Neil deGrasse Tyson and Adam Carolla Explore the Cosmos and Talk Construction

Summary

Podcast Summary: Adam Carolla Show

Episode: Neil deGrasse Tyson and Adam Carolla Explore the Cosmos and Talk Construction
Date: October 9, 2025
Host: Adam Carolla
Guests: Neil deGrasse Tyson, Alicia Krause (News), Dawson

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Overview

In this lively episode, Adam Carolla sits down with renowned astrophysicist and science communicator Neil deGrasse Tyson to discuss a wide range of topics including the new resurgence in faith among Gen Z, the practicality and pride in manual skills, trends in book writing and publishing, the state of public education, and an in-depth, often humorous critique of Hollywood’s approach to science and construction realism in blockbuster movies. The episode also includes doses of Carolla’s signature social commentary, especially on generational change, political controversies, and the everyday value of expertise.

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Key Topics & Discussions

Music, Politics, and Cultural Commentary (00:54 – 13:05)

• Zach Bryan & John Mayer Sell Out Michigan Stadium

  • Alicia reports on the popularity of Zach Bryan and a recent stadium-filling concert.
  • Adam jokes about making up country music lyrics around immigration, labor, and stucco:
    “You remove these Mexicans, you get no stucco…” (03:02)

• Political Themes in Music

  • Discussion of Zach Bryan’s new song “Bad News” and its criticism of immigration enforcement, with Adam playful and critical about virtue-signaling in music:
    “Bruce [Springsteen] is like a soft pussy.” (04:28)
    “All I get from you is virtue signaling.” (05:22)

• Virtue Signaling and Political Storytelling

  • Carolla riffs on Springsteen, Biden, and how public figures narrate social decline through personal anecdotes.

Social Shifts & Generational Trends (12:33 – 15:56)

• Gen Z Men Returning to Church

  • Alicia shares news about an increase in church attendance among Gen Z men, possibly linked to generational or societal shifts post a crisis event:
    “Gen Z men are attending slightly more often than millennial men, even marking a generational reversal…” (12:09)
  • Adam suggests increased church attendance could have positive effects on culture and community.

• Women, Technology, and Changing Social Dynamics

  • Extended riff on how technology and shrinking social bonds may be contributing to increased displays of public frustration, especially among women:
    “Women are going a little extra crazy on ICE officers or police officers…” (14:44)

The Value of Hands-On Skills & Self-Sufficiency (15:00 – 22:08)

• Manual Fixes and Pride in Repairs
  • Adam regales stories of fixing his own merchandise bags rather than buying new, using them as metaphors for doing hard things:
    “The feel-good part... is doing something hard; society doesn't experience it because they avoid it.” (17:27)
  • Discussion expands into fixing household appliances and learning practical skills.

News Commentary: Politics & Legal System (24:07 – 35:12)

• Controversial Political Texts
  • Alicia covers the story of Virginia Attorneys General candidate Jay Jones’s violent texts about a colleague, sparking conversations about political polarization and rhetoric:
    “He admitted he was joking that a previous House speaker should get... two bullets to the head.” (25:20) “If you’re doing evil and breeding fascists, then... you need a bullet.” (27:06)
• Double Standards in Politics and Justice
  • Carolla critiques how political sides leverage the justice system and the inconsistencies in reactions to political lawfare and property valuation controversies (e.g., Trump’s Mar-a-Lago case).

Neil deGrasse Tyson Interview (38:17 – 101:01)

Publishing, Book Writing, and Legacy (38:17 – 42:42)

• Tyson's New Book: Just Visiting This Planet
  • Tyson explains his playful Q&A format, inspired by his “Merlin” column, and the collaborative illustrations by his brother.
  • Adam and Neil share amusing war stories about leftover books after publisher print runs.

Growing Up, Education, and Science Culture (42:47 – 53:39)

• Bronx Upbringing & NYC in the 70s
  • Tyson describes the transformation of New York and the Bronx, referencing social climate and notable alumni from Bronx Science High.
  • Discussion of vocational education’s decline and hands-on learning’s value:
    “I have a deep appreciation for what it means to use your hands to build stuff…” – Tyson (52:05)
• Shop Teachers & Vocational Pride
  • Adam recounts both the value of shop class and the gruff personalities of shop teachers.

Expertise, Emotional Security & Modern Work (55:03 – 59:15)

• Needing a Field of Expertise
  • Carolla and Tyson lament a world where many have lost identifiable, practical expertise:
    “People need something that other people can come to them for advice on.” – Tyson (56:03)
• Modern Alienation and Fantasy of Usefulness
  • They riff on the fantasy of being the indispensable expert at a party or emergency.

Metal Studs, Construction Advice & Carpentry (59:19 – 63:41)

• Transition to Metal Studs in NYC Construction
  • Tyson asks Adam’s take on metal versus wood studs, leading to a passionate, detailed defense of metal studs for commercial interiors:
    “Metal studs are straight—always straight, straight as an arrow good...”
  • Tips on how to hang heavy objects on metal stud walls, practical framing and wiring considerations.

Individual Passions, School Sorting & Life Philosophy (64:42 – 66:46)

• Finding & Following Passion
  • Tyson notes the privilege and luck of finding a life passion early:
    “I had a passion since I was nine… Many are still searching even if they're adults.” (64:55)
  • Adam reflects on empathy for people who never discover their “thing.”

Science & Hollywood: Critiquing Physics in Movies (67:10 – 95:14)

• Ruin or Enhance? Experts Watching Movies

  • Tyson and Carolla bond over the habit of identifying technical inaccuracies in films—whether it’s astrophysics or construction.
    • “If you can find [Seth Meyers making fun of my Gravity tweets]...” – Tyson (80:15)
    • “You're a blue-collar nerd.” – Tyson to Adam (91:23)

• Armageddon, Gravity, and The Day After Tomorrow

  • Hilarious, in-depth breakdowns of famous film mistakes:
    • In "Gravity," Clooney's character didn't need to "cut the tether" (“You just give it one tug and he would drift towards you.” – Tyson, 78:10)
    • “Armageddon violated more laws of physics per minute than any other movie… until Moonfall.” – Tyson (69:38, 95:43)
  • Adam’s tirade: “What is this, an ice cream scooper that cost 600 bucks? It probably cost $35,000!” (72:43)

• The Martian: Science Done Right

  • Tyson gives high praise to Andy Weir for rigorous scientific realism and for double-checking calculations, worried about Tyson’s potential tweets (97:09).

Space News & Competition with China (97:58 – 100:57)

• Water Traces and Life on Mars

  • Tyson explains the latest findings on Mars:
    • “It's not fossilized life; it's fossilized life excrement… helps shape the next round of questions.” (97:59)

• US vs. China—Back to the Moon

  • Carolla and Tyson discuss geopolitical motivations fueling renewed US efforts to land people on the moon, framing it as renewed competition:
    “This is just a dick swinging competition.” – Carolla (99:54)
    “China says they're putting Taikonauts on the moon—now NASA has to go, too.” – Tyson (100:14)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• Adam on Virtue Signaling in Music:
  “Bruce does a lot of that… There was a place, and people went there, and now they don’t. Anything else you’d like to alert us to?” (05:00)

• Tyson on Expertise: “People need something that other people can come to them for advice on.” (56:08) “You're a rationalist… a blue-collar nerd.” (91:19, 91:26)

• Tyson on Arms of Movie Science: “If you can find the clip with Seth Meyers—SNL made a joke about my critiques of Gravity!” (80:45) “Armageddon violated more laws of physics per minute than any movie until Moonfall.” (95:55)

• Tyson on Hands-On Learning:
  “Any time I confront an electrical board or sheet metal or my toolbox, it comes to me from those [shop class] times.” (52:05)

• Carolla on Reward of Fixing Things:
  “Every time I saw it, I'd see this piece of wood I put along the bottom to fix it. Reminded me that I fixed it and it worked fine…” (17:33)

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Highlighted Timestamps

• Music, Political Lyrics, and Virtue Signaling: 02:48 – 06:29
• Gen Z, Faith, and Social Cohesion: 12:33 – 15:56
• Manual Skills, Fixing & Confidence: 15:00 – 22:08
• Jay Jones and Political Double Standards: 24:07 – 35:12
• Neil deGrasse Tyson Interview: 38:17 – 101:01
  • Book Writing and Publishing: 38:40 – 42:42
  • Legitimate vs. Movie Science: 67:10 – 95:31
  • Movie “Gravity” Tether Scene: 76:58 – 79:51
  • Construction: Metal Studs vs. Wood Studs: 59:19 – 63:41
  • Water/Life on Mars: 97:58 – 98:50
  • Competition to Return to the Moon: 99:48 – 100:57

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Memorable Moments

• Carolla’s thorough, passionate explanation of framing, metal studs, and his disdain for arbitrary resistance to industry change (61:01 – 63:32).
• Tyson and Carolla’s mutual joy in pointing out movie inaccuracies, cementing the “blue collar nerd” tag.
• SNL's light roasting of Tyson over his “Gravity” criticism, which the physicist takes in stride (80:41).
• Extended riff on “life’s fantasy moments” (being the plane doctor, the piano virtuoso, or the party scientist) and the emotional security specialized knowledge gives.

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Tone & Style

The episode is loose, funny, and conversational—true to Carolla’s style, blending dry wit, playful jabs, and straight talk. Tyson brings both wonder and pragmatism, displaying his signature enthusiasm for science and public outreach while engaging easily in Adam’s everyman, hands-on perspective. The pair are at their best when teasing out the overlap between technical rigor and practical wisdom, whether in space science or cabinet repair.

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Conclusion

This episode stands out for its blend of high-level science, cultural observation, Gen Z social trends, everyday practicality, and rich, nerdy humor. Whether riffing on blockbuster logic fails or debating the finer points of carpentry, Adam Carolla and Neil deGrasse Tyson offer listeners an entertaining and accessible look at the value of curiosity, expertise, and honest debate in a complex world.

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For further listening or to catch Adam Carolla and Neil deGrasse Tyson live, visit AdamCarolla.com or check out Tyson’s new book “Just Visiting This Planet.”

Transcript

[Adam Carolla]

Neil DeGrasse Tyson is my one on one guest. Very enlightening conversation with him. Alicia Krause has the news. And we'll do all that right after this.

[Dawson]

From Corolla One studios in Glendale, California, this is the Adam Carolla Show. Adam's guest today, Neil Degrasse Tyson. Plus the news with the Washington Examiners, Alicia Krause. And now a man who also has an asteroid named after him, Adam Corolla.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, get it on. Got to get on the choice of mandate. Get it on. Thanks for listening. Thanks for sharing. Alicia Krause is in here and she's got the news.

[Alicia Krause]

I sure do wanna hear some.

[Adam Carolla]

Nah, not at all. Yeah.

[Alicia Krause]

So did you hear about how John Mayer and Zach Brian, like, sold out Michigan? Like University of Michigan, Ann Arbor's whole stadium?

[Adam Carolla]

John Mayer and Brian?

[Alicia Krause]

Yeah. Wasn't it Zach Bryan? I thought it was him. They did a duet together. Sold it out.

[Adam Carolla]

I don't know who Brian is.

[Alicia Krause]

Zach Bryan did that.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, you're saying Zach Bryan. Okay, I was only hearing Brian John Mayer. Oh, I guess Zack is one of those weird names. Cause you went, you know, John Mayer and Zack Bryan. I thought you were saying John Mayer and the Brian or something, but Brian. Yeah, Zach.

[Alicia Krause]

So they sold it out. So he's a pretty popular guy. I was looking at his Spotify, like numbers earlier. So many of his. Yeah, there you go. Zach Bryan, Michigan Stadium. What is it like? Isn't it like the largest football stadium, like college football stadium in the country? Anyway, epic concert. Everybody said it was awesome. 112,000 people there.

[Adam Carolla]

How does that work? I don't, I don't get how that works, but. All right.

[Alicia Krause]

Sell tickets and people go, no, I.

[Adam Carolla]

Know, I know, it's how it, it goes. But it's confusing to me as to who sells the most, but okay, okay.

