was great because for a little while, people thought I played seriously, and that always is kind of fun. But I taught a couple of young people during that period of time. You know, people who otherwise might not have gravitated to the game.

• 21:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Is there any question about the universe you've been harboring that you might want to ask me?

• 21:40Speaker 01

  My question about the universe is, it's kind of God-related. It's like, has there ever been a moment where the scientific community and the religious community came together to discuss and debate the existence of God and his place or her place in the universe?

• 22:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There are panels on this all the time.

• 22:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But they never converge.

• 22:04Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 22:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Or when they do... They tend to converge on the, well, we don't know was around before the beginning of the universe could have been God kind of convergence. But what's happening there is they're assigning the scientific ignorance to the religious knowledge. But what happens when the scientific ignorance goes away because you made a discovery?

• 22:25Speaker 01

  Right.

• 22:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And the history of exploration shows that there are plenty of things that religion pretty much had control over, like epilepsy.

• 22:32Speaker 01

  Right.

• 22:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What was that? That you were possessed.

• 22:34Speaker 01

  Uh, oh, uh, yes.

• 22:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Devil was in you.

• 22:36Speaker 01

  Right, right, right. Okay, wait a minute.

• 22:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There was no other accounting for it. It froth in at the mouth. It happens at an instant. You know you did something bad.

• 22:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So devil took ownership of your body and now we'd study the brain. It's epilepsy. You can medicine. So things like that start shedding from, and it just keeps going.

• 22:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, cuz I'm of the mind that so much has been shed, so much has been understood, so much has been scientifically understood. And looked at that there must be some space for the religious community to go, okay, well, great. So what is the nature of God?

• 23:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That space can't occupy places where they were previously making claims about the world.

• 23:18Speaker 01

  Right.

• 23:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Universe made in six days and Earth is in the middle, flat. Yeah, you gotta kind of shed that.

• 23:23Speaker 01

  You gotta shed all of that.

• 23:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's time to let that go, right.

• 23:25Speaker 01

  Cuz we've moved past the steam engine, you know?

• 23:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, right.

• 23:30Speaker 01

  We've been off-world, man, you know, we've.

• 23:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Off-world?

• 23:33Speaker 01

  We've been off-world.

• 23:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'd like that.

• 23:35Speaker 01

  Right?

• 23:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I'm gonna say we've been to the moon before. I'm saying we've been off-world.

• 23:37Speaker 01

  We've been off-world, so we know we are not confined to this space.

• 23:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, it matters more that we were off-world than that we went to the moon.

• 23:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, it does.

• 23:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because when we went to the moon, we looked back and discovered Earth for the first time.

• 23:49Speaker 01

  For the first time?

• 23:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We saw Earth. We saw Earth as nature intended it to be seen, not with color-coded countries.

• 23:55Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 23:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But as ocean.

• 23:57Speaker 01

  Right, and land, and atmosphere.

• 23:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Atmosphere. Previous drawings of the Earth never showed clouds. Atmosphere wasn't even part of Earth.

• 24:04Speaker 01

  Right.

• 24:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It was only after those pictures came out that people said, wait a minute, I better think about the environment. You know when the Environmental Protection Agency was founded? Nineteen seventy. No, seventy, seventy. We're still at war, Cold War, Hot War, civil rights, people getting shot, but we take the time out to say let's protect the environment? That happened because we saw Earth for the first time.

• 24:24Speaker 01

  For the first time, as it was meant to be seen, as God has seen.

• 24:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  When we return, we'll have more of my interview with Laurence Fishburne.

• 24:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Welcome back to StarTalk Radio. I'm Neil deGrasse Tyson, and we're continuing now with my Laurence Fishburne interview. In this part of the show, we talk about his role as Dr. Ray Langston in the TV series CSI. Of course, CSI stands for Crime Scene Investigations, and the show features crimes that police try to solve by using the tools of forensic science. The show's been a big hit for CBS, running for 14 seasons and spanning a whole franchise with spinoffs: CSI New York, CSI Miami, comic books, video games, novels, and even a traveling museum exhibit called CSI The Experience. But before we get to that, Laurence and I start off with perhaps some of his lesser-known work.

