if everyone had the luxury of expressing
the unique combinations of talents in
this world our society would be
transformed overnight there’s a horizon
on the universe and you can’t see beyond
it oh there’s a black hole oh my gosh
the star is gonna explode I mean this we
are we are like mine every day my first
interview on on The Daily Show I studied
how many seconds he let his guests speak
before he interrupted them he’s an
American astrophysicist cosmologist and
author in 2015 the US National Academy
of Sciences awarded him the public
welfare medal since 1996 he’s been the
director at the Hayden Planetarium at
the Rose Center for Earth and space he’s
Neil deGrasse Tyson and here’s my take
on his top 10 rules for success rule
number six is my personal favorite and I
love to know which one you guys like the
best also guys as you’re watching if you
hear something that really resonates
with you please leave it down the
comments below put quotes around it so
other people can be inspired by your
sharing and also when you write it down
you’re much more likely to lock it in
for yourself to enjoy
I’ve had several people come up to me
and said what can I do to be you and the
only aspect of me that’s really doable
is I can tell you what my academic
pedigree is and what I did as a kid and
what things interested me but what I do
day to day is not the fulfillment of
some pre-existing job description
it’s just things that I took interest in
on my own that the general public
happened to also appreciate or like or
want access to and so within my job
description as director of the Hayden
Planetarium and as an educator as an
astrophysicist
I kept accreting other things that I did
that people responded to positively
responded to so I can tell you about the
academic pedigree the rest you have to
create what it is that you do best
that layers on to the formal training
that may be behind it I think the
greatest of people that have ever been
in society they were never versions of
someone else they were themselves you
don’t think about Michael Jordan the
basketball player and say oh he was just
like this other player no you don’t even
say he was like this player plus that
player divided by 2 plus citizen no he’s
Michael Jordan I think the greatest of
people in society carved niches that
represented the unique expression of
their combinations of talents and if
everyone had the luxury of expressing
the unique combinations of talents in
this world our society would be
transformed overnight how does it feel
to be an inspiration to many people who
struggle with life does he feel that
pressure yeah that’s an intense question
so he’s in eighth grade
he’s an eighth grade
asking existential questions about how
people feel or respond to me I don’t
think about that actively because it’s
not I don’t I’m not what I don’t do what
I do to have that effect because that
would imply that I wake up in the
morning and say how can I know I’m a
perfect day for me is when the phone
does not ring and when my inbox is empty
that’s a perfect day and I can stay home
play with the kids watch a movie on the
couch with popcorn with slightly too
much butter and just veg but what
happens is I get called I get called by
the press because the universe flinched
I get called by a school they call by a
city but by organizers of a theater you
know or lecture halls and they want to
learn about the universe and in that
capacity I’m a servant of the public’s
curiosity about the cosmos and in in
that way I’m not asking myself how am i
affecting you I’m simply offering all
that I can and all that I know of this
beautiful universe in which we live and
that’s that’s what I do and why in my
field our minds are blown all the time
you know oh the universe is expanding
what into what what we’re not the only
galaxies there’s an there’s a horizon on
the universe and you can’t see beyond it
oh there’s a black hole oh my gosh the
star is gonna explode I mean this we are
we are like mine every day all right in
my field and that makes us quite open to
fresh ideas because we don’t start the
day requiring what the universe should
be like we start the day wide open ready
to receive what the universe is as
revealed by the methods and tools that
we develop in astrophysics
so we you know that that if you read
news stories of new discoveries and they
almost always begin the journals almost
always mean scientists will have to go
back to the drawing board on this one
know we’re always at the drawing board
if you’re not at that you if you weren’t
at the drawing board you are not in the
game what one thing we’ve failed to do
in the educational system is a
people that if you’re doing what no one
has done before stuff goes wrong and in
fact if nothing ever goes wrong in what
you’re doing if you make no mistakes in
your job in your in whatever task you’ve
brought upon yourself then you are not
on the frontier simple mm-hmm it’s true
in science and I heard it applied to car
racing there’s a quote that I’m told
spoken by Mario Andretti he said if you
are in complete control of your car
you’re not in the race Wow there’s
something that you’re just not
completely in control I like that and
only then get and that’s the same thing
I’m describing for when you are on the
frontier if I repeat it if you think I’m
lying
[Music]
blew those fractions yes
[Applause]
[Music]
okay if you’re asking those questions
now you’ll be the deepest thinking adult
there never was so what is the meaning
of life I think
people ask that question on the
assumption that meaning is something you
could look for and then I found it
here’s the meaning is what it is I’ve
been looking for it okay
and it doesn’t consider the possibility
that maybe meaning in life is something
that you create you manufactured for
yourself and for others and so when I
think of meaning in life
I asked have I learned something today
that I didn’t know yesterday bringing me
a little closer to knowing all that can
be known in the universe just a little
closer however far away all the
knowledge since I’m a little closer if I
end of the day and I don’t know a little
more that day than the day before I
think I wasted that day so the people
who at the end of the school year say
the summer I don’t have to think anymore
I’m thinking
what the to learn is to become closer to
nature and to learn how things work
gives you power to influence events
gives you power to help people who may
need it power to help yourselves to
shape a trajectory so when I think of
