You dedicated ‘The Heart’s Knowledge’ to Ann, the creative director of NASA’s Voyager Interstellar Message Project. Can you tell us about your relationship with her?
I heard the Golden Record for the first time when I was seven. I was home sick from school, and Voyager was just marking five years of flight. It was approaching Saturn. By coincidence, I caught a program on TV, saying that NASA had released a 1-800 number to the public, where you could call in to hear sounds of space. In my little boy brain, sick with a terrible cold, I completely misunderstood this announcement as meaning that we made contact with aliens. In my enthusiasm, I wanted to call that number. When I did, I heard static. This confused me because I didn’t understand why aliens would send static. This deeply affected me for most of my life. I harbored curiosity about the mystery of this recording for years.
Everything on the Golden Record is an attempt to be clear — to clearly communicate the experience of life on Earth to future extraterrestrials who might find it one day. The static was an anomaly compared to the rest of the record. Why in the world was their static on board?
Fast forward to 30 years later, I appeared on the same episode as Ann on “Radiolab.” I was on a different segment, so I didn’t realize she was on the show until I listened to the episode. During the interview, she publicly revealed the story behind the static. She recorded her brainwaves while thinking about her love for Carl, wondering if aliens might one day be able to interpret her brainwaves to read her mind. Hearing this was one of the most profound moments in my life. I wanted to know more, and it led to this whole project. One question it inspired me to ask was: ‘What does one gift to the only woman whose heart has left the solar system?’ I worked for 10 years on this question, and this show is the answer.
While examining the history of the heart, you also looked forward to the future of…