[unsupp0rted]

> He calls it his Batman utility belt. You anticipate every question you'll get and do your research.

Part of the reason Neil DeGrasse Tyson is so painful to watch/listen to (especially on his recent appearances) is that this over-preparation or expectation of specific talking points comes off as smugness, interrupting behavior, etc... is it this which hurts the flow of conversation and even seemed to exasperate Joe Rogan during their talk recently?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwZXR2PlcEM

[jrh206]

Those clips are painful.

DeGrasse Tyson interrupts Rogan right before important words - punchlines. For instance, in the first clip, Rogan begins “what’s interesting is that the town is -”, and DeGrasse Tyson takes that moment to pattern break: “wait, wait, wait, have you seen that they did Starry Night in bacon?!”. Rogan blinks, stunned. His point about the town lost forever.

Regardless, it’s possible to be well prepared but not interrupt the person you’re talking to right as they get to the juice. I would suggest Sean Evans and Nardwaur as examples from the other side of the fence - interviewers - who are unrivalled in preparation and give their guests a chance to speak.

[jvanderbot]

DeGrasse Tyson is insufferable anyway. He takes every chance to pontificate and play the skewering science expert, even when it's not necessary. His generation / audience just wants a scientist to slam dunk on everyone all the time and "Science the shit out of it", and he's responding perfectly.

And I work in space exploration! I've seen 100s of better voices for science than him fist hand.

[samstave]

Agreed, as is Michio Kaku. They are the Zahi Hawass of astro physics.

[glitchc]

This might be on purpose, especially if Mr. Rogan is pandering to the audience and Dr. Tyson is aware of his behavior.

[throwbigdata]

Pandering?

[PragmaticPulp]

It's the difference between natural conversation and performance.

NDT wasn't trying to have a conversation, he was trying to put on a performance. He was using intonation, cadence, and speech patterns rehearsed for putting on a show, whereas podcasters want to have something more like a natural conversation.

This can actually be a problem when people try to study social skills and speaking habits from performers and then deploy those habits into natural conversations. It comes off as inauthentic and awkward.

[scrozier]

Thank you! I've always found DeGrasse Tyson unbearable. He's clearly a very smart guy, but as a communicator of the people? Not at all sure why he's so popular. That clip is positively grotesque.

[hinkley]

Speech and conversation are not the same skill.

[osigurdson]

He's a little weird/rude in those clips but there is no vindictiveness behind it. He was great in Cosmos.

[IE6]

This to me is tangential - I am wondering if you are more annoyed at his preparation (which I believe is an excellent example and suggestion to the OP's question) or that he talked over Joe Rogan and didn't let him finish his joke ...

[muzani]

I think it's a great counterpoint. It's unnatural behaviour, even for NDT. He applies the technique where it clearly doesn't work - right in the middle of someone talking.

[itsmemattchung]

Watched about 3 minutes of this...too cringe to finish the rest.