what is the meaning of life to me that’s
not an eternal unanswerable question to
me that is in our Lee’s reach of me
every day and so for you at age six and
three-quarters may I suggest that for
you you should explore nature as much as
you possibly can and occasionally that
means get in your clothes dirty because
you might want to jump into puddles and
your parents don’t want you to do that I
gave you permission
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
so I’m gonna have to be more permission
for more things you ready have you ever
pulled all the pots and pans out of the
cabinet before and hit them with the
wooden spoon have you done that yet have
you done that he said in a way then what
was it what did your parents say when
you do when you did that well you did it
with paper plates that’s not nearly as
fun okay so you have my permission to
pull pots and pans out of the cabinets
and bang on them with spoons and knives
and things
you’re still a kid and and and part of
being a kid is exploring the world
around you and while all the way the
laws of nature influence that world so
take different pots events and hit them
with a spoon it’ll all sound different
they’ll sound different with different
spoons some pans are aluminum summer
steel summer copper they’ll sound
different and that’s kind of a fun
experiment and most parents will say
don’t do that you’re getting them dirty
stop doing that you’re making too much
noise you tell them that why did you
have me in the first place
this reminded that they didn’t have kids
so that they could keep having a neat
house okay because kids make things
Missy and there’s a reason why they make
things messy because they’re exploring
the world around them and so you have my
permission now if you get in trouble I’m
not gonna be around right okay so your
meaning of life will be enhanced if you
give it as much freedom as you can to
explore the world then when you get
older you will become so close to how
the world works that when a problem
arises that needs a solution you will
say I know how to solve that I’ve been
thinking about that before and I’ve been
thinking about that ever since I was
banging the pans on the kitchen floor
but ever since I jumped it with two feet
into a puddle or ever since I walked up
and down and caught snowflakes in my
mouth down the street did you do that
today when it snowed it was the last
time you caught snowflakes in America
[Applause]
you see the problem here okay the dogs
have forgotten how to embrace nature how
to think about the natural world so you
will owe it to yourself and everyone
else who will be cured by some medicine
you may event one day you owe it to
yourself and to everyone else to
continue to stay curious
and by doing so you will have created
the meaning in life that others think is
waiting under a rock for them one day
and it would have made it happen on your
own so thanks for your question what
meat what makes you so good at
explaining science I can tell you what
is kind of hard-earned over all the
years contrary to some people so are you
just a natural have you asked me what if
I how hard I’ve worked
have you can we have that conversation
before you assert that what I’m
exhibiting is just something that comes
naturally my first interview on Jon
Stewart I saw he was one of these guests
here it’s my first interview on on The
Daily Show I studied how many seconds he
let his guest speak before he
interrupted them and I got the rhythm of
that and I said if I go I’ll ever go on
a show
I will parcel my cosmic knowledge in
these bits so that I will complete a
thought before he interrupts and that
way when he interrupts there’s a
complete thought and then we can laugh
at whatever joke he makes so that
there’s a stable trajectory through that
interview I did this
[Applause]
[Music]
one more okay so so first time I’m on
the evening news it was 1995 the first
exoplanet had been discovered that
planet orbiting another star and that
was banner headlines so they sent a
camera to the Hayden Planetarium my
first year as director in fact at the
time I was interim director and they
didn’t know me from it what was this
before or after you banished Pluto I
just went oh no
yeah the Pluto incident came later okay
so nobody knows me from anything the NBC
sent the camera just to interview with
the director who was me so I give them
my best professorial it’s the 3:00 in
the afternoon this is for the evening
news so they so how do we discover this
I get my best professorial reply I says
the Doppler shift and and it planets
don’t orbit their host stars the planet
and the host star orbit a common center
of gravity which is not centered in the
center of the star so while the planet
does this which you can’t see it’s too
dim this this this the host star does
this the kind of jingles like that so
I’m describing all of this and I went
home called everybody mom Papago watts
on the evening I go home and that I
watched the evening news and all they
had of me was me doing this so I said oh
they don’t want my professorial reply
they want a soundbite and I said I will
never be sound bitten again I’m gonna
hand them a sound bite that will fit in
their time slot so I went home and
practiced you look in the mirror you get
someone it’s like bark out anything in
the universe idea place thing you know
Saturn Saturn’s rings
black holes big bang just say it and I
practice three sentence replies ideally
it’s got to be interesting informative
and maybe make you smile enough to want
to tell someone else the anatomy of a
soundbite and so I practice that so then
next time
I was they came I just handed him sound
bites and they they didn’t have to edit
a thing and they kept coming back I came
to learn and so I was there I’m tasked
with serving a curiosity the least I
could do is invest some of my brainpower
and emotional power to do as good a job
as I can and today I’ve learned even
more especially through my radio show
star talk which jump species and is now
on television first-ever science-based
talk show on television ever it was we
it wasn’t on purpose it just landed that
way so I found it I figured this out I
mean I found figured out before I look
back and say it was that what I was
doing you come to the table with a
pop-culture scaffold you know Beyonce is
typically you know that who the
president is you know what football is
you know the things you just know you
know she’s having twins and you name
them oh yeah I try to name Beyonce’s
twins but I’ll get to that in a minute
