Latest / Mic Drop Comedy / Neil deGrasse Tyson - How to Greet an Alien with _Take Me to Your Leader_ _ The Daily Show

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Neil deGrasse Tyson - How to Greet an Alien with _Take Me to Your Leader_ _ The Daily Show · Mic Drop Comedy

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: My guest tonight is an astrophysicist and best-selling author whose
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: new book is called Take Me to Your Leader, Perspectives
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: on Your First Alien Encounter.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Please welcome Neil deGrasse Tyson.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: They love you. Their own personal astrophysicist.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: Here in person. That is true. That's how I think
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: of myself.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Man, first of all, it's a big week in the
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: world of what is beyond this universe.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: Every week is that to me.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: You're always looking at the stars.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Sometimes for fashion advice and sometimes just for career opportunities.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: I want to talk to you about these UFO files.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: These UFO files.
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: From the Pentagon.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: From the Pentagon. Yes. They came out. Yes. Neil deGrasse Tyson,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: did you look at them? Did you see anything of
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: interest there?
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: It's all of interest.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. But....
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, okay, yes, I guess Pentagon files are all
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: of it.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, whatever comes out of Pentagon is always interesting.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Yes, it's an alien.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: There's a difference, just to be clear, between what was
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: once secret and what you might otherwise call a cover-up. Obviously,
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: the military keeps secrets. That's not something new or weird.
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: So many of these files were previously secret, and now
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: they're released. And they pretty much match in spirit the
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: testimonies we've seen in front of Congress from 2023 to 2024.
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: Three years of testimony. Sworn testimony from insiders, whistleblowers, from
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: intelligence agencies, from the military. basically telling us everything we
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: see in these files. So I was not surprised by it.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: And if it's consistent with what human beings are telling
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: you under oath, then there it is.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: But people tell us under oath, they see things they
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: don't understand. but then cheap documentaries will tell us, ooh,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: there's aliens out there.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: Yes, that's a leap at that point.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: That is a leap.
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, because if it's a UFO or UAP, as it
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: has been rebranded.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Which one do you go with, UFO or UAP?
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: I'm an old school, UFO.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: It's more fun.
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: Unidentified anomalous phenomenon? Come on now.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Hard to say.
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's hard to say. Right, so UFO. My
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: issue has always been, if you don't know what it is,
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: to you, it's a UFO. But if I know what
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: it is, then it's an IFO. Let's just get real here, okay?
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: And I know a lot about the night sky and weather,
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: clouds and all of this, and I've never seen anything
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: I couldn't explain. But I don't want to deny that.
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: of other people. And in the old days, it was
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: the farmer in the back 40 and something floating in
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: the back, and they report it, or drunken revelers coming
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: out of the bar. So it was easy to discount that.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: But with people of such high rank and privilege and access,
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: you can't just sweep it away. So I'm not sweeping
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: it away. And then this book, it's a celebration of
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: how much time, energy, and creativity we've invested in thinking
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: about aliens.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: There's a real human desire for that.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: Apparently.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: You mentioned in this book, though, it's an English-speaking phenomenon.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. So if you look at a map of
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: the world of all reported UFO sightings, they concentrate in
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: United States, Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Is there
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: anyone else who speaks English in the world? That's kind
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: of it. So could it be just our potent pop culture,
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  Speaker 3: where every other movie there's an alien portrayed, evil or otherwise?
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: I don't know, because our movies go worldwide. So there's
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: something else going on. And I concluded the aliens only
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: want to land in English-speaking countries. I don't know.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: If you're going to watch one story, we have a
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  Speaker 1: pretty compelling one going on right now.
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  Speaker 2: It is.
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  Speaker 3: There's the answer.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Maybe the aliens can't read subtitles.
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: Is that what it is? So, my point is... Right now,
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: you go up to another person and say, do you
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  Speaker 3: believe in aliens? But no one asks you, do you
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: believe in whales?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I still haven't seen proof of it.
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: Well, do you believe in elephants? You don't have to
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: ask that because you've seen an elephant. You've seen a whale,
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: if not beached or otherwise. Come to our museum. We
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: got one hanging from the ceiling. Museum of Natural History,
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  Speaker 3: New York City. Okay.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Boy, people promote a lot of shit on this show.
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  Speaker 3: But, oh, yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Fall for that museum propaganda, you guys.
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: So, so, all I ask of the Pentagon Files is,
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: bring out the alien. Is that too much to ask?
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Let us see for ourselves.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Bring it out.
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  Speaker 3: Then you don't need a two-hour documentary... extolling the title
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  Speaker 3: and pedigree of who is claiming a truth. You bring
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: out the alien, and then, hey, did you see that alien?
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  Speaker 2: That's cool. OK.
