Here’s a cute story. So I’m visiting pals at Harvard yesterday, and I get a call from a producer at MSNBC, who says that Keith Olbermann is doing a segment on Tea Parties, Republicans, and creationism, and they’d like me to be on the show via video from Boston. After some back-and-forth I say okay, but that I need to know for sure by 5 pm because I’m meeting somebody for a drink then.
At 4:45 they call me and say, well, I really am the second choice, and the guy they really want is a psychologist from Harvard named P.Z. Myers, but they haven’t yet heard back from him. I said, “Wait—P. Z. Myers is at Minnesota, not Harvard, and he’s not a psychologist but a biologist.” The producer responds, “Oh well, let us call you back.”
At 5 p.m they call back and tell me that the guy they wanted wasn’t Myers but Steve Pinker, and they were highly embarrassed because they learned from him that he was about to meet me for a drink. True enough, for my appointment was with Pinker. Anyway, they hooked the Pinkster, and I was off the hook.
No biggie, I thought—this stuff happens all the time, and it’s no shame to play second fiddle to Pinker. Steve and I had a pleasant chat over beers and gin and tonics in the Harvard Faculty club, and laughed about the Olbermann coincidence. He also told me about his new big book, but more on that when it’s announced.
As we departed for Harvard Square together, the heavens opened up with a huge deluge. Since Steve was wearing his suit and tie for the t.v. show, I gave him my umbrella. He arrived at the subway fairly dry, but I got completely drenched.
Anyway, Steve did a terrific job on Olbermann, and you should watch his 4-minute explanation of why it’s important for American kids to learn evolution.
Do notice his trademark hair! Steve wrote me today—and I don’t think it’s amiss to quote him:
And thanks for the altruistic loan of the umbrella! All for a good cause—not having a bad hair day on national t.v.
LOL!
Thats hysterical!
Name dropping is cool when you’re a big name yourself.
What’s that saying about the unjust fella and the umbrella?
“The rain it falleth equally
Upon the just and unjust fella*
But more upon the just, because
The unjust hath taken the just’s umbrella”
– Lord Bowen? Hillaire Belloc? Ogden Nash???
*Matt 5:45
I prefer the slightly prettier version quoted in The God Delusion:
The rain it raineth on the just
And also on the unjust fella.
But chiefly on the just, because
The unjust hath the just’s umbrella.”
It’s attributed to Lord Justice Bowen.
“Steve and I had a pleasant chat over beers and gin and tonics in the Harvard Faculty club”
Okay .. this is important: WHO had the beer, and WHO had the G&T?
Maybe both of them had both libations.
Pinker had the beers. He couldn’t afford to get tanked because he was going to be on t.v.!
I saw that interview on FB, but I didn’t know about your close connection with it. Small world!
Omg, all my favorite ppl know each other! lol
Blogging and science are both small universes, and when you’re talking about people involved in both…
That’s a great story – my Sunday seems comparatively boring now…
What a wonderful story! It is a small world sometimes!
You said LOL. Now that is funny. Did you literally laugh loud? 😉 It’s kind of hard to hear, but listen to Greg Giraldo’s last gig and what he says about “LOL” . LOL!
http://www.tmz.com/videos?autoplay=true&mediaKey=831ad4a5-69b4-46de-a16c-a5e49d4e2b30
I’m really looking forward to Pinker’s new book. I’ve heard all about it and it’s a great premise.
Our mothers went to high school together in Westmount in Montreal.
Humbling to think of the conversation they must have over lunch when talking about the accomplishment of their respective sons.
New Pinker book. Fuck yeah!
Having a drink with two intellectuals in the Harvard Faculty club sounds awesome. Man, I really should have studied harder growing up.
Hmmm. The media would prefer that a linguist-pyschologist speak on why kids should learn evolution than they would a evolutionary biologist. WTF?
You must be kidding. Pinker is a perfect choice – watch the video!
While Pinker’s one of the best linguist-psychologists to ask about evolution, I can’t argue your point – you’d think that if a journalist was going to be asking someone about evolution, they’d be asking someone who specializes in it.
Ha, I really did lol reading this. When I saw Pinker on the show, I was thinking, Great, but is he the best guy they could get for this segment? How about a biologist? Frankly, I would have preferred seeing you (or PZ Myers or Dawkins, or Eugenie Scott for that matter).
