does he really do much pontificating? I’ve generally just seen him as someone that communicates upper high school, lower college level concepts in ways that are fairly understandable for those with little science background.

I mean yeah he comes off as a smug asshole in the process, but to my knowledge I’ve never seen him really pontificating on say the bleeding edge of what fields he’s not in can do. Though maybe that’s just something I’ve missed seeing him do.