Contributed by Kayla Southwood
On Tuesday, Sept. 27, Neil deGrasse Tyson, world-renowned astrophysi- cist and author, made an appearance at Converse University during his tour to promote his new book, “Star- ry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization.”
The event included an hour-long interview followed by 30 minutes of questions from the audience. Tyson remained outgoing and animated throughout the entirety of the event, quick to crack jokes with the audience, even if they were at his own expense.
This included showing off his fa- vorite tie that was decorated with each planet in the solar system.
“There’s no Pluto, of course…get over it! He had it coming,” Tyson said.
When interacting with the audi- ence, Tyson leaned on the edge of his seat and spoke with fervor, engaging the audience.
After an hour of interview questions delivered by Will Case, chemistry professor at Converse University, Tyson began answering questions from the crowd.
“I love how much he engaged with the audience; I felt like I didn’t just watch him, but actually met him,” said Ali Dulaney ’26.
Tyson also had some advice for col- lege students on decisions that will build toward the rest of their lives.
“I’m going to tell you something that no teacher or parent is going to tell you: You should take the hardest classes you possibly can,” Tyson said.
Tyson went on to explain the ben- efits that difficult classes offer in re- gards to deeply critical thinking and the ability to truly distinguish your- self from others, even if that comes at the expense of a poor grade.
“Ask anybody here who’s 28 and older when’s the last time someone asked them what their GPA was,” Tyson said. “No one will give a rat’s ass what your GPA was!”
Tyson’s book “Starry Messenger” was written to offer a new perspective to consider when making deci- sions, especially in topics related to politics, war, religion, beauty, race, truth and other ideas of similar magnitude.
Much of the book focuses on the notably ineffective actions of human beings when observed from an out- side view, claiming that aliens would be unimpressed with human abili- ties.
“The alien would leave and report back to say, ‘There is no sign of intel- ligent life on Earth,’” Tyson said.
Tickets for college students started at $30 and included a signed copy of “Starry Messenger,” so many Wofford students, like Devin Ruppe ’26, happily took advantage of the opportunity.
“The book provided a cosmic perspective on society, which couldn’t be more of what the world needs in a time of such selfish and dictatorial media outlets and leaders,” Ruppe said.
Tyson also emphasized the importance the book placed in learning probability and statistics, as well as practicing exponential-thinking.
He explained how disregarding probability leads to failures like gambling and other frequent follies, and that an ignorance towards exponential thinking tends to limit how we imagine the future.
In “Starry Messenger,” Tyson emphasizes the limits of cognition that human beings maintain because of common normatives and encourages everyone to educate themselves as much as possible about respective topics before making a decision.
“The more informed you are, the less dug-in-your-heels you will be, because you will have the ability to understand other perspectives,” Tyson said