Things You Thought You Knew – Zombie Apocalypse

Summary

StarTalk Radio Episode Summary

Title: Things You Thought You Knew – Zombie Apocalypse
Host: Neil deGrasse Tyson
Release Date: May 27, 2025

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1. Asteroid Belts and the Vastness of Space

Timestamp: 01:02 - 07:37

Neil deGrasse Tyson opens the episode by delving into the composition and distribution of asteroids within our solar system. He explains the distinction between the asteroid belt—a flattened zone between Mars and Jupiter—and the Oort Cloud, a vast spherical region that serves as a reservoir for comets.

Key Points:

• Asteroid Belt: Initially thought to harbor a ninth planet, the discovery of multiple small bodies like Ceres, Pallas, Vesta, and Juno revealed that the belt contains numerous small asteroids rather than a single large planet.
• Naming Asteroids: Neil humorously shares that Asteroid 13123 Tyson is named after him, emphasizing the honor bestowed upon individuals when an asteroid is named in their honor. He notes, "You can name it after any person, place, or thing if you discover enough asteroids" (07:06).

Notable Quote:

"When you discover enough asteroids, you can name one after your pet." — Neil deGrasse Tyson (14:39)

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2. The Analemma and Earth's Timekeeping Precision

Timestamp: 17:02 - 27:09

In this segment, Neil explores the concept of the analemma, a figure-eight pattern that represents the position of the sun in the sky at the same clock time over a year. He explains how Earth's elliptical orbit affects solar time, leading to discrepancies between our 24-hour clock and the actual solar day.

Key Points:

• Analemma Definition: The figure-eight shape traced by the sun's position over a year due to Earth’s varying orbital speed.
• Timekeeping Adjustments: Neil illustrates that without accounting for the analemma, sundials would require constant adjustments to remain accurate. He states, "A properly oriented sundial, when corrected by this figure 8, can keep time accurate to within a minute" (20:22).
• Historical Context: Discusses how ancient civilizations understood these astronomical phenomena long before modern technology, integrating this knowledge into cultural practices like solstice celebrations.

Notable Quotes:

"Every single sundial ever made has a figure 8 on it." — Neil deGrasse Tyson (20:09)
"There’s your Analemma for you." — Neil deGrasse Tyson (26:51)

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3. Historical Solstices and the Origin of Christmas

Timestamp: 23:05 - 26:50

Continuing from the discussion on the analemma, Neil transitions into the historical significance of the winter solstice and its influence on cultural traditions, particularly the timing of Christmas.

Key Points:

• Winter Solstice: Marks the day with the lowest sun arc in the sky, signaling the return of longer days.
• Cultural Adaptations: Neil explains that early Christians chose December 25th for Christmas to align with existing pagan festivals celebrating the solstice, facilitating easier conversion of pagans to Christianity.
• Etymology: Highlights the wordplay in "solstice," translating to "sun stops," and its impact on agricultural societies reliant on predictable solar patterns.

Notable Quotes:

"So that's basically the entire reason for the birth of Jesus and Christmas being December 25th." — Neil deGrasse Tyson (26:40)
"The path is a little higher in the sky... which is part of the primary reason why it's warmer in the summer and colder in the winter." — Neil deGrasse Tyson (24:44)

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4. The Zombie Apocalypse: A Mirror to Modern Society

Timestamp: 28:47 - 42:35

In the final segment, Neil and co-host Chuck Nice tackle the concept of the zombie apocalypse, using it as a lens to examine societal dependencies and vulnerabilities.

Key Points:

• Zombie Tropes vs. Reality: They discuss common misconceptions depicted in media, such as densely packed asteroid fields and fast-moving zombies, contrasting them with scientific realities.
• Societal Breakdown: Neil posits that the true threat in a zombie apocalypse isn't the zombies themselves but the collapse of essential services like food distribution, water treatment, and energy supply. He states, "A zombie apocalypse is not fundamentally different from a pandemic" (33:24).
• Self-Reliance: Emphasizes the importance of being prepared and understanding one's dependence on societal infrastructure, as seen during the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on supply chains.
• Nature vs. Human Society: Reflects on how wildlife remains unaffected during such catastrophes, highlighting human fragility compared to resilient animal species.

