Blackletes Fact & Fiction

There’s a commonly held belief that Black folks are thicker, bigger, and carry more fat than others…but where did this idea that our bodies only look a certain way come from? Join us as we disentangle fact from oftentimes fat-phobic fiction when it comes to assumptions about how our bodies are shaped. . In our Season 2 finale, "Baby Got Black", we dissect whether here is a genetic difference between the body shape of Black folks compared to other populations. Black women and men have consistently been exoticisized for their unique body features. We explore the genetics behind this starting with a publication by Dr. Jeff on the genetics of body shape and tell the historical stories behind Venus Hottentot (Sarah Baartman). . In Those Genes is an educational podcast that contains explicit language that might be difficult for some to hear. No worries, we got you! You can still get all the facts dropped in our cleaned transcript we affectionately call The Nucleus that will be posted soon. . This is our last episode for Season 2, thanks for being part of the fam! Be sure to follow us on social media to stay up-to-date on Season 3. . Want to learn more about the guests on this episode? Check out their work below. Da'Shaun L. Harrison,@DaShaunLH (Twitter), https://dashaunharrison.com/. Da'Shaun recently published a book on the overlap between anti-fatness and anti-blackness — Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-fatness as Anti-blackness. Here’s where you can get a copy: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/670607/belly-of-the-beast-by-dashaun-harrison/ We also recommend you check out Da’Shaun’s reading list on fat studies, body and desirability politics: https://dashaunharrison.com/fat-studies-body-and-desirability-politics-a-reading-list/ + this video from PBS on why diets fail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLtUrvnmOfc&t=1s . Dr. Sabrina Strings, @SaStrings (Twitter) https://www.sabrinastrings.com/. Dr. Strings is the author of Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia (NYU Press) – a book that was instrumental to this episode. Here’s where you can get a copy: https://nyupress.org/9781479886753/fearing-the-black-body/ . Want to unpack this episode with other In Those Genes Family and like minded folks? If so, be sure to come to our after show, In Our DNA ( https://kinkofa.com/inourdna/ ), hosted by our good friends over at Kinkofa (https://kinkofa.com/ ) every other Wednesday (the week following an episode drop) at 7:30PM EST. Register here, https://lu.ma/INOURDNA ! . Kinkofa is the future of genealogy. Connect to culturally-relevant tools, resources, and support needed to uncover your unique #familyhistory. Join their community here, https://kinkofa.com/community/! . Making a podcast ain’t cheap. And as an independently funded podcast, we depend on our community to sustain us. Please consider donating $5, $10, or $20 to In Those Genes through our PayPal or commit to a monthly donation through our Patreon, if you’re able. . PayPal: https://paypal.me/inthosegenes Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/inthosegenes . If a monetary donation isn’t in the cards you can support us by rating and writing a review of the podcast, following us on social media, and sharing this podcast with everyone you know! . No matter how you show your support, thank you fam <3 We appreciate you. You can formally join the family by visiting www.inthosegenes.com and signing up to get email updates including our Nucleotide Newsletter. . Follow us on Twitter/Instagram: @inthosegenespod

This week we travel to 1989 to a conversation with Dr. Edwards and NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw and we bring in the science we learned last week about what role genetics has in athletic ability to this critical conversation about Black superior athletes. . Blackletes Fact and Fiction dissects the claims made in the NBC News Tonight broadcast, “Black Athletes Fact and Fiction” featuring our guest from last week, Dr. Harry Edwards. We use the scientific method as a basis to critique the claims made then with available genetic technology at the time as well as what is available now. We also hear Dr. Edward’s sociologist expertise then and now critiquing the segment. . You can watch the full broadcast here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdN9DDZqabQ . In Those Genes is an educational podcast that contains explicit language that might be be difficult for some to hear. No worries, we got you! You can still get all the