A Conversation with Queen Latifah

Neil deGrasse Tyson has an in-depth, one-on-one conversation with recording artist and actress Queen Latifah about the role science has played in her life, being a Trekkie, hip hop, Ice Age 5, and the science fiction martial arts film she wants to make.

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. Welcome to StarTalk Radio. I'm Neil deGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist. I hail from New York City where I serve as Director of the Hayden Planetarium, which is part of the American Museum of Natural History on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. You know, every now and then, I conduct an interview with a guest that is so rich in

• 0:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  content and personality and humor and, and, and the geekiness just oozes, that we use the entire interview for the entire show. I think we've done this no more than two or three times in the six years we've been recording StarTalk. And I have to tell you, it happened again. This episode features just such an interview with a woman we all know as Queen Latifah. She's got enough personality to fill three people, as far as I can tell. She's, she's definitely the queen. The queen, no doubt about it.

• 1:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And she's had success in many different ways in her, in her professional life. She's a rapper, songwriter, singer, producer, model, actress, talk show host. I can go on and on. And it's not as though she was just experimenting to see if she was good at it and then went on to something else. She's actively doing all of this at all times. But what struck me in particular about, about my interview with her was just how genuine and passionate she is about science. She is deeply curious about...

• 2:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Life, the universe and everything. And, and I don't think many people know that about her. And of course, that's what we use StarTalk. That's StarTalk at its best. Finding that hidden geek underbelly in people that, that, well, you didn't even know it existed within them. And so, it's clear that Queen Latifah has got some geek underbelly going on with her. So, the first part of our conversation, we, we kind of celebrate that, that geekiness. And we talk about the interconnectedness of science and art. And what kind of science fiction film she dreams of making. Who knew? Who knew?

• 2:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And here's a hint. Whatever that film is she wants to make, it's, it's got to involve nunchucks. I think she wants to kick some sci-fi ass. So, let's go to that conversation right now.

• 3:04Speaker 01

  My mother is a art teacher. She, so, you know, art and fascination with nature and things like that was normal in my household. Music was big in my household. Instruments and how they worked and radio and my brother was, my brother loved science. So, he wanted a chemistry set immediately and, and I was like-

• 3:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Did he burn a hole in the living room carpet?

• 3:28Speaker 01

  Oh, he was all about tearing things apart, taking thi- There wasn't a safe radio in my house. Uh, my brother would instantly, you know-

• 3:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Back in a time when you could take things apart.

• 3:37Speaker 01

  You could take it apart.

• 3:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Nobody, no, nothing, nothing gets taken apart today.

• 3:41Speaker 01

  Which is not good.

• 3:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I know, I, I have to agree. It's not-

• 3:44Speaker 01

  This was something that was really big.

• 3:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We missed something there.

• 3:46Speaker 01

  We definitely missed a step. I mean, I think we did great in terms of moving things forward and fashioning new technology, but there's something about- Being tactile and touching things and knowing what they feel like, sound like, smell like. And, you know, and my, I also grew up in Maryland and Virginia, which is where my grandparents are from. Um, so my grandfather had, you know, for us coming down to Maryland in, in the summers or Christmas time, was a big old basement with a lot of tools.

• 4:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Stuff.

• 4:13Speaker 01

  And wood, and, and that's what we did. We went downstairs and we built things and we made things and we measured and cut.

• 4:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is before Netflix.

• 4:20Speaker 01

  Definitely before Netflix and Nickelodeon. You know, no cable in house.

• 4:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No cable.

• 4:26Speaker 01

  Just a couple of channels that you had to work out with an antenna. So, you know, uh, uh, aluminum foil antennas. So, I mean, you know, it was kind of the practical ways that science sort of invaded your life because you had to use it.

• 4:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But that meant you didn't fear it. There are people who saw it as, well, that's science and I'm not science. So therefore I will shun it or walk around it or avoid it. And so, so what you're saying, not to put words in your mouth, but.

• 4:53Speaker 01

  Help me out here, bro. Help me sit down. It's okay.

• 4:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That, that a person as an adult can embrace science if only it didn't leave a bad taste in your mouth.

• 5:07Speaker 01

  Right.

• 5:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Growing up. If it was even just neutral.

• 5:10Speaker 01

  Right.

• 5:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's a good, that's a good thing.

• 5:13Speaker 01

  At least started neutral. And now understand, I mean, I come from a Christian family. So of course we could get into creationists versus Darwinists, all that kind of stuff. That wasn't even really a big topic of discussion. There was.

• 5:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  By the way, I think, I've done a little homework on this. You, in the traditional black churches, however religious they were, it did not include running to the school board to have them change the curriculum in the biology class. That was not going on in the black churches.

• 5:42Speaker 01

  No.

• 5:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, right. It was more about community and this sort of thing.

• 5:45Speaker 01

  Which was fine.

• 5:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 5:46Speaker 01

  Which was a good place for it to be, you know? Um, I, I think, you know, a kid has to be fascinated about, a kid, kids I think are fascinated about things. And when they really are fascinated, you want to feed that. So my, my, the family I came from was one that fed whatever spark they saw in us kids. So my mom and my dad were. Curious, as curious about us as kids as we were about the world and so when they saw a spark, they kind of fed that thing and, and kind of tried to nurture it rather than, you know, guide us in one direction or other.

• 6:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Which happens all too often because then you end up doing something that wasn't even in your own soul

• 6:26Speaker 01

  Right.

• 6:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  of curiosity. It's what your parents wanted for you.

• 6:28Speaker 01

  Which is no fun.

• 6:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's no fun.

• 6:30Speaker 01

  Life's just no fun like that.

• 6:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Now, you are hugely talented. I mean, looking at your resume, I don't, there was nothing you haven't done. I don't think. Alright? If there's something you haven't done, I don't even know if you know you haven't done. So, what's left? Talk show host, producer, hip-hop star, uh, you know, movie star, Oscar nominated, you know, performer, uh, model.

• 7:02Speaker 01

  Those intros get long, man. I'm standing on the side of the stage to be introduced sometimes and I'm like, jeez.

• 7:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Could you hurry this up?

• 7:09Speaker 01

  I'm getting tired hearing about all this stuff.

