Season 8 Time Capsule (Part 1)

Photo credits, clockwise from top left: Ben Ratner; Brandon Royal; Ben Ratner; Ben Ratner; Brandon Royal; Stacey Severn.
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About This Episode

Every year we look back at our fan’s favorite episodes and guests – and our own – and pick the best of the best to put into our Time Capsule episodes. To kick of the Season 8 Time Capsule of regular episodes (Cosmic Queries are coming next week in Part 2), Neil deGrasse Tyson sits down with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria and Chuck Nice to explore the impact of immigration on science and innovation in America and how the United States became a science powerhouse. Next, Neil, William Shatner, Chuck, and astrophysicist Charles Liu investigate the magic of science fiction and its projections of the future, the issue of race relations in America as seen through the lens of Star Trek, and the imagination required to study science. After that, Neil chats with actor and former NFL player Terry Crews, Chuck, and Dr. Felicia D. Stoler, America’s Health & Wellness Expert™, about Terry’s path of fitness, where his desire to be strong comes from, and the positives and negatives of working out. Col. Chris Hadfield, former astronaut and ISS Commander, then takes over the hosting chair to discuss his visceral experience “walking through” the Northern Lights on a spacewalk, and what extraterrestrial life might look like, with help from comic co-host Maeve Higgins, Scott Adsit, electrical engineer Katherine Pratt, mechanical engineer Suveen Mathaudhu, and, via hologram technology, Dr. Stephen Hawking. Next, geek out with Neil, Chuck, former MythBuster Adam Savage, and NYU philosopher and author Matthew Lao, about the promises and perils of human augmentation, Iron Man vs. Batman, exoskeletons, and the ethical dilemmas human augmentation might create. Lastly, Bill Nye, Chuck, and Ross Andersen, Senior Editor at The Atlantic, answer fan-submitted Cosmic Queries about science and the search for the truth: whether social media is making us dumber, if we should consider re-structuring the way we vote, and more. Tune in next week for the best of Cosmic Queries in Part 2!

NOTE: All-Access subscribers can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: Season 8 Time Capsule (Part 1).

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