This Past Weekend - #683 - Neil deGrasse Tyson

Starting point is 00:00:00 Don't you wish you could just hit skip on the worst parts of your life? You know the same way you can skip an ad. I get it. I'm Siaia and I live in Ice Cove. I've made some questionable decisions that didn't end up the way I planned. And today I'm still figuring it out. Somehow things usually get worse before they get better. Apparently, that's how I roll.

Starting point is 00:00:22 So bundle up and come along for the bumpy ride. Stream a new episode of North of North Tuesdays on CBC Gem. He's the most famous astrophysicist in the world, and maybe in some other worlds. We don't know. You know him from his show Star Talk. He has a new book, Lost in Space, 5,000 facts for navigating the universe. We caught up in his hometown of New York City. I'm grateful for his return.

Starting point is 00:00:52 Today's guest is Neil DeGress Tyson. We got to ship some of the United States. this badass out in the space, man. That's what I'm saying, dude. Face, you know, it's expensive, though. That's the problem. Yeah. There's more talk than action. No time like the present, man.

Starting point is 00:01:24 Neil deGrasse Tyson. Good to see you. Thanks for having me back on. Oh, my gosh. It's been a few years. Yeah, it's a pleasure, man. And you're in my town now. Yes, I was going to say.

Starting point is 00:01:33 Yeah, we're here in New York City. We had a chauffeur on, and he talked about, he was from the Bronx, and he talked one time about... The Bronx. There you go. He was from the Bronx. And I heard there's a lot of Asians over there too, so from the Bronx. Well, not when I was growing up.

Starting point is 00:01:49 Okay. Yeah. Well, he said that there was a time in the 70s when they used to bring swimming pools over there, like a pool, like semi-trucks into his neighborhood. I don't remember that, but I do know that occasionally, if you had a charitable fire department, they would open the fire hydrants. and you can, they're these sort of covers with holes in it, and it would put spray onto the street so that you could play in the street.

Starting point is 00:02:19 So they'd crack open the fire. You'd crack that open. But I'm looking at your images now. No, I don't remember those. Oh my gosh. And I was in town at that time. Is this in the Bronx? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:02:30 That's cool. Yeah, this is the Bronx. It says, this is 1970. So that's really. Yeah, I'm an old fart. But you were barely alive. No. You were barely alive.

Starting point is 00:02:42 But yeah, I was just, I didn't know if maybe you had remembered that from growing up, you know? Yeah, I mean, hot times in the city, you know, the tarm, you know, the street gets hot and it's just hot in the summer. And no one is in school. And so I think it keeps, keeps emotions tamped down so that there's no unrest. Yeah. Last thing we want, huh? That's so true. You have a new book, Lost in Space, 5,000 facts for navigating the universe.

Starting point is 00:03:09 Yeah, yeah, it's, it's co-produced with, between my podcast, StarTalk podcast, and National Geographic Books, is like our fourth collaboration. It's gorgeous, and it's, and it's 5,000 facts in all categories. And it's, but they're not just facts because you can just Google facts.

Starting point is 00:03:30 Yeah. They're startocified. Oh, I see. A startocified fact. So I'll give me an example. All right. Okay. Instead, ask me, how big is the thing?

Starting point is 00:03:39 the sun. How big is a sign? I could say it's 864,000 miles, but you can Google that. Or I can say, take 100 Earths and line them up. That's the width of the sun. Wow, really? Or if you're hungry, I can say if the sun were a sesame seed bagel, Earth would be the size of one of the sesame seeds. That big guy. So I'm just saying the facts. are just a little more pop culture infused. I see. A little more pizzazz. Yeah, yeah, just so that you will never forget it.

Starting point is 00:04:19 Yeah. Okay? You're not going to forget the sun and the earth right now. I know they have bagels in Nashville. Yeah, well, also, my brother is a deathly allergic to sesame seeds. Well, then there you go. So I'm not going to forget that at all. You're not going to forget that.

Starting point is 00:04:32 Dude, I actually, I read in your book that, yeah, I was perusing through it, man. It's like, yeah, it's just an engaging book. Yeah, yeah, you just pick a, up and open it and there it is. Open it to wherever you're in it. You're in like, you're out in the universe. Yeah. I mean, literally.

Starting point is 00:04:46 And one thing that I read in it was that the human brain has 100 times more synaptic connections than there are stars in the Milky Way. And that, I mean, and that blew my mind. Yeah. It's impressive. Yeah. So is our brain more complex than like a galaxy? I would say so.

Starting point is 00:05:07 Why can't I say so? to say so. All the stars are interacting with each other with the force of gravity, but in your brain, there's like chemical reactions, there's electrical reactions, they're being influenced by other reactions that happened before. These are your memories. There's, there's, sometimes you get like an earworm or song gets in your head. You can't get it out. It's firing all by itself. Or you have these emotions that make you tear up or bring joy. Yeah, the universe inside your head is surely more complex than the universe itself, which brings the question, how is it possible that the universe can make something more complex than itself? Wow. Is that possible?

Starting point is 00:05:57 It has happened. So unless you want to say God did it, but then that's kind of a little bit of a cop-out because then I'd say, well, who made God? The enough to do what God always was or God? You have to, It's up, I could ask you questions and put you in a place where you're stuck saying something that you just have to assert to be true. And so. But there had to be a beginning. Well, we have a Big Bang, but that pushes the question earlier. But who lit the mess.

Starting point is 00:06:24 Exactly, who it was before the Big Bang. And only in the last couple of decades did we look at our equations that give us the Big Bang and there's data that supported as well. But you look all the way back. I say, wait a minute. These equations are popping out other views. universes. So maybe there's not just a universe, maybe there's a multiverse. If there's a multiverse, then our universe is just one of some uncountable number of other universes. So then you have to

Starting point is 00:06:50 ask what was around before the multiverse. And here's another one that's a little bit mind blowing. You go far enough back, there's Earth and then the universe. Well, then, no, Earth is just one of eight planets around the sun. Well, the sun, there's something special. No, those dots of light in the night sky are just like the sun. My damn. The Milky Way galaxy, there it is. Then Hubble discovers in 1925, 26, there are other galaxies in the universe, just like the Milky Way.

Starting point is 00:07:29 So everything we thought there was one of, there isn't. There's countless others among them. But we got one universe. maybe not. Maybe there's a multiverse. Well, if the universe never makes anything in ones, could there be only one multiverse? Okay?

Starting point is 00:07:53 Is there a network of multiverse? Is it a metaverse? You know, we're running out of adjectives there. Yeah. But to think about it is humbling. And not enough people are humbled in their life. Some people need a dose of humbling, as far as I can tell. You have to think to be humbled.

Starting point is 00:08:14 And a lot of us aren't doing that. You think? You think? And half the time myself included. Or they act before they think, and then they regret it, or they try to justify it after the fact. Oh, yeah. Look. I mean, you've been reading my diary.

Starting point is 00:08:31 But what makes us able to think? Well, if you talk to evolutionary biologists, they will tell. Which I haven't, and I'll let you know that straight up. I have. Yeah, I've been talking to my buddy, Ray. Right. And he's neither evolutionary nor biologist, right?

Starting point is 00:08:49 Well, honestly, he'd been doing Duster. Oh, yeah, he'll be fine, but back to where we are. But yeah, I'm just saying, I value objective reality. Okay. Yeah. And the brain barely works as it is. Right. So to start stirring in chemicals and say, let me do more, do some else.

Starting point is 00:09:08 else with my brain, I don't want to be that far removed from what is objectively true in this world. Oh, yeah. He's been hitting that keyboard cleaner, you know? The dude's got a space bar in his head now, dude. Wait, so the question, what was the question? It was, oh, so evolutionary biologist would say our thoughts, when they evolved, were just sufficient to not die and stay alive long enough to make babies. Like, what do you mean by that?

Starting point is 00:09:36 So the first thoughts were just like, okay, I need to stay alive. Yeah, yeah. Oh. And I need a procreate. If I do not run away from this lion, I will die. Well, okay, let's say you have three kids. One of them said, oh, I wonder what that is rustling in the brush. Let me go find out.

Starting point is 00:09:56 It's a lion. They get eaten. Yeah. That curiosity is removed from the gene pool. Okay. Oh, that's a good point. Yeah. And the people say, I don't know what that is, but I'm a little bit afraid.

Starting point is 00:10:06 let me go the opposite direction. They live another day. They have babies. So curiosity is not always a good thing for your survival if you're curious about things that could kill you. So that's first fact. And plus you want to make more of yourself. So sex matters.

Starting point is 00:10:25 Yeah. All right. So these are simple thoughts. And you know that thing where someone throws up and you smell their throat and you want to throw up too? Oh, yeah. What game is that called? It's one of those challenges, I think, on TikTok, isn't it?

Starting point is 00:10:35 Oh, is it? Really? Why wouldn't it be? It's a TikTok, right? Yeah. But there's an evolutionary reason for that. We're a tribe. We're here.

Starting point is 00:10:43 You ate something before the rest of us did, and you just threw up. I don't want to eat what you just ate. What's my body's best way to tell me that? I want to throw up just the way you did. So that triggers, that's a chain reaction in your tribe, back in the cave. So we all throw up and we're all better,

Starting point is 00:11:02 because it happened to you. Okay? And so it's why we react in these ways. So the evolutionary biologists would say, we have thoughts that are for this reason. Okay, I'll give one more, and I'll bring it into the present. But some of the first thoughts were to keep us surviving. Yes, yes.

Starting point is 00:11:21 Okay, got it. Okay, so now watch how that unfold. Okay. Okay. Okay, and we care about our tribe. Okay, we all kind of look the same. We smell the same because we're, like, eating the same thing. We're wearing the same clothing.

Starting point is 00:11:36 We're hanging out in the same place on earth. We're buddies. We're buddies, right. It's all of that. Okay. Here's another one. You go off and you come back with the, you know, the food for tonight. The deer or the car.

Starting point is 00:11:49 The deer, whatever that is. Yeah. A sack of doves. And I go out and I don't come back with anything, but you come back with the elk. Okay. Well, you had some abilities that I didn't. The women want to have babies with you.

Starting point is 00:12:07 Let me say that more precisely. We'll say it again. Let me say that more precisely. Those who it didn't matter who they have babies with, if I really have some inability to bring home the bacon and we start having babies, my offspring doesn't have that ability either. We simply die off. We starve.

Starting point is 00:12:32 Whereas your branch of the tribe thrives. if it's not enough food for everyone, your branch will thrive. So there is evolutionary selection to favor women who seek out, we can call it the alpha male, but it's the male who brought back the food. But in the end, you're saying that whoever could think and recognize that. You wouldn't even have to think.

Starting point is 00:13:02 Suppose I don't care who I'm going to want to have babies with, And then we all have babies and none of us can feed ourselves. We simply die. Right. You die. And your gene pool does not propagate. So this behavior that is, survives this very, very, you can think of as an unfair, but it's favoring the fittest. Okay.

Starting point is 00:13:27 Okay? That's what it does. Right. Evolution is about not only your survival, about the death of everything else that did not fulfill that moment for survival. Here's my point. All of these things that matter to our survival back then, in modern days, you just go to the grocery store

Starting point is 00:13:47 to bring home food. Yeah. Nobody's bringing home the elk on their back, the deer. And so... But if a girl sees you with a bag of talk, he'll pull up. That's what I'm saying is. I mean, y'all not say. What I'm saying is these elements in our behavior

Starting point is 00:14:03 have been hijacked in modern civilization. Okay? So you care not that the person brought home the deer, but they're bigger than life. They're bigger than the other. So what today is bigger than life? A movie star, someone famous. Famous people have hijacked that element of our tribal behavior.

Starting point is 00:14:32 I see what you're saying. So it used to be the person who was able to provide and like the way with like actual with a skill. A skill and the thing. They're bigger than life. And survive. Today you don't even need that, but the urge is still there.

Starting point is 00:14:43 Right. And famous people are doing that. Which is why famous people, you know, it's. Yeah, they get Celsius deals. I mean, I see what you did there. But no. Celsius is my word.

Starting point is 00:14:57 I just want you to know. Okay. It is a temperature scale. Okay. Whatever else it is on your show. science is a temperature scale. So, but you're saying so that like some of the things that were like inaugural in our Yes.

Starting point is 00:15:12 And like good word. Our most primal sort of abilities that helped us to survive and advance. Yes. Some of those. And that also were mechanisms to help us to procreate and move forward. Yes. That those have been hijacked by these, by these like superficial practices. The urge is still.

Starting point is 00:15:35 even though society has made it irrelevant. It's biologically there. So when I talk about these tribes back then, and you have a little watering hole, wait a minute, somebody's coming over the horizon. Who's that? Well, they smell different. They look different.

Starting point is 00:15:50 What? They want my watering hole? That's not going to happen. And so we're going to fight. Okay, that's a survival thing. Today, water comes out of the freaking faucet. Yeah. But we still have tribal urges.

Starting point is 00:16:03 and the tribal urge is out of control. It's like even when people look alike, they'll still tribalize. Well, you pray to this God instead of this God. You look, by the way, the two of you look identical. Okay, just look at, remember Ireland, we had Catholic Irish and Protestant Irish. They pray to the same God out of the same Bible,

Starting point is 00:16:27 but there's two branches and they're fighting each other. The Shiites and the Sunnis. They're both Muslim fighting each other. So it is so deeply within us that even if we were the same, we would find ways to tribalize against it. You have long hair instead of short hair. You have red hair instead of blonde hair.

Starting point is 00:16:47 You can tall instead of short. And if you are all of that, but you found something else to tribalize behind, like where you're born, your skin color, again, who you worship, what's your sexual preference? that becomes a thing, and then people fight over that. So I'm surprised we have survived this long.

Starting point is 00:17:08 Oh, you think we're hitting about to hit a cul-de-sat? I'm sad. I'm just sad. Oh, you really? Oh, yeah. Yeah, people, it's like they're only happy when they have someone else they can be angry with. How's that so?

Starting point is 00:17:22 But do you think it's serving us as humans? No, no. No. Of course, they're more humans now than ever before. So clearly, it hasn't hurt us that badly. But as our weapons, the power of our weapons grow, and we still have tribal feelings, it's gonna, I don't think it'll end well.

