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Outside/In

Frankenfish

Outside/In

NHPR

Society & Culture, Documentary, Natural Sciences, Nature, Science

4.71.5K Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2022

⏱️ 24 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Lake trout are on life support in Lake Michigan. They rely on intense breeding and stocking by federal fisheries. There was a breakthrough last summer, though, that could help bolster the lake trout’s recovery. A geneticist successfully mapped the lake trout genome: an outline of the fish’s genetic makeup. The genome will help biologists understand why some “strains” of trout have a higher survival rate.  But could it also be used to create a sort of super-trout? And is that a good thing? Or is conservation-based gene editing a step too far?  Featuring: Mark Walton, Roger Gordon, Chuck Madenjian, Seth Smith, Marty Kardos and Kim Scribner.   ELECTRIC VEHICLE SURVEY Hey folks – we’re working on some stories about electric vehicles, and we’re looking to hear from you. Are you interested in going electric? Wish there was better charging infrastructure where you are? Or would you prefer sticking with the car/truck you’re used to?  Tell us what you think about EVs, and help inform our reporting by filling out this survey. It’ll only take a couple minutes, and it really helps us produce the show. Thanks so much! SUPPORT Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.  Subscribe to our FREE newsletter. Follow Outside/In on Instagram or Twitter, or join our private discussion group on Facebook LINKS Check out more episodes of Points North, and their special series: [Un]Natural Selection  Listen to our previous episode “The Particular Sadness of Trout Fishing in America”   CREDITS This episode of Points North was written and produced by Patrick Shea Hosts: Dan wanschura and Morgan Springer Editor: Morgan Springer  Consulting editor: Peter Payette  Music for this episode by Max Dragoo, Marlin Ledin, Santah, and Blue Dot Sessions  Outside/In is produced by Nate Hegyi, Taylor Quimby, Justine Paradis, Jessica Hunt, and Felix Poon    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Outside In. I'm Nate Hegey here with producer Taylor

0:06.2

Quimby. And Nate, I want to know, are you a fan of the 1993 classic Jurassic Park? Am I

0:13.5

a fan? Yes. I'm a massive fan of that movie. Good. I loved it. I'm like, I wanted to call

0:20.8

my dog, Dr. Alan Grant, but my wife wouldn't let me. I've got most of the movie memorized,

0:27.6

be honest with you. Okay, good. Because the reason I'm asking is that there is this incredibly

0:31.2

quotable quote from the film that I think about whenever we are discussing human intervention

0:37.2

or interference in the natural world. Do you want to take a guess at which one I'm talking

0:40.7

about? I know the scene is probably going to be when they're all sitting around eating

0:44.4

lunch with Dr. Hammond. Yes. It's like the scene I remember as a little kid. It was the

0:49.5

boring scene, but now I've watched them like, oh, that's actually like the most interesting

0:52.4

scene in the movie. I don't think you're giving us out you credit. Our scientists have done

0:57.1

things which nobody's ever done before. Yeah. Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied

1:01.6

with whether or not they could. They didn't stop to think that they should. So I wanted

1:09.6

to play this because the episode that we're about to hear is about a scientific breakthrough

1:14.0

that could in theory change conservation as we know it. But maybe we should stop first

1:20.1

to think if we should as Dr. Ian Malcolm would say indeed.

1:24.4

Today, we're featuring an episode from our friends at the podcast Points North, which

1:31.7

has been doing a series called unnatural selection all about the ways that humans tinker

1:35.8

with the natural world for better and for worse. This story is the last of their series

1:40.5

and it's called Frankenfish, which is appropriate because I don't I don't know if you've heard

1:44.1

this name, but Jurassic Park is apparently a not so subtle retelling of Mary Shelley's

1:48.2

Frankenstein. I did not know that, but it makes complete sense because you got a bunch

...

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