{"id":4069,"date":"2010-02-11T08:43:06","date_gmt":"2010-02-11T16:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/cosmicvariance\/?p=4069"},"modified":"2010-02-11T08:43:06","modified_gmt":"2010-02-11T16:43:06","slug":"colbert-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/2010\/02\/11\/colbert-nation\/","title":{"rendered":"Colbert Nation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every scientist who writes a popular-level book<\/a> harbors a secret (or maybe not-so-secret) ambition: to be invited on the Colbert Report<\/a>. Not only because Stephen Colbert is a funny guy, and it’s a good way to sell books — although there is that. The truth is that Colbert (and the Daily Show) love talking to scientists<\/a>. The sad part of that truth is that more people are exposed to real scientists doing cutting-edge research by watching Comedy Central than by watching, shall we say, certain channels you might have thought more appropriate venues for such conversations<\/a>. But the happy part is that Colbert and Jon Stewart help bring some fun to science, and expose it to an audience it might not otherwise reach.<\/p>\n

So, mark your calendars: I’m going to be on Colbert on Wednesday, March 3. (Scheduled to be, anyway — updates as events warrant.) I have a book to sell, not that I would have turned down the opportunity otherwise.<\/p>\n

The precedents are pretty formidable — below the fold I’ve put some of Colbert’s recent interviews with some famous physics\/astronomy types. Two things seem immediately obvious: (1) for scientists, these folks are very good at doing entertaining interviews, and (2) Stephen Colbert is an amazingly<\/em> good interviewer, managing to mix topical jokes and his usual schtick with some really good questions, and more than a bit of real background knowledge. I think this is going to take some preparation.<\/p>\n

Anyone want to venture some guesses as to what questions he might ask? Every little bit of anticipation helps.<\/p>\n

(Note on above link to the Onion<\/em><\/a>: “Punkin Chunkin,” “Manhunter,” and “Heavy Metal Taskforce” are all real Science Channel<\/a> shows. “Extreme Gravity” is, as far as I can tell, not.)<\/p>\n

Brian Greene<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The Colbert Report<\/a><\/td>\nMon – Thurs 11:30pm \/ 10:30c<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Brian Greene<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
www.colbertnation.com<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n\n\n
Colbert Report Full Episodes<\/a><\/td>\nPolitical Humor<\/a><\/td>\nEconomy<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Janna Levin<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The Colbert Report<\/a><\/td>\nMon – Thurs 11:30pm \/ 10:30c<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Janna Levin<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
www.colbertnation.com<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n\n\n
Colbert Report Full Episodes<\/a><\/td>\nPolitical Humor<\/a><\/td>\nEconomy<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Mark Devlin<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The Colbert Report<\/a><\/td>\nMon – Thurs 11:30pm \/ 10:30c<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mark Devlin<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
www.colbertnation.com<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n\n\n
Colbert Report Full Episodes<\/a><\/td>\nPolitical Humor<\/a><\/td>\nEconomy<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Lisa Randall<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The Colbert Report<\/a><\/td>\nMon – Thurs 11:30pm \/ 10:30c<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Lisa Randall<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
www.colbertnation.com<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n\n\n
Colbert Report Full Episodes<\/a><\/td>\nPolitical Humor<\/a><\/td>\nEconomy<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Brian Cox<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The Colbert Report<\/a><\/td>\nMon – Thurs 11:30pm \/ 10:30c<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Brian Cox<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
www.colbertnation.com<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n\n\n
Colbert Report Full Episodes<\/a><\/td>\nPolitical Humor<\/a><\/td>\nEconomy<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

George Johnson<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The Colbert Report<\/a><\/td>\nMon – Thurs 11:30pm \/ 10:30c<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
George Johnson<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
www.colbertnation.com<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n\n\n
Colbert Report Full Episodes<\/a><\/td>\nPolitical Humor<\/a><\/td>\nEconomy<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Neil deGrasse Tyson<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The Colbert Report<\/a><\/td>\nMon – Thurs 11:30pm \/ 10:30c<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Neil deGrasse Tyson<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
www.colbertnation.com<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n\n\n
Colbert Report Full Episodes<\/a><\/td>\nPolitical Humor<\/a><\/td>\nEconomy<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every scientist who writes a popular-level book harbors a secret (or maybe not-so-secret) ambition: to be invited on the Colbert Report. Not only because Stephen Colbert is a funny guy, and it’s a good way to sell books — although there is that. The truth is that Colbert (and the Daily Show) love talking to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","category-science-and-the-media"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4069\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}