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Shadowing practice: Talking Tech with Neil deGrasse Tyson!

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Full transcript

  1. Are we rolling on everything already?0:07
  2. Toss color.0:09
  3. No, I want to do that.0:11
  4. You got it.0:13
  5. Go for it.0:14
  6. All right.0:15
  7. What's up, guys?0:16
  8. I'm KBHD here, and welcome to another, I guess, a slightly unusual video.0:17
  9. But just to give a little context on what's going on here, just shot a video with Star Talk, and it went pretty well.0:21
  10. You should go and check it out.0:27
  11. I'll probably have a link in the description below.0:28
  12. But I figured while I'm here with Neil and Chuck, might as well get a little interview in since it's only fair, since you did interview me about two years0:31
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  1. ago.0:38
  2. We should reverse roles a little bit.0:39
  3. I'll talk to you for a little bit.0:41
  4. Good to see you again.0:42
  5. Yeah, good to see you again, too, by the way.0:42
  6. You're maturing nicely.0:45
  7. You were like 14 or something.0:46
  8. I was pretty young, and I feel like that was definitely a big part of what we talked about.0:47
  9. But I've seen a lot since then, and it's gone pretty well.0:51
  10. In fact, you were 12 years old.0:55
  11. That's pretty sure.0:55
  12. I was basically an infant.0:56
  13. But yeah, so this is going to be fun.0:57
  14. I think the thing that was on my mind just when I had the opportunity to ask you anything is just from an astrophysicist perspective, I mean, we look at0:58
  15. the tech that we have on the palm of our hands every day, and it's pretty sweet.1:07
  16. New phones, new tablets.1:11
  17. But a lot of that comes from the higher end, the military technology, the space program technology.1:13
  18. A lot of things eventually trickle their way down into what we're able to hold in our hands.1:19
  19. Are there things that you guys have seen or heard of that maybe we don't know about that's on its way that might end up in our phones or tablets1:24
  20. or handheld someday?1:33
  21. I'm not authorized to.1:34
  22. If I tell you.1:36
  23. I have some ideas, but I'm not very good at predicting the future.1:40
  24. And I have good evidence that I'm not good at predicting the future.1:44
  25. And I've told this many times, Chuck, when I'm old enough to remember Star Trek in first run.1:48
  26. My parents did too.1:54
  27. And so there's the warp drives and the photon torpedoes and this machine we put in a card and then hot food comes out instantly.1:55
  28. This was an extraordinary view of the future.2:06
  29. And I said, yeah, yeah, that's all going to happen.2:08
  30. And there was one thing about Star Trek that I could not imagine.2:11
  31. And it took the realism of Star Trek out of it for me.2:14
  32. And that was the fact that they could just walk up to a door and the door would open.2:19
  33. I said, how does the door know?2:23
  34. It can't know that they're there.2:25
  35. They were over here and now they're there and it opens.2:27
  36. And for some reason, the warp drives and the photon torpedoes and the transporters were all believable to me, not the auto opening door.2:29
  37. Automatic doors is where you drew the line.2:37
  38. I had that.2:39
  39. I was.2:40
  40. I also, this is all literally before any automatic doors.2:41
  41. Yes.2:44
  42. Okay, so that's why I wouldn't trust my sense of the future here, but I do want to give you an acute appreciation for how the past became the future.2:47
  43. All right, so let's go back a hundred years.2:59
  44. The dawn of our understanding of the atom.3:01
  45. Now how does the atom work?3:06
  46. I don't know.3:07
  47. Let's probe it.3:07
  48. We start probing it in the 1920s through particle accelerators and experiments.3:08
  49. Out of this comes quantum physics, the quantum.3:12
  50. On top of that, Albert Einstein says, hmm, using what we know about quantum physics and using what we know about this kind of physics, I can put them together,3:18
  51. calculate.3:26
  52. I've come up with a new thing that would occur in atoms.3:28
  53. It's called the stimulated emission of radiation.3:32
  54. Okay?3:35
  55. No one paid any attention to that paper.3:36
  56. It was interesting.3:38
  57. It advanced quantum physics.3:39
  58. But if you had lawmakers and politicians and people saying, why doesn't that help me today?3:40
  59. Why are you doing research that has nothing to do with anything?3:47
  60. Put them around back then.3:50
  61. They would be criticizing quantum physics from beginning to end.3:51
  62. What a waste of resources.3:54
  63. You're so smart, why are you wasting it on atoms?3:56
  64. It would take 40 years, 50 years before quantum physics would become the very foundation of information technology.3:59
  65. There is no creation, storage, or retrieval of information without an understanding of the quantum.4:08
