'It's insightful, it's informative.' Neil deGrasse Tyson on his 5-hour backyard audio chat with William Shatner (interview)

two men on the cover of a new audio chat release

"Cosmos Confidential: Bill and Neil’s Excellent Bromance" arrives Feb, 3, 2026. (Image credit: Blackstone Publishing)

Representing a stellar alignment of epic proportions, celebrity astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and "Star Trek" legend William Shatner have a new audio book release titled "Cosmos Confidential" landing on Earth starting Feb. 3, 2026 that brings together two of our humble Milky Way galaxy's most entertaining personalities.

The project was an offshoot of Tyson and Shatner's captivating chats aboard a space-based Antarctica cruise in 2024 and last year's "The Universe is Absurd" one-night show in Seattle. This five-hour, humor-fed discourse, which was recorded at Shatner’s own Los Angeles home, takes on such weighty topics such as life, love, mortality, career paths, childhood, spirituality, and animal companionship

two men on the cover of an audio book — The dynamic duo of Neil deGrasse Tyson and William Shatner! (Image credit: Blackstone Publishing)

"We go back a few years," Tyson tells Space.com on his connections with Shatner.

"He was kind enough, when coming through New York, to appear as a guest on my podcast. He's not the first 'Star Trek' actor to be on StarTalk. We had Nichelle Nichols and George Takei. So this was fun to round that out. Around the same time he'd invited me to appear on his show. I think it was 'The Unexplained,' one of these shows he’s hosted over the years."

From there, Tyson explained that the relationship blossomed, noting that "We’d known each other but we weren’t beer drinking buddies until this small luxury cruise to Antarctica where we were separate featured guests. Anytime we were in conversation, crowds gathered. Everything he said and everything I said in reaction, and vice-versa, was of great interest to passersby. So the two of us had a conversation for the ship and it triggered so much interest that the cruise organizer said, 'We've got to take this show on the road.' That’s what lead to the Seattle show."

Cosmos Confidential, A Free-wheeling Conversation Between William Shatner and Neil deGrasse Tyson - YouTube

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Shatner jokingly thinks everything about the universe is absurd, so Tyson admits to spending half the time talking him off the ledge, but also probing his life and times, and his thinking about the world.

"He's wise and very well educated and so every turn of conversation is rich. It's deep, it's insightful, it's informative." notes Tyson. "So then we said we've got to record this as an audio original and we created 'Cosmos Confidential.' It's basically five hours of our conversation inspired by these times on the ship and held in his backyard.

"There's stories that he and I tell each other that neither of us have ever told anyone publicly. What it was like for him to grow up as a Jewish kid in a place where there were hardly any Jews. He tells a story where he was observing one of the high holidays on a Friday and there was football practice that day and he couldn't make it and they kicked him off the team. He was devastated by that."

two men sitting in a backyard over looking a city — Neil deGrasse Tyson and William Shatner sharing a moment while recording "Cosmos Confidential: Bill and Neil's Excellent Bromance" (Image credit: Blackstone Publishing)

Personal storytelling is highlighted here in this engaging audio release, as Tyson shares details with Shatner of his '60s upbringing, which was still a hotbed of civil rights activity and turbulent responses to it.

"We discuss exploration as a native thing to do, just being human," he adds. "The people who explored the oceans. Who explored space. He’s been in space and he talked about coming back from the rocket and dropping into tears and how he felt looking at Earth from so high up and then coming back to terra firma. So we just thought this could be something the public would embrace.

"Depending on how successful it is, or even not, we might go back into theaters and do a few more of these and offer it to a streamer. He’s pretty entertaining in person when you see him so I think it could work. Right now this audio conversation is obviously a different marketplace. It's for people who are stuck in traffic and need something to do."

Exclusively from Blackstone Publishing, "Cosmos Confidential: Bill and Neil's Excellent Bromance" is available on MP3 and audio CD beginning Feb. 3, 2026.

Jeff Spry is an award-winning screenwriter and veteran freelance journalist covering TV, movies, video games, books, and comics. His work has appeared at SYFY Wire, Inverse, Collider, Bleeding Cool and elsewhere. Jeff lives in beautiful Bend, Oregon amid the ponderosa pines, classic muscle cars, a crypt of collector horror comics, and two loyal English Setters.

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