• 7:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Do you have, do you find yourself having to pick what you do next?

• 7:17Speaker 01

  I do have to pick what I do next because time is the one thing that I'm just not given, you know, a lot of and so.

• 7:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, I'm glad you noticed that because that's for damn sure correct.

• 7:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm not, I'm not able to, uh, be eight, eight me's. If I could, I would because I'd get a lot more done, obviously, but I can't. So, yeah, I mean, quality of life is important to me these days. It's really about, am I enjoying what I do? Am I happy? Does it push me in some sort of way? I have to be pushed, uh, because I need a challenge. So, I get bored very easily if I'm, if I'm not, you know, doing something interesting, then I'm like, okay, well, I, you know, it's boring. So, it just doesn't feed me very much. Um, so, yeah, I do have to do a sci-fi movie. That's definitely on my.

• 8:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, that's on your bucket list.

• 8:03Speaker 01

  It is so on my bucket list, man.

• 8:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Sci-fi movie. Now, now, oh, you don't count, you were in the sphere.

• 8:08Speaker 01

  I was in sphere, but I need to be, I need to be number one on the call sheet, you know, not like number seventeen where I'm kind of just like.

• 8:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You were down there.

• 8:15Speaker 01

  I need to actually do something. I, I was getting killed and plus I got killed in sphere. I got killed.

• 8:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You weren't not alone in getting killed.

• 8:21Speaker 01

  Getting too good and getting killed. I had to put a no kill clause in my contract.

• 8:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You could do that?

• 8:26Speaker 01

  I was like, okay, I got killed and set it off. No sequel there. I got killed in Fear.

• 8:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I didn't know you could do that.

• 8:32Speaker 01

  I'm like, I died too good. I get that. I'm good at this. Okay, so I told my agent, listen, no more dying in these movies. There'll never be a sequel. So let's wrap that up now.

• 8:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Sequel's the thing. That's where the comeback on the money comes on the sequel.

• 8:44Speaker 01

  Shut that down. Let's shut it down.

• 8:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, plus.

• 8:47Speaker 01

  There's a lot more.

• 8:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I mean, I guess we went many decades without black folk being portrayed in the future. We just were not. That meant somebody's thinking about a future where they. Where they all, where they round them up and not, not put them up. So, but science fiction films have a huge following, loyal followings. And so, you're overdue.

• 9:10Speaker 01

  I'm way overdue. I mean, I've been.

• 9:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Let the record show.

• 9:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, in my household, there was Star Trek and you watched Trek and we were Trekkies and we laid in front of the TV and my brother could perfectly imitate Kirk and Spock and, you know, we still know words. Have a drink. It's called Tranya. And we liked Tranya. What, what a word. You know, you could make up things that didn't sound typical, you know, you could create things and they didn't have to be what you read in a book. You could imagine something and that was, it's the whole imagination of it all. I mean, we haven't seen it necessarily. So who says it does or doesn't exist? So you can just make it up, you know, which is kind of cool, especially if you're grounded in something that's sort of real.

• 9:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So plus, since you didn't dislike science, it meant you were open to sciencey things that might arise in your life. So one of my good friends of recent years is Bill Nye. And I go through the archives. There you go. There you go. You were a guest.

• 10:09Speaker 01

  How you gonna be from the Bronx and, and, and let Bill Nye, the Science Guy, have a rap name? And you, and get your rap name on, you know?

• 10:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Call me MC squared.

• 10:19Speaker 01

  I mean, that is probably kind of cool. Give me that. I give you that.

• 10:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So how, so how do you land on Bill Nye the Science Guy? How did that, how did that happen?

• 10:31Speaker 01

  Frankly, I, it's the same way I found you. I mean, I enjoy someone who can, who is way more advanced and knowledgeable than I, but translates that to, you know, uh, uh, someone like myself, who can understand it and get just as excited about it, um, as they are. And it's that passion, you know, it's the passion you have, it's the passion he has. And taking something simple and explaining it, you know, something that you see in everyday life.

• 11:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You were celebrating that fact.

• 11:02Speaker 01

  I love that. I mean, biology was one of my favorite classes as a freshman.

• 11:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, but how many, you were already a successful hip-hop star, okay? How does, oh, now let me show up on Bill Nye the Science Guy.

• 11:12Speaker 01

  Well, that doesn't stop. I mean, I know a few people around here who are kinda geeks, you know, and proud. We're proud to be.

• 11:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But are they, we gotta let them out of the closet?

• 11:21Speaker 01

  I think Will Smith is a pretty big geek. I mean, he's a guy, he got into MIT. I mean, for all intents and purposes, had he not been the huge number one movie star that he is, he probably would have been an amazing scientist or developer of some sort.

• 11:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is like a fork in the road that was, I'm like, oh.

• 11:37Speaker 01

  We're not just talented, these gifts of music and acting. It all comes from a fascination, a curiosity, and some of us actually do hit the books. I kinda, you know, went left a little bit at some point, and the clubs got a little more fascinating to me, but...

• 11:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm so heartened to see your accommodation and sensitivity to just sciency things. Cause it's every, science is everywhere. It's in our lives. And I, and I, I'm hurt almost when I hear someone say, "I was never good at science and it's not me, I'm an artist, not a scientist." Or I'm a this, not a, not a that. And, oh, by the way, where's my smartphone? I have to call.

• 12:16Speaker 01

  Right, right.

• 12:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You know, you can't, you can't artificially divorce what you think is science from the science that's actually touching your life.

• 12:25Speaker 01

  Well, it's touching our lives constantly. I mean, and thank God, what we do. I mean, there's a lot of things, a lot of us that would even be here.

• 12:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, right. You'd be dead or otherwise.

• 12:35Speaker 01

  Like done some sort of investigation into something, you know?

• 12:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Be dead or otherwise?

• 12:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, right.

• 12:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, do you, do you have any, uh, secret geek underbelly?

• 12:47Speaker 01

  Well, I don't know, I'm, I'm fascinated about a lot of things.

• 12:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But you like the science fiction genre?

• 12:52Speaker 01

  I do.

• 12:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Otherwise, why are you trying to get a geek?

• 12:55Speaker 01

  No, I love the science fiction genre. That's, that's, that goes without saying, but I'll say it. I love sci-fi and I wanna be in a big, giant sci-fi movie. Or something that's really cool and small, as long as it's good.

