- Astrophysicist and straight up genius,
Neil deGrasse Tyson!
(audience cheering)
Neil.
Has anyone here seen the movie "Don't Look Up"?
- [Audience] Yes.
- Great, that is so helpful to this quick conversation.
'Cause I had to sidebar.
I know you tweeted about "Don't Look Up."
So when I saw "Don't Look Up,"
I watched it at night before bed alone.
Big mistake.
You should watch it with friends during the daytime.
- [Neil] Yeah.
- But the next day, the movie really resonated with me,
and I had a very different feeling
about it kind of in processing it.
What do you think of the film?
You were tweeting about it.
- Yeah, I saw it, like everybody else.
And it's comical, and playful, and everything.
And then, "I said, wait a minute.
That's the experience I had on social media.
That's my experience I had with the news
and with politicians.
And I started assembling the puzzle pieces.
And I said to myself, "This isn't just some story.
This is a documentary of what would happen
if we find a killer asteroid."
I don't know that I have confidence
that we have the collective, societal maturity
to handle that information,
and to save civilization
that we have so long,
hard built as part of what it is to be alive
in this world as human beings.
So yeah, it scared me to death too.
- Mm. - Oh yeah.
- Yeah. - And I'll tell you just,
I mean, think of the global warming analog to that.
All right? - Yes.
- Almost every important city in the world
was built on the water's edge,
be it a lake, a river or the ocean,
to enable commerce, transportation, irrigation.
Do you realize if we lose
the Greenland and Antarctic ice caps,
the water levels will rise
to the Statue of Liberty's left elbow
flooding every city that we spent centuries building?
I mean, how selfish can you be to say,
"Oh my descendants, they'll have to deal with it.
But right now I'm gonna maximize
every threat of profit I can"?
So I'd look at the beautiful civilization
that we have crafted.
I don't wanna lose it. - I agree.
And, in fact, your beautiful book, which is your 18th book.
- I wasn't keeping track.
- 18th! - I wasn't keeping track.
- "Welcome to the Universe."
- What's good about it,
like it has goggles in it
that enable you to see pairs of images as full 3D.
But the value of it is where like there's the moon in there
where it's not just a picture of the moon,
the moon pops and it becomes a world
right in front of your eyes.
And it's the world building that this... (laughs)
- How freaking cool is this, you guys?
No book comes with this, Neil, I love you so much.
- [Neil] It's hard to produce a book like this.
- No, it's not easy! - Right, right, right.
So it takes you from the small out to the large,
and you see the universe.
And you also see the constellations
thinking that they're just patterns on a night sky,
but they pop into the full three dimensions that they are
and you see the stars scattered through space.
And you say, "Wait a minute,
I thought those are supposed to influence me
because it was a lion, or a centaur, or a crab."
- I do love a centaur.
They're so cool.
Neil. - Yeah.
So that's a whole other access point.
Oh, oh, one other thing.
Can I say this? - Please.
- That each of those pictures has a caption.
So if you go to the website, WelcometotheUniverse.net,
you see the whole series of books that this is a part of,
but in there there's a bonus feature
where I narrate each of those captions
while you're looking through this.
And I use my planetarium voice which is,
welcome to the universe.
- [Drew] Yeah! (audience clapping)
Neil, as a last question. - Yeah.
- Speaking of men trying to colonize,
because I don't know what's up with it.
- A gene thing, a testosterone thing, yeah.
- I don't know what it is.
But if Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk or Richard Branson called you
to go on the next flight,
would you go and who with? - So here's what I would do.
So Elon is the only one actually putting people into orbit.
That would be kind of fun.
So I say, Elon, put me in orbit.
And between Bezos and Branson,
I'd party with Richard Branson.
- Yes, I'm with you!
Oh my gosh, you have it here.
Party with Branson. - And orbit with Elon.
- Orbit with Elon and ask Bezos...
- Can I get my package tomorrow afternoon at three o'clock?
- How did you change the world?
Oh, Neil, you are the greatest.
Don't forget to get your amazing, unusual,
just like you. - Yeah, very unusual.
It's very unusual. - Unique
and extraordinary book,
"Welcome to the Universe in 3D: A Visual Tour,"
'cause it's in stores right now.
Neil, please may I never have to spend
an Earth Day without you.
- That is a beautiful request, which I will honor.
(upbeat music)