Notable Quotes:

"Ask yourself how much of your survival depends on the efforts of others to maintain the civilization that you're plugged into." — Neil deGrasse Tyson (38:54)
"In a zombie apocalypse, forget the zombies. What's happening is society begins to shut down." — Neil deGrasse Tyson (34:27)
"We are so dependent on even the littlest things in society." — Neil deGrasse Tyson (34:39)

Discussion Highlights:

• Media Representations: Critique of how shows like The Walking Dead and World War Z portray societal collapse, often overlooking the backbone systems that keep civilization functioning.
• Practical Preparedness: Chuck and Neil humorously discuss survival strategies, from stocking up on essentials to owning tactical gear, while acknowledging the absurdity of certain zombie rules portrayed in fiction.

Notable Quote:

"The most I'll give him is in the Thriller video. They can dance." — Neil deGrasse Tyson (41:59)

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Conclusion

Neil deGrasse Tyson wraps up the episode by encouraging listeners to reflect on their societal dependencies and the importance of maintaining the systems that support modern life. By using the entertaining framework of a zombie apocalypse, he imparts valuable insights into the fragility and resilience of human civilization.

Final Thoughts:

"Ask yourself how much of your survival depends on the efforts of others to maintain the civilization that you're plugged into." — Neil deGrasse Tyson (38:54)

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Note: This summary excludes advertisement segments and introductory/outro content to focus solely on the educational and discussion-rich portions of the episode.

Transcript

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[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Coming up on StarTalk. It's another things you thought you knew episode all about asteroid fields, the analemma, and the zombie apocalypse. Check it out. Welcome to StarTalk, your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now. Jack.

[Chuck Nice]

Yes.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Hey, man. So, you know, there's this latest Stark talk book. We spend a large part of a chapter exploring how empty space actually is. Yeah, you can get a sense it's empty because there's these big, vast voids and things. All right. But I don't think people really feel how emotionally empty. Oh, they came out wrong. No, that came out wrong.

[Chuck Nice]

I was gonna say space is just sitting around. Just. I just don't get it. Emotionally empty. I try my best. I put myself out there. I mean, I'm friendly. I don't get it. You know, I want to connect with people. I want to. I just. I don't understand why. I just can't seem to make that kind of tight fit with anybody. I don't.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

It's tough in spade being space God.

[Chuck Nice]

It just seems like no matter how much comes into me, I just still feel so empty. I mean, new stars are happening all the time, but still, I'm just. It just doesn't do it. What do I have to do to have some sense of accomplishment or fulfilledness in my life? I don't. I'm sorry. Space. Our time is up. Maybe we can pick this up next week.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Who would ever think to personify space? Okay, that's not even a thing. Right. All right, so let's take a Look. We have eight planets, and they go out 4 or 5 billion miles, but there's only eight of them. Right? So clearly that's pretty empty, right? Yeah, yeah, that's pretty empty. Okay, let's keep going. But, you know, there are these asteroids, right? And most of them are collected in this flattened zone.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Between Mars and Jupiter.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Okay. Because it's a flattened zone, we call it a belt, the asteroid belt.

[Chuck Nice]

Belt.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Okay. There are comets that come into the sun from all directions.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And if you projected where they come from, it's a spherical region around the solar system. And that we wouldn't call that a belt because it's a spherical region. We call that a cloud.

[Chuck Nice]

A cloud, Right. Cloud.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

The Oort cloud. Jan Oort, who's a Dutch astronomer. So he saw how many comets were coming in from every direction. And comets are moving fast when they're near the sun, all right? And when they go farther away from something, they move slower and slower and slower. So when he did the. When he ran the math on the. Before computers, by the way he ran the math, he concluded there must be billions of these comets way out there in these long loop orbits that come around. And they'll spend most of their time far away from the sun because that's when they're moving the slowest. Okay. Pluto is the most significant member of the Kuiper Belt of comets.

[Chuck Nice]

Right?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

So that's a belt because it's a flattened region around. Around the sun. All right? 1801, the first asteroid is discovered. And people are excited because they think it's a planet.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

They discovered orbiting in this big gap, suspiciously big gap between Mars and Jupiter. People were saying, there's gotta. Let's just keep looking. There's gotta be something there. It's a bigger gap than you think should be there, given the distances between other planets.