Starting point is 00:17:43 The toughest part, I think, is that the people, the populace are at a different space than the governments now, but it feels like we're at a place now where it's not even the people that want a lot of that, but it's like we're just sitting here almost like heading wherever the government's going to take, Which is unfortunate because it's supposed to be a government by the people of the people for the people.

Starting point is 00:18:05 I agree. And if it's not that, then I don't know what we mean when we say 250th anniversary of our democracy. I know. And it's people say freedom. It actually was not 250 years of freedom. Because women didn't vote until like 1920 or something. So half the population was not participating in the leadership. So what it is for 250 years, it's not a,

Starting point is 00:18:32 democracy and not a, it was only a recently a democracy. But what it has been is kingless for 250 years. And I like that. Yeah. I don't want anyone who by birthright claims they have power over me just because whose vagina they came out of. Yeah. I don't, I, I'm sorry, you got to earn this. You got to show me that you're someone worth following. Yeah. That you've earned my respect and my loyalty and my devotion. And if you haven't done that, go home. So I'm proudly saying as an American, 250 years without a king. Yeah, I don't know how we'll get out of this kind of space

Starting point is 00:19:11 that we're in. I don't want to get into like a, whoa-as-us kind of space, but it does feel like kind of a scary, it feels like a scary space. Because everyone's fighting all the time. But do you think they're fighting because they want to be? Or do you think a lot of it is

Starting point is 00:19:23 that they're being programmed to fight? Yeah, they're only happy if they're fighting, right? And plus social media is an outrage engine. you go anywhere and say, hey, what are they doing? I hate that. And it just feeds it. And then you come back from horror

Starting point is 00:19:37 and advertisers love it. Yeah. They love it. So it's feeding your tribal urges. We're a little trapped. And think about advertisers. What do they put in an ad? Okay.

Starting point is 00:19:51 They put in someone you want to have sex with and then you'll do whatever they say because you want to procreate and make more babies. Yeah. Okay. And you're doing it because it feels good, but evolutionarily, it kind of had to feel good to make more of you.

Starting point is 00:20:07 I mean, otherwise, we'd go extinct pretty quickly. What are you saying? What are you talking about? What are you saying right now? What am I saying right now? I'm saying that we're being manipulated by advertisers. And they know these primal evolutionary urges, and they exploit them. Yes.

Starting point is 00:20:27 They've got this spear to a sharp tip, Neil. you know, and that is spooky because it's this new sort of survival in a way where it's like it used to be the lion in the woods that you were, and now it's sort of this like, it's this algorithm, it's this black hole for your attention. And once your attention is gone and it's not on you and your well-being. Someone else is manipulating it. Yeah. Yeah. So, it's dark. Yeah, so I worry. So if aliens arrived, I would ask, I wrote a book about aliens, too, a few months ago. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:21:03 Like, if you've, your first encounter with an alien, it sets you up for that. Okay. What is it like a how to do? Yeah, yeah, it's a complete. Like a first date type of? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, for example, if an alien lands and walks up to you, and it happens to be some appendage sticking out,

Starting point is 00:21:19 don't grab it and shake it. Yeah. Because you don't know what part of the alien that is. Oh, yeah. And you probably don't want to find out, I'm guessing. That's a space branch. If an alien came down and they had technology that got them here, one of my first questions would be,

Starting point is 00:21:34 how did you survive yourselves? Like, what do you mean, yourselves? Your selves? Oh. Will their own technology? Right, because we may not. We may not. We may not survive our own technology.

Starting point is 00:21:47 And maybe they're all just peace, love, and aliens. Peace, love, and, you know, make love not war. Well, I mean, you know, the evil alien trope is so common. Evil aliens is just one of, Well, that's because I think that that's been how they've been. I don't want to say aliens have been pigeonholed, but I do feel like they have been. Yes, they have, but what do you think we get that? I think we get it because they have a more advanced technology, obviously, because they got here and we haven't visited them.

Starting point is 00:22:13 And anytime humans with more advanced technology have encountered other humans with less technology, it has never boated well. Yeah. For the, they've been enslaved, killed, tortured. molested. And so I think the evil alien concept is our own fears placed upon them in our storytelling. It's a mirror to how we know we would behave in that situation. And that's unfair to the aliens, because they could just be peace, love, and aliens for all we know. Yes.

Starting point is 00:22:53 I'll tell you what I think the aliens are. I think we end up in this space where you don't use your body as much anymore, right? You're on screen, your digital, things get technological. Maybe they put a chip in your whatever. And your body, after like eons of non-use and thousands of years of non-use just starts to like turn into this sort of this shape and your eyes, which are the things that like you still are pulling information in from. and maybe they put a contact lens in

Starting point is 00:23:26 that then expands over time. And then I believe that we just become the alien. So all we're seeing, the aliens are just us in the like coming to visit. Interesting because... Like an older us, you know? Because the aliens are hardly ever jacked when they come down.

Starting point is 00:23:41 They're usually thin. Yeah, well, they quit lifting weights centuries ago. And here's a crazy part. I think aliens that come here, like if you see an alien ship in, like, on Earth, I think it's almost like, like an alien family somewhere else. Like the parents took them on like a shitty trip for like summer or whatever.

Starting point is 00:24:00 And it's like they could go to anywhere else in the galaxy and they're like, fucking mom, we got to go to Earth, you know? And so that's why we don't even see a lot of them because it is like some jacked up alien tourist destination. So this is a low attraction point in the book. Right. Okay. Unfortunately. I think that that's a possibility.

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Starting point is 00:29:08 Go to chime.com slash disclosures for details. You know what else? Elon Musk this month might be passing 12,000 satellites in orbit around the earth. Oh, and you know where they're launching them out of, don't you? Well, they're going to, Florida and Vanderberg, California. Well, Louisiana. Is Louisiana making a bid to launch? Yeah, pull that up.

Starting point is 00:29:31 We just got a, I think we just got a big deal down there down in Pecan Island, baby. Is that very, that must be very far south? Yeah, man, it's like, bro, they're going to have dudes down there like, man, they got, man, you never going to believe this, shot. They'd have launched a ship out there, baby. Island. Ten rocket launch pads will be built in Vermilion Parish. Monday, those who hunt and fish in the area share complicated feelings. Wow.

Starting point is 00:29:59 Construction room, what is slated to be the world's largest rocket launch site is expected to begin in rural Vermillion Parish next year. Those who live, visit, and play nearby have mixed feelings about the development. Pekon Island is the closest residential area to the proposed site of Star Base, Louisiana. It has made a little bit of, up. It's such a crazy dichotomy. It's such a... Well, Texas was in the running for this.

Starting point is 00:30:25 But we got that big up. So apparently it landed there. So what's important is that east of the island, I don't know the map, but it's important that there's water east of the launch pad. Really? Why is that? Because as it launches,

Starting point is 00:30:41 it wants to orbit the Earth. Typically it goes east. If something bad happens and it blows up and then falls in the water, not on residential property. Oh, yeah, bro. They got a lot of, like, boats. They got people sleeping on each other's backs down there, baby.

Starting point is 00:30:55 They got something to look at night. But launches, there's nothing like a rocket launch. Let me just tell you. They never get old. They ain't have boozy written on them bitches. It's going to be. Let's see. Pecan Island is made up of mostly hunting and fishing camps

Starting point is 00:31:08 with about 100 permanent residents. Space X plans to use the site to support thousands of starship flights a year. there will be five launch facilities with two launch pads each. How many shuttles will go up a day? Does it say? Well, I mean, so right now, I mean, Starship carries people.

Starting point is 00:31:28 He's got his Falcon launch, you know, hundreds a year. So every few days, there's a launch. And it's going to be people on it? Starship is designed for people. But so that could be where he launches people to go to the moon. Who knows what the future that's going to look like? Bro. So here's what happened in Huntsville, Alabama.

Starting point is 00:31:49 Mm-hmm. When the government says, we got to compete with the Ruskies because they got German rocket engineers. We got Werner von Braun. Let's build a rocket, dude. They put him in Huntsville, Alabama. Rocket City.

Starting point is 00:32:01 Well, not yet. It's a backwood place in the south. And he says, I need engineers. I need mathematicians. And so people moved there, and they didn't want to send their kids to the local schools. They built new schools.

Starting point is 00:32:14 Industries followed. And that section of Alabama is like it landed from space. It's a high-tech corridor in Alabama, unlike other areas of Alabama. So that would completely change the economy of southern Louisiana. Oh, it's going to be wild down there, man. They'll have definitely unique style rockets. You probably have a pecan-crusted rocket, you know, a little bit of crawfish, Amon rocket.

Starting point is 00:32:42 They're going to have it all down there. I haven't had crawfish in a long time. It's going to be beautiful. But I'll say this. If they just let strangers jump on them rockets, bro, you're going to have... There won't be strangers after they pay $10 million. I mean, if it's tourists, it's still really expensive. But they're going to have, like, you know, something for lower income.

Starting point is 00:32:59 They'll probably have like that. No, no, see how you do a lower income. They're going to have an EBT seat on that bitch. You know that. Here's what you do for low income. You just have a lottery. And everybody pays $10 for a ticket. You sell enough tickets.

Starting point is 00:33:12 Somebody wins that lottery. and they go up. And they don't have to be rich for that. Oh shit, Robosho going to be on that rocket. Sermon going to be on that rocket? That'll work. That's going to be amazing, dude. By the way, I don't mind going to rocket,

Starting point is 00:33:28 but it depends on where it's headed. Okay. I don't want to boldly go where hundreds have gone before. Send me somewhere. Moon, Mars, beyond, I'm signed up. Have you ever been offered to go to space? I was, no. Actually, no.

Starting point is 00:33:42 But, and space, what people say space is, you know, you got the Bezos Branson, billionaire boys space race, but they just go up and fall back to Earth. The whole trip is within 30 minutes. They don't go into orbit. But they go above this magical place called the Carmen line, where if you go above that level of the atmosphere, then daytime sky turns dark because there's not enough air to turn blue. And so they call that the Carmen line. So if you go above that, you're classified as an astronaut. And I'm just saying I'm an astrophysicist. If you're going to send me to space, send me somewhere.

Starting point is 00:34:19 And I don't know if you knew that. Take Earth and shrink it down a schoolroom globe. You can ask, how high up did they go? Down to the schoolroom globe? Yeah. So here's Earth, the schoolroom globe. How high up is the space station? Okay.

Starting point is 00:34:31 Space station is less than a half an inch above the surface. Okay. And then the Bezos Branson trip, They're the thickness of two dimes above Earth's surface. You remember that crazy dude that jumped out of a balloon for Red Bull? Felix Bumgartner? Yes. Okay, a few years back.

Starting point is 00:34:51 His balloon, he died recently, by the way, doing one of these stunts. Damn, it's tough. Oh, I pee. Yeah, he jumped, the thickness of one dime above the earth. So none of this is really going anywhere for me, an astrophysicist. Send me somewhere, moon, Mars, and beyond, and I'm good. And if Elon says ride one of my rockets, I'll say, Elon, I want you to fly your mother first and bring her back safely. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:35:17 Then I'll go. That's fair. Yeah, that's fair. That's totally fair. I think that's very fair. You got a mom test it. Yeah. But surely someone's reached out and offered you said...

Starting point is 00:35:26 Oh, so I was once given an opportunity to ride in the Vomit Comet. You know, there's a plane that goes up and falls back down in your wait list for a little bit of time. Pepsi was going to offer me a spot. but I had to wear a Pepsi jumpsuit and because they were advertising zero calorie Pepsi and this was a zero gravity ride and I could be photographed and end up in an ad and I say it ain't worth that much to me

Starting point is 00:35:52 I'm giving my so no so I haven't. But have Katie Perry and those people have they actually been in space or they've just been above the Carmen line? Well, that's... And so technically they have been in space. Katie's been in space and I thought they got a bad rap on that People cashed on that launch. And well, Katie, she's got a new album out,

Starting point is 00:36:11 and they all want to make sure they're pretty with their makeup and everything. And I'm thinking, chill, first of all. When planes were invented, the first people to go were famous and rich people. Yeah. And the press wrote about it. So this is kind of interesting.

Starting point is 00:36:26 Let's keep doing this. And the industry grew till it became its own thing. And so the aviation industry was birthed in exactly the same way. I see, so you got to use celebrities to advertise it. Yes. But I think here's a thing.

Starting point is 00:36:40 Like you're saying, it didn't make sense in anybody's mind. Like, I can't even get from here to Hoboken in a half hour, dude. That'd be hard. Right. I'm not going to think they can get to space and come right back. And then it kind of looked bizarre. And then they were like over there, like the door was kind of open. There was a lot of stuff that didn't.

Starting point is 00:37:01 They didn't help their own calls. Oh, okay. Well, I'm just saying celebrities in space. That's where I drew the line and there they are. Yeah. And the fact that we're talking about it now is evidence. That's good point. Even if you're, you know.

Starting point is 00:37:13 Yeah, if it's just an advertising thing, then yes. Yeah. Right. Even if you're going to be a dick about it, you're still talking about it. But that's brave of those people to just be like, I'm going to trust this thing is going to make it in a space and come back. And then come back and land safely.

Starting point is 00:37:26 Yeah. Yeah. Like I said, if I'm going to put my life at risk in that way, I want to go farther. Give me something place to go. Who would you take into space with you? You got to bring family. If they agree, I don't know if they'd agree. You bring family for two days.

Starting point is 00:37:40 Oh, oh, okay. I see what your point. Ain't nobody bringing family to space, bro. Hey, bro. You don't bring sand of the solar system, cut. You feel me? Okay, I get it. Okay.

Starting point is 00:37:52 But you want to bring like, you know, your boys you hang out with, you know. Yeah, who would you bring? Like, if you had to bring kind of like a little gang up to space, who do you go? Would you get full? Yeah, I hadn't thought about that. Okay. I hadn't thought about that. Because that would mean I'd be focusing on them

Starting point is 00:38:06 when I'm really focusing on the universe. Mm, that's fair. Yeah, that's all I'm saying. So maybe bring, yeah, I'm trying to think. Yeah, it's actually a good question because it might take your energy. You know what I'd want to bring? Hmm.

Starting point is 00:38:17 A poet and a comedian. Hmm. I'd bring you. Dude. Because you look around and you say some funny shit. There's some funny stuff to be experienced. Oh, yeah. Saturn looking thick.

