With the rise in consumer DNA tests and online genealogy, people might soon have a pretty good idea where their families came from for generations. But are we putting too much faith in DNA? Can our genetic ancestry really tell us anything about ourselves? And what happens when DNA databases become playgrounds for true crime sleuths?

Guests:

Carl Zimmer, science journalist and author of She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions and Potential of Heredity

Kristen V. Brown, biotechnology reporter at Bloomberg

Kim Tallbear, author of Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science

Clan_McCrimmon, moderator of the Lyle Stevik subreddit 

Colleen Fitzpatrick and Margaret Press, cofounders of DNA Doe

Kelly Hills, cofounder of Rogue Bioethics

Further Reading:

She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions and Potential of Heredity

Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science

The Garden of Invention: Luther Burbank and the Business of Breeding Plants

In an Age of Gene Editing and Surrogacy, What Does Heredity Mean?

How DNA Testing Botched My Family's Heritage, and Probably Yours, Too

DNA testing is like the 'Wild West'; should it be more tightly regulated?

DNA test kits: Consider the privacy implications

The ingenious and ‘dystopian’ DNA technique police used to hunt the ‘Golden State Killer’ suspect

The Strange Case of the Man With No Name

Web Sleuths: Lyle Stevik

Reddit: Lyle Stevik

GED Match

Active DNA Doe Cases

DNA Doe Lyle Stevik Press Release 

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