Hi my name is Kiera and my question for you
is what was your influence to start Bill Nye.
Like did someone ask you to or why do you
still continue it?
Kiera that’s a great question.
Let the record show I did not cue Kiera to
ask this question.
She said why did I start doing the science
guy.
So I had very influential teachers.
I had great teachers when I was in school.
And then I got a job at Boeing in Seattle.
It was a long way.
I grew up back East.
I grew up in Washington D.C.
For those of you not in North America, I went
5,000 kilometers from home, 3,000 miles from
home.
And I didn’t really know anybody.
I started – I was a Big Brother, a United
Way Big Brother, and I started volunteering
at the Pacific Science Center which is still
there, one of my beloved institutions.
And I was a science explainer because I’m
a mechanical engineer.
I took a lot of science.
I especially took a lot of physics.
I took a lot of physics.
And so I was a science explainer and it was
fun.
And then I was working for these guys.
They were all men at a company that they were
obsessed with making a profit every quarter,
every three months.
And you can do that if you’re making Big
Think videos, if you’re making paper towels,
if you’re printing a magazine.
You can plan or publishing anything – you
can plan three months.
You can do that.
But when you’re trying to design a business
jet, a navigation system for business jets
that was going to be two-thirds as big as
the one it was going to compete with in the
marketplace you can’t do that in three months.
And these guys were obsessed with it.
And I just decided I wanted to effect the
future.
I wanted to affect people like you Kiera.
And I was in a writer’s meeting and we needed
six minutes of – not only was I working
on a drawing board making just tiny, very
precise instruments that can detect the gravitational
pull of the moon every day.
Not only was I doing that, I was writing jokes
for a comedy show in Seattle.
And we had to fill six minutes which in television
is a long time.
And this guy who’s still just a dear friend
of mine, Ross Shafer, said why don’t you
do that stuff you’re always talking about
Bill.
That stuff about the science.
You could be, I don’t know, Bill Nye, The
Science Guy, or something.
Ross Shafer is the guy’s name.
And then he left.
He had to go do his radio show.
He was a DJ in Seattle.
And I thought that’s a good idea.
So I did that.
Household uses of liquid nitrogen because,
you know, we all have liquid nitrogen around.
Of course we do.
And it was funny.
And that led to this – I had this idea.
I want to be the next television science communicator.
The next television science educator.
I grew up with a guy named Don Herbert whose
theatrical name was Mr. Wizard.
He was just a great guy and I wanted to carry
the torch.
And I’m just delighted that you watch the
show.
I love you Kiera.
Thank you.
