Designer Babies and AI Jobs Are No Longer Sci-Fi

Conversations with Coleman

The Free Press

Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.5 • 610 Ratings

🗓️ 2 February 2026

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jamie Metzl is a former national security official, biotech futurist, and one of the earliest public voices to argue that Covid likely came from a lab accident. Today he talks about why that possibility became taboo; what gain-of-function research gets wrong; and how fear and politics distort scientific judgment. From there, we move into the future of gene editing, embryo selection, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and artificial intelligence (AI)—what’s actually coming, what people misunderstand, and why the hardest questions ahead of us aren’t likely technical, but moral. https://jamiemetzl.com/human-genetic-engineering-and-the-catholic-church/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	What I've dedicated my life to is revenge.
0:04.7	A brand new drama based on the bestselling novel.
0:07.5	They think they're better than us.
0:08.5	Who do you think you are?
0:09.8	I'm going to prove to them that they're wrong.
0:11.5	She's punishing me.
0:13.0	You destroyed my family.
0:14.3	I will not rest until I've destroyed yours.
0:17.0	A woman of substance on Channel 4 starts tonight at 9.
0:20.4	Welcome to another episode of Conversations with Coleman.
0:23.9	My guest today is Jamie Metzell.
0:26.5	Jamie Metzl is an American technology and healthcare futurist,
0:30.5	geopolitical analyst and author known for his work on the societal impact of genetics,
0:35.6	biotechnology, and AI.
0:40.0	A former U.S. national security official,
0:45.7	he's the author of Hacking Darwin and Super Convergence. Jamie was also one of the very first public intellectuals to argue that COVID-19 had come from a lab in Wuhan. In this episode,
0:51.9	we talk about how Jamie became the Lab League whistleblower, and then we get
0:55.7	on to the scary and exciting future of genetic editing.
0:59.5	We talk about how gene editing will affect parenting.
1:02.6	We talk about embryo selection technology, which in theory allows people to choose the traits
1:07.8	their children will have, at least to an extent.
1:10.6	We talk about how the
	...

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