[Alicia Krause]

So they popular, really popular guy. A lot of his songs, like on streamers, have over a billion listens, which is kind of crazy. Well, now he's upsetting some people on the right side of the aisle and has even had people within the Trump administration respond to him because it has this new song called Bad News. Let me read you a lyric and see what you think. An ice is gonna come bust down your door to try to build a house no one builds no more but I got a telephone Kids are scared and all alone the boss stopped bumping the rocks stopped rolling the middle fingers rising and it won't stop showing I got some bad news the fading of the red, white and blue.

[Adam Carolla]

Mmm. So it's a kind of anti ice thing.

[Alicia Krause]

Yeah, Like, America is the worst.

[Adam Carolla]

What's the part where the metaphor about the house that won't be built anymore, I wonder, is he talking about labor?

[Alicia Krause]

That's. That was where my mind went.

[Adam Carolla]

What rhymes with stucco? Hey, bucko, you remove these Mexicans, you get no stucco. Write that shit down.

[Dawson]

They'll use fucko in the explicit version.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, yeah. But the radio version is going to be, hey there, bucko. Don't you miss your stucco and your tacos and everything that ends with an O, O, Lord.

[Alicia Krause]

Oh, you think you could sell out a Michigan State?

[Adam Carolla]

I could do, like, illegal driving a trucko. Driving a truck. Go. I could sell out maybe, you know, somewhere like, you know, I don't. Clemson, you know, something like that. Some under 80.

[Alicia Krause]

Under 80?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah.

[Alicia Krause]

Pretty big, though. Still at SEC school.

[Adam Carolla]

It's the biggest. You were right. So he's taking a jab at this country, saying, what are we doing?

[Alicia Krause]

And.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, all right. So not good with the country fans, though, because they.

[Alicia Krause]

I think country is so broad, though, now. There might be an audience for this. Mm, I guess we'll see. Time will tell.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, well, listen, I think you're supposed to sing about what you care about, so if that's what he cares about, he should sing about it.

[Alicia Krause]

So the boss, who he references there, Bruce Springsteen, I guess is kind of his mentor and advisor.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, Bruce is like a soft pussy.

[Alicia Krause]

And there you go. So. And I mean, Bruce has made political statements in his music for years. Obviously, you two and, you know, Bob Dylan and other, like, it's. It's. This has happened for decades. It's not a surprise to people. Bruce.

[Adam Carolla]

Bruce is such a. Bruce does a lot of that. He does a lot of that. You know, there's a factory, and now it's closed. People don't work there anymore.

[Alicia Krause]

It literally sounds like this.

[Adam Carolla]

2, 3, 4. And it's like, yeah, okay, there was a place. Yeah. And now it's gone. Hey, there's a ship. And it was called the Titanic. It's the bottom of the sea now. 2, 3, 4. It's like, okay, Bruce, there was a place, and people went there, and now they don't. Anything else you'd like to alert us to? And I know you think those people should be working somewhere else. Yeah, so we'll call you a hero, Bruce, but all I get from you is sort of virtue signaling. That's all they get.

[Alicia Krause]

Does he go out there and, like, picket with the uaw? Does he do anything? I mean, he's supposed to.

[Adam Carolla]

He does the. My dad worked at the Chevrolet plant in Dearborn and one day came home, he said, brucey. That's what he called me.

[Alicia Krause]

I don't have a job no more.

[Adam Carolla]

I don't have a job no more, so no more food for you. 2, 3, 4. He tells the same sort of bullshit stories that Biden would tell me. He said, see those two fellas hugging on the corner? Ain't nothing wrong with that. 2, 3, 4, sit down. According to Joe Biden and Bruce Springsteen, every single thing happened at their kitchen table. Like, my dad had come home and took his hat off, sat at that kitchen table, he said, joey, you're gonna. You're on your own. 2, 3, 4. And that's. That's all. Every story I've noticed, every one of.

[Dawson]

His stories is in standard time.

[Adam Carolla]

You know the great thing about Joe Biden doesn't do.

[Dawson]

He does for a story ever.

[Alicia Krause]

Joe Biden stories were also like the basketball court, too.

[Adam Carolla]

I learned.

[Alicia Krause]

The basketball court or the kitchen.

[Adam Carolla]

The kitchen tables where he learned.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And when he.

[Adam Carolla]

When he got called Joey, that meant, oh, some wisdom was going to be imparted. His dad, like, ran one of the biggest Chevrolet dealerships in the county. And that's why when he got married at 23, he got a brand new Corvette for his wedding gift.

[Alicia Krause]

Wrong guy.

[Adam Carolla]

For wedding gift.

[Dawson]

Right.

[Adam Carolla]

He got. He got a brand new Corvette. So I don't know. Was. His dad was. How much brown.

[Dawson]

You're gonna store classified documents.

[Adam Carolla]

I got you the 327. Not the big block with the side oiler. 2, 3, 4. Yeah.

[Alicia Krause]

You're gonna listen to the song?

[Adam Carolla]

Sure. I don't. I listen. You could say whatever you want. It's fine. I don't like. Look, I.

[Alicia Krause]

There's a lot of things you don't like. So I'm bracing myself for thing Adam doesn't like. 1001.

[Adam Carolla]

Your side created a problem by letting tons of unvetted people into this country. You created a problem. The problem is now trying to be un rectified or unfuckedified by what you guys did. So, like, first off, the surgeon who comes in after you never got your boil lanced after 30 years, and now it's infectants on your back. It's not really on him. You let it go. You let it go. What rhymes with carbuncle? You let it go. So you let this drunk uncle. You let this problem go. You said that Kamala Harris had been to the border. She was in charge of the border. You had my orcas and everyone lie. You had a picture of border patrol with the reins in their hands, and you said, they're whipping Haitians and children in cages. And children in cages. You created a massive problem. Now the problem is going to have to be fixed. The problem is there's no clean, easy, fast, cheap way to fix this problem other than getting people who are not here legally going in and getting them out.

[Alicia Krause]

Which actually, when I listen to the song and listen to this lyric, is he. Is Zach Bryan insinuating that he's dating an illegal whose kids are all alone, but he's got the phone.

[Adam Carolla]

They have done this. They've done two things. They've said, these people are just here to work, and they started with a lie. Do you guys notice Dawson looking at you, too? What happened in the lie? That they contribute more than they take, that they put in more, they use less. Remember that? Remember, like, three years ago, these people were a net plus.

[Dawson]

They paid more in taxes than all of us.

[Adam Carolla]

Right, right. They paid more, they contributed more, they used less. That was always that. They dropped.

[Alicia Krause]

It's still Newsom's line, by the way.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, is it still? Yeah, well, everyone else dropped that bullshit because it turned out now there's just. They're here. They're here to work. And not only are they here to work, they're gonna do everything you won't do, lazy white man. So leave them alone. Which is their argument. And look, there's some. You know, I have some sympathy for the. You've been here for a million years, and you abide by the laws and you work real hard, then you're on a list, but you're at the bottom of the list. We'll take the troublemakers at the top.

[Alicia Krause]

I do understand even the argument that Obama made when he was president of, like, the dreamers, like, when kids are brought here by their parents, it's not their fault, but then give them a path to citizenship that vets them and figures it out and lets them stay here. That's fine, too.

[Adam Carolla]

Ooh, maybe he should cover that song.

[Alicia Krause]

Obama. He does like to sing. He's not singing.

[Adam Carolla]

No, I'm talking. Zach should. Oh, Zach should take a twist on Don't Fall in Love with the Dreamer. What was that song? Oh, God, that was. Yeah, that was, like, what.

[Alicia Krause]

I feel like.

[Dawson]

Oh, no, it's Kenny Rogers.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

No.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, he's a duet. It's a duet.

[Dawson]

It's the chick. She's got that raspy voice. I love her.

[Alicia Krause]

Stevie Kim Karns.

[Adam Carolla]

No, Kim K. Yeah. She's the one with the Betty Davis eyes and. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kim Karnes and Kenny Rogers.

[Alicia Krause]

I just feel like you guys have really clinched that the next Corolla team outing should be karaoke 100%.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, yeah. So it's Kenny and Kim Kardashian.

[Dawson]

Kim Kardashian.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, good pull, man. That was a good pull.

[Alicia Krause]

Nice.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, That a big hit. Don't fall in love with the dreamer.

[Alicia Krause]

I just gotta say, you know, don't agree with Zach, Brian, but this is the first amendment at work right here.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, I'm fine with it.

[Alicia Krause]

Yeah, there we go.

[Adam Carolla]

All right.

[Alicia Krause]

Couldn't say this in Saudi Arabia.

[Adam Carolla]

No, you could not.

[Alicia Krause]

All right. This is kind of interesting, and my church has experienced this firsthand. According to the Barna Group, who's out in Ventura county, they're like a Christian polling company. They say that Gen Z men are returning to church in surprising numbers in the faith resurgence. I read another article about this this week too. I think it was in Christianity Today where they were like, is it really a rise in young men going to church, or is it a decrease in young women, like, leaving the church? And it's actually a little bit of both. Gen Z men are attending slightly more often than millennial men, even marking a generational reversal from years gone by, according to Daniel Copeland over at the Barna Group. He's the vice president of research over there. He says quot data represents good news for church leaders and adds to the picture that spiritual renewal is shaping Gen Z and millennials today.

[Adam Carolla]

What is the Gen Z age? I've rejected all these title sign everywhere.

[Alicia Krause]

So I'm a grandma millennial, and I'm 39. So Gen Z, I think, is, like, 38 and younger. Right.

[Adam Carolla]

And so they're going, and women aren't going in the same numbers.

[Alicia Krause]

And whether or not it's affiliated, Gen Z men are also kind of coming more to the right as well as Gen Z women move more to the left.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. This bolsters my theory that women are going insane because I see them fighting and screaming and less church probably helps with you with the crazy spitting on ice officers and, like, screaming and stuff like that. I think it makes sense to me. Gen Z is 13 to 28.

[Alicia Krause]

Oh, wow, that's young. That's way young. Wait, so you're saying millennial is 28 to, like, 48 then?

[Adam Carolla]

I don't know.

[Alicia Krause]

I thought it was like, generations were every 20 years.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

No. Yeah, the millennial goes down to, like, 30.

[Alicia Krause]

Oh, wow.

[Adam Carolla]

Okay. All right. So good.

[Alicia Krause]

I was a grandma. Millennial. More people going to church is a good thing.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It is.

[Alicia Krause]

And apparently even some churches. This Barna study came out towards the. It was the end of 2024 into early 2025. This doesn't even include the data since the murder of Charlie Kirk, in which churches all around the country said they saw an insane increase in young men and people generally, but specifically young men going church.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Alicia Krause]

By the way, I think that's better for the country.

[Adam Carolla]

I do, too.

[Alicia Krause]

I think it's better for culture.

[Adam Carolla]

I agree with all that.

[Alicia Krause]

Like, I think, you know, monogamy and Ten Commandments and all those things. The biblical teaches are pretty good.

[Adam Carolla]

I agree. They had it right. It's basically diet and exercise.

[Alicia Krause]

You know, it's spiritual diet and exercise.

[Adam Carolla]

Just, you know, basic stuff, old stuff.

[Alicia Krause]

Well, one of the seven deadly sins is gluttony, so you're right, it is. It's a diet and exercise without Ozempic.

[Adam Carolla]

I agree. But, you know, Ozempic makes it easy for people to cut corners. I think that the cell phone and take easy roads.

[Alicia Krause]

I think that the cell phone has made it easy for people to cut church out of their life, which in turn cuts out community and emotional regulation and normalcy and communication. Right. Like, there's so many things that are negative about technology. And I think removing you from the real world is one of those things. And that's why you see people, like you said, women going a little extra crazy on ice. Officers or police officers.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, I'm only saying women are going crazy because they formerly weren't crazy. It was guys punching and screaming and. And doing that. And now it's women punching and screaming.

[Alicia Krause]

Well, because previously women were stuck at home.