[Chuck Nice]

The other planets, exactly.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

So they found Ceres, that we found a planet, and then they found another one, and then they found another one and another one. The first four asteroids, Ceres, Pallas, Vesta and Juno. Ceres is the root. Ceres is the goddess of harvest. And that's the root to the word cereal. Okay.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah, there you go.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

There you go. Okay. So anyhow, once we started discovering many, many, many more of these, we realized, wait a minute. They're all in the same swath of real estate. They don't sort of own their own space. And actually they're really tiny.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

They're so Tiny. Through a telescope, they look like a star. Stars are so far away you can't see any size for them.

[Chuck Nice]

These are right here with us.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

They're right here with. So they look like stars, but they're not stars.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

They're asteroids. Oh, you get that? Okay.

[Chuck Nice]

They're stars.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. Star like. Star like, star like. Okay, so. Well, how many are there? Well, we started counting hundreds initially, then thousands, then tens of thousands, then hundreds of thousands. Right. Now we're up over a million known asteroids with orbits and existence in our solar system.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And one of them has my name on it.

[Chuck Nice]

No, you didn't know that. I did not. You did not know that. I'm serious. I did not.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Okay.

[Chuck Nice]

We've been together a long time. How did I not. You have your own asteroid.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Yes, I do. Yes, I do. I'm sorry.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

I don't mean to brag or anything. By the way, there are a lot of asteroids, so there's a limit to how big your head can get. Would you get an asteroid named after you? Just saying.

[Chuck Nice]

I don't know about that. That's not bad. I mean, I wouldn't mind. I mean, can you see it now? That's the thing.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Well, I double checked that. It's not headed towards Earth or it's not on an Earth crossing orbit. You don't want to be that asteroid.

[Chuck Nice]

You don't want to be that asteroid. Yeah, just like Neil Tyson is coming to kill you all.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

So it's asteroid 13123. Tyson.

[Chuck Nice]

13123 Tyson.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, that's. That's what it is.

[Chuck Nice]

That's cool, man.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Okay, so I have now.

[Chuck Nice]

Wait, wait a minute. There's now just, just very.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

What?

[Chuck Nice]

Quickly.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

What?

[Chuck Nice]

Can anybody get their own asteroid? I mean, is. Or is that something where like somebody bestowed this honor upon you? It's not one of those things where it's just like one of these services where it's just like you too can name a star, give it to your girlfriend for Valentine's Day.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

You use the salesman voice. Right? Name a star. So the person who discovers the asteroid has the power to name it after any person, place or thing.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, so that's cool. So somebody found this asteroid that you know, and they were just like, hey, Neil, I'm gonna name this asteroid. Wow. That I'm gonna say.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

So that's an honor. It's an honor.

[Chuck Nice]

That's more than an honor. That's like. That's like naming a child after somebody.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Okay, okay.

[Chuck Nice]

I mean, honestly, that asteroid is going to Be there long after we're all going, your kid's going to die.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

That's true, that's true.

[Chuck Nice]

If you named your kid after me, it'd be like, okay, that's an honor for like, what, 70 years?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Three score and 10. All right.

[Chuck Nice]

It's not like your kid's going to live forever. You know, I was named after Chuck. Nice. No, but that asteroid for generations to come, long after I'm dead serious honor.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

There it is. Okay, so that's one of the asteroids in the asteroid belt. Okay, There. We know of a million. There's probably as many as a billion. Depends on how small you. You want to count.

[Chuck Nice]

You're going to. Okay, count, right?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

All right, so now watch. That swath of real estate is so large. Okay, let's ask the question. What is the average distance between asteroids? Okay, That's a very honest question to ask question. Now, if you base it on movies.

[Chuck Nice]

All right, that average distance would be around six and a half feet. That's right, because you are navigating the spaceship to make.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Doesn't look cool otherwise. Right. And the rocks are banging off the side of the.

[Chuck Nice]

Exactly.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And jostling the ship. And even in Star Trek, Captain, we're entering an asteroid field. There they go. And so, yeah, this is cinematic trope. What's going on as you enter an asteroid field?

[Chuck Nice]

Okay, I got a feeling right now. I got a feeling that you are about to ruin another cinematic constant. Or. Or. Or tradition. Another cinematic tradition is about to bite the dust, Courtesy of Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Why you got.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Why you got. Bill it like that?

[Chuck Nice]

I just know why you got.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Make me look. Why you got. Why you.

[Chuck Nice]

Why you do that? Something telling me, man.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Okay. The average distance between asteroids in the asteroid belt, okay. Is about 600,000 miles.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, my God. So basically, you're like, okay, so you can't see it, but over there to the left. If we're not careful, in about a month, we might hit that asterisk.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Imagine showing that. Showing that in the movie.

