Episode 15: Making "Smarter" Babies: The Mythology of American Eugenics
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Episode 15: Making "Smarter" Babies: The Mythology of American Eugenics
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Narrated by:
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About this listen
Emily Klancher Merchant, PhD, author of "Breeding for IQ" in the Los Angeles Review of Books, talks about how "intelligence—not race—has always been at the center of American eugenics." She cautions that "eugenics does not work by breeding smarter humans;" no technology has been shown to do this but the widespread, American belief that intelligence is primarily genetic is allowing governments to shirk responsibility for ameliorating social inequality and promote projects that favor those who are already priviliged.
Full episode transcript at: https://www.geneticfrontiers.org/transcript-ep-15
GUEST BIO
Emily Klancher Merchant, PhD, is a historian of science, technology, and medicine, focusing on the human sciences in the United States since World War I. She is Associate Professor of Science and Technology Studies at the University of California at Davis.
RESOURCES
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https://www.emilyklancher.com/
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Emily Klancher Merchant. Building the Population Bomb. Oxford University Press. 2021.
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Emily R. Klancher Merchant. "Breeding for IQ." Los Angeles Review of Books. August 22, 2024.
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Elizabeth Catte. Pure America. Arcadia Publishing. 2021.
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Molly Ladd-Taylor. Fixing the Poor. John Hopkins University Press. 2020.