January 31, 2015 5:51 pm

This Sunday, Return to Water World with Neil deGrasse Tyson and StarTalk Live!

Elliot Severn took this photo of His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa, Dr. Tess Russo and Neil deGrasse Tyson at StarTalk Live! at The Beacon Theater in NYC.

StarTalk Live! Water World at The Beacon Theater in NYC. From left: His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa, Dr. Tess Russo and Neil deGrasse Tyson. Credit: Elliot Severn.

Like Part 1 last week, the unexpected moments are what make StarTalk Live! Water World (Part 2) so delightful.

For instance, you can reasonably expect that you’ll hear Robert F. Kennedy Jr. talking about how water privatization has become a trillion-dollar industry and warning about “biostitutes” and the failure of democracy when policy is driven by moneyed interests, not science.

But you probably weren’t expecting to hear him say that the most important environmental issue we have is making livable cities.

And while you might expect His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa to talk about Naga, and what water represents spiritually, it’s unlikely you’d predict that Jason Sudeikis would get all spiritual about the water cycle. (Don’t worry… given that it is Jason, you know there’s a deeply seditious kicker on the way.)

And the most unexpected exchange of them all?

Talking about respecting and listening to nature, His Holiness says that “we shouldn’t talk about any other religion, we just talk about the reality… we should always be with the reality.”

To which Neil deGrasse Tyson replies, “Your holiness, there is nothing I can add or subtract from what you just said.”

It’s one of those moments at StarTalk Live! when one might be tempted to say, “you had to be there” – if it weren’t for the fact that we recorded the whole thing, and you can listen tomorrow night.

Join us for the conclusion to StarTalk Live! Water World this Sunday, February 1 at 7:00 PM ET on our website, iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn and SoundCloud.

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

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