 Boom, what's up everyone, welcome to Simulation. I'm your host, Alan Sakyan. We are still on site in Manhattan in New York City, New York. And we are now at the New York Comedy Club, which is an amazing venue that's had a plethora of different leading comedians that have performed here over the years. And huge shout out to them for hosting us. We are gonna be talking about all things comedy, all things science communication, the importance of these pressing conversations at this inflection point in civilization. I'm really excited to be featuring Chuck Nice. Hey, thanks for coming on the show. Man, it's great to see you again, you know? Glad you're here on the East Coast, you know? It's always good. You do a great job with, you know, bringing science down to earth for people and promoting science literacy and putting information out there and making it accessible to an audience that otherwise would not be able to contact this information. So I really appreciate you. Chuck, thank you so much for those words and I'll double his pay afterward. That was so good. And oddly enough, I'll still be getting paid the same. And so basically everything Chuck said about me, Chuck does himself as well. Chuck's been, he was born in Philadelphia. He's a comedian, actor, television host, radio host, podcast host. And this is across 46 television shows, which is crazy. So it's just a myriad of different programming that he's hosting and co-hosting. And he's been doing comedy for almost two decades now. Wow, now somehow that sounds really bad. It's great because that's the accumulation of experience over time. And same thing with all the programming that you've been on. And this is everything from the Radio Chick show all the way to playing with science, with StarTalk, also the Today show, all the different types of stuff that you've been a part of. And okay, so Chuck and I have, oh, and Chuck's really cool TED Talk. We'll put that link in the bio as well. Yeah, thanks, yeah. Yeah, it's a really good TED Talk. A funny look at the unintended consequences of technology. And again, you really take that sort of, you're at the edge of a knowledge point. You're like, here's biotech, here's AI, here's social media's effects on us. I don't really do a deep dive into it like you would expect from some of the other TED Talks which are far more narrow in their subject matter. What I do is an overarching broad look at human interaction and technology. And hopefully, by being funny about it, there are some thought provoking touch points that say, okay, yeah, okay, this is what we're actually doing. And technology can be a little scary for some and it can be scary for real. And then the perceptions of it, I think what we think is going to be is going to be somewhat but nothing like we think, you know, going forward. And I only say that from looking at like world's fairs in the past, but the difference now is that many futurists and people who are driving technology forward, they, it's not coming from a place of, wouldn't it be great if we or what if cars could fly? It's actually a more algorithmic progression of technology now. And as a result, things that are mind blowing come to fruition so much quicker, so much quicker, which means they also enter obsolescence so much quicker. And so that's why I think we're not going to see the future the way we imagine it to be, not because it won't actually be headed in that direction, but because we'll actually skip over some of that stuff. We have a lot to evolve our own ethics and our own unity across Earth. And we're just leaping to transhumanism without really figuring out ourselves as just advanced chimps first. Wow, that, right there is a whole show. You just, that is like, you know, seriously, that's a book what you just said. That's a, yeah, that is kind of what, that's kind of what I fear most about it. And that's kind of what my TED talk, the very, you know, the final takeaway from it is really about, you know what you have to do? You have to find out, where is your humanity? What is it that makes you a human being? What causes you to be a human being as opposed to just an advanced ape, which is what we are? I mean, think about, I watch, I've never seen the entire movie, but the something war of the planet of the apes or something and the chimpanzee Caesar comes into, you know, all chimps are already sentient, but he comes into a self-awareness that human beings have, the Descartes, I think therefore I am, he has that moment. And then in a moment of defiance, he speaks. And his first word is, no! And I'm like, oh, that's some real stuff. Like that's very, very real. And what is it that separates us from that? That I think is the real question. That's a good way to put it. And I think part of it is our ability to realize that we were birthed from the cosmos and that we are then figuring out how to work together on this rock. And that's part of the, without humans on the rock, I think the rock would just do its normal nature evolution, but humans being stewards of the rock then make it so that we can really understand where exactly we came from, we can understand the code of the universe, the math, and then we can get off the rock to the next rocks, but we gotta learn how to have that empathy and that unity and that altruism. And I think that's another thing that separates us as being able to raise the baseline of living for everyone around the planet. Yeah. And you know, it's funny because what you're talking about on a more everyday level, I had a conversation with my wife yesterday and we were looking at, we were unfortunately watching the news, which we don't do a lot, we read the news more because it gives you a different perspective, but when you watch the news, it's scary. And because that's what they're trying to elicit from you. They want, they're selling theater. Okay, let's be honest. I mean, you don't turn on any cable news outlet to feel good, you actually. And you can become addicted to that. You can become addicted to that feeling of, oh my God, what the hell is