A while back on the podcast, we talked about CRISPR and the cutting edge of gene editing with geneticist Kevin Davies. Very thought-provoking stuff that made me rethink how I contextualize genetic coding and its future possibilities. This week, we talk to Dalton Conley, a pioneering social scientist at Princeton University, about the brave new world of sociogenomics, a relatively new field which explores the intricate relationship between genetics and social factors, specifically how genes influence social behaviors and outcomes. In the age-old debate about nature vs. nurture, Conley posits that we've been asking the wrong questions all along. Furthermore, he turns the old hereditary notion of one-gene-equals-one-trait on its ear, illustrating how vastly interactive our genetic coding really is. Where the conversation really gets fascinating is when Conley explains how the genetic makeup of other people within our social sphere can have as great an effect on our outcomes as our own genetic coding. Another level to all of this is the new science of predictive genetics—to wit, how our height at age 15 is predictive of our financial futures to a remarkable (and unnerving) degree. The possibilities here are pretty mind-blowing.
Anyway, this is pretty heady stuff, and as you can imagine, I'm mostly out of my depth, but I manage (I think) to ask the questions you'll want the answers to. And I assure you, Dalton Conley is very cogent on all of these subjects! So enjoy!
Oh, also of interest this week: former guest and friend of the podcast Danny O'Neil, with whom we discussed grudges, has a piece in yesterday's Wall Street Journal about how the brain works when we imagine acts of revenge.
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