so so what I found was everyone comes
with this scaffold and you’re an expert
in that scaffold that’s the definition
of pop culture okay now I realized that
since science is everywhere I can attach
the science that I’m trying to teach to
that scaffold and if you do that they
were already halfway there and so so but
that takes a huge investment of my time
learning the pop culture that would be
the common denominator of everyone so I
got to watch the number one show got to
watch a few episodes of Game of Thrones
got to see the Super Bowl all the things
that define America I got it sort of get
in the middle of that and that helps in
that arms my utility belt in every
occasion where I want to convey meaning
and scientific concepts and ideas and if
I have a scientific concept an idea that
is fundamentally mind-blowing without
any assistance then I just put it out
there because it’ll blow your mind
without any reference to pop culture at
all now what about if you had the
opportunity to become immortal
so that you could figure out everything
would you do that I worry that if I were
immortal I would lose focus on the
present I would just say to myself I’ve
got time it’s the very fact that we’re
mortal that creates urgency in whatever
it is you want and need to do in life
and I value that as a fundamental part
of what it is to be human so here’s the
thing about math just to consider this
if you you know if you stumble upon a
page in Chinese right and you say I
don’t understand if it’s not that I’ll
hope that you know nothing on there can
you leave as you grew up no in English
but you’re not saying to yourself I’m
too stupid to learn it you just say I
haven’t spent the time and if you spend
two weeks trying to learn it and you
still don’t know it are you saying this
is impossible no you know it takes time
it takes years to be fluent in another
language right I’ve seen people turned
off my math because they didn’t
instantly get it in a couple of weeks or
even a couple of months that’s not right
give math a chance oh Christ I something
john lennon of math once you are fluent
in math then the universe becomes
transparent to you okay and then the
physics becomes that much more
empowering for you to know because when
you look up at the night sky you don’t
say yourself I wonder what’s up you say
oh that’s a star right burning this
bright and at that distance and it’s
turning this fast it’s got these
chemicals in it all right and all of a
sudden the world around you becomes part
of your back your intellectual backyard
I’m often asked and occasionally in an
accusatory way
are you atheist you know the only gist I
am is a scientist all right
I don’t associate with movements I don’t
I’m not an ism I just I think for myself
the moment
once someone attaches you to a
philosophy or a movement then they
assign all the baggage and all the rest
of the philosophy that goes with it to
you and when you want to have a
conversation
they will assert that they already know
everything important there is to know
about you because of that association
and that’s not the way to have a
conversation I’m sorry it’s not I’d
rather we explore each other’s ideas in
real time rather than a sign a label to
it an assert you know what’s gonna
happen in advance in this the 21st
century when it comes time to make
decisions about science it seems to me
people have lost the ability to judge
what is true and what is not what is
reliable what is not reliable
what should you believe what should you
not believe and when you have people who
don’t know much about science standing
in denial of it and rising to power that
is a recipe for the complete dismantling
of our informed democracy let us demand
that educators around America teach
evolution not as fact but his theory
increasing number of parents showing
skepticism about vaccinations voters
have approved a ban on GMOs climate
change unproven science that’s not the
country I remember growing up in not
that we didn’t have challenges I’m old
enough to remember the 60s in the 70s
got a hot war in a cold war civil rights
movement and all this was going on but I
don’t remember any time where people
were standing in denial of what science
was
one of the great things about science is
that it is an entire exercise in finding
what is true they’re my pathi sis you
tested I get a result a rival of mine
double checks it because they think I
might be wrong they perform an even
better experiment than I did and they
find out anything this experiment
matches oh my gosh we’re onto something
here and out of this rises a new
emergent truth it does it better than
anything else we have ever come up with
as human beings
[Music]
this is science it’s not something to
toy with
it’s not something to say I choose not
to believe equals mc-squared
you don’t have that option when you have
an established scientific emergent truth
it is true whether or not you believe in
it and the sooner you understand that
the faster we can get on with the
political conversations about how to
solve the problems that face us so once
you understand that humans are warming
the planet you can then have a political
conversation about that you can say well
should we are the carbon credits do we
do this do we put a tariff on it do we
fund do we subsidize those those have
political answers and every minute one
is in denial you are delaying the
political solution that should have been
established years ago
as a voter as a citizen scientific
issues will come before you and isn’t it
worth it to say all right let me at
least become scientifically literate so
that I can think about these issues and
act intelligently upon recognize what
science is and allow it to be what it
can and should be in the service of
civilization it’s in our hands
thank you guys so much for watching I
made this video because Reza’s Andy
asked me to so if there’s a famous
entrepreneur that you want me to profile
next leave it down the comments below
and I’ll see what I can do
I’d also love to know what it Neal say
today that had the biggest impact on you
what clip was your favorite and why and
what lesson are you going to immediately
apply somehow to your life or to your
business leave it down in the comments
below I’m super curious to find out
finally I won’t think of a quick shout
out to Russell Duvall Russell thank you
so much for picking up a copy of my book
your one word it really really really
means a lot to me I hope you enjoy and
thank you for your support so thank you
guys so much for watching I believe in