happening? Oh, you know, and that becomes the commodity that they're trading it. And, you know, after about a half hour of like little bits from what's going on around the world and of course, domestically. And I just turned to her and I was just like, the whole world is effed up because of money. Money! It's like you can just trace everything right back to greed, selfishness, not even self-preservation, but self-elevation saying, I'm better than you, so I deserve this, you don't, I need more and therefore you can't have, you know, all of these problems come right back to humanity. Where is our humanity? And when you reach a place of, I look at it like marriage, good marriage works like this. I think about you before I think about me. And if you just keep doing that for the rest of your life, you will stay married. If you both keep doing that, you will just stay married. You can't help it, okay? I'm gonna think about you before I think about me. And that can, you know, if you were to take that and just knead it out like dough and expand it to the entire earth, boom, guess what? 90-something percent of our problems, poof, they disappear. Yeah. They disappear. Why? Humanity. Yeah, where is our humanity? And Chuck, you bring up this really interesting point that when we look back thousands of years and we think about what it was like to approach someone and ask them, you know, oh, who owns this land? What do you mean owns this land? This is Earth's land. We're just farming on it, this is just what we do. And we live on it. And so the whole, and then now another big thing, and we don't typically think about this one, but just in the last 100 years, just a hockey stick of population, that's been, it's actually people moving to metropolises for opportunity and the network effect has crowded these metropolises to insane degrees and extents, and that's also amazing. I want to know what you're talking about. I live in New York. Yeah. Okay, we are doing a lot of big history and we're doing a lot of civilization design conversation right now, and we'll do more of that towards the end. I want to ask Chuck about comedy because this seems to be something that, it's almost an essence that we carry around with ourselves. It's kind of like humor and fun and play. And it's something we can carry through from childhood through our adult life. And you almost, you train your cognition faster to be able to like make those comedic entries into your situations in life, and it's really cool. So teach us about how you picked it up and how you continue to use it in your, you know, in your daily life, why it's important. So I don't think I picked it up because I, okay, well I'll tell you my first comedic experience and when I knew, I knew that this was my trajectory in life. Okay, I was giving a speech in the second grade in front of a assembly that had all the students and parents of the second grade. And I was wearing a bow tie. It was part of the outfit that they asked for me to wear. And as I was giving the speech, which one, you know, a lot of kids would be very frightened to get in front of a large group. And that, I did not know that I was supposed to be afraid to speak in front of a large audience. And that's why I was picked to do it because I had this natural inclination to speak in front of people. It didn't bother me. As a matter of fact, I was unaware that there was a large group of people looking at me. And I wore a bow tie and it was clip on and the teacher didn't clip it on properly and it fell off in the middle of my speech. It just, it literally hung, it dangled and people started laughing and I didn't know why and I looked down and when I looked down, it fell. And then they laughed some more. And so I bent down, I picked it up and of course I can't see so I thought I clipped it on and put it and it fell again. And I started enjoying the fact that people were laughing at that then I was enjoying giving the speech. And so at that point I just kept allowing that to happen while and then I finished the speech and I kept doing it and the people loved it. They loved it and the teacher was horrified and she was like, in the future, something you should know about the stage. When something goes wrong, you don't acknowledge it. You just keep moving because no one knows that something went wrong. But once you acknowledge it, they are now tuned into that and that's what they're focused on. And I was like, no, when you do something wrong, you just keep moving. When I do something wrong, I'm gonna have fun with it. I make fun of myself. I'm gonna make fun. This is great. I loved it. And from that point forward I knew something, there was something about laughter that I really enjoyed and giving it. Like not just like giving laughter. I really liked it. And I guess a lot of people would have been mortified by the fact that they're on stage, people are laughing and they're kind of laughing at you because you're doing this thing. I didn't bother me at all. I liked it. And so that's kind of where it all started for me, that one experience. And what that experience did was it served as a catalyst and I started looking for ways to make people laugh. And people were always like, you're very funny. You're funny, you're funny. But being funny and being a comedian to totally different things. And I am a performer, but I'm also a comedian. And not a lot of comedians bring the two together. If you notice, if you watch comedy, it's a lot of guys standing and they're like, so the other day I was, it's more of a conversation. And I don't really like doing that. I like performing. I like being animated. I like seeing the different looks on people's faces, but I also love writing jokes and having a narrative arc and then having an unexpected or ending to that narrative arc which elicits laughter. And so that's kind of for me how it all came about. And I've been doing it almost 20 years. I was on this very stage last night. I did two shows right here and they were killer shows. And so it's the only thing that I do that I've never become bored. You're constantly iterating on your creative ability through comedy. Absolutely, and everything. And this is why I love science. Okay, so like I love science because the more you learn about science, the more you learn, there's more science. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like that is the greatest thing about science. It's like the more, and I don't care what it is from biology to neuroscience to the cosmos. It doesn't make a difference that no matter what it is, you find something out and then it becomes more granular and then it becomes even more granular and then it's like you can just go so deep into it. And then you realize, oh my God, like that's here but it's also here. And then you look at it and you're like, oh my God, science is, everything is science. Everything, well everything is comedy too. And that's what's so cool about it. And that's the two, that's what they share for me. It's like everything is comedy and you can find it anywhere. And the greatest joy that I have watching other comedians, which I don't do very often but the greatest joy that I have is seeing their perspective and how they found comedy and something that I thought there was no comedy and whatsoever. And it's like, there's a big question that is asked. Is there such a thing as a funny rape joke? And I'm like, first of all, that's a really lousy question. Like, you know, that's one of those set up questions because you know it's gonna be a controversial answer. But the short answer is yes there is and I've heard quite a few. And it all depends, like I've heard a woman tell and some are offensive and some are clever. But that's what you're really asking is, is it offensive? And offense is something that lies in the ears of the beholder. Yeah, there's a lot to talk about right there. I love the story that you gave about you being a kid. It actually teaches us to not be scared or not be fearful of taking a leap into something that is unexplored for us because when we learn how to do that over and over again it takes us to the next level. It's like leveling up as a video game character. We have to gain these attributes and skills. It's one of the best ways for us to learn and grow. And that story also speaks to you getting your flow into the field. And then I like how you talk about there's always something different about comedy for every person. And then also when you do watch someone else perform you see what they find to be funny and how they talk about it. And I'm glad you mentioned the science because we can move into your roles in science communication as you see the world as all comedy and all science and the interconnectedness of all things period that it gives you, you basically get more material for comedy by seeing the world through a scientific lens. Absolutely. And the funny thing is I don't talk about science in my comedy. And people say, oh you should, you should do that. And it's because I don't have anything good enough yet but I have looked like, I'm working on some things that I would like to bring into my act. But the thing is this, when you talk about science and I think it's very important when you talk about science that you have to do it in such a way that it's inviting. A lot of science right now, I shouldn't say science, science is just science, it doesn't do anything one way or the other. A lot of science communication and mostly by sciences. People like you actually open science up to a greater audience. But many scientists, and this is not a knock against them, it's just because they are isolated in their own community and communication is not something that they must learn. And I think that part of any science discipline should be classes in communication. Like you should know how to talk about what this thing that you love so much and that you should know how to talk about it not in the way that you would talk to another scientist but in the way that you would talk to Chuck Nice who may not be the smartest guy in the world but wants to know, wants to know what you're talking about. And I think that the problem is there's an intellectual superiority complex that many scientists have. Rightfully so. When someone, just because someone says, oh, you think you're superior, it's like, no, I don't think I'm superior. Scientists are superior in many ways in certain areas but we all are superior in many ways in certain areas. I like thinking about it as an edge. So they've gone to the edge of knowledge in a specific field and so they're trying to talk to other people at the edge. At the edge. Move the edge forward for society. And so when someone like us says, how do you make that relatable for people closer into the center, there are people that wanna just be genius at the edge and not work on the communication which is great. And that's fine. But don't talk to people. You might defer them away from it. Right, talk to other scientists. Don't talk to people because you're doing a disservice when you talk to people. I look at it like NFL analysts and color commentators. The analysts and color commentator make the, they're not necessary. If you like football, you don't need to hear this guy just tell you that that guy ran five yards and was tackled. I just saw that. I don't need you. But what they're doing is they're bringing the inside game outside. And it makes you feel like I know more about football now. I understand this game. And then before you know it, you're watching the game and you'll see it and you're like, ah, damn, that's holding. You know, they're gonna call that playback. That's whole. And before you know it, here you are. You're coaching. You know what I mean? You're coaching the Eagles. You're the, you know, you're coaching Kansas City. You're just like, why would they do that? You know more than the professionals playing the game. So you think, but that's what makes it exciting for you. And so that, I think, is what has to happen with science. We need more people. It's not a spectator's right. It's not a spectator's, but we need more people to activate other