Starting point is 00:38:35 Yeah, yeah, dude. No, I highly value the lens through which comedians observe the world. Oh, yeah. Especially if it's a world you have not seen before. So you know what happens? Everything up there comes through your lens, and you're going to think about it in the context of all of your life and all the crazy people you grew up with and all the stories you tell. That's going to happen through this lens.

Starting point is 00:39:00 And that'll keep me entertaining the whole way. Oh, thanks, bro. Yeah, that'd be cool to be up there. And then I will bring Duncan Trussle. Do you know him? No. He's an amazing comedian. So I would bring him, and he has a great mind that loves to think about, like, unique stuff.

Starting point is 00:39:17 Okay, weird stuff. Yeah, you need. And then. You need a mind like that that things, things outside of any other parameters. He is a poet of sorts as well. And then, low-key, I bring a couple. A little space candy, you feel? Oh, me, bro.

Starting point is 00:39:35 Okay. And, you know, that's between us, but... Well, it's something you need to know. Yeah. I'm duty-bound to alert you of this. I bring a couple ladies, that's what I'm saying. I get that. Okay.

Starting point is 00:39:49 I don't know what you think it was drugs. I totally understood. Okay. And which leads me to say... I'll bring a little bit of drugs. That... In space, you might not need them. Because you was high as fuck in space.

Starting point is 00:40:03 You're lying. No, no, I'm just saying you are in space. Oh, yeah. Usually on Earth, you say, I want to escape my moment here and float somewhere else. You are literally floating in space. And you're going to say, I need drugs to now transcend that. That's a waste of drugs. Lead the drugs for people still on Earth.

Starting point is 00:40:20 A. B, if you bring in some arm candy, I'm duty bound as a physicist to tell you that sex in space is very different to, execute. I'm into some shit. I'm just, I'm just saying most things you do on earth while having sex, you would, you would careen and bounce off the back walls of the spaceship if you're in zero-g. Would even like, what about even oral sex? Is that possible in space?

Starting point is 00:40:53 Yeah. Okay, good. But what I'm saying, but you're floating. And so, you know, on earth, you're in the same place at the same time. In space, you have to be strapped down, is my point. So you have to bring kind of straps with you. You have to... It's the way you said that. Or you have to bring something.

Starting point is 00:41:11 Oh, I have to bring straps. Yeah, I would have done that anyway. You got to... I mean, I'm just saying, like... Yeah, you have to strap. Because on Earth, you're assuming the person is there every time you're in body contact. Oh, I see.

Starting point is 00:41:25 But in space, in zero-g, body contact sends someone careening off the wall. So you... Say if you were engaging in some type of sexual activity, and one person was to kind of like pressure their body or thrust their body against someone else's body. They're going to bounce off and hit the wall. Right. It's just you have to rethink all the moves

Starting point is 00:41:45 and all the motion and all the positions. That's what I'm saying. If you're going to bring the candy, there it is. I'm bringing you a piece, cut. I'm sorry. But it's good, though. Dude, yeah, thanks for thinking about this with me, man. It's just physics at that level.

Starting point is 00:42:07 Yeah. But also it takes you, you know, it makes you, I'll just tell you this immediately right now, we just had a lot of people who aren't going to want to be astronauts. I'll tell you that, bro. Also, if you get, like, if you're sick to the stomach, you know, okay, you ever either been in a roller coaster

Starting point is 00:42:24 or driving on a country road and there's like a short hill and you come down off it, you feel a little thing in there? Well, that's because you're, sort of weightless going over the hill because you go up and then it falls right back down and your organs are not accustomed to that. So that happens a lot there? In space, it's the entire feeling. Nuh. Yes. And you have to just get used to that. And until you get used to that, you are throwing up. And so the last thing you want to do is vomit in zero G. It's bad enough when you see the splatter

Starting point is 00:42:56 pattern on the outside of bars, you know, that's bad enough. You say, you know, who. Oh, yeah, that little bushlight Roershart. Right, yeah, it's a Roarshack. Yeah. The vomit Roershock outside of bars. So in space, there's no war shock because it doesn't fall down. It just goes everywhere and it gets in your hair and in the vents and everything. Unless you got a bag to barf into.

Starting point is 00:43:20 And you have to make sure that it has forward velocity. So that gets into the bag. You can't just come up into your mouth because then it wouldn't know where else to go. So it could hypothetically be pumped. but like your stomach. Oh, yeah. Your stomach pumps. Convulse it enough to get it to your mouth

Starting point is 00:43:37 and then you would have to spit it out. They call it reverse peristosis, so they call it. We're all your digestive organs. It says, I got to get this out of here. And by the way, think about it. When you're throwing up, it's going against gravity to begin with. It was in your stomach and now it's here.

Starting point is 00:43:52 So you were already working against gravity. So in zero G, you would have no trouble doing that. I'm just saying you wanted to have some projectile velocity to get into the bag. Oh, for sure. Otherwise, it's just kind of hang out all in your face. Just things to think about. Because you're thinking about going in space, dude.

Starting point is 00:44:10 Well, you're making me think about it. That's what I said, I would take you, that's why. You think I'm not going to think about it when you walk in the room? What are you talking about? Reassert, they're comedians I love, but they come more from my life experience, and it's fun if they say something

Starting point is 00:44:26 that I might have thought of. But I'm going to tell you, you have a completely different life experience. than I ever had or dreamt of, and I value that. Oh, thank you, Neil. Well, I appreciate it. Same about you, dude. I feel lucky to be able to talk with you today.

Starting point is 00:44:39 No, well, you're in my town. I can't let you come through town without me finding you. And that's the truth. I appreciate it, man. I really do. Yeah, this is fun, dude. I say this.

Starting point is 00:44:48 You make communicating fun. Oh, well, thank you. Yeah, you know, I thought about it. If there's a professor at the front of a class and they're, like, writing on the chalkboard or whatever the board is made of these days, they're expecting you to meet them at the chalkboard. They don't care how you learn.

Starting point is 00:45:07 They're just putting it out of it. So they're being a professor, but they're not being an educator. Okay, they're not being a communicator. An educator or communicator turns around, looks at their audience, and wonders, how is your brain wired for thought, for learning?

Starting point is 00:45:22 And I'm going to shape my information to reach in there so I can access everybody in the room. Hell yeah. And I'm going to meet you 90% of the way to where you are. And that's more effort. Otherwise, you're just putting stuff up and leaving. No, it's more effort. So thank you for noticing that.

Starting point is 00:45:40 Yeah, I see the shapes you're making, Daddy. I see it. I love it. I love it, man. I read actually in your book, I said, I read some of it that you can't even smell in space. Is that true? Yeah, so space. Tell me a little bit more about space.

Starting point is 00:45:53 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Space, there's no, you know, the molecules are very sparse. Okay. It's the world's best vacuum, okay? And so when you smell, you are inhaling molecules that connect to your olfactory glands. And they connect in ways that give you a taste, give you a smell.

Starting point is 00:46:11 I mean, they're all related. So if I smell something, it's actually a molecule that lands inside. Yes. And that sets off the sense of... Well, if you taste something, it's a molecule that attaches to your taste bloods. Same phenomenon.

Starting point is 00:46:21 Got it. Now, here's something interesting. Mm-hmm. Some molecules twist this way. Mm-hmm. And other molecules... twist the other way. I know which ones twist the other way,

Starting point is 00:46:31 Kurt. You know what I'm talking about? So watch. I know a couple of them boys. So the molecule that gives you the flavor of mint twists, it's exactly the same molecule, except in space, it twists the opposite way from the molecule that gives you the flavor of caraway.

Starting point is 00:46:55 What is caraway? Carraway. That's the seed that's in. than rye bread. Okay. So caraway and mint, if you write down the chemical equation, it's identical.

Starting point is 00:47:04 But if you build them, they turn in opposite directions. And so that tells you that's not just the chemical, it's how it's configured so it attaches to your taste buds. And in one way, you taste mint, the other way you taste this,

Starting point is 00:47:19 it's a caraway seed thing. Yeah, I think it's caro-ray. So it's just because of the way that it moves, that the taste... The way that it attaches the confessions, the configuration of the molecule

Starting point is 00:47:29 to the configuration of your taste buds. Wow. If it can lock in, then you'll taste it. Otherwise, it goes right on by. Do you remember? You're old enough to remember. There was this thing that lays potato chip. Did they invent it?

Starting point is 00:47:43 It's called Olestra. Oh, I remember that. Do you remember Olestra? Bro. Remember that? Do you remember Oleser? The booty chip they called it. Exactly.

Starting point is 00:47:52 So it's oil. And they fry the chips. in this oil, but that oil, we don't have, we don't have enzymes to digest that molecule. Maine, Neil, mine. And so it has, people couldn't handle it. The flavor of the oil, but you can't digest it. So it does not get pulled into your body.

Starting point is 00:48:18 It moves through your intestine. Man, people was do-do and everywhere. So on the bag of chips, it said, one, don't eat too much, it may cause anal leakage. Yep. First time ever, those words were on a bag of potato chips.

Starting point is 00:48:35 And the FDA approved it. Yeah. Well, yeah, it's anal leakage. What? So the point, my point is, that is something that did not configure to our ability

Starting point is 00:48:48 to digest it. We didn't have the enzymes for it. So it just went right on through. I just want to see, yeah, the Lester may cause abdominal cramping and loose stools, Alestra inhibits the absorption

Starting point is 00:48:58 of some vitamins and other nutrients. Abdominal cramping, yeah. Yeah, you may remember them as wow chips. Frito-Lay, they used them in there. Lays used Alestra in versions of Lays, ruffles, Doritos, and Tostitos. Pringles also had light, fat-free version using the ingredient.

Starting point is 00:49:15 A serving of wow chips was marketed as having about half the calorie of standard chips and no fat. But it didn't have fat because I think it just ran right through your body so it didn't even. Well, but it's fact that you could not digest. Right.

Starting point is 00:49:28 So it normally, what happens if you eat fat and you eat it, it becomes fat your fat, right, or a source of energy for you. We could not interact with it chemically. Oh, yeah. So we are a sack of chemicals that either do or do not interact with what we put in our mouths or what we smell. Mm-hmm. Or what we taste.

Starting point is 00:49:47 So I'm just saying, there are people saying, I don't like the food that has chemicals in it. Everything is chemicals. You are chemicals. Have you ever seen the list of medicines at a pharmacy? There's a book called the PDR, Physicians Deaths Reference. It's this thick. It's four inches thick.

Starting point is 00:50:06 It's filled with all the medicines that exist that we take. Why do they work at all? Because we are a sacks of chemistry. And so are these medicines. There it is. Got it. And we didn't start living longer until we figured that out. Well, we don't know that necessarily.

Starting point is 00:50:21 No, I don't tell you. I'm going to tell you. We don't know if that's true. I'm going to tell you. Sorry. That was fun doing that. Dude, no, it's good. We're having a good time.

Starting point is 00:50:31 Okay, men. We don't know that because there's stories in the Bible where they say people live a thousand years. No, I'm not a thousand. The oldest was, who is it? Live 969 years. Well, come on, man. You know what I'm saying, bro? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:50:50 Methuselah lived 969 years. Methuselah, dang. Shorty was trying to meet somebody. Yeah, yeah. So, Noah was, I think, 700-something. Yeah, everybody back then, yeah, look at those ages. So they were living. Oh, no, 950, yeah.

Starting point is 00:51:05 But also, they only had a few people, so they had to stay alive. Oh, is that how they were? I would guess, right? So I think people started living, quote, normal age, biblical normal ages after Noah. Yeah. That's when the ages came back down. Yeah, once the pet showed up, people were like,

Starting point is 00:51:22 we can chill, you know? But if you look at like the archaeological records, which are not what's in the Bible, half of everyone born in cavemen days were dead before they were 30. Okay? Fast forward to 1840. 1850, half of everyone born in the world was dead before they were 35.

Starting point is 00:51:43 Hmm. That's 10, 20,000 years. And you know everyone over that time drank clear water, breathe pure air. They ate organic. Right. Because sometimes we romanticize the idea.

Starting point is 00:52:01 They romanticized. I do not want to go back to that time. Plus I'd be someone's slave anyway. Right? So no, I don't want to go back to that time. Not at my place you wouldn't. Oh, thank you, sir. Love you.

Starting point is 00:52:10 So, so. Now, you'd have to do something. I'm just saying, we all got to help out. You know what I'm saying? You'll have to do the dishes once in a while. But we all will have our day to do them. Anyway, sorry, I shouldn't say anything. I'm just saying, I got you, bro.

Starting point is 00:52:28 Anywhere we go in time, I got you, dog. Thank you. Thank you. So what happened between 1850 and like 1950? And that's the truth. So it was 30, maybe 34, you said, until like 1850. Well, for 30,000 years. That's how long.

Starting point is 00:52:42 Cave men through the middle of the 19th century. That's how long people live. We increased the life expectancy by five years. Okay. Half of everyone born in 1840 was dead by, before they were 35. A lot of that was infant deaths as well. We just gotten way better at that.

Starting point is 00:52:58 But also there are three things. Vaccines, antibiotics, and sanitation. Those three things doubled our life expectancy within decades. And now we're damn near triple that when you have other medicines and anti-cancer treatments and this sort of thing. It's not odd to have someone live to be 90-something.

Starting point is 00:53:19 Yeah. That's not even weird. But now we're also, I think it seems like, gotten into a place where some of these things have become compromised or got like greed has become such a big thing corporate involvement has been become well it's always been but right but i think it's big it seems like across the board me greed over your health yeah yeah sure that can and whatever that is it's not as big an impact as the positive impact realizing that we are sacks of chemistry yeah and we can interact with us chemically to to get rid of ailments to cure disease oh for sure you know so

Starting point is 00:53:52 I'm just saying, I'm giving a shout out to modern medicine and science. Yeah. Because that's what people take science for granted because it's kind of hidden, you know? Well, I think more recently what has given it a bad rap probably are during COVID, and we don't have to go into any of this, but I'm just saying some of the things that I think have given it a bad rap even more specifically, probably during COVID, I think, to me anyway, the, like the, whenever they had the opioid epidemic and those people didn't get held liable,

Starting point is 00:54:23 that was like a big thing. Not about science in general, but just about, that was a medicine that a medical company made. I mean, right, right, a pharmaceutical company. That stuff. And then, like, now there's a lot of, like, skepticism because there's a lot of ownership by, like, of news and media.

