On Demand
Genghis Khan
By looking at our genes we can link ourselves to our parents, grandparents, and ancestors long long ago. Tatiana Zerjal and Chris Tyler Smith tell the tail of discovering the genetic relation of over 16 million men in Central Asia.
»American Journal of Human Genetics, “The Genetic Legacy of the Mongols”
»Tatiana Zerjal and Chris Tyler smith study Human Evolution at the Sanger Institute
»Maury Kravitz keeps on looking
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Your shows give me supreme joy and this episode is one of my favorites. However, I wish you would be more thoughtful about your choice of words. To suggest that Genghis Khan was so effective at dominating the gene pool, because he killed men and "slept" with women is a grotesque way to make light about what surely must have entailed the rape of most of these women, not a seduction. (I am sure some of these women's submitted willingly with the hopes of power, but not this dramatic a number).
You didn't mean to do this--it says something about our culture that we find it so easy to pretend that we are not talking about rape or coercion, when we tell stories that involve women's bodies. I don't ask you to get into a big story about rape in the context of such a story, just to use thoughtful and accurate language.
Keep doing the great work that you are doing!
Lisa Jones, Ph.D.
"Ten winners had DNA testing done in Oxford to find out if they were ancestors of Genghis Khan."
Ancestors? Not likely ...
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