minds so that they understand this is not relegated to a bunch of eggheads sitting in a room discussing ethereal matters. This is actually real life that is happening all around you at all times and you're a part of it and you should know. You should know. For instance, there's a comedian that will not say his name because I actually know him, but he does a joke about how molecules are a part of everything, which is true. Everything has a molecular structure. And there are molecules in my hand, but there's molecules in the air. But my hand, when I hit a wall, doesn't pass through. Right? First of all, it's not molecules that he's really talking about. What he's really talking about is the space between atoms and how if you look at the space between electrons and a nucleus, it's like space itself. It's mostly empty. So why is it that things don't pass through one another and stuff like that? And he says, and scientists don't know why. He says, I'm like, no, scientists do know why. What are you talking about? Well, they do know why. What you're talking about is the fact that certain things are unobservable and that's what they don't know. But we do understand why I hit this and my hand doesn't go through it. We do understand that. And so I only say this because as I was listening to him, I'm like, you're doing a disservice to science. Like, damn, man, like you're making people think that scientists don't understand the most simple scientific thing when they actually do. And then something said to me, you know what? He's telling a joke, lighten the hell up, Chuck. Seriously. Why don't you lose the molecules in your ass? And just let the guy tell a joke. At least he's talking about molecules, okay? Maybe somebody never thought about molecules and that could be a good thing. So, you know, I get, that's why, like I said, I don't, I want to bring science into my comedy, but I want it to be, I really am reverent. I want it to be something that is funny, but at the same time thought provoking, you know? Yeah. The, our ability to advance the minds of children and adults to have a more scientific lens goes hand in hand with entertainment and comedy, creativity and seeing the world through that augmented lens is critical for this inflection point that we have, because if you know about how some of the underlying principles of biotechnology work or how the underlying principles of AI or neuro tech or blockchain and cryptocurrencies work, it'll advance your ability to have discussion with other people in your community and around even a federal issues or global issues around these topics. And you know, you make a very important point and that is that these, the interconnectedness of science and your condition are inexorable. They cannot be separated. And so the more you know about it, the better off you are. Let's just take climate, for instance. I mean, let's be honest. There are very many people who see climate and their belief in whether, what I don't call a climate change anymore or global warming, I call it human cause, climate disruption. That's my name for it. Human cause, climate disruption. It's a lot to say, but you know exactly what you're talking about. We're doing things and so the climate is changing. We're disrupting the climate, our actions. And there are a lot of people who don't believe that because they think it's an affront to their identity. And that's because they don't want to, they're not scientifically literate. They don't trust science to begin with and that's a problem. Some of that is religion or you know, a based on religion, which I think is terrible because I tell people this all the time. If there is a God, he invented science. So, you know, when the laws of the universe say, this and this has to happen. If there is a God, he's the one or she's the one or it's the one that made that law happen. So you can't even, it doesn't make a difference if you say, well, scientists are atheists. Not true, there are many, many scientists that believe in God. They just don't attribute the things that you do to God. You know? You're making an important point which we try and make all the time is that the idea of God is just such a flexible thing that the God could just be what came pre-Big Bang that caused everything to happen. Absolutely. And if that is what someone thinks is God, then the code of what we live in is math, physics. And so then, now you were making this point about climate science and I wanna anthropogenic or human-caused climate change. Chuck, would you wanna talk about your project as well? Oh, sure, man. So anybody who can help with this, we are open. If you're a scientist, if you're an entertainer, if you're somebody who can help with this project, I am open to receiving whatever it is that you have to bring. I am putting together an effort in the very first Digital Youth Climate Summit that will happen online, that will happen on YouTube because what we're doing is we're not trying, we're trying to bring the mountain to Muhammad. We're not waiting for people to get involved. What we wanna do is activate a youth culture with respect to climate disruption and climate chaos. We want young people to realize that this is their issue, kind of the way the Parkland shooting activated young people to say, we're gonna make a change about this gun BS. We call BS, that became their cry for change. And we wanna do that with climate with young people between the ages of 16 and 25. And the reason is if you're 16, you're gonna be voting very shortly. So you need to ramp up to that. And 25, you're probably just out of college and you're still idealistic. And you know that you can make a change. What has to happen is these people have to be activated. Right now, everybody has a cerebral knowledge that climate and climate disruption is actually happening. We see it all the time. Bigger storms, actually colder spurts in the winter, along with warms, like it's chaos. That's what we know that it's happening. Parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere. Absolutely. So over 400 now