• 13:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And how about, uh, superheroes? You do a superhero thing?

• 13:09Speaker 01

  All of that. I love, I love superheroes. I, I still believe I have a karate, kung fu, some sort of picture in me. There's no way I grew up on that much Bruce Lee and Star Trek to not be able to combine the two as in a.

• 13:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Bruce Lee and Star Trek?

• 13:22Speaker 01

  And apply my life, it's just a whole marathon on, you know?

• 13:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You just wanna staple together, stuff that happened in your life, and create a movie role for it.

• 13:31Speaker 01

  Why not? You know, I'm already on it, like, this is.

• 13:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you, you, so you into martial arts? What kind of martial arts you do?

• 13:37Speaker 01

  I love them all. I mean, I definitely love karate, kung fu, I love mixed martial arts, I love judo, like.

• 13:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Do you actually do it, or just sort of think about it?

• 13:45Speaker 01

  Some of it I could do. I mean, this, my father was a, a SWAT officer and he knew karate, so he taught us, taught us a lot of that stuff as kids.

• 13:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you can kick some ass?

• 13:52Speaker 01

  I might be able to kick, well, depending on what condition in the knees.

• 13:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In the knee, in the rheumatism in the knee.

• 13:58Speaker 01

  Definitely can do a couple things. But I, yeah, I have some nunchucks at home.

• 14:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Nunchucks, oh my god.

• 14:04Speaker 01

  And I just like, that's like my.

• 14:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  After Bruce Lee did his nunchuck, we all had to buy a nunchuck.

• 14:08Speaker 01

  We had to, I mean, it was a must.

• 14:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We all had nunchucks.

• 14:10Speaker 01

  Chinese stars and throwing things and, and we still walk around in Chinese, you know, shoes, karate shoes.

• 14:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 14:16Speaker 01

  They're just very comfortable and practical, you know, and, um, yeah, so, those, that's, that's kind of my thing. But I have some nunchucks that I, I just, you know, kind of use for stress relief. I'll just stand there when I need to think about something, I'll stand there. And I'm just flipping my nunchucks and, and it's okay, you know?

• 14:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You just, you're, you are.

• 14:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You tell me, when you just wanna take your mind off of things, you will just play with nunchucks?

• 14:42Speaker 01

  I will. I'm gonna grab some nunchucks and just.

• 14:46Speaker 01

  Boom. And, yeah, and then I'll feel good for a second.

• 14:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Like your sound effects there.

• 14:50Speaker 01

  Get myself going.

• 14:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Since this is radio, that's the indication of how fast you're smirking him around. So I remember, I'm old enough to remember, pre Bruce Lee, I mean Bruce Lee was around but not yet a big movie star, there was this film Billy Jack.

• 15:06Speaker 01

  Wow, The Legend of Billy Jack.

• 15:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Billy Jack. And so he was a half breed.

• 15:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, I remember that.

• 15:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And he was sticking up for the, the, the local tribes that are getting abused by the thugs, right? And, but he, he was in, he was in the green berets, alright? And

• 15:28Speaker 01

  They didn't know who they were messing with.

• 15:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They didn't know who they were messing with, my favorite line. There's some, you know, redneck sheriff walks up to him, badmouths him, and he says, Billy Jackson, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna take this foot. He points to his right foot, and I'm gonna put it on that side of your face. Wait, wait, okay, that's badass.

• 15:48Speaker 01

  That is badass.

• 15:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But it, it continues, and he says, and you know something else? There ain't a damn thing you can do about it.

• 15:56Speaker 01

  There ain't a damn thing you can do about it.

• 15:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And then in slow motion, up comes the foot against his face, his cheek, and there it is.

• 16:04Speaker 01

  Was nothing he could have done about it.

• 16:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And so, I saw that, and I said, I wanna be, I

• 16:10Speaker 01

  You feel me? That's what will never go away, that's what, it just never gonna go away.

• 16:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I gotta go dig out my nunchucks now, I think my brother took them.

• 16:16Speaker 01

  You should, just get the padded ones like the ones I have, cuz I'm not, you know, I'm not that skillful with them, so if you make a mistake, you don't bruise yourself.

• 16:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, but that's how you know to not make a mistake after that.

• 16:26Speaker 01

  Exactly, and you get good quick, I guess, so you're gonna put them down, one or the other, there's only two ways we're going about this.

• 16:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Really good, or stop.

• 16:35Speaker 01

  Or stop, for your own safety.

• 16:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so a sci-fi kung fu, action superhero drama, alright?

• 16:45Speaker 01

  That sounds like fun to me, I don't know what the problem is here.

• 16:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's obvious.

• 16:50Speaker 01

  This is a no-brainer.

• 16:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, they just introduced Wonder Woman.

• 16:54Speaker 01

  I know, I'm excited about that.

• 16:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That was a moving moment when she just sort of...

• 16:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, she's gotta have the invisible plane and I mean, but this is what I grew up on. So I'm really excited that...

• 17:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So it's in reach.

• 17:05Speaker 01

  It's like a whole new generation that they're really just going so hard with these effects that they have nowadays.

• 17:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh huh, uh huh.

• 17:11Speaker 01

  It's just so...

• 17:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, there's no, there's no limit.

• 17:13Speaker 01

  Real.

• 17:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, it used to be can they make the mechanical model?

• 17:15Speaker 01

  Right, and now we have virtual reality and I'm really interested in seeing where that's gonna go because, uh, I just shot a promotion for this American Heart Association thing and one of the guys, uh, he was, his, uh, company directed The Cove.

• 17:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 17:33Speaker 01

  And, but they're also developing virtual reality.

• 17:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The documentary that was so influential.

• 17:37Speaker 01

  Exactly, about the dolphins and everything, but, um, they developed this VR and it was like, he's like, "Come here, trannies on," so I put these glasses on and I'm literally under the ocean and I'm watching sharks swim by and fish and, and it's just you're turning your head and every direction you're moving, you're looking up, you're looking down. It's a little disorienting initially, but once you kinda give into it a bit, you're sort of in an entirely different world and it's very real to your brain, which is kinda cool to me.

