In this very special episode, Dave talks to the daughter of the man he likes to call "the patron saint of Blue Dot," Carl Sagan.
Sasha Sagan was only 14 when her father passed away in 1996 and his loss is central to the theme of her new book For Small Creatures Such As We: Rituals for Finding Meaning in Our Unlikely World.
Part love letter to her parents, the late astronomer and his partner in the creation of many books and the Cosmos TV series, Ann Druyan, and a guide to how rituals create meaning and structure in our lives, the book is a must-read for anyone familiar with the Sagan-Druyan enterprise.
It's also a valuable read for anyone looking to use rituals great and small, from socializing with friends to life's most poignant moments: birth, marriage, and death. Sasha Sagan's deep examination of how other cultures past and present have made rituals central to their belief systems make her points even more universal.
