SEATTLE — He's a Harvard-educated astrophysicist, author, and head of New York's prestigious Hayden Planetarium. Storytelling scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson is on his way to Seattle for two nearly sold-out shows at the Paramount.
"It's one of my deepest networks of fans," Tyson said of his fervent Seattle following.
His lectures are fit for a theater setting.
"I call it a lecture, but of course it's 'performance learning' if you want to call it that," Tyson said.
He combines video and still images with plenty of wit and whimsy.
"I don't crack jokes," he said. "But personally I think the universe is intrinsically hilarious."
Humans can be pretty amusing, too. And Tyson frequently shares his opinions about them.
"You start denying climate change, denying the effectiveness of vaccines, you start saying the earth is flat, or we've never been to the moon, and if you feel those things and you rise to power, then you might as well start the unraveling of civilization that we've worked so hard to build over the past thousands of years," he said.
He has issues with billionaire rocket builder Elon Musk, but is also willing to give the man his due.
"If you don't like something Elon says because it's boneheaded or misogynistic or racist or whatever, it's socially regressive, you can say, 'ya know, I don't like that part of him,'" Tyson said, "But he basically single-handedly transformed our automotive conversation to fundamentally include electric cars."
Tyson would love to see humans venture to other planets, but he doesn't expect it to happen soon.
"I can tell you the conditions under which we would go to Mars. And that's if China says they want to put military bases on Mars, we'll be on Mars like that," he said with a snap of his fingers.
In the meantime, we'll settle for a very enthusiastic scientist taking us across the universe through the sheer force of enthusiasm.
"All kids are curious," Tyson said. "I just stayed being a kid."
KING 5's Evening celebrates the Northwest. Contact us: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Email.