Hey there. This is Stephen Dubner from Freakonomics Radio, and I am busting into this People I Mostly Admire episode to tell you about two upcoming Freakonomics Radio live shows in San Francisco on January 3rd and in Los Angeles on February 13th.

For tickets, go to Freakonomics.com slash live shows, one word.

I am told that tickets are going fast, so you might want to do this soon.

Again, that is Freakonomics.com slash live shows, January 3rd in San Francisco, February 13th in L.A. I'll be there, and I hope you will too.

Thanks.

My guest today, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, has probably done more to popularize

science than anyone else currently alive. Following in the footsteps of Carl Sagan,

he hosted the reboot of PBS series Cosmos, and he's written nearly 20 popular books. But perhaps

what he's best known for is his weekly program, StarTalk, which has accumulated nearly 600 million

views on YouTube. He's also active on the ex-platform, formerly known as Twitter,

where his thoughtful and sometimes provocative tweets

have earned him 14.5 million followers.

I said, students who get straight A's do so,

not because of good teachers, but in spite of bad teachers.

That's just a fact.

You can't bring your straight A student to me and take credit for it.

Why do they get straight A's?

Because you didn't matter.

You had crappy teachers in your school, and they got straight A's in that class, too.

Welcome to people I mostly admire with Steve Levitt.

What you probably don't know about, Neil, is that it's kind of his fault that Pluto was demoted from planetary status.

That's where we begin our conversation.

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