• 25:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  How much voice work do you do?

• 25:41Speaker 01

  I do a lot of voice work. I voiced the Silver Surfer for the Fantastic Four movie. And I also did a voice for Ninja Turtles the last...

• 25:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm sorry, I missed that one?

• 25:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That one got by me. I'm sorry.

• 25:54Speaker 01

  That's cool.

• 25:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Which Ninja Turtle were you?

• 25:55Speaker 01

  Oh no, I was the narrator. I narrated the opening.

• 25:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 25:58Speaker 01

  I kind of set it all up.

• 25:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Can you name your Ninja Turtles?

• 26:00Speaker 01

  Leonardo, Donatello, and I forget the other two.

• 26:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Do you realize that the Italian segments of the space station are named F...

• 26:09Speaker 01

  No, really?

• 26:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Those in the know say it's the Ninja Turtles, but if you don't know the Ninja Turtles, oh Renaissance artists!

• 26:16Speaker 01

  Renaissance masters? Wow, that's great. I didn't know that.

• 26:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah. And of your roles in science-themed shows, does anyone rise above the rest?

• 26:26Speaker 01

  I think probably the most purely scientific was the role that I played on CSI with Dr. Langston. Uh huh. Being a pathologist and having to really use scientific dialogue, be in a lab, as it were. I gotta say, those bodies look really dead. Those bodies are really good. They did a really good job. So I'm assuming they're not really dead bodies. They're not really dead bodies, but also the science was maybe eighty-five percent correct on the show. Sometimes they would do it in a fake kind of way because it was something that, you know. They gotta still tell the story that they wanna tell. Not just because they had to tell the story, but like they didn't want people, for example, there was something called the CSI effect that happened after CSI first aired. Where criminals were actually watching the show to see how to be investigators. Wow. So after. How to cover their track.

• 27:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, so after about two seasons, they started altering the science just a little bit so that it wasn't exact. Wow. Yeah. I wonder what that says about other shows like Breaking Bad, that teach you how to. Teach you how to make meth. Man, what a great show, though. Are you tapping any of your science literacy when you're thinking about these roles and doing these roles? Or is it mostly your acting talent? It's mostly my acting skills that I've developed over the years. Now, like I say, CSI, which for me was the closest that I've gotten to being a scientific person. I had the benefit of technical advisor who was always there, who would explain if there was ever a question about

• 27:51Speaker 01

  how something gets done, why something gets done, is this correct? We had several coroners that would come in and they offered us the. How many people get to say that? We always had a coroner? Right? And we had the opportunity to go and see the coroners actually at work. I opted not to do that. I felt it would be just a little insensitive to family members of the deceased. But the producers are thinking about trying to get the most out of you for this. Yeah, I mean, it was the closest that I've come to it, but mostly it was the acting skill. But there were people that were there that you could rely on and you could talk to about the science of it, so. So that gave you confidence to just run in and do the role? Absolutely, because I knew that they really worked hard at making it as close to truth.

• 28:36Speaker 01

  Real real instead of fake real. Yeah. Right. I think that's one of the things that set that show apart from everything else that was on television. Mm hmm.

• 28:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And of course, it's actually had an influence on how many people are choosing to major in chemistry and in biology, especially women, because these are fully developed characters. And it's not just the stereotyped, water-haired scientist. They got problems, they got loves, they got joys. Scientists as... As scientists, as sexy, real people. Exactly. We actually had on StarTalk, the science advisor to the movie Contagion. The guy that worked at CDC? Yeah, well, an advisor to the CDC. He's a specialist in communicable diseases. I wonder if it was Elliot, because Elliot was with us every day. He was a wonderful man. Every day, he'd be like, "Let me show you this, let me show you what we're tracking now." That science advisor to the movie Contagion was Dr. Ian Lipkin, and he was on our first show about the zombie apocalypse.

