Startalk Radio - Fun Astronomy

I have been listening to Neil de Grasse Tyson on the StarTalk podcast and find that it is a fun mix of news, culture, science, and quite often topics on astronomy and astrophysics. Dr. Tyson, a well know astrophysicist, as well as the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space, brings a lot of energy to the Discovery-funded program.  While I am not always a fan of the loud music starting the show and name-dropping that is bound to occur in each episode, I will give him credit for bringing audiences into a realm where they might otherwise be afraid to venture. 

Here are a few episodes from this year:

-- Oscar-winning actress and comedian Whoopi Goldberg joins Neil to talk about her love of science, and how it eventually led to her role as Guinan on Star Trek, the Next Generation. 

-- Actor Alan Alda, comedian Eugene Mirman, and more great guests discuss the state of science literacy and take audience questions that explore just how weird and funny science can be.

-- Every now and then it's good to take a tour around your own backyard. Space scientists Steve Squyres and Heidi Hammel, comedian Chuck Nice, and Bill Nye the Science Guy join Neil in a look around our own corner of the cosmos.

Of course, Dr. Tyson is also the host of NOVA's scienceNOW, which has brought some interesting stories to the television.  He is a great popularized of science, which may rub some folks the wrong way (particularly his colleagues) yet offers a valuable service to a society where scientific opinion is often discounted for a variety of political reasons.  Whether he is showing up on Comedy Central's Daily Show or HBO's Real Time, he is pushing for more science funding as well as greater dreaming in our society.

As Carl Sagan played the serious scientist in his 1980s PBS series Cosmos, Dr. Tyson bring a comedic, frat boy style to his series to keep the topics light and interesting.  Of course, we also have the grandfatherly approach of Morgan Freeman on his Science Channel series Through the Wormhole to add to the balance.

It is odd that we have so many terrific science programs on television and populating the Internet, and yet Americans seem to be moving away from clear, scientific thinking on the issues facing us, be it the environment or the exploration of our universe.  How can we be starving in the midst of such plenty?