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: And then it's no longer do you believe in it.
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  Speaker 3: It's just there.
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  Speaker 2: Isn't that?
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  Speaker 3: And so in here, what I do is, in case
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  Speaker 3: there really is an alien that they want to bring out,
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: it's a primer on how to interact. for your first
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  Speaker 3: time with an alien. Can I share a couple of things?
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  Speaker 3: You got time? I don't know, you got time?
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  Speaker 2: I don't know. I got time, what do you got? Yes, yes.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: I got time. No, I've interviewed another alien.
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: Specialist after this. What do we need to know?
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you need to know.
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  Speaker 3: So for example, if it comes up to you and
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  Speaker 3: there's some appendage there, don't grab it and shake it.
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  Speaker 2: No.
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  Speaker 3: Because you don't know what part of the alien anatomy
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: that is. I don't think you want to know, okay?
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Or what a great way to make friends. Let me say,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: if somebody grabbed me there now.
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  Speaker 2: As a man who's been married for 12 years, I
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  Speaker 2: would take it. I would take it. Come on, alien.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: Just grab it. Give me some connection, please.
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  Speaker 3: What's this? What do you look like to them? Let's
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: say you befriended them. And then after, you know, some
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: hours go by, you say, excuse me, you know, Mr. Alien, Mrs. Alien.
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: I have to lay down horizontally and go semi-comatose for
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: one third of Earth's rotation. They'll look at you like,
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: what's wrong with you? What is this? You're not even responsive.
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  Speaker 3: You're mostly dead, OK? And so you don't know if
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: they sleep. Because if they don't sleep, you sleeping is
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: going to look really weird. So just be ready for that, OK?
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: Little things.
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  Speaker 1: Like even eating probably looks strange to them.
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  Speaker 3: Could look strange. If they were plant-based, then eating would
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: look really weird. Because they just have to lay out
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: in the sun to get their nourishment.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: So they'd be like, what are you putting in these
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  Speaker 2: weird holes that you have?
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  Speaker 3: Not only that, it's why are you killing living things
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  Speaker 3: to put in your mouth?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, they're judgy?
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: Oh, my God.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: You're telling me they have the temperament of a vegan?
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  Speaker 2: Is that what you're telling me? No, it's worse. No,
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  Speaker 2: it's worse.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, jeez. Because even vegans, everything they put in their
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  Speaker 3: mouth was once alive. Yes. In fact, the two things
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  Speaker 3: that are expressly excluded from the vegan diet did not
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  Speaker 3: require the death of another animal. It was milk and honey.
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  Speaker 3: That's even biblical, but you're not supposed to eat that.
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  Speaker 3: And I'm thinking, nothing had to die for you to
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  Speaker 3: eat the milk and honey. That's the best diet at all.
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  Speaker 3: So if a plant-based animal comes, alien comes, you're safest
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  Speaker 3: if you say, I just eat milk and honey. And
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  Speaker 3: you're not dangerous to the plant brethren in the world.
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  Speaker 2: Don't touch their cocks. Say you eat.
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  Speaker 3: Milk and honey.
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  Speaker 2: That's not what I said. That's what you said.
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  Speaker 3: The scientist said it.
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  Speaker 2: I'm getting it.
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  Speaker 3: Okay?
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: I'm getting it. Anything else we need to know? That's it.
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  Speaker 2: That's got to cover, right?
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  Speaker 3: So you want to... Okay.
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  Speaker 2: Come on, I got another extra physical time.
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  Speaker 3: Leave the flat earthers at home.
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  Speaker 2: Really?
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  Speaker 3: You don't want them to meet the alien. You want
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  Speaker 3: to leave the best impression possible on them. And if
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  Speaker 3: they know you have flat earth friends, they're going to leave.
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  Speaker 3: They're going to say, no sign of intelligent life here.
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  Speaker 3: And they go back to their home planet. So in
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: the book, I have a whole chapter on how to
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  Speaker 3: befriend them with science and math, because that's universal. The
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  Speaker 3: laws of physics on Earth are established across time and
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  Speaker 3: through space itself. And math is the language of the universe.
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  Speaker 3: And if the aliens are going to come to Earth
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  Speaker 3: and you're going to talk to it, it better be
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  Speaker 3: in that language.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, Neil, I hard disagree on this one.
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  Speaker 1: That kid in middle school comes up and is like,
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  Speaker 1: I want to be friends, let's talk math. I did
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  Speaker 1: not make friends with him. I think you taught classic
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  Speaker 1: rock with these guys, all right?
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  Speaker 3: Well, you don't know if they have the same sensory
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: exposure to the world that we do.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so they might not understand music. They might not
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  Speaker 2: hear it at all.
