{"cache":{"posts_f30bc_a1fbc":{"__typename":"RootQueryToPostConnection","nodes":[{"__typename":"Post","id":"cG9zdDoyNjUyMg==","databaseId":26522,"featuredImage":{"__typename":"NodeWithFeaturedImageToMediaItemConnectionEdge","node":{"__typename":"MediaItem","id":"cG9zdDoyNjUyNQ==","altText":"","mediaDetails":{"__typename":"MediaDetails","width":1200,"height":368},"sourceUrl_772ce_bf21a":"https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Anne-John-Legend-Baratunde-Wide-1.jpg","mediaItemUrl":"https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Anne-John-Legend-Baratunde-Wide-1.jpg","title_b28e9_bf21a":"Anne, John Legend, Baratunde Wide"}},"author":null,"date":"2018-09-14T08:45:37","uri":"/articles/the-podcast-spit","title_b28e9_bf21a":"The Podcast Spit","slug":"the-podcast-spit","categories_3cd3e_bf21a":{"__typename":"PostToCategoryConnection","edges":[{"__typename":"PostToCategoryConnectionEdge","node":{"__typename":"Category","id":"dGVybTo5","name":"News","uri":"/category/news","seo":{"__typename":"TaxonomySEO","title":"Health + Traits Archives - 23andMe Blog","opengraphTitle":"Health + Traits Archives","metaDesc":"23andMe's Health + Ancestry Service gives you personalized genetic insights and tools that can help make it easier for you to take action on your health.","opengraphDescription":"23andMe's Health + Ancestry Service gives you personalized genetic insights and tools that can help make it easier for you to take action on your health.","fullHead":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n"},"slug":"news"}}]},"imageOptions":{"__typename":"Post_Imageoptions","featuredImageSquare":{"__typename":"MediaItem","id":"cG9zdDoyNjUxNg==","mediaDetails":{"__typename":"MediaDetails","sizes_cad4b_bf21a":[{"__typename":"MediaSize","sourceUrl":"https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/zoFTw-150x150.png","name":"thumbnail"},{"__typename":"MediaSize","sourceUrl":"https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/zoFTw-300x168.png","name":"medium"},{"__typename":"MediaSize","sourceUrl":"https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/zoFTw-271x271.png","name":"square_sm"},{"__typename":"MediaSize","sourceUrl":"https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/zoFTw-372x286.png","name":"square_md"},{"__typename":"MediaSize","sourceUrl":"https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/zoFTw-271x149.png","name":"wide_sm"},{"__typename":"MediaSize","sourceUrl":"https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/zoFTw-372x204.png","name":"wide_md"}],"height":286,"width":512},"mediaItemUrl":"https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/zoFTw.png","sourceUrl_772ce_bf21a":"https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/zoFTw.png"},"singleTemplateFeaturedImage":null},"content_b28e9_bf21a":"

Spit, iHeartRadio’s newest Podcast with 23andMe is among the top podcasts for a reason.

$\"\"$

Anne Wojicicki, John Legend and Baratunde Thurston in conversation for the podcast Spit.

Hosted by the writer, comedian and cultural critic, Baratunde Thurston, the four episodes so far offer unscripted conversations with an eclectic mix of artists, scientists, and thinkers, on how DNA testing is changing perspectives about identity, family, and race.

Listening to Spit feels a bit like eavesdropping on frank intimate conversations. Whether it’s John Legend talking with 23andMe CEO and co-founder Anne Wojcicki about his ancestors who were slaves, or Fall Out Boy singer Pete Wentz speaking with Dr. Robert Green of the Broad Institute, whether genetics is deterministic, the themes are wide-ranging and fascinating.

“Genetics is wild and interesting,” Wentz said during his free-flowing conversation with Dr. Green.

$\"\"$

Pete Wentz talking with Baratunde Thurston for the Podcast – Spit 2018. Photo: Katherine Tyler, for iHeart Radio

Growing up in Middle America, Wentz, whose family originally came from Jamaica and has mixed Portuguese and Jewish roots, said he grew up feeling like “a mutt.” Learning more about his DNA would offer him a chance to explore his family’s origins.

“Since we have this technology why wouldn’t you want to find out?” Wentz said.

As a new parent, Wentz also was curious about the health side of testing and what a person could learn about risks or traits that they might pass on to their children.

People are empowered by the notion that they can learn about risk, said Dr. Green. But he added that there is a certain irony about genetic testing in that many go into this believing that genetics is somehow deterministic, but it’s not.

From his research, Green said one of the biggest comprehension hurdles for people in thinking about genetics is what risk and probability mean.

“That’s the change I see,” he said. “Removing the thinking that ‘you will get this’ to ‘you have a slightly higher or lower probability of getting this.’”

These kinds of surprises popped up in each of the podcasts.

$\"\"$

During the conversation between singer Melissa Etheridge, who has several adopted children, and filmmaker Sarah Lamm, who just completed a film following her search for her sperm donor father, the two talked about family, and what that means.

“I think we’re going through this on a worldwide thing, this sort of blood idea, of blood and family, and mine and my tribe, and how that’s being blown apart by stuff like this,” said Etheridge. “The truth is family is family. You can make family. Family is love, that’s the bond we have. Blood is a whole other story. It’s interesting, it’s great, but it’s a whole thing.”

