Origin Stories

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.

“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.

Hosts: Alexis Pedrick and Elisabeth Berry Drago
Senior Producer: Mariel Carr
Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez
Associate Producer: Padmini Raghunath
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.