That’s hilarious. I see the folks have done their research so well they don’t even know Pinker from Myers (I wonder if they have spelled it “Meyers” in their notes) or a psychologist from a biologist. It’s always a pleasure to hear Pinker talk; thanks for the links. The hair is changing color but otherwise looks the same as 10 years ago – he must really like that style. Well, maybe not quite the same – I just looked up photos on the ‘net and the invariance is obviously only in my imagination.
Pinker did a great job. Can’t fault a word.
Except, he didn’t mention cats. That was unfortunate, all things considered.
Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of teh kittehs!
Perhaps the issue is that Pinker is a member of the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists, and our host, and for that matter Myers, are not.
Ah! The evolution of altruism! Sorry to laugh – the thought of your generous Samaritan act offering the umbrella & the image of a wet JC & a dry Pinker was too much… Your act was for the good of the atheist meme!
I’m pretty sure the hair is precisely why Pinker gets top billing. Jerry’s got too much of that “I’ve got more important things to do than brush my hair” look going on. 😉
Few can compare with A. C. Grayling in the hair department, or indeed in any other department.
Pinker did a good job, though. One doesn’t have to be a biologist to speak intelligently about the importance of evolution in science education.
ahhaha 🙂
BTW. The plural of gin and tonic is Gins and Tonic. (Unless you like a really diluted beverage).
Cheers
I’m a little worried that they were getting Myers and Pinker confused. Does this reflect the show staff’s research skills in general?
Have the two of them ever been seen in the same room together?
Great story! I’ve said it before but, your a good man Jerry Coyne. Pinker did a great job. I am sure that Jerry and PZ would both have done a great job as well.
I’m dying to know (but, tragically, never will) what Pinker really thinks about Hauser. Was he discussed?
Based upon years of reading PG Wodehouse, I hope people call Steven Pinker “Stinker”.
What would Pinker look like if he did have a bad hair day, and how could he tell?
Heeheehee, very cool.
And while we’re at it – I want to point out that Steve Pinker is a very nice guy. He did an email interview for Butterflies and Wheels when B&W was a newborn so there was no obvious payoff for doing it and he was (naturally) hell’s own busy – The Blank Slate had just come out. I know other people who could tell similar stories.
All that and fabulous hair too.
Surely I can’t be the only person thinking ‘for the love of god, Jerry, give us a clue about Prof. Pinker’s new book!’
I don’t think it’s fair to spill the beans about it without Steve’s permission, and I really don’t want to precede or short-circuit the publicity that his publishers (the same as mine) plan. Let me just say that the topic is really fascinating, and I can’t wait to read it.
Is it not the one he’s been talking about for a while and did his TED talk on?
The decline of violence?
Pinker’s a lot of things. A smart person, an excellent writer and speaker, a great self-promoter, and, it seems, a nice person.
He (along with Chomsky, Fodor, Jackendoff et al.) is also utterly wrong about the nature of language.
See, for example, this article: http://www.umass.edu/preferen/You%20Must%20Read%20This/Evans-Levinson%20BBS%202009.pdf.
Or read the likes of Terrence Deacon, or Geoffrey Sampson, or Michael Tomasello, or Ron Langacker.
Excellent story! And Pinker did a fantastic job 🙂
A fine performance from Pinker, and he was so exquisitely dry.
I was in Montreal when they tried to track me down, and didn’t get the word from them until it was too late.
How can anyone possibly confuse me with Pinker?
From my little piece of the foxhole Pinker did a great job. I think he missed a great opportunity though. Olbermann asked, basically, “why is learning this stuff important.” The response focused on why learning about evolution is important. Granted. The bigger picture is why learning critical thinking skills are important. Learning to think critically, to analyze information and arrive at logical conclusions, is what is important. The ability to think clearly and critically will, I believe, pretty much inevitably lead one to the conclusion that evolution is the mechanism through which humanity arrived.
I would have liked to have seen Prof Pinker show the utility of critical thought and how that skill impacts damn near everything else one does in life. Granted, not exactly a two-minute conversation. But a couple of pointed questions in that vein might have shifted some of the viewing audience. Maybe.
Objective analysis of life leads to better citizens. Teaching our kids how to do this ought to be one of our foremost objectives. Probably just preaching to the choir here though, or nobody as the thread is a couple of days old. What the hell though.