{"id":8555,"date":"2010-02-11T16:43:06","date_gmt":"2010-02-11T16:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/colbert-nation-cosmic-variance\/"},"modified":"2010-02-11T16:43:06","modified_gmt":"2010-02-11T16:43:06","slug":"colbert-nation-cosmic-variance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/astronomy\/colbert-nation-cosmic-variance.php","title":{"rendered":"Colbert Nation | Cosmic Variance"},"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>

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>

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>

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

(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>

<\/span> Brian Greene<\/strong><\/p>
The Colbert Report<\/a><\/td>Mon – Thurs 11:30pm \/ 10:30c<\/td><\/tr>
Brian Greene<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
http:\/\/www.colbertnation.com<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
<\/td><\/tr>
Colbert Report Full Episodes<\/a><\/td>Political Humor<\/a><\/td>Economy<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>

Janna Levin<\/strong><\/p>
The Colbert Report<\/a><\/td>Mon – Thurs 11:30pm \/ 10:30c<\/td><\/tr>
Janna Levin<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
http:\/\/www.colbertnation.com<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
<\/td><\/tr>
Colbert Report Full Episodes<\/a><\/td>Political Humor<\/a><\/td>Economy<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>

Mark Devlin<\/strong><\/p>
The Colbert Report<\/a><\/td>Mon – Thurs 11:30pm \/ 10:30c<\/td><\/tr>
Mark Devlin<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
http:\/\/www.colbertnation.com<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
<\/td><\/tr>
Colbert Report Full Episodes<\/a><\/td>Political Humor<\/a><\/td>Economy<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>

Lisa Randall<\/strong><\/p>
The Colbert Report<\/a><\/td>Mon – Thurs 11:30pm \/ 10:30c<\/td><\/tr>
Lisa Randall<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
http:\/\/www.colbertnation.com<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
<\/td><\/tr>
Colbert Report Full Episodes<\/a><\/td>Political Humor<\/a><\/td>Economy<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>

Brian Cox<\/strong><\/p>
The Colbert Report<\/a><\/td>Mon – Thurs 11:30pm \/ 10:30c<\/td><\/tr>
Brian Cox<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
http:\/\/www.colbertnation.com<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
<\/td><\/tr>
Colbert Report Full Episodes<\/a><\/td>Political Humor<\/a><\/td>Economy<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>

George Johnson<\/strong><\/p>
The Colbert Report<\/a><\/td>Mon – Thurs 11:30pm \/ 10:30c<\/td><\/tr>
George Johnson<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
http:\/\/www.colbertnation.com<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
<\/td><\/tr>
Colbert Report Full Episodes<\/a><\/td>Political Humor<\/a><\/td>Economy<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>

Neil deGrasse Tyson<\/strong><\/p>
The Colbert Report<\/a><\/td>Mon – Thurs 11:30pm \/ 10:30c<\/td><\/tr>
Neil deGrasse Tyson<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
http:\/\/www.colbertnation.com<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
<\/td><\/tr>
Colbert Report Full Episodes<\/a><\/td>Political Humor<\/a><\/td>Economy<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>

<\/a>
<\/a><\/p>

<\/p>","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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8555"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8555\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}