Are You a Boy or a Girl?

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We have this urge to compartmentalise, ok. Let's hold the boy girl aside just for a moment and look at for me an interesting example of this. Hurricanes, once they cross some threshold of of wind speed and an barometric pressure, we begin to categorize them, category one, category two, three, four, five. Yet wheat can go from a low category three to a high category three. And it, that fact, will not make the news. But if it goes one mile an hour above and lands in category four, that's breaking news. And so the question comes down to, why do we always have to compartmentalize things?

Shermer and Tyson discuss: why he decided to write about social, cultural, and political issues now • conflict and resolution in science and society • moral progress in society and why it happens • meatarians and vegetarians • race and gender • law and order • the principle of interchangeable perspectives • conflicting rights and how to resolve them • Rationalia (Neil’s hypothetical country whose laws are based on rationality) • life and death • how long Neil would like to live • the meaning in life.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist and the author of the #1 bestselling Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, among other books. He is the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, where he has served since 1996. Dr. Tyson is also the host and cofounder of the Emmy-nominated popular podcast StarTalk and its spinoff StarTalk Sports Edition, which combine science, humor, and pop culture. He is a recipient of 21 honorary doctorates, the Public Welfare Medal from the National Academy of Sciences, and the Distinguished Public Service Medal from NASA. Asteroid 13123 Tyson is named in his honor. He lives in New York City.