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
If
Hey, Vsauce. Michael here. Earlier this month, I travelled to Kourou in French Guiana with euronews to watch the launch of Vega Rocket, if it happened while I was there. Waiting at the observation point with only minutes to go, the launch was postponed be…
Episode 1 Recap | MARS
Previously on Mars, we knew Mars wouldn’t welcome us with open arms. Warning system offline. Permission was switched from primary to backup. “Do it. Prepare for V’s propulsion.” We were ready to give everything to get there. Mission Control, us in datal…
shower thoughts that everyone asked for..
So purush, our thoughts that everyone asked, or right? Well, at least some people asked for it. But you know what? No one has probably ever asked, “Where are you?” in sign language before. Actually, the phrase “Where are you?” was probably really used unt…
Solar Eclipse 101 | National Geographic
[Narrator] A solar eclipse happens when a new moon moves between the Earth and the sun, blocking some or all of the sun’s rays from reaching the Earth. By cosmic chance, even though the sun is 400 times wider than the moon, it’s also 400 times farther awa…
Chase a Wild Buffalo Stampede With These Heroic Cowboys | Short Film Showcase
[Music] Big day we’re all been waiting for. Buffalo waiting; all of us are excited, a little nervous, but I guess we’re ready—ready as we’re going to be. My name is Duke Phillips. I manage the Mana Ranch. It’s um, a little over 100,000 acres located in t…
Bridge of Terror | Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks
I gotta worry about navigating the boat through the bridge without the shrine. This bridge is the reason why you know people are afraid to go fishing here. It’s our 16th day in the water; we’ve only caught one fish and that was on our first day. We’re des…