It would be interesting to hear Sagan’s opinion on how science has been perverted by politics and on the attempt to silence critics of the main media’s bias as far as climate change and the COVID disaster. I wonder if he would fall in line with Neil Tyson ,Lawrence Krauss , and others or would he be outraged at the “suppression of contrary opinions “ (his words) that indicate a very unhealthy trajectory for the future of science.
Well, if you know anything about Sagan, you know that he was a great champion of free inquiry, and that he loathed any mechanism which sought to suppress it. The problem in America is that not enough kids were, or are exposed to champions of science and critical thinking like Sagan. In fact, concomitant with the original airing of "Cosmos," Reagan was busy dismantling America's public education system, thereby helping to pave a path toward anti-intellectualism, anti-free inquiry, and demagoguery.
I very much enjoyed Carl Sagan's talks and especially his series Cosmos. Marking the ten year anniversary of his death, his wife Ann Druyan wrote one of the most beautiful letters to him. It was a loving letter, written from the perceptive of an astrophysicist and amazing in my opinion. The following is an excerpt: “Ten long trips around the sun since I last saw that smile, but only joy and thankfulness that on a tiny world in the vastness, for a couple of moments in the immensity of time, we were one.”
I have all the original Cosmos shows on VHS... I taped them off PBS (WHYY Channel 12) in 1980. I was totally fascinated with this show and Carl Sagan back then... I was 13 years old. That show came out at the most perfect time in my life and opened my mind.
This is what I loved about Carson. He was not only a brilliant comedian, but also incredibly intelligent. He was an amateur astronomer with several telescopes. The closest of today's late night talk hosts would have to be Stephen Colbert, who regularly has scientists on his show.
Such a sober conversation between adults without the constant penchant for innuendos, cheap jokes, distracting audience claps and laughter every alternate sentence. They also don't seem to want to try and one up each other. I now know why my grandparents and parents say, "Back in the good old days." Where did we take that misstep?
One thing I loved so much about the man and his books and Cosmos was not that they taught things and provided information about things, but that it makes one ask, "But, what about," or "But, what if...", causing one to, hopefully, ponder and think on their own.
I don't think I was really a "person" until I experienced Cosmos on PBS. Carl showed me that being curious about the "big stuff" wasn't wrong or weird. A truly beautiful person. Oh! And MANY thanks for leaving the commercials in - that was a REAL treat for an old Boomer like me.
This interview gives a precious glimpse of Sagan just prior to the release of Cosmos...thank you Johnny and thank you so much for posting this! 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 I was there watching Cosmos when it debuted and Carl inspired me to pursue a career in science that i continue with today. God bless his memory and legacy 🙏🏻
It was so great to see Carl Sagan on the tonight show. because Carl Sagan and Johnny Carson both had the same backgrounds in education. so they could carry on long highly intellectual conversations. and the bonus was the audience and the veiwers at home. would get an educational lesson and not even know it. such a shame that doesn't happen today.
This was network television, ca. 1979. What I like about Johnny Carson is that he is just one mic and a suit away from being a representative human of his era, and clearly there were still a lot of humans who were actually attracted to knowledge and ideas for their own sake, not because the subject could be packaged as STEM or pointed to new ways to make a fortune. For lack of a better phrase, these were two guys talking. I wish I could have been there. It should also be noted that Carson minored in physics at Nebraska UNL.
@@TheRealGnolti So you were a young boy during this era of the show? I'm considerably younger than you, so I want your perspective on how culture has changed. Have we lost civility since these times?
@@Karemaker Yes, I would have been a kid, probably old enough to understand some of the above clip without paying attention to all of it. I don't know how old you are, but I distinctly remember when there was a reasonably homogeneous set of civil norms among people, perhaps because there were only one or two ways of interacting with another person, by face or by phone (and the latter was basically an extension of the former). With the internet, and wireless media in general, you've had a Cambrian explosion of interactive mediums, and a fractured set of norms. The other factor has been political dialogue. In the 1990s, certain politicians upped the ante on confrontational rhetoric, which was adopted and exploited for talk radio. I remember this period distinctly. A society that can no longer debate critical social issues at a representational level will no longer be able to do it among individuals. I'm not sure a Carl Sagan could emerge today--the climate is inhospitable.
@@TheRealGnolti Thank you so much for this insight. I really appreciate your reply. I hope that one day we will have established the same civility in our online communication as we do in our face-to-face communication. I can even notice the difference when speaking to generations who grew up before the advent of online communication. They seems to more often act as though they would in real life. In other words, it's so commonplace to be insulted and berated here online, but does it happen while you are out and about in your local town? Not at all (Or I hope not, lol).
Kream Machine thanks for this post. Sagan was always one of Carson's favorite guests and when The Tonight Show was in its full 90 minute configuration there was more time to discuss more profound topics like those here. I also truly enjoyed the long musical interludes when coming back from commercials when you could hear the amazing Tonight Show band in all its glory. Carl Sagan was and will always be a hero of mine and it is so great that he can be seen on RU-vid like this.
