Neil deGrasse Tyson on the Afterlife, Origins of the Earth and Extreme Weather

science through the media and there is great science programming on NPR, especially where there is a Science Friday, for example, where and I was on Science Friday, I love it, there is a journalist interviewing a scientist. But if you tune in to those possibilities, do you know that you already like science? So you would listen to it, but what about people who don't know they like science or people who know they don't like science? How do you get science to them? I thought, why don't we reverse the model and I'll be the interviewer? I am the scientist and my guests will almost never be scientists.

I would draw them. They would be members of pop culture and my conversation with them would be. Whether it's about all the ways science has influenced your life or livelihood, are you teaching or asking? So no, so there's some teaching there, but actually, if it's about people, you would have heard about these people that we've interviewed, one of them is like President Carter, okay, I didn't ask him about the Middle East, that's what other people do. I asked him about his background in engineering and how that might have influenced his diplomacy. Do you think differently than others who had a different experience? that's something interesting to me, it might be interesting to others, an interview with George from the original Star, he's a fun guy on all levels and we talk about sci-fi projections for the future and what came true and what No. but he's from pop culture, he's not a scientist, he may have played one on TV, but he's not a scientist, so now you do this on TV too, so now he jumps between species and by the way, the National Geographic Channel, Cosmos while it aired on Fox. nationally and National Geographic was delayed.

National Geographic took it around the world in 180 countries, so I had a relationship with National Geographic and they said at the end of Cosmos we had to do more television together and I was like no, that's not what I want. I'm about to, but I'm doing this radio show, maybe we could film what they agreed to and now it's late at night like 11. M, the great man who started Cosmos with Carl San, my man, I interviewed him maybe a hundred times, yeah, oh, Carl is a billion. you can say you've interviewed him maybe a billion times loved him yeah get the billion there he was free you yeah he uh my first meeting with him was memorable for me probably not for him but for me I had applied for college and I've told this story before, in fact, we, I'm telling it again in Cosmos.

I applied to college and knew I was interested in the universe. I was accepted to Cornell and what was unknown to me was that the admissions office sent me my application because of his comment and reaction. Then he sent me a personal, hand-signed letter that said, "I hear you're considering Cornell. I'd be happy to give you a tour of the campus if you'd like to come visit to help you decide." and he was already famous, he had been in Carson and the scientist in Johnny Carson, oh my God, that was what no one had done before, so he had cleared the field for whoever came after him to do much of what he, huh. he had been a pioneer, so I went up, and he met me outside the building and gave me a tour.

She walked up behind him without even looking, she walked over and pulled out one of his own books. I never forget that you have written so many books that you simply reach. behind me and grab the book that is there, I signed it. I still have that book, so I said to myself at the time, if I'm ever in a position to bring the universe to Earth the way it has, then I'll do it. I'm sure I'll look at the students and other people with the dignity and respect that Cornell is not a famous Science School, no, they do, man, it was a school and, uh, there's a huge agricultural dimension to it, uh, when I visit her.

I love the barn, the barn, they take the methane flatulence that the cows put freely into the air from their own digestive tract and then use it to keep Barnes warm by burning the methane during the winter, so that's cool, right? ? enjoy Cornell no, I didn't actually attend Cornell you, yeah, no, I didn't actually attend, I hope, did you go? I attended Harvard oh wow, yes, no, no, because it was, I thought if I didn't want to go to Cornell just for one person because suppose he went somewhere else or while Harvard was very deep in a disappointed call, he wrote to me a letter, he said, he said he was uh uh, he said I wasn't wrong in choosing Harvard, that's how it was done.

Mr. Musk and the others who are going to, oh Elon, are going to send their own planes, uh, yes, Rockets, yes, um, I'm skeptical on a couple of levels because of the way we need people to think that way , he wants. send a mission to Mars, we need those people in society, otherwise the rest of us think that every other day should be like the last, so let me start with that, but I can tell you that the first people to do things really expensive. where there is danger and people could die and the return on investment is not known those are not businessmen those are governments the first Europeans in the new world were not the Dutch East India Trading Company it was Columbus financed by Spain then he draws the maps and this is where trade wins and this is where the hostiles are and the friends are this is where you find the fruit you can eat and then you can make a business case for it otherwise it's a very short meeting if I say hey , I'm going to Mars brings all their venture capitalists and they start asking questions: How much does it cost?

I don't know, but a lot and it's dangerous. Yes, people probably die. What is my return on investment? I have no idea, probably zero, that's a five minute meeting and it doesn't happen, so someone has to come out with the long term vision longer than the quarterly report view and once the patents are granted and it's established what is dangerous and what is safe, then the business case is presented. I guess it's the fabulous Neil Tyson. When we get back, I'll talk about life and death and what you think, what you believe, what you have faith in.