Starting point is 00:54:37 There's a lot of entanglement. Yeah, yeah, it's a problem. And I think life expectancies have stalled a little bit. And the opioid epidemic actually, impacted that. So did COVID, by the way. Our life expectancy stalled during COVID. But I'm saying overall, are you living a life with science or without science? I'm picking science. Okay? And we got to make sure it's working for us and not against us. I think that's where we are in a space now, hopefully, is that there's going to be some purification of a lot of processes that maybe have

Starting point is 00:55:08 probably gotten compromised in different places and some that haven't and have been accused of being compromised. Yeah, all I'm saying is people say, I'm just science, science this. You realize we can, We landed a rover, an SUV-sized rover on Mars that carried a helicopter with it that flew around the surface of Mars. But they lost it. No, it died. The helicopter died.

Starting point is 00:55:29 But the rover, that thing is missing. Oh, is it? I haven't checked that. I think it is, isn't it? Is that right? Did they ever get that rover back? You can't lose that rover. I'm not calling you out on it, Neil.

Starting point is 00:55:37 You can call me out. I don't claim full knowledge of everything in the whole universe. But the fact that they got it there? I'm saying. This is what I'm saying. Yeah. So, and... Most people are.

Starting point is 00:55:47 can't get their kid to pick up their toys in the living room and science is putting one on to Mars. No, NASA main rover have not gone missing. Curiosity and perseverance. They remain operating. Yeah, those are the current. Those are their names? Yes. Okay. They get named by middle schools. NASA holds a contest. Well, I'm just going to say they were named by urban middle schools, I think. Curiosity and perseverance remain operating on Mars. Older rovers such as spirit operas such as spirit. What are those two words too big for you? What are you saying? I'm just saying that those names have more ambiance to them.

Starting point is 00:56:20 Oh, they're more abstract. Yes, than like Matthew and Susan. Gotcha. That's what I am saying. Gotcha. And that is the truth. Curiosity and perseverance remain operating on Mars. Older rovers such as Spirit and Opportunity ended after NASA lost contact with them.

Starting point is 00:56:34 Yeah, because their batteries die. That's fine. So, no, we're still in contact. All I'm saying is, you know, as a matter of fact, it is rocket science. As a matter of fact, yeah, you got to work. to get the right answers. Science is done. And, you know, last year, this year and next year,

Starting point is 00:56:49 there's a total solar eclipse. I can tell you the exact second it will begin and where you need to stand to see it. This is an event in the future of the moon moving through space coming between Earth and the Sun. We know what's going on. If I didn't tell you how we figure this out, the scientist would be the gods of the science.

Starting point is 00:57:13 be the gods of this earth. If you don't behave, I'm gonna get rid of the sun tomorrow at 1235. Yeah. And the sun starts to disappear. You'll be groveling at my feet, try to get the sun back. And I'll say, yeah, okay, I'll bring it back just this one time. And it comes back. I bet there was a lot of perverted action going on.

Starting point is 00:57:33 But we tell you how we know this. We write books. You can learn to do that too. The old missing sun trick, huh? I bet a lot of ladies and sons. Some dudes fell for that. I bet they fell for that, but you're right. You know, if you needed another reason to think Columbus was a dick, okay, on his third

Starting point is 00:57:54 voyage, or it might have been fourth. How many voyages did he get? Huh? He got more than one? Oh, yeah. Multiple voyages. Oh, I thought he did it on the first. He came back multiple times, no.

Starting point is 00:58:04 Oh, I thought he did it on the first try. No, no, no. No, on the third or fourth, um, there's, is he in Jamaica or Hispaniola? one of the larger Caribbean islands. And he's ready to go back to Spain. And, oh, he's got four voyages. Good. So.

Starting point is 00:58:21 Between 1492 and 1504, he made four voyages across the Atlantic. Yeah, there you go. So on his fourth voyage, it was. He was headed back to Spain, and he didn't have enough food for his crew. And so he went to the locals. I need, can you spare me some food for this trip back? He says, no, we only grow exactly what we need to get through the winter. So we can't do this.

Starting point is 00:58:46 You know, he did. He looked up his tables, science tables, and said, if you do not give my crew food, my Christian God, because they're all heathens, right, because they're running around, they're not Christian. Right. My Christian God will make the moon disappear six days hence if you do not obey. Wow. And some were rightly skeptical, but others were kind of spooked.

Starting point is 00:59:14 And six days come, the moon starts disappearing. Because he knew there was a total lunar eclipse happening, and they just brought on the food. Dang. And I don't know, we didn't check back to see if they survived the winter. But they definitely... Yeah, if you needed another reason to think Columbus was a dick, that there goes one.

Starting point is 00:59:32 But if you... Using the laws of physics, known to the Europeans at the time. Was he a dick or was he a scientist? You know what I'm saying? But I'm just saying he used trick. He used knowledge of the rhythms of the heavens as trickery, yes. And I'm saying, so that's the case. If scientists did that today, we would rule the world.

Starting point is 00:59:51 But no, we let politicians rule the world for reasons that remain mysterious to scientists. But we tell you how it's all done. Mysterious to everybody, I think. Oh, yeah, okay, there you go. It's a mysterious place that we're in, you know? That's why I'm here today. I'm telling you that comedians make it bearable. Thank you for existing in this world.

Starting point is 01:00:12 Well, that's nice of you to say, Neil. I think you guys carry the soul of a society, of civilization. Because you have to be smart enough to know what's there to make fun of, make fun of it and hand it back to the people who would otherwise get angry because you're making fun of them, but you say, hey, that's kind of, oh, you shed some light on something I didn't even know I was doing, where I was thinking or I was saying. And so, yes, you make the world bearable.

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Starting point is 01:03:34 Yeah, dude, you know what I was just thinking the other day was I wish they made pants, right? And they should have these that you can, they have a built-in, like, liner in between. Oh, you just pee down the leg. That you could pee into the pants. Yeah, they kind of have that. And the pants holds it.

Starting point is 01:03:48 Space suits can do that. Yeah. Really? If not diapers, they used to have these, these. Well, this is a portable urinal. Stadium pal. There it is. That's a portable urinal, though.

Starting point is 01:03:58 I'm talking about pants where it just fills up in the legs. And then... You don't want to fill it up. Like, dump the stuff, dude. I don't want to be caught dumping it or whatever. And what if you get caught by the city or whatever? I want to just fill it up and then drop it like, yeah, put it at home or put your leg over the toilet. This is for people who are drinking beer at a ball game and are too freaking lazy to get off their ass and go to the bathroom.

Starting point is 01:04:25 Yeah, they have, yeah, this is, yeah, this is. You're looking at it here. Anybody? This is just some dude who's taped a bunch of plastic to his leg and he's literally just. We're peeing in it. In this commercial. In that ad, this pee going in it. No, that ain't right.

Starting point is 01:04:42 Yeah, of course it's not. So be discreet. Of course, be discreet. And look at the guy. You know that dude. No, I don't mind getting up moving my muscles every, you know, however a couple hours. If I have pee in my body, I wanted to get out. You said you were bedwetter as a kid.

Starting point is 01:04:59 Oh, yeah, it was, yeah. When did it go away? Is it still a thing? No, no. I'm non-practicing. Non-practicing bedrater. Yeah, but I'm not currently active. So I was not a bedrider,

Starting point is 01:05:11 but it's not like I never did let the bed. And the times that I did wet the bed, I can count them. I was dreaming that I was in the bathroom peeing. Oh, wow, yeah. Sometimes that would happen to me. But other times I would just pee all over. Wait, in your dream, you just pee in everywhere you are?

Starting point is 01:05:29 Oh, dude, I would remember, yeah. A lot of, because I would have dreams, and for some reason, I was sometimes I was like a, like a, it wasn't like a detective or whatever, but it was like somebody who like had to have information or something and people would ask me the information and my answer was always just to pee all over in the dream. Like it would be like, yes. It was a response.

Starting point is 01:05:47 Yes, it was a response. Wow. And so then I would pee in real life. Look up what, what type of child is there like a, is there a, like a demographic or a gender? Like, what type of kids wet the bed like the most or for the longest, I wonder? I don't know if they've got that figured up, but they later found some medicine that I heard. Oh, I took it.

Starting point is 01:06:07 Oh, you did? Okay. Oh, dude, I'll tell you about something else that they got. What? So I finally got a pill and you get a pill and you don't wet the bed. But you got to take the pill. And sometimes you forget or whatever and you just wet the bed. But the other thing that can happen is my mother.

Starting point is 01:06:24 By the other, that pill, somebody invented that pill. Okay. I mean, before that, there was no pill. Oh, I know that. And then there's a pill. So I'm just saying that's a, oh, here's the statistics. Yeah, so the bedwetting drops, you know, as you get into your teens, it's hard to...

Starting point is 01:06:42 Yeah, at age five, it's 15 to 20% of kids, and then it drops a couple of percent here and there until age 10, it's 5 to 6%. And adulthood, about 2% in some estimates. Scroll back up a little bit. Bedwetting clinically called nocturnal in... En uresis. In uresis after.

Starting point is 01:07:03 age five is about two to three times more common in boys than girls. In one U.S. sample of eight to 11 year olds, it affected 6.21% of boys versus 2.15% of the group. Yeah, more than twice. Race itself is not a useful standalone explanation for why an individual child bedwets or will wet the longest. Yeah. So it's, I mean, I'm just saying we're a sack of chemicals. We give you a pill. That goes away. Well, listen to what happened to me, dude. So my mother, for my birthday one time, um, saved up a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of, of money and she got me these electric, a buzzer underwear, right? And it was in underwears that had a buzzer in the front. And when the pee hits it, when the pee, P hits it, it makes her like,

Starting point is 01:07:45 so it wakes you up. Wakes you up, right? But, dude, I ended up, so I would go over to my grandparents, right? I'd go stay there when I was really, when I was really like probably four or five and they let me drink as much apple juice as I could, right? And I would piss big on apple juice, right? If I was drinking apple juice, I knew I was wet in the bed. And the second it hit my lips, I couldn't stop drinking it. So I would drink like one of the big ones at night. Dude, and then my grandparents didn't know I had these underwears. And so in the middle of the night, I'm laying there buzzing. I'm dead asleep. My grandfather has no idea what's going on. Dude, I wake up. He's on a chair. He thought I was getting electrocuted. He's on a chair with a broomstick,

Starting point is 01:08:24 pushing it against my body like that, trying to get me to be awake, scared, crying. Yeah. What, a broomstick? Yeah. Because I guess he thought wood wouldn't travel energy. Unless he thought the devil was in you. He was trying to exercise you. I mean, look, he might have been trying to touch me with a stick. Who knows? The guy was a fucking pervert.

Starting point is 01:08:42 Maybe the person who invented the pill was given that gift as his grandma. I said, I'm not doing this. And it changed it. And then science helped him figure it out. There you go. Yeah. What about this, dude? Can you ejaculate in space?

Starting point is 01:08:55 Would that be the same as vomiting kind of? Like, is it the same? Like, can you ejaculate in space? I mean, the muscles do that all by themselves. So the way to test it? Yeah. Here's how to test it. Because when they first sent astronauts in space,

Starting point is 01:09:07 there was the question, can you swallow in space? Yeah. Will phlegm just gather in your throat? But through all these questions, and it'd never been tested. But you could sort of test it. Yeah. You can say, okay, on Earth, can you ejaculate standing up? Clearly.

Starting point is 01:09:27 Yes. Okay. Can you ejaculate horizontally? Clearly. Can you ejaculate upside down? Now, that's harder to test, but there's no reason why you think that wouldn't happen. Well, if you can ejaculate vertical to gravity,

Starting point is 01:09:46 horizontal to gravity, and opposite gravity, then no gravity should be no problem for that action. And sure enough, yeah, you can ejaculating space. Women ovulate in space, all the normal things, Because the body doesn't know if you're horizontal or vertical. It's got to be able to do it all by itself. Vains sending blood, you know, why doesn't blood collect in your down here?

Starting point is 01:10:16 Because you have veins and arteries that help move the blood through your system, get it back to the heart. Because otherwise blood would just gather all on your feet? You know, correct, without that. Because they're grabbing? Now, here's what happens, yes. Here's what happens in space. your brain doesn't know how to get rid of the blood

Starting point is 01:10:34 as efficiently as other parts of your body. So people, their heads can swell up a bit. Really? In zero-g. Yeah. And there's pressure on the eyeballs. So it's not a picnic. How do they relieve that in there?

Starting point is 01:10:49 I don't know all the ways that they figured this out. So, you know, the solution? Rotate the space station. Like any sci-fi movie you've ever seen? it rotates and it creates an artificial gravity. And then you'll have to worry about it. Get on with your life. So NASA still hasn't gone there,

Starting point is 01:11:06 even though all of science fiction has. So I'm very disappointed. That's fascinating, man. Oh, by the way, in Lost in Space, there are chapters on every one of these subjects. Oh, yeah, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah. Everything in there, there's...

Starting point is 01:11:18 There's on space exploration, but, you know... Like, half of the stuff we've been talking about are things out of there, but also it's like... That's right, that's right. It's all a bunch of, like, it's so many different facts and things that are kind of conversation starters, man. I read one thing I read in there was that you'll be younger in space.

Starting point is 01:11:38 Or that space, does space make you younger? Yeah, it doesn't make you younger. Well, okay, it depends how fast you're moving. Okay. If you're moving really fast, you will age more slowly than people back on Earth. Okay. And so it's just Einstein's relativity. So you don't reverse so much as everything ticks slower.

Starting point is 01:11:58 your heart rate, your watch, everything is normal to you. And you look to Earth and everybody's kind of moving faster. It's a relativity problem. It's not, so it's a fascinating fact. Wait, explain it to me a little bit better if you know? Well, there's not, it's, it's just is. I mean. But like if you come back, will you have aged as much?

Starting point is 01:12:17 That's the famous twin paradox, right? So you send off of your twin and they go and travel at the speed of light or have to speed of light. They did that. Mark and Scott Kelly are the twins, right? Yeah. They're twin astronauts. And they sent their identical twins, and they sent one into the space station for like a year or so. And then the other one stayed here on Earth.

