United States
StarTalk is the media brand built around Neil deGrasse Tyson, the astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium at New York City's American Museum…
Total Followers +0.5%
13.1M
Across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok
Primary Platform
YouTube
5.7M followers · 44% of audience
Engagement
3.2%
vs. 1.5% category median
Sponsorship Tier
Mega
Est. $18K–$42K / IG post
Neil deGrasse Tyson hosted Spielberg and screenwriter David Koepp for a wide-ranging conversation on alien contact and their new film, marking a high-profile Hollywood crossover for the channel.
Tyson is touring U.S. venues with shows themed around 'Search For Life In The Universe' and 'An Astrophysicist Goes To The Movies – Part II', extending StarTalk's reach beyond digital.
The illustrated science book by Tyson and StarTalk senior producer Lindsey Nyx Walker reached NYT bestseller status and is now available in a paperback edition via National Geographic Books.
| Window | YouTube | TikTok | Combined | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Last 7 days | +10K +0.2% | +3K +0.2% | +0 +0.0% | +13K |
| Last 30 days | +50K +0.9% | +10K +0.7% | +0 +0.0% | +60K |
| Last 90 days | +229K +4.0% | +13K +0.9% | +0 +0.0% | +242K |
| Last 365 days | +229K +4.0% | +13K +0.9% | +0 +0.0% | +242K |
Daily follower snapshots from CreatorDB's longitudinal index.
| Brand | Type | Platform | Date | Performance vs. baseline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ground News Sponsorship | Sponsored content | YouTube | May 2026 | — |
| T-Mobile Sponsorship | Sponsored content | YouTube | Apr 2026 | — |
| DeleteMe Sponsorship | Sponsored content | YouTube | Feb 2026 | — |
| Bitdefender Sponsorship | Sponsored content | YouTube | Jan 2026 | — |
| Under Lucky Stars Sponsorship | Sponsored content | YouTube | Jun 2025 | — |
StarTalk is the media brand built around Neil deGrasse Tyson, the astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium at New York City's American Museum of Natural History. The property began as a podcast in 2009 and expanded into a National Geographic television series before building a substantial multi-platform presence on YouTube and TikTok. Its central premise is the collision of rigorous science — astrophysics, cosmology, space exploration, and adjacent fields — with pop culture, comedy, and celebrity conversation. Tyson anchors every episode alongside rotating comic co-hosts and a broad range of guests spanning working scientists and entertainers, a format that deliberately lowers the barrier to entry for science content without sacrificing intellectual substance. Post titles like 'Steven Spielberg Believes in Aliens' and the recurring 'Cosmic Queries' series illustrate how the show balances accessible hooks with genuine scientific discussion.
StarTalk's audience skews heavily male and spans a wide age range, with particular concentration in the 25–44 cohort — a demographic that reflects both the show's intellectual tone and Tyson's long public profile. The channel maintains above-median engagement across platforms, with TikTok performing especially well as short-form clips distill signature Tyson explanations into shareable moments. Sponsorship choices signal a clear audience profile: cybersecurity tools like Bitdefender and DeleteMe, privacy services, and T-Mobile all point to a tech-aware, educated, predominantly anglophone readership concentrated in the US and UK. Under Lucky Stars — a star-naming gift company — is a thematically on-brand outlier that underscores the show's emotional as well as intellectual appeal. As science communication continues to fragment across formats and platforms, StarTalk's combination of an authoritative central figure, an established podcast catalogue, and strong short-form TikTok traction positions it durably at the intersection of entertainment and science education.
StarTalk reaches an audience concentrated in United States primarily through YouTube, and is best activated via long-form YouTube integrations, Instagram Reels and Stories, TikTok branded content. As an education creator they map naturally to brands targeting that space. Demonstrated partners include Ground News and T-Mobile. Engagement on YouTube runs around 3.2%, pointing to an audience suited to category-relevant, mid-funnel brand campaigns rather than pure-reach buys.
Benchmark estimates for a creator at StarTalk's tier (Mega, 13.1M combined followers, United States). Pulled from CreatorDB's category benchmarks.
The CreatorDB Agency runs end-to-end influencer campaigns globally — shortlisting, outreach, contracting, and performance reporting. Talk to our team about building a campaign around creators in this niche.
Neil deGrasse Tyson, one of the most recognized astrophysicists in the world, hosts StarTalk. He leads conversations that blend cutting-edge science with pop culture and humor, joined by rotating comic co-hosts and a mix of celebrity and scientist guests.
Neil deGrasse Tyson serves as the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. StarTalk leads with that title in its own description, using it to anchor the show's scientific credibility alongside its entertainment format.
Cosmic Queries is a recurring StarTalk format where Neil deGrasse Tyson and his co-hosts answer fan-submitted questions about space, physics, and the universe — often without advance preparation. By mid-2026 the series had passed its 111th installment, covering topics from how humanity might reach the Andromeda galaxy to the deep structure of time.
Yes, Steven Spielberg has appeared on StarTalk discussing his genuine belief in extraterrestrial life, a theme woven through his filmmaking career from Close Encounters of the Third Kind to E.T. The conversation is a strong example of StarTalk's formula of pulling major pop-culture figures into substantive scientific discussion.
Neil deGrasse Tyson authored To Infinity and Beyond: A Journey of Cosmic Discovery, which StarTalk features directly in its TikTok bio. The book extends the show's core mission of making astrophysics engaging and approachable for people with no formal science background.
"Keep Looking Up" is StarTalk's signature sign-off and guiding philosophy, used to close episodes and anchor the show's social bios across every platform. It works on two levels — a literal invitation to observe the night sky and a broader call to stay curious about science and the cosmos.
In the StarTalk episode "There Is No AI, Really (It's Just People)," virtual reality pioneer and tech critic Jaron Lanier argued that what we label artificial intelligence is more accurately understood as the aggregated creative and intellectual labor of human contributors. The episode reflects StarTalk's growing reach beyond pure astronomy into technology, philosophy, and the long-term future of humanity.
StarTalk pairs Neil deGrasse Tyson with rotating comic co-hosts, with comedian Chuck Nice being one of the most recognizable recurring voices on the show. The comedy co-host structure is central to StarTalk's identity — it keeps dense scientific material accessible and entertaining for audiences who might tune out a straight lecture.
StarTalk distributes as both a video show across YouTube and TikTok and as an audio podcast, making it one of the more widely accessible science media brands in the United States. The podcast format lets audiences engage with longer episodes during commutes or workouts without needing to watch a screen.
Under Lucky Stars, a star-naming gift service, partnered with StarTalk in 2025 — a sponsorship with obvious thematic logic given the show's focus on astronomy and the night sky. It sits alongside StarTalk's broader sponsor roster of mainstream tech and consumer brands like T-Mobile, Ground News, and Bitdefender, showing the show's range as a commercial platform.
Stats (followers, engagement, audience demographics, growth) are pulled live from the CreatorDB API covering YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Bio and FAQ content is AI-assisted; news items are sourced from cited public press at generation time. Read the full methodology →
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@startalk · YouTube
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