you I hope you continue to believe in
yourself and whatever your one word is
much love I’ll see you soon
the things that people ask the most how
do I become an astrophysicist cool
that’s a good question yeah very cool so
first you have to love it okay that’s a
good answer I want to be something that
you don’t love right that’s a that’s a
world of hurt right there and a lot of
people growing up want to be things that
their parents wanted them to be and it
doesn’t really come from within though
they want to become a doctor lawyer but
it’s not really driven by their own
motivation and they become adults and
they find out that they’re not really
happy at the end of the day right so you
gotta move you gotta love it and then
presumably you’re in school you’re going
back to school yeah take a lot of math
right because math is the language of
the universe yes the people that are
skeptical of the scientific consensus
about climate change you they say well
you know the reason we’re skeptical is
because scientists are always wrong why
should we believe them this time so now
you although or a defender I think of
the scientific consensus about climate
change so I wanted to try to ask you to
square those two things for me Isaac
Newton my man okay to be clear he’s my
man cuz he like discovered the laws of
optics and the laws of motion and the
laws of gravity and like practically on
a dare he invents integral and
differential calculus
then he turned 26 okay so are we done
here with that oh we do I have agreement
here all right so he comes up with those
laws of motion and laws of gravity and
they apply to everything he had ever
seen or measured
although the fastest anyone had ever
moved might have been a galloping horse
in his day but it explained the moon
going around the earth and the earth
going around the Sun and it would later
explain Jupiter’s moons going around
Jupiter so it wasn’t just a law of
things that went around the Sun it
appeared to be kind of Universal in the
literal use of that term as opposed to
how that word is used so often in our
culture
Miss Universe she’s Miss Earth please
all right okay
so so what we later learn as our methods
and tools become more and more precise I
have to slip something in KY slip some
okay so watch what happens so we apply
Newton’s laws and we apply them to Oh
William Herschel discovers planet Uranus
by accident
okay Uranus is the planet just beyond
Saturn so by accident and this is after
Newton’s laws of gravity are published
so now we’re tracking the orbit of
Uranus you should know this is not
following Newton’s laws it’s got some
deviation so maybe we found the limits
the distance limit over which Newton’s
laws would apply that’d be interesting
but other people said the Newton was so
badass it must work okay even there so
instead of suggesting that his law was
failing clever people said maybe his law
applies but there’s yet another planet
out there that we’ve yet to discover
whose gravity is tugging on it and we
did not include that in our calculations
so let’s do the math and ask where must
there be a planet of what mass to create
the deviation that we measure and those
calculations were done and they were
published and an observatory in germany
got hold of those calculations and they
looked in the exact spot of the sky sky
that the calculation said neptune was
waiting to be discovered right there it
was a triumph of Newton’s laws and so so
this gives us confidence we’re not to
pull in this act we calculate this and
the observations show it so now watch
what happens we have better and better
measurements and we find out Newton’s
laws failing Mercury’s orbit is not
following what it should that’s the
closest planet to the Sun well we’ve
been down that path before just throw in
another planet that we can’t see and
that’ll fix it so thus was introduced
planet Vulcan
this would be a planet very close to the
Sun so closer to be hard to see you’d be
lost in the glare and so there was the
hunt for Vulcan no one found it but we
knew it had to be there because that’s
the same problem as the discovery of
Neptune Einstein comes along comes up
with his theory of motion and his theory
of gravity the special and general
theory of relativity out of those two
theories which are corrections to
Newton’s laws in these extreme regimes
if you’re near the Sun the Sun is very
strong gravity if you’re moving around
and that’s strong force of gravity
Newton’s laws begin to fail and no one
knew this and you look at Einsteins laws
and he says Mercury’s orbit will not
follow Newton’s laws that will follow
this other path find out and it exactly
explained the deviations of mercury and
so people say Oh see scientists we
thought this was right and now we all
huddle around this thing that’s right no
that is not how it works since 19 since
1600 onward the way it works is if you
have an experimentally determined result
and it’s verified and and double-checked
and triple-checked that will not later
be shown to be false what you can find
is a deeper understanding of the world
that encloses that understanding and
that’s what happened with Einstein
Einstein’s theories of motion and
gravity if you put in low speeds and low
gravity in the equations they become
Newton’s equations so Newton’s universe
is a subset and accurately described
subsets of a larger universe that
Einstein has described and even with
Einstein his equations can’t take us to
the center of a black hole the
singularity that’s there the singularity
at the beginning of the universe we know
now that his theories fail they blow up
on the page so we have a whole frontier
of science the string theorists you’ve
heard of them the string theorists there
we got top people working on this to try
to extend Einsteins laws into an even
bigger
regime that can then explain everything
that’s in our universe not most things
so what you’re saying is that human
activity is causing the planet oh yes
what I’m saying is emergent scientific
truths assert this and if you want to
deny that in a free country go right
ahead but you should not be put in
control of anything that involves the
earth the most important word ever
if you had to think of one word that’s
most important to you that sums you
Apple so it would be like a little
beacon they believe nation if you want
to know what the most important one word
is for Tony Robbins Gary Vaynerchuk
Oprah Winfrey will.i.am and Howard
Schultz I have a very special secret
video for you check the description for
details
[Music]