facts dropped in our cleaned transcript we affectionately call The Nucleus here, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Htc1qZSTH9g3lF9EydHhZEsdxjs4W90R/view?usp=sharing . As a reminder this season airs every OTHER week. . Want to learn more about the guests on this episode? Check out his work below. Dr.Harry Edwards @@drharryedwards (Twitter) . Want to unpack this episode with other In Those Genes Family and like minded folks? If so, be sure to come to our after show, In Our DNA ( https://kinkofa.com/inourdna/ ), hosted by our good friends over at Kinkofa (https://kinkofa.com/ ) every other Wednesday (the week following an episode drop) at 7:30PM EST. Register here, https://lu.ma/INOURDNA ! . Kinkofa is the future of genealogy. Connect to culturally-relevant tools, resources, and support needed to uncover your unique #familyhistory. Join their community here, https://kinkofa.com/community/ ! . Making a podcast ain’t cheap. And as an independently funded podcast, we depend on our community to sustain us. Please consider donating $5, $10, or $20 to In Those Genes through our PayPal or commit to a monthly donation through our Patreon, if you’re able. . PayPal: https://paypal.me/inthosegenes Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/inthosegenes . If a monetary donation isn’t in the cards you can support us by -- rating and writing a review of the podcast, following us on social media, and sharing this podcast with everyone you know! . No matter how you show your support, thank you fam <3 We appreciate you. You can formally join the family by visiting www.inthosegenes.com and signing up to get email updates including our Nucleotide Newsletter. . Follow us on Twitter/Instagram: @inthosegenespod

Serena Williams. Usian Bolt. Michael Jordan. Some of the world’s strongest, fastest, and most decorated athletes are Blackity Black. Sometimes people chalk this up to genetics, claiming that this sort of extraordinary athleticism is unique to Black folks’ ancestry. Is there any truth to that claim? In this episode, we untangle what role genetics has in athletic ability and map out how Black Americans came to be viewed as superior athletes in the first place. . Blackletes explores the genetics behind athleticism with sports culture and biomechanist experts. We understand why there is an overrepresentation of Black athletes during certain periods of time vs others and explore if that difference is cultural or innate ability drive physical ability for competitive sports. To do this, we take a deeper look at the science and culture to develop a historical and present day narrative as a basis for trying to disentangle whether athleticism could be traced to Blackness. Are there unique qualities of phenomenal athletes like Serena Williams, Michael Jordan, or Simone Biles that are not seen in other groups of non-Black athletes that can be explained by genetics? . In Those Genes is an educational podcast that contains explicit language that might be be difficult for some to hear. No worries, we got you! You can still get all the facts dropped in our cleaned transcript we affectionately call The Nucleus here, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Htc1qZSTH9g3lF9EydHhZEsdxjs4W90R/view?usp=sharing . As a reminder this season airs every OTHER week. . Want to learn more about the guests on this episode? Check out their work below. Dr.Harry Edwards @@drharryedwards (Twitter) Dr. Erica Bell @BellePhd (Twitter). Learn more about Dr. Bell’s work: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Erica-Bell-8 . Want to unpack this episode with other In Those Genes Family and like minded folks? If so, be sure to come to our after show, In Our DNA ( https://kinkofa.com/inourdna/ ), hosted by our good friends over at Kinkofa (https://kinkofa.com/ ) every other Wednesday (the week following an episode drop) at 7:30PM EST. Register here, https://lu.ma/INOURDNA ! . Kinkofa is the future of genealogy. Connect to culturally-relevant tools, resources, and support needed to uncover your unique #familyhistory. Join their community here, https://kinkofa.com/community/ ! . Making a podcast ain’t cheap. And as an independently funded podcast, we depend on our community to sustain us. Please consider donating $5, $10, or $20 to In Those Genes through our PayPal or commit to a monthly donation through our Patreon, if you’re able. . PayPal: https://paypal.me/inthosegenes Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/inthosegenes . If a monetary donation isn’t in the cards you can support us by -- rating and writing a review of the podcast, following us on social media, and sharing this podcast with everyone you know! . No matter how you show your support, thank you fam <3 We appreciate you. You can formally join the family by visiting www.inthosegenes.com and signing up to get email updates including our Nucleotide Newsletter. . Follow us on Twitter/Instagram: @inthosegenespod