[Chuck Nice]

Right? That's the movie. That's the new movie version. Okay, Captain, we've entered the asteroid belt. Oh, my God. What is the potential damage, number one? I don't know how to say this, Captain, but we can't see any of them. They're too far away. How shall we maneuver the ship? There's no need to. I'm actually going to go take a nap now, Captain. I'm going to go lay down because that's how. That's how much danger an asteroid Belt.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Actually poses, you know, so, so what's interesting is our first space. We have four. Well, five. Well, more than that. I'm old enough to remember the first four spaceship to go beyond Mars in the solar system to reach the outer planets. So if you want to go to the outer planets, you have to cross the asteroid belt.

[Chuck Nice]

Right?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Okay, we did this calculation all right, early on. Pioneer 10 and 11 twin spacecraft, first to first have enough energy to leave the solar system. But they're not as famous as Voyager 1 and 2.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

All four of those spacecraft went through the asteroid belt and nothing happened to them.

[Chuck Nice]

And if it did, NASA would have been the laughingstock of all spacecraft of space programs effort, because there's 600,000. How could you hit something? You can't. If you tried to hit something, you couldn't hit it. You gotta try. It's like when my dad took me to learn how to drive in the parking lot of the supermarket and the supermarket is closed and I hit a lamppost.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

No, you didn't. What?

[Chuck Nice]

How, What? What? How could you? There's nothing here but lines on the ground. And this one lamppost and you hit it. How did you hit the lamppost?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Okay, so, yeah, I'm just trying to get real here. I mean, so that's all I'm saying.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh my God.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Yeah, yeah, that's terrible. So that's why we don't worry about crossing the asteroid belt. We just send stuff through. It's not even a thing.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I mean, honestly. Oh my God. And once again I can say, once again, Star wars has it completely wrong when it comes to the science of space. Thank you Star wars, for your assiduous consistency where you just get it wrong every time.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

So anyway, that was a long lead up to that one little bitty fact there, that I have an asteroid. I have an asteroid named after me.

[Chuck Nice]

That was so much fun. But actually, and that's the cool, the coolest thing. Well, actually, those are two cool things we learned. One, you are never getting hit by asteroid in the asteroid belt. That's number one.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Number one.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay. And number two, Tyson. Three, two, one.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

No, it's one, three. One, two, three. Tyson.

[Chuck Nice]

One, three. One, two, three.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Tyson. Which means at the time that was named for me, there was in the tens of thousands of named asteroids.

[Chuck Nice]

Gotcha.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Okay, gotcha. But now we're like in the high hundreds of thousands getting named. And so there's asteroids named after, like I said, people, places and things. If you discover enough asteroids, you can name one after your pet.

[Chuck Nice]

Right? Yeah. So there's an asteroid somewhere named Fluffy. Fluffy 31123.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

There's an asteroid named Santa that was kind of cool.

[Chuck Nice]

The Santa world.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And I have a friend of mine who observed who was at a telescope Christmas Day and he made sure to observe Asteroid Santa on Christmas Day.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh man.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Just for the grins of it. Yeah.

[Chuck Nice]

That's a cool thing to know though.

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[Chuck Nice]

Hello, I'm Alexander Harvey and I support StarTalk on Patreon. This is StarTalk with Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

How long is a day?

[Chuck Nice]

Depends. Are my kids with me? Because then it's too long. But 24 hours is what they say.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

It's 24 hours. Yeah, it's 24 hours. We could repeat that every day without. Okay, that's fine. But suppose you were to use the sun to keep track of that. How about the time it takes the sun to get to its highest point in the sky each day. That ought to be 24 hours. Because every day the sun rises and it gets the highest point sky, and then it goes and it sets on the other side.

[Chuck Nice]

All right, Right.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

That ought to be 24 hours.

[Chuck Nice]

Right, but it's not exactly damn daylight savings time.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

No, no. There are some days where the sun is early at its highest point in the sky relative to your clock, and sometimes it's late in the sky. You're thinking it would cross the highest point in the sky at high noon, Right?