• 29:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's season four, episode 13, in case you want to check it out at StarTalkRadio.net. When we return, we'll have more of my interview with Lawrence Fishburne.

• 29:38Speaker 02

  As of last night, there were five deaths and 32 cases.

• 29:42Speaker 03

  There's a cluster in an elementary school.

• 29:44Speaker 02

  Okay, that's the kind of thing you're gonna have to be prepared for. It's gonna be all over the news big time. What's your single overriding communications objective?

• 29:51Speaker 03

  We're isolating the sick and quarantining those who we believe were exposed.

• 29:55Speaker 02

  Okay, good. As of this moment, you and I are attached at the cell phone. If you need resources, call me. If you get into a political dogfight, call me. If you find yourself wide awake, staring at the walls at 3 a.m., wondering why you took the job, call me.

• 30:29Speaker 02

  You never told me that. That's just it, DJ, I never told anybody.

• 30:34Speaker 01

  But this ship knew about it. It knows my fears, it knows my secrets. Gets inside your head and it shows you.

• 30:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Welcome back to StarTalk Radio. You can find us on Facebook at StarTalk Radio. And we also tweet, of course, at StarTalk Radio. If interested, I also tweet at Neil Tyson. We're wrapping up my interview now with Laurence Fishburne. He's a talented actor with such a broad range, not only appearing in the sci-fi films featured in this show, but also, for instance, in Event Horizon and Predators. He played roles in many different kinds of movies, including Apocalypse Now, Boys in the Hood. He even played the title character in Shakespeare's Othello. In this final clip, we start off talking about the movie he was filming, The Day in the Desert in New Mexico. And then we get into a deeper discussion about his plans for the future.

• 31:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, I got this thing, the signal that I'm doing with this young director called Will Eubanks here in New Mexico. Which is a very interesting little piece about a young man who's confined to a wheelchair. He and his hacker buddies get contacted by a signal somewhere out here in the desert. They're in MIT. Somebody in the desert is really messing with him.

• 31:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, hacking him.

• 31:51Speaker 01

  Really hacking him. So they get in a car and they come to find the signal.

• 31:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I would think that would be a bad idea.

• 31:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, it is. And then they disappear. And when they reappear, well, they're somewhere in the desert with strange scientific folk.

• 32:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because we are strange folk, indeed.

• 32:08Speaker 01

  And I play this strange scientific man who's trying to help him piece together what has happened to him.

• 32:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So are you alien or Earth?

• 32:16Speaker 01

  I am definitely Earth and I am definitely here. It's just a little...

• 32:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's having fun with a space-time continuum.

• 32:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's some other shit altogether, let me just say. Because I wouldn't have done it if it wasn't some other shit out there. It's really... When I read it, I was like, oh, this is gonna be good. Yeah, I gotta do this one. So I hope you dig it.

• 32:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And so where are you gonna be in five, 10 years?

• 32:37Speaker 01

  Oh goodness, I'll still be acting, I'll be producing a lot more.

• 32:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, I saw that, producing, writing, directing?

• 32:43Speaker 01

  I'll be directing a lot more. I'll probably have two to three shows on television somewhere. Maybe network, but.

• 32:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  As lead or as a character?

• 32:54Speaker 01

  As producer, as creator, and possibly as lead. I might do a lead in one of them, but.

• 32:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm almost accustomed to you showing up in a pre-existing movie, you know? That's obviously a different role than being the leading man, but you have such a strong presence that it makes certain scenes in a movie, right?

• 33:13Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 33:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So I'm just wondering if someone say, "Hey, you can be leading man and you get a zillion dollars," but it's schlock.

• 33:21Speaker 01

  No thanks.

• 33:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because it's a craft.

• 33:23Speaker 01

  After the CSI experience, it was brought to my attention that there may be space for me in the television landscape as creator. We seem to be in a golden age of cable television right now, beginning with Sex and the City and Sopranos.