Starting point is 01:12:35 And when they came back, then they tested their DNA. They looked at their health. There they go. We got good pictures of them. Would they learn? I think I had Scott Kelly on my podcast. And I said, so which twin are you? He said, I'm the good-looking one.

Starting point is 01:12:49 It was a fun reply. He's probably been asked that a hundred times. Oh, yeah, I don't even believe in twins, but I believe that people love them. So I have no idea what you meant by that, that you don't believe in twins? It just makes me very nervous. Okay. And I don't hold any edge against people that are twins.

Starting point is 01:13:06 I love them. But it makes me very skeptical. You creeped out. No, skeptical. Of? The reality of it. Okay. And maybe the science.

Starting point is 01:13:16 So here's what I said. The good thing about science is, yeah, it's true whether or not you believe in it. Right. Right. So whether or not you believe in, it has no effect. Oh, let them cook. But I'm just saying if they show up like that.

Starting point is 01:13:31 You're a little creeped out. No. I'm just. You don't believe this can happen. I want to see the paperwork. That's what I'm saying. I want to see the VIN numbers. You want to see?

Starting point is 01:13:44 I want to see the Carfax. Show me the Carfax. That's what I want to see, Neil. By the way, by the way, by the way, okay. Twins. have different fingerprints. There's their VIN. That's fair.

Starting point is 01:14:04 I refuse to say VIN number because the N and VIN stands for number, so I refuse to say that. Okay. Okay. It's like people said, where's the nearest ATM machine? The M and ATM stands for machine.

Starting point is 01:14:16 I respect that. Okay. So the VIN is their fingerprint. Got it. There you go. There's two different fingerprints. Huh. Do they have the same DNA?

Starting point is 01:14:25 identical DNA. What? So one of them could do a murder and you could think it's either one? Depending on the... Yes, yes, you wouldn't know. Yes, it could be the twin who did it. But you know what's crazier than that?

Starting point is 01:14:38 There's some people who are... What's the word? Chimeras. There's some people... They can see at night? No. That'd be good if you could. There's some people where the zygote,

Starting point is 01:14:52 something in their... in their fertilization merged two different DNAs into one life-worn. I think it's start, I don't quote me on this. And I think it has to do with two, that might have been fraternal twins, but the yolks merged. So when you come out as an adult,

Starting point is 01:15:16 if I take a DNA sample of your arm, I'll get a different DNA, if I get a DNA sample from some other part of your body. They call chimeras. Let me see that. A chimera is a single organism object or concept made up of completely different parts, genotypes, or origins. A single organism whose body contains cells from two or more distinct zygotes.

Starting point is 01:15:37 Yes. It can happen when two fertilized eggs fuse together early in the womb or through cell exchange in twin. Right, it's two separately fertilized eggs. So they would be, it's not a twin, it's not an identical twin. Got it. But it can show up in the same body. Ooh. So it means if I do kind of,

Starting point is 01:15:53 commit a crime and I leave DNA on the scene and then they get DNA off my cheek or something and it's not the DNA that I left they they wouldn't implicate me yeah it's pretty wild that is wow it'd be a good murder mystery if you want to just throw in some chimeras they're very rare people just throw a couple in um well what we've been talking about um people going to space right in space travel and what's going on. And it's kind of become this privatized thing now, it seems like, in a way. With like, you know, Elon's trying to get there. Bezos is running it. Do you, what are your fears about, about, like, space? And like, do you think it's going to get gentrified? Like, I know in your book, you talk about how much stuff is getting left in space. Like, what are your fears about, like,

Starting point is 01:16:38 the privatization of space? Yeah, yeah. So the space debris is a whole separate issue. There's not only all the satellites. As I said earlier, Elon is now rising through his 12,000 satellite. Wait, wait, tell me about that again? Well, no, he's launched 12,000. He has 80% of all satellites orbiting the Earth were launched by SpaceX. Okay? So aliens coming to Earth and they see not only how many satellites are orbiting it, but the level of debris that's left over from destroyed satellites and paint chips and rocket boosters and things. I think that's why we haven't been visible. by aliens.

Starting point is 01:17:15 They're what the hell are you doing down there? And they just move on because it's a trash heap. And it doesn't become a trash heap until it's every trip you take, you encounter trash. You know, you go in the wilderness, you toss a candy wrapper over. No one's ever going to see that again. They're not going to come arrest you. But if a thousand people do that and the candy wrappers everywhere, you've destroyed the wilderness.

Starting point is 01:17:37 Oh, yeah. So space is kind of approaching that. Really? So dude, check this out. So this is a video of debris orbiting the Earth. Mm-mm. This is real? Earth?

Starting point is 01:17:54 Yes. And NASA tracks this. This is just what NASA tracks. The military tracks even more. Earth is in the center of that. And the low Earth orbiting debris is what's directly on the surface. The rest of that are, like I said, satellite. This is just the debris.

Starting point is 01:18:12 not even the satellites we care about. How are we going to fix it? Just look at, we're zooming in. Look at this. Nuh. Yeah, huh? Well, how can planes even be out there? What is this?

Starting point is 01:18:23 Because that's orbiting in space. Planes are much, much lower than that. Dude, how do you know it? How do I know what? This is real? Yes. It's as real as twins. Okay.

Starting point is 01:18:37 This is the debris that we are actively tracking. Dang. Bro, look, and some of y'all cannot see this at home, it is. Some of your people just listen to the podcast. About half, too. We're looking at a NASA video of all of the... This looks like a snow globe inside out. A snow globe.

Starting point is 01:18:56 I love that. You have to go look at this. But do we know that this is factual, Neil? How do they get this information? We're tracking it. You can track the debris. Oh, yeah. In fact, sometimes launch windows are affected by whether there's a hunk of debris

Starting point is 01:19:13 that might collide with the thing you're trying to launch. Well, at this rate, how could they launch anything with this much debris going on? It's dangerous, and you're taking a risk. Space is very empty. You're looking at this compressed onto a screen. Got it.

Starting point is 01:19:25 So usually you don't hit any of it, but if this gets worse, which it will, there's something called a Kessler effect. Let me hear it go. Ooh. The Kessler effect. It's where there's so many satellites.

Starting point is 01:19:45 These are going 18,000 miles an hour, multiple times the speed of a rifle bullet. Okay? Okay. And if you're hit by one of those bits and pieces, they're small. It'll destroy your, you break into pieces if you're another satellite. So one piece can break a satellite into, let's say, 10 pieces.

Starting point is 01:20:05 So they're hitting each other all the time? Well, not yet. At the Kessler effect is there's a threshold. above which if a single satellite gets destroyed, there are enough other satellites ready to be destroyed by its debris that it systematically destroys 100% of the satellites in orbit. That's called the Kessler effect. And you don't want to ever get near that.

Starting point is 01:20:30 Really? Yes. In fact, the movie... Armageddon? No, gravity was basically the Kessler effect. Do you remember that? Yeah. The debris just started taking everything out.

Starting point is 01:20:41 It says number of rocket launches since the start of the space age in 1957, about seven. 7,300. 7, 320. Number of satellites, these rocket launches have placed into Earth orbit. 27,490. Wow. Number of these still in space, 18,840. And of those 18,000, about 12,000 to 14,000 are SpaceX.

Starting point is 01:21:05 Wow. And about 2,500 of those, or 2,800 of those. are not even functioning anymore, but they are still out there. Now, here's the next one. Space objects regularly tracked and maintained in their catalog. 46,000.

Starting point is 01:21:21 Okay? Wow. And then this is while total mass of all space objects in Earth's orbit. 17,000 tons. God. Yes. I'm not going out there.

Starting point is 01:21:32 I'm not going out there. Stay here on Earth. Oh, yeah. Unless it gets weird, man. Isn't it already weird? What is your threshold for weird If it hasn't gotten weird enough for you yet? We're there.

Starting point is 01:21:44 Thank you. I think we're even past there. Yeah, do you start to think about that? Like, what do you think's going on? What do you think that these elites are trying to do? Because obviously going into space is Elon's big thing, right? Like, is it just him having a blast? Because he has unlimited ideas.

Starting point is 01:22:03 It's like a kid who can... He's got the money. He can do whatever he wants. Like, or do you think we will need colonization? Like, do you think there's something coming that they're not letting the rest of us know about? I'm not authorized to comment. If you make it in and I don't do. I said I'm taking you with me.

Starting point is 01:22:20 Didn't I already say that? My boy. You're my first call. Okay. I'm coming. Thank you, dude. Thank you, bro. And I'm going to hold you to that.

Starting point is 01:22:28 Yeah, no, no. I will be there. Bang it on the window. Hey, Neil. Uh, uh. I got you on tape, saying. Didn't they have that space treaty? What was...

Starting point is 01:22:41 Well, there's the original outer space treaty from 1967. Yeah, what was that about? And that was peaceful cooperation in space. Amongst different countries, right? All the space, because it came out in 1967. We're about to land on the moon. We're trying to beat Russia.

Starting point is 01:22:56 And it says, we're all going into space. And that's the next frontier. We should do it together peacefully. Now, here's my rebuttal to that. Okay? If you can go, into space with all these countries and be peaceful and kind to one another, then don't go ahead and do that on Earth? What do you mean, you can't do that on Earth, but a treaty is going to make

Starting point is 01:23:20 us do that in space? I know. Show me that you can do it on Earth. Then I'll have evidence that this will work in space, because I don't believe you. I don't believe you for a minute. Space don't want us, dude. This is how we're acting. Plus, it's very hostile to, you. human physiology. Space is. Space. Yeah. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:23:39 There are 100 ways you can die. People say, oh, going to Mars, that's like Columbus going to the new world? No, it's not. You know why? Because when Columbus came to the new world, the trees where he landed are made of wood, just like the trees in Spain where he built his ship. So he can repair his ship. Oh, what else?

Starting point is 01:24:00 He steps off the ship. He can breathe the air. He steps off the ship. There are other human beings there to greet him. and to feed him. Yeah. On Mars, no such luxuries. If you crash on Mars, you day it.

Starting point is 01:24:14 Dang. If something breaks on your ship, you day it. Unless you have it like a 3D printer. Okay. And what you could just print you up a little something? Yeah, print up a nut or a bolt or something, you know. Ooh, that's a good idea to bring. I know.

Starting point is 01:24:24 From now, when people say, what do you bring into an island? I got an idea. So what you do is you preload the Martian surface with these things you might need. Understood. The outer space treaty. These are the rules. This is hilarious. No weapons of mass destruction are allowed in space, right?

Starting point is 01:24:43 No ownership. Yeah, no ownership. No nation can claim sovereignty or ownership of outer space, the moon or other planets. Peaceful use. Celestial bodies must be used only for peaceful goals. Military base and weapons are banned there. Space is open for exploration and used by every country equally.

Starting point is 01:25:02 Right. So there's a later version of this. called the Artemis Accords, where in the Artemis Accords, we wrote it. It's same as this. Okay. It's the same. But it allows you to maybe make a business case for mining an asteroid.

Starting point is 01:25:21 No, uh. Okay. The Artemis Accords? Yeah, Artemis Accords. A non-binding set of principles established by NASA and the U.S. Department of State in 2020 to guide civil space exploration and cooperation on the moon, Mars, and other celestial bodies. So it leaves open business cases. Okay.

Starting point is 01:25:38 Now, here's the thing. 100, something odd countries have signed it. You know who hasn't signed it? Russia, China, North Korea, and Venezuela. Wow. So that's the treaty in progress right now. India's not spacefaring. They have a rover on the moon.

Starting point is 01:25:54 Oh, they do? I bet it's picking up other people and driving them somewhere. Oh, so it's just... Is that crazy, dude? I'm just joking, India. Can you still tell jokes like that? Oh, yeah. Yeah, you can.

Starting point is 01:26:08 We can. And I'm just joking. On the side of the tracks, you can tell those jokes. And my Indian friends will love that joke. Okay. Because I love them. Okay. So here's something that...

Starting point is 01:26:18 That's wild, though. Here was such a dick move that I only thought Americans would have done. But the Indians did it. And I was just so sad. Okay. Because you know, Indian Pakistan have got this thing. Right there. They don't get along together.

Starting point is 01:26:31 They don't get along. They're right there. They don't get along. They don't get along. Okay. Watch. India, on their rover, on the rover tracks, they imprinted their flag

Starting point is 01:26:44 with the Indian Space Research Organization, Israel, they have a little logo. Their flag and that logo is on the tracks of the rover. So as the rover moves along the surface of the moon, the Indian flag gets repeated there. It'll stay there for a thousand years because there's no weather, there's no wind. Nothing's going to erode it. Now, here's the dick move.

Starting point is 01:27:11 You ready? Someone on social media, I can't blame the whole country for this. Some dick on social media said, Pakistan has the moon on its flag because it's got the moon and the star, Islamic symbol. Whereas India has its flag on the moon. Really? Did you need to do that?

Starting point is 01:27:38 You're already ahead of them in all these ways and you got to like cashed. Really? That's a cheap day. That's a cheap day. I thought it was punching down. Yeah. And also, India was clever.

Starting point is 01:27:49 Yeah, I agree. It was a clever joke. Yeah. But it was like. But it's like you are the meditation guys. Like, and you're saying, you know. Good point. You're the ones that's supposed to be cool and copesthetic.

Starting point is 01:28:01 But at least they're not attacking other people with missiles. So I think I would take. the first. You know what I'm saying? Okay. I would take that over... But it's still not conducive to peaceful cooperation in space. Well, I'll say this, it does break the outer space treaty.

Starting point is 01:28:17 Don't be a dick in space. I think that's kind of what the treaty said. It does. And what was that second one that allowed the business, the Artemis Accord? Can you just show me that one more time there? It's worded in a... The way I should say it, it's worded in a way that does not preclude business interest. Yeah, that's what I wanted to just read.

Starting point is 01:28:36 So there it goes. And look at all the countries that have signed it. There it is. That's huge. Half these countries never getting in a space. No, but they might. Would you let them be ambitious, dude? You're right.

