Special Edition: De-Extinction? Dire Wolves, Dodos & What's Next
The NewsWorthy
Erica Mandy
4.7 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 27 September 2025
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Dire wolves are back — and dodos may be next.
Colossal Biosciences is using cutting-edge genetics to revive extinct animals, from Ice Age predators to ancient birds. But this isn't just about bringing back the past. The same technologies could transform conservation, agriculture, and even human medicine.
Colossal's Chief Science Officer Beth Shapiro joins us to break down the science, respond to skeptics, and explain what their efforts could mean for the future.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today is Saturday, September 27th. Animals we've only seen in movies or textbooks are seemingly |
| 0:05.5 | coming back to life. A company called colossal biosciences made headlines again this month, |
| 0:11.3 | announcing a breakthrough that could bring back the extinct dodo bird within a decade. |
| 0:16.5 | You might remember this company as the one who already genetically engineered three dire wolves, |
| 0:21.6 | the first to live in over 10,000 years. |
| 0:24.7 | So how does so-called de-extinction work? |
| 0:28.1 | What challenges and ethical questions come with it? |
| 0:31.0 | And how could these same technologies actually help save endangered species or even shape the future of medicine and agriculture. |
| 0:38.3 | Our guest today is Dr. Beth Shapiro, Chief Science Officer at Colossil Biosciences. |
| 0:43.3 | She's an evolutionary biologist, a professor at UC Santa Cruz, and a MacArthur Genius Fellow, |
| 0:49.3 | who has spent her career using DNA to study everything from ice age animals to modern conservation efforts. |
| 0:55.8 | She's here to explain the science, answer to some of the criticism, and speak about the future |
| 1:00.4 | of bringing back the past. |
| 1:03.2 | Welcome, welcome to The Newsworthy Special Edition Saturday, when we sit down with a different |
| 1:07.6 | expert or celebrity every Saturday to talk about something in the news. |
| 1:10.9 | Don't forget to tune in every Monday through Friday for our regular episodes when we provide |
| 1:14.8 | all the day's news in just 10 minutes. It's fast, fair, fun, and on the go. I'm Erica Mandy. It's |
| 1:20.5 | time for today's special edition Saturday. You ready? Let's do this. |
| 1:27.8 | Best Shapiro, thanks so much for joining us here on The Newsworthy. |
| 1:30.7 | I am happy to be here. |
| 1:32.3 | So first, just give us an idea of how colossal biosciences began, how it was founded, and what's its main mission? |
| 1:39.8 | Colossal is a de-extinction company and a species preservation company. |
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