• 18:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's the whole point of it, right, right. It doesn't have to be physically real, just...

• 18:14Speaker 01

  Right, as long as it's real to your brain. Cause some of it, you're gonna wanna probably take those glasses off at some point, okay, and come up out of that world.

• 18:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's another kinda matrix to live in.

• 18:24Speaker 01

  It is, it is.

• 18:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Coming up, Queen Latifah and I discussed hip-hop as a kind of a social movement, kind of a force of change in society. And also, perhaps you might remember a recent dust-up that I had with another hip-hop artist regarding what shape the earth has. Yeah, well, we went there and we'll hear all about that and more when StarTalk Radio returns.

• 19:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Welcome back to StarTalk Radio. I'm your host, Neil deGrasse Tyson. In this week's episode, we break format from our normal sort of structure of the show, and we're featuring my interview with Queen Latifah, but without any interruptions at all, just straight through. And that's the entirety of this episode. And in this segment, we reveal that how she got her start. And of course, as a rapper and a hip-hop artist, and of course, she's a damn good one. And, you know, she's been nominated for seven Grammys. Seven Grammys, and five of them for her rap albums. So she's, she's out there getting the job done. But more than that, her lyrics serve as a kind of

• 19:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  a potent source of inspiration for women. And back in the day, female rappers were, you just, there weren't any. I mean, there might have been one or two. And she was one of those two. So she had an especially visible and influential platform from which to be heard. And I wondered how that platform might be constructed in modern times to stimulate women to enter the STEM careers, science, technology, engineering, and math. And also, I was curious, you know, when the arts embrace science, and the sciences embrace the arts,

• 20:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  then people are no longer sort of bounded, or contained, or boxed in by, or labeled by saying they're this or that. And maybe you can be a scientist, and be an artist, or be one and embrace the other. And you're really only bounded by your curiosity. So let's rejoin my interview with Queen Latifah, as we explore the role of performance art as a vehicle to effect change.

• 21:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Some of your earlier hip-hop work, and I don't know your more recent work, forgive me, but your earlier work, a lot of it was in the service of empowerment of women.

• 21:18Speaker 01

  Right.

• 21:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And have you ever considered a dimension of that to encourage women in the STEM fields? Because, you know, performance has influence, right?

• 21:29Speaker 01

  Right.

• 21:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The power of an artist is never neutral.

• 21:33Speaker 01

  Right.

• 21:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right? And so, so when it's done with a mission, it can be quite potent.

• 21:38Speaker 01

  I would actually love to do that.

• 21:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And right now, STEM, you know, science, technology, engineering and math, we're trying to sort of move women, or at least not have them fear it, as a minimum. And so, have you ever thought of leaning that way in any of your output?

• 21:52Speaker 01

  I would love to, and maybe that's a new idea that you've given me to really focus on. Because whenever I've been, whenever it's sort of come past me, or anyone has been involved with it, that wanted me to do something, say some sort of promo, or just send a shout-out to the kids, I've always done it, but I haven't really driven anything towards it, but I know how important it is, because it's really sad how people are discouraged from doing the things that they're capable of doing. And at the end of the day, it holds all of us back.

• 22:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Plus, there's social forces, you know. Is the girl as attractive to boys if she's smarter than the boy, you know? We gotta overcome all this, yeah.

• 22:30Speaker 01

  We do have to overcome this, but how do the boys overcome it? You know, the boys who were once supposedly unattractive are now the most attractive.

• 22:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's true. Like geek chic.

• 22:39Speaker 01

  But this is something that parents should be educating kids on, that time, listen, you have to, there's a whole myriad of things that kids have to get through. Puberty alone is a challenge, you know, and everything's the end of the world, but if you can get them through that to the other side of it, life begins to take over and things begin to appear and it gets exciting again.

• 22:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's the full expression of freedom.

• 23:00Speaker 01

  That's right. And, yeah, I wanna see, I mean, I was one of those girls, so I wasn't, but I wasn't dissuaded from it.

• 23:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, right, this is an important fact here.

• 23:07Speaker 01

  And that's the difference. So, yeah, anything that empowers.

• 23:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You're comfortable.

• 23:12Speaker 01

  Yes. And it was kinda, it was fun, you know?

• 23:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It was kinda cool.

• 23:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's, it's cool to me, I think it's sexy. I think a female scientist, someone discovering, someone in the belly of the lab, discover, see, that's where the acting thing, that's why it's not supposed to be a scientist, but an actor.

• 23:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Did we script that?

• 23:30Speaker 01

  That's all that James T. Kirk coming through me.

• 23:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm an actor Jim, I'm not a doctor, I'm an actor.

• 23:36Speaker 01

  Dammit, we've got to get these girls in science and that. Anyway, but no, I would, I would definitely support it. So if you come up with some ideas for me to...

• 23:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Not that I'm a dear generator there, but...

• 23:45Speaker 01

  Write a rhyme and bust something out, you know.

• 23:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 23:48Speaker 01

  Or maybe I'll do some... That's a good idea. I think I'll go back to the lab and figure out how I can integrate some STEM support in there.

• 23:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So I got a little pulled into the hip-hop scene a few months ago. Where the, the rap star B.O.B. Started going off that Earth was flat. And I don't know if you know about this. So he started, so I, you know, I don't care what people think.

• 24:11Speaker 01

  Wait, I feel like I do know about this.

• 24:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's what I'm saying, that's what I'm saying. So, I don't care, except, there must have been some overlap in the Venn diagram of his Twitter followers and my Twitter followers. Cause my, my Twitter line started lighting up saying, "Please, save B.O.B. from himself. Could you correct him? Could you, you're pleading to me. These were his fans that also followed me."

• 24:33Speaker 01

  Right.

• 24:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I still said, "No, I can't. I don't have time for this." He would, no. And then I looked at his Twitter stream and he's, "I use physics and math to show that Earth is flat." Now, those are fighting words, right? Then I said, "No, I'm, I gotta rise up to this." And so, I showed that he was wrong, but then I said, "But, it's okay for you to think the world is flat? Just don't try to influence anyone else."

• 24:54Speaker 01

  Right. Well, he wasn't serious, right? It was just some creative license kind of thing, right?

• 24:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  He may be, I don't know.

