Neil deGrasse Tyson’s ‘Star Talk’: Guest List, Premiere Date, George Takei

Neil deGrasse Tyson recently revealed details about his show Star Talk, based on the astrophysicist’s popular podcast of the same name, which will premiere on the National Geographic Channel. George Takei will appear as Tyson’s first guest to talk about the far-reaching influence of Star Trek.

Star Talk will debut April 20th, at 11 p.m. The date should ensure that plenty of minds will be ready to be blown away as Tyson weeds out fact from fiction with blunt talk about high-level cosmic issues with joint panelists and guest speakers.

As Entertainment Weekly pointed out, the 4.20 date was probably not a coincidence as the network sets itself up to cash in on the pot smoker demographic.

The show’s format is similar to many other hour-long talk shows. It will start with a one-on-one interview between Neil deGrasse Tyson and his main guest. According to Variety, Tyson then takes the discussion to a panel of guests, including a comedian co-host and other “influencers.” Each show will have a science or a technology-related theme, and include a pre-taped talk from Bill Nye the Science Guy.

Neil has already lined up an impressive schedule of guest stars including, Star Trek’s George Takei, Interstellar director Christopher Nolan, biologist and prominent atheist Richard Dawkins, former President Jimmy Carter, Huffington Post founder Ariana Huffington, and Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield.

George Takei will be Tyson’s first guest, and he’ll discuss “Star Trek as an inspiration for the future.”

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, Star Trek continues to inspire innovative technologies. One contest put teams in a competition to create a Star Trek medical tricorder, a device used to quickly diagnose diseases and other health abnormalities. Researchers also looked to the series to better understand cardiac arrest in the future.

Tyson’s Star Talk will break from the normal set of guests promoting their latest book or film, instead going in-depth on a particular area of expertise.

According to Cinema Blend, Chris Hadfield will be talking about social media in space. Arianna Huffington’s episode will revolve around the information age, and Jimmy Carter will talk about the science behind preventing epidemics.

Science fans are already getting excited for Neil deGrasse Tyson’s new show, which comes just a year after the break-through scientific documentary Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey.

The series was a follow-up to Carl Sagan’s 1980 series Cosmos: A Personal Journey, and it received a warm reception from critics. However, the ratings on Fox networks were below expectations, slipping to about three million viewers for the last episode.

Neil deGrasse Tyson will nevertheless attract his normal audience of science buffs for Star Talk starting April 20th.

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