Chapters:
0:00 On DNA . . .
10:45 The human mosaic: We’re all cousins
20:25 Days of COVID - A scientist looks inward
30:05 Lab leak? The issue of biosecurity
43:52 Why do we humans resist knowledge?
52:15 Ancestry and racism
1:02:45 Root is bringing genetic insights for free
1:08:55 Umfeld: Animals and consciousness
Today I’m pleased to welcome a friend to the show, someone who has been a podcast guest of mine many times. For five years we did a monthly show together. Nathan Pearson is the CEO of a genetic testing company, Root. He’s also a brilliant scientist who I admire and respect.
Nathan has been a leading genomicist at the time when next generation sequencers and high powered big data were bringing powerful new and cheap ways of looking at the human genome.
What impact has genomics had on our understanding of who we are as humans? We talk about the pandemic-was it was caused by a lab leak? Nathan is a specialist on ancestry. We talk about race and racism. We end with a disagreement about the minds of animals.
Mostly, it is a fun conversation with one of my favorite people on the planet.
Genomicist Nathan Pearson on Ancestry, Racism, and Animal Minds