• 24:59Speaker 01

  No way, he was serious.

• 25:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And then...

• 25:01Speaker 01

  Come on, you're throwing around a bad boy.

• 25:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Then he sang a, sang a diss track, alright?

• 25:07Speaker 01

  You haven't made it, you arrived!

• 25:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, I'm not a rap star, so I had to call my nephew, Steven Tyson Jr.

• 25:15Speaker 01

  Right.

• 25:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Who is himself a rap, he's got his own little fledgling career. And I said, "What am I, what do I do now?" And he said, "I hope you write..."

• 25:23Speaker 01

  Let him write you some rhymes, that's right.

• 25:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And so, no, I didn't rhyme it, he did it. And so, uh, he, he wrote a diss track. So then I end up on Sway.

• 25:32Speaker 01

  Oh my god, I love it, I love it!

• 25:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Pulling me into all of this? I'm on Sway on Sirius XM.

• 25:40Speaker 01

  You can't have it both ways. Now, you can't separate science from the creative. We just discussed this. The creative is connected now. So you in it. It's all full circle.

• 25:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's true. It's full circle. I'm just saying, it was, I was like.

• 25:53Speaker 01

  And you're from the boogie town.

• 25:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I was, I was pulled in briefly and I quickly said, okay, that's enough for now.

• 25:59Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 26:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you had an Oscar nomination for Chicago.

• 26:06Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 26:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I saw that film and it was like, you were born to play that role.

• 26:11Speaker 01

  I feel like I was.

• 26:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, my gosh. It was like, I cannot imagine anyone else in this role. That's how I knew. That was like, wow.

• 26:20Speaker 01

  I haven't had to fight for a role that hard since.

• 26:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Do you, you fought for that role?

• 26:24Speaker 01

  I fought. It took three auditions to get that role.

• 26:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, my God.

• 26:27Speaker 01

  Three, three. I was like, listen.

• 26:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Who'd you beat out?

• 26:30Speaker 01

  I think I beat out a lot of people, a lot of people of, of note, who would have been great in that role. But I had to fight.

• 26:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, I know it's properly cast when I, someone else is unthinkable in the role.

• 26:44Speaker 01

  Exactly. And you have to really, you know, I, I think I've sealed ma- ma- Trumama Morton in people's minds and I hope that they don't see, ever see anybody else other than me playing it in that way. But yeah, that was a, yeah, it was a, it was a, I had to audition for, for Rob Marshall, the director in New York. And it's tricky because the, the, when we, when that whole thing came up, it was just after nine 11. Broadway was shut down. And had just, people just started performing again and I had to go see the play because I hadn't seen the play. So I went to see the play and I made it through intermission and I just was so kind of nervous. Uh, because it was literally less than two weeks after nine 11. I was nervous. So I just, I was like, okay, I got it. I'm out.

• 27:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You got the gist. Yeah, you tap out.

• 27:32Speaker 01

  I'm okay. I'm gonna take a break on this and that was that, but.

• 27:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, there's still the jitters.

• 27:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. It was a very tough time in New York, you know, such a sensitive time in New York for all of us. Um, but yeah, so, so I auditioned once. I had to wait for a callback. Got the callback, then I had to. Sing, go up there and sing, and I got that.

• 27:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's what everybody sang in that movie.

• 27:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, and then I had to fly up to Toronto.

• 27:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Zeta Jones sang, everybody sang.

• 27:57Speaker 01

  I had to audition with her. I had to read and sing with her, and that's what, after that, they gave me the role.

• 28:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 28:03Speaker 01

  I was like, come on, man.

• 28:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Didn't Richard Gere sing his own?

• 28:06Speaker 01

  Everybody sang.

• 28:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Everybody sang.

• 28:07Speaker 01

  Everybody sang, everybody did their own thing, and, um, you know, he was a great director to really get that out of everybody and make them feel so comfortable.

• 28:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 28:17Speaker 01

  You know, people who hadn't really done that, so.

• 28:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Um, I didn't see your film, Bessie, but I know Bessie. I mean, I'm a huge Blues fan.

• 28:25Speaker 01

  You know Bessie? Well, how old is you?

• 28:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, I'm not.

• 28:28Speaker 01

  You got to be, well, pushing a hundred thirty.

• 28:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A hundred, a hundred thirty. Got rheumatism.

• 28:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, your hip is killing you right now. Damn.

• 28:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's gonna rain in a couple hours. I need a porch.

• 28:40Speaker 01

  Oh, my god.

• 28:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Some New Yorkers don't have that, that, you know, old people on the front porch.

• 28:46Speaker 01

  I know, right?

• 28:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Mentality, but, uh, but I'm a, I'm just a fan of the Blues, and some people's stories were under-told historically, so I'm glad you, you found that medium and, and that story to tell.

• 28:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, we needed to tell that story. She was something else. She changed a lot. Thank you.

• 29:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah. Um.

• 29:04Speaker 01

  Look at that face. That's a pretty good one.

• 29:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'll tell you something stupidly geeky. So, I read that you, you sang in, was it, uh, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, which is right in the middle of Newark.

• 29:17Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 29:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You did a version of Oh Happy Day.

• 29:19Speaker 01

  I did.

• 29:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Of the, that song from the Edwin Hawkins Singers. Okay. So, that was one of my favorite gospel songs when I was a kid. And, one time I was very young, and my mother had to go out, and for some reason she didn't take me, but was a little worried about leaving me at home. So, she put me on, I must have been four or something, I don't know if I, put me on the couch, played. Oh, Happy Day in repeat mode, which you could do on the record player in the day. And, because she knew I liked the song, so I wouldn't leave as long as the song was playing. But I decided to count how many times they said, "Oh, Happy Day" in that song.

• 30:00Speaker 01

  Are you serious?

• 30:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And to this day, I have that number.

• 30:02Speaker 01

  Which is?

• 30:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's fifty-nine times. It's not more than that. You might think it was more than that. But, "Oh, Happy Day, when Jesus walked," you know, and then the chorus comes in.

• 30:12Speaker 01

  Fifty-nine times.

• 30:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Then there's that, "Oh, Happy Day."

• 30:15Speaker 01

  Yes, yes!

