[MUSIC]
Hello everyone, welcome to The Lawrence at Home.
My name is Fira, and I'm one of the educators 
in the Lawrence Hall of Science,
and welcome again to today's Storytime.
If you've noticed this week, we're doing 
another round of Black Voices in STEAM,
because we still want to use our platform to 
recognize what's going on recently in our country,
and we want to be able to highlight these Black 
scientists, engineers, inventors, researchers, etc.
who have contributed so much to science
despite all the challenges that they may 
have faced as a result of their race.
And once again, you can find a resources list 
in the description box below,
where you can find a list of books, articles, podcasts 
that hopefully can facilitate a conversation about race,
and in there, you can also find, like, Black-owned 
bookstores that you can support, and so much more.
All right, one more thing before I begin:
Please like this video and subscribe to our 
channel so you don't miss out on anything.
Okay, so let's get into the story right away.
Today, I will share with you the story 
of the inspiring Neil deGrasse Tyson.
And Neil deGrasse Tyson is pretty popular, so you 
might have seen him around in television or in shows,
but who exactly is Neil deGrasse Tyson?
So, let's get into the story.
So, Neil deGrasse Tyson is an 
African American astrophysicist,
cosmologist, planetary scientist, 
author, and science communicator.
Tyson is a really well-known astrophysicist 
who popularized astronomy in pop culture
through his books and his appearances 
on radio and television.
Whoa, it looks like Tyson has a lot of titles.
So from this, we can see that he is very versatile.
Not only is he smart, but he's also talented,
because for him to be able to go on a lot of TV shows,
he must be really good at explaining his knowledge 
of astronomy and astrophysics,
and explaining it in a way that is 
easy to understand and interesting.
So, Neil deGrasse Tyson is not only smart and intelligent, 
but also a talented entertainer, you might say.
So, Tyson was born on October 5, 1958, 
in Manhattan, New York.
Tyson's interest for astronomy grew when he was only nine years old, after a visit to the Hayden Planetarium
that was a part of the American Natural 
History Museum in New York City
Well, so here we can see that his love for 
astronomy grew from a very young age,
and later on, Tyson recalled that 
when he was at Hayden Planetarium,
he said that "The universe called me,"
and eventually this was able to 
drive him to pursue his dreams.
So after that, Tyson proceeded to pursue his 
passion and study astronomy passionately.
He was becoming really talented and acknowledged 
as someone who is very interested—
interested in astronomy, to the point where 
the famous Carl Sagan from Cornell University
even tried to recruit him to Cornell 
for his undergraduate studies.
So, here is—
Here is a picture of Carl Sagan.
He is also a very famous astronomer, and at the time, 
he was teaching in Cornell University.
So, Sagan sent a letter to the 
young Neil deGrasse Tyson,
and he gave him a personal invite to go to 
Cornell University and study astronomy with him,
because he was a professor in Cornell University.
And this meant a lot to Tyson, since there are 
very few African Americans who are astrophysicists.
And Sagan encouraged him because 
Sagan was very, very impressed at Tyson.
So, the fact that Sagan wanted to recruit 
Tyson to study astronomy with him,
Tyson was very, very touched, and he said 
that he will never forget Sagan's kindness.
In the end, however, Tyson ended up not going to Cornell,
but he ended up going to Harvard University, 
where he graduated with a degree in physics.
He then continued his studies further 
in Columbia University,
where he got a master's and a PhD in astrophysics.
He then moved on to participate in 
research in various institutions,
such as University of Maryland and Princeton University.
So, Tyson was able to get his education, and 
he was able to progress up in his career,
and now he is an accomplished and professional 
astronomer and astrophysicist.
Being African American, however, sometimes 
Tyson finds himself in difficult situations.
For example, he recalled that he has been detained,
or stopped while driving by police, 
a dozen times simply for being Black.
Hmm.
He was even stopped as he tried to bring books 
to his own office in Princeton University.
Hmm.
This makes me really sad,
because Tyson was just going about his day.
He's not doing anything bad,
but he is being stopped by police 
as if he's done something wrong,
when he actually hasn't done anything.
Hmm, how does that make you feel?
Additionally, Tyson also mentioned that he had 
never seen a Black person being interviewed on TV
on an expertise that has nothing to do with being Black.
And he thought that this could be 
caused by a stereotype.
Have you ever heard of the word "stereotype"?
A stereotype is usually a 
generalization of a group of people,
but the thing is, stereotypes don't always tell the truth,
and Tyson was afraid that there's a stereotype 
that Black people are not smart.
But that's obviously not true. There are plenty of Black 
people who are intelligent, including Tyson himself.
So, he wanted to challenge the stereotype 
that Black people are not smart
by putting himself out there as a great astrophysicist.
In the end, Tyson also ended up not 
liking to talk about his race in interviews.
He says that it's distracting and it 
shifts the focus from the astrophysics.
He said that, as soon as race is mentioned,
people tend to focus on that instead of the 
scientific topic that he is originally invited to talk about.
So, these are really interesting topics, right? 
Stereotypes, race, and—
I would like to invite you to talk 
about this with a person close to you,
and discuss how do these things make you feel.
Anyway, let's go back to the story again.
So, as the years go on, Tyson becomes more and more 
active in his career in astronomy and astrophysics.
In 1996, Tyson becomes the director 
for Hayden Planetarium,
where he originally started as a staff scientist.
So, if you recall from what I said earlier,
we can remember that Tyson's love for astronomy 
grew in Hayden Planetarium itself.
So now instead, he was able to 
work there — he gets to work there,
and I think it's really, really cute how 
his love started in Hayden Planetarium,
like his interest in astronomy started there,
but now he was able to go back to the place where 
it all began, and he is actually able to work there.
I think that's just really, really cute 
and really inspiring as well.
And in addition to that, Tyson also wrote a lot of books.
He also starred in modern radio and television shows, where he promoted astronomy to the audience.
And here we see he's having a photo shoot with 
National Geographic to promote one of his shows,
and here's also a poster to one of his shows, 
and it's called "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey."
And in addition to that, Tyson also 
appeared in a lot of other shows.
Here some shows and broadcasts that 
Neil deGrasse Tyson either hosted or appeared on.
So, some of these are his own shows or he hosted them,
but he also made appearances in cartoons 
and other forms of media as well.
Here, we can see that he's making 
an appearance in "The Simpsons,"
"Family Guy," and also in a Superman comic book.
So that's really interesting, how
Tyson is very multi-talented, and he's 
very well-rounded in his career as well.
So, Tyson received many awards for his excellence 
and contributions in astronomy and astrophysics.
To this day, Tyson continues to 
share and spread his love for space
and knowledge of the universe to the world.
And before we reached the end of our story, 
here's a quote from Neil deGrasse Tyson himself:
"We are a part of this universe,
we are in this universe,
but perhaps more important than both of those facts
is that the universe is in us."
All right, so that is the end of our Storytime today.
I hope you enjoyed the story about Neil deGrasse Tyson.
I personally think that Neil deGrasse Tyson is really 
inspiring. He's also one of my biggest inspirations,
because I feel like you can really tell that he's really 
passionate and interested and in love with astronomy,
and he's also able to share that knowledge 
and that passion to everyone,
and that really motivates me to keep working hard 
so that I can be like him one day.
And I hope that he also inspires 
you to pursue your dreams.
So yes, that is the end of our Storytime today.
I hope you enjoyed the story.
Check out the resources list down below 
and like this video
and subscribe to our channel to 
support the Lawrence Hall of Science.
So yeah, thank you so much for watching.
Fira signing off, and I'll see you next time.
Bye, everyone!
