Best Genetics Podcasts (2026)

1
Eric Cline: Love, War and Diplomacy, international relations in the Bronze Age 1:05:27

15m ago1:05:27

1:05:27

On this episode of Unsupervised Learning, Razib again talks to George Washington University archaeologist Eric Cline. The author of 1177 B.C. - The Year Civilization Collapsed and After 1177 B.C. - The Survival of Civilizations, Cline has a new book out, Love, War, and Diplomacy: The Discovery of the Amarna Letters and the Bronze Age World They Rev…

1
Shadi Hamid: American power and the post-woke age 1:12:28

11d ago1:12:28

1:12:28

On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib talks again with Washington Post columnist and repeat guest Shadi Hamid (listen to previous episodes). A native Pennsylvanian of Egyptian ethnic background and Islamic faith, Hamid completed his Ph.D. in politics at Oxford University. He is co-host of the Wisdom of Crowds podcast and website with Damir…

1
Vishal Ganesan and Anang Mittal: American Hinduism out of Indian Hinduism 1:56:46

15d ago1:56:46

1:56:46

On this episode, Razib talks to Vishal Ganesan and Anang Mittal, two Indian-American Hindus who have been thinking about the role of their faith in the present, and past, of the American social landscape. Ganesan is a California-based attorney and writer who focuses on the history, identity, and representation of the Hindu diaspora in the United St…

1
John Hawks and Chris Stringer: Neanderthals, Denisovans and humans, oh my! 1:02:32

21d ago1:02:32

1:02:32

On this very special episode, Razib talks to paleoanthroplogists John Hawks and Chris Stringer. Hawks is a paleoanthropologist who has been a researcher and commentator in human evolutionary biology and paleoanthropology for over two decades. With a widely read weblog (now on Substack), a book on Homo naledi, and highly cited scientific papers, Haw…

1
Sean Trende: 2025 elections and political demographics, past and future 1:03:38

23d ago1:03:38

1:03:38

Today Razib talks to Sean Trende. He is a prominent American political analyst who currently serves as the Senior Elections Analyst for RealClearPolitics, a position he has held since 2010. He is also a Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and a lecturer at The Ohio State University, where he earned his Ph.D. in political science in 20…

1
Alex Young: IQ, disease and statistical genomics 1:14:13

28d ago1:14:13

1:14:13

This week on the Unsupervised Learning Podcast, Razib talks to returning guest Alex Young of UCLA and Herasight. Trained originally as a mathematician, Young studied statistics and computational biology at the University of Cambridge before doing a doctorate in genomic medicine and statistics at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Univers…

1
Zineb Riboua: Zohran Mamdani and Third-Worldism ascendent 1:04:52

1M ago1:04:52

1:04:52

Today on Unsupervised Learning Razib talks to Zineb Riboua, a research fellow and program manager of Hudson Institute's Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East. She specializes in Chinese and Russian involvement in the Middle East, the Sahel, and North Africa, great power competition in the region, and Israeli-Arab relations. Riboua's piec…

1
Ed West: visitor from a dying empire 1:27:05

2M ago1:27:05

1:27:05

Today Razib talks to Ed West, a British journalist and author. He has served as deputy editor of UnHerd and The Catholic Herald, and has written columns for The Spectator and The Daily Telegraph. He runs the Substack newsletter Wrong Side of History, where he explores culture, politics, and the longue durée of Western history. West is the author of…

1
Noah Smith: Japanese and American politics 1:41:08

2M ago1:41:08

1:41:08

Today Razib talks to Noah Smith, an American economist-turned-blogger known for his commentary on economics and public policy. His blog, Noahpinion, is one of the most popular on Substack. He earned a PhD in economics at University of Michigan and served as an assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University before leaving academia to becom…

1
Coltan Scrivner: the evolution and psychology of horror 1:11:35

2M ago1:11:35

1:11:35

Today, Razib talks to Coltan Scrivner, a behavioral scientist, horror entertainment producer, and author, whose work centers on the psychological and evolutionary roots of our fascination with darkness, horror, and true crime. He is affiliated with the Department of Psychology at Arizona State University. Scrivner also serves as the executive direc…