Oral history is such an integral part of our family history and our collective story as African descendents; without our elders passing this history to us much of our Black History would remain unknown. This Black History Month, we revisit an episode from Season 1 that features one of my newest ancestors, the late “Uncle Warren” and other elders in my hometown of New Orleans as they discuss their views and concerns about commercial genetic testing. . Bonus Episode - “A Tribute to Uncle Warren- Re-airing of “Ion Trust Dem People from Season 1” - In this episode Sam and I travel to my hometown-- New Orleans to hear the perspective of our elders' concerns around privacy within the context of direct to consumer genetic testing companies. We go deep into how to teach our elders what they need to know when taking consumer genetic testing--what to look for and break it down step by step. We address their concerns and even get serenaded by one of our elders, LOL! We will also learn how you can be identified by the forensic scientist using your DNA and of course we have affirmations! . . As a reminder this season airs every OTHER week. . Making a podcast ain’t cheap. This Black History Month, we’re asking you – our community – to donate $10, $25, $50 or whatever you can to help cover our production costs for a single episode of Season 3. Your donation will cover the cost of things like the salaries of our three producers, our fact checker, music composer, audio engineering, social media, marketing and stipends for our college interns. Black History Month Funding Campaign, https://gofund.me/53180694 . You can also support In Those Genes through our PayPal or commit to a monthly donation through our Patreon, if you’re able. . PayPal: https://paypal.me/inthosegenes Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/inthosegenes . If a monetary donation isn’t in the cards you can support us by rating and writing a review of the podcast, following us on social media, and sharing this podcast with everyone you know! . No matter how you show your support, thank you fam <3 We appreciate you. You can formally join the family by visiting www.inthosegenes.com and signing up to get email updates including our Nucleotide Newsletter. . Follow us on Twitter/Instagram: @inthosegenespod

It isn’t hard to point out the person in the room who is clapping off beat. But how can we use the scientific method to study why some folks are rhythmically coordinated and others not? How does one’s ancestry play into this? In this bonus episode, we head to the In Those Genes lab with neuroscientist AZA Allsop, MD, PhD to map out a hypothetical study using genetics and neurology that could help explain why some of us can catch a beat and others not. . Be sure to listen to the first part of this episode! Episode 4: R&B: Rhythm and Blackness: https://pod.link/1489257965/episode/7fae62b2aad7a9434f42ebd315e127a2 . In Those Genes is an educational podcast that contains explicit language that might be difficult for some to hear. No worries, we got you! You can still get all the facts dropped in our cleaned transcript we affectionately call The Nucleus that will be posted soon. . As a reminder this season airs every OTHER week. . Want to learn more about Dr. AZA Allsop? Check out their work below. Dr. AZA Allsop, @DR_tr3 (Twitter). Dr. Allsop is also a multi-instrumentalist – listen to some of their music here: https://www.azafortheculture.com/about-1 . Kinkofa is the future of genealogy. Connect to culturally-relevant tools, resources, and support needed to uncover your unique #familyhistory. Join their community here, https://kinkofa.com/community/! . Making a podcast ain’t cheap. And as an independently funded podcast, we depend on our community to sustain us. Please consider donating $5, $10, or $20 to In Those Genes through our PayPal or commit to a monthly donation through our Patreon, if you’re able. . PayPal: https://paypal.me/inthosegenes Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/inthosegenes . If a monetary donation isn’t in the cards you can support us by rating and writing a review of the podcast, following us on social media, and sharing this podcast with everyone you know! . No matter how you show your support, thank you fam <3 We appreciate you. You can formally join the family by visiting www.inthosegenes.com and signing up to get email updates including our Nucleotide Newsletter. . Follow us on Twitter/Instagram: @inthosegenespod

