It might seem as though the way we think about race now is how we’ve always thought about it—but it isn’t. Race was born out of the Enlightenment in Europe, along with the invention of modern western science. And it was tied to the politics of the age—imperialism and later slavery. This episode traces the origins of race science to the Enlightenment, examines how the Bible influenced racial theories, and considers how we still have a hard time letting go of the idea of race.
About Innate: How Science Invented the Myth of Race“Origin Stories” is Episode 1 of Innate: How Science Invented the Myth of Race, a podcast and magazine project that explores the historical roots and persistent legacies of racism in American science and medicine. Published through Distillations, the Science History Institute’s highly acclaimed digital content platform, the project examines the scientific origins of support for racist theories, practices, and policies. Innate is made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.
CreditsHosts: Alexis Pedrick and Elisabeth Berry Drago
Senior Producer: Mariel Carr
Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez
Assistant Producer: Padmini Ragunath
Audio Engineer: Jonathan Pfeffer
"Innate Theme" composed by Jonathan Pfeffer. Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions.
Special thanks to our colleagues, Jacqueline Boytim and James Voelkel, for their help with this episode.
Archaeology under the Blinding Light of Race, by Michael Blakey
Breathing Race into the Machine: the Surprising Career of the Spirometer from Plantation to Genetics, by Lundy Braun
Divine Variations: How Christian Thought Became Racial Science, by Terence Keel
Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-first Century, by Dorothy Roberts
"Jesus Loves the little Children," song by Cedarmont Kids
Medicalizing Blackness: Making Racial Differences in the Atlantic World, 1780-1840, by Rana Hogarth
The Nuremberg Chronicle, by Hartmann Schedel
Superior: The Return of Race Science, by Angela Saini
Find the full transcript here.
Episode 161: A Day in the Life - Morning
Episode 160: Teflon
Episode 159: Kean on Genes
Episode 158: The Alchemical Quest
Episode 157: Smoke and Mirrors
Episode 156: Hard to Stomach
Episode 155: Shipwrecks
Episode 154: Fast and Slow
Episode 153: Best Of Distillations #10
Episode 152: Best of Distillations #9
Episode 151: Tears
Episode 150: Sweat
Episode 149: Blood
Episode 148: Across the Pond
Episode 147: Babies
Episode 146: Something in the Air
Episode 145: Asbestos
Episode 144: Mystery of Mass (Spec)
Episode 143: Fairyland of Chemistry
Episode 142: Midcentury Mutants
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