Overtime – Episode #731: Neil deGrasse Tyson, Kevin McCarthy, Katy Tur

Speaker 10:00

[upbeat music] Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO Late Night series, Real Time with Bill Maher.

Bill Maher· Host0:06

[audience cheering] He is an astrophysicist and author of Take Me to Your Leader, Neil deGrasse Tyson. He's here with the 56th Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy. [audience applauding] And she anchors Katie Tur Reports on MSNBC, Katie Tur. [audience cheering] All right, first one is for you, very topical again. This happened last night. A rocket belonging to Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin exploded on the launch pad. How much failure should we expect when it comes to rocket development? I would guess a lot, and hopefully not when the people are in it.

Neil deGrasse Tyson· Guest0:36

Yeah. Yes. And so I don't know what next gen that rocket was. If it was an old gen, it should not have blown up, and some heads will roll. But if he's experimenting with something new- Right ... some new design, you expect some failure. And if you never fail, that is evidence you are not on the frontier.

Bill Maher· Host0:57

Right. Absolutely. Uh, same in the, same in the arts.

Neil deGrasse Tyson· Guest1:00

Oh, yes.

Kevin McCarthy· Guest1:00

Mm-hmm.

Bill Maher· Host1:01

Absolutely.

Neil deGrasse Tyson· Guest1:01

Yes.

Bill Maher· Host1:02

But, but the first thing I thought was, "Is this the same rocket that Katy Perry was in?" [laughs] [laughs] No, I'm not, I'm not being facetious about it.

Kevin McCarthy· Guest1:09

Yeah, yeah.

Bill Maher· Host1:09

But, like, it, so you know it's not.

Kevin McCarthy· Guest1:11

Yeah.

Bill Maher· Host1:12

Okay.

Kevin McCarthy· Guest1:12

But, I mean, SpaceX had the same thing. The, the question- Yes ... we had, NASA had the same thing. The, the, the answer is that you don't give up, that, that you, you learn from each one. I'm sure they learned quite a few things from that, and they correct it on the next one.

Bill Maher· Host1:25

Yeah.

Katie Tur· Guest1:25

And the beauty of it is that, that it's a private company, so they have the money to spend, unlike the, unlike