• 30:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This song just keeps ascending. You are in heaven when that song is done, right? So wherever you were, you end up in heaven, and so it's fifty-nine times.

• 30:26Speaker 01

  That's why you are who you are. Because who sits there at four years old and counts?

• 30:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I might have been five, but it was, I was, my feet didn't leave the couch.

• 30:35Speaker 01

  Right, right.

• 30:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Couldn't hit the ground on the couch.

• 30:37Speaker 01

  And I'm glad you could count to almost sixty, that is. Good job.

• 30:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Actually, I wonder, maybe I didn't know how to count to sixty, and it was fifty-nine plus.

• 30:44Speaker 01

  Right, right?

• 30:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'd better double-check.

• 30:47Speaker 01

  I love that.

• 30:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So I had to tell you that story, because if you sang that song.

• 30:51Speaker 01

  And you stayed put, too, huh?

• 30:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I stayed put. I didn't budge the whole time.

• 30:54Speaker 01

  See, Mama knew.

• 30:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  She knew. She had me figured out.

• 30:57Speaker 01

  She's like, "This'll keep him occupied."

• 31:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh, also, uh, you, did you cut an album called Travelin' Light?

• 31:04Speaker 01

  I did.

• 31:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so, that's the punchline of a joke, a geeky joke, yeah.

• 31:12Speaker 01

  Hit me. You have to. You can't go there and not give it up.

• 31:18Speaker 01

  This is very good.

• 31:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so, a photon walks into a bar.

• 31:25Speaker 01

  You got me at that already.

• 31:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, no, that's the, I messed it up. So, a photon checks into a hotel.

• 31:32Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 31:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, and the bellhop comes and says, "Uh, uh, hello, do you have any luggage?" He says, "No, I'm traveling light."

• 31:40Speaker 01

  Oh, my God!

• 31:45Speaker 01

  Give it up, give it up. No, I'm traveling light.

• 31:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A photon is traveling light. That's good.

• 31:52Speaker 01

  That's good.

• 31:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I saw that album, I said, no, I got that. I'm there. I don't know what's in the album, but I got the joke.

• 31:57Speaker 01

  Look, the best part of it is your laughter before the joke. I knew you were gonna mess the joke if I say you laughing too hard. This is how my mother starts a joke.

• 32:06Speaker 01

  I love that. I wanna hear some more.

• 32:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You wanna hear a couple more?

• 32:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, you might as well hit me with a couple more.

• 32:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So what denomination religion were you raised in?

• 32:15Speaker 01

  Uh, Christian.

• 32:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I mean, what denomination of Christianity?

• 32:17Speaker 01

  Uh, Baptist.

• 32:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Baptist, okay.

• 32:19Speaker 01

  Catholic and Baptist.

• 32:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Catholic and Baptist, okay. So do you remember the, uh, year, couple year, a year and a half ago? Over in Switzerland, they discovered what was called the Higgs boson. Which was this particle long sought. And this particle has a field around it. Where if you had another particle and you go through that field. This part, the Higgs boson grants that particle mass. It's a badass particle to do this. You have the power to give mass to other particles that come through. So it won a Nobel Prize, it was a, it was a very, very important particle, okay? In fact, there's a book published called The God Particle.

• 32:58Speaker 01

  Right, right, right.

• 32:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In anticipation of the discovery of that particle.

• 33:01Speaker 01

  Right.

• 33:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay? So, that's the setup. Now, this is a joke where I know who invented the joke. How often do you know who invents a joke? Like hardly ever.

• 33:09Speaker 01

  You hardly ever.

• 33:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's lost.

• 33:10Speaker 01

  You just don't know.

• 33:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's lost in the ether, right? I know who invented this joke, his name is Brian Mallow.

• 33:16Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 33:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And he's got a Twitter handle called ScienceComedian.

• 33:20Speaker 01

  You know, about to check that out.

• 33:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So we got people who, who try to make you laugh, right? So this is his joke, you ready? A Higgs boson walks into a church. And the priest says, I'm sorry, sorry, we don't allow Higgs bosons in church. And the Higgs boson says, oh, but without me, you can't have mass.

• 33:44Speaker 01

  Oh my god. Oh my god, see, I knew that nine years of Catholic school would pay off.

• 33:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You've been missing out on some geek jokes your whole life.

• 33:54Speaker 01

  Yo, I'm about to get my geek joke on. And we get an education and some humor, and I can't wait to hear one where I'm like, nah, not so much on that.

• 34:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So we got good people, we got people thinking this stuff up.

• 34:08Speaker 01

  That's a good one. I'm about to do some Higgs boson research. I'm all excited about that to be able to give back.

• 34:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, think about it. Look at all the ju- you know, sex and, and relationships and New York versus LA. The, the tired subjects that everyone composes jokes on. Think of the limitless cosmos.

• 34:31Speaker 01

  Oh, man. Literally the limitless.

• 34:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And ever-expanding. Yes, cosmos.

• 34:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  When StarTalk returns, you will not have to hear any more of my corny, geeky jokes. But if you want to tweet your own at StarTalk Radio, we'd love to see what you've got.

• 34:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  When StarTalk returns, you will not have to hear any more of my corny, geeky jokes. But if you want to tweet your own at StarTalk Radio, we'd love to see what you've got up your sleeve.

• 35:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Coming up, Queen, coming up, Queen Latifah and I talk about the new film Ice Age 5: Collision Course. In it, she plays a woolly mammoth named Ellie. And I have my own cameo in it. Shh. It's my, it's my, it's my animated movie debut. Uh, I play Neil deBuck Weasel. Just stay tuned, you'll get more in a moment.

• 36:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Welcome back to StarTalk Radio. I'm Neil deGrasse Tyson. Tonight, we, you know, every now and again, we have an episode. It's not even every now and again. It's every couple of years, maybe. An episode is so full and so rich in content that we just run my interview, just as it happened. And that's what you're getting tonight with my conversation with Queen Latifah. And you're just gonna hear the whole thing, basically. And in this next part of the conversation, we talk about her latest movie, Ice Age 5: Collision Course. You, you heard me right, Ice Age 5. There's almost as many of these things as the Fast and Furious series. It caught me by surprise too.