Starting point is 01:28:49 Give them a dream. You're right. Please. Welcome. Go back to the, if you go back to the table of contents, registration of space objects, scientific data, space heritage, space resources, space resources,

Starting point is 01:29:04 How's that for a code word? Let's go to page four. Utilization that can benefit humankind by providing critical support for safe and sustainable operations. The extraction and utilization of space resources. Recovery from moon, Mars, comets, asteroids should be asking a matter that complies with the treaty. Safe, sustainable activities. They affirm that the extraction of resources do not inherently constitute national appropriation. See, it's very loosey-goosey there,

Starting point is 01:29:36 but it opens the door because we have a lot of space enterprise ready to space industry ready to jump on all. Do we have that? Yeah. I mean, is there a lot of things that are kind of like in the hopper that if we...

Starting point is 01:29:51 Yeah, when we land, when Artemis lands on the moon, it'll be supported by three or four or five different large space industry company, space industrial complex. Right? Well, we talked about that. last time, didn't we? What was it?

Starting point is 01:30:04 Oh, yeah, yeah, we talked about generational. Yeah, that's an interesting subject because if the destination is too far and it takes longer than your lifetime, then you just, they have what's called generational ships in science fiction. We talked about them last time we were on. Okay, yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 01:30:19 And you thought maybe you weren't really sure about it. Do you... I don't want to be born on a ship that's predestined to go somewhere because someone, three generations before me, mandated that? But what if we need you? when we land, we need me, when I...

Starting point is 01:30:34 What if we need you? What if you're out there for a purpose? Because somebody's going to be born on a ship in space and have to save us. You think that'll be how that goes? That's a good science fiction story, right? Someone... So they are the chosen one.

Starting point is 01:30:48 They are the Savior. They're the one. They're Neo in the Matrix. It's got to happen. Don't you think? That's a modern day Jesus. Jesus was the Savior. You know, the story of a hero always repeats

Starting point is 01:30:59 itself. It feels like, and it feels like we need one. A savior. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So all these private companies are participating. And they'll each do what they do best. And you bring it all together. And you get the best of private enterprise, which runs efficiently. And they'll bring the cost down. So. But if they have a damn Jenny's ice cream on the moon or whatever, I'm going to fucking. What's why you got a problem with that? I don't know. In our town where I live at, they took a lot of the, um, like mom and pop stuff and they put in the bigger stuff. It's okay. Oh, do you want, okay.

Starting point is 01:31:32 Well, if it's a frontier, maybe mom and pops will be the ones who do it. Yeah, you're right. That's a good point. It usually starts that way. That's true, right? Right, because it's not a big enough industry yet for the big companies to buy everybody out.

Starting point is 01:31:44 That's true. And I joke about this, you know, on the moon, if they have, they want to have a colony on the moon, have restaurants. Right? But you have to cook a little differently because the gravity is different and the air is, you know, and.

Starting point is 01:31:55 Yeah, you have that whole chapter on gravity and, yes, yes, a whole thing. Yeah, a whole thing. But here's my bad dad joke. Okay. But you have to promise to laugh. Okay. That wasn't very confident.

Starting point is 01:32:07 That was like, really? No, I got you. Okay. You got my back on this one? Yes. So restaurants on the moon would surely have an interesting menu. They just won't have any atmosphere. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:32:21 Is that an authentic laugh? I thought it was pretty good. Okay. Yeah. I'll tell that to someone. Okay. Restaurant with no atmosphere. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:32:29 Yeah. I'll tell that to. someone. So a lot of what Elon Musk, you know, people, you know, he's, sometimes he goes off the rails and off the chain, but. I think he literally goes off the rail sometimes. What he has done through his efforts has reduced the cost of access to space. And that enables whole industries to jump in and play. How has he done that? Well, so one, for one, he's reusing his rockets. Okay. He has boosters that go up and there's, he leaves a little bit of extra fuel. And he leaves a little bit of extra fuel in the booster, and then the computers take over, and the boosters fall back to Earth,

Starting point is 01:33:04 and they land on pads. Damn, they're going to hit a shrimp boat down there. Well, actually, so depending on the trajectory, they'll either come all the way back to Cape Canaveral or they have a landing pad out in the ocean, and they'll land on the landing pad. Oh, they're going to miss that bit. They're going to miss that bit. That'll be bad. Yeah, but I'm telling you know how many shrimp boats are going to be out there suddenly?

Starting point is 01:33:26 You know how many new LLCs are going to be formed in Louisiana? people waiting. They want to be hit by, they want, no. Oh, waiting for that booster to hit them, bro. Waiting for that rocket, bro. So it's gorgeous. It comes down and then the leg comes out and then it lands, sticks to the landing.

Starting point is 01:33:41 Oh, Larry got hit by that rocket, huh? Larry got hit by that rocket. So think about it. If you flew to Europe and every time you did that, they pushed the plane off a cliff and rolled out a new one, your ticket would be very expensive. Right. But they reuse the planes.

Starting point is 01:33:59 And if you reuse the rockets, that's one way to cut it down, among others that they're working on. We talked about, we mentioned gravity a second ago. Is gravity changing at all, like over time? At all?

Starting point is 01:34:10 Well, if you go to a mountain top, you will weigh less on the mountain that at sea level. Oh, really? Yeah, because you're farther away from the center of the earth. But if you're just sitting here, gravity's not changing.

Starting point is 01:34:19 Okay. No. All right, let's get in, let's chat a little bit more. And I do want to say, too, I know the holidays are kind of coming up. They're not here yet, but I think your book's a good holiday gift.

Starting point is 01:34:31 Oh, thank you for saying that. I hadn't thought about that. Yeah, just because it's so beautiful. Yeah, it's nice. It's like a nice, it's like something you can get. You could tap in at any moment. And you'd gift it. And it's, you know, most coffee table books, you open is a pretty picture.

Starting point is 01:34:45 You might read the caption. You close it. This one, you open it, and it pulls you in. I wrote it, so should I be saying that? I don't know. Yeah. But every next fact, because it's been startocified, the fact has been brought to life with another way to think about that information,

Starting point is 01:35:04 then it means more to you. And there's a whole chapter on stuff that people hope they would never have seen again. There's a whole chapter on the periodic table of elements. So, for example, okay, do you know the symbol for lead on the periodic table? Do you know what that is? N-A. That's sodium. Damn.

Starting point is 01:35:28 White lead, they call it. Interesting, yeah. So, P.B. P.B. P.B. Well, P.B. When do you get that? How you get that from lead?

Starting point is 01:35:38 Well, P.B. is plumbum, which is lead in Latin. Plumbum. Plumber. Plumbers used to work in lead. All pipes used to be lead. That's how plumbers get their name. Plumbum. P.B. on the periodic table.

Starting point is 01:35:59 That's, there you go. I got another one. There's an element we discovered on the sun before we discovered it here on Earth. I think it's called, what is it? We named it after the Greek sun god. Radon.

Starting point is 01:36:23 Helios. Is the Greek sun god? And that element is helium. There it is. Helium's good. Yeah. Radon. That was discovered by Marie Curie,

Starting point is 01:36:36 first radioactive element. She died of cancer. It was sad. She didn't discover Mercury? No, Mercury's been around forever. You'd think she would have. Why? Marie Curie?

Starting point is 01:36:48 Maybe not. Should I have to laugh at that joke? Maybe I'm off. Okay. Okay. You laughed at my joke. I'll laugh at that one. Okay.

Starting point is 01:36:57 That's fair. Okay. Then we cut to me. That was good. I see what you did there. Okay. We're even, dude. Let's talk about just a couple more like little things.

Starting point is 01:37:06 And then I want to get a few more things about your book and then we'll get you on your way. And thanks so much for hanging out, Neil. Sure. I appreciate it. But I'm saying I think it's a good holiday gift. And it's not a lot of pressure. Some books you pick it up, it's a ton of pressure. Like, but this is like.

Starting point is 01:37:19 Yeah, that's good. And personally, I'm not a big reader. If someone hands me a, you know, 500 page book, you know, when do you start it? When do you stop? And we're busy. Where do you hide it? No, but this is not that. It's biscuits of information that just rise up.

Starting point is 01:37:36 And then you can't not reach for another. It's galactic biscuits, man. Starbohydrates. Okay, that's bad. That's a good one. No, that's good. Oh, damn. Well, we just.

Starting point is 01:37:46 Starbohydrates? Yeah. Good. Good one. Thanks, thanks. What are you going to be for Halloween? Let's get into that. I was never a Halloween person.

Starting point is 01:37:54 Come on, Neil. You know why? Once I learned why people dress up, I said, that's why I don't dress up. Why, do you think it's sacrilegious kind of? No, no, no, no, no. People dress up because it's the one day where they can be something in their fantasies. Okay? And I never had fantasies. I never had, I was a very literal kid. Just a reality base. Yeah, I was completely reality-based.

Starting point is 01:38:23 And so to dress up like something And pretend to be that I was just myself. I didn't need to pretend. So I was a literal kid. And I was much later before I would appreciate what it was, what it is to be fully human,

Starting point is 01:38:39 which is you have feelings, emotions, you cry, you... That came later in life point? Later in life. Later in life. Wow. In my life, I have never... We used to have telephones with handsets.

Starting point is 01:38:51 I've never slammed down the handset. that's an emotion that I've never, I've never slammed a door out of anger. I just never had that, which is weird because I used to wrestle. I spent eight, I was captain in my high school wrestling team. So, but it was,

Starting point is 01:39:06 I, if someone beat me, it was like, good. Now I know I need to get better. It wasn't, I'm angry, let me, no, I'd never had emotions like that. So I'm enchanted by Halloween, but I'd never had the urge to dress up. Now, you can say,

Starting point is 01:39:22 If I did dress up, what would it be? I'll tell you. That's fair. I'll tell you. I would be a nerd savior man. Okay? I don't have a word for it. Because in high school, because like I said, I used to wrestle.

Starting point is 01:39:39 I was 190 pounds in high school, captain and undefeated. But I went to a geeky high school. So everybody's a geek. And there's a high school across the way that would take our lunch money every time. Okay? and I wanted to fight against that. So I had this fantasy that first I could fly and that if there was a geek in trouble,

Starting point is 01:40:00 they'd beam like digits of pie on the sky. And the more digits of pie, the more serious the situation was. And I see it in the sky and I fly and it come down and, you know, the kid would be wedgied or something on the book or, you know, something that cool kids did to geeky kids. Yeah. And I would just pummel the shit out of them.

Starting point is 01:40:23 Yeah. And I'd say, and I'd say, go forth in freedom. But I'm a geek too. So I'm a geek protector. But you a boss geek. Yes. I could, I was a kick-ass geek protector.

Starting point is 01:40:34 Yeah. And to this day, if I see geeks getting, you know, abused in the street or because they're not as cool, they're not dressed as I. Oh. I will intervene. And because I know I can kick some ass if I have to. Plus, I used to study martial arts. But more as a curious.

Starting point is 01:40:50 curiosity thing, but, and I wanted to be Bruce Lee, you know, not for Halloween, but. You'd have been good, hey. Yeah. So, um, the moral to that for me is just, I, I don't like seeing people harmed or abused just for being who they are. Amen. Yeah. I agree with you, though.

Starting point is 01:41:12 Right, right on that. Yeah. It's not good. Yeah, it's just, it's, well, I don't know what I mean. It's not good. Of course it's not. But yeah. I agree with you.

Starting point is 01:41:20 you that. Yeah, there's something about like... They didn't do anything to you. They didn't... And they're already the underdog. Right. Right. Sometime. Yeah, right. Now, you know, a lot of that changed in my life. I don't know, I'm a little older than you. A lot of it's changed in our life. Yeah, yes, it has. Because the, the bullies learned that the geeks know how to program their computer. Yeah. I could help them with the math homework. And, and now the world is run by geeks. Run by geeks. Yes. Yeah. I'm trying to just... In other words, the most powerful people in the world are

Starting point is 01:41:49 geeks on the spectrum, half of them. Yeah, I think half them are on the spectrum. Yes, yes, easily. Do you believe that? One out of six, I'm not clinically authorized to make this diagnosis, but based on being around my colleagues, my whole life, I would say one in six, one in five is on the spectrum in some way. Perfectly happy in the lab.

Starting point is 01:42:10 Eye contact is a little difficult. But do you think that that's why we're starting, like we create more stuff that, like, is tech, but there's not, that we're losing the, that? connection because some of it's interesting point because they they're very focused and they can right but they but they sometimes lack an element of being able to read certain like that's deep and i i'd have to do the research to conclude that but let me restate what i think you just said okay if geeks on the spectrum are inventing the next wave technology should we be surprised that that next wave technology has no understanding or sensitivity to the human element the interpersonal

Starting point is 01:42:49 human element. Because that wasn't in the people who invented it in the first place. Yeah. That's, that's deep. I wonder if that's true. Because here we are and we're letting these guys do some stuff. Right. And we're all, it's hurting. It's hurting. And they didn't want it to hurt on purpose. No. They just didn't have the need for themselves. Right. They didn't understand. Right. So why would they incorporate it? Right. Why would they even know that you become so addicted? to your social media and how you look to other people.

Starting point is 01:43:23 What's it called your self-image? It's, you know, you enter a depressed state because you're not as beautiful as other people who are online curating their presence. Right. You don't even know that they're not even real. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:43:41 They're not authentic, I should say. Yeah. So... The creators don't understand that because they don't have that software. Maybe that's intriguing. I'd be curious to see what research says about that. And I'm not saying all people that are on the spectrum. No, no, but it's a hypothesis worth testing.

Starting point is 01:43:55 Ooh, I like that. Dude, now we're doing something together. That's exciting. Yeah, I was trying to think of some good. What is this one right here? Oh, pie in the sky. That would be a serious. Bro, you look tough, Neil.

Starting point is 01:44:09 Oh, I didn't create that. That's somebody, I don't know who did that. But still, that looks good. What about Michael? We are now looking at AI rendered version of me with a pie. superhero outfit with a cape, stars on it, and there must be 500 digits of pie in the sky.

Starting point is 01:44:25 That means the world is about to end. And I think that's current. What about a Halloween costume, Mike DeGrasse Tyson? See if you can put that in AI, see what happens. No. Well, the thing about science is, you know. And then is the supermodel Tyson Beckford. Ooh, here you go.

Starting point is 01:44:45 Oh. Oh, let's go! Oh. Dude, let me say. What's it say on my arm there? Frick or knock out. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay.

