Project Hail Mary with Andy Weir

About This Episode

What if a microscopic alien lifeform was slowly eating our sun? Neil deGrasse Tyson and Chuck Nice sit down with Andy Weir, the bestselling author of Project Hail Mary, for a deep dive into designing aliens, science fiction, and science behind the book (and the movie.)

Andy traces his journey from self-publishing The Martian to watching Ridley Scott bring it to the big screen, before turning to his latest novel, Project Hail Mary, now a major film starring Ryan Gosling. What if the sun started to dim due to an alien microorganism?  Neil and Andy dig into just how scientifically feasible that actually is.

We unpack Rocky, the film’s alien co-lead, and  Andy reveals how he built Rocky’s entire biology around a real exoplanet in the 40 Eridani star system, a planet that was later found not to exist. How would the planet’s environment impact alien life’s morphology, technology, and culture? Could an alien species achieve interstellar travel with just Newtonian physics? Plus, why does Andy always seem to write stories where the protagonist is so isolated in space?

They also explore the storytelling mechanics that make the reluctant, unqualified, genuinely scared hero so compelling, why Andy cut a scene where humanity nukes Antarctica to trigger controlled global warming, and what it means that neither species in the story is more technologically advanced across the board. Andy closes with hard-won advice for aspiring writers. Keep Looking Up!

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