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  Speaker 3: There's a saying from Nietzsche, those who could not hear,
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  Speaker 3: how does this quote go? Those who were dancing were
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  Speaker 3: judged to be insane. by those who could not hear
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  Speaker 3: the music. Oh.
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  Speaker 1: So he didn't say it, Nietzsche said it.
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  Speaker 3: I remembered that he said it. Can I get some
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  Speaker 3: credit for that? Yeah, OK, congratulations.
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  Speaker 1: You memorized the Nietzsche thing.
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  Speaker 3: Cool. So in here, so I celebrate. So what I
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: do is there's aliens in TV shows and movies and
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  Speaker 3: all of this. There's even an alien opera. with the globolinks.
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  Speaker 3: Did you hear about them?
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  Speaker 2: No, I don't know about them.
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  Speaker 3: Written in the 1960s. These globolinks come to terrorize this
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  Speaker 3: school of children, and they pick the wrong school because
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: this is a musical school and all the children sing,
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  Speaker 3: and the globolinks are completely irritated and... allergic to melody.
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: Is that a plot for opera or what?
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: Yes. Yes.
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  Speaker 3: So what I do is I explore all the ways
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  Speaker 3: we've imagined aliens to be and compare it to what
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: an alien could be like, just so that you can
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  Speaker 3: enjoy the conversation as all this unfolds while you're waiting
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: for the actual alien to come forward.
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  Speaker 2: Here's what I'm curious about in this.
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  Speaker 1: You mentioned, too, the aliens that we've created in pop
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  Speaker 1: culture are somewhat of a reflection of us. Here it is.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: Here it is. The evil alien trope? Where did that
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: come from?
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  Speaker 1: Who?
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: What? Why?
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  Speaker 3: Okay, I think it started with War of the Worlds, H.G.
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  Speaker 2: Wells.
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  Speaker 3: The Martians came. They didn't ask questions. They just slaughtered
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: us all, okay? And then that kept going in other stories.
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  Speaker 3: And so I thought about it. We don't have any
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  Speaker 3: actual knowledge of the conduct of aliens, but you know
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  Speaker 3: what we do? We have actual knowledge of our own
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: conduct with one another. And so anytime humans of higher
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: technology have encountered civilizations with less technology, it has never
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: boded well for the civilization with lower technology. They've been enslaved, killed, slaughtered.
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  Speaker 3: So we have seen the enemy, and it's ourselves.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: Oh, is that Nietzsche?
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  Speaker 3: Foisted, and we have cast our own worst light upon
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: what could be completely innocent, friendly aliens. just trying to
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: explore the galaxy.
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  Speaker 1: Now, I want to explore that a little bit more.
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  Speaker 1: I want to show you some aliens.
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  Speaker 3: I think you have something behind the desk here.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: I got some aliens here, and I want your take
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  Speaker 1: on what it says about us.
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: Do you have aliens or do you have pictures of aliens?
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  Speaker 2: Pictures of aliens, to be clear.
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  Speaker 1: This man is knocking over boxes and tables looking for
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  Speaker 1: aliens everywhere.
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  Speaker 2: There's no aliens back here.
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  Speaker 3: OK, you said I've got aliens here.
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  Speaker 2: Here's an alien, all right? Oh! Baby Yoda.
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  Speaker 3: Baby Yoda.
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  Speaker 2: I see a cute, lovable, thoughtful mischievous.
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  Speaker 3: I don't want you to be prevented from entering Comic-Con.
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: That's Grogu.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: That's Gro.
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: I know his technical name is Grogu.
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: Yes. Well, technically, that is his name. Is your technical
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: name Jordan? No, it's your real name. All right? So,
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: bring him back.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but if I would look like an adorable Baby Yoda,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: people would call me Baby Yoda.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: Or, like, Horsehead.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: I was called Horsehead for about four years of high school.
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  Speaker 1: I would still respond to it.
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: Why the long face?
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: Okay, now leave it to me, all right? All right, no.
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  Speaker 3: Here it is. Here it is. So, we have furry,
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: cuddly creatures on Earth. Yeah. With eyes and feet and mouth.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: And so, and with even ears that look like this. Yeah. So,
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  Speaker 3: this is not creatively alien. And so I'm disappointed in this.
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  Speaker 2: You're disappointed?
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  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: Because this is too much of a reflection of what
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: we already have.
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  Speaker 3: It's got two ears, two eyes, a nose, a mouth, arms,
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: and legs. Okay. Okay?
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: So it's kind of humanoid in that sense. Oh, do
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  Speaker 3: you give it pointy ears and all of a sudden
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  Speaker 3: that's alien?
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  Speaker 2: No.
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: Dogs have some... Doberman Pinschers have pointy ears after they
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: trim them, but they're pointy ears. All right? So pointy
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: ears alone, you got to do better than that. Because...