[Adam Carolla]

They couldn't punch and scream. They were stuck at home. And now they're front. They're the tip of the spear. And listen, as a human, we're always trying to find a shortcut for everything. You start off as a kid, and it's like you go all the way around, or you could just hop that fence and be there, like right now. And so you hop the fence. So you just kind of look for ways to get there faster and easier. And so that's what we're wired for. So there's ozempic versus willpower. We'll do the ozempic, and we do everything that way. But eventually you forget that walking the long way burns calories. You meet people, you have experiences, you see things.

[Alicia Krause]

Might see a little butterfly or bird.

[Adam Carolla]

Little bird or butterfly. And Hopping the fence. You sort of deprive yourself of that. And so I always preach this to people like, go get. I am, as you saw, on my second merch bag repair, the first merch bag repair completely blew out the bottom of it. The zipper pulled apart and the things.

[Alicia Krause]

That blew it out. You're a doer.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. And I went and they said, throw out the merch bag and go buy a new merch bag. And I said, well, not throw out that merch bag. I shall fix that merch bag. And I fixed it.

[Alicia Krause]

That's what you were doing when I got here. I was like, what are you doing?

[Adam Carolla]

Well, that was the first merch bag I fixed. And then we dragged that thing around the country for another two years, and then eventually Burbank airport made me toss it for a long story. But either way, the second merch bag, the handles just pulled off. And then somebody said, throw that away. Get a new merch bag. And I said, I'm going to fix the handle. Now I got the money for a new merch bag. I just don't like filling the landfill with more plastic, number one. And then number two, I can fix it. And I have a bunch of tools and it feels good to fix things.

[Alicia Krause]

And I think that that's the part that people don't realize is the feel good part. Like there can be some level of dang it. I feel stupid. I don't know what tools to use. I don't know how to fix this. But then when you work through that and get to the part of fixing something or doing something hard, it's the good feeling at the other end of it. And then a lot of society doesn't experience anymore because they don't do the hard thing in the first place. They avoid the hard thing.

[Adam Carolla]

I traveled the country for two years with my fixed merch bag and I was throwing that thing in the back of Ubers and putting it on the scale, the Southwest terminal, whatever. And every time I saw it, I'd see this piece of wood that I put along the bottom to fix it. And it reminded me that I fixed it and that it worked fine. Yeah, and it always worked fine. We never had to throw it out because it didn't come undone. Now, it didn't look as good as other merch bags out there, but now the handle's blown out on this one and I'm gonna have to fix this.

[Alicia Krause]

Did you zip tie it or what are you gonna do to it?

[Adam Carolla]

It's a handle, like a D shaped handle, a regular Handle that is just pulled out from the cloth and the hole has been yoked out. And because the thing weighs, you end up putting £50 worth of books in there. True. It's bound to happen again because someone's gonna lift it by the handle and it's gonna be 50 pounds and it's.

[Alicia Krause]

Gonna blow out like a really big ke you're carrying around the country.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. So I'm going to have to put a backer, something broad on it in between. I'm gonna have to spread that load out. I'm gonna figure it out.

[Alicia Krause]

But you have to be careful what you use as the backer because most of the time your limit domestic travel is 50 pounds. So if you have 50 pounds of merch, you don't want to lose out on money. By putting in like a plywood backer that takes up what, £3?

[Dawson]

You can find a piece of plastic.

[Adam Carolla]

No, I'm gonna. I'm weighing it. I'm weighing.

[Alicia Krause]

You're gonna wait along the way and see.

[Adam Carolla]

I'm weighing doing a through bolt versus a wood screw type thing. Either way, I will examine it.

[Alicia Krause]

I want to see before and after.

[Adam Carolla]

It will work just like the other bag I worked out.

[Alicia Krause]

We should document this for the gram.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. I don't have a. I gotta find what I got here in terms of materials and stuff like that. But I will. I will fix it and it shall.

[Alicia Krause]

Can you come to my house? Because I've been on the phone with two different companies today. My washing machine lock is like, just. And it. I can't use my washing machine. So.

[Adam Carolla]

Your washing machine lock.

[Alicia Krause]

Yeah, so you know, like the. Where it clicks and then like, it locks and then the load runs. It won't lock.

[Adam Carolla]

It won't last.

[Alicia Krause]

It's like the top part, the plastic part, whatever was on the inside, I can see it dangling.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Alicia Krause]

And it won't.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, you got to order that part. Yeah, well, you got to go figure out what unit you have.

[Alicia Krause]

I got the unit and the serial number and it's under warranty and all that stuff. And they're telling me they can't come for a week. And I'm like, yo, I have four kids and three adults in this house. You think I can go a week without doing laundry?

[Adam Carolla]

I'll bet you that part goes bad frequently on that unit. And I bet you can buy it fairly cheaply online. And it's probably just two screws away from being replaced.

[Alicia Krause]

But I have to then take off the whole outside of the thing because it's one Big piece. In order to access the.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, you got one big sheet metal shroud around it. And you gotta pop that off so.

[Alicia Krause]

It'S like the metal all the way around.

[Adam Carolla]

Speed Queen always sounded weird to me.

[Alicia Krause]

Right?

[Adam Carolla]

Like it sounded very Tina Turner from Tommy. She was the Gypsy Acid Queen, which was the craziest character ever in a movie. Probably not homeschooling recommendation.

[Alicia Krause]

Don't even know what that is.

[Adam Carolla]

The who is a English rock and roll band.

[Alicia Krause]

Yes, I'm familiar.

[Adam Carolla]

Okay.

[Alicia Krause]

I prefer Zeppelin, but go on.

[Adam Carolla]

They wrote a rock opera called Tommy.

[Alicia Krause]

Stop. I'm totally looking this up later. Go on. Wait. And Tina Turner was in it.

[Adam Carolla]

Tommy was about a blind, deaf and dumb boy who was really good at pinball.

[Alicia Krause]

It's the song. They wrote the song for the movie or the movie for the song.

[Adam Carolla]

The song was in the rock opera.

[Alicia Krause]

Okay.

[Adam Carolla]

And then some point, they made the rock opera the movie and had cameos by everyone. Elton John.

[Alicia Krause]

No.

[Adam Carolla]

Sung Pinball Wizard. Cause he covered it, too.

[Alicia Krause]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

And. And Tina Turner played the Gypsy Acid Queen. And it was weird and scary. Scary. Freaky. Oh, and Ann Margaret was in it.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Wow.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. She got covered in beans.

[Alicia Krause]

So did Tina Turner do this before she did Mad Max?

[Adam Carolla]

Yes.

[Alicia Krause]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes. And it was.

[Alicia Krause]

This was her audition for Mad Max.

[Adam Carolla]

It's a weird, surreal movie. And I didn't know what to make of it when I was a kid, but it kind of gave me bad dreams, some Halloween vibes. Yeah, Speed Queen sounds like Gypsy Acid Queen. Speed Queen is a weird name, but made sense from 1942. And then speed got popular and then the Queen and all that. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. October 10th is World Mental Health Day. This year, Better Help wants to say a big thank you to all the therapists. Over 5 million people have been helped by BetterHelp therapists worldwide. These therapists show up, listen and help people take steps forward. Therapy moments like the right question or safe spot to let it all out. It can change your life. Some things keeping you up at night, something that may be gnawing at you. Well, this can really help. BetterHelp makes it easy to connect with a licensed therapist online. This World Mental Health Day celebrate the therapists who help millions get better. It's BetterHelp. Right, Dawson?

[Dawson]

Visit betterhelp.com Carolla today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp. H E L P.com Carolla this October.

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[Alicia Krause]

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[Adam Carolla]

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[Adam Carolla]

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[Adam Carolla]

All right. You got any more stories?

[Alicia Krause]

I do.

[Adam Carolla]

Let's do one more.

[Alicia Krause]

Have you heard about this attorney general candidate in Virginia, Mr. J. Jones?

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. This is a weird story and it's so funny. Like if you see like the great, the great. The greatest part of all these stories is. Well, you read the story, but I think, I think it was Politico's version of it. I love my favorite, the way they spin it. Yes. I love when the left wing rags have to spin it their. Their direction. Like I love like Ilhan OMAR. Like, oh, nine, 11. Some people did some things don't know when Republicans pounce. Yeah, Republicans pounce, right? Yeah. I love this soft sell.

[Alicia Krause]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Especially when it's murderous intent.

[Alicia Krause]

So USA Today headline is Democratic candidate faces bipartisan backlash over texts about shooting colleague. But NPR and Politico and the like Washington Post and others to your point, said something. We're literally like Democratic AG candidate, like minority because he's a black guy. Democratic candidate for, you know, AG in Virginia pounced on by Republicans or alleged text messages like this.

[Adam Carolla]

Alleged. Yeah. And they'll also do a version I. The political version of it, which is funny, which is like, you know, after a controversial statement or something. They never said threatened to kill.

[Alicia Krause]

They threatened to kill somebody with two.

[Adam Carolla]

Bullets to the head version of this. Yeah. What was that story? Because pretty.

[Alicia Krause]

So he. Back in 2022, this is an old conversation that this female Republican delegate from Virginia, Kerry Corner, shared reported screenshots of her August 8, 2022 conversation with Jay Jones in which he admitted. And they were. He said that they were sent to her in error. So he acknowledged sending these. It's not even like he's trying to cover it up. He's acknowledging it. He said that he was joking that a previous Virginia House of Delegates speaker should get, quote, unquote, two bullets to the head. He reiterated that violent rhetoric has no place in our politics. However, he accused his Republican incumbent, Jason Ramirez of dropping smears through the media outlet favorable to Donald Trump and politicians. He also said he sent text messages that he regretted. So he, he. The thing that's even weirder is she followed up with this like literally a couple days after Charlie Kirk died, and he kind of doubled down on it. So the Original text messages said, three people, two bullets. Gilbert, his Republican opponent, Hitler and Pol Pot. He texted, gilbert gets two bullets to the head. The Republican delegate responded, jay, please stop. And he said, lol. Okay, okay. She said, it really bothers me when you talk about hurting people or wishing death upon them. Later in the text thread, Jones also reportedly mentioned Gilbert's wife and children. Do I think Todd and Jennifer are evil and that they're breeding little fascists? Yes. He said so.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. He wanted to pee on their grave.

[Alicia Krause]

He wanted to pee on their grave. He talked about.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, look, if you're evil and you're breeding fascists, then you do need a bullet.

[Alicia Krause]

This is what the left has been saying for years. Like, this is what you do to fascists.

[Adam Carolla]

They run away from it all the time. But if you're doing the evil and you're doing the fascist, then some 19 year old who's out of his mind will do the math on the evil and the fascist.

[Alicia Krause]

And it's. And it's like. I think what bothers me even more is the minor children. Like, the children involved. It's like, just. And I said this. When people go after the Obama girls or Chelsea Clinton or anybody else, it's like, just keep the kids out of it. Like, your kids aren't responsible for your behavior or what you do for a living. Neither are mine. They were, like, born into our family. That's the way it is.

[Adam Carolla]

They can't write this down.

[Alicia Krause]

Your children.

[Adam Carolla]

Hold on. Your kids were born into my family?

[Alicia Krause]

No, no, I said your kids or my kids.

[Adam Carolla]

Like, they're born in your. My kids weren't born.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

All right, hold on, slow down.

[Adam Carolla]

Kids born.

[Alicia Krause]

Did I miss that family?

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it. You know, it's not their fault.

[Alicia Krause]

It's not their fault.

[Adam Carolla]

Later on when Chelsea becomes an unhinged bitch, then that's crazy. By all means, so what?

[Alicia Krause]

Like, don't leave the kids out of this. And the fact that Democrats, including Tim Kaine, walked into the Capitol today and was like, no, you know, I've known him for 25 years. I don't think he meant this. He shouldn't say those things, but he shouldn't step out of the race either. Are you kidding me?

[Dawson]

Here's the thing. People do believe this stuff. And you talk about the extreme example of someone taking a gun and ending a life because they think they're killing a Nazi, but what about a much less extreme, Say, would you want a nurse who thinks this way putting your.

[Alicia Krause]

Catheter in or teaching my Children.

[Adam Carolla]

Or if I ran a hospital and I thought these people were Nazis, let's just say I wasn't gonna pick up an assassin's rifle. But I wouldn't hire them. I wouldn't give them overtime. I would. I would not want to be around them.