• 36:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh, if you're not alone, if you're saying five, there've been five of these. She plays the woolly mammoth named Ellie. And I even have my own cameo in the film. Shh. I play Neil deBuck Weasel, which I'm not roaming with the rest of the mammals. I, I exist in the head of Buck the Weasel, helping him make important decisions. Well, let's check it out.

• 37:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, you are a mammoth?

• 37:09Speaker 01

  I am.

• 37:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ellie?

• 37:10Speaker 01

  You got the word out, huh? Yes, I am Ellie, the woolly mammoth. Who once thought she was a possum?

• 37:17Speaker 01

  She's clear about that at this point.

• 37:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is like the most successful animated series ever, or something?

• 37:23Speaker 01

  Huge, yes.

• 37:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's crazy huge.

• 37:25Speaker 01

  Worldwide, it's huge.

• 37:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Now, isn't that a mystery to even the producers themselves?

• 37:30Speaker 01

  You know?

• 37:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's a fun topic. No one's gonna argue that it wasn't a fun subject, but I'm betting they didn't think this was gonna be a worldwide phenomenon. And it's, you all have almost as many episodes as the Fast and Furious series. And that, that's saying something.

• 37:44Speaker 01

  This is our fifth one. That's crazy.

• 37:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 37:47Speaker 01

  I mean, I've been, I've been a hero in my household, to my nieces and nephews, rather. They went, they didn't call me, Aunt Dana's my real name, they called me Aunt Ellie for months. Auntie Ellie, Auntie Ellie, oh Auntie Ellie is on the phone, okay, Auntie Ellie, I'm like.

• 38:04Speaker 01

  You know, I'm not a, a, you know, woolly mammoth, they don't exist anymore. I'm still just Auntie Dana.

• 38:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, did that, does that, does that sensitize you to any, this is the, the obvious cliche question they always ask actors. So, are you now sensitized to climate, or extinct animals, or the fate of the earth?

• 38:26Speaker 01

  I don't think I've always been sensitized to that.

• 38:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 38:29Speaker 01

  I'm a Pisces, you know? I mean, where's that in your cosmos, man? You know, but I, so, yeah, I think I, I am, because, not so much because of Ice Age, which I think is gonna be huge and funny and exciting all over again. And I love doing it every time. But just 'cause I travel the world, I liked, I, I love. Going different places on this planet. And um when you get to see some of the beauty and harshness of as well. You just kind of want want it to be, I mean, I want the damn planet to live.

• 39:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In fact, the harshness empowers you to appreciate the beauty all the more.

• 39:07Speaker 01

  It really does and makes, you know, you realize it, I mean, we're here, we're all here together. We need to share this one planet, so um what what just disturbs me the most, I guess, is the fact that we even have the power to that much power uh to be able to harm our own planet. I don't, you know, that we could actually have be capable, physically capable of doing something like that.

• 39:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They're debating what to call the new geologic era where the earth is now influenced by the conduct of one of its species, the human beings.

• 39:38Speaker 01

  And listen, I think the earth is gonna win eventually, it always does and.

• 39:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Everybody's saying, oh, let's save earth, no, earth don't need.

• 39:43Speaker 01

  No, earth is gonna be fine, what's not gonna be fine is us, don't you get this? I've done, I, listen, we get wiped out every time.

• 39:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, right, the fossil record shows it, yes.

• 39:53Speaker 01

  We lose this fight every time, the earth and then, you know, nature is always gonna take over.

• 39:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Mm-hmm.

• 39:58Speaker 01

  So um it'll have its way, um but so.

• 40:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So so did they tell you, I don't know if they told you.

• 40:04Speaker 01

  Told me what?

• 40:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They told me. I have a cameo in Ice Age.

• 40:10Speaker 01

  You do, I do know about that, oh, yeah. Wait, aren't you in, aren't you in?

• 40:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm not gonna tell.

• 40:16Speaker 01

  Aren't you in, I know where you are too, I know exactly where you are.

• 40:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm a just a little thing, it's just a little thing.

• 40:22Speaker 01

  I got the word on it, aren't you in, you're in the.

• 40:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm in, I'm in the, in the, in the, in the, in the thought process.

• 40:28Speaker 01

  You're in a good place, though.

• 40:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, it's a good place, it's a good place.

• 40:31Speaker 01

  You're in a great place.

• 40:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because once I get to be, um, you know, I wouldn't agree if it was just completely, if it, rather,

• 40:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I don't, I don't mind people having fun with science in a movie, provided they they have fun in a, in a. I don't know, if in the right moments, they don't take themselves too seriously, and you're just having fun,

• 40:52Speaker 01

  Right.

• 40:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  then everybody has fun, and then I'm all for it. And if an artist taps me on the shoulder and says, "Can you bring some of your science expertise to my art project?"

• 41:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And if an artist is reaching for me, I gotta, I gotta come and call.

• 41:06Speaker 01

  Of course you do.

• 41:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I do.

• 41:07Speaker 01

  Especially if you could pop some reality in it, something that could is really possible.

• 41:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Just a little bit, just a little bit.

• 41:12Speaker 01

  You know, God bless them, every time they have to figure out, they have to figure out some way, some plausible way to create

• 41:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A catastrophe.

• 41:20Speaker 01

  extinction level event.

• 41:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Every movie, every movie they gotta figure out.

• 41:25Speaker 01

  Everybody's going down, like, you know what I mean? So, how did it happen this?

• 41:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And it has to be, it can be playfully plausible.

• 41:31Speaker 01

  And a squirrel did it.

• 41:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A squirrel.

• 41:33Speaker 01

  Prehistoric sort of squirrel.

• 41:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A squirrely thing.

• 41:37Speaker 01

  Scrap, a scrap, the rat squirrel, whatever he is.

• 41:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And he's the hero, he's like,

• 41:41Speaker 01

  He's my favorite character.

• 41:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  He's everybody's favorite character.

• 41:43Speaker 01

  Every movie is like, nobody can blow him out.

• 41:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 41:46Speaker 01

  And he doesn't even speak a word.

• 41:50Speaker 01

  I'm like, damn, that's a good dig. Thank you. You know, I like to think I love Scrat enough to imitate him well.

• 41:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, it's funny, because I don't do, it's not what I do. So, I'm, I'm an interloper, and it was just fun when,

• 42:01Speaker 01

  But don't you do it.

