The Voyager Golden Record with Riley Swedelius-Smith and Miranda Zickler

American Hysteria

W!ZARD Studios

History, Society & Culture

4.4 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2026

⏱️ 83 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

During the 1970s, a ragtag group led by American astronomer Carl Sagan set out to create and then launch into deep space an audio time capsule of sounds, songs, and messages that would represent the Earth to any intelligent alien life that might come in contact with the crafts they called Voyager I and Voyager 2. For this American Hysteria team episode, assistant producer and sound designer (and my brother) Riley Swedelius-Smith tells producer Miranda Zickler and I about the fascinating process of creating the Voyager Golden Record, how they made the choices they did, and what they felt was important enough, understandable enough to share with hypothetical beings we probably cannot even comprehend. Become a Patron⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to support our show and get early ad-free episodes and bonus content Or subscribe to American Hysteria on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get some of our new merch at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠americanhysteria.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, all profits go to The Sameer Project, a Palestinian-led mutual aid group who are on the ground in Gaza delivering food and supplies to displaced families. Leave us a message on the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Urban Legends Hotline⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Producer and Editor: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Miranda Zickler⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Associate Producer: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Riley Swedelius-Smith⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Additional editing by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Kaylee Jasperson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a present from a small, distant world.
0:07.0	Talking of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts, and our feelings.
0:12.0	We are tempting to survive our time so we may live in yours.
0:16.0	We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations.
0:25.3	During the 1970s, a rag-tag group led by American astronomer Carl Sagan set out to create and then
0:34.4	launch into deep space, an audio time capsule that would represent the
0:39.5	earth to any intelligent alien life that might come in contact with the crafts they called
0:46.3	Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. But how could they fit the expansiveness of the human experience and the messages we wanted to send in sounds, songs, and speeches with only a single records worth of space?
1:03.7	For this American Hysteria Team episode, Assistant producer and sound designer Riley Swedellius Smith tells producer Miranda
1:13.7	Zickler and I about the fascinating process of creating the Voyager Golden Record,
1:20.5	how and why they made the choices they did, and what they felt was important enough,
1:26.1	understandable enough, to share with hypothetical beings
1:30.3	we probably cannot even comprehend.
1:34.3	I'm your host, Chelsea Weber Smith, and this is American Hysteria.
1:55.1	I am so excited to blast into space with my two American hysteria teammates and family members.
1:59.9	Riley, Swedelia Smith, who is here to bring us a story.
2:03.1	And of course, our producer, Miranda Zickler.
2:04.7	Welcome to you both.
2:05.4	Hello.
2:06.5	Hello.
2:08.6	Thanks for having me back.
2:11.9	Very excited to be here, as always.
	...

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