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

Lex introduces Ann Druyan—writer, producer, director, and one of our time's most impactful science communicators. She co-wrote the 1980 Cosmos with Carl Sagan, whom she married in 1981; her brainwaves of love were recorded onto the golden record launched aboard Voyager 1 and 2, still active 42 years later and farther into space than any human object. She created Cosmos's second and third seasons, the latter, Possible Worlds, releasing that Monday, and Lex notes Elon Musk read Sagan's pale-blue-dot words in an earlier episode.

After the show's usual appeals and a Cash App sponsor read touching on the PCI data-security standard, Lex turns to the conversation.

Asked about science's role, Druyan quotes Einstein at the 1939 World's Fair: science must penetrate everyone's consciousness as art has. In a high-technology civilization aspiring to democracy, she argues, the public must understand the values, methods, and rules of science as informed decision-makers—prompting Lex to ask about the beauty and mystery beyond technology.

For Druyan, science is spiritually uplifting: the collective revelations of countless generations are her greatest joy because they relate to love. Real love is seeing the other unflinchingly and accepting it—so knowing the universe as it is, is the purest love. Our little knowledge is humbling yet inspiring, because, like Socrates, knowing you know little is real knowledge, and love and science both always want to go deeper, never content.

Love is seeing, unflinching the other and accepting with all your heart.