We all got that one friend that just can’t seem to catch the beat. And yes…yes, they usually are. But is rhythm really a thing you either have or you don’t? Are some of us just born with a rhythm and others not? Could this be explained by genetics? In this episode, we break down what rhythm actually is, and talk to experts who help us understand how neuroscience, genetics, and culture shape the conversation around Black people and our relationship to rhythm and music. . Episode 4: R&B- “Rhythm and Blackness” dives deep into the notion that Black people have rhythm and that it is genetic. We speak to geneticists, neuroscientists, and music experts to better understand if there is a cultural or biological difference between the social construct of race and catching the beat! We will test this hypothesis through an interactive experiment and use music in our community to elicit feelings and memories of some classic tunes that started trends in popular dance culture we see in America today. . In Those Genes is an educational podcast that contains explicit language that might be difficult for some to hear. No worries, we got you! You can still get all the facts dropped in our cleaned transcript we affectionately call The Nucleus that will be posted soon. . As a reminder this season airs every OTHER week. . Want to learn more about the guests on this episode? Check out their work below. Dr. Fredara Hadley @fredaraMareva (Twitter), http://fredaramhadley.com/ Dr. AZA Allsop, @DR_tr3 (Twitter). Dr. Allsop is also a multi-instrumentalist – listen to some of their music here: https://www.azafortheculture.com/about-1 . Want to unpack this episode with other In Those Genes Family and like minded folks? If so, be sure to come to our after show, In Our DNA ( https://kinkofa.com/inourdna/ ), hosted by our good friends over at Kinkofa (https://kinkofa.com/ ) every other Wednesday (the week following an episode drop) at 7:30PM EST. Register here, https://lu.ma/INOURDNA ! . Kinkofa is the future of genealogy. Connect to culturally-relevant tools, resources, and support needed to uncover your unique #familyhistory. Join their community here, https://kinkofa.com/community/! . Making a podcast ain’t cheap. And as an independently funded podcast, we depend on our community to sustain us. Please consider donating $5, $10, or $20 to In Those Genes through our PayPal or commit to a monthly donation through our Patreon, if you’re able. . PayPal: https://paypal.me/inthosegenes Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/inthosegenes . If a monetary donation isn’t in the cards you can support us by rating and writing a review of the podcast, following us on social media, and sharing this podcast with everyone you know! . No matter how you show your support, thank you fam <3 We appreciate you. You can formally join the family by visiting www.inthosegenes.com and signing up to get email updates including our Nucleotide Newsletter. . Follow us on Twitter/Instagram: @inthosegenespod

After some time traveling, and understanding why we all look so different, it’s time we look at the age old question: Why aren’t Black people aging? Through all of the beauty products, and magazines that promote youth, Black people never really seem to age. It’s cultural at this point with its cornerstone being JET magazine’s 1970 “Black Don’t Crack” . “Black Don’t Crack” is an adage that assumes that Black people age slower. This episode addresses the genetics behind physical characteristics we associate with aging such as skin (wrinkles and folds), hair loss, memory and telomere length (cellular aging). The science is supplemented by the story of Mrs. Irma Shaw, a 94 year old Black Guyanese woman living in Queens, NY. In “Magic School Bus” -esque vignettes, this episode also uses fictional skits to demonstrate how our cells age over time. . These questions are answered with the help of our guests anthropologist Dr. Tina Lasisi and fellow geneti-“SIS” Dr. Marquitta White. . In Those Genes is an educational podcast that contains explicit language that might be be difficult for some to hear. No worries, we got you! You can still get all the facts dropped in our cleaned transcript we affectionately call The Nucleus here, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Htc1qZSTH9g3lF9EydHhZEsdxjs4W90R/view?usp=sharing . As a reminder this season airs every OTHER week. . Want to learn more about the guests on this episode? Check out their work below. Dr.Tina Lasisi @TinaLasisi (Twitter), https://www.tinalasisi.com/ Dr. Marquitta White, learn more about Dr. White’s work here, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marquitta-White . Want to unpack this episode with other In Those Genes Family and like minded folks? If so, be sure to come to our after show, In Our DNA ( https://kinkofa.com/inourdna/ ), hosted by our good friends over at Kinkofa (https://kinkofa.com/ ) every other Wednesday (the week following an episode drop) at 7:30PM EST. Register here, https://lu.ma/INOURDNA ! . Kinkofa is the future of genealogy. Connect to culturally-relevant tools, resources, and support needed to uncover your unique #familyhistory. Join their community here, https://kinkofa.com/community/ ! . Making a podcast ain’t cheap. And as an independently funded podcast, we depend on our community to sustain us. Please consider donating $5, $10, or $20 to In Those Genes through our PayPal or commit to a monthly donation through our Patreon, if you’re able. . PayPal: https://paypal.me/inthosegenes Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/inthosegenes . If a monetary donation isn’t in the cards you can support us by -- rating and writing a review of the podcast, following us on social media, and sharing this podcast with everyone you know! . No matter how you show your support, thank you fam <3 We appreciate you. You can formally join the family by visiting www.inthosegenes.com and signing up to get email updates including our Nucleotide Newsletter. . Follow us on Twitter/Instagram: @inthosegenespod

How will humanity continue to evolve? Will our distinct physical features stand the test of time? Do we still adhere to social constructs like race and gender? Find out on this week’s bonus episode as we continue our journey from last week and head 15,000 years into the future with Afrofuturist Ytasha Whomack . . “The Future is Black AF” is a short mini BONUS episode that continues the journey from episode 2 with Afrofuturist Ytasha Whomack. One thing we learned last week traveling through all of the years of our ancestors is how long it takes for populations to change. So this week we take a trip to see what humanity might look like in another, let's say, fifteen thousand years in the future. . In Those Genes is an educational podcast that contains explicit language that might be difficult for some to hear. No worries, we got you! You can still get all the facts dropped in our cleaned transcript we affectionately call The Nucleus here, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HxkVIEhZSeM2kVH0hXuUa5AOsFopUZcW/view?usp=sharing . As a reminder this season airs every OTHER week. . Want to learn more about the guests on this episode? Check out their work below. Ytasha Whomack @ytashawomack (Twitter) and https://www.ytashawomack.com Dr.Tina Lasisi @TinaLasisi (Twitter), https://www.tinalasisi.com/ Dr. Brandon Ogubuno, @big_data_kane (Twitter) , https://fas.yale.edu/book/new-ladder-faculty-2020-2021/c-brandon-ogbunu . Cover Art this season was designed by David Perrin, check out his work here https://www.instagram.com/dpicting/?hl=en and buy some of his artwork here https://society6.com/dpicting1/wall-art?sort=random . Making a podcast ain’t cheap. And as an independently funded podcast, we depend on our community to sustain us. Please consider donating $5, $10, or $20 to In Those Genes through our PayPal or commit to a monthly donation through our Patreon, if you’re able. . PayPal: https://paypal.me/inthosegenes Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/inthosegenes . If a monetary donation isn’t in the cards you can support us by -- rating and writing a review of the podcast, following us on social media, and sharing this podcast with everyone you know! . No matter how you show your support, thank you fam <3 We appreciate you. You can formally join the family by visiting www.inthosegenes.com and signing up to get email updates including our Nucleotide Newsletter. . Follow us on Twitter/Instagram: @inthosegenespod