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: On Earth, humans and bananas share 20% identical genes. And
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: we're from the same planet. So if you can come
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: from another planet in a galaxy far away, then I'm
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: going to expect you to look at least as different
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: from humans as humans and bananas look from each other.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: So you're saying this morning over breakfast.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: Give me another one.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: Also, what a buzzkill that this morning over breakfast, I
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: committed an act of cannibalism.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: Okay, here's one, all right? How about this one? Oh,
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: you ate a banana.
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: You had a banana for breakfast.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: The three-breasted woman.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: From Total Recall.
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: Okay, so, again, we think aliens, they just have another
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: appendage or another, there's an old episode of The Twilight
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: Zone where there was a Venusian there who was working
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: behind a counter and he was wearing a Fez hat
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: and at the end, he lifts up the hat and
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: there's a third eye in between. Alien, a third eye,
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: but he's still got two eyes, a nose, a mouth,
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: and he's a short order cook at a frickin' restaurant. So,
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: I need, they gotta do better. Hollywood has to do better.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: Damn!
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: Three tits, three tits!
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: There's three breasts!
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: You only have two hands. Did I say that?
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: Did I?
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: You heard it.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: Yet again with the Nietzsche, I gotta tell you. Okay,
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: you want a unique one. Okay, the alien from Arrival.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: Oh, okay. That one was a septipoid, had seven legs,
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: very octopus-like. But my issue, I had two issues. One,
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: this is an invertebrate creature. It's just sort of flesh.
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: How is it building spaceships that cross the galaxy? Like,
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: how is it doing that? I don't know. I'm just saying,
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: if you're squishy, how are you going to pick up
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: a hammer? Or a screwdriver? You're just all squish. So
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: that's one. Second, it had like squid ink. And you remember,
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: it would paint a circle on the other side of
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: this transparent wall, possibly glass. And we would analyze that.
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: And I say to myself, how do they know that
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: they're seeing it correctly if it's drawn from the other side.
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: They're actually looking at a mirror image of what is
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: being drawn from inside the glass. That was never addressed.
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: And they're decoding it. Plus, I feel bad, but I
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: said it, I tweeted when I saw this, that a
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: physicist and a linguist investigate this. And I'm saying, no,
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: you need a cryptographer and an astrobiologist.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: Are they SAG eligible? No.
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: And then I realized linguists never get into movies. Astrophysicists
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: are in all sci-fi movies. So I felt sad because
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: I cast shade on a whole profession because they were
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: very excited that one of their own got in there.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: Give the linguists a movie. All right, let me see. Oh,
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: here's an alien. Can you explain this one to me?
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: Oh! OK, do you remember Men in Black? They had
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: the wall where they were tracking all the aliens on Earth, OK?
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: And you recognize these people, but they all look just
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: a little different. It was like Michael Jackson was there.
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: You know, when he turned white, after he turned white.
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: Just everybody. So they were the aliens on Earth, just
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: posing as humans until they would be discovered.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: So if you look at the Trump administration, you see
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: there's a chance. Well, I would prefer if.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: He smiled every now and then.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: Because, I don't know, I like happiness.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: He doesn't just expose happiness to you.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: It looks like he's angry.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: He does look angry.
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: And odd, because they're all in charge. If you're in charge,
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: what could you be angry about?
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: That was not Nietzsche. This brings up, though, an interesting point.
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: What?
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: Your book, Take Me to Your Leader.
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: An alien lands on Earth.
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: We say, take me to your leader. Is that the
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: best idea?
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: No, the alien says that to you.
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: The alien says, take me to your leader.
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so they would likely have received our radio signals,
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: which move at the speed of light, not on purpose.
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: They just leak from Earth. And if they come tracking them,
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: they're going to see who everyone worships, and I think
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: they're going to expect to meet Taylor Swift. I'm thinking....
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: Or Oprah.
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: There are people who are totally in charge of those airwaves.
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: And so be ready for it to not be an
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: elected official.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: It could be somebody they've seen on TV.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: It could be Dr. Phil.
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: But also, lately, I've been thinking about democracies where you
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: elect leaders. Well, if you elect someone based on your
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: preferences and priorities, maybe we shouldn't call them leaders. Perhaps
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: we should call them followers.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: No, they're not buying it. The book is a great read.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: I will read all the way through just in case
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: they land. Do you know when they're coming, these aliens?
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: I'm not authorized to comment further on that.
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: Okay, but you'll come back and talk when we do, right?
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: Okay, when they land, you won't have to invite me
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: back because you won't need to ask anyone ever more,
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: do you believe in aliens?
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: Because at that point, we will know.
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: We will know.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: We will know. Take Me to Your Leader is available now.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: Neil deGrasse Tyson.