StarTalk Radio

StarTalk® began as a dream. An idea that we could blend Science, Comedy, & Pop Culture and deliver it to the public in a commercially viable way. We did not want to be bound to a model, in which funds must be raised seasonally to operate. But we learned quickly that our show concept was so different from anything else in the marketplace that no sponsors were interested.

Proceeding with the courage of our vision, we applied for a grant from the National Science Foundation to test the concept. They approved a multi-year grant for this experiment. After some follow-up "bridge" support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, we finally broke even in 2014. Today, StarTalk supports a free-lance staff of nearly two-dozen people, and our branded show and show snippets appear as Podcasts, YouTube videos, SiriusXM broadcasts, and as a TV show on the NatGeo Channel, we’ve been Emmy-nominated four times for Outstanding Informational Programming.

All good news. But what we learned along the way is that the marketplace of sponsors is risk-averse. In retrospect, no surprise, But we still generate active, creative ideas on how to grow our reach further -- on different platforms, with different demographics, in different media, using variations of our show model, and so forth. In nearly all those untested pathways, no sponsor awaits us.

So we create this page, humbly asking your support of our ongoing experiments in bringing the Universe down to Earth.

Respectfully Submitted,
Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astrophysicist
Host and Executive Producer of StarTalk