December 9, 2015 8:00 pm

This Friday, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Susan Sarandon Discuss the Cosmic Perspective

This Friday’s podcast is all about expanding our perspectives, cosmically and otherwise.

So who better to anchor an episode about changing how we see ourselves, and our planet, and each other, than Susan Sarandon.

She’s an actress and an activist both for LGBTQ rights and for the legalization of marijuana. Her entire career, going back to her memorable role as Janet in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, through Thelma and Louise, and up to her current roles today, has been about defying the conventional restrictions that keep us from being who we want to be and who we are supposed to be.

She’s also, as you’ll find out, a card-carrying geek who loves space and embraces the cosmic perspective.

Needless to say, this week’s show is a little different than most of our episodes.

For one thing, we’ve got 3 astrophysicists on the show, all from the American Museum of Natural History: Neil deGrasse Tyson, our host; Dr. Rebecca Oppenheimer, Ph.D., the head of the Department of Astrophysics, Division of Physical Sciences; and Dr. Emily L. Rice, Ph.D., an astrophysicist at the Museum and an Assistant Professor of Engineering Science & Physics at CUNY Staten Island.

For another, our co-executive producer, Helen Matsos, makes an appearance on the show, which was filmed right around Emmy time, to show off her cosmic-themed dress by Valentino.

We’ve also added a new regular co-host to our team: Maeve Higgins, who was a guest comedian for our StarTalk Live! at the Apollo shows, and who you’ll be seeing more in upcoming episodes.

The subject matter of this show is also different than most of our other episodes, from reassessing gender roles to the legalization of marijuana. You’ll meet a transgendered astrophysicist, ponder whether marijuana might have helped Carl Sagan expand his own perspectives, and hear about how looking down on Earth from space changed the way two different astronauts think of our home planet: Mike Massimino, and Samantha Cristoforetti, the Italian astronaut who holds the record for longest single space flight by a woman. Bill Nye even weighs in on broadening one’s perspective through… science, of course.

If you’re ready to challenge conventional wisdom, let go of your pre-conceptions and dive into a mind-bending, perspective-expanding episode, then you’re in for an interesting ride.

Join us this Friday, December 11 at 7pm ET on our website, iTunesPodcasts, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and TuneIn.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!
–Jeffrey Simons