After this we're back to Degrass Tyson, he's one of the fabulous people on this. country one of my favorite guests that I would like to do I would like to do a tour with you we just do universities and I ask questions and we explore things okay, you are the scientist, bring it, accept the facts, the facts and the beliefs. I know that religious people believe that scientists have proven what you believe, what you believe happens when we die well, so I can make some lame claims about what happens when you die, so you spend your life eating food, food has a content caloric and calories. it is a source of energy the calorie is a unit of energy that you put in and then the energy is available for you to keep your body temperature at almost 100 degrees it is 98.6 how do you keep something at 100° when there is nothing else around it?

You are burning energy to sustain that because biologically we need to be at that temperature to function well, you also need energy to walk and move, that is why you eat food at the moment of death, what happens, you do not maintain energy, your temperature drops to what point? Low to room temperature at a funeral in the coffin? If you touch the hand of the person in the coffin, your first thought is the cold of the body. No, it's not room temperature, but it's cold compared to 100°, they don't burn this anymore. energy, okay, now each of your molecules has energy inside, if you are cremated, that energy is released as heat and you heat the air and that air radiates into space, you are buried, which is how I want my body to be . bury me because you know I don't want the energy content of my body to simply radiate into space without being of any use to anyone, put me in the ground, let the worm microbes enter and leave my body and the contents of energy from my body that I have gathered throughout my life consuming the Flora and Fauna of this Earth, my body then returns to them and that is the cycle of life.

I know that's going to happen because you can measure where the energy goes and that's how I want to get out but you're not conscious and that's for eternity right yeah there's no evidence that I'm conscious of anything and by the way it's so strange that you had Consciousness before being born, did you say how is it possible? I'm not on Earth, my God, I need to be on Earth or like where am I? No, you there, just the state of non-existence, that's why they don't give me any reason now that I was born and I can't stand the idea. of nonexistence, look, I already have existence, no, it's okay, it's true, we fear death because we are born knowing only life, true.

I understand, however, I take another point of view because I have been asked if you could live forever, right? Okay, we're done with the interview. But. Okay, sure it's an attractive idea, but the way I see it, it's the knowledge that I'm going to die that creates the focus I bring to being alive, the urgency of achievement, the need. Express love now, not later, if we live forever, why get out of bed in the morning? Because you always have tomorrow. That's not the kind of life I want to lead, but why aren't you afraid of not being around?

I'm afraid to live a life. where I could have achieved something and I didn't, that's what I fear. I don't fear death, you don't fear the unknown, I love the unknown, I love the unknown, you know what I want on my tombstone, my sister has this on her on her. notes because in case I can't tell anyone after I die in my Tombstone, a quote from the great educator Horrus Man, be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for Humanity, that's what I want in my Tombstone, but don't be afraid o o I think about not being around.

Which I am very sorry for not being around. It would be great to see my children continue to grow. Don't you want to know yes? It would be funny. I want to see what inventions. would make life easier what intelligent discoveries or innovations would arise from the species of collective mental work what do you think when you see religious people when you see popes or rabbis or people who fervently believe in the Billy Grahams of the world who are sincere and wonderful people, yes of course , who actually maybe is deluding themselves into thinking that it's gone somewhere no, they are embedded in belief systems and what I look at is that I see all the belief systems and when you align them they are not really compatible with each other, so whatever they believe can't be a truth that applies to everyone because other people believe what they do with no less fervor, so I feel like a person interested in objective truth and I say, well, no It doesn't seem like that. be a path to an objective truth, so let people continue to think and say what they want, but as a citizen of a country that is not based on a religion, it is based on a kind of secular. build in a way that protects whatever religion you want to express, this is protected in the Constitution, the Constitution doesn't actually mention God, which was quite controversial in its time and they don't mention God because they don't want the legislation to tell them. which God to worship, they knew it, they knew how governments can persecute people who had belief systems that didn't agree with the state, they knew it, so they created those freedoms and that's why we have these freedoms, go ahead, but if you go to create legislation that has to apply to everyone and now you are going to put your belief system into legislation that is not a free and open democracy and you are an incredible man, no, the universe is incredible.

I'm just revealing that fact thanks to my guest. Neil degrass Tyson start talk airs Mondays at 11:00 p.m. 10 Central on National Geographic is also available on Sirius XM and iTunes and remember you can find me on Twitter at Kings things and I'll wait for you next time.