Starting point is 01:44:57 What about Tyson chicken nugget? That would be good if he was a little nugget. That'd be good. You'd eat yourself too, probably. You know? Who wouldn't? That works until you die. Yes, okay.

Starting point is 01:45:09 I don't know. That's true. But hey, if you're starving, that'd be a risky moment, wouldn't it be? That'd be a risky moment. Oh, that's cute, Neil. You do not look happy about it. No.

Starting point is 01:45:20 But you would definitely probably have a little bit of yourself. Chicken tender. There you go. Chicken tender's good. No, let me see with Tyson Beckford because he's a supermodel. Yeah, let's at least. See if I look hot. At the very least, man.

Starting point is 01:45:32 See if I could look hot with Tyson Beckford. Or Neil de Grossey Tyson, too. Put that in there. That's, uh, um. You don't mean the Grassey high. Yeah, remember that? That'd be weird. How are they going to, they can't mash that.

Starting point is 01:45:44 That doesn't. You know, it's science. There you go. Why am I in a wheelchair? Because that character was in the wheelchair, Drake's character. But Tyson Beckford? No, no.

Starting point is 01:45:57 This is DeGrasse. Neil DeGrassey. Oh, oh, got you, got you. Neil DeGrassey, hot. You stuck ahead of me there. Yeah, this was Neil DeGrassey High. Oh, that looks innocent enough. Yeah, it looks good.

Starting point is 01:46:04 Yeah. Oh, let's go. Oh. Dude, that's awesome, man. Well, look, there you go. Look, I'll say this. You got some great costumes. that come, that just because you exist,

Starting point is 01:46:20 some cool new universes can show up in the world. I officially give you my permission to post these that you just created. Okay, thank you. Of me in there. Okay. Okay. Oh, there he goes. Yeah, that was Drake.

Starting point is 01:46:33 I forgot that was Drake. Yeah, that was him, man. Yeah. He's talented. Let me see. Where can we... Did you ever want to be abducted by aliens? Do you fear them or do you...

Starting point is 01:46:48 I more than... ever would like them to come get me. Really? Yeah, and that's the truth, I think. And I don't mean that in any like, I'm scared from my life way or anything like that. Yeah, but so my same sentiment is maybe for a different reason. I want to be abducted ever since I was 10 years old.

Starting point is 01:47:09 I wanted to be abducted. Not because I wanted to leave Earth, but that I wanted to see what the rest of the universe was like. And if they could abduct me, they clearly have access to the universe. in ways that I don't. So it was because I was a curious, cosmically curious kid.

Starting point is 01:47:25 Wow, that's pretty cool, man. Yeah. Did you ever feel like they might not abduct you because of your skin color? Never. Never. They're aliens, for goodness sake. I didn't mean that in a bad way.

Starting point is 01:47:36 No, no, I know. No, I had no such thoughts. Because I've had black friends that are like aliens don't abduct us and this type of shit. Oh, there was the Key and Peel skit. Huh? You know the Key and Peel skit?

Starting point is 01:47:47 Uh-uh. This was hilarious. It's a suburb. Suburbia, right? They're so funny. And there's zombies coming up the street. And they turn to this home where black people live. And it goes around back and they're barbecuing.

Starting point is 01:48:03 And then the zombie just like recoils. And it goes back to the street and chases the white people. So these are like racist zombies. It's a whole skit. It's an entire skit. And so all the black people just just hanging out. lawn chairs and the white people are just going crazy. Oh, dude.

Starting point is 01:48:23 So I had no such thoughts that alien would somehow see me as a black human, just as a human. But I knew, because I'm old enough to remember, the Apollo program, the Mercury 7 astronauts and all these guys, none of them looked like me in the slightest. Not only that, on Broadway was the number one hit musical hair, and none of these guys had hair longer than an inch an inch on their head, all these crew cuts. So I was interested in space not because of the Apollo program. Because it looked like there was nothing in there for me. Wow.

Starting point is 01:48:59 And it was more pure curiosity with the universe. And me and the aliens will take it. Wow. Yeah. If you got in there, right, say they come and get you. Okay. They're doing a special, right? And they want to get different types of folks up there.

Starting point is 01:49:15 Uh-huh. You know, the whites aren't cutting it anymore. Well, no, just think about it. Ask yourself this, okay? When you look at pigeons, are you grouping them into kinds of pigeons? No, you're not because they're just pigeons to you. But if you really did it, some surface patterns of their feathers are different. Okay?

Starting point is 01:49:37 And when you look at an alligator, do you even know who's a female and who's a male alligator? No. No. And do you know with the pat? You don't even care because you are so different from the alligator. You're not focused on how alligators different from each other. You're focused on the fact that it's a freaking alligator. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:49:59 So if you're an octopus and you look at humans, are you saying, oh, this human has a different color of skin than this human? No, you're a creature that swims in the ocean with eight legs. Okay? All you're going to see are these humanoid things. that have a head only four limbs and not eight. Okay? And you're living in the air, not in the water.

Starting point is 01:50:25 That will preoccupy your awareness of them. If humanoid aliens came, which is all Hollywood can think of creating, the octopus will not distinguish between us and them. Yeah. Because they always have two eyes, a nose, a mouth, the head, shoulders, neck, arms, legs, torso, feet, arms, hands, and fingers. And that's it. That's what we...

Starting point is 01:50:48 Do you know, do you realize that all life on Earth has common DNA and that bananas have 25% identical genes to human beings? Nah-uh. And because of that, if you get an alien from another planet that has no DNA at all

Starting point is 01:51:08 or has DNA, but none of it is in common with us, it should look at least as different from humans as bananas and humans look from each other. And all Hollywood depictions are they walking, they're talking and walking, coming down. Whistling? You know, so I had no such thoughts

Starting point is 01:51:30 that aliens will notice my skin color. And I'm pretty sure any future aliens would feel the same. I just didn't know because a lot of abductions seem like it's a lot of times, often a guy that it seems kind of white. Yeah. Well, actually one of the first things, and most famous abduction,

Starting point is 01:51:46 you can look this one up, is the Betty and Barney Hill case. Barney Hill was a black man. Was he? Betty Hill was a white woman. Let me see him. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, he looks kind of black.

Starting point is 01:51:59 Yeah, yeah. Barney and Betty Hill were American couple and civil rights activists who claimed they were abducted by extraterrestrials in a rural portion of the state of New Hampshire from September 19th to 20th, 1961. The incident came to be called the Hill Abduction

Starting point is 01:52:14 and the Zeta Reticuli incident because two UFOologists connected the star map allegedly shown to Betty Hill with the Zeta Reticuli system. The story was adapted into the best-selling 1966 book, The Interrupted Journey,

Starting point is 01:52:28 and the television film, the UFO incident. And that television film, James Earl Jones played Barney Hill. Did he really? Yeah, it was pretty cool. Very cool. But so anyhow, so... And you obviously played James Earl Jones.

Starting point is 01:52:43 this is CNN. So, so, so, so aliens early on have been abducting black people, but not in the numbers that they do of white people. But this is an early mixed couple. That might have been why they got them. You know what I'm saying? It might have been. Who knows? And they look like a beautiful couple.

Starting point is 01:53:07 Yes, they're very well-groomed, I think, is the way you say that. They look like a beautiful couple. And I'm glad they got brought back. Did they get brought back? Yeah, yeah. Okay, good. Yeah. And so it's, so I'm just saying there's precedent for at least some black people to be abducted,

Starting point is 01:53:20 but you are correct. The overwhelming majority are white people and English-speaking people. Hmm. If you look at a map of all reported UFO incidents in the world, they, go mu-fon, M-U-F-O-N, they'll have a map. MAPT, there, UFO sighting maps. That's it. Whoa. Okay.

Starting point is 01:53:42 Notice hardly any in Mexico, every dot there on this map. Wow. Is a reported UFO sighting. Now, it could be that if you don't speak English, you don't know where to report it. That could be so. I get it. But you could just tell you a friend. Difference here is staggot.

Starting point is 01:54:01 You know what I'm saying, bro? Now, rotate the map or go to some other place. Can you rotate the map? There you go. Rotate it around. Look at that. Okay, a little bit in India. Keep turning.

Starting point is 01:54:12 England! There you go. And then right across the channel. Okay, now come down to Australia. Okay, well, Australia doesn't have many people to begin with, but in all the major cities, they're reporting them? Correct. And what about China?

Starting point is 01:54:27 Are they reporting them? They're not allowed to, are they? I'm just saying this UFO thing is such an American phenomenon. And so either the aliens just like English-speaking people. Or? Or no one else gives a shit. Or it's just, it's, the English people know better

Starting point is 01:54:49 how to report their sightings than other people do. Or we're more gullible in thinking that something is aliens when it's just some natural phenomenon. So this, this map is staggering, I think. And, and dude, I'll tell you this, honestly, I think that, um, the final war on the planet is going to be blacks versus aliens.

Starting point is 01:55:10 Really? Black humans versus aliens. Yeah. Really? So that's a movie that looks like it's going to be in the sequence with Predator versus aliens. I mean. Predator v. aliens. Humans be aliens. Black people be aliens. Okay. Because somebody going to have to battle them. Oh.

Starting point is 01:55:32 And I don't. Let me cut you off here. It's, is it like, wasn't there some movie called Jason Takes Manhattan? And someone did a parody on that. Jason tries to take Harlem. I couldn't. Jason comes up with this mask and hatchet, boom, get out of my back. Black people are not going to stand for this?

Starting point is 01:55:56 They're not, black people at a certain point are not going to stand for aliens bullshit. Yeah, yeah. And I think more of a white society will just fall into it too easy. At a certain point, black people are going to detect this bullshit. We've all seen the videos of people trying to scare. black people with Halloween trick. Like someone pops out of the can get punched. Yeah, it's just...

Starting point is 01:56:17 Yeah, stay in the can. Stay in the can. Yeah. I see, that's interesting. So all the white people of the world would have acquiesced to the demands of the aliens and would have just gotten absorbed.

Starting point is 01:56:30 And black people are holding out. Yeah. And it'll be the final battle. Yeah, I think that they end up being the savers of the world. Wow. Wow. Because I think it's just like...

Starting point is 01:56:39 That's a movie. Because every great story, The Arc, you know. No, that missed its time. That should have come out like 1973. That movie? With black exploitation films. Where black people are kicking ass and it was okay for everybody to do.

Starting point is 01:56:52 Even white people said, okay, we'll give it to you. We've been so hard on you all these years. We'll kick our ass for a few, for a few years in the movies. That would have been the good time. Black people versus. But I'm talking about. That one had the movie Blacula. Did they have that?

Starting point is 01:57:07 Yes. Blacula. Oh, damn. Yeah. Yeah. So that was the era. where this movie should... Who is that?

Starting point is 01:57:16 That's not Richard Pryor, isn't it? No, no, no, no, no. It was a serious movie. It looks like it would be a joke. But no. I would love to see that. And look, there he is biting some white chick. I've seen that before.

Starting point is 01:57:30 But no, I think... I'm not even joking, Neil. I believe that that is going to be the battle. And I believe that they save the planet. That's what I believe. Somebody is going to hear this podcast. and is going to write that script. We need it.

Starting point is 01:57:45 We need it. I mean, I'm at a point like, we need, that's what, because I don't know what else can save, save everything. Yeah, yeah. Another thing, they come down of these badass spaceships

Starting point is 01:57:56 and here we are getting our guns out of the cabinet and shooting at, really? Like, don't you just see what has happened here? The bullet will, like, absorb into their ship and it will become part of their ship. Yeah, for example, right? Yeah.

Starting point is 01:58:09 Can you just extrapolate what's happening here. So that's right. So the black people, we don't have as many guns as the white people do, but we would know the guns would be pointless.

Starting point is 01:58:20 We'd have to find some other way to get them. They'll figure it out. Yeah. Maybe barbecue. You think? That seems racial. That seems racial.

Starting point is 01:58:32 After all the stuff we've said. I know, they'll listen to our music. They'll listen to jazz. Jazz will, oh. Now we're talking. Yeah. And then the alien just would be chilling. Smoking.

Starting point is 01:58:51 Dude, that's how, though. There'll be some way, but that's how it happens. That'll be, it'll be their muse. I believe that. It'll be there. That's how long have I said that for, Nick? That which comes. 26 years ago.

Starting point is 01:59:06 How long ago? Two to six years ago. Sorry. That which calms the inner. beast of the alien is some smooth jazz. Your book before you go, yeah, anything else about aliens or we can go in your book as a chapter on the zodiac. So thanks for giving my alien book a shoutout.

Starting point is 01:59:25 Came out earlier this year back in May. Take me to your leader. Yeah, yeah. It's a small book, very fits in your pocket kind of thing. And that book is like everything you need to know for your alien encounter. And it's grounded in physics. I mean, so it's not, it's to try to. to anchor the conversations people are having about what they see, what they think they see,

Starting point is 01:59:47 what they want to see. It's in there. There's a chapter on alien intelligence, alien technology, alien powers. What powers do aliens show in a movie that might be possible on Earth, even if it's beyond our current technologies? So it's a very serious but fun exploration in that. So thanks for giving that a shout out. Yeah.

Starting point is 02:00:09 And, and, but the lost in space, like I said, that's a big, fat old 5, 5,000 fact book. Yeah. Uh, National Geographic, they don't, they don't do ugly. Yeah. Right. Oh, yeah. Some of the images and just like, yeah, it's a nice journey of like kind of information and, uh, enjoying yourself.

Starting point is 02:00:27 You're laying on a couch. Yeah, yeah. Enjoying something. You sit in. You got a dip, dip in. Yeah, put a dip in. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, for my podcast, I wanted it to have a tagline.

Starting point is 02:00:39 but a marketing person nixed it. I want it. Because you come and you have fun and you learn something. So the tagline was, learn something for a change. That's what I was going to say. And they said, no,

Starting point is 02:00:50 that's too off put. It was too. And so in this book, it's like, learn something for a change. Yeah. Last question before you go, I guess.

Starting point is 02:01:00 All right. Could aliens bring new elements and stuff and new science here that we haven't seen? Like, would it all? alter the fabric of our science? Does that make sense? Yes, a great question.