[Chuck Nice]

That's what they say.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Sometimes it gets to high noon before noon comes, and sometimes it gets to high noon after noon comes. Sometimes the sun is fast and sometimes the sun is slow. Now, of course, we're the ones in motion around the sun, so I shouldn't be sun centering those sentences, but just for now, that's what I'll do. And it could be by up to 15 minutes. Oh, too fast or too slow relative to your 24 hour day. That's correct.

[Chuck Nice]

Cool.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

All right. What that means is you can't really use the sun to tell you when noon is because the sun will be ahead of that or behind it. So if you're okay, plus or minus 15 minutes, sure, use the Sun.

[Chuck Nice]

Sun is on CP time.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

CP time.

[Chuck Nice]

Don't go there. Sun is like. What you talking about? 15 minutes. That's. We still good?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

We're still on time?

[Chuck Nice]

We still good? We're still on time.

[Ollie Representative]

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[Chuck Nice]

You really mad about 15? Come on, man.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Are you going to tell people what CP time is?

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, I don't want to, but I'm going to have to. But yeah, C.P.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Okay, how about this? No, don't do it. Just make people go to the urban dictionary.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah, go to the urban dictionary and look up CP time.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

If you drew the shadow, the tip shadow of a stick in the ground, every day at 12 noon, the tip of that shadow will trace out a figure eight on the ground. Over the 365 days, there'll be four days where the sun hits 12 noon at the highest point in its arc. All the other days of the year, it's either before or after. That's the width of the 8. Tells you how much before and how much after 12 noon the sun arrives at that point on the sky. Now, this sounds really obscure, doesn't it? But every single sundial ever made has a figure 8 on it.

[Chuck Nice]

I was going to say it sounds obscure now because we don't use the sun to Tell time. But if you actually using the sun to tell time and you don't want to end up on CP sun time, then.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

So you would use the figure 8 to adjust for the fact that the sun was either slow or fast so that you get the proper time accurate to in about a minute or two. Actually, I've done this experiment. You get it to within a minute. A properly oriented sundial, when corrected by this figure 8. That figure 8 is called an analemma. That is the name of that figure 8. So you might ask, how come the sun is not behaving?

[Chuck Nice]

How come the sun's not behaving?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Thank you, Chuck. Because they got nothing to do with the sun. It has to do with the fact that Earth's orbit around the sun is not a perfect circle. When we are closer to the sun, we are moving faster in our orbit. If we move faster in orbit than when we're farthest from the sun, we have to turn a little bit extra to complete the Sun's journey from noon to noon because we moved in our orbit around the Sun. So if we turn to exactly the right same direction, we're not going to see the sun anymore. We have to keep turning to compensate for that. And so these effects are not only because we're in motion around the sun, but because sometimes we're traveling faster and sometimes we're traveling slower. Those conspire to make a figure eight. And that figure eight is called an analemma. If you have old cartographic maps of the world, like old globes, look in the South Pacific where they put the legend for distance and the compass rose and things in there, you'll find an analemma. Typically.

[Chuck Nice]

Now that is something I'm going to be honest, had never heard of before that it even existed now that it never just completely new. But it makes perfect sense and it's very important because of course, if you want to keep time and by the.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Way, so let's go back to a perfectly circular orbit, which we don't have. You would get this adjustment anyway. Okay, so it takes 23 hours and 56 minutes for the Earth to rotate once on its axis. 56 minutes and 4 seconds to rotate once. Well, how come we said 24 hour clock? Because in that time we orbited the Earth and we have to turn four minutes extra to then see the sun back where it's supposed to be. So we say Earth rotates once in 24 hours. That is false. That has never been true. Earth faces the sun every 24 hours, turns back to the sun with a, with an aligned spot every 24 hours. And that has to be adjusted because sometimes we move faster in our orbit and sometimes we move slower. All of that's going on.

[Chuck Nice]

That's crazy.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And you just wake up, have breakfast, go to work, and come home.

[Chuck Nice]

There you go. Now you can have a true appreciation for your digital clock people.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Yes, yes. And by the way, most ancient peoples knew about this because what else are you doing? They didn't have hbo, you know, Max at night. What else are you going to do at night? You're going to look up.

