Book - Take Me to Your Leader by Neil Degrasse Tyson

Tyson is a great speaker. You can find him on StarTalk radio and just about every science-adjacent podcast. He was in Toronto recently also, but I missed that show. What Tyson has is a deep knowledge of pop-culture and entertainment. This is evidenced by his latest book Take Me to Your Leader. The small sized book¹ is packed with references to just about every alien in entertainment. Of course, this is not a practical guide for what to do when you meet an alien, so it’s more of a geeky, joke-y run through fun ideas with a science angle.

It’s also an experience in humility. The idea that we’re superior to aliens in every way (and that the might look humanoid) is an unusual and egocentric idea when you start seeing things from Tyson’s perspective. It makes good sense too. Would the randomness on a planet light years away from us only have the ability to make humanoids, and yet also they’d have a way to travel this distance?

And I love Degrasse’s observation about UFOs - it’s just as funny as it is true:

“UFOs are real” which on face value makes no sense at all. The abbreviation UFO has become synonymous with visiting aliens from outer space, which if so, should then require we call these things IFOs or “Identified flying objects”.

Through a generous gift, I managed to get access to Tyson’s Masterclass. It’s something I’d heard about but had never viewed. The masterclass is general and topical, but much like his show Cosmos, you get a real sense of his love and joy for science. It’s infectious. His stories like the discovery of Neptune and the scientific method make you want to go out and dig into otherworldly mysteries.

Science literacy is one of the great challenges of our time, and Tyson has been one of the best ambassadors for all things astrophysics and STEM in general. When he publishes a book, much like Yuval Harari, I immediately want to get it and read.

Take Me to Your Leader is a short, light read, yes, but it’s one of Tyson’s most lighthearted books. There isn’t a hint of heavy mental calculus here and the movie references are on point. If you’ve seen enough of his podcasts and appearances, you might even hear his voice and signature laugh in your head while you read. The book is available most bookstores. Be sure to shop and support local.