Behold an Interstellar Mixtape

Mixtapes have long been a medium of romantic advancement. A way generations of bourgeoning couples could shyly communicate through the words or music of others. This short piece from Radiolab explains a mixtape of truly global proportions and the accidental romance that grew from it.

In 1977 NASA sent to two Voyager satellites into orbit and commissioned a record plotting our human existence through audio. The hope was to communicate Earth’s diversity of civilization to extraterrestrials. The project was called The Golden Record and here the creative director Ann Druyan explains the story that surrounds it.