In this episode, we share an interview with Clarence Gravlee and Connie Mulligan, who talk about their cutting-edge research on racism and its effects on our genes (yes, you heard that right!). They show how experiences of racism have direct effects on the telomeres (the caps on the ends of our DNA) that control aging and cell death, literally wearing down our bodies over time and contributing to many of the race-based health disparities we see today. This work is right in line with our race and health mini-series, as well as our recent episode on racism and the COVID pandemic.
Resources:
Our miniseries on race and health: https://soundcloud.com/user-88955638/sets/race-and-health
Our recent episode on racism and the COVID pandemic: http://speakingofrace.ua.edu/podcast/racism-in-the-pandemic
Rej, Gravlee, and Mulligan’s article: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ajhb.23375
The Sausage of Science podcast: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/human-biology-association-2/sausage-of-science