• 33:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Then the list goes on.

• 33:38Speaker 01

  And then it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. So really looking for some material to create and to take already existing material book or something and then expand it for television in that way. There's a possibility of an animated series that we're working on. I hope to do Thurgood again, so maybe you'll get a chance to see it.

• 33:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm so, and my folks are still at the 85 and they're of the era, and my father was active in the civil rights movement, so I also try to do that.

• 34:04Speaker 01

  The beauty of being an actor is, as you age, you play older people.

• 34:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Somebody's got to play them.

• 34:09Speaker 01

  There's always grandpas and uncles and, you know, it's cool, I'm good. I'm a playwright, I've written a play, I'd like to do some of that.

• 34:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So if you start writing, then you could write a sci-fi story that.

• 34:19Speaker 01

  I could write a sci-fi story.

• 34:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know, I mean, the sci-fi fanbase is so loyal, it's large and loyal and they're there for you forever.

• 34:28Speaker 01

  That's true.

• 34:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And you've been to Comic Con?

• 34:29Speaker 01

  I have not.

• 34:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Whatever you heard, it's more than that.

• 34:32Speaker 01

  More than that, yeah, I heard it's wonderful. My wife just did a con in Philadelphia, because she's a bit of a sci-fi icon.

• 34:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 34:39Speaker 01

  On a show she did called Firefly.

• 34:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh yeah, was she in the movie as well as the TV?

• 34:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, she plays a character called Zoe, she's Captain Mouse' second-in-command.

• 34:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I gotta go back now that I know this, yeah.

• 34:51Speaker 01

  She was also in a show called Cleopatra 2525. And she did many episodes of Xena Warrior Princess and many episodes of The Journey of Hercules.

• 34:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you're both in the biz.

• 35:00Speaker 01

  So we're both sort of sci-fi people.

• 35:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Cool. So this could be something waiting to be written.

• 35:05Speaker 01

  Maybe.

• 35:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know.

• 35:06Speaker 01

  Actually, my wife is Wonder Woman. My wife is Wonder Woman.

• 35:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Does she have the forget thing to put around you?

• 35:12Speaker 01

  She has the lasso. She has the magic lasso. She has the Amazonian physique. The great intelligence and matchless beauty.

• 35:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Now, it's one thing I'm jealous of that you have.

• 35:24Speaker 01

  No.

• 35:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay. I always wanted the key to a city. I always wanted to do something that where the city expressed its love.

• 35:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  As a key. And I heard you had a key to Cambridge.

• 35:35Speaker 01

  I have a key to Cambridge.

• 35:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Cause I went to college in Cambridge, right there. No, no, I didn't mean no, naturally.

• 35:40Speaker 01

  The mecca of American education. Naturally, Dr. Dyson, you would have gone to school in Boston.

• 35:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What did you do to get the key to Cambridge?

• 35:48Speaker 01

  Here's what I'm gonna do for you, Neil. You got the keys to the Hayden? I got the key to Cambridge. Anytime you wanna go to Cambridge with my key, use the key. You got it. We get the secret knock going. I can go up in the planetarium, get my stargaze on.

• 36:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Let's exchange the keys. All right. All right. That's a deal.

• 36:08Speaker 01

  It was a Cultural Rhythms Festival that they have up there at Harvard every year. Dr. Alan Coulter that year.

• 36:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's Alan Counter.

• 36:15Speaker 01

  Alan Counter, right. Invited me up there to receive the Cultural Rhythms Award for Artist of the Year. So it was a lifetime of work. Thirty years.

• 36:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, still gotta wait to go there.

• 36:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's thirty years of, you know, acting.

• 36:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, work harder.

• 36:30Speaker 01

  Work harder. Struggle. Survival.

• 36:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You've been listening to StarTalk Radio. I'm Neil deGrasse Tyson. And as always, I bid you to keep looking up.