Bill Nye Shows 'Em Why

Voluble TV host Bill Nye has been sounding the alarm on climate change for decades.

Back in the '90s, kids tuned in to his syndicated show, Bill Nye the Science Guy, where he demystified science while netting seven Daytime Emmy Awards. He sought to influence a wider viewership with subsequent series The Eyes of Nye and Bill Nye Saves the World. The former mechanical engineer is also a New York Times bestselling author, comedian and podcaster — further forums for reasoning and bantering with people to take earth science seriously.

Now, as host and executive producer, he's attempting to scare viewers into action. His latest TV endeavor, to launch August 25 on Peacock, is the six-part science-adventure anthology The End Is Nye.

"Get ready for the worst day on earth" is how he introduces the first episode, as five monstrous Category 6 hurricanes batter the globe. Other episodes similarly feature cataclysms largely spawned by Earth's warming: apocalyptic wildfires, global droughts, doomsday asteroids. All of which, Nye insists, are no joke — despite the many jokes he cracked during this interview with emmy's Ann Farmer.

But hang in there. His series also offers hope and solutions.

You've been attempting to wake people up to the science surrounding climate change for decades. How's that going?
I failed. I suck. I haven't been able to do it. But because the situation is so serious, we fight the fight. There used to be an article in, say, the New York Times, at least once a month about climate change. Well, now there are about three a week. Everyone is acknowledging it. Even the conservatives, even those guys and gals are coming around.

What initially triggered your enthusiasm for science?
[Here's] the story I'll give you: We were playing cards on the porch where I grew up in Washington, D.C. It was a hot summer day. I think we were playing some exotic game like Crazy Eights. I got stung by a bee on my thigh. I was a little kid. It was traumatic. I was crying. My mother put ammonia on it, and it felt better almost immediately. Apparently the ammonia somehow denatures the bee venom. And that was kind of cool. The smell was very strong. And on the bottle was a skull and crossbones — my mother was trying to kill me...

Seriously, though, what was one of the first science experiments you ever conducted?
Vinegar and baking soda. It is still amazing to me. A solid and a liquid and you get a gas? Come on! The bubbles were amazing.

Your dad was a contractor and your mom worked as a top-secret codebreaker during World War II. How did they influence you?
My mom was recruited, by all accounts, because she was good at math and science. And I think the reason my dad survived four years in a POW camp during World War II is because he had a sense of humor.

After college, while working for Boeing as a mechanical engineer, you applied four times to be an astronaut. What fueled your passion for space travel?
It's just fantastic, flying in space. It's science fiction. It's the unknown horizon. It's what's beyond. As we say all the time, if you stop looking up and out, what does that say about you? Whatever it says, it's not good.

The competition must have been fierce. Did NASA tell you why they passed on you?
No. The kind of people who become astronauts are these crazy, overachieving, brilliant people. But I would have gone. I'd still go. But I'd want to come back. These people who say they want to go live and die on Mars — that is not my thing. Mars is inhospitable, let me tell you.

While working for Boeing, you were also exploring comedy. When did you realize you had a knack for making people laugh?
Well, I have an edge over many people. Because not only may I be funny, but I'm funny-looking. That's a dad joke.... Warner Bros. Records sponsored a Steve Martin lookalike contest. And I won. With respect, it was a Venn diagram — it was me, or not me. So after that, people wanted me to be Steve Martin at parties and events. I'd get hired for fifty dollars to do Steve Martin jokes. I'd put the arrow through the head and tell the "I gave my cat a bath" jokes.

Not unlike early Steve Martin, you made the three-piece suit your signature look, along with a bow tie.
Bow ties are very practical. In the laboratory it does not flop into your flask. And when I did stand-up comedy, the bow ties set me apart a little bit from other people. And now it's become a thing — I've got to wear a bow tie.

Speaking of fashion, you recently walked the runway during New York Fashion Week, at a show benefitting the Prostate Cancer Foundation. How'd that go?
It was great. I am very pigeon-toed. So you fight that. You try to walk with your toes straight.

Early on, you left a mechanical engineering career at Boeing to perform on the Seattle-based television show Almost Live!, where you conducted so-called wacky science experiments. Does one stand out for you?
You pour the liquid nitrogen. Then you chew the marshmallows and steam comes out of your nose. That was the first one that was good.

What compelled you to leave the stability of an engineering job for a shot at comedy?
When you get laughs, it's addicting. It's literally addicting. I think it stimulates the serotonin... and what's the other one you get a jolt from? The dopamine. So you want to do that all the time. And I figured if I don't do it now, I'll never do it.

How is your new Peacock series different from your previous TV shows?
On this show, there is a world-ending disaster — a drama where people get killed and things go horribly wrong. And then in the second half of the show, we demonstrate how things could be great if we just address these problems with science. It's not Bill [Nye] standing there and explaining. We call him Bill Serling, for you Rod Serling buffs.

Yes, your new series presents six worst-case scenarios, including a super-volcano eruption that threatens to burn up the globe as well as apocalyptic dust storms caused by worsening heat and droughts. At one time, these scenarios wouldn't have seemed plausible.
These are foreseeable catastrophes. The big thing that's changed is that there are almost 8 billion people in the world, all breathing and burning the atmosphere, which is pretty thin. If you could somehow drive straight up, at highway speed, you'd be in outer space in an hour. It's really amazingly thin, the atmosphere. When you have 8 billion people using it, we have this extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and methane that's making the world warmer faster than ever.

In one scene, you hold on to a telephone pole for dear life as a torrential rainstorm is simulated around you. What was it like shooting that?
We had two or more huge fans. And a rain machine, which is a pipe with holes drilled in it, and water comes out very fast. And we had a real lamppost anchored down with real weight. And I was really holding on to it. And man, if you let go, as the saying goes, it will blow you away. And it was fun. I got soaking wet.

Do you honestly believe we can turn this climate situation around?
Just look at the problems humans have solved historically. We can do this.

What is one thing people can do to help reduce global warming?
Vote. That's what I tell everybody — vote. And keep the environment in mind when you vote.

This article originally appeared in emmy magazine issue #8, 2022, under the title, "Bill Nye Shows 'Em Why."