yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Bill Nye The Science Guy's Origin Story | StarTalk


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

We're featuring my interview with science communicator extraordinaire Bill Nye, and I asked how his interest in comedy and his background in engineering coalesced into the identity of the Science Guy.

Let's check it out. It's a wonderful thing to get people to laugh at your comedy jokes. So I started doing stand-up, or trying to do stand-up, well, I can stand up clubs and stuff. Yeah, yeah. So I would work on a drawing board and then I would go home and take a nap and then go to comedy clubs.

So you were an engineer by day, comedian by night, sir? Yes, I wrote that. What I was trying to do, it's a problem. The thing that always trumpets? Engineering is still in your head at some...

Yeah, I miss it while you're doing that. Yeah, I...

So what's the stick? Engineering informed? Yes, that's what I say. Hilarious jokes about electrocuting yourself while trying to fix a blender. Wow, is that funny? And chewing marshmallows frozen in liquid nitrogen so that steam comes out of your nose? Hilarious! Come on, it's a payoff.

And I realized that what I wanted to do, you know, I came of age at a time for me as a mechanical engineer, is really troubling. We had the Chevy Vega and the Ford Pinto, and these were just badly designed cars. The administration decided not to embrace the metric system, something you and I haven't fully agreed on, is my belief.

There's America, yeah, yeah. The United States was falling behind industrially. Is America? So I got very concerned about the future. I'm not kidding. Very concerned.

And I realized, working at the Science Center in Seattle, that young people are the key to the future. I mean, this is obvious, but they're the key to our industrial future. They're key to our economic competitiveness. They're the future of civilization.

And so I wanted to get kids excited about science in the same way I had been excited about science by my teachers and a television guy named Don Herbert, Mr. Wizard. I remember Mr. Wizard.

So all this came together into a unique arc of life. That's my claim. That's my story. [Applause] [Music]

More Articles

View All
Network is the key to selling corporate jets.
You sell some really expensive stuff. Take us through the process of how you sell it. It takes many, many years of building that network because the network is key. You have to get to know people who have these assets, and you have to convince them to gi…
My response to Kevin O’Leary | Shark Tank
What’s up guys, it’s Graham here. So let me just start off by saying this: I’ve been watching the show “Shark Tank” back when it first came out in 2009. For anyone who’s not aware of the show, it’s basically where entrepreneurs can pitch their ideas to a …
Dilating a triangle example
We are asked to draw the image of triangle ABC under a dilation whose center is P and scale factor is one fourth. So pause this video and at least think about how you would do this. You don’t have access to the tool that I do, where I can move this around…
There Are Better Ways to Save Sharks—Here's How | National Geographic
My name is Jess Graham, and I am a shark researcher and responsible marine conservationist. Lots of hammerhead sharks, frisky seals, huge yellowfin tuna, massive snapper—I’ve never seen anything like it! I’m studying the effectiveness of marine reserves o…
Subtracting 1 vs. subtracting 10 | Addition and subtraction within 100 | 2nd grade | Khan Academy
What I want you to do is pause the video and think about what 27 minus one is, and then think about what 27 minus 10 is. Alright, you might have found it pretty straightforward, but I want to think about it in terms of place value. So let’s focus on 27.…
paris vlog|becoming an adult, girls trip, shopping, eating out 🥐🇫🇷
People I know always say that I’m super lucky to have a supporting, loving, and caring family, but it’s not entirely true because of the problems that we had among our relatives. My parents taught me to respect, love, and protect our family. Since I hit p…