Sasha Sagan, For Small Creatures Such As We: Rituals for Finding Meaning in Our Unlikely World

Sasha Sagan joins Tayo in the Study today in advance of her appearance in North Dakota for an upcoming Brave Conversations events. What is the basis of our beliefs? Outside of a particular religious tradition, how can we mark the passages and shared experiences in our lives? How might the truths and wonders science reveals serve as the basis for communal, familial, and individual rituals and worthy moments of celebration? What's at stake in saying we don't know? What if this earthly world is the only one there is?

Sasha Sagan is a native of Ithaca, New York and a graduate of NYU. She has worked as a television producer, filmmaker, writer, and speaker in the U.S. and abroad. Her essays and interviews on death, history, and ritual through a secular lens have appeared in The Cut, O, the Oprah Magazine, Literary Hub, Atmos and beyond. She is a contributing editor for the British fashion magazine Violet Book. Sasha regularly speaks on ways science can inform our celebrations and how we mark the passage of time, inspired in part by the work of her parents, Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan. Sasha is the author of For Small Creatures Such As We: Rituals for Finding Meaning in Our Unlikely World, an exploration of the marvels of nature, as revealed by science, which require no faith in order to be believed. The book is an exercise in skepticism without cynicism, told through memoir and social history. Kirkus Reviews called it “Profound, elegantly written ruminations on the exquisite splendors of life.” She lives in Boston, Massachusetts with her husband and daughter. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram @SashaSagan.

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