the unique combinations of talents in
this world our society would be
transformed overnight there’s a horizon
on the universe and you can’t see beyond
it oh there’s a black hole oh my gosh
the star is gonna explode I mean this we
are we are like mine every day my first
interview on on The Daily Show I studied
how many seconds he let his guests speak
before he interrupted them he’s an
American astrophysicist cosmologist and
author in 2015 the US National Academy
of Sciences awarded him the public
welfare medal since 1996 he’s been the
director at the Hayden Planetarium at
the Rose Center for Earth and space he’s
Neil deGrasse Tyson and here’s my take
on his top 10 rules for success rule
number six is my personal favorite and I
love to know which one you guys like the
best also guys as you’re watching if you
hear something that really resonates
with you please leave it down the
comments below put quotes around it so
other people can be inspired by your
sharing and also when you write it down
you’re much more likely to lock it in
for yourself to enjoy
I’ve had several people come up to me
and said what can I do to be you and the
only aspect of me that’s really doable
is I can tell you what my academic
pedigree is and what I did as a kid and
what things interested me but what I do
day to day is not the fulfillment of
some pre-existing job description
it’s just things that I took interest in
on my own that the general public
happened to also appreciate or like or
want access to and so within my job
description as director of the Hayden
Planetarium and as an educator as an
astrophysicist
I kept accreting other things that I did
that people responded to positively
responded to so I can tell you about the
academic pedigree the rest you have to
create what it is that you do best
that layers on to the formal training
that may be behind it I think the
greatest of people that have ever been
in society they were never versions of
someone else they were themselves you
don’t think about Michael Jordan the
basketball player and say oh he was just
like this other player no you don’t even
say he was like this player plus that
player divided by 2 plus citizen no he’s
Michael Jordan I think the greatest of
people in society carved niches that
represented the unique expression of
their combinations of talents and if
everyone had the luxury of expressing
the unique combinations of talents in
this world our society would be
transformed overnight how does it feel
to be an inspiration to many people who
struggle with life does he feel that
pressure yeah that’s an intense question
so he’s in eighth grade
he’s an eighth grade
asking existential questions about how
people feel or respond to me I don’t
think about that actively because it’s
not I don’t I’m not what I don’t do what
I do to have that effect because that
would imply that I wake up in the
morning and say how can I know I’m a
perfect day for me is when the phone
does not ring and when my inbox is empty
that’s a perfect day and I can stay home
play with the kids watch a movie on the
couch with popcorn with slightly too
much butter and just veg but what
happens is I get called I get called by
the press because the universe flinched
I get called by a school they call by a
city but by organizers of a theater you
know or lecture halls and they want to
learn about the universe and in that
capacity I’m a servant of the public’s
curiosity about the cosmos and in in
that way I’m not asking myself how am i
affecting you I’m simply offering all
that I can and all that I know of this
beautiful universe in which we live and
that’s that’s what I do and why in my
field our minds are blown all the time
you know oh the universe is expanding
what into what what we’re not the only
galaxies there’s an there’s a horizon on
the universe and you can’t see beyond it
oh there’s a black hole oh my gosh the
star is gonna explode I mean this we are
we are like mine every day all right in
my field and that makes us quite open to
fresh ideas because we don’t start the
day requiring what the universe should
be like we start the day wide open ready
to receive what the universe is as
revealed by the methods and tools that
we develop in astrophysics
so we you know that that if you read
news stories of new discoveries and they
almost always begin the journals almost
always mean scientists will have to go
back to the drawing board on this one
know we’re always at the drawing board
if you’re not at that you if you weren’t
at the drawing board you are not in the
game what one thing we’ve failed to do
in the educational system is a
people that if you’re doing what no one
has done before stuff goes wrong and in
fact if nothing ever goes wrong in what
you’re doing if you make no mistakes in
your job in your in whatever task you’ve
brought upon yourself then you are not
on the frontier simple mm-hmm it’s true
in science and I heard it applied to car
racing there’s a quote that I’m told
spoken by Mario Andretti he said if you
are in complete control of your car
you’re not in the race Wow there’s
something that you’re just not
completely in control I like that and
only then get and that’s the same thing
I’m describing for when you are on the
frontier if I repeat it if you think I’m
lying
[Music]
blew those fractions yes
[Applause]
[Music]
okay if you’re asking those questions
now you’ll be the deepest thinking adult
there never was so what is the meaning
of life I think
people ask that question on the
assumption that meaning is something you
could look for and then I found it
here’s the meaning is what it is I’ve
been looking for it okay
and it doesn’t consider the possibility
that maybe meaning in life is something
that you create you manufactured for
yourself and for others and so when I
think of meaning in life
I asked have I learned something today
that I didn’t know yesterday bringing me
a little closer to knowing all that can
be known in the universe just a little
closer however far away all the
knowledge since I’m a little closer if I
end of the day and I don’t know a little
more that day than the day before I
think I wasted that day so the people
who at the end of the school year say
the summer I don’t have to think anymore
I’m thinking
what the to learn is to become closer to
nature and to learn how things work
gives you power to influence events
gives you power to help people who may
need it power to help yourselves to
shape a trajectory so when I think of
what is the meaning of life to me that’s
not an eternal unanswerable question to
