Cosmos: Possible Worlds — One question for Ann Druyan and Neil DeGrasse Tyson

Tyson Cosmos Hero

Source: National Geographic (Image credit: National Geographic)

Not everyone had the opportunity to enjoy every episode of the show Cosmos as it aired. The first season, in which Carl Sagan took everyone on a journey of the mind, aired in 1980. By comparison, the jump from Season Two (2014) to Season Three (2020) is fairly minor. Even with a gap that small, there will still be a lot of people tuning in to Cosmos: Possible Worlds and watching this show for the first time.

The second season of this show brought in an extrordinary number of viewers , and with the diversification of TV consumption into streaming services over the last couple of years, there are far more opportunities for people of every age to tune in live.

Knowing that, I really only had one question for the show's inimitable host Neil DeGrasse Tyson and the incredible writer/director Ann Druyan. What do you hope kids who have never seen anything like this before take away from Cosmos: Possible Worlds ?

Ann Druyan

When I was first trying to bring Cosmos back to television, and going from network to network, what I really wanted to do was bring back the family hour. I wanted people to be together, to be exposed to thrilling ideas and concepts. The beauty of nature. I wanted them all to bet together in the same place and watching together. These were these executives who sort of chortled at this impossible dream, and I felt tremendously vindicated in the second season when the global conversation showed families enjoying Cosmos together.

With this new season, I hope children walk away understanding that science is real, that objective truth and facts are things that are important, and that it's a worthwhile endeavor to ask "what if" and explore those answers using science.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson

I think the idea that science matters, that truth matters, objective truth matters. That science gets you to the objective truth, and that science may be our only hope to save us from the shortsighted decisions that we are all part of today.

I'm less worried about the next generation because they tend to be a little more woke than the older generations. It's really the older folks that need to be hit with this. I think younger people will embrace this, and it will empower them to do more of what they are already doing to ensure the world that they inherit from us, the world we're borrowing from them, is something they'd be proud to say their parents were good caretakers of.

Ann Druyan Cosmos

Source: National Geographic (Image credit: National Geographic)

This third season of Cosmos is named Possible Worlds because it explores a lot of those "what if" moments. There's an episode dedicated to colonizing another planet and another where a new World's Fair is imagined in the not-so-distant future. The show takes facts about the world around us and what we know about what is possible now to envision these near-future events to stunning effect, backed by commentary and details from scientists of many different backgrounds.

Cosmos: Possible Worlds also exists in book form , written by Ann Druyan. The book covers some of the same topics you'll see in this season but also takes the opportunity to dig deeper on these concepts than you'd expect to see in an hour of television. It's a worthy companion to the show, but also a spectacular standalone read if you want to learn more about what could be possible in the future.

How to watch Cosmos: Possible Worlds online

Cosmos: Possible Worlds will be a joint broadcast production of the National Geographic channel (Nat Geo) and Fox. The series will first air on National Geographic starting in March, and then come to Fox in the summer of 2020. The best way to get National Geographic channel for Cosmos: Possible Worlds online and without cable is with a live TV streaming service. Here are the options that include National Geographic. You can review the options and select one that works best for you.

Cosmos: Possible Worlds livestream — How to watch Season 3 online from anywhere

Hulu with Live TV

  • The cost: $55 a month after a one week free trial
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  • Cosmos: Possible Worlds on Hulu: Yes, with National Geographic. You can also see episodes again this summer on your local Fox with Hulu.

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