Sagan's book Cosmos and the television show of the same name played a big role in sparking my interest in science, and I suspect that it did the same for many others.

If you do a Medium search on "Carl Sagan's Infinite Fractal Vision:...", you will find a brief discussion (May 14, 2020) of his influence on my thinking about alternative cosmological paradigms.

We need more scientists like Sagan who combined a healthy scientific skepticism with a very open mind and a recognition of the major importance of imagination in scientific progress. The latter was also emphasized by Einstein.