me that is in our Lee’s reach of me
every day and so for you at age six and
three-quarters may I suggest that for
you you should explore nature as much as
you possibly can and occasionally that
means get in your clothes dirty because
you might want to jump into puddles and
your parents don’t want you to do that I
gave you permission
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
so I’m gonna have to be more permission
for more things you ready have you ever
pulled all the pots and pans out of the
cabinet before and hit them with the
wooden spoon have you done that yet have
you done that he said in a way then what
was it what did your parents say when
you do when you did that well you did it
with paper plates that’s not nearly as
fun okay so you have my permission to
pull pots and pans out of the cabinets
and bang on them with spoons and knives
and things
you’re still a kid and and and part of
being a kid is exploring the world
around you and while all the way the
laws of nature influence that world so
take different pots events and hit them
with a spoon it’ll all sound different
they’ll sound different with different
spoons some pans are aluminum summer
steel summer copper they’ll sound
different and that’s kind of a fun
experiment and most parents will say
don’t do that you’re getting them dirty
stop doing that you’re making too much
noise you tell them that why did you
have me in the first place
this reminded that they didn’t have kids
so that they could keep having a neat
house okay because kids make things
Missy and there’s a reason why they make
things messy because they’re exploring
the world around them and so you have my
permission now if you get in trouble I’m
not gonna be around right okay so your
meaning of life will be enhanced if you
give it as much freedom as you can to
explore the world then when you get
older you will become so close to how
the world works that when a problem
arises that needs a solution you will
say I know how to solve that I’ve been
thinking about that before and I’ve been
thinking about that ever since I was
banging the pans on the kitchen floor
but ever since I jumped it with two feet
into a puddle or ever since I walked up
and down and caught snowflakes in my
mouth down the street did you do that
today when it snowed it was the last
time you caught snowflakes in America
[Applause]
you see the problem here okay the dogs
have forgotten how to embrace nature how
to think about the natural world so you
will owe it to yourself and everyone
else who will be cured by some medicine
you may event one day you owe it to
yourself and to everyone else to
continue to stay curious
and by doing so you will have created
the meaning in life that others think is
waiting under a rock for them one day
and it would have made it happen on your
own so thanks for your question what
meat what makes you so good at
explaining science I can tell you what
is kind of hard-earned over all the
years contrary to some people so are you
just a natural have you asked me what if
I how hard I’ve worked
have you can we have that conversation
before you assert that what I’m
exhibiting is just something that comes
naturally my first interview on Jon
Stewart I saw he was one of these guests
here it’s my first interview on on The
Daily Show I studied how many seconds he
let his guest speak before he
interrupted them and I got the rhythm of
that and I said if I go I’ll ever go on
a show
I will parcel my cosmic knowledge in
these bits so that I will complete a
thought before he interrupts and that
way when he interrupts there’s a
complete thought and then we can laugh
at whatever joke he makes so that
there’s a stable trajectory through that
interview I did this
[Applause]
[Music]
one more okay so so first time I’m on
the evening news it was 1995 the first
exoplanet had been discovered that
planet orbiting another star and that
was banner headlines so they sent a
camera to the Hayden Planetarium my
first year as director in fact at the
time I was interim director and they
didn’t know me from it what was this
before or after you banished Pluto I
just went oh no
yeah the Pluto incident came later okay
so nobody knows me from anything the NBC
sent the camera just to interview with
the director who was me so I give them
my best professorial it’s the 3:00 in
the afternoon this is for the evening
news so they so how do we discover this
I get my best professorial reply I says
the Doppler shift and and it planets
don’t orbit their host stars the planet
and the host star orbit a common center
of gravity which is not centered in the
center of the star so while the planet
does this which you can’t see it’s too
dim this this this the host star does
this the kind of jingles like that so
I’m describing all of this and I went
home called everybody mom Papago watts
on the evening I go home and that I
watched the evening news and all they
had of me was me doing this so I said oh
they don’t want my professorial reply
they want a soundbite and I said I will
never be sound bitten again I’m gonna
hand them a sound bite that will fit in
their time slot so I went home and
practiced you look in the mirror you get
someone it’s like bark out anything in
the universe idea place thing you know
Saturn Saturn’s rings
black holes big bang just say it and I
practice three sentence replies ideally
it’s got to be interesting informative
and maybe make you smile enough to want
to tell someone else the anatomy of a
soundbite and so I practice that so then
next time
I was they came I just handed him sound
bites and they they didn’t have to edit
a thing and they kept coming back I came
to learn and so I was there I’m tasked
with serving a curiosity the least I
could do is invest some of my brainpower
and emotional power to do as good a job
as I can and today I’ve learned even
more especially through my radio show
star talk which jump species and is now
on television first-ever science-based
talk show on television ever it was we
it wasn’t on purpose it just landed that
way so I found it I figured this out I
mean I found figured out before I look
back and say it was that what I was
doing you come to the table with a
pop-culture scaffold you know Beyonce is
typically you know that who the
president is you know what football is
you know the things you just know you
know she’s having twins and you name
them oh yeah I try to name Beyonce’s
twins but I’ll get to that in a minute
so so what I found was everyone comes
with this scaffold and you’re an expert
in that scaffold that’s the definition
of pop culture okay now I realized that
since science is everywhere I can attach
the science that I’m trying to teach to
that scaffold and if you do that they
were already halfway there and so so but
that takes a huge investment of my time
learning the pop culture that would be
the common denominator of everyone so I
got to watch the number one show got to
watch a few episodes of Game of Thrones
got to see the Super Bowl all the things
that define America I got it sort of get
in the middle of that and that helps in
that arms my utility belt in every
occasion where I want to convey meaning
and scientific concepts and ideas and if
I have a scientific concept an idea that
is fundamentally mind-blowing without
any assistance then I just put it out
there because it’ll blow your mind
without any reference to pop culture at
all now what about if you had the
opportunity to become immortal
so that you could figure out everything
would you do that I worry that if I were
immortal I would lose focus on the
present I would just say to myself I’ve
got time it’s the very fact that we’re
mortal that creates urgency in whatever
it is you want and need to do in life
and I value that as a fundamental part
of what it is to be human so here’s the
thing about math just to consider this
if you you know if you stumble upon a
page in Chinese right and you say I
don’t understand if it’s not that I’ll
hope that you know nothing on there can
you leave as you grew up no in English
but you’re not saying to yourself I’m
too stupid to learn it you just say I
haven’t spent the time and if you spend
two weeks trying to learn it and you
still don’t know it are you saying this
is impossible no you know it takes time
it takes years to be fluent in another
language right I’ve seen people turned
off my math because they didn’t
instantly get it in a couple of weeks or
even a couple of months that’s not right
give math a chance oh Christ I something
john lennon of math once you are fluent
in math then the universe becomes
transparent to you okay and then the
physics becomes that much more
empowering for you to know because when
you look up at the night sky you don’t
say yourself I wonder what’s up you say
oh that’s a star right burning this
bright and at that distance and it’s
turning this fast it’s got these
chemicals in it all right and all of a
sudden the world around you becomes part
of your back your intellectual backyard
I’m often asked and occasionally in an
accusatory way
are you atheist you know the only gist I
am is a scientist all right
I don’t associate with movements I don’t
I’m not an ism I just I think for myself
the moment
once someone attaches you to a
philosophy or a movement then they
assign all the baggage and all the rest
of the philosophy that goes with it to
you and when you want to have a
conversation
they will assert that they already know
everything important there is to know
about you because of that association
and that’s not the way to have a
conversation I’m sorry it’s not I’d
rather we explore each other’s ideas in
real time rather than a sign a label to
it an assert you know what’s gonna
happen in advance in this the 21st
century when it comes time to make
decisions about science it seems to me
people have lost the ability to judge
what is true and what is not what is
reliable what is not reliable
what should you believe what should you
not believe and when you have people who
don’t know much about science standing
in denial of it and rising to power that
is a recipe for the complete dismantling
of our informed democracy let us demand
that educators around America teach
evolution not as fact but his theory
increasing number of parents showing
skepticism about vaccinations voters
have approved a ban on GMOs climate
change unproven science that’s not the
country I remember growing up in not
that we didn’t have challenges I’m old
enough to remember the 60s in the 70s
got a hot war in a cold war civil rights
movement and all this was going on but I
don’t remember any time where people
were standing in denial of what science
was
one of the great things about science is
that it is an entire exercise in finding
what is true they’re my pathi sis you
tested I get a result a rival of mine
double checks it because they think I
might be wrong they perform an even
better experiment than I did and they
find out anything this experiment
matches oh my gosh we’re onto something
here and out of this rises a new
emergent truth it does it better than
anything else we have ever come up with
as human beings
[Music]
this is science it’s not something to
toy with
it’s not something to say I choose not
to believe equals mc-squared
you don’t have that option when you have
an established scientific emergent truth
it is true whether or not you believe in
it and the sooner you understand that
the faster we can get on with the
political conversations about how to
solve the problems that face us so once
you understand that humans are warming
the planet you can then have a political
conversation about that you can say well
should we are the carbon credits do we
do this do we put a tariff on it do we
fund do we subsidize those those have
political answers and every minute one
is in denial you are delaying the
political solution that should have been
established years ago
as a voter as a citizen scientific
issues will come before you and isn’t it
worth it to say all right let me at
least become scientifically literate so
that I can think about these issues and
act intelligently upon recognize what
science is and allow it to be what it
can and should be in the service of
civilization it’s in our hands
thank you guys so much for watching I
made this video because Reza’s Andy
asked me to so if there’s a famous
entrepreneur that you want me to profile
next leave it down the comments below
and I’ll see what I can do
I’d also love to know what it Neal say
today that had the biggest impact on you
what clip was your favorite and why and
what lesson are you going to immediately
apply somehow to your life or to your
business leave it down in the comments
below I’m super curious to find out
finally I won’t think of a quick shout
out to Russell Duvall Russell thank you
so much for picking up a copy of my book
your one word it really really really
means a lot to me I hope you enjoy and
thank you for your support so thank you
guys so much for watching I believe in
you I hope you continue to believe in