• 42:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I did my lines, and then they said, "Okay, now this is the part where we just need you to make noises for when you're doing things." So, I need you to grunt.

• 42:09Speaker 01

  Right.

• 42:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I need you to, "Ah,"

• 42:11Speaker 01

  Right.

• 42:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  in case you're climbing something.

• 42:13Speaker 01

  It's trippy, right?

• 42:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, it was a whole, just sort of the sound effects.

• 42:17Speaker 01

  How was that experience for you?

• 42:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It was surreal. I enjoyed it, but, because then it was learning how the sausage gets made that any, any VO person knows, you know, and so.

• 42:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, you can literally pass out trying to do that stuff. I mean, some of the, uh, voiceover studios, some of the studios have this sort of, uh, almost a ballet bar. It's like a, a bar that's horizontal and, and vertical kind of shaped, and you can lean on it to run, so that you make the right, without making too much noise with your clothes, but getting the breath out to sound like you are running and chasing. Because you can, I mean, people have passed out doing these effects. You know, trying to make the sound of running, or, breathing so hard that they're like, I've heard some funny stories through the years about people like knock themselves out from like,

• 43:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There's one other VO I was asked. "Okay, in this scene, you're falling into a black hole, so give me the anguish and pain that that is."

• 43:12Speaker 01

  And you said,

• 43:17Speaker 01

  What was that like?

• 43:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 43:18Speaker 01

  Let's hear it.

• 43:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, you get extruded through the fabric of space as you get ripped head to toe. So it's quite a, um, yeah, it's, it's a...

• 43:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You have to...

• 43:32Speaker 01

  That's some good extrusion.

• 43:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, you have to, you have to feel like you're being stressed out.

• 43:43Speaker 01

  That was really good.

• 43:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm getting better.

• 43:44Speaker 01

  I like it. It's in your faces and your voices.

• 43:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You okay?

• 43:47Speaker 01

  I really feel like you got extruded just then.

• 43:51Speaker 01

  I'll miss you.

• 43:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Acting.

• 43:52Speaker 01

  I'll miss you, bud.

• 43:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Acting.

• 43:54Speaker 01

  See you next lifetime.

• 43:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right. For this last part of the show, Queen Latifah had a burning question for me. You know, in my experience interviewing artists and celebrities and folks who you may know for other reasons on StarTalk, it's often that I'm the first astrophysicist they've ever met, or at least the first one they had a chance to sit down with. And being the curious folks they tend to be, they, artists, you know, are not only curious about how to find new ways to portray the world, they're curious about the world itself. Some people may be surprised to learn that. And I'm delighted to have found that out here on StarTalk.

• 44:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And so usually when given the chance, they'll just pelt me with questions about the universe. When I ask them if they have any questions, and sure enough, I asked it of Queen Latifah, and she charmed me with hers. Let's see what it was.

• 44:57Speaker 01

  Okay, I got too many questions, so I'll just ask you, I want to know just one thing then. So you, you have an asteroid in your desk. Is that true?

• 45:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I do, in my desk, yeah. It's in my, it's in my drawer.

• 45:09Speaker 01

  In your office?

• 45:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In my lower left drawer.

• 45:10Speaker 01

  An asteroid in your lower left drawer?

• 45:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, actually meteorite, yeah. But it was once an asteroid, but, yeah.

• 45:16Speaker 01

  Right, I'm sorry, not asteroid, that's crazy. But a meteorite. So what is it like to actually touch something that was in outer space for the first time? I mean, to have studied this, but to actually physically have something in your hands that was there and that's now here?

• 45:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That is a beautiful question, and...

• 45:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Let me give you a slightly long answer.

• 45:42Speaker 01

  I'll take it.

• 45:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 45:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  At the Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, Smithsonian Air and Space, they have the original Apollo 11 capsule that went to the moon. Occasionally, you have tourists coming through, and they say, "Oh, so this is the capsule that went to the moon and came back." And they say, "Oh, is it a replica?" No, it's the actual capsule. And when you tell them that, then they take higher interest. And we live in a time where you can make an exact replica, if you wanted, to every detail, but the knowledge that it's real matters. I could have perfect knowledge of what an asteroid is, and how it enters Earth's atmosphere, and you find it, and I can know it intellectually. But until you hold it in your hand,

• 46:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  it is never as real as it can possibly be. And so this asteroid, which is this piece of an asteroid, this relic from the early solar system, it's four and a half billion years old, sitting in my desk drawer. Every time I pull it out, you feel how heavy it is, how dense, how uncommonly dense it is. And it's craggy, and magnets stick to it. And you realize that it contains iron forged in stars from long ago, that manufactured iron that is also in the hemoglobin of your blood. So the iron of this asteroid, of this meteorite, and the iron in your blood have a common origin.

• 47:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So there's a cosmic connectivity that has no equal as I hold that meteorite in my hand.

• 47:30Speaker 01

  Yes!

• 47:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And by the way, I collect old science books, written in the day of when the discoveries were made. So they go back several centuries. My wife is always telling me, "Oh, why don't you just get it online? Why are you paying for this? You can read the content. Google, scan the book. Find the page." And I say, "No, I can hold the book that's been held by generations of people before me." There's margin notes of people trying to work through the equations.

• 48:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  When no one before had ever seen these equations.

• 48:09Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 48:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In that way, I commune through time.

• 48:13Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 48:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  With those who have struggled mightily to understand our place in the universe.

• 48:22Speaker 01

  You owe me an interview.

• 48:25Speaker 01

  Thank you so much.

• 48:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, we gotta wrap up this episode of StarTalk. And I hope you had as much fun listening to this conversation as I did having it. And no, you can't not be enchanted by Queen Latifah. I am an even bigger fan of hers now than I was before. Because she's warm, and smart, and talented, and kind, giving. All the things that I think most people aspire to be. People aspire to be the bits and pieces that she is. And yet she has all those bits and pieces in one person. And so, I tip my hat, no, I bow to the queen. To Queen Latifah.

• 49:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ladies and gentlemen, you've been listening to StarTalk Radio. And I've been your host, Neil deGrasse Tyson. And as always, I bid you to keep looking up.