Tyson is a
conduit to
knowledge
By Brandon Fibbs
What to say about Neil deGrasse Tyson that hasn’t
already been said? These are the facts: Neil is the
director of the Hayden Planetarium at New York
City’s American Museum of Natural History. He is an
astrophysicist and New York Times bestselling author,
former host of “NOVA ScienceNow,” and frequent
guest on such shows as Comedy Central’s “The Daily
Show” and “The Colbert Report,” “Real Time with Bill
Maher” and “Jeopardy.” He is also, arguably, the
country’s most recognized science educator and
that most rare of specimens — a celebrity scientist.
Those are the facts. But for me, Neil is so much
more. He is also a dear friend and mentor. Neil has
been a tremendous force in my adulthood, both a
sounding board and a shaman to sea changes in
my personal life and the philosophies that orient it.
I first met Neil deGrasse Tyson a decade ago at a
large space symposium. At the intimate dinners and
large public events that followed, in which politicians
and movie stars hung on his every word just like those
who happened to recognize him on the street, I’ve
had the honor of observing how a teacher of the
highest caliber speaks into the lives of his students.
The thing about Neil is, when you spend any
amount of time with him, he makes you think you
can do astrophysics.
You can’t, of course. It is profoundly difficult stuff.
But his explanations are so lucid and so clear that
he reduces the most complex ideas to something
shockingly intuitive. He does this not by dumbing the
material down, but by elevating your aptitude; by
transforming your perspective and the vantage point
Brandon Fibbs is a writer and producer in Los
Angeles, California. A former film critic, he was the
Research Coordinator on “Cosmos: A SpaceTime
Odyssey,” his very first Hollywood gig. He is currently
working on the Science Channel’s upcoming threepart documentary, “The New Race for Space.”
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