Johnny Carson had a mean side (or so it seemed to me in his treatment of some of his colleagues) but he also had a thoughtful, serious side, a willingness to give a man like Sagan the attention he deserved. To see these interviews now (I was unable to do so as a child during the 1970s) gives me a new respect for him.
@@RebSike u could always sense it by him trying to hold laughter from something he showed as bad. Incredibly great actor. To see his acting, check him with Uri Gellar. U can see him struggling with a guest like Lucille Ball. There was an episode with him and Buddy Rich where Rich shot every conversation tactic of his down which destroyed the interview, but of course he was kidding and brought it back up with Carson
@@villings I think it's classical conditioning that I'm taught directly or indirectly if I see a clip like this I'm supposed to feel nostalgic. I mean if you show patriotic songs to isolated tribal people they probably wouldn't feel patriotic, to them those are just weird exotic music.
This was where "billions and billions" was coined. When asked about it, Carl Sagan admitted in one of his lecture's Q&As that it was Johnny Carson who actually said it, not him.
Carl Sagan will not punish you for discursiveness. Neil Degrasse Tyson will! This is what kept Johnny asking questions, Carl Sagan was not just a profoundly good man but a profoundly smart man who could turn lead to gold. Penny for your thoughts :)
Agreed! Mr Sagan was a unique combination of intelligence, persona and was extremely well spoken! Aspects of a great teacher! The world needs more like him! Easy to listen to, even for the novice!😁
I remember my whole family sitting down to watch Cosmos every week. I have the DVDs of the original series and still love to watch it. Now my grandson has discovered the music from Cosmos and was asking me about the series just a few days ago!
Great stuff. I think the podcast movement is bringing back this kind of relaxed, teased out, style that has been replaced with mainstream media’s dogma and hyperbole.
So funny how he "hoped" that people would end up seeing Cosmos even though it was on PBS. It turned out to probably be the most-watched science program ever.
Carl Edward Sagan (Nueva York, 9 de noviembre de 1934-Seattle, 20 de diciembre de 1996) fue un astrónomo, astrofísico, cosmólogo, astrobiólogo, escritor y divulgador científico estadounidense. Inicialmente fue profesor asociado de la Universidad de Harvard y posteriormente profesor principal de la Universidad de Cornell. En esta última, fue el primer científico en ocupar la Cátedra David Duncan de Astronomía y Ciencias del Espacio, creada en 1976, y además director del Laboratorio de Estudios Planetarios.
got here from an article about solar sails. The problem I see with going outside our solar system with them is that there won't be any sun to power the sails, the next source of power would still be so far away the spacecraft would be in total black nothingness, dead.
@@anikdey “It never ceases to amaze me how prosaic, pedestrian, unimaginative people can persistently pontificate about classical grammatical structure as though it's fucking rocket science. These must be the same people who hate Picasso, because he couldn't keep the paint inside the lines and the colors never matched the numbers.” ― Abbe Diaz
@@anikdey lol, I am an English teacher, that's why I stick up for non-English speakers writing in their second or third language other than English. Didn't want to offend you (!), just a gentle nudge. All is good.
@@anikdey It's not fair to say Neanderthals were babbling and drooling, and as a European I have at least 2-3% Neanderthal DNA! All valid points you raise, although I think rules are everywhere and it is difficult to escape these rules. Rules are meant to be broken, and breaking them is often experimental in the first place. Babies don't abide by language rules specifically, it takes experimentation, much the same as a second language learner, to become better. But enforcing rules is akin to a classical musician performing, we often expect no mistakes, whereas we should treat language more like jazz. There are no mistakes on the bandstand, only new opportunities. I would rather promote Jackson Pollock than Picasso, as I think he broke art apart more than Pico, breaking more rules. But, liked reading your thoughts very much, just busy enforcing rules at school!
The good old days then intelligence was still valued in mainstream television. It's hard to imagine having this kind of discussion in any modern talk show in mainstream television. This is just another example of idiolution in progress.
As people continue to sell out the natural world and their own future for a quick buck, I long for Carl Sagan's calm rational voice based in science inviting us to live up to our own intelligence. Miss you Carl
Johnny always made fun of Carl Sagan by saying "Billions & Billions" as though Carl had ever said that but he denied ever saying that on his show. It turns out, it was a quote from Johnny Carson himself. Listen at 11:50 and see for yourself. BTW, Johnny was an avid amateur astronomer himself and truly loved his visits with Carl Sagan.
I'm just imaging how this interview would go today with let say, Jimmy Kimmel. Now I'm not gonna say he's a bad late night host. In fact he's a pretty funny guy himself. But that's the thing - it's always about HIM. He'll always try to be the focus of attention and makes a joke every 30 seconds. Carl's monologues wouldn't be as free flowing as they are with Johnny Carson, who very smartly times his questioning. Most of all, he really seems to care about this stuff. I guess Stephen Colbert would be one of the few people today who might properly handle these sort of interactions.
