Ann Druyan: First Lady of the Cosmos!
Ann Druyan is my guest on this episode of INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE. An award-winning and prolific writer and producer, we discuss her life with Carl Sagan and the continuation of the Cosmos legacy.
Click here to enter a contest to win a copy of COSMOS: Possible Worlds
Ann is also mother to Sasha Sagan, a recent guest on the podcast. Our first parent/child duo on the show! Both discussed how Carl Sagan lives on, in terms of his scientific impact, the love he had for his family, and his passion for sharing science with the masses.
And what a legacy Ann has made for herself as well. In addition to her award-winning writing and directing, she has an asteroid named after her, 4970 Druyan (which is in companion orbit with asteroid 2709 Sagan).
Her brain waves were recorded onto Voyager’s golden record that is traveling outside our solar system. In fact, she is the first guest on INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE who can say she already has a billion year time capsule in response to my standard question about monoliths! Five billion years, in fact, as that’s how long the golden record was designed to last.
Ann’s remarkable career communicating science is an inspiration, especially when you consider how male dominated science and science communication has been historically (and still struggles with today). As she tells it: “I came of age in a time when I didn’t even get to finish a sentence. When the primary form of entertainment was the humor of how stupid women were. To come to a time in which I feel like I have been given opportunities to communicate, to be heard, is another thing that gives me so much hope. To feel that much progress since my childhood, that’s another thing that gives me the energy to do this.”
We all suffer when diverse minds and voices are silenced. Ann relates another lesson from Carl Sagan: “He used to say, ‘When you’re in love you want to tell the world.’ That’s how he felt about the revelations of science. He wanted everyone to have a chance to experience that soaring feeling.”
Ann has lived an enviable life and is remarkably generous about sharing the inspiration and hope that has given her. “Just imagine what it would be like to spend every day and night for nineteen and half years with Carl Sagan and be able to ask him any question that occurred to you,” she says.
Teaching and mentorship are an act of love, and it was fascinating to hear more about Carl’s scientific mentors, Harold Urey (who helped found the chemistry department at UCSD) and Gerard Kuiper (the father of modern planetary science). Ann tells of how Kuiper’s father buying him his first telescope sparked his curiosity, a story that sounds familiar to my own…
I appreciate Ann’s thoughtful answer to my question about religion and her beliefs. Like the true science communication expert that she is, she uses words like confirmation bias and false pattern recognition in her answer about faith. One of the many wise words she has on the topic: “I don’t question the importance and the magnificence of nature.”
Thanks to Ann for her time and for bringing her energy and hope to us all here on the INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE podcast.
The new series Cosmos: Possible Worlds begins in September. Ann, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and others will be on a Comic Con panel to discuss it. Held virtually this year, the convention is open and free to all. The panel will debut Saturday, July 25 at 10am here: https://youtu.be/YY-bSJAn3dQ
Buy Druyan’s latest book “Cosmos: Possible Worlds,” a companion piece to the new series.
Watch Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014) on Disney+
Watch Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980) on YouTube
See what else was included on Voyager’s golden record.
Find Brian Keating on Twitter @DrBrianKeating and YouTube
Please subscribe, rate, and review the INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE Podcast on iTunes for a chance to win a copy of Ann’s book: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-impossible/id1169885840?mt=2
Ann Druyan is an Emmy and Peabody award-winning writer and producer. She co-created and wrote the 1980 TV series Cosmos with Carl Sagan, whom she later married. She also co-created, wrote, produced, and directed the follow up series, 2014’s Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey and 2020’s Cosmos: Possible Worlds. She was also creative director for NASA’s Voyager Interstellar Message Project and her brain waves are part of the golden record that has traveled outside our solar system.
