INI podcast

Quinn Emmett

December 23, 2021

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‍Happy whatever-you-celebrate, Shit Givers!

I'm still on a desperately needed holiday/moving across the country hiatus until the new year, but please enjoy our (incredible) last conversation of 2021, below, and look out for some wrap-up thoughts coming your way soon.

When does DNA not imply identity?

In Episode 129, Quinn tries to better understand data privacy, data stewardship, and what they mean for Indigenous cultures and the future of biotech.

How the hell do we design equitable outcomes into genetic research? And who gets to make those decisions?

His guest is Krystal Tsosie, a geneticist, bioethicist, and -- first and foremost to her -- a person Indigenous to the southwestern United States, specifically the Navajo nation.

She is the co-founder and Ethics and Policy Director at the Native BioData Consortium, the first Indigenous-led biological data repository for tribes in the US.

“Representation” is just the first step (and means so much more than who shows up on screen in the latest Disney movie) towards progress.

Next up's inclusivity: It’s about who’s in the room writing and building the future of technology. And it goes further: Who gets to decide who's in the room?

But the real goal is equitable outcomes, and benefit. And biotech in particular is one sector that could get out of hand real fast unless we approach those outcomes in a vastly more inclusive and cooperative way.

Krystal started her career with one question: Why don’t Indigenous people usually participate in genetic studies? And the dominoes fell from there.

Representation, inclusivity, equity, benefit. Here's the game plan.

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