[Chuck Nice]

Right. My God. Do they ever play anything else on this channel?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

God, on the sky channel. The sky channel, by the way, December 21st in the Northern hemisphere, first day of winter. Okay. The arc that the sun takes across the sky is very low. In fact, it is the lowest arc of all arcs of every other day of the year.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay, okay.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

December 22nd, the path is a little higher in the sky. And this continues to June 21st with the Arc that the sun takes across the sky is at its highest. This is part of the reason, like the primary reason why it's warmer in the summer and colder in the winter. The sun is not very high and it's not up for very long. The ancients were very concerned about this, the ancient pagan cultures very concerned about this, because the sun is everything, gives you warmth and your crops and your agriculture. So there's the sun getting a lower and lower arc in the sky. So around December 21, it stops getting lower. The sun stops solstice.

[Chuck Nice]

Yes.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Sol is the sun. Stis is stops armistice. You stop the arms, so it doesn't stop in the sky. The trajectory, the daily trajectory across the sky doesn't get lower. But then they weren't sure this. It took a couple of days to make sure. And when you can say, hey, it's on its way back up again, that would happened a few days later.

[Chuck Nice]

Right, right.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Guess what day that happened on.

[Chuck Nice]

Probably around, I don't know, the Christmas, you know, nice, nice Christmas.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

So huge celebrations. So now Christianity says, we don't want you worshiping pagan gods, we want you worshiping Jesus.

[Chuck Nice]

That's right.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And so there was a swap of. There was an adjustment of where are you going to put the birth of Jesus? Passages in the Bible, taken literally for what they say would put it in the spring, not in December. But if you want to get as many converts as you can, you can't take away their holiday.

[Chuck Nice]

That's because pagans know how to party. Pagans party Baby, you can't stop. You can't stop the pagan party. You can't stop the bonfire. No, they got the bonfire and everything's drinking. It's amazing. And they're like coming along like, no, hey, guys, by the way, you can't worship this anymore. And there's this guy, Jesus. You're gonna have to kind of worship him. Well, does he drink? Well, not really. I mean, he can change water into wine, but he's not a big drinker.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Wait, that's good. That's a start.

[Chuck Nice]

That's a start.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

That's a start.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah. Tell you what, tell you, here's a compromise. How about you guys keep your party and we'll just celebrate him as a part of the party. We're good with that.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Start the fire. There it was.

[Chuck Nice]

That's it.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

So that's basically the entire reason for the birth of Jesus and Christmas being December 25th.

[Chuck Nice]

Yep.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Because that's when you assure the sun's ark returns in the sky. So all of this is going on in the 24 hour day in the calendar and the 365 days of the year. That's all.

[Chuck Nice]

That's awesome.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

There's your Analemma for you.

[Chuck Nice]

Analemma, baby.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Did right by you in the end. I think.

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[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Chuck, you don't have to look too deep into the news to find all kinds of ways that we're all gonna die.

[Chuck Nice]

Oh, yes. It's why I like the news. You know, when I. When I get depressed, I just turn it on and, you know, sit back and. And bathe in apocalyptic, you know, misery.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Grandeur.

[Chuck Nice]

Yes, it's wonderful.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

You know, there's the asteroid, there's a killer virus, there's AI.

[Chuck Nice]

Yep.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And the list goes on and on. And people, like, stay up nights thinking about ways we're all going to die. And the one that is treated the most lightly, however, is one that I think should be given a little more serious attention.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And that's the zombie apocalypse.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay, I'm gonna ride with you for a second. I'm gonna ride with you for a second. Okay. Yeah, I mean, what. All right. Okay.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

You don't think I got this?

[Chuck Nice]

You'll think I listen, hey, here's the deal. I've doubted you in the past and it has worked out. So I'm gonna give you a little more leeway right now. But, you know, I gotta tell you, this twig is very thin. I don't know if it could support all this weight.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Okay, so the zombie apocalypse is. All right, the way it's typically shown in a movie is there's some virus that affects a person, right? And they bite you, and then you're affected by that virus, but that virus manifests by killing you, Right. And then you come back to life, right?

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah. And using then the virus is basically, you're a host for the virus in your. In your state of being. Undead.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Undead, Correct. Correct. By the way, there's a Key and Peel skit about the zombie apocalypse. Did you ever see it?

[Chuck Nice]

No.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Okay, so they're in the suburban neighborhood, and these zombies are coming down the street, and he. And Peel, they own homes on this street. And the zombie comes towards them, then pauses, stops, and then just keeps walking.

[Chuck Nice]

I won't bite them.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

These are racist zombies.

[Chuck Nice]

That's a good bit. That's a good bit.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

That was hilarious.

