The lost Carl Sagan lecture 'Science and Civil Liberties' was discovered and edited by Steven Pinker and Harvey Silverglate and appeared in Quillette's 2022 Editors' Choice.

TRUE: Quillette published Carl Sagan's lecture 'Science and Civil Liberties', credited as discovered/found and edited by Steven Pinker and Harvey Silverglate, and the piece was included in Quillette's 2022 Editors' Choice (or equivalently named year-end selection). MOSTLY TRUE: both facts hold but with a minor detail off, e.g. a slightly different title or a credit that also names another person. MIXED: one of the two parts holds (the Pinker/Silverglate discovery and editing, or the 2022 Editors' Choice listing) and the other does not. MOSTLY FALSE: the lecture appeared, but Pinker and Silverglate are not credited with discovering or editing it, and it was not in the Editors' Choice. FALSE: no such lecture was published as described.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Quillette Editors’ Choice of 2022 Quillette · 24 December 2022

   “In this lecture, Carl Sagan reaffirms the virtues that enable us to get onto the right path when we find ourselves lost.”

2. E2 Science and Civil Liberties: The Lost ACLU Lecture of... Quillette · 1 July 2022 Own record

   “We were fortunate to obtain a recording of that lecture, which we have transcribed, lightly edited, and annotated to update its historical allusions and contemporary relevance.”

3. E3 Science and Civil Liberties: The Lost ACLU Lecture of... Quillette · 1 July 2022 Own record

   “The two of us, a cognitive scientist and a civil liberties lawyer, are presenting this lecture to the public at a time when Sagan’s insights are needed even more urgently than they were when originally expressed.”

4. E4 Ann Druyan wishes you a happy Sagan Day The Planetary Society · 9 November 2022

   “you have recently given permission to Steven Pinker and Harvey Silverglate and Skeptical Inquirer, the magazine, to print a transcript of a speech that Carl delivered to a meeting of the American Civil Liberties Union in the mid-'80s.”

Quillette published "Science and Civil Liberties: The Lost ACLU Lecture of..." on 2022-07-01. In it, two presenters, a cognitive scientist and a civil liberties lawyer, say they obtained a recording of the lecture, transcribed it and lightly edited it (E2, E3). In an independent Planetary Society interview, Ann Druyan is told she gave Steven Pinker, Harvey Silverglate and Skeptical Inquirer permission to print a transcript of Sagan's mid-1980s ACLU speech (E4), which links the two men to the lecture. Quillette's Editors' Choice of 2022, published 2022-12-24, includes a Sagan lecture (E1). The evidence largely supports both parts of the claim, though the Editors' Choice quote does not name the lecture, the presenters are linked to Pinker and Silverglate only indirectly, and the article says the recording was "obtained" rather than "discovered".