1
Nate Soares: we are doomed (probably) 1:07:27

2M ago1:07:27

1:07:27

Today Razib talks to Nate Soares the President of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI). He joined MIRI in 2014 and has since authored many of its core technical agendas, including foundational documents like Agent Foundations for Aligning Superintelligence with Human Interests. Prior to his work in AI research, Soares worked as a soft…

1
Alexander Cortes: broscience, health science and fertility 1:02:47

2M ago1:02:47

1:02:47

On this episode of Unsupervised Learning, Razib talks to Alexander Cortes. Cortes is a trainer, fitness influencer and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder, along with his wife, of Ferta, a company that aims to "optimize your reproductive health and conceive naturally." Born and raised in California, Cortes began his career in the fitness industry as…

1
Kat Rosenfield: after the vibe shift 57:07

2M ago57:07

57:07

Today on Unsupervised Learning, Razib talks to Kat Rosenfield. She is an American novelist, journalist, and culture critic known for both her fiction and commentary on contemporary political debates. She began her career in publishing and as a reporter for MTV News before branching out into broader cultural criticism, contributing to outlets such a…

1
Eric Kaufmann: a cultural revolution in winter 1:29:51

3M ago1:29:51

1:29:51

Today Razib talks to Eric Kaufmann, a Canadian professor of politics at the University of Buckingham, where he directs the Centre for Heterodox Social Science. He earned his BA from the University of Western Ontario and his MA and PhD from the London School of Economics. Prior to his current role, he held positions at the University of Southampton …

1
Ryan P. Williams: the Claremont Institute standing athwart history 58:10

3M ago58:10

58:10

Today Razib talks to Ryan P. Williams. He is president of The Claremont Institute, a position he has held since 2017. He is also a contributor to The Claremont Review of Books and started The American Mind. Williams earned a B.A. in political science and Economics from Hillsdale College and an M.A. in politics from Claremont Graduate University. He…

1
Chad Orzel: the state of physics and academia in 2025 1:24:25

3M ago1:24:25

1:24:25

Chad Orzel is a physicist and science writer who has been blogging for nearly twenty-five years. He's the author of four books, Breakfast with Einstein: The Exotic Physics of Everyday Objects, How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog, How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog, Eureka: Discovering Your Inner Scientist and A Brief History of Timekeeping. T…

1
Jonathan Anomaly and James Lee: is eugenics in our future? 1:24:01

4M ago1:24:01

1:24:01

Recently, the new embryo-selection start-up Herasight has been in the news, finally coming out of stealth. Part of the buzz is because of the public involvement of well-known geneticists and academics like Alex Young and Joe Pickrell in Herasight's algorithm development. Additionally, Noor Siddiqi, the CEO of Orchid, a competitor to Herasight (and …

1
Jason Richwine: immigration moratorium now 1:08:56

4M ago1:08:56

1:08:56

On last week's episode of Unsupervised Learning, Razib spoke with Alex Nowrestah, a vice president at the Cato Institute and a strong advocate for expanding legal immigration. This week, he turned to the other side of the debate with Jason Richwhine, a resident scholar at the Center for Immigration Studies and a vocal supporter of sharply reducing …

1
Alex Nowrasteh: an immigration libertarian in Trump's America 1:12:53

4M ago1:12:53

1:12:53

Three years ago, Razib recorded two podcasts with two immigration experts on different sides of the issue, Alex Nowrestah and Jason Richwhine. While Nowrasteh, who works for the libertarian Cato Institute as Vice President for Economic and Social Policy Studies, supports higher levels of legal immigration, Richwine, a Resident Scholar at the Center…

1
John Hawks: varieties of humankind all mixed-up 53:29

5M ago53:29

53:29

Today on Unsupervised Learning, Razib talks to John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist who has been a researcher and commentator in human evolutionary biology and paleoanthropology for over two decades. With a widely read weblog (now on Substack), a book on Homo naledi, and highly cited scientific papers, Hawks is an essential voice in understanding the …

