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The Political Scene | The New Yorker

Siddhartha Mukherjee Talks to David Remnick About Genetics

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

The New Yorker

Washington, News, Politics, President, Wickenden, Wnyc, Barack, Obama, Lizza

4.33.9K Ratings

🗓️ 16 May 2016

⏱️ 23 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

If you could identify a piece of genetic code in a living embryo—one that could affect anything from gender and sexual orientation to a predisposition to mental illness—would you do anything to change that embryo’s development? Should you have the option? Siddhartha Mukherjee, the physician, Pulitzer Prize winner, and author of the new book “The Gene: An Intimate History,” spoke with David Remnick about his family’s personal history with mental illness, and about the moral and political implications of recent discoveries in the field of genetic science.

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Transcript

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I'm Dorothy Wickendon On today's Politics and More podcast, David Remnick talks with the physician and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Siddhartha Mukherjee.

1:21.9

Mukherjee's new book, The Gene and Intimate History, explores both what is beneficial and what is dangerous about our

1:28.5

increasing ability to manipulate the human genome.

1:33.4

Now, I don't think you can possibly overhype the work of Siddhartha Mukherjee.

1:38.3

His book about cancer, the emperor of all maladies, won the Pulitzer Prize, and for really

1:42.9

good reason, it's a huge sweeping book

1:45.1

that it's as, well, it's as good as science book as I've ever read.

1:48.7

It really is.

1:49.4

And his new book out just this week is called The Gene, an intimate history.

1:55.5

And if anything, it ups the ante.

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