[Alicia Krause]

NBC News says that Winsome Sears, who's the current lieutenant governor of Virginia, first minority and first female to hold that office, by the way, in a previously segregated state, Pounces.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, she's pouncing.

[Alicia Krause]

She's pouncing. She's seizing on the moment.

[Adam Carolla]

That's right. That's her fault. Yeah. Okay, so this guy is trying to be the Attorney general, and he's gonna be in charge of people's fates, and we can't.

[Alicia Krause]

Do you trust this guy to be a prosecutor? Do you trust him not to go after his political enemies with his legal power?

[Adam Carolla]

Here's what I've learned, sadly and very convincingly. This sort of like, well, Trump's getting this case is going to be in D.C. so he doesn't stand a chance. Like, well, I'd like to do it based on the merits of the case, not the makeup of the judge and the justice system. Yes, yes. And so there's a lot of that. Now, I think the left does that much more than the right because they're more driven by ideology.

[Alicia Krause]

You mean when it comes to the.

[Adam Carolla]

Judiciary, judiciary and beyond. I mean, look, if I'm a school principal and I'm very progressive, and two kids get into trouble, one's wearing a MAGA hat, and the other voted for Hillary Clinton, then I'll go, well, this kid's a nice kid, but he got caught up with some bad kids. And I'd see the MAGA hat kid, and I go, that kid's evil.

[Alicia Krause]

Well, like they did with those students at the March for Life. Right, that were, quote, unquote, harassing the Native American guy.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right.

[Alicia Krause]

Remember that case?

[Adam Carolla]

I know. Can the ladies from the View stop just every 10 minutes and look back at all the Kyle Rittenhouse and Jussie Smollett and everything? They've been wrong. They've been wrong about everything.

[Alicia Krause]

Yeah. They got Justice Kavanaugh, everything. They're wrong about March for Life kids.

[Adam Carolla]

It's all perfect, Covid. I do think those people are much more likely to not turn a blind eye to whatever because their ideology drives them. And if you're evil, then they got a chance to get their pound of flesh.

[Alicia Krause]

This is, you know, this week, everybody's all been a Twitter about, you know, Pam Bondi going after James Comey, and, oh, Trump's going after his enemies. And he has a list. And it's unjust and it's fascist. You know, same language they've been using for 10 years now. And it's like, well, but then like you said, they're like, great, let's take up this prosecution case against Donald Trump in New York. Because we know the DA's there and the AG there are gonna get Trump.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, we know because they announced it when they were running number one.

[Alicia Krause]

And number two, Jay Jones, this guy in Virginia said the same thing too. He's like, I'm gonna go after everything that Glenn Youngkin and Winsome Sears and Donald Trump did.

[Adam Carolla]

Right? But also the whole overestimated value of Mar A Lago or whatever, I don't even know what that was. I mean, I still don't really know what it was.

[Alicia Krause]

How is it really illegal, you mean?

[Adam Carolla]

Well, I've done enough real estate where I can't just go, yeah, I'd like a loan on this warehouse. And I got it at about $50 million. So I'm gonna need. What's 75% of that. Just give me $37 million. The bank's gonna go, no, no, we'll do our own appraisal. We're not gonna take your word for anything. Cause you're gonna go high. So they'll come in and then they'll appraise it, and then they'll give a number, but their appraisal will be low. Cause it's to protect them. And then we'll decide whether they give me the loan or not.

[Alicia Krause]

And it's like the same with an insurance company when you have damage on a house.

[Adam Carolla]

And then I'll pay the loan back, and then that'll be that. At some point where they go, carolla said it was worth $50 million. I don't know how that works. And then you go get your expert and say that this warehouse was worth $80,000. When they say Mar a Lago is worth 15 million or whatever. Something insane.

[Alicia Krause]

Trump said it was worth like 30 million. And it showed that it was worth 18 million. And then he got, like, charged for lying about it. Bank documents or something.

[Adam Carolla]

30 million doesn't get you like a 8,000 square foot, nicest house that, you know, Tom Brady might be your neighbor in that neighborhood.

[Alicia Krause]

Yeah, isn't it? Well, it used to be one of the richest. Now it's like parts of South Beach, Miami are.

[Adam Carolla]

I don't know. What's Trump? Mar A Lago.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's, it's, it's.

[Alicia Krause]

I can't even remember.

[Adam Carolla]

$250 million is what I'm saying. It's not 30. 30. It doesn't know.

[Alicia Krause]

I was just saying, like, making up numbers. Like, I remember he had a higher number. And the people, the prosecutors in New York were like, no, no, they had it.

[Adam Carolla]

They had it like 18. Yeah, 18 buys you 18 nothing in Palm Beach. 18 doesn't buy you half of JLO and Ben Affleck's house. That's on the market.

[Dawson]

The most important aspect of that case, though, is this was a deal between Trump and the bank. Trump got the loan and then paid it off.

[Adam Carolla]

We're done.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right.

[Dawson]

And the transaction. Goodbye.

[Adam Carolla]

Right. So this is.

[Alicia Krause]

It is crazy.

[Adam Carolla]

Lawf.

[Alicia Krause]

It's crazy. And the lawfare is good when Dems do it, but it's bad when Republicans do it. I'm just like, can it just be bad when anybody does it?

[Adam Carolla]

2022, Forbes had Mar a Lago at 350 million. And that was three years ago. So it's probably a little bit more.

[Alicia Krause]

But that was when the case was going down. In 2022 was when the case went down. Right.

[Adam Carolla]

That was before.

[Alicia Krause]

I think it might have started before, but he wasn't a sitting president when they were prosecuting him for that. It was in the campaign.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, they wanted to just prosecute him so he wouldn't be president and do this stuff.

[Alicia Krause]

Yep.

[Adam Carolla]

And then they could keep their U.S. aid and ID or whatever.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

They, you know, that they would just.

[Adam Carolla]

Keep all their money flowing.

[Alicia Krause]

By the way, Marco Rubio, man, he has so many jobs.

[Adam Carolla]

I know.

[Alicia Krause]

He's like Secretary of State. He's working on Middle east deals. He's running usaid or not running it anymore. Trump keeps giving him all these jobs. It's hilarious.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, you want to get something done, give it to someone who's busy. All right. Elise Krause. People can go check out your column.

[Alicia Krause]

Yep. It's on this. This week, Mr. J. Jones and how Democrats will not distance themselves from him.

[Adam Carolla]

Neil Degrasse Tyson is going to join me next, and we'll do that right after this. Morgan and Morgan, there's a reason why Tom Brady's got seven rings. Yep. Just like there's a reason Morgan. And Morgan is America's largest injury law firm. Over 20 billion recovered for than 500,000 clients. That's not a slogan. That's results, baby. In one Florida case, insurance offered 350k. The client walked away with 12 million. I'd say it's an upgrade. So they've been doing this for 35 years, fighting for the people. Morgan and Morgan, America's largest injury law firm. For the people, not the powerful. The people. Am I right, Dawson?

[Dawson]

If you're ever injured, you can check out Morgan and Morgan. Their fee is free unless they win. For more information, go to for the people.com Adam or dial pound law pound 529 from your cell phone. That's f o r the people.com Adam or pound law pound 529 from your cell. This is a paid advertisement.

[Adam Carolla]

O'Reilly Auto Parts. Yeah, you know, jingle. These guys keep your car on the road so you don't end up stuck on the shoulder looking like a dope. Friendly, helpful service. People who actually know their stuff, not just some kid who'd rather be staring at his phone. They understand what they're doing and I understand they understand what they're doing because I know what I'm doing. So when I go in there, I can tell they know what they're doing. And I do. I frequently do, especially when I'm prepping for a race. Thousands of parts and accessories stocked in store and online so you don't have to panic when the check engine light appears. Need wipers swapped, brake lights out? These pros help you find what you need. Or they'll hook you up with a local shop if you're not the DIY type, although I kind of hope you are. So whether you're a gearhead or you don't know a lug nut from a donut, they'll walk you right through it. No attitude, just real help. Stop by O'Reilly Auto Parts today or visit us online at O'ReillyAuto.com that's O'ReillyAuto.com Adam.

[Dawson]

Adam Carolla returns to New York City Thursday, October 9th at Rodney Dangerfield's Comedy club with Cat Timf and Matt Friend. Two shows October 9th and then don't miss the Ace man in Pottstown, Pennsylvania on Friday, October 10th and Saturday, October 11th at @SoulJoles. Adam returns to Flappers in Burbank on October 29th. Get tickets for these and every show.

[Adam Carolla]

At AdamCarolla.com Neil DeGrasse Tyson is back in studio. Always good to see my friend. Just visiting. This planet is the name of the book. It is out October 21st, but you can pre order it and I do believe for my book writing days if you pre order it, it will show up on the day it drops.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, and publishers love when you pre order because they can know their numbers better and, you know, because why ever give anyone money in advance of receiving product? That's. It's a. It's a tough sell. But pre orders, I think, are just. The publishing industry. They. They're just trying to keep up.

[Adam Carolla]

How many books have you written?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

This is my 17th.

[Adam Carolla]

17Th.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I don't know why it's that large, but I have a lot of the universe to share with the public.

[Adam Carolla]

So let's talk about this, because I just passed a pile of my books that is going with me on the road. Because as I tell everybody, when you write a book, when you're done and the sales are done and the soft paperback's done, everything's done, there's left with several thousand books oftentimes.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And if they want to shake the tree in the warehouse and they want to release them for cheap, they'll give.

[Adam Carolla]

Them to you when you're done. I have a warehouse, so I just say, give them to me. But what do you do?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

They're still being sold.

[Adam Carolla]

So there's no.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, no. So that's like the last gasp of a book. But my books are. They're going to subsequent printings. You know, when you run out of what's in the warehouse, they order up another printing.

[Adam Carolla]

So they never. Because the thing that's funny, maybe they just overprinted.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I mean.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, the reason I got it in my head is because comedian Larry Miller told me he wrote a book many years ago, and he said when they were done, they had like 3,000 books. And they said, well, throw them away or we'll give them to you. And he said, I'll take them. I've done six books. And every time there's like 2,800 left. And they ship them.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. So that's a mismatch of their expectations of the sales and the print run. So this book.

[Adam Carolla]

But see, here's my thing. I don't think they would do it times six books is what I'm saying. Every time it's like 3,000 left.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. I can't explain that.

[Dawson]

No.

[Adam Carolla]

But that doesn't. It's never happened.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Well, so the closest that's happened to that is this book was actually in its first incarnation was 30 years ago when I first started writing for the public. And I had a column called Merlin. And people would write in and they'd say, dear Merlin, it was a question and answer column.

[Adam Carolla]

A column in what?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It was obscure, sort of the McDonald Observatory news, which later became Stardate.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, wow.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And Stardate. Became a very popular radio show. But that was a magazine. It was a monthly magazine. And I had a column in there. And after, like, 12 years of that column, I said, oh, my gosh, I need to do something with this. And the difference is Merlin is a pen name for a character that has lived for the history of Earth, visiting from Andromeda Galaxy, the planet Omnisciable. All right. There's a whole backstory to Merlin. Merlin's here just to answer your questions. And so when you ask, dear Merlin, I don't quite understand gravity as an example, then Merlin will recall a conversation in Isaac Newton's backyard, and then the answer would come out in that conversation. So it's a playful way to just bring the universe to the public. And it was time to update that for the 21st century. And so that's. So the Merlin book came out last year, and then its sequel, Just Visiting this Planet. Because Merlin is just visiting Earth, helping us all understand the universe. The brother's an artist, and he illustrated it.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, really?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, yeah. It's an intermittent sort of playful illustration.

[Adam Carolla]

So I was. I was reading up about you, knowing I was going to talk to you.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, very interesting.

[Adam Carolla]

And. And I knew you were a New York guy, but I didn't know you grew up in the Bronx.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Bronx in the house. Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

And the Bronx, New York's been pretty gentrified these days, but the Bronx. I was thinking back to a Paul Newman movie called Fort Apache, the Bronx.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, wow, I forgot he was in that.