DNA testing can trigger all sorts of conversations, said Tracy Keim, 23andMe’s vice president of consumer marketing and brand.

“Topics like family, identity, race, and how we’re connected with the rest of the world are all influenced by DNA,” she said.

Last month we wrote about the interesting conversation on race between the singer Wyclef Jean and Northwestern University professor Alvin Tillery. Tillery shared his own harrowing story of surviving a lynching attempt as a 9 year-old in New Jersey in the 1980s. Working with 23andMe on a recent survey, Tillery is looking specifically at how DNA testing is impacting people’s perceptions of race. One f

$\"\"$

Baratunde Thurston (left), Wyclef Jean and Al Tillery. Photo: Rachel Kaplan

inding from the study is that people have a much more nuanced understanding of race than Tillery thought they would.

Wyclef’s takeaway was that the science of DNA could help bring people together by emphasizing how much they have in common — humans are 99.5 percent similar genetically.

“We have so much more in common than you could even imagine,” he said.

We encourage you to have a listen to iHeartRadio’s Spit, with 23andMe. Below are the four episodes so far. There will be more to come.

Episode 1: How Are We All Related, with John Legend and Anne Wojcicki
Episode 2: Does Race Really Exist Or Did We Create It, with Wyclef Jean and Alvin Tillery
Episode 3: What Does It Mean to Be “Family,” with Melissa Etheridge and Sara Lamm
Episode 4: How can science change the stories we’ve grown up with? Exploring Identity, with Pete Wentz and Dr. Green.

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One of the few issues a majority of Americans agree on is that race relations are not getting better — they are getting worse, according to a new survey on attitudes about race and genetics done in a collaboration between researchers at 23andMe and Northwestern. But the survey conducted by Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy also captured a promising transformation in thinking about race — a change possibly influenced by young people who no longer identify in binary terms, as well as the advent of at-home DNA testing. $\"\"$

“We’re a hell of a lot better off than I thought we were,” said Al Tillery, Jr, Ph.D., an associate professor and associate chair of Northwestern University’s department of political science who led the study. “What I expected … is that about two-thirds of Americans would believe that race and genetics are tightly bound together. We actually found the opposite. Only about a third of Americans nationally see a strong connection.”

Almost half of Americans said that while your genetics plays a role in determining racial identity, it doesn’t determine it, according to the survey.

The science also supports this nuanced understanding of racial identity. In fact, what we think of as race is largely a “social construct,” not a biological one.

For Prof. Tillery, it was encouraging to see that Americans have absorbed this concept, especially during these divisive times. What the science shows is that genetic differences are not significant enough to support biological definitions of racial categories. That doesn’t mean there are not genetic variations that reflect different ancestral groups, but what people think about when they think about race usually focuses on skin color, which, although heavily influenced by genetics, is controlled by a tiny fraction of our genome. Any two individuals are 99.5 percent genetically similar. While those minuscule differences mark what makes us each unique, focusing on them exclusively may exacerbate social tensions.

Prof. Tillery’s comments on the new survey were part of a broader discussion about race that played out during the second episode of a new iHeart radio podcast “Spit — Conversations on DNA.”

Hosted by the comedian and writer Baratunde Thurston, the podcasts will be discussions with some of the most influential thinkers on the impact of so many people using genetic testing to learn about themselves. Joining Professor Tillery on this second episode was the musician Wyclef Jean. In the first episode, 23andMe’s CEO and Co-Founder Anne Wojiciki joined Baratunde for a wide-ranging and entertaining conversation about genetics on episode one.

But the discussions with Wyclef and Prof Tillery focused on this new survey by Northwestern, a survey that marks new territory. Polls measuring attitudes about race relations, an already contentious subject, are nothing new, but this one is perhaps the first to look at attitudes towards race and genetics. Discussions of race and genetics have a long and troublesome history. One in which the science has been misused for racist purposes.

“I give (23andMe) a lot of credit for just wanting to know,” said Prof. Tillery “They came to me and said, ‘You know about race relations, how can we design a study where we can see what Americans think about the relationship between genetics and race?’”

And the point wasn’t just to look at race and genetics, but also whether testing might be making matters better or worse. Some critics of DNA testing argue that it reinforces perceptions of racial differences. They point to something called “reification theory,” a concept that in this context means DNA testing solidifies people’s definitions of racial categories, making them seem more concrete. But there isn’t much evidence to support this. It’s possible that testing does the opposite by reminding people of how mixed we all are, but the evidence for either theory is not there yet. 23andMe hopes to do follow-up surveys to learn more.

“I’m excited by how the results of this survey can kick start a frank conversation about genetics and racial identity,” said Joanna Mountain, 23andMe’s Senior Director of Research, who was also involved in designing the study.

During the podcast, Baratunde got beyond what was in the study and talked with Wyclef about why, despite any two people being 99.5 percent genetically similar, many of us “spend a lot of time focusing on that 0.5 percent difference.”

“(I)t’s very interesting just listening to the overall statistics,” Wyclef said. “I would say that traveling probably half of the globe, I think it’s something that everyone should know. We have so much more in common than you could even imagine.”

Listen to this whole riveting discussion on episode two of “Spit — Conversations on DNA” or check out other episodes as they come online. We will be sharing more on this new Race and Genetics Survey in the coming weeks.

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The Podcast Spit

A New Survey On Attitudes About Race and Genetics

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