Starting point is 02:01:12 So in the chapter, Alien Powers and Alien Science and Technology, I explore the science that we have discovered on Earth that applies across the universe and across time. They are beholden to that. But then there are, there's other things about the universe that are mysteries to us, that they might have harnessed,

Starting point is 02:01:37 like dark matter, dark energy, wormholes. You know how to make a wormhole? You need a negative gravity material. It would be a substance. Normal things have gravity. This is negative gravity. Like what, mud or something?

Starting point is 02:01:52 No, no, it doesn't exist. We don't know. But maybe an alien figured out how to make it. And if you can make a negative gravity thing, instead of bringing things together, which gravity does, it prides things apart, which is what you need to make a wormhole. Yeah.

Starting point is 02:02:07 So, but here's the thing. If they master wormholes, then they connect where they are to where we are and they just step through, they wouldn't need spaceships. They would step through like Rick and Morty. You know, Rick has a, he opens a portal. Or who's this dude in the Avengers? Dr. Strange, you just step through.

Starting point is 02:02:27 And they would just be here. They'd just be here. If it's a proper wormhole. Right. It's not a whole tube that you pass through. You just step through. So if they mastered that, then they would not be, seen in spaceships.

Starting point is 02:02:40 Where would you go if you could wormhole? Oh, center of the galaxy. That's got to be bad. There's a super massive black hole there. I would need radiation protection because there's a lot of lethal electromagnetic energy coming out of there. But the center of the galaxy feels cool to me.

Starting point is 02:03:01 How many people have we sent there? Zero. Ever? To the center of the galaxy? Yeah. What do you mean? We've only been to the moon like six times. Oh, man.

Starting point is 02:03:11 So what do you want to go to the center of the galaxy is like... Well, fuck it's good. Yeah. 30,000 light years away. Oh, I didn't know that. Oh, galaxy, dude. Galaxy. Oh, I don't know.

Starting point is 02:03:20 Okay. Well, Earth and the planets and the sun, solar system. Okay. We and 400 billion other stars. Uh-huh. Milky Way galaxy. Okay. We and thousands of other galaxies, the Virgo supercluster of galaxies.

Starting point is 02:03:36 Other superclusters combine the universe. They keep renaming this thing and making it better. Bigger. Bigger and bigger, yeah, as we discover it. As we discover, it's like they just kind of give you a little more bread. Eat a little more bread crump. Well, incremental, that's where we make new telescopes. So is there new physics?

Starting point is 02:03:53 There could be. But the physics we know is not going to be different for them. So our physics would have to apply to them? Certain aspects of our physics, yes. Because we've tested it on Earth and across the universe. Got it. So the periodic table of elements, which you saw, in your chemistry class, that is full.

Starting point is 02:04:15 It used to have gaps in it. And we said, wait, if there's a gap here. There must be an element. Let's look for it. Let's synthesize it. Let's create it. Bada-bang! Here's the element.

Starting point is 02:04:25 The first element, this is in the book, the first element that was manufactured because there was a gap in the whole element. Do we see this in nature? No. Nature doesn't make this element. Let's make it ourselves. That's how badass we are.

Starting point is 02:04:38 We made this element. And we named it after, the prefix we use for things that are artificially made. Do you know that prefix? Tech. It's called technetium. Technetium. We invented that.

Starting point is 02:04:53 And... Wow. And that's a real element? Yeah. In fact, it has very important and significant medical application. And can you just buy it? Or is it like a... I've never tried.

Starting point is 02:05:05 They're labs that can synthesize it. Wow. Yeah, you can't know. What are you going to do? I mean, what are you going to do? What would you do with that if you? I don't know. I'm just half some. I guess. I don't even know.

Starting point is 02:05:15 I mean, yeah, no, yeah. I didn't know what existed. Well, right. So there's. Yes, you can buy technetium. Technisium. But it is strictly regulated and very difficult for private individuals to obtain in pure form because it is radioactive. Yes.

Starting point is 02:05:28 Never mind. Radioactive. Do not want that in my house. Do not want to keep your gonads. Yeah. So, so the, the element is full. When the Nix were in the playoffs, they hadn't been. since I was in middle school.

Starting point is 02:05:42 Wow. 52 years or something. Yeah, yeah. I'm an old fart. And so while they were in the playoffs, I tweeted, I said, I forgot the exact number, but it's approximate. I said, the last time the Knicks won the championship, the periodic table had 11 fewer elements.

Starting point is 02:06:02 Just to measure time by our rate of discovery of these elements. So we're up to 118. nature only makes 92 of them. Wow. We manufacture. So we got the periodic table. That is what the universe is made of materially. What I looked like last time in New York next one in a championship.

Starting point is 02:06:22 Look at you, boy. Oh, yeah. See, I'm very geeky. I got a camera. That was one of the world's first selfies, it turns out. You know who selfie this before me is Colin Powell has a photo of self in a mirror. So I just thought this would be a cool thing to do when I was

Starting point is 02:06:41 14 or something. Dude, that's cool. So that's one of several posts. And I have like a karate kimono thing. Yeah, I can see that, man. So if you... So you had some cool hobbies. Yeah, I developed my own film.

Starting point is 02:06:53 And I was a geek kid, like I was saying. Can there be more elements, though? So, no, because those elements are just how many protons are in the nucleus. There's an element with one proton that's hydrogen. Two protons, helium. 3, lithium. Four, boron.

Starting point is 02:07:13 Five, six is carbon. Seven is nitrogen. Eight is oxygen. Good. They all have names, and they're in sequence. There's no room to fit any other element because we're counting protons. At the high end, we're up to 118, proudly,

Starting point is 02:07:30 but maybe the aliens have 119, 120, 120, yes. What about kryptonite? That's entirely, Krypton. That's a gas. And we have it? That's a gas. Do we have it? Oh, yeah.

Starting point is 02:07:42 Fuck yeah. Oh, yeah. Crypton. It's a noble gas. Good. Not that anybody asked, but in the time that is elapsed, since the Knicks' last won a championship, we've discovered eight new subatomic particles.

Starting point is 02:07:55 Dang. The J-Sai Mazon, the Tao lepton, the bottom quark, the gluon, the WZ boson, the top quark, the Tao Neutrino, and the Higgs boson. Nobel Prizes all around. And they are all entering the portal as well this week. I'll probably all say that. Not that anybody asked,

Starting point is 02:08:13 but the last time the New York Knicks won a championship, Stephen Spielberg had not yet made a feature-length movie about aliens. That's how long ago that was. That's all I'm saying. So whatever they make their craft out of, it's got to be these ingredients. Got it. So I can talk about these ingredients that they have.

Starting point is 02:08:34 Maybe they may have some fancy alloy, sure, but they'll made of these ingredients. Um, can they, do they have negative gravity substance? Maybe, I don't know. Mm-hmm. I'm not going to preclude that. Maybe they figure that out. Um, can they read your mind?

Starting point is 02:08:53 If they get close enough, maybe, because you, your, your brain is electromagnetic signals. It does? Yes. And that's why you can put electrodes on your head and read your brain waves. So yes, in principle, yes. We don't know how to do that yet, but I give that to them. Yeah. No, give it to them.

Starting point is 02:09:12 They're more advanced. Sure. They came all the way here. They came all over here. Give it to them. Yeah. So there's a whole conversation there about powers they have, but I'm not giving them the physics that we've already established.

Starting point is 02:09:23 Got it. We're good with that. Yeah. And we know that because we can measure atomic phenomenon in other stars and other galaxies across space and throughout time. And so we're good there. Be proud of that. Amen.

Starting point is 02:09:40 Mm-hmm. What do you think, like the next biggest realm of discovery in science? Like where is science really going to start to? I think we're going to get in our genome and start messing. We're going to start playing God, I think. Oh, you want to play a piano with 12 fingers? Let's put in the gene that gives you a sixth finger on each hand and then compose something that'll do that.

Starting point is 02:10:05 I think who we are and what we look like might become boutiquey. Okay. And that's, I hope that doesn't happen. Mm-hmm. Because so much of what makes life interesting is working with what you've got, how inventive you need to be, to work with how you are and what. Right. It gives us a purpose.

Starting point is 02:10:30 It gives you, let me work with this. Right. Let me see what I can do here. And this urge to be normal, I think every interesting thing that's ever happened in civilization was created or imagined or assembled by people who are not normal. If everybody were normal, nothing would happen. Think about that. Yeah.

Starting point is 02:10:56 So in praise of being abnormal, there's a famous quote. I think it was George Bernard Shaw. Reasonable people follow rules and do what they're told. Unreasonable people break rules and do things that they're not supposed to do. So all advances in civilization have come about from the work of unreasonable people. Wow. If you only do what you're told, you will never make a discovery. Amen.

Starting point is 02:11:30 I mean, that goes back to even some of the stuff. It's like the person that's different, the person that's the, that's going to do things at a beat of a different drummer or whatever. Right. That's the per, like. Celebrate that. Yeah. that might be the savior.

Starting point is 02:11:44 That might be the liaison. It might be the Patriot that gets us to the next level. The link there. And here's just an interesting fact. I don't know what percentage of the public is trans. Some numbers put it in low single digits. And then if you're like a normalist, you would say, well, fix that.

Starting point is 02:12:05 They're not normal. They're abnormal. Okay. Do you realize that 90s, 98% of all atoms in the universe are hydrogen and helium. 98%. Everything that is what we care about in love is enabled by what's in that 2%.

Starting point is 02:12:32 The iron, the oxygen, the silicon, the nitrogen, the phosphorus, the everything else is what makes this universe what it is. And it's in that 2%. The variety. There it is. The cadmium. That's in there too. Is it?

Starting point is 02:12:48 Yes. Yeah, dude. Yeah, man, you got to have variety. You got to have difference. And also, you... It's the forces we put on ourselves to try to make people conform to what is normal or average. So that disturbs me.

Starting point is 02:13:03 I want people to celebrate being different. Yeah. Not be sad that they're not the same. Right. Yeah. Amen to that, dude. Yeah. And a lot of it is like the...

Starting point is 02:13:14 is like stuff, like media, online stuff that just, it's created to create the fight. Oh, yeah. Because in the end, I think people, you walk up to anybody, somebody, most people would take care of each other. I'd like to think so. I think that's true.

Starting point is 02:13:27 But generally, they would do so if you're the only two in the boat. And all you have is each other. But if you're with a clan of a hundred people and the three people who are different out there, it's way too easy to reject them. It almost comes naturally within a, us to protect what's in group and reject what's out of group. Well, hopefully we don't get into a place where people are like, you know,

Starting point is 02:13:55 things are getting that rough out there, you know? I hope not. I mean, it definitely has happened that way in some parts of the world. Oh, for sure. Definitely. I'm not saying that it hasn't, for sure. But, I mean, I hope it doesn't get to, like, we're at the, like, where things get so, like, dystopian out there and stuff.

Starting point is 02:14:08 I don't think that's going to happen. In the end, do you think that existence wins, like, that good wins? So in that vein, there's a paragraph I want to read from Carl Sagan's pale blue dot. Okay. Okay. And it encapsulates so much of what my people feel as astrophysicist. Because we see Earth not just as living humans on the surface. We think of Earth from space and from deep space.

Starting point is 02:14:34 Okay. And what does it look like? What does it feel like? What are you thinking? Okay. And there's Earth, just this orb adrift. What are you thinking? Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.

Starting point is 02:14:53 Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds, our posturings, our imagined self-importance,

Starting point is 02:15:28 the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe are challenged by this point of pale light. So I think about that all the time. You will not find legions of astrophysicists leading soldiers into battle. Yeah. That is not ever going to happen. You would think we could do better,

Starting point is 02:15:52 and I think most of us want to. Yeah, yeah. You know? Well, you know what it has to be, it has to be what I found. The most potent way to get someone to accept someone else is to have your kids want to marry one of them.

Starting point is 02:16:09 I mean, think about it. Historically, marriages were like packs between countries to bring peace among them. They marry the royalty off, and now you've got to be friends. So... That's the truth. Maybe there's deep truth in that.

Starting point is 02:16:24 Oh, I've always said beige power, man. I think it all ends... It all ends really beige, man. I've always said beige power, dude. Neil deGrasse Tyson, thank you so much, brother. Thanks for having me back. I mean, I enjoyed our last time together. But I can't...

Starting point is 02:16:44 not leave until we both look at this baby-fied version of us when you asked me a question and I answered it. Okay. Let's take a look at this. That sounds fair. Let's check it out right here. This is like, I think, what AI was intended for. Oh, yeah. Is outer space gay or straight?

Starting point is 02:17:02 Okay. So I'm going to give you an answer. Are you ready? Yeah. Is outer space gay or straight? Practically everything we see and measure in space, not only objects, but, you know, objects, but temperature, size, density is on a spectrum. So for you to say, is the universe gay or straight, I'm going to tell you, whatever the

Starting point is 02:17:23 universe is, it's on a spectrum. So it's bye. That was scary. Yeah, I never even seen that, dude. You haven't seen it. I don't see your own stuff? Uh-uh. Sometimes I do.

Starting point is 02:17:38 Sometimes I don't, my mother sends me stuff sometimes. Yeah, yeah, okay. It was fun, dude. Our last conversation was fun, man. I've listened to it a couple times over the years. And just grateful to have you back and just grateful that you keep just contributing to the world, sharing and opening your heart up and sharing things that are...

Starting point is 02:17:53 Whoever will listen. I'm there for it. You've done a great job over the years, man. So thank you so much for your contributions. I keep us laughing at and I meant that in space. Yeah. You knock on the door. I'll let you in.

Starting point is 02:18:05 And... Hey, and if you do that, then I won't be lost in space. How about that? You'll have a guide. Yeah, I will. Lost in Space, 5,000 facts for navigating the universe. That's your new book. It's a beauty.

Starting point is 02:18:18 Thanks for the shoutout. Yep, you bet, man. And thank you so much, Neil. I appreciate it. All right. Don't you wish you could just hit skip on the worst parts of your life? You know, the same way you can skip an ad? I get it.

Starting point is 02:18:57 I'm Siaya and I live in Ice Cove. I've made some questionable decisions that didn't end up the way I planned. And today I'm still figuring it out. Somehow things usually get worse before they get better. Apparently, that's how I roll. So bundle up and come along for the bumpy ride. Stream a new episode of North of North Tuesdays on CBC Gem.

This Past Weekend - #683 - Neil deGrasse Tyson

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