[Adam Carolla]

Is that right? And I told my guys, pull up the trailer. Just because I want to know if. Because you have to understand, I grew up in North Hollywood, California, like the San Fernando Valley. And my family was not mobile at all. There was no plane tickets. There was no travel. There's no anything. And also, when you're from la, you don't feel the need to go anywhere. Cause you're just like, people will come here, they'll come to me. Everyone comes to la. You don't leave la. And I just sit around and see these commercials and these movies like Fort Apache, the Bronx. And I'd go, it's a war zone over there. What's going on?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Well, I mean, in the 1970s.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. Well, let's look at. We'll look at. We'll look at it, and then we'll see. Because I haven't seen let's do the Preview, but it looked bad to me for years. He was a convict in Cool Hand Luke, a pool shark in the Hustler, a smuggler in Exodus, an outlaw in Butch Cassidy. Kid, a con man in the Sting. Now Paul Newman has gone straight to the most commanding role of his career. You get your nose buried so deep into that book of yours, you don't.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Even see what's going on.

[Adam Carolla]

I can see the people out there. It is not just the hookers, the pimps and the junkies. Hookers build something up here. And I want them to know who's running this precinct. New York's 41st Precinct. They call it Fort Apache. The Bronx. The Bronx. It's a tough place for an honest cop. All right, pause for a second. Look, I'm looking at someone. It's bedlam over there.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's chaos.

[Adam Carolla]

People are running. I'm just sitting in North Hollywood looking around. There's nothing going on.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

The Bronx, I mean, it looked like a war zone at many times. 1970s was a low point for New York City. You know, evidence of this.

[Adam Carolla]

Every movie made the 70s and New York.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Exactly. If you look at movies up through the 60s, there were postcards of New York like Breakfast at Tiffany's, this sort of thing. Then New York got bad, you know, the bad and ugly. And movies would start capturing that.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And I think the low point was not this movie, it was. What's the one where Manhattan was the. No, no, Manhattan was the prison.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, Escape from New York.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Escape from.

[Adam Carolla]

I know we had an escape from la.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. Escape from New York. And so that was sort of the low point. Then Slowly, in the 80s, New York became a postcard again.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And so I remembered seeing. It was like 1988 or something. There was a homeless guy on a park bench covered with newspapers, just trying to stay warm. I said, it's been eight years since I've seen that. What's up? It turns out they were filming a movie.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, really?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And so he's just an actor. And I said, but it was not ringing true anymore, to my knowledge and understanding of the streets of New York. And so you can't show that if it's not really happening. No one will believe you.

[Adam Carolla]

So the Bronx, your parents.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You said it. Right, the Bronx. Yeah, I like that.

[Dawson]

The Bronx.

[Adam Carolla]

Your parents were educated folk who had jobs. Why the Bronx?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Well, so my earliest memories were the East Bronx over Castle Hill.

[Adam Carolla]

Where's Fort Apache?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I forgot exactly where, but it's. But they called it that. Cause it was just so, you know, the irreverence of it all. But my earliest memories were housing projects. They were middle income housing projects in the Castle Hills section of the Bronx, by the way. J. Lo is from there. And I don't mean to brag, but I had a cameo in her this Is Me now music video movie.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, really? Oh, she did, like a year and a half ago.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[Adam Carolla]

The actual police station referred to in Fort Apache in The Bronx is 41st Precinct. Yes.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Simpson Street.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. So that's where my earliest memories are. But then my father started making more money, and so they had to kick you out of the housing projects and we moved to Riverdale, which is a very fancy section of the Bronx. So it was a middle class, you know, no crime and anything. So I didn't die coming out of there, but I went to public schools and I went to the Bronx High School of Science, as you might have guessed.

[Adam Carolla]

Did it have a number attached to it?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Not that high school, no. But all my other schools. I have PS36 in the Bronx. PS81, that's another one of those, 141.

[Adam Carolla]

When you're from here. You know, I went to Walter Reed.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay.

[Adam Carolla]

Had a name, you probably appreciate Walter Reed. And then I went to North Hollywood High, went to Colfax Elementary. They would just name them after the street they were on, but once in a while you'd get a physician from the 40s, have cured malaria.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

My high school. No, our high schools are named, but the other schools are not.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, your high schools are named, have numbers.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, all the others have numbers. And my high school, if I can brag on it for a minute, it claims eight Nobel laureates among its graduates.

[Adam Carolla]

Really?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. That's as many as the country of Spain. That's a crazy fact.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, keep that close to the vest next time you go to Spain, because they don't like that kind of shit.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Well, it's just I don't mind speaking truth, so deal with it.

[Adam Carolla]

It was a science high school.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. The Bronx High School of Science. It's. You go there, and it's not that the teachers are better because the teachers are drawn from the same. Last I knew, drawn from the same pool of teachers that feed any of the public schools of New York. It's that you have to take a test to get in. And so everyone who does well on the test is thinking about academics and their life and what they know and their curiosity. So think of how much downtime there is in any school. You're in high school, there's like, study hall. Who studies right between classes, during your lunch break, Walking to school, walking home from school, whatever. There's a lot of time There that. What else are you doing? And the student body would be talking about the homework sets or Einstein's relativity, or. I had a friend, Frank Lloris was his name. We just learned about some equations by a French mathematician called Laplace. Back then or now in high school, we had just learned about it. And my friends imagined that he would have equations called the Laris equations. It's that kind of ambitious thinking that surrounds you.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, let's talk about that.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So I also taught a class. Students would teach other students. So I taught a little seminar on black holes when I was in 11th grade. That was fun.

[Adam Carolla]

And then there are people that weren't gonna do that. That was me. But I realized I needed some vocational training. Like, I need to learn a trade, Me and all my buddies. It wasn't gonna happen in the academic world for us. And I'm all right with that. Cause they need to make a living, and we need skilled guys. And by the way, those guys get paid. They get paid a lot.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right?

[Adam Carolla]

Right. So I don't know what the cure is. And I think we're going a little more there with guys like Mike Rowe and people like that sort of talking about it. But just like, there was a place for you to go because of your interest, and I won't say your expertise because you didn't have it then, but you had a yearning.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yearning for this. That's a good word.

[Adam Carolla]

And so they took you and they went. This is really what turns you on.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Well, they didn't take me.

[Adam Carolla]

I did.

[Dawson]

Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

No, I was not. That'd be different.

[Adam Carolla]

But they had a school for people who had it were turned on.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Correct.

[Adam Carolla]

To this stuff. And for the same. I'm saying they need another school for people who are interested in turning wrenches versus astronomy.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

In Brooklyn, there's a school just off the edge of the Brooklyn Bridge. It's a high school, and it's called the Westinghouse of the famous Westinghouse. Westinghouse Vocational High School. And. But the building is from, like, the 1940s or something. So I don't think people think that way anymore in terms of setting up the educational path. But I agree with you. The problem comes about is if somebody else says, you're not qualified for this, we're gonna make you do that. And then they're interrupting what could be your own ambitions. So if you. If you said you want to turn a wrench and that's your own decision, then you should have that freedom to do so. But I don't want somebody else telling you, you should be turning a wrench if that's not what you want to do.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, life will tell you if you're.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Aware of your own life.

[Adam Carolla]

Because everyone I knew wanted to start and play quarterback for the Rams, but they never did. Because life tells you, is what I'm saying.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And so you have to be aware of when life is telling you things. But it's not always other people. I don't. You know, the less if I took other people's advice for what I should do with my life, oh, my gosh, I don't know where I'd be.

[Adam Carolla]

No, but. No, but there was a test for you to pass. So if you said, I want to be Merlin and study the cosmos, and you went in and got an F on this test, then someone would hand you a wrench and you might not like it, but you didn't pass the test.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I'll tell you, this is what I'm saying. Seventh grade. And in eighth and ninth grade, I had shop. And that's back when they segregated boys and girls, right? So the boys had wood shop and metal shop, and the girls had. That's how old I am. Girls had home ec, and they learned how to wash and sew and all this sort of thing. But those years in shop, they affect me today. Anytime I confront an electrical board or sheet metal or my toolbox, it comes to me from those times. And so I have a deep appreciation for what it means to use your hands to build stuff and to fix stuff. And so had I been a wrench guy, those would have been important seeds for me to then go in that path. And you're doing cool things with your wrenches. I mean, you become a car guy, you know, I am. Sounds good.

[Adam Carolla]

I'm a carpenter.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And you used to build. Yeah. You built stuff.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, yeah, I like it. I was kind of traumatized by my shop teachers because they were some of the scariest, meanest dudes on the planet. And they seemed to, they seemed to not like the kids.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, okay.

[Adam Carolla]

They were angry. I mean, we, you know, Mr. Gage and Mr. Martin, and they were all angry dudes. And you look back on it and you go, well, maybe that was through the eyes of a 14 year old Adam Kroll. I just thought maybe they were trying to help or something. But they weren't. And I have proof.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I have proof because, well, not all teachers are good teachers.

[Adam Carolla]

No, no, no. I tried them all. Some are good, some are bad. But the shop teachers were mean and angry at my school. They were all just dudes I do not believe you needed a teaching credential to do it. You just needed to work in the trades for 10 years. And so they weren't people who were drawn out of college to go and shape young minds and hearts. They went onto a construction site, at some point, they hurt their back. And now, now they're teaching me and they're pissed.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And I'm just saying, with all my science training, I like knowing the difference between a wood screw and a sheet metal screw. And you know this.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah. Oh, no. Look, it's a field of expertise and we're having a problem with that in this country and maybe worldwide. People need. I would talk, I've talked to Dr. Drew about it all the time.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Three minute plumbing video. And they think they're plumbing experts.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. What I'm saying is you have a certain way of looking at yourself. And I would say to Dr. Drew all the time, what if you didn't, you weren't a doctor, you didn't know this. You don't have that field of expertise. You don't specialize in that. You just kind of. You know what I mean? And I have that as a journeyman carpenter. And it keeps you kind of grounded. It helps you think. And it also gives you some place in the universe. Like you go, I have a skill. I know what this thing is. And. And there's a sort of security in it.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Emotional security.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes, that's what I mean. And I talk to a lot of people I realize don't have any field of expertise. And they seem a little unhinged or something. Insecure, I guess, is what it would be.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

People need. They need something that other people can come to them for advice on.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes. And they need everybody. Here's everyone's fantasy. You're on the plane. We all have. Okay, here's the two fantasies. Are you ready? One is you're on the plane. Somebody first class has a heart attack and the flight attendant gets on the intercom and goes, is there a doctor on this flight? And people's fantasy is, yes, I stand up.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That is definitely a fantasy.

[Adam Carolla]

I stand up and walk from the back of the plane.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You want to be the hero, Right?

[Adam Carolla]

Except for I sit there and shut up and eat my trail mix because I'm not. Right, Right. Then the second fantasy is you go to a beautiful cocktail party with a bunch of good looking, well heeled people and there's a great Steinway grand piano there. And at some point the hostess of the party goes, could we get Neil could we tempt Neil just to come up and play a couple of songs? And Neil goes, I really wasn't prepared. And then he sits down and. And some Chopin comes rolling off his fingers. That's our fancy. But what is that? Well, that's just you going, I know something. And as a carpenter, when I go to someone's house and they go, hey, man, this cupboard door, it's coming off that. And I go, oh, yeah, yeah, I can do that. It feels good. But then imagine going through life and never experiencing that, never feeling needed. It would feel a little empty and I would be a little insecure.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. So my version of that playing the Steinway is if there's a party and they have a patio and it gets dark and it's not cloudy, and I generally move with my lasers. I have some lasers I can point out. Director of a planetarium, you gotta be able to point stuff out with a laser. So I say, oh, by the way, the stars are out. Anyone interested? And everyone takes their drinks and they go out to the patio, dim the house lights, and I point out the constellations, a planet in the sky or whatever.

[Adam Carolla]

And it works with the laser.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You need a powerful enough laser. Yeah, I got, I have access.

[Adam Carolla]

How far does the laser reach?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So it's how far it looks like it reaches when you just stand there with it. But if you're on the other end of that and it's coming towards you, it'll go 60 miles.

