A Conversation with Sociologist Alondra Nelson About Race, DNA, and Tracing One's Own Personal "Roots"

We are now at the end of the fourth week of the June fundraiser here at Indomitable/WARN/We are Respectable Negroes. It is one of two fundraisers that I conduct annually. The other is in December.

I would like to thank all of the kind folks who have thrown some money into the virtual collection bowl. It is much appreciated. Thank you emails are forthcoming. As you know, I am not compensated for my work here or the podcast. The podcast takes several hours of work to produce each week. My writing and other online teaching is also very time intensive.

All are labors of love, labors that I learn and benefit from in ways that I cannot easily express. If you can, are able, and willing please do throw some pennies, gold, silver, into the Paypal logo on the top of the screen on the right hand side bar. We are 300 dollars away from the goal I have set and it would be great to be able to pull back in the virtual begging bowl.

****

This week's episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show features Alondra Nelson. She is a Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at Columbia University and author of the new book, The Social Life of DNA.

In this week's installment of the podcast, Dr. Nelson and Chauncey talk about DNA, the body, race, and how many African-Americans are using emerging technologies to trace their "roots" across the Black Atlantic. Chauncey and Alondra also discuss how social fictions such as "race" are reproduced in the popular imagination by human zoos such as The Maury Povich Show and the surprising connections between "welfare reform" and the rise of DNA-based ancestry and paternity testing.

Chauncey updates folks on his health travails and recent physical, and complains about the new Independence Day: Resurgence movie. Chauncey also highlights how Archie Bunker is the present-past of the Trump movement and the GOP, calls out racism against Elizabeth Warren, and cuts a promo on the Right-wing sex freaks Alex Jones and Roger Stone.

This episode with Professor Alondra Nelson can be downloaded from Libysn and also listened to here.

The Chauncey DeVega Show is available on Itunes and at Stitcher. The Chauncey DeVega Show can now be found on Spotify as well.