INTERVIEW: Neil deGrasse Tyson Talks New Book 'Take Me to Your Leader', Alien Abductions, What 'Intelligent Life' Truly Mean + More

Charlamagne Tha God (0:03)

It's The Breakfast Club. You gon finish or y'all done?

DJ Envy (0:08)

Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne Tha God. We are The Breakfast Club. Lola Rosa's here as well. We got a special guest in the building.

Charlamagne Tha God (0:17)

One of my favorite people to listen to, one of my favorite people to hear talk, man.

DJ Envy (0:20)

That's right, and you're from the Bronx, right?

Neil deGrasse Tyson (0:21)

Bronx in the house. The Bronx!

DJ Envy (0:23)

Neil deGrasse Tyson, welcome, brother.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (0:25)

Yeah, it's the East Bronx, the Castle Hill Housing Project over there, near the Whitestone Bridge. And that was a middle-income housing project, and then my father's income went above that level, so they kick you out, because it's rent-controlled there. So then we moved to Riverdale, so actually most of my years were in Riverdale, the Bronx.

DJ Envy (0:46)

Really? Where Riverdale?

Neil deGrasse Tyson (0:47)

Well, I grew up in Skyview Apartments.

DJ Envy (0:51)

333 Henry Hudson?

Neil deGrasse Tyson (0:52)

No, it's Arlington Avenue, higher up, higher up than that. And I didn't realize growing up, I mean, I was interested in the universe since I was nine, and the name of the building I grew up in was Skyview Apartments. So I only put that together later, because it's just a name, I didn't parse it, but maybe it was preordained.

Lola Rosa (1:14)

Did you go to Bronx High?

DJ Envy (1:17)

Okay, you did. The reason I said that is, you know, growing up in New York, yes, my answer is yes.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (1:23)

Yes, yes, yes.

DJ Envy (1:25)

Growing up in New York, if you're in the public school system, the best schools that you wanted to go to was Brooklyn Tech, Bronx Science, Yeah, Stuyvesant was the other one.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (1:35)

And what was the other one? Stuyvesant was the three. These are public schools.

DJ Envy (1:38)

These are public schools, but they didn't just take every student. You had to be tested to get into it. I didn't make it in, but you had to be tested to get into it. And those were the kids that were the top of the top of New York City back then when we were kids.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (1:49)

Yeah, in fact, in my high school, it brags it has eight Nobel laureates among its graduates. That's more than the country of Spain.

So that's kind of wild.

DJ Envy (1:59)

Wow, that is amazing.

Charlamagne Tha God (2:00)

I always say the craziest people in America come from the Bronx and all of Florida.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (2:06)

You need a little bit of crazy to do something different, I think. Yeah, yeah.

DJ Envy (2:09)

So for people, I was going to say, for people that don't know who Neil is, deGrasse Tyson, can you just break down some of the things?

Charlamagne Tha God (2:14)

I don't have time to talk to those people. They're under a rock.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (2:19)

You don't know who Neil deGrasse Tyson is.

DJ Envy (2:20)

Throw it down quickly if you can. Okay.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (2:22)

I was born and raised in New York City, discovered the universe in a first family visit to the Hayden Planetarium. Right there, it's part of the American Museum of Natural History. We all went there as kids.

DJ Envy (2:33)

Of course.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (2:33)

We had dinosaurs and things, but there's also an attached planetarium. And I was hooked. In fact, I kind of think the universe chose me. I was like starstruck under that sky. The lights dimmed, the stars come out, and I just liked the immensity of it, and how much we didn't yet know.

That intrigued me. So many people have to have answers at every moment, but if you learn to love the questions themselves, then your life becomes one of, it's a journey, a discovery.

Charlamagne Tha God (3:05)

That's what I like about you though, cause you are an expert, but you don't act like an expert. Oh. Because you're always a sense of discovery with you.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (3:13)

Oh yeah, no it is. Your old thing is just show me the facts. Cause experts, I know everything, just ask me everything. But no, I'm as curious as an adult as any of us were as kids.

And I kind of think that a kid who retains their curiosity, especially through middle school, that's some tough years in middle school, if you retain your curiosity, I think you become a scientist cause the world is your Petri dish. That's nasty. Okay, but the world is your oyster. Oyster thing, okay. Petri dish, this is hilarious.