[Adam Carolla]

60 miles?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, yeah, easily.

[Adam Carolla]

Wow. So you're, you're up there.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, yeah. Of course you have to watch for planes, you know, you don't want to, but that's my version of that. And I do feel loved and I feel needed or wanted at least. They don't need that. But they.

[Adam Carolla]

No, it's. Everyone listen, if it is a universal sort of fantasy, then it's something that people need and want and to go through life. And I realize we're creating a lot of these people.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's insightful.

[Adam Carolla]

They live in a digital world. They sit in a cubicle, they do data entry.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

The problem is they'd look at a three minute video and now they believe they're an expert. And that's their access to this.

[Adam Carolla]

I mean, there is that, but there's also just the jobs. There's so many sort of jobs in the middle where they go, I just enter data into a computer. And then if you're at a party, no one ever says, cheryl, we have.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

A computer here, we need some data.

[Adam Carolla]

Can we just watch you do some data entry.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I have an authentic construction question. We're renovating now in the city and city has a rule. I don't know when it went to New York. Yeah. New York City. You can't use two by fours anymore for studs. Wall studs. So they're metal studs. And the guys were complaining a little bit about it because they couldn't put screws anywhere they wanted into it as so do you have an opinion about metal studs?

[Adam Carolla]

You come to the right place.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Put some expertise on me.

[Adam Carolla]

I will put some extra teeth.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

This entire facility, not the exterior, but the interior, this studio, the other studios, the offices, it's all metal stud.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It is.

[Adam Carolla]

I built this place with metal stud.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay.

[Adam Carolla]

Okay. So here's how it works. I'm not sure what this code is. Now.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

The code is it relates to fire.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, relates to fire. Okay. So metal stud is normally non bearing, non load bearing.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So it's just to hold up a wall.

[Adam Carolla]

Now interior walls. So there's load bearing walls and there's non load bearing walls. So if you're holding up the ceiling joist or the rafters or whatever, that's a load bearing wall. So people like you're going to someone's house and they go, I'm thinking about blowing out this wall, right? And then I go, which way are the joists running? And they go, I don't know. And I go, well, we got to find out because they're running that way and landing on that wall. Then that's a load bearing wall. So if you blow that wall out, we got to pick it up with a header. We got to pick the load up. If it's a non load bearing wall, you blow it out, you don't need it. Now metal stud, and they call it, usually used in commercial applications are usually for non load bearing walls, which is fine. Interior wall.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's clear they couldn't hold. They just bend underweight. Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Okay. The thing about guys is guys get used to working with what they want to work with and what they have worked with and what their dads worked with. And they, they resist change, especially carpenters, they just go, this is the way.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

We used to do it.

[Adam Carolla]

This way I do it. This is how I do it. This is how I do it. The thing about wood studs is a they're wood, they're not perfect. Sight them, they'll be twisted, they'll be bowed, they'll be whatever. That's number one. Metal studs are straight, always straight. Straight as an Arrow good. Number two. They're pre drilled. They're punched out.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yes, they are.

[Adam Carolla]

To pull, to put plumbing conduit, Romex, whatever you need to pull electrical. And it could be Cat 5 wiring or whatever. It's all pre. Whatever we have.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Cat 6.

[Adam Carolla]

Cat 6.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Keep up with the time.

[Adam Carolla]

Sorry.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay.

[Adam Carolla]

If you do a wood frame wall, you gotta get a D handled whole hog, right angle, half inch chuck drill with an auger bit. And you gotta drill through all the studs and it's cracking and it's.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

The electrical conduit through it.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes. To pull. Probably gonna be called Romex where you are, but okay, so the metal stud is good. It's true. It doesn't burn. It's pretty punched out. And if you know what you're doing, you can go a lot faster. You can frame guys who do commercial work. Will frame out entire interior of an office in a day and a half. It's easy. They don't like it. I'll tell you what, you want to hang a picture later on in life, you don't get to just take a wood screw and put it into a stud. You have to take a tech screw, which is a sheet metal screw that has a cutting tip on it, and put that in also. It's not great. Let's say you got a 99 inch television and you want to hang it here and you got metal stud. That's going to be difficult. So what you should do is before you close that wall up with drywall, if you say, I'm gonna put my big screen right here, put a couple blocks in there, put something in there where, you know, I can hang this mount because it's not gonna be kosher just trying to hang it on the metal stud. Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Thank you for that expertise.

[Adam Carolla]

I like metal stud. I'm tired of arguing with people about it. People don't like use it. It's fast, it's good and it's easy once you know what you're doing.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's an endorsement.

[Adam Carolla]

It's easy, but it's not load. Okay, got it. Yeah. All right. So you're doing, doing a big remod.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

A big what?

[Adam Carolla]

Remod.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

What's a remod? Oh, remodel.

[Adam Carolla]

Sorry, sorry. Remodel. Sorry.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, no, the, the people next to us moved out and so we, we got their place and so we're doubling, doubling, doubling it up. Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

So you, I've seen some of that in New York. Are you blowing out like the wall and stuff?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Going right in.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, just going Right.

[Adam Carolla]

In old, like 30s building or buildings from the 1880s. Really.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the walls are 18 inches thick concrete, but there are openings through it. And so you have to go through where those openings are.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Otherwise what, you know, what are you doing?

[Adam Carolla]

How long you think this is going to take?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

10 years. It's new York, you know, shit happens. You know, there were some pieces that were on order from China and then they got held up in the tariffs and then who pays for that? And you know, there's always something happening.

[Adam Carolla]

But everyone's pulling permits and everything.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, exactly, exactly. Especially in New York Permit city. There it is. But I'm still getting the universe in. I mean, you know, that's my job.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, well, you know, you're. I think the luckiest people in the world are people that have a passion. And it's such a blessing. It doesn't matter what the passion is.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You could be working with animals. I had a passion since I was nine and I thought, doesn't everyone have a passion? And then I got to college and people are looking through the what to major in alphabetically to see what they might want to major in. And I said, well, you didn't know earlier. And so I took it for granted that just everybody would have a passion. Then I became much more aware of and sensitive to that. People are still searching for what they want to be when they grow up, even if they're adults.

[Adam Carolla]

The few times I feel sorry for people because most of my thing is like, oh, get up, dust yourself off, get your shit together and get working. You know, you're fine. But that's old school.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's old school.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. But the only time I really feel bad is when I talk to someone. I go, what do you like? What do you want to do? And they go, I don't know, I like watching Netflix. And I go, no, no, but what? Really? Come on now. And they go, I like going to concerts. I know, but no, I want to know what your passion is.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I got a friend of mine who said it simply, he said, whatever you do, do it with intensity. And I thought, wow, yeah, that's good. Yeah, that's good. Don't do it half assed. Just go all in. And you have to find it. So if you're not curious, you're not going to find the thing that might have excited you. And so for me, as a scientist and as an educator, curiosity is everything about who and what you are and what you might become.

[Adam Carolla]

It's all, look, if you have a kid and the kid is curious. You go, you're fine. You'll find your way.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Exactly.

[Adam Carolla]

You'll find your way.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I feel the same way.

[Adam Carolla]

I literally. I've spent my life with people trying to talk me out of my curiosity. You know, they go around. I go, hey, is that person. Is that the same guy who was in that movie? But I saw that guy? And they go, who cares? I go, I don't know. I care. I go, why do you care? And then it always becomes, you have to defend yourself.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You should never have to defend your curiosity.

[Adam Carolla]

Weird thing where they go, why are you so obsessed with. And I go, I'm not. I'm curious. I'm curious. But it's why I know stuff, by the way.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So a big. A big part of. Not a big part. An important part of what I do for the public and in my public talks is I have an entire public talk called an astrophysicist goes to the movies. And so I show movie clips, and I comment on where they got the science right and usually where they got it wrong. And then there are people who come up to me and say, it's just a movie. I'm not gonna go to a movie with you, because you'll just ruin it. It's just a movie. Let them do the thing. And so I say to them. So I say to them, I say, if you went to a movie with a friend of yours who was a car expert, and there's a period movie, let's say it takes place in 1960, 1958, and there's a 62 Chevy Bel Air parked on the street, you're gonna call it out.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You're gonna say, that car didn't exist back then. And all your friends will say, hey, you got, you know, your cars.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

They'll be praised for that kind of knowledge. Or if you're into costume design and you're watching some Jane Austen period piece and a carriage rides up in front of the house, and a gentleman gets off with a derby instead of a top hat, and you say, nope, that was not in style in the time of that thing. You say, hey, you know your style. But if I comment about. No, you wouldn't hear that explosion in space. People say, it's just a movie. Shut up. So I just want the same respect that I know people give other experts who have. Who have a geeky level of expertise about things that I think make the world interesting. When you have that level of expertise.

[Adam Carolla]

You'Re talking to a guy who ruins movies, but only with Cars and construction, that's all I do. I will sit around and there'll be a scene in a movie where they're framing a house and one of the workers. Workers walks by and he's got a finish hammer with a smooth head on it hanging from his bags. I'm like, that's not a framing hammer. These guys are framers. He's not a framer. He'd have a waffle headed Vaughn with a hatchet handle. 22 ounce.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Here's something that bothers me, and I don't know if it's justifiable. I see a car in a scene and they close the door. And the sound of the door closing is way deeper sounding than that car should have generated.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, yeah. Oh, no, you'll start.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I say, no, that's a tin can they're driving in.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, there's engine sounds too. Like they'll use just a big block Chevy. And it's like a four cylinder Pinto, you know, Pinto.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I forgot about Pintos.

[Adam Carolla]

Also Chevy. Ford starters sound different. So the guys who really geek out go, that's not a. They just use a starter. But you can hear the sound.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I love Xtrac.

[Adam Carolla]

I love it too. You know what? That I'm scared because Armageddon is one of my.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, the movie.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, so Armageddon. That violated more laws of physics per minute than any other movie until I saw Moonfall with Holly Berry. That one. That's the award for. Let's not even grab it. Armageddon was entertaining for sure.

[Adam Carolla]

All right, find the scene in Armageddon where they come up on the moon rover, the mobile moon driller, and they're pulling all the junk out of it. Like they're just pulling wires out. And Bruce Willis is like, no wonder it didn't work. You got the cams reversed or something. Like NASA can't figure out. You lunkheads at NASA don't know shit from shinola. And then he pulls out an arm that's made of titanium. He goes, what is this, an ice cream scooper? What, that cost 600 bucks? It's like, no, it probably costs $35,000. And then he throws it. And the NASA engineers just hang their head in shame. They don't go, you can't go into our $2 billion rover and start pulling the wiring harness out, you fucking retard. What are you doing? It's an insane. The whole thing is nuts.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And so my favorite stupid scene is the asteroid bits. Or there's the asteroid field that surrounds the big one.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And so the little bits start hitting initially, and one of them decapitates the Chrysler Building on 42nd street in Manhattan. And it keeps going, enters the front door of Grand Central Terminal and takes out the clock in the waiting room of Grand Central Terminal. Most of Earth is ocean. Most of that which is not ocean is uninhabited. And this thing is hitting my hometown and my buildings and so.

[Adam Carolla]

But that's still possible, isn't it? We're here to focus on the impossible.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. Asteroids. Don't have gps. Finding my monitors.

[Adam Carolla]

No, I think you're going down the wrong road here.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You got the ice cream scoop?

[Adam Carolla]

I am saying, what do you got here?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Let me see.

[Adam Carolla]

All right, all right, sorry. We'll show the ice cream scooper.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, go.

[Adam Carolla]

This is them. Okay, hold on a second. A short throw shifter is from a car that's from a race car. A short throw shifter is basically, if you wanted to hop up your Datsun Z car in the 70s, you would put a short throw shifter in it. So it was just a shorter shift. So what they do in Hollywood is they just come up with car.

[Dawson]

Car.

[Adam Carolla]

Put a short throw shifter in there and reverse those cams. They're just talking about car from the 70s, but we're talking about a ro. A moon rover. There's no shifter on a moon rover. It doesn't even have an internal combustion engine. All right, but. Okay, start from the top. Sorry, I can't go. I can't. Somebody tell me what this is. Plastic ice cream scoop.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

What?