1
Noah Millman: from finance to the culture industry 1:53:13

5M ago1:53:13

1:53:13

Today Razib talks to Noah Millman. Millman is an American screenwriter and filmmaker, as well as a political columnist and cultural critic based in Brooklyn, New York. He is the film and theater critic for Modern Age; previously he was a columnist for The Week (2015–2022) and a senior editor at The American Conservative (2012–2017). Millman writes …

1
Cesar Fortes-Lima: the Fulani out of the Green Sahara 55:45

5M ago55:45

55:45

On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib talks to human geneticist Cesar Fortes-Lima about his paper from earlier this year, Population history and admixture of the Fulani people from the Sahel. Fortes-Lima has a Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology, and his primary research areas include African genetic diversity, the African diaspora, the trans…

1
Jack Despain Zhou: in defense of tracking 1:16:24

5M ago1:16:24

1:16:24

On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib talks to Jack Despain Zhou, executive director of the Center for Educational Progress (CEP). Despain Zhou is a graduate of Western Governors University, and is completing his J.D. at Temple University. A former cryptographic analyst for the US Air Force, Despain Zhou is better known as a former produce…

1
Nikolai Yakovenko: the $200 million AI engineer 1:20:48

5M ago1:20:48

1:20:48

On this episode of Unsupervised Learning, in the wake of Elon Musk's xAI Grok chatbot turning anti-Semitic following a recent update, Razib catches up with Nikolai Yakovenko about the state of AI in the summer of 2025. Nearly three years after their first conversations on the topic, the catch up, covering ChatGPT's release and the anticipation of m…

1
David Van Ofwegen: a peripatetic philosopher across Eurasia's antipodes 1:18:54

5M ago1:18:54

1:18:54

Today on Unsupervised Learning Razib talks to David van Ofwegen, a philosophy teacher based in Thailand. Razib and Ofwegen first met by chance while he was traveling in the US in 2003. A Dutch national, educated at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands and then the University of Hawaii, specializing in the philosophical underpinnings of Socia…

1
Claire Lehmann: after the Intellectual Dark Web 1:35:37

5M ago1:35:37

1:35:37

On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib talks to returning guest Claire Lehmann. Lehmann has an undergraduate degrees in psychology and English from the University of Adelaide. She was enrolled in a graduate program in psychology, but left it after becoming disillusioned with moral relativism, she went on to found the online magazine Quillet…

1
Nathan Cofnas: Judaism's group evolutionary strategy and hereditarianism defended 1:40:49

6M ago1:40:49

1:40:49

On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib talks to philosopher of science Nathan Cofnas, whose specialty is biology and ethics. An American, Cofnas is currently a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Columbia University, and his doctorate i…

1
Steve Hsu: China's inevitable rise and America's confused response 57:55

6M ago57:55

57:55

Today Razib talks to repeat guest Steve Hsu about China, a topic with so many currently relevant dimensions gIven the PRC's clear emergence as an economic, military and political rival to the US. Hsu is a Caltech‑trained theoretical physicist who migrated from black holes to big data, co‑invented privacy tech at SafeWeb, helped found the biotech co…

1
David Gress: Plato and NATO 25 years later 1:14:27

6M ago1:14:27

1:14:27

Today Razib talks to David Gress, a Danish historian. The son of an American literary scholar and a Danish writer, he grew up in Denmark, read Classics at Cambridge, and then earned a Ph.D. in medieval history from Bryn Mawr College in the US in 1981. During a fellowship form 1982-1992 at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, he published on Co…

1
Ethan Strauss: sports and the end of the culture wars 1:56:14

6M ago1:56:14

1:56:14

On this episode of the Unsupervised Learning podcast, Razib welcomes back Ethan Strauss, a writer who has covered sports and culture for the past decade, including in the book The Victory Machine: The Making and Unmaking of the Warriors Dynasty. More recently his writing is to be found at his Substack, House of Strauss, which is notable for offerin…