from 300. Absolutely. And the reason why we know that is because we drill into ice. We pull out these little cores and we come bubbles. It's that simple. It really isn't like, it's not deep. Ocean acidification. Ocean acidification. It's killing coral reefs. And it's gorgeous. It's gorgeous. This is part of our soul, the earth's soul is right there in those beautiful and we can take so much inspiration and love and understanding of how things evolved as a planet from it. And the fact is that all these things are measurable and they're all interconnected. So I hate to sound like I'm a character in the movie Avatar. It's like, you saw one planet, it's all connected. I see you. As corny as that is, that's really the soul of climate disruption and what you just said. It is all one thing. There's no such thing as weather. It all starts and ends all in the same place. And so what we're trying to do is get young people to say we call BS and force political will, force individual change, force an adoption of alternatives. And that can be done with the right amount of pressure, pressure placed upon our politicians, pressure placed upon more importantly our corporations and pressure placed ultimately upon ourselves. Because you saw what happened in France. Macron said, look, gas is gonna be this. We're putting the tax on it and that's a good thing by the way. It's painful change, okay? If your shoes are slightly too small, you will walk in them and you will take them off at the end of the day and your feet will hurt and you will say, ooh, thank God I'm out of those shoes. But if your shoes are a size and a half too small, you will not walk in them. You will be like, I didn't do shoes. And that's the kind of change that we need. And so we need painful change. And that's what people revolted. Why? Because ultimately we're not putting the onus on ourselves when it comes down to our convenience, our pocketbook, when it comes down to our lifestyle, that's when we don't clear our own note. But guess what? All that's gonna go away anyway if we don't do something. So that's the idea behind the movement and here's what the movement is. They're all there talking and didn't tell you what the movement was, I didn't tell you what we're doing. What we're doing is we're taking entertainment, only entertainment and we're messaging everything about climate through entertainment. So it's scientists and celebrities and the biggest YouTubers on the planet all coming together to bring this message in one big program and one continuing program. So that's the whole thing right there. Yeah, the digital climate summit. The digital climate summit, man, which you know. And it's a real bear to put together. It's a great blend, like you're saying. It's the powerhouses of entertainers, the powerhouses of scientists, the powerhouses of leading YouTubers, put it piecing these things together and inspiring the youth. And I like how you say, you know, it's about the political change and the corporate change but it's also about the youth realizing that we have the power to become entrepreneurs and artists and make these big changes through media and through companies ourselves. And then another thing that came to mind was that there is a, we already have, we talk about this so much, we already have the resources that we need on earth for the baseline of living to be extremely high and sustainable forever. And we're not allocating the resources like, it's hard to just flick it over like a light switch and transition everything away from fossil fuels to sustainable forms. But we're really just needing to push all of the marbles over in more effective ways because we have the technologies, photovoltaics and solar. We have the technologies for all different types of wind resources. And also we have Tokamak fusion reactors that are really, we just need more time investing into them in order to figure out how to just be able to fuse atoms and take out more energy than we put in. And then we're abundantly energy fills forever and that can be used for flying cars and for all other spaceships and all other cool things. And listen, all that stuff can happen and it's really about the will, human will to make it happen. Think of this, go back to the, before the turn of the century and electricity and we had it but you couldn't turn on a light and just have, it was seen as a novelty. Like maybe one street lamp, maybe somebody would have some electricity in their home, like ooh, but it was a novelty. Now you cannot have society without electricity. And so that is what happens when you make a tectonic shift in technology. And that's what we need to do with respect to climate. And that's everything that you just talked about. Chuck, what would be your like big, what would be the most ideal way that this digital climate summit would motivate and then what change would you wanna see in the political, corporate entrepreneurial spheres with this media? So the first thing that we're trying to do is get people to force political will, especially here in America because America is the problem, okay? Let's be honest, everybody else is trying to do something about climate. They're not doing enough. We know that, but that's because we're not leading, okay? China, by the way, the China. A lot of, you hear a lot of people talk about China. They want to be the world's leading economy and they are making huge investments into solar, huge. Now the largest solar farm that's going to be financed and built will be financed and built by, wait for it, Saudi Arabia. That should tell you everything you need to know. The people who, they're one thing they have is oil. They are looking towards solar farms as the future. Come on, man, that's all we need to know. And what are we doing in America? We are divesting, but because we are divesting, that means there's a lot more money to be made in burning fossil fuels. So the first thing that we're trying to do is create a political will amongst people that says, hey, I'm an issues voter. This is an issue. We're not saying that you have