Bill Nye is not afraid to get political.

The renowned science educator touched on higher education, diversity and inclusion, the U.S. military, voter suppression and climate change in his live interview Monday with Lafayette College professor Jenn Rossmann, a fellow mechanical engineer.

He was met frequently with the rapturous cheers and applause of over 1,000 attendees in a packed Kirby Sports Center for the Bicentennial Founders’ Day Speaker event hosted by the Lafayette Activities Forum.

As Rossmann began a question about the federal pressure experienced by higher education, Nye interrupted.

“Guys, just don’t give in,” he exclaimed. “Are the administrators here? They’re going to sue you. Just sue them back. Understand?”

The 70-year-old has never steered clear of pressing topics and has long publicly advocated for science. Most famous for his Emmy-award-winning show “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” which aired two decades before any student in the audience was born, Nye attended a “No Kings” protest in Arlington, Virginia, just two days before the event.

Rossmann shared that over half of the student-submitted questions for the interview were about climate change.

“Nothing to worry about,” Nye joked.

He emphasized the importance of voting with the climate in mind. At one point, he pulled from his suit pocket a miniature copy of the U.S. Constitution to quote a clause on the promotion of science, which several students and Rossmann highlighted as a favorite part of the talk.

“We have a serious problem facing us with climate change, but we have to be optimistic,” he said. “It doesn’t mean you ignore the problem and just put your head in the spiritual sand. It means we chip away at this and we solve it.”

In an interview with The Lafayette before the event, Nye drew a parallel between this mindset and the conclusion of the UConn-Duke men’s March Madness game on Sunday.

“They didn’t give up,” he said about the University of Connecticut. “That’s my point, albeit not a great one. But they did not quit. They kept playing to the last, last moment, and they turned it around.”

Rossmann and Nye discussed the value of a liberal arts education and engaging those distrustful of science. Rossman also asked about his favorite science experiment: a demonstration of air pressure with an inverted aluminum can and changing temperatures.

Instead of a soda can, however, Nye recommends you try it with an oil drum.

“Wham, it collapses, as though crushed by a giant’s fist,” he shouted in an animated voice well-suited for a children’s TV show.

“But you’re using gloves because of safety,” Rossmann interjected as Nye described the experiment.

“I’m sure you’re right,” he replied.

Lily Gaskill ‘26, a biochemistry major, said that Nye was an inspiration for her pursuit of science.

“I didn’t realize how funny he was gonna be,” she said.

Nye has a distant connection to the college: his sister-in-law’s father was Bob Chase, a former biology professor and provost who passed away exactly eight years ago on the day of the event in 2018. Chase’s memorial service was held in Colton Chapel, the original venue for the Nye interview before student demand made it clear a much larger space was required — even larger than for Lin-Manuel Miranda.

“When you guys were going to have me here, I was very pleased,” Nye said after sharing a humorous story about Chase. “But boy, that’s a small room, so thanks for having me in this bigger venue.”

“When I heard that Bill Nye was coming, I felt like something sparked in me from my childhood, and I just had to make an appearance,” Suko Bey ’29 said. 

Lafayette Activities Forum donned lab coats and bow ties as they checked in and ushered attendees. Forum President Elizabeth Miller ’26, a fan of Nye, brought her mother, a sixth-grade science teacher, to the event.

“That was super special, but it was so great to hear him get political,” she said. Miller’s team was also in charge of selecting Rossmann as an interviewer and said she did “an incredible job.”

The hour-long interview with Nye “felt like it flew by,” Rossmann wrote in an email.

“I have really appreciated the way Nye has used his platform to advance critical thinking (for example about evolution and climate change) and ‘radical curiosity’ about the world,” she wrote.

Nye said that the original motivator behind his hit show was patriotism.

“The objective of the Science Guy show is to change the world, and that really is what I want you all to do,” he said. “I want you to go out there and change the world.”

Ben Saalman ‘28 contributed reporting.

This story was originally published on The Lafayette on April 3, 2026.