This is the 10% Happier Podcast, I'm Dan Harris.

Hey, hey, we've got a legend on the show today.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist, the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the

American Museum of Natural History, the host of the Emmy nominated Podcast Star Talk,

and the recipient of 21 honorary doctorates. He also has an asteroid named in his honor,

which is amazing. His latest book is right up our alley on this show. It's called Starry Messenger,

Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization. It's basically about how taking a scientific perspective can

improve your life, and by the way, improve the world. In this conversation, we talk about applying

a scientific lens to your emotions, the importance of intellectual humility, a big theme on this show,

how the knowledge of death brings meaning to life. We talk about Neil's personal mental health

regime, and then we ask some big picture questions like, does he think there's intelligent life

in the universe? Are we living in a simulation? And his very long view of social media,

just to say this is the second, you know, our boldface series, which we're running in May, where we

talk to famous people who have something to teach us about how to do life better. All month long,

we're doing celebs on Mondays, and then Dharma teachers on Wednesdays for a breakdown of the great

Buddhist list, the Noble Eightfold Path. So let us know what you think of this little weave we're doing.

Before we get started with today's episode, if you've been around TPH land for any length of time,

you've probably heard me name drop Joseph Goldstein. He started out as my meditation teacher,

then became my friend, and then we teamed up to help start the 10% happier meditation app. And I

just wanted to remind you that there is a ton of content featuring Joseph and his humor and wisdom

over on the app, where he's the lead teacher on six different courses. I'd recommend you start with

the basics, which features your truly and Joseph talking about how to achieve perfect

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