‘Lost’ lecture by Carl Sagan released in honor of his birthday

Nov. 9 would have been Carl Sagan’s 84th birthday. Cornell’s Carl Sagan Institute is honoring the day by releasing the “lost” lecture Sagan gave in 1994 at the symposium in honor of his 60th birthday, “The Age of Exploration.” Anne Druyan referred to the lecture as her late husband’s “finest talk” during Cornell’s 2017 celebration of the Voyager mission’s 40th anniversary.

Linda Mikula, of University Relations, got a request from TED.com for an interesting talk by Carl Sagan. In her search, she happened upon an archived Sony Betacam tape that turned out to have Sagan’s “lost” 1994 lecture on it. She brought the recording to the attention of the Carl Sagan Institute, which partnered with Cornell Broadcast Studios to edit the raw footage.

“I never had the opportunity to meet Carl Sagan, but watching the lost lecture I am there with him. And his vision is inspiring,” said Lisa Kaltenegger, associate professor of astronomy and director of the Carl Sagan Institute.

The lecture is now available on the Carl Sagan Institute YouTube channel.

This article also appeared in the Cornell Chronicle.