[Adam Carolla]

That cost about $400? No, it was $400,000, you fucking idiot. What point is he, by the way? You can't go to a lunar landing craft and start pulling parts off it and putting in a cardboard box and chucking it at the guys who built it. And Billy. Billy Bob third just hangs his head. Oh, man, we screwed up again, didn't we? What is it?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Who's. Okay, so it not only violates laws of.

[Adam Carolla]

It's an insane scene.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's not only violates laws of physics. I mean, heartened to learn, it also violates laws of cars.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes. That's where I come in. Open phone. So if you're running a business and you let a call slip through the cracks, you might as well just hand your wallet to the next guy every time you miss a ring. That's cash walking out the door. You need a phone system that actually works as hard as you do. Keeps you in the loop day and night. And that's why you got to get OpenPhone. OpenPhone is the number one business phone system that streamlines and scales your customer communications. So whether you're a one person operation drowning in calls and texts or you have a large team that needs better collaboration tools, Open Phone is a no brainer. That's Open Phone. Am I right, Dawson?

[Dawson]

OpenPhone is offering our listeners 20% off your first six [e-mail] Adam. That's O P E N P-H-O-N-E.com Adam. And if you have existing numbers with another service, OpenPhone will port them over at no extra charge. Open Phone. No missed calls, no missed customers.

[Pluto TV Announcer]

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[Alicia Krause]

You will die in seven days Scream.

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[Adam Carolla]

This is my kind of place.

[Pluto TV Announcer]

And don't miss the man made nightmares in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Or the world ending chaos in 28 days later.

[Adam Carolla]

Something in the blood.

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All the scares, all for free. Pluto TV stream now pay never.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Let me ask you a car question. I've always had this question. Yes. Because they always show it this way. Have you ever rebuilt an engine?

[Adam Carolla]

Yes.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. Is it true that every time you rebuild an engine there's a little bag of nuts and bolts that didn't go back in and nobody knows where they belong?

[Adam Carolla]

That's true with engines. That's true with Ikea furniture. That's true. Everything that you put together, that's a real thing. Okay. Now it's very.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's almost cliche. It's cliche now.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. You send everything out to the machine shop, everything gets machined and then you put it all back and you replace the barrel. Which aren't really bearings, you know, like engine main bearings for the crank and rod bearings. They're not bearings. They're just little cup shaped pieces of aluminum that sort of float on oil. There's a little bit of oil. It's weird because you go the main bearing shot or I threw a rod and the rod. Bearing shot. It's not bearing, it's not ball bearings. It's just a thin. Everything sort of runs on a thin sheen of oil is basically. And that's why the second the oil there's a oil pressure issue, everything blows up. Because it's all done immediately. I mean, you can ask Bruce Willis. He knows how he pulled the thing out and said $400. There's nothing you could find that is $400. That's.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Honestly, I'm delighted that you appreciate and we appreciate one another's expertise in exactly those moments.

[Adam Carolla]

But what about the movie Gravity?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, okay.

[Adam Carolla]

Because I never felt like Sandra Bullock needed to cut the umbilical cord.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Of course, you were completely correct. Oh, wait, wait. By the way, they got a lot of physics right in that film. So I just want to start with that. So now my criticisms are if you went that far to get that much right, then I feel justified in highlighting where you really messed up. And so there's George Clooney at the end of this tether.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes. Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And she's trying to save it. Don't you know, he does the man, cut me loose. Yeah, he does the manly thing to say, cut me loose, otherwise we'll both die. Okay. They are in space.

[Adam Carolla]

I know.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

0G. All she had to do was give it a little tug. Okay. Just tug it. And then he will start drifting towards her. And then they could have been romantic because they had this romantic tension anyway, where they tug together and then their helmets hit, right? And then they kiss. Kiss through the helmet.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, how does centrifugal force work in zero gravity?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It would have only happened that way, as portrayed if she were swinging him in a circle, right? Then if he cut it loose, he would fly off at a tangent.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

They're basically. They're orbiting the Earth, but they're basically stationary in space.

[Adam Carolla]

Right?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And so. So I was. That's my number one.

[Adam Carolla]

Drove me nuts.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Violation of the.

[Adam Carolla]

By the way, I can go Newtonian laws of physics with cars or building and outer space, too. Because I watched that movie and I was like, no, no, she's down. They're in zero gravity. She could pull him in.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You don't even have to. It's not even a reel him in. You just give it one tug, and then he will drift towards you.

[Adam Carolla]

So here's my problem in life. People go, well, so what? It's a great movie. I go, I know, but the reason we're here and the pivotal scene and the reason she's alone is based on a false premise.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I would go further than that and say many occasions are where they ignored the physics. But had they gotten the physics right, they could have told a deeper, better story. That's where I take issue. So they cut a corner thinking, oh, the laws of nature are gonna constrain me. Laws of nature are more brilliant than you will ever be. And so use them to your advantage.

[Adam Carolla]

Let's look at that gravity scene. All right. I like when there's righteous indignation on your behalf.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay.

[Dawson]

Give me five. I've got you.

[Alicia Krause]

I've got you.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right Here. You know, she doesn't get him. He keeps going. Okay, now there's that tether.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. Then it goes. Talk. Okay. The moment it goes taught.

[Adam Carolla]

The moment it goes taught.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay, ready? Boom.

[Adam Carolla]

At that point, she tugged it.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay.

[Adam Carolla]

It didn't work.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That point. They're on opposite ends of a stationary rope.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

She's not swinging them around.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And she's held on with this. Whatever that is on her foot. And now here, he's got to be. He's got to be Mr. Hero Man. And so she just has to tug.

[Adam Carolla]

I have some chivalry in me, but not that I'd be pull. All right, So I watched that, and I just want. They didn't.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

She didn't hear that. So I saw a preview of this in IMAX. Spectacular. In IMAX.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

All right. And I tweeted, like, 15 posts on it. It was called Problems with Gravity. And I cited things that they got wrong. That was on a Thursday. Saturday, I hit the NBC trifecta. Did you know there's such a thing? Neither did I.

[Adam Carolla]

Okay, NBC trifecta.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Trifecta.

[Adam Carolla]

I know what an egot is.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Here it is. You ready? My tweets commenting on that film, which had just premiered that week, was commented. My tweets were commented on by the Today show, the NBC Today show, the NBC Nightly News, and Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update.

[Adam Carolla]

Wow. That is a trifecta.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You should be able to find. If you can find. It's Seth Meyers Weekend Update talking about my comments on gravity. It's a fast little bit.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, yeah. Were they talking shit about you?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You'll see. But all three of those happened in the same day on NBC.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. My feeling with all this stuff, and I do it all the time, and some of it'. Egregious. Where like in Ghost Rider, Nick Cage was going to jump his motorcycle. Field goal to field goal, which is goal post to goal post. Field goal to field goal. And they kept saying 300ft.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

They said field goal.

[Adam Carolla]

They said three. They said field goal, and they said 300ft. But the goal posted farther back of the end zone.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's 10 yards back on each side.

[Adam Carolla]

360Ft.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right?

[Adam Carolla]

They said it five times in the movie, and that drove me nuts. And then I came, kept yelling. And my whole thing is when people go, well, you're talking shit. I'm like, how about you get your shit together? I won't have to talk shit. Figure it out, you idiot.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Very good.

[Adam Carolla]

There was a scene in. There was a scene in Road God, what was that comedy? Road Trip or whatever it was. And they were like. And the one kid was, like, a nerd kid, and they had to jump a bridge. And that movie with Tom Green and all those guys. What was that movie called? Road Trip. Anyway, didn't matter. Point is, like, bridge was out, and the nerdy kid was going, that's a Ford taurus. Curb weight, 1300 pounds. I'm like, it's 3300 pounds.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, in the movie, he's getting it all wrong.

[Adam Carolla]

He was off by 2000 pounds.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

No car is like.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

No car is 1300 pounds, right?

[Adam Carolla]

No. Commercially safe, you know, dune buggy might be, but not crumple zones and airbags. But look it up. Look it up and you're ruining the movie for me. Oh, this is it. Oh, DJ quals. Oh, my God.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You got it. Here goes.

[Adam Carolla]

Okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Absolutely not.

[Alicia Krause]

No way we're going back.

[Dawson]

It can be done.

[Adam Carolla]

This incline here is 30 degrees roughly.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right?

[Adam Carolla]

The car's. Well, the factory weight of the car is 1600 pounds. Add our weight plus 1600 pounds factory weight for Ford Taurus, you're off by half. It's. It's £3200. Why? There's no modern car that's 1600. A Mini Cooper is 2700.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Exactly.

[Adam Carolla]

What? You're off by at least a thousand pounds. A thousand pounds? At least.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

So you have access to information. Just punch in 92 Ford Taurus and then a new curb weight, and the curb weight will be 29.56. Drive.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

They even went far enough to say curb.

[Adam Carolla]

We. Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right. Oh, Factory. Wade, they went there. They did it. You guys gotta find the clip with Seth Meyers. It's short. It's like 30 seconds if you can do it. Saturday Night Live. Seth Meyers. Gravity. No, no. You're a kindred spirit in this, by the way. My attempts to do all of this were all forged 30 years ago when I wrote this column, because I was asking myself, what will interest a person most? What will intrigue them most? And what I found is that if I combine the pop culture element to it, and I clad that scaffold with science, then I didn't have to teach you the pop culture. You already knew it, and now you carry away science. That didn't feel like a lecture.

[Adam Carolla]

Right?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Because no one, you know, after college, no one wants to be lectured to. Stop lecturing me. Stop lecture. You know, lecture is a bad word. So a lot of my efforts and things that I started doing were honed when I wrote these Books.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, I never, rarely tell people to stop lecturing me, but I oftentimes say to people, and I try to not be mean spirited about it, but, like, I'll say, I know, you told me that. And usually, like, people have this thing. Well, they're.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Give me some credit for intellectual as.

[Adam Carolla]

A listener and memory. I understand, because you told me this before. You know what I mean? And people do a lot of sort of weirdly like, they'll go, we gotta go, because there could be traffic and I don't want to be late to the airport. And then, like 10 minutes, they'll go. Later, they'll go, there could be traffic to the airport. And I go, I understood. Understood. Because you told me that and then I heard you, so. And I know you're just venting because you're sort of insecure or you're feeling vulnerable or something. All right, I want to see this clip.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I don't think. You don't have it.

[Adam Carolla]

You think they scrubbed it?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, okay. I actually have it on my computer. And this is. You're editing this later, right? I can just hand you the clip. I can go do it now. Take a second.

[Adam Carolla]

All right. Yeah, get it on your computer. I'll tell you another scene. I'll find another scene while Neil's going and getting his computer. Yeah. Scrubbed. Yeah, he's got it. It's not on YouTube is what I'm saying. All right, There is a movie. I'm looking at you. Count Andrew. There is a movie. What is the movie? What's the movie? It's like an ice age. And Dennis Quaid marches back into. Sorry, March is back.

[Dawson]

March 12or something.

[Adam Carolla]

No, that's another horrible movie. But this one is the day after tomorrow. Day after tomorrow, I think. Yeah. The Day After Tomorrow has a scene where they're walking across the roof of, like, the Mall of America and it's all snowed through and the guy falls through a pane of glass and he's got the tether on and he cuts the tether loose. And it's basically what gravity was trying to do, except for they didn't have gravity. This guy had gravity. Yeah. The day after. Is it the day after tomorrow? Yeah, we can look around for that scene. It's somewhere in the middle of the movie, probably. If the movie's, you know, if the movie's 100 minutes, this is 60 minutes in, or some. Some version of that. But they're trucking. He. Dennis Quaid wants to go see his son and is like, there's a Blizzard. We can't make it from Minnesota to. We can't drive from Minnesota to New York. And Dennis Quaid is like, we'll walk. I'm like, I don't feel like Jim Carolla would have. Would have ever done that. All right, so. So we'll find this scene. Neil DeGrasse is getting his computer in here tonight, by the way. I'll be at Rodney's in New York City. Speaking of New York City, Dr. Drew's gonna be there. Cat Timp's gonna be there too. We're doing a live show, a live podcast there, and we're doing a standup show as well. And Drew has promised to do five minutes of standup. So this is. Should be fascinating.

