Bill Nye the Sidedoor Guy

Sidedoor

Smithsonian Institution

Science, The Smithsonian, Tony Cohn, Art19, African American History And Culture, Exhibit, Dc, Exhibits, Pop Culture, Zoo, National Museum, National Zoo, Natural History, Air And Space, Smithsonian, Postal Museum, History Of The World, History, Sidedoor, Museum, Washington, Society & Culture, American History

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 26 April 2023

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As a kid, Bill Nye spent whole days wandering the halls of Smithsonian museums. Now the Science Guy is back… to find his own blue lab coat and periodic table bowtie on display at the National Museum of American History. We sit down with Bill Nye to get schooled on science education, comedy, and the 1990s hit TV show that turned him into an entire generation’s favorite science teacher.

Guests:
Bill Nye, Science Guy

This episode was produced in collaboration with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Their exhibition, Entertainment Nation, shows the power of American entertainment to captivate, inspire, and transform. Through the objects and their stories, the ongoing exhibition will explore how, for over 150 years, entertainment has provided a forum for important national conversations about who we are, and who we want to be.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is SideDor, a podcast from the Smithsonian with support from PRX.
0:13.7	I'm Lizzie Peabody.
0:23.6	Back when I was in elementary school, in the 90s, I loved science class.
0:29.6	I remember pushing carpet squares together to simulate the movement of tectonic plates,
0:34.4	watching celery slurp up colored water through capillary action, and sprouting seeds between
0:39.7	layers of wet paper towels.
0:43.2	But the very best days were when my teacher would wheel in the big television trolley and
0:49.7	pop in a VHS tape of this guy.
1:01.2	Bill Nye, the science guy, wore a blue lab coat and bow tie and was incredibly excited
1:07.1	about science.
1:09.1	With the help of kids just like me in my classmates, Bill Nye did zany demonstrations to explain
1:14.2	serious scientific concepts in his steamy, bubbling laboratory.
1:23.9	Then he'd venture out into the real world to explain things like buoyancy by driving a
1:27.7	car into a river, lift by parasailing, and gravity by throwing a computer off the roof of
1:40.2	a building.
1:43.9	The show had funny voiceovers and snappy interludes, OK, it was snappy in the 90s.
1:52.4	I loved the science guy show, and I loved Bill Nye because he made the world make sense
1:58.6	explainable by science, and it felt like he was talking directly to me.
2:03.2	I almost felt like I knew him, though of course I didn't, yet.
2:10.8	I'm so used to seeing your face perched on top of like a 90s era rolling TV cart.
2:16.4	Yes.
2:17.4	Yes.
	...

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