Colbert has the magic now. It seems like business has ruined everything. Everything has to do with attention span. Everything is noisy. Cavett, Griffin, Paar, Carson, all these guys seemed to have the liberty to relax and let the quietness do its thing. Its those little spaces.
This show was great. Espically during the commercial break where the band was playing. You would never see that on today's shows. The only things you will see is stupid lawyers, or some other actor that needs money in their old age like Tom Sellick, Marie Osmond, Joe Nameth selling worthless garbage. CARSON WAS THE BEST compared to the crap that's on today. TODAYS TV IS ALL CRAP. ITS NOTHING BUT WORTHLESS COMMERCIALS.
I don't for one second believe that Schick Ultrex gave more close shaves than Gillette's Trac 2. In fact, they should have done a brand comparison using those bushy 70's muffs.
I would love to build a time machine (that prevents us from aging) and take us all back to the 40's , up to 1999, and then just break the damn thing, so we have to live it over and over in an eternal loop, except on the next run, you have to live the lifetime on someone else's perspective. ...eventually through Ed McMahon, Steve Martin, Carl Sagan, and Johnny Carson's as well.
1 branch led to the dinosaurs but is not our branch...the dude is a fking genious cause he was right we are a new specie on this planet 200k years old , rather young compared to our predecesors that evolved and moved on to other planets or dimensions, the polar bear is from another branch as well a few hundred thousand years before us like 500k older then us or so cayse they are the only beings on this planet that does not share our dna while everithing else starting with the plants have same DNA as we do and they are 200k years old like we are
As humans, like other Great Apes may have risen through evolutionary time, it's a stretch to think it only happened once or at one time leading to today.
16:06 That is interesting the show did this, to give a graphic and pause to feature the music? Very strange in comparison to today. Interesting nonetheless. I wonder why they chose to do this.
I could be wrong but I suspect that in some markets there were commercials being played while the music was going on, and this gives all the stations a chance to come back to the show at the same time. It probably had to do with stations selling their air time. Stations either play their local commercials or they showed the feed of the graphic and the music. I recall the Carson show used to do this a lot, especially in the later part of the show. Remember this was late night TV, audiences were smaller then, and some stations would sign off until the next morning. These days it's all computerized, 24/7.
Now 2023 black hOles are seen. I wish JC & Carl could have seen them. Not billions of galaxies but TRILLIONS we know now...20 Trillion that we can see....so far.
12:45 this is where the religious "believers" feel that god created life on only OUR planet. How egotistical! And to take it one step further. THEIR god is the ONLY REAL god. To all you believers: I hope you picked the right one! Because god is vengeful and will have NO OTHER GODS BEFORE HIM!
Harry. B. Renner. jr. Because God isn’t some cosmic Cop in the sky trying to order us around for his shameless pleasure. Humanity is evil (just look at the World now and throughout history) and if you notice God’s precepts are literally trying to save us from ourselves. “Thou shall not kill”, if we followed that how much better off would we be. “Thou shalt not commit adultery”...how many families have been destroyed because of that one? Drunkenness? How many lives has that one destroyed? If we could just stop and think for a moment about what they mean and their purpose instead of thinking we have all the answers then the human race would be a lot better off. In summary God doesn’t want to boss us around he is trying to save us from our own evil and corrupt desires.
@Harry. B. Renner. jr. OH god... you're and their... completely turned upside down. There aren't ads if you use uBlock Origin Extension in Chrome. And they're not even the same as TV commercials. On TV, it cuts your entire show for 5+ minutes. On the web, it just sits there silently, on the side. And if you have an adblocker, it's not even there.
@Harry. B. Renner. jr. Hmm, I've never heard of it. Not that it means anything if I've heard of it. Is it for mobile? Anyway, for desktop Chrome you want to use uBlock Origin. Last time I checked it was the lightest, and blocks almost every ad. Not sure for mobile, or even if they exist
@Harry. B. Renner. jr. It's different on mobile. You may be getting ads that were implanted there before you bought your phone, by your seller. They make deals with companies to show ads across your entire screen. Depending which country you're from, you're going to get more or less of these. If it's an iPhone you shouldn't be getting them. If it's an android, you may need a better ROM to install. I have no idea how would you get an ad while texting, never happened to me, regardless of the app I was using. So maybe it's because of the app itself. There is no way it's worse then TV, you must either have bad ROM (mobile operiating system) or your apps are some kind of alternative cheap version.
He supposedly said that whilst involved in a project he 'did marijuana' for a time. This heightened his ability to absorb and convey great ideas. Cosmos is an example. So floridly brilliant, so captivating, a vision that remains with you when the light has gone.
@@Roger8176 Some of the More Educated Tend to Experiment with an Array of Drugs Especially Professors, What do you think the Chemistry Professors do with their Knowledge?