1
Manvir Singh: the shamanic roots of all religion 1:03:10

6M ago1:03:10

1:03:10

Today Razib talks to Manvir Singh about shamanism, religion and anthropology. Singh is an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of California, Davis. An artist and essayist, he is also now a regular contributor to The New Yorker. His academic interests lie in explaining why most human societies, from preliterate foragers to urbanite…

1
Noah Carl and Bo Winegard: probing the intellectual darker web 1:54:24

8M ago1:54:24

1:54:24

On this episode of Unsupervised Learning, Razib talks to Bo Winegard and Noah Carl, the editors behind the online publication Aporia Magazine, founded in 2022. Winegard and Carl are both former academics. Winegard has a social psychology Ph.D. from Florida State University, and was an assistant professor at Marietta College. He was an editor at Qui…

1
Tim Lee: 2025 and the driverless car revolution 55:46

8M ago55:46

55:46

Today Razib talks to Tim Lee, a previous guest on Unsupervised Learning. Lee hosts Understanding AI. Lee covered tech more generally for a decade for Washington Post, Ars Technica, and Vox.com. He has a master's degree in computer science from Princeton. Lee writes extensively about general AI issues, from Deep Research's capabilities to the state …

1
Bonus monologue: Finland as Germania 23:58

8M ago23:58

23:58

This podcast accompanies my post Germans are from Finland, Finns are from Yakutia. The two preprints at the heart of this post are, Postglacial genomes from foragers across Northern Eurasia reveal prehistoric mobility associated with the spread of the Uralic and Yeniseian languages and Steppe Ancestry in Western Eurasia and the Spread of the German…

1
Laura Spinney: rise of the proto-Indo-Europeans 1:01:18

8M ago1:01:18

1:01:18

Today Razib talks to Laura Spinney, Paris-based British author of the forthcoming Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global. A science journalist, translator and author of both fiction and non-fiction, she has written for Nature, National Geographic, The Economist, New Scientist, and The Guardian. Spinney is the author of two novels, Doctor and T…

1
Bonus monologue: man the hybrid monster 19:35

8M ago19:35

19:35

Today, Razib talks about a new paper, A structured coalescent model reveals deep ancestral structure shared by all modern humans: Understanding the history of admixture events and population size changes leading to modern humans is central to human evolutionary genetics. Here we introduce a coalescence-based hidden Markov model, cobraa, that explic…

1
John Sailer: a time of troubles in higher education 1:22:25

8M ago1:22:25

1:22:25

On this episode of the podcast Razib talks to John Sailer. Sailer is currently the director of higher education policy and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He covers issues of academic freedom, free speech, and ideological capture in higher education. Sailer has written for the Wall Street Journal, the Free Press and Tablet Magazine. Sai…

1
Jacob Shell: academia must diversify or die 1:43:54

8M ago1:43:54

1:43:54

On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib talks to Jacob Shell. Shell is a professor of geography at Temple University and author of Transportation and Revolt: Pigeons, Mules, Canals, and the Giants of the Monsoon Forest: Living and Working with Elephants. Educated at Columbia and Syracuse universities, Shell is active on social media, where h…

1
Matt Welch: from blog pioneer to podcasting mainstay 1:28:10

8M ago1:28:10

1:28:10

On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib talks to Matt Welch. He co-founded the Prague-based newspaper Prognosis in the early 1990's and later worked as an opinion section editor for the Los Angeles Times. From 2008-2016, Welch served as editor-in-chief of Reason magazine, where he currently holds the position of editor-at-large. He co-author…

1
Bonus monologue: ancient North Africans and the Green Sahara 18:12

8M ago18:12

18:12

On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib comments on a new paper in Nature, Ancient DNA from the Green Sahara reveals ancestral North African lineage. Here is the abstract: Although it is one of the most arid regions today, the Sahara Desert was a green savannah during the African Humid Period (AHP) between 14,500 and 5,000 years before prese…