[Chuck Nice]

That's pretty funny.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

So all the White people in the neighborhood were like, running for the hills and they're out in their backyard playing ping pong in a barbecue. It was just. What would it be? The zombies were racist. So that's the idea. And so they're undead, and you got to buy into that premise. And then you have the whole movie.

[Chuck Nice]

Right. All right, okay.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

So one thing that the Walking Dead did so well in their series is to show for you that sometimes what we have to fear most is ourselves and not the zombies.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay, now that I can go with.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

If you knew zombies were like everywhere, taking everything out, then who's in charge? Who has access to the goods and services and foods and things you need to survive?

[Chuck Nice]

Society.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Right, right, society. So all of a sudden, society becomes a wild west in the face of a zombie apocalypse. Okay, so for me, I think a little differently. Well, I think more sharply about the zombie apocalypse. To me, the zombie apocalypse is the person who drives the truck. The people who drive the trucks that bring the food from the farms to the grocer or from the canning facility to the distribution facility, they're taken out. Zombies don't drive trucks. Okay? The person who controls the water treatment plant that then sends clean water into your pipes is taken out. The person who delivers gasoline to the gas station or fills up or the power station, they're taken out. So a zombie apocalypse is not fundamentally different from a pandemic.

[Chuck Nice]

Right?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

We saw some of this at the beginning of COVID The supply chains were broken, right, because people stayed off the roads and other people got sick. So you're not driving a truck that day. You're not run in the grocery store that day. And then what happens if the grocery store is open, what do you do?

[Chuck Nice]

Well, you go in and you buy 800 rolls of toilet paper.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

That's what you do.

[Chuck Nice]

I mean, clearly that's the only thing to do.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

How big is your ass that you need exactly?

[Chuck Nice]

You know.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

So, yeah, I would have bought food. I'd find other ways to wipe my ass, is my. How I would think about that, you know?

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah, I mean, I think it was. Oh, no, it was spring. It was spring. Yeah. You know, I was going to say we've been using leaves forever. Human beings have been using leaves since the beginning of time. So, you know, toilet paper is not really the number one priority. Okay.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

As far as I would have seen it. Okay, so in a zombie apocalypse, forget the zombies. What's happening is society begins to shut down.

[Chuck Nice]

Right?

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And we are so dependent on even the littlest things in society. All Right. If the electric company goes out and you got to put gas in your car, the pumps run on electricity.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Okay. If you have an electric car, when you not recharge. Unless you have solar panels. Okay, now suppose the solar panels break. You call solar panel fix it, man.

[Chuck Nice]

No.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

They're taken out by the virus. And so systematically, civilization as we know it unravels.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And let me tell you this. When I'm driving in a car and I see a deer crossing the road, or I see an eagle flying above, or I see a squirrel or a chipmunk, I say to myself, in the apocalypse, they're just fine. Yeah.

[Chuck Nice]

Nothing changes.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Nothing changes for them. They know where to get food. They know how to mate. They know where to live and get shelter. They know what to do from one season to the next. And they might hibernate. They don't need anybody. And so here I am, here we are as humans, saying, well, we're smart and we're this. You know, by the way, Chuck, who said that humans are the smartest creatures ever?

[Chuck Nice]

I think it was probably a human.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

No human said that.

[Chuck Nice]

I'm pretty sure.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Pretty sure it wasn't aliens saying, oh, on the grand scheme of. No, we declared that.

[Chuck Nice]

Right.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And so now, in a Darwinian sense, your ability to survive, the survival of the fittest didn't mean you had the biggest muscles. It meant you were capable of thriving in an environment you were best fit for that environment. And so we created a civilization. I don't know how to gut a deer. I don't know how to chase a turkey. I don't know how to.

[Chuck Nice]

You know, that is why you have got to get yourself a friend who has a bunker. Now, any friend with a bunker knows how to do all of those things.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

I live in the wrong part of the country for people that have bunkers with AR15.

