Neil deGrasse Tyson sits down for a conversation about his path into astrophysics and his view of science's place in public life, recorded for the Science Network. He talks through his work as director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York and his research on the Milky Way, star formation, and dwarf galaxies, then moves into his time in Washington: a twelve-member commission on the future of the US aerospace industry under President Bush in 2001, and a nine-member commission on implementing national space exploration policy in 2004. Tyson also discusses his role as host of PBS's NOVA ScienceNow and his radio show StarTalk, co-hosted with comedian Lynne Koplitz, as vehicles for explaining research to people outside the field. The format is plain conversation rather than illustrated documentary, so the interest here is entirely in what Tyson says about bridging federal science policy and popular science communication, and why he thinks that bridge matters.