Race is a social construct and not a distinction we make in biology. But as humans we do look *very* different from one another. Shoot, family members that share the same genes don’t look the same. Why do we look so different? Join three time-traveling scientists on an afrofuturist journey through the ages to trace how climate, migration, and mating patterns over the last 200,000 years have created all the different hair textures, skin, and eye colors we see today. . “Black to the Future '' is a time travel episode that follows three scientists (Janina Jeff, PhD,, Tina Lasisi, PhD, Brandon Ogbunu, PhD) who travel through time and space and learn how humans developed the physical features that make up the way we look today. Our spaceship Dedelorean guides us to many stops around the world starting South East Africa 200,000 years ago and travels to the many places humans migrated over time. We are looking for answers like, Why the hell do we look different? Who was hitting up which parts of the world and why? How did our adapting genomes interact with the climates around us? And what L’s did everyone catch along the way? . These questions are answered with the help of our guests and over 15 cameo voice guests in our fun skits that help place us in the time and space of our ancestors. . In Those Genes is an educational podcast that contains explicit language that might be be difficult for some to hear. No worries, we got you! You can still get all the facts dropped in our cleaned transcript we affectionately call The Nucleushere, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FKxNVzf5_OBkilT3_uaboMcwUpqwOH21/view?usp=sharing . As a reminder this season airs every OTHER week. . Want to learn more about the guests on this episode? Check out their work below. Dr.Tina Lasisi @TinaLasisi (Twitter), https://www.tinalasisi.com/ Dr. Brandon Ogubuno, @big_data_kane (Twitter) , https://fas.yale.edu/book/new-ladder-faculty-2020-2021/c-brandon-ogbunu . Want to unpack this episode with other In Those Genes Family and like minded folks? If so, be sure to come to our after show, In Our DNA ( https://kinkofa.com/inourdna/ ), hosted by our good friends over at Kinkofa (https://kinkofa.com/ ) every other Wednesday (the week following an episode drop) at 7:30PM EST. Register here, https://lu.ma/INOURDNA ! . Kinkofa is the future of genealogy. Connect to culturally-relevant tools, resources, and support needed to uncover your unique #familyhistory. Join their community here, https://kinkofa.com/community/ ! . Making a podcast ain’t cheap. And as an independently funded podcast, we depend on our community to sustain us. Please consider donating $5, $10, or $20 to In Those Genes through our PayPal or commit to a monthly donation through our Patreon, if you’re able. . PayPal: https://paypal.me/inthosegenes Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/inthosegenes . If a monetary donation isn’t in the cards you can support us by -- rating and writing a review of the podcast, following us on social media, and sharing this podcast with everyone you know! . No matter how you show your support, thank you fam <3 We appreciate you. You can formally join the family by visiting www.inthosegenes.com and signing up to get email updates including our Nucleotide Newsletter. . Follow us on Twitter/Instagram: @inthosegenespod

Is Race Genetic? . “How the World Inherited Blackness” answers a common question by many....."Is race genetic?" This episode takes the listener on a journey through time to understand how race was birthed and the history behind how race became a reputable (pseudo)scientific theory that justified an entire global system of oppression still used today. We leverage the genetics expertise of our host, as well as two Black scholars leading the field in sociology and anthropology, to dive deep into HOW the world inherited Blackness AND we voyage to what a world without race could be. As with any In Those Genes episode, the story of “How the World Inherited Race”, is seasoned with hip hop, fictional characters, and Black culture to create an entertaining , educational, yet personal eargasmic experience for “The Fam”. . As a reminder this season will be airing every OTHER week!! . Follow our guests on this episode Dr. Saida Grundy @saigrundy (Twitter), https://www.bu.edu/afam/profile/saida-grundy/ Delande Justinvil https://www.american.edu/profiles/students/dj6541a.cfm . In Those Genes is independently funded, to give, become a patron here: https://www.patreon.com/inthosegenes . If you would like to give a one time donation, you can do that here: https://paypal.me/inthosegenes . If a monetary donation isn’t in the cards be sure to rate and write a review of the podcast. OAN, don’t forget to share this podcast with everyone you know! . You can formally join the family by visiting www.inthosegenes.com. . Follow us at @inthosegenespod on Instagram and Twitter for the latest updates. .