[Chuck Nice]

I'm sure there's plenty of bunker people who would be very honored to be friends with Neil Degrasse Tyson. You know, it's just like we're pulling for the zombie apocalypse because Neil's coming over, guys, you know, just gotta make sure you don't get bit on the way.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Did I tell you I ordered one thing in a survival catalog? There was some fun looking knife that I wanted and one thing, it's a survival catalog, mind you. Okay? And ever since then, I've been on the mailing list, right? For guns, for tactical gear, for. So that's how they roll. You can buy a box of food, just add water, keep you going for three Years. Yeah, exactly.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah, yeah, I bought a self defense protection, I'll call it. It's basically a weapon. I don't want to say what kind, but you would think that I was Chuck Norris. Not Chuck Nice. Not Chuck Nice. The mail that I get, I'm just like, clearly they do not know who they are sending this mail to. You know.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

So there's, there's a catalog called LA Police Gear where, you know, you get, it's like, okay, this, now I know what everybody else is reading when I'm reading, you know, the.

[Chuck Nice]

I need that. Now. LA Police Gear is a catalog that I want to have. I'm ordering everything in it so that when I get stopped by the cops and they're just like, on the ground. I'm like, you on the ground.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Were the last words Chuck Nice ever said.

[Chuck Nice]

Get on the ground. You get on the ground.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

No, no, they'll just see the catalog on the seat next to you and.

[Chuck Nice]

Say, oh, go ahead, that could be it too, you know, Never know, that'd be it.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

So. So the point is that ask yourself how much of your survival depends on the efforts of others to maintain the civilization that you're plugged into.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And, and like I said, we saw bits and pieces of it for Covid and COVID virus was 3% fatality. Right? The morbidity, there's a, These mean slightly different things, right? But the total, the fraction of people who contracted Covid, who died, right, that was in the low single digits. And so if that had been higher, 20%, 50%, oh my goodness. And it was working its way through civilization, then civilization shuts down and you are basically on your own. And that's exactly what happens in a zombie apocalypse. So I think we need to devote more attention to, to the creativity of the writers and the producers who do these zombie stories just to see how the people are reacting in the face of lost services. They even know in the zombie shows, you don't use a gun to kill the zombie because guns use what bullets. And somebody's gotta make the bullets. And if that person doesn't show up at the factory, you ain't gonna have bullets.

[Chuck Nice]

I gotta tell you, my favorite zombie series of all time is the Last of Us on hbo. And it's because of everything you just said. It doesn't really focus on zombies. It focuses on our relationship with one another in the breakdown of society. And it just shows how different groups of people, how they coalesce and become their own sub society and they think.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

About their, their survival in different ways.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And what they'll do and what the priorities are.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

So I'm just, you know, zombies are. We're scared of zombies. But as you've clearly indicated there, Chuck, at the end of the day, maybe it is we who we should fear. Not the zombies themselves.

[Chuck Nice]

I'm going with both. I'm already scared of us. If zombies show up, I'm gonna be scared of them too.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

By the way, there's some, you know, people make up their own zombie rules, which is fine as long as it's consistent. There was one storyline where the zombies could not move backwards. They can only move forwards. Which meant they cannot open a door that opens inward.

[Chuck Nice]

Right. Yeah. That's a dumb rule. You know, all I gotta do is.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Get your life on it.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah. All I gotta do is get behind you now. Right.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

And then don't turn around and go backwards.

[Chuck Nice]

There you go.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

So that was one rule. And then a movie I didn't see. Z. What's that movie?

[Chuck Nice]

World War Z. It's a good zombie movie.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Those some fast moving zombies should not be able to move that fast.

[Chuck Nice]

And that ain't right. And unrelenting there. It's just crazy. Like that ain't right. Yeah.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

The zombies should not be able to run.

[Chuck Nice]

Yeah.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

I'm sorry.

[Chuck Nice]

And run faster than anybody. That's what made it.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Yeah. That's not how. They ain't got no ligaments in their bones and. Yeah, no. The most I'll give him is in the Thriller video. They can dance.

[Chuck Nice]

I'm down with that. By the way, the only zombies I'm not afraid of. I'm like those guys. They're too entertaining. Just one more number before you bite my brains. Just one more, guys.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Please. One more, one more, one more. So anyway, that's all I wanted to tell you about. Ask yourself, how dependent are you on civilization itself? And then consider the zombie apocalypse. And you're the first to go.

[Chuck Nice]

Well, there you go. There's something good to think about during this season. Perfect season to think about zombies and the breakdown of society as a whole. I like.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

All right, that's all I got for you, Chuck.

[Chuck Nice]

Okay.

[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

Neil Degrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist. Keep looking up.

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[Neil DeGrasse Tyson]

To use at Capella University. Learning online doesn't mean learning alone. You'll get dedicated support from people who care about your success. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at Capella. Eduardo.