Joe Rogan Experience #1159 - Neil deGrasse Tyson

So, why aren't there flying cars?

(laughs)

(laughs)

You're just jumping right in. You don't say hi. You don't say-

I said hi already.

... how's the wife and k- how's the wife and kids? (laughs)

How is everybody, man? How's life? How's your book? It's been on the Times bestseller list for how many weeks?

Oh, the, the Astrophysics for People in a Hurry. That's been on the, on the New York Times bestseller list for 67 weeks.

That's pretty intense.

It's cra- that's, that's a lot for any book, much less for a science book. And so, that tells me, while all these Trump books are wafting in and out, this is bobbing like a cork, like a cork on the ocean waves as the book of the moment th- that either praises Trump or criticizes, or criticizes him come in and off of that list.

Mm.

So this tells me that there is this unserved hunger that people have. There's a curiosity that this is serving. And it's (laughs) to, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, that's kind of a, that's very purposefully juxtaposed. It's like, Neurosurgery in Four Easy Steps. You know, if you saw a book with that title, you'd have to pick it up.

(laughs)

(laughs) 'Cause you'd wonder what's going on.

Well, not to kiss your ass again, but I always say this about you and I think it's important. You make learning stuff about astrophysics fun. And that's what's missing, you know. It's not that people don't like to be educated, that they don't like to learn. They just don't wanna be bored.

That's a perceptive point because, you know, think of the image we have of, let's say you're in a school where most people don't go to college, uh, you're in high school. And then last day of school comes. What do people do? They toss their papers in the air as they run down the steps, "School's out. No." What, what's the Rock song?

(sings) School's out for summer.

(sings) School's out for...

Summer.

... at summer. Was it forever?

And then ever. Ever, yeah.

Then forever.

Ever, yeah.

Right? So that attitude must mean the school didn't train you to embrace curiosity.

Right.

That learning was a chore, and now the chores are over.

Yeah.

So I think the educational system needs an adjustment. Forget whether or not you go to college, 'cause you're gonna spend more years not in school than in school even if you do go to college. What you want, I think, are lifelong learners, lifelong curiosity.

Yes.

Where once you are trained and, and, and, and, and your curiosity is stimulated, the curiosity we all had as children. You're ... Children don't need to be taught to be curious. They are curious to the point of destruction of whatever it is they touch. "Oh, what is this egg on the counter? What is this glass? What is this plate? What's under a rock? What happens if I pull a leg off a daddy longleg?" You know, they are-