  66. Not only that, this obscure research paper that Einstein wrote on the stimulated emission of radiation, that would take 40 years.4:16
  67. 40 years later, the laser would be invented based on that principle.4:24
  68. Oh, what do three of those letters stand for?4:30
  69. The light amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation.4:32
  70. Was Einstein thinking, barcodes, that's why.4:35
  71. Laser cosmetic peel.4:40
  72. No, no.4:42
  73. So, all I can tell you is, I don't know what the future will bring, but if you stop investing in basic research today, you won't have a future.4:44
  74. So it's being worked on today.4:53
  75. We should encourage it to be worked on today.4:55
  76. And don't go up to a scientist and say, how does that relate to me today?4:58
  77. And how is that, the only right answer is, I have no idea.5:02
  78. But evidence of the history of this exercise tells us that one day it will.5:07
  79. So there are things that are hugely important to your life and your, I mean, the collective you, that no one knows about yet.5:12
  80. Correct.5:22
  81. Correct.5:23
  82. All that matters, if you're curious, is that you're exploring something you do not yet know.5:25
  83. Can I give you another example?5:32
  84. I would love it.5:33
  85. My, are you, my example is okay?5:34
  86. Yeah.5:36
  87. Are they working on the show?5:36
  88. Yeah.5:37
  89. So far so good.5:37
  90. Because I don't want to be like, I don't want to.5:39
  91. I'm just kind of absorbing it, so.5:40
  92. Okay.5:42
  93. Feel free to, whatever you got.5:42
  94. Usually you do all the talking.5:44
  95. A lot of times I do, but that's scripted.5:45
  96. That's a lot easier.5:47
  97. Oh, really?5:47
  98. Okay, okay.5:48
  99. Now I'm not scripted, I'm just, I'm just blathering here.5:49
  100. It works.5:52
  101. All right.5:53
  102. My physics professor in college, his name was Edward Purcell.5:54
  103. Sounds like a nice guy.5:59
  104. Nice.6:00
  105. Yeah, it turns out he was a really nice guy.6:02
  106. He did calculations that gave us ways to measure the existence and the depth and the composition of gas clouds in space.6:05
  107. Did very important research.6:12
  108. He also discovered a phenomenon, co -discovered a phenomenon where if you put an electromagnetic field across an atomic nucleus.6:13
  109. Okay.6:23
  110. It will actually change that field according to the mass of the nucleus.6:24
  111. Resonance between the light that passed across it and the nucleus itself.6:32
  112. It was called nuclear magnetic resonance.6:37
  113. Got the Nobel Prize for that.6:43
  114. Afterwards, a clever medical engineer said, wait a minute, if you could put this field across and know the mass of the nucleus and I can differentiate this nucleus from6:45
  115. this nucleus, I can make a machine put you in the machine, make images of all your nuclei.6:56
  116. And thus was born the magnetic resonance.7:04
  117. Resonance.7:07
  118. Imaging.7:08
  119. Which used to have, and, but it's one of the n words that you're not supposed to use, nuclear.7:09
  120. You go into a machine that uses nuclear magnetic resonance, but the hospital has figured nobody wants to go into a machine that has nuclear on it.7:15
  121. They dropped the n, dropped the n word, kept magnetic resonance imager and it's arguably the most potent tool in the arsenal of the medical doctor to diagnose the condition7:21
  122. of your body without cutting you open.7:32
  123. That is based on a principle of physics discovered by a physicist who had no interest in medicine.7:34
  124. So quantum physics, lasers, nuclear magnetic resonance, the list goes on.7:39
  125. You want another one?7:46
  126. Yeah, we'll see one more.7:48
  127. Okay.7:49
  128. Do you know the laser alignment that connected the space shuttle to dock with the space station?7:50
  129. Used a certain laser and programming technology that was then adapted for lasik surgery.7:56
  130. Allowing the laser to align with your eye, even if your eye moves so that the cut is always in the right place.8:04
  131. So then you might say, well, why have an $18 billion agency just to invent grooves in pavement?8:11
  132. Okay, we should have the transportation safety board invent this, but they didn't.8:18
  133. We should have other people invent it, but they didn't.8:25
  134. This is my point.8:28
  135. However complex or however simple, the germination of an idea does not always come because you legislated it.8:30
  136. And in the agencies that you set up, make sure they're cross pollinating pathways without which people stay in their silos of thinking and no truly great discoveries would unfold.8:36
  137. You can't necessarily decide to tell someone to get an idea or to do something better, but when a better idea or a really forward thinking organization comes along and8:49
  138. happens to do it really well, spread it, share it, enable it.8:59
  139. Thanks for watching.9:04

