S5.02 Breeding better humans: Exposing the dark legacy and troubling present of eugenics
Hello, and welcome to Genetics Unzipped - the Genetics Society podcast, with me, Dr Kat Arney. In this episode we sit down with geneticist and author Adam Rutherford for a chat about his new book, Control, which explores the darkest side of genetics - the horrific legacy of eugenics, which still persists even today.
As an undergraduate studying genetics at UCL, Adam Rutherford sat in the Galton Lecture theatre - named after Francis Galton, Charles Darwin’s half cousin - listening to the leading lights of the field expound on the joys of genes. And some of them didn’t shirk from pointing out the connection between the theatre’s namesake and the darkest legacy of genetics: the eugenics movement.
Today, as an honorary senior research associate at UCL, Adam continues to dig into the history of genetic, race science and eugenics in his teaching and his writing, including his most recent book, Control: The Dark History and Troubling Present of Eugenics, which comes out on February 3rd.
We’ve previously talked about Galton and eugenics back in our first series in the episode Sex and Death, which we reposted recently on the feed, so I was keen to sit down with Adam for an in-depth chat about the story of the eugenics movement, from its early days at UCL through to its present manifestation in policies such as enforced sterilisation. It’s a tough topic, so why did he want to get stuck in to such a thorny and distressing subject?
Click here to find out more about what Adam has to say…
That’s all for now. Thanks to Adam Rutherford for chatting with me. His latest book, Control: The Dark History and Troubling Present of Eugenics is out on February 3rd, wherever books are sold.
We’ll be back next time taking a look at the life and work of Scottish biologist D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson - one of the first scientists to bring together the fields of mathematics and biology.
For more information about this podcast including show notes, transcripts, links, references, music credits and everything else head over to geneticsunzipped.com You can find us on Twitter @geneticsunzip and please do take a moment to rate and review us on Apple podcasts - it really makes a difference and helps more people discover the show.
Genetics Unzipped is written and presented by me, Kat Arney. It is produced by First Create the Media for The Genetics Society - one of the oldest learned societies in the world dedicated to supporting and promoting the research, teaching and application of genetics. You can find out more and apply to join at genetics.org.uk. Our theme music was composed by Dan Pollard, and the logo was designed by James Mayall, and audio production was by Hannah Varrall. Thanks for listening, and until next time, goodbye.
Image credits:
Sir Francis Galton painted by Charles Wellington Furse, via Wikimedia Commons
