January 19, 2017 9:39 pm

StarTalk Radio Season 8 premieres with Neil Tyson and Terry Crews getting physical

Season 8 of StarTalk Radio begins tomorrow night with The Science of Fitness, with Terry Crews.

As you can guess from the title, and the picture below, Terry Crews is serious about fitness. Anybody with muscles like his and 4% body fat, who also played as an NFL defensive end and linebacker, has got to take physical fitness seriously.

Photo by Brandon Royal of Neil deGrasse Tyson and Terry Crews.

Credit: Brandon Royal.

So do our in-studio guest, Dr. Felicia D. Stoler, an exercise physiologist, and Dr. Wendy A. Suzuki, Professor of Neural Science and Psychology, New York University, who studies the impact of exercise on the brain.

Together with our host Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-host Chuck Nice, they help us take a closer look at the benefits of weightlifting and flexibility training. The episode addresses why it’s important to exercise every day – and why it’s critical to allow time off between working the same muscles. We explore the science of nutrition, including why Neil says that at some level, a healthy diet is all about physics. And we dive into the brain itself, to learn about the impact of exercise on creativity and how exercise is the only way to stimulate the growth of new neurons in the hypothalamus.

But for me, the most memorable segments in tomorrow’s show have nothing to do with fitness, at least, not directly.

First, Neil and Terry talk about the things in their lives that drove each of them to build up their bodies and their strength, and the answer isn’t what I was expecting. It was, surprisingly, fear. Terry grew up in a home with an alcoholic father, and Neil was a bit of a nerd. So Terry got into strength training, and Neil got into wrestling, and they both did it to resist the bullies in their lives.

But that is not the most surprising thing I learned about Terry Crews.

That would have to be when Terry says, “I have Star Wars wallpaper because it made me who I am… I’m all geek… Science fiction let me know what was possible.” Terry, who had a very religious upbringing, wasn’t allowed to listen to music or go to the movies or even dance. But, when he was around 9 years old, his aunt took him to see a movie – only the second he’d ever seen – which was getting a little bit of buzz. The year was 1977, and the movie was Star Wars. And so Terry Crews discovered science fiction, and, thereby, himself.

The most surprising thing I learned from tomorrow night’s season premiere of StarTalk Radio was that I have something in common with Terry Crews.

And likely, so do you.

Please join us Friday, January 20 at 7pm EST for The Science of Fitness, with Terry Crews on our website, iTunes Podcasts, Google Play Music, SoundCloud, Stitcher and TuneIn.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!
–Jeffrey Simons

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