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Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast

‘A Genetic History of the Americas’ with Jennifer Raff

Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast

MS NOW, Chris Hayes

Msnbc, The Chris Hayes Podcast, Government, Politics, Chris Hayes, Why Is This Happening?, Withpod, Versant, Ms Now, News, Society & Culture, Versant Media

4.69.1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 May 2022

⏱️ 54 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Who were the first people to migrate to the Americas? When did they arrive, and how? For centuries, those questions have been shrouded in mystery. No written records and very little archaeological evidence exists to provide clarity. In recent years, however, the examination of genetic data has revolutionized researchers’ ability to find answers. A recent family trip to the Grand Canyon furthered Chris’ interest in talking with one of the most celebrated scholars in the field. Dr. Jennifer Raff is an anthropological geneticist and associate professor at the University of Kansas. She’s also author of the New York Times best-selling book, “Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas.” Raff joins to discuss how the first people migrated to the Americas nearly 20,000 years ago, how genomes showcase the very close relatedness of humans across the globe and the impact of genetic discoveries on narratives. Sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts to listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads. You'll also get exclusive bonus content from this and other shows. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Transcript

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0:00.0

The human genome actually is an archive of our population histories, all of our ancestors who have

0:05.6

contributed to our genomes. You can look at their histories just basically by sequencing DNA or

0:11.6

genotyping DNA, looking at specific variants across the genome and using population genetics then

0:18.0

to work with that DNA and compare it to other populations and other individuals and say, okay,

0:23.2

I can see which or I can recreate the point at which these lineages last share to common ancestor

0:28.9

and you can kind of do that going further and further back into the past.

0:35.7

Hello and welcome to Wise This Happening with me, your host Chris Aes.

0:44.6

So a few weeks ago my family and I were vacationing in Arizona. We went to the Grand Canyon,

0:49.0

then we went to Sedona, which is sort of the Red Rock region, which was completely amazing.

0:53.6

And one of the most incredible parts of the Sedona trip was going on a number of hikes,

0:57.5

one of which culminated in kind of going up into these rocks and finding this cliff dwelling

1:03.3

that have been inhabited by indigenous people that lived in that part of Arizona.

1:08.3

The Spanish called them the Senagua, which just means without water. Obviously that wasn't the

1:12.0

name they had for themselves. They left the region around 1425, we think, because basically of a

1:18.4

drought, they were sort of chased out, but their descendants are, we believe the Hopian Navajo

1:23.5

people who of course are still in Arizona today, the Navajo Reservation, one of the largest,

1:28.4

if not the largest in the entire nation. And I got to say that being out there and seeing,

1:36.0

we went to two different cliff dwelling rooms, it really blew my mind. I guess I sort of feel like

1:40.8

when I look at places that get a lot of water, have fairly temperate temperatures, I think to myself,

1:46.3

okay, like I can start to conceive of how one would scratch out a living if you had to make a living

1:50.9

without all of the conveniences of modern industrial capitalism. You could grow some corn,

1:57.9

you'd have to make a structure, you'd have to burn some heat for wood, but being in a place that

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