1
Andrew Song: cooling the planet with technology 55:04

9M ago55:04

55:04

On this episode of Unsupervised Learning, Razib talks to Andrew Song, co-founder of Make Sunsets. An NYU graduate with a degree in economics, Song was a member of the Y Combinator class of winter 2016. Before becoming a founder, Song worked at firms involved in data analytics and artificial intelligence. A repeat attendee at the Founders Fund "Here…

1
Zineb Riboua: realism in foreign policy in 2025 1:07:28

9M ago1:07:28

1:07:28

Today on Unsupervised Learning Razib talks to Zineb Riboua, a research fellow and program manager of Hudson Institute's Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East. She specializes in Chinese and Russian involvement in the Middle East, the Sahel, and North Africa, great power competition in the region, and Israeli-Arab relations. Riboua's piec…

1
Mark Lutter: charter cities and the urban future 1:03:03

9M ago1:03:03

1:03:03

On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib talks to Mark Lutter. Lutter is an urban development expert known for his work on charter cities—new urban areas aimed at fostering economic growth and progress. He is the Founder and Executive Chairman of the Charter Cities Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to building the ecosystem for charter cities,…

1
Graeme Wood: Germany's turn to the right 1:05:30

9M ago1:05:30

1:05:30

On this episode of Unsupervised Learning, Razib talks to Graeme Wood. Wood is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he usually covers geopolitics and international affairs. His work ranges from a profile of Richard Spencer, the American white nationalist public figure with whom he went to high school with, to the Islamic State. He is the author of …

1
Leighton Woodhouse: against the rise of the anti-woke cancel culture and MAGA cultural hegemony 1:27:09

10M ago1:27:09

1:27:09

On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib welcomes Leighton Akira Woodhouse back to the podcast for his third visit. Woodhouse is a journalist and documentarian based in Oakland, California. He grew up in Berkeley, and was a doctoral student in Sociology at UC Berkeley. After leaving academia he contributed to outlets like The Intercept, UnHer…

1
Kevin Klatt: Nutrition, health, MAHA and GLP-1 1:20:04

10M ago1:20:04

1:20:04

On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib talks to Kevin Klatt, a metabolism researcher, dietitian and science communicator. Klatt holds a BA in biological anthropology from Temple University and a PhD in Molecular Nutrition from Cornell University. Before a current appointment as a research scientist at UC Berkeley, he was a postdoctoral fell…

1
Charles Murray: 50 years on the public scene 59:57

10M ago59:57

59:57

On this episode of Unsupervised Learning, friend of the podcast, Charles Murray returns to chat with Razib again. Murray has been a public intellectual and scholar since the 1970's. He is the author of Losing Ground, The Bell Curve, Human Accomplishment, Real Education, Coming Apart and What it means to be a libertarian and Human Diversity, among o…

1
Titus Techera: Post-Modern Conservative in a post-national Europe 1:26:24

10M ago1:26:24

1:26:24

On this episode of Unsupervised Learning, Razib talks to Titus Techera, a Romanian living in Budapest, but commenting extensively on American and European culture. He is the Executive Director of the American Cinema Foundation, International Coordinator of the National Conservatism Conference and is a primary contributor to the Substack PostModernC…

1
Nathan Lents: Sex, truths and gender wars 2:09:01

10M ago2:09:01

2:09:01

On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib talks to Nathan Lents about his new book, The Sexual Evolution: A Provocative Look at Sexual Behavior Through the Lens of Evolution. A professor at John Jay College in New York City, Lents earned a Ph.D. in Pharmacological and Physiological Sciences in 2004 at Saint Louis University School of Medicine,…

1
Antonio Regalado: CRISPR babies 6 years later 1:16:44

10M ago1:16:44

1:16:44

Today Razib talks to Antonio Regalado, reporter at MIT Technology Review. Regalado covers how technology is changing medicine and biomedical research. Before joining MIT Technology Review in 2011, he lived in São Paulo, Brazil, where he wrote about science, technology, and politics in Latin America for Science and other publications. From 2000 to 2…

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