[Dawson]

Is that possible?

[Adam Carolla]

I mean, he can stand up. I've said to Drew a thousand times. You've heard me do this for 25 years. Certainly you could cobble together. Listen, I know people say to me stuff like, they'll go, why do your balls lift up when you go into this scene? I got this cream hysteric response because I sat next to Dr. Drew for so long that I understand some of the stuff he's done. I can't figure out why he has not some sense of humor after the exposure to the great one for all these years. I'm gonna be at Sol Joel's, by the way, in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. All right, Neil DeGrasse, I got another gravity scene for you. Not from the movie Gravity, but involving gravity.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

I'm all in.

[Adam Carolla]

That involves a tether.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

And one that needed to be cut.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Okay. And I think this is from the Day After Tomorrow.

[Adam Carolla]

The Day After Tomorrow, yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, I remember that one.

[Adam Carolla]

And there is a scene with Dennis Quaid where his buddy falls through a sheet of glass. Let's see if we have it here. This is a lot of why they.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Always got to mess up New York City.

[Adam Carolla]

They hate it. Well, they fly. Falls down, gets hit by asteroids. The Hollywood sign cracks up a lot as well. All right, so now you've found a scene in the movie that I wasn't referring to, but we could come upon it. I don't know why you chose this scene. You just chose. Okay, well, I remember I. People that they were walking and they were on a roof, and a pane of glass gave way and a guy fell through with a tether on him. That's how I describe. But okay, it's just a random scene from the movie. But the movie's so long that I think we would have to actually see the Scene I was talking about. But you have scenes of stuff freezing.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You know my favorite scene in this is where they're keeping warm by burning books. Cause they're in the New York Public Library and they have to decide what books to burn first.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And they burn all the law journals and all ye. Interesting philosophical point. If you had to burn books, which would you burn first?

[Adam Carolla]

So my take on your takes are. I will go along with the Hollywood sign. Blows down. And it blows down Sunset Boulevard and then it hits what's her name with the pink corvettes sign.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, okay. So here it goes. Here it goes.

[Adam Carolla]

We got this. I'll buy a coincidence, Even a crazy coincidence. I'll buy. I just. But I won't buy a ford Taurus at 1600 pounds because you're okay.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

So that's a difference. I have to be more accommodating of coincidences. Okay, so here we go. Catch up on that.

[Adam Carolla]

Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson harshly criticized the hit movie Gravity this week, saying that it contained a number of major scientific inaccuracies. For example, there's no way George Clooney would spend that much time talking to a woman his own age.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's the whole thing.

[Adam Carolla]

That's funny. They spared you. And they made a funny joke.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That was it. That was a good joke.

[Adam Carolla]

They made a funny joke out of it. So I feel a certain sense of vindication because I brought up that scene from that movie. I don't know anything about outer space, but I was like, something's not right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, I'm all in with you there. But I knew that about you.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, I like this.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You're a rationalist.

[Adam Carolla]

I strive for accuracy.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You are blue collar nerd.

[Adam Carolla]

I'm a blue collar nerd. Because the thing about blue collar is.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It may be, it's a practical sense that you have lived experience.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, I would say so. People all the time, when I used to do it for a living, they go, well, I want to take this wall out. I want to open up this whole area. And I'd go, well, that's a load bearing wall. So I want to get it. You get out of there. We got to put something. We got to pick up the load. And they'd go, go, I don't want anything coming down from the. And I go, I, I go, we need a piece of steel because we got to span this. And it's a big span. Well, I don't want a piece. I don't want nothing. Well, I don't have a magic wand.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You need a different universe with the laws of physics might enable what you want.

[Adam Carolla]

Right. But here on Earth, on Earth, we gotta pick up this load. So I'm telling you, that's a good line.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Say that next time on this planet. This is how you gotta do it.

[Adam Carolla]

That's what I would find myself telling to a lot of people who. And all they were, all their whole thing was, I don't want this. And my thing is like, I don't want it either. But it's a necessity. So we have to do it reality on reality's terms, as Dr. Drew would say. Now we have.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's right. Because it was a.

[Adam Carolla]

They're in the galleria, they fall through the glass. And this is a good use of the tether cutting scene. All right. Sorry. Cause we're on Earth and it's different. So it's a. The guy falls. You can probably scrub forward a little bit, but the guy falls through the crack. It's kind of an interesting scene. It's like a clear dome.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. And this is a mall. This is a shopping mall.

[Adam Carolla]

This is a shopping mall.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. Oh, there it is.

[Adam Carolla]

The glass cracks as they drag. Now the phony. The only thing that was fake about this movie is the guy's like, I'm gonna walk to my son through a blizzard. Like, if I was one of his buddies, I'd be like, have fun. It's not my son. So the guy's hanging, you know, nine stories off the. Off a roof. He's got his snow ax and a piece of glass.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

The snow ax is legit. Right. And he's got there.

[Adam Carolla]

Right. And his buddy's hanging. His buddy realizes he's going to take him with him. Ah, stoic man. So he pulls the sled off. Cuz he's dragging a sled. He pulls his knife out, he cuts the cord. The sled crashes down to the. The escalator. Which is not working, obviously, because Trump's in town. Oh, yeah. Oh, I'm accurate, bro. So at some point it's a moving, It's a touching scene. Like the guy realizes he's not going to be able to save me.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right. But still. And that's a case where you can't just tug it and have him come towards you because there's not floating. Because we're on Earth. Everyone is in 1G rather than 0G.

[Adam Carolla]

Right?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right.

[Adam Carolla]

So at some point he just cuts it. He sees the glass is cracking up there. He sees the guy can't hold it.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right.

[Adam Carolla]

The glass is breaking and he Says, I'm going to. I'm just going to cut myself loose and save the team.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, it's not going to.

[Adam Carolla]

Guys, cut his hand.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, I remember that. Forgot about that. Yes. That's more evidence that this is. There it is. No, you can't.

[Adam Carolla]

That's it. All right. Proper use of the tether cutting in a movie. Yes. So we're not just here to. To throw shame and hate at some. We're here to heap praise on folks that use the tether cutting properly.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's the reality check on the world around us.

[Adam Carolla]

So what is the movie that's the furthest gone in terms of your field of expertise and reality?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

No, it was Armageddon.

[Adam Carolla]

Armageddon by far. And that doesn't even count the moon rover scene that I put in there.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Right, yeah, thanks for adding that. And then. And then Moonfall.

[Adam Carolla]

Moonfall.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That one. Armageddon had the record for me until Moonfall came out.

[Adam Carolla]

Came out during COVID What happened with Moonfall?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

You know, they found out the moon is hollow and that there's some moon being that like snake moon being that's. Is it eating the moon? I don't know. And then the moon starts getting closer to the Earth, and when the moon goes overhead, people float up to its gravity. I mean, it's just nothing is right.

[Adam Carolla]

Nothing.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Nothing. And by the way, I don't mind having a moon being, but there's physics that help you shape that story.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. What I never get is when they're making a movie about World War II, they go get some expert and they sit down and they go, how would they dress? How would they talk? What kind of equipment would they have? And they work it all out and it's pretty straightforward.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yes, they could do that. No one walks on set with bell bottom, you know, paisley pace. Right.

[Adam Carolla]

1943. Right. So it's pretty doable.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yes, it is. It doesn't take much. And so some movies are highly researched. One of the highest compliments I ever got was from Andy Weir, who wrote the movie the Martian, which has more accurate science than any Hollywood movie I've ever seen.

[Adam Carolla]

Really.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

And he was an engineer turned novelist. He said. He said when he was writing all the science in the movie the Martian, which was a marquee film, it had Ridley Scott as a director and it had all these Matt Damon and all these first row, top shelf actors. He said, neil, when I was writing this and I did a calculation, I'd do it a second time because I imagined you were looking over my shoulder and I didn't want you tweeting about it if I got it wrong after it came out. Counted that as a high compliment.

[Adam Carolla]

Done that on road trip or. Or Ghost Rider. Just pictured Adam making fun of them. All right, so before we go, Mars water. Fossilized water. I don't know what to call it, but.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Oh, the recent discovery.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Thanks for checking in on that. So there is. It's not evidence. It's not fossilized life. It's fossilized life excrement, if you want to be blunt about it. So there's a. That the combination of chemistry there would not have happened naturally, but just by rocks rolling around and sitting here for a while and then there. It looks like life made that residue. And that's very hopeful. What it does is it say, let's go back and look for more of this. It helps shape your next round of questions. Because if you go in there, you don't know anything. You say, let's just look at everything. Check here, go where there used to be water. Poke here, poke there. Once you can sharpen your questions, then you can design experiments that are better tuned to answer those questions.

[Adam Carolla]

How did they discern that that was sort of the real life?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It was just. It looked like leopard spots on a rock. You need a geologist in there too, not only astrobiologists to know for them to say that's unusual.

[Adam Carolla]

Is it just from looking at it?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, there are other ways that they can probe rocks.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

They have an alpha proton X ray spectrometer. It would sound like something Batman would have had on his Bruce Willis. Not happy with that junk.

[Adam Carolla]

Get it out of here. What was that like? What'd that cost? Like $400 or something?

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

It's a Batman device. Oh, no, Batman. Not the alpha proton X ray spectrometer. So they have ways of seeing inside of rocks to some degree. But this, as I understood it, was just completely visible to you. So you have to know what rocks and sedimentary layers normally look like, and then you're spotting the anomaly.

[Adam Carolla]

And now what about sending a manned mission to the moon, which is recent as well.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

We're reacting to China's decision to do this.

[Adam Carolla]

This is just a dick swinging competition.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

That's another way to say it. But let me just tell you that if we really care that much about the moon, we would have stayed in 1972 or we would have gone back in 1980 or 1990 or 2000 or 2010. China says they're put Taikonauts on the moon. That's their word for an astronaut. And then we say, oh, by the way, wouldn't it be good if NASA went back to the moon? We make it feel like it's the natural thing when in fact we are responding geopolitically to a perceived or real threat.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, I get both sides. My first impulse is like, well, that's from my childhood. I don't know what we're going to do. But better than the I'll take that over the bullet train for Merced. That's never going to get finished in terms of expenditures. All right, let me plug the book. Just Visiting this Planet is the name of the book. It is available October 21st, but you can pre order.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, the publisher loves a pre order. They like to know if you're really interested and then it shows up on your doorstep.

[Adam Carolla]

Always great chatting.

[Neil deGrasse Tyson]

Neil DeGrasse Tyson, really good to see you again. Good to see you.

[Adam Carolla]

So I want to thank Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Alicia Krauss. Tonight I'll be in Rodney's New York City Dr. Drew doing stand up for the first time. Kat Tim from Gutfeld's going to be there and we'll do live pod and we'll do a live standup show as well there as well as Kyle Dunnigan I think is coming out and then Sol Joel's in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. That'll be Friday and Saturday. Just go to AdamCroll.com for all the the live shows. Until next time, Adam Crawford, Neil degrasse Tyson, Alicia Kraus saying mahalo.

[Dawson]

You can leave us a voicemail at 888-634-1744 and get tickets to see the Ace man at AdamCorola.com.

[Pluto TV Announcer]

This October fear is free on Pluto TV with horror movie collections from Paranormal Activity, the ring.

[Alicia Krause]

You will die in seven days Scream.

[Pluto TV Announcer]

And from dusk till dawn this is.

[Adam Carolla]

My kind of place.

[Pluto TV Announcer]

And don't miss the man made nightmares in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or the world ending chaos in 28 days later. Something in the blood, all the scares all for free. Pluto TV stream now pay never. This October fear is free on Pluto TV with horror movie collections from paranormal Activity, the ring you will die in seven days Scream. And from dusk till dawn this is.

[Adam Carolla]

My kind of place.

[Pluto TV Announcer]

And don't miss the man made nightmares in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or the world ending chaos in 28 days later something in the blood, all the scares, all for free. Pluto TV stream now pay never.