yourself and whatever your one word is
much love I’ll see you soon
the things that people ask the most how
do I become an astrophysicist cool
that’s a good question yeah very cool so
first you have to love it okay that’s a
good answer I want to be something that
you don’t love right that’s a that’s a
world of hurt right there and a lot of
people growing up want to be things that
their parents wanted them to be and it
doesn’t really come from within though
they want to become a doctor lawyer but
it’s not really driven by their own
motivation and they become adults and
they find out that they’re not really
happy at the end of the day right so you
gotta move you gotta love it and then
presumably you’re in school you’re going
back to school yeah take a lot of math
right because math is the language of
the universe yes the people that are
skeptical of the scientific consensus
about climate change you they say well
you know the reason we’re skeptical is
because scientists are always wrong why
should we believe them this time so now
you although or a defender I think of
the scientific consensus about climate
change so I wanted to try to ask you to
square those two things for me Isaac
Newton my man okay to be clear he’s my
man cuz he like discovered the laws of
optics and the laws of motion and the
laws of gravity and like practically on
a dare he invents integral and
differential calculus
then he turned 26 okay so are we done
here with that oh we do I have agreement
here all right so he comes up with those
laws of motion and laws of gravity and
they apply to everything he had ever
seen or measured
although the fastest anyone had ever
moved might have been a galloping horse
in his day but it explained the moon
going around the earth and the earth
going around the Sun and it would later
explain Jupiter’s moons going around
Jupiter so it wasn’t just a law of
things that went around the Sun it
appeared to be kind of Universal in the
literal use of that term as opposed to
how that word is used so often in our
culture
Miss Universe she’s Miss Earth please
all right okay
so so what we later learn as our methods
and tools become more and more precise I
have to slip something in KY slip some
okay so watch what happens so we apply
Newton’s laws and we apply them to Oh
William Herschel discovers planet Uranus
by accident
okay Uranus is the planet just beyond
Saturn so by accident and this is after
Newton’s laws of gravity are published
so now we’re tracking the orbit of
Uranus you should know this is not
following Newton’s laws it’s got some
deviation so maybe we found the limits
the distance limit over which Newton’s
laws would apply that’d be interesting
but other people said the Newton was so
badass it must work okay even there so
instead of suggesting that his law was
failing clever people said maybe his law
applies but there’s yet another planet
out there that we’ve yet to discover
whose gravity is tugging on it and we
did not include that in our calculations
so let’s do the math and ask where must
there be a planet of what mass to create
the deviation that we measure and those
calculations were done and they were
published and an observatory in germany
got hold of those calculations and they
looked in the exact spot of the sky sky
that the calculation said neptune was
waiting to be discovered right there it
was a triumph of Newton’s laws and so so
this gives us confidence we’re not to
pull in this act we calculate this and
the observations show it so now watch
what happens we have better and better
measurements and we find out Newton’s
laws failing Mercury’s orbit is not
following what it should that’s the
closest planet to the Sun well we’ve
been down that path before just throw in
another planet that we can’t see and
that’ll fix it so thus was introduced
planet Vulcan
this would be a planet very close to the
Sun so closer to be hard to see you’d be
lost in the glare and so there was the
hunt for Vulcan no one found it but we
knew it had to be there because that’s
the same problem as the discovery of
Neptune Einstein comes along comes up
with his theory of motion and his theory
of gravity the special and general
theory of relativity out of those two
theories which are corrections to
Newton’s laws in these extreme regimes
if you’re near the Sun the Sun is very
strong gravity if you’re moving around
and that’s strong force of gravity
Newton’s laws begin to fail and no one
knew this and you look at Einsteins laws
and he says Mercury’s orbit will not
follow Newton’s laws that will follow
this other path find out and it exactly
explained the deviations of mercury and
so people say Oh see scientists we
thought this was right and now we all
huddle around this thing that’s right no
that is not how it works since 19 since
1600 onward the way it works is if you
have an experimentally determined result
and it’s verified and and double-checked
and triple-checked that will not later
be shown to be false what you can find
is a deeper understanding of the world
that encloses that understanding and
that’s what happened with Einstein
Einstein’s theories of motion and
gravity if you put in low speeds and low
gravity in the equations they become
Newton’s equations so Newton’s universe
is a subset and accurately described
subsets of a larger universe that
Einstein has described and even with
Einstein his equations can’t take us to
the center of a black hole the
singularity that’s there the singularity
at the beginning of the universe we know
now that his theories fail they blow up
on the page so we have a whole frontier
of science the string theorists you’ve
heard of them the string theorists there
we got top people working on this to try
to extend Einsteins laws into an even
bigger
regime that can then explain everything
that’s in our universe not most things
so what you’re saying is that human
activity is causing the planet oh yes
what I’m saying is emergent scientific
truths assert this and if you want to
deny that in a free country go right
ahead but you should not be put in
control of anything that involves the
earth the most important word ever
if you had to think of one word that’s
most important to you that sums you
Apple so it would be like a little
beacon they believe nation if you want
to know what the most important one word
is for Tony Robbins Gary Vaynerchuk
Oprah Winfrey will.i.am and Howard
Schultz I have a very special secret
video for you check the description for
details
[Music]
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