Neil deGrasse Tyson While Refusing to Say Inherent Gender Differences Exist in Sports: ‘Let’s Talk About Science’

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson refused to say if Scientific American was wrong to claim that the differences between male and female athletes are due to biases and proclaimed “Let’s talk about science” while being questioned on the matter.

Host Bill Maher said [relevant exchange begins around 13:50] that while he disagrees with the recent posts by now former Editor-in-Chief Laura Helmuth about the 2024 election, they weren’t really the scandal, “what I think is the scandal, this is in Scientific American, less than a year ago, ‘Inequity between male and female athletes is a result not of inherent biological differences between the sexes but of biases in how they are treated in sports.’ That’s nuts. And it sure ain’t scientific, and it’s in Scientific American. And that’s why the Democrats lost the election. It’s true.”

Tyson remarked that Maher constantly comes up with different reasons for why Democrats lost.

Maher then asked Tyson to “engage with the idea here. What I’m asking is, Scientific American is saying, basically, that the reason why an NBA — WNBA team can’t beat the Lakers is because of societal bias.”

Tyson responded, “What you’re saying is not Scientific American says that, an editor for Scientific American says that, who no longer has the job. So, don’t indict a 170-year-old magazine because somebody…enters the cesspool that is social media and then participates in that exchange. … Let’s talk about science.”

Maher countered, “Why can’t you just say this is not scientific and Scientific American should do better?”

Tyson then asked if Helmuth still has her job and Maher responded that it’s not because of the claims on sports and asked Tyson if he sees a problem with claiming that society is the reason why there are differences between male and female athletes.

Tyson responded that women might have an advantage in long-distance swimming, which Maher conceded, before remarking that Tyson is “part of the problem.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett