Chris Hadfield to launch new science-comedy series, 'It's Not Rocket Science'

What do you do after leading a year-long mission on the International Space Station?

That’s the question Col. Chris Hadfield wrestled with when he returned to Earth after his time spent as the first Canadian Commander of the ISS.

Hadfield and his son, Evan, discussed at length what could possibly live up to the experience of being an astronaut as Chris settled in to retirement.

“Once you’re retired, now what to you do?” Evan Hadfield said to Yahoo Canada. “It’s a pretty big leap to go from astronaut to… well, anything else.”

Chris and Evan have managed to find lots of ways to keep busy – Evan is working with his father on launching an album and book later this year – but one of their latest projects has Evan over the moon.

Starting this fall, Evan will be working with his dad and a small team to launch a YouTube show titled “It’s Not Rocket Science,” a combination of science and comedy that he hopes will appeal to people around the world.

“It’s almost like Bill Nye meets Inspector Gadget,” Evan said. “It’s a comedy science series, with comedy being one of the most important parts.”

But there will be plenty of science too, Evan assures. Each of the ten 3-5 minute episodes will focus on addressing a specific scientific topic that Evan and Chris feel hasn’t been addressed in a satisfactory way up until now.

“There’s an important difference between what we’re doing and what’s being done currently,” Evan said.

“When dad was in space, we had a long discussion about how to talk about science. We noticed people who just tell you things rarely convince you of something.”

He points out that when we read about science in the news and media, there’s often a bias present that tries to convince that something like global warming definitively exists, or absolutely doesn’t exist. The approach of the show is going to focus on presenting all the facts, and letting viewers make educated judgment calls for themselves.

“Instead of saying that people cause climate change, I just want to show them the Aral Sea… It was the fourth largest lake on Earth, and now it’s drained. It has drastically altered that region,"Evan said.

“People went in, did agriculture, and now it’s drained… If you say ‘people cause climate change’ it’ll put them off. So instead we’ll show them the Aral Sea.”

Being able to tell stories the way they want played a role in the Hadfields’ decision to run the show as a YouTube series, rather than shopping it around to Canadian or overseas television networks.

“The world is a very connected place, but commercial interests make it very difficult for that global push to be effective with one post,” Evan said. “If you want to reach everyone on Earth, you can’t put it on… one network. You have to put it available for free online.”

He says that in the past, they’ve had tremendous success with social media (as evidenced by the popularity of Chris Hadfield’s Twitter account) ,and they also appreciate the success of others like ASAP Science or Veritasium in sharing the “gospel of science” on YouTube. In fact, it’s other creators that inspired the team to run a Patreon funding campaign for the show.

Patreon is a relatively new fundraising service designed to connect artists and content creators, including many YouTubers, to a public interested in financially supporting them. Evan said it’s a great platform for all of the creators who aren’t making the two-million-dollar art pieces, but still want to make art that affects the world.

“For us, it’s less about the crowdfunding,” Evan said. “It’s more about being able to interact with our fans and give back to the YouTube community directly and support what we see as the future of science education on YouTube.”

Evan still stresses that despite the important scientific concepts they’ll be exploring, the show will still be big on humour. Proof of that is the starring role awarded to the Hadfield family pug.

“Oh, Albert will feature very prominently in this narrative,” Evan said.

Chris Hadfield and Albert will begin their animated adventure trapped inside a space station this fall.