American English Speaking Practice From a Real Tech Interview

This clip is a real conversation, not a scripted lesson. MKBHD sits down with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson to talk tech, and two people talking over each other is what everyday english conversation practice actually sounds like: half finished thoughts, one speaker picking up where the other left off, a joke that lands before the sentence is even done.

The recording sits at B2 and moves at 193 words per minute, faster than 55 percent of the catalogue, so it suits someone who already has the vocabulary and wants to keep up with real pace rather than a first attempt at shadowing. Both men are American, which makes this a solid pick for american accent training: you get a quick, casual register in the small talk at the start, then a slower, more deliberate register once Tyson starts explaining something.

The Lines Worth Slowing Down For

A few lines in this opening stretch reward a second and third pass, and each one has its own reason to shadow it slowly before you try it at speed.

  • "You're maturing nicely." Four words, but the stress sits on maturing, and the whole line is delivered dry, almost deadpan. Copy the flat tone before you copy the words.
  • "I'm not authorized to." A clipped, official sounding brush off, cut short on purpose. Practice stopping your voice exactly where his stops, not a beat later.
  • "I have some ideas, but I'm not very good at predicting the future." This is a full thought in one breath, with but joining two clauses that carry opposite weight. Say it once for the words and once more for the pause right before but.
  • "What's up, guys?" and "I'm KBHD here, and welcome to another, I guess, a slightly unusual video." The channel greeting is fast and thrown away, useful for practising english speaking that sounds unrehearsed rather than read aloud.
  • Rare words worth knowing before you shadow: astrophysicist, maturing, handheld. None of them are hard to pronounce, but they slow a learner down mid line if you meet them for the first time out loud.

How to Work Through the MKBHD and Tyson Segment

Do not try the whole clip in one pass. Work it in a fixed order and let each line earn its place before you move to the next.

  • Start with "What's up, guys?" through "I'm KBHD here, and welcome to another, I guess, a slightly unusual video." It is short, it is the channel's own rhythm, and getting the greeting right builds confidence before harder material.
  • Take "You're maturing nicely." on its own. Repeat it five times focused only on matching the flat, joking tone, not the meaning.
  • Move to "I'm not authorized to." and practice the sudden stop. This is a good line to speak english fluently on, because fluency here means knowing exactly where to cut off.
  • Shadow "I have some ideas, but I'm not very good at predicting the future." as one unit, then split it at but and say each half separately to feel the shift in weight.
  • Once those four lines are solid, run the full opening stretch from line one straight through without stopping, at the recording's own pace, and score yourself only on whether you kept up, not on perfect words.
  • If you improve your english accent this way, one recording at a time, repeat the same four lines the next day before adding new ones. This clip rewards repetition more than volume.
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