#78 – Ann Druyan: Cosmos, Carl Sagan, Voyager, and the Beauty of Science

Ann Druyan is the writer, producer, director, and one of the most
important and impactful communicators of science in our time. She
co-wrote the 1980 science documentary series Cosmos hosted by Carl
Sagan, whom she married in 1981, and her love for whom, with the
help of NASA, was recorded as brain waves on a golden record along
with other things our civilization has to offer and launched into
space on the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft that are now, 42
years later, still active, reaching out farther into deep space
than any human-made object ever has. This was a profound and
beautiful decision she made as a Creative Director of NASA's
Voyager Interstellar Message Project. In 2014, she went on to
create the second season of Cosmos, called Cosmos: A Spacetime
Odyssey, and in 2020, the new third season called Cosmos: Possible
Worlds, which is being released this upcoming Monday, March 9. It
is hosted, once again, by the fun and brilliant Neil deGrasse
Tyson. EPISODE LINKS: Cosmos Twitter:
https://twitter.com/COSMOSonTV Cosmos Website:
https://fox.tv/CosmosOnTV This conversation is part of the
Artificial Intelligence podcast. If you would like to get more
information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or
connect with @lexfridman on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, or
YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these
conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on
Apple Podcasts, follow on Spotify, or support it on Patreon. This
episode is presented by Cash App. Download it (App Store, Google
Play), use code "LexPodcast".  Here's the outline of the
episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the
timestamp to jump to that time. OUTLINE: 00:00 - Introduction 03:24
- Role of science in society 07:04 - Love and science 09:07 -
Skepticism in science 14:15 - Voyager, Carl Sagan, and the Golden
Record 36:41 - Cosmos 53:22 - Existential threats 1:00:36 - Origin
of life 1:04:22 - Mortality