to end fossil fuel right now, which by the way we do, but we're not saying that. What we're saying is we need to start transitioning right now. So that's the first thing that we want to do is make it, hey, transition. We got to transition. Okay, that's the first thing. The second thing that we want to do is make it so that corporations realize that this is an issue for them. And all corporations want to be good global citizens if it increases their bottom line. And so they can't wait to tell you that I'm doing something good. Look at what I did. Corporations are like little children. Okay, look at what I did. I did something good. That's what they need. And so we want to force them into that position, but they can only be forced to that position if it means they're going to make money from it. So that's the second thing that we want to do. And the third thing that we want to do, which is chiefly important. If you're not green, people will not buy from you. Boom, it's that simple. It's that simple. It's like, wait, we see that you support the generation of single use plastics that actually break down in our oceans and create problems for the ecosystem and ultimately health problems for us. So guess what? We're not going to give you our money. We're going over to this other company. Biodegradables. That does biodegradables, this other company that is looking for ways to make sure that none of this stuff ever enters our ecosystem. That's the company we want to give our money to. Guess what will happen? Company A will say, we got to change. Change, yeah. Or bankrupt. All right, that's it. And so that's the second thing that we're trying to do. And the third thing that we're trying to do, which is most important is get people to change their mind about this thing. And that's the toughest because the problems which are manifesting themselves more and more, we thought, well, we're seeing the problems actually happening right now. And so therefore people will have to take note and they will have to take note. No, it doesn't work that way. You see the problems manifest themselves right now and people look for other ways to deny. That's all they do. So it's kind of like, I look at it like this, climate and the populations, American populations relationship with climate is like a person who's in a relationship with a cheating spouse and they refuse to recognize that that person is cheating on them. And we, I can't say we all know someone like that, but if you're old enough, you'll meet somebody like that. It's like, you know, you're other, you're significant, they're, yeah, they're doing that with other people and they're doing it right in frame. I don't believe it. I just can't see them doing that. I love that. I love that. And that's our relationship with fossil fuels, you know, and with earth. And with, yeah. Couple things, I'm sorry. I would love to see an XPRIZE style award for the youth to crowdsource ideas. Oh, we're doing that. So we're, that part of the program is, we're doing a film. So the show itself is a combination of sketch comedy, stand up short film, music. Is it debates? There will be, but they're not real debates. So they're, I mean, it's, yeah, yeah. It's conversations. No, the only conversations that will happen are interstitials. In between. In between. That will happen between celebrities and scientists. Okay, cool. Okay, so the idea is we want to stay away from didactic information dissemination, right? Do this so that we don't want to do that. What we want to do is entertain you for the entire, the entirety of the show. And at the end, hopefully you'll be like, you know what, I need to do something. Yeah, yeah. That's what we're trying to do. And with specific calls to action throughout the show itself. And so one of the things that we're doing is we're going to have, and hopefully we'll get some rich benefactor to be the sponsor of this, an XPRIZE for short film on climate. Great idea. And so we're putting out the filmmakers all over the country and you go make your short film on climate. We will feature, you know, the top three in the show itself. But the number one show will win $25,000. Awesome. So that's part, so we're doing things like that. There's so many different facets that we're trying to incorporate in this, but it's all entertainment driven. And that's the whole idea. Yeah. This is gonna be, I hope, extremely watched as in one of the most watched hopefully videos that ever are made out of. If we get the right YouTubers involved, the creators, if we do that, then we could potentially see, you know, when it's all said and done, you know, by time we chop it up and push it out over social media and leave it as whole on YouTube itself, we could potentially get a hundred million views. That's what we hope for. Yes, that's what we're hoping for. And the big, big action push. Chuck, okay, this is a really important pressing topic that's just, it's causing a lot of unfortunate madness in many ways. Political correctness in comedy. I love it. What do we do because there's, we gotta retain our ability to, for example, if we make fun of each other, we're doing it in good light. We're trying to poke and play with each other and we gotta be more friendly and fun about that. But of course you can't just. You can't be hurtful and you can't be mean and you can't, right, you know, but guess what? There's a couple things that has to happen. One, we, you know, sometimes you have to grow up a little bit and realize that not everybody is going to say and do the right thing. That's number one. Sometimes people need to be helped to say and do the right thing. And that's what political correctness is supposed to be. It's supposed to be that I understand that, saying that is wrong because, and therefore I change the way I speak because I've changed the way I think. What we're doing now is just thought police and speech police. It's not political correctness. It's speech policing. Don't say that, you know? And it's like I said to my son, if you ask me to go to this RPM, it's a speedway thing. I say, if you ask me to go to RPM again, we are not going. So don't ask. And he said, that doesn't stop me from not wanting to go. And that's what we're doing with political correctness. Don't say that. It doesn't mean I don't think it and I don't feel it. And that's, you know what I mean? So. You have a good perspective on kind of like a spectrum of things. There's the, like we should never be treating other human beings as inferior, dehumanizing humans through our speech. So that's like the horrible. And then there's kind of political correctness which tries on the beneficial side to help the people move into not dehumanizing others. So that's the good side. That's a good side. And then there's the bad side of political correctness, the thought police, which is making it so when we're humorously trying to poke at something, we're trying to help people move them forward in different ways and expand their awareness. Especially through humor. So for instance, there was a comedian who did a show at Columbia University, I forget his name, and he was kicked off a stage for this joke. I don't think being gay is a choice because there are black gay people. And I'm pretty sure they're not looking in the mirror going, you know what, this black thing is just not enough. I need to add something else to this to make it a little more challenging. Right? That's a good joke. And it's actually true. It's like, why would you choose to add to your own misery by choosing? No, you're not choosing to be gay. It's what you are. Just like you don't choose to be black. All right? But the stigma attached to that remains nonetheless. That's what the joke means. But what people heard was black, gay. No, no, you can't say black and gay. Don't say black and gay. What the hell is wrong with you? And so that's really, and we gotta move away from that. Here's how we move away from that. Back to science. Critical thinking. Critical thinking allows you to hear a joke and actually listen to it and break it down and go, okay, I get it. I get that. Yes, that's not offensive. I see what you're actually trying to say. Instead of just hearing trigger words and going, your head explodes. And by the way, everybody says, well, political correctness is how Donald Trump came into power. No, Donald Trump came into power because he actually tapped into a certain angst. One, fear. Two, racism. Three, all the darker elements of our humanity, he was able to bring them together and coalesce them into what seemed like a positive movement. And so that's how he came to power, okay? But the truth is that people felt connected to him because he said things that were unacceptable. And they were like, you know what? I like that guy. I don't even agree with what he just, but I just like the fact that he said, you know what, he's an idiot as far as I'm concerned. I just like the fact that he said. The bull in the China shop, exactly. And so, you know, this is what PC, this is kind of the backlash to PC and we gotta get away from PC in that way. I'm gonna make a reach here. I think this might be a decent way to put it, is that there are so many good practitioners of Islam that are not getting the voice that they need to call out the radical Islamists that are killing apostates. And so in this sense with political cragness, it would be like, the ones that are screaming from the rooftops about the issues with their obsession with being like a hurt by other people's words, they're the ones with the loudest megaphone, but the ones that should have the megaphone are the ones that say, hey, I'm learning something from seeing it through this comedic perspective. I'm seeing the nuance on this issue like with that joke. So it's again, is shifting the megaphone's. Okay Chuck, couple quick questions on the way out. Sir. Okay, we like to ask these on the show. What is a core driving principle of yours? Oh man, wow. That's a really good question and it's so personal that it's like, but my core driving principle is, I always want to be a better person. How can I be a better person? How can I be better at being a comedian? How do I take comedy and do something good with it? How can I be a better father? How can I introduce my children into society so that they are now an asset to society and not a detriment? How can I be a better husband? How can I be a better friend? How can I be a better communicator? Being better, moving better towards something good for other people, that's my driving principle. Now I fail at that all the time. We all do, yeah, we all do. I'm an abject failure when it comes to it, but it's what I seek. It's what I truly want. And I think that the world could be a better place if we all did that. I'm basically a hippie. I really am, I was born at the wrong town. I just missed the, I should have been right there in the 60s, man, I just missed my time because I would have been spending a round in the mud you know, with some LSD in my system. I don't care, I'm a hippie at heart. Unity, I like how Chuck is really clear that when we look at the mirror and see ourselves and we're trying to help make ourselves a better person that we're not gonna succeed a 100% efficiency from moment one, you don't start sinking three-pointers. So you slowly work on yourself, maybe you succeed one out of 10 changes, then two out of 10 changes in each year moving on each month. And so that's a good way across all these different facets of your life. And it goes all the way across, you know, like I used to scream at my son and sometimes I gotta admit I still do, but you know, cause my father screamed at me. That's how it works, right? But I fired myself like last night, I came home from work right here on this stage and I walked in the house and it was 1.30 and he was up playing video games. And I went in and I just went like this. And he went, okay, dad, okay? So instead of screaming, just standing in front of him and doing like, alright dude, I am upset. Like, guess what? And it was so much more effective than like, what are you doing? Like that's what I'm talking about. And that shows- He got it. Right. And that also shows him like, okay, maybe there's a better way to communicate. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know. That's great, I love that Chuck, such a good example. Yeah, yeah. And that speaks to our inclination to be more meditative. Yeah. I love that. Okay, if you could rebuild civilization from scratch. Wow. How would you design it? Wow. I'm going to answer that with a non-answer. It would not make a difference because we would fuck it up. To be honest, the problem with civilization will always be human beings. And so the idea, now by the way, we are the best human beings we've ever been in the history of human beings, right now. And people look around and go, the world is a mess and things are terrible. We are the best human beings to ever cross this planet. Okay, as a world, there's always been war, there's always been cruelty, there's always been human degradation. But think about this, not too long ago, when you look at the history of this globe, not too long ago, an iBat ago, Romans were feeding people to the lions for entertainment. Okay, fights to the death, where are you not entertained? Okay, we don't do that now. It's still within us, but we resist that. And so how would I build it from the ground up? I would make, oh man, wow, it just flashed into my head. We were talking about Planet of the Apes earlier and the ape shall never kill ape. Like I'd start there. Yeah, yeah, that's a good one. That's a good first principle. That's it, I just start with that principle. Like that's the first thing that everyone learns, no matter what, like the one thing you can do to deny a person everything is to take their life. So let's start there. And then it's like, well, if I can't kill ya, well, I guess I gotta learn how to get along with ya. Because the ultimate solution cannot happen. I cannot, so now, okay, now we gotta figure out what is it that allows us to come together and mesh because I can't kill you. So that would be my ground up from scratch. It's a good first line of code. Yeah, exactly. Okay, two more. This wouldn't be simulation if we didn't ask you. Do you think we're in a simulation? I think we could be, to be honest. I mean, it makes sense. I mean, let's just say if this were just a mathematical construct, we would not know, okay? We would not know. I mean, you think about it. Think about this. I'm giving you an idea. I'm gonna let you know. Einstein had a mathematical construct for gravity waves. It worked mathematically and no one knew if it existed or not. And then we got empirical evidence that that mathematical construct was actually the case, okay? Gravity itself, what calls one planet to another celestial body and causes that body to be trapped. And it's, okay, that was a mathematical construct first and then it became a reality, all right? So you say, are we in a simulation? We very well could be. It could just be a mathematical construct down on its most granular atomic, subatomic level. It just, as matters, when it comes to matters of particles and how they be, could just be an equation. And that could be, well, this could be a simulation. You don't know. Does it make a difference? No, I still owe Visa $230 at the end of this month. So that's the real answer. It don't make a difference because you gotta live in the simulation if it is a simulation. It's a good thought experiment for adding a scientific lens to our reality and also to potentially realizing that we wanna level up in the game. We wanna gain as many skill points in this game as possible. And those skill points come from helping people, being a better person, creating a sense of unity and value for the world. Okay, look. That's cool. That's a cool video game. I wouldn't mind living in that video game. That's your video game. That's my video game. That's our video game. So yeah, yeah. Okay, last question is, what do you think is the most beautiful thing in the world? I'm gonna go with extra soft toilet paper. And I only say that because when you live without it for a while, you really do understand just how sublime it is. No. No, I'm going to say, and this sounds very corny, love is the most beautiful thing in the world. And that's because it transcends everything. And we don't know if it can be commuted to other animals, but I think it can. When you hear about a dog that walks all the way across the continental United States to find an owner. And that's a real story. When you look at people who do superhuman feats of strength because they are, that's love. That's them actually looking at another person and summoning a love for humanity, for their fellow person, and saying, I gotta do something. When you look at how the connections that you can make just between your own family members and then see those connections actually extend to people that are outside of your family, I think that that is unbelievable. I think that's the most beautiful thing in the world is love. And when it expresses itself and self-sacrifice, it becomes that much more beautiful. Very, very well said. Thank you, Shaq. Oh, man, thank you. It's such a pleasure to see you, brother. This has been a great episode. I greatly appreciate having you on the show and your ambitions in science communication and inspiration and comedy are so great and we're just honored to have you. Thank you. Thank you. Keep up the good work. Well, thank you. You do today. Thank you, we will. Thanks, everyone, for tuning in. We greatly appreciate you. We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Let us know some of your thoughts about the topics we're talking about. Also, check out the links in the bio to the Digital Climate Summit. Shaq's work, check those out for us. Also, help join us. Join us with simulations so we can help doing cool things like coming onsite to great places like this and speaking with epic leaders. And much love. Build the future. Manifest your destiny into the world, everyone. Much